Sustainable Design Can Boost Student Performance and Improve Health
from Facilities Net
A new research report issued by GREENGUARD explains how green building principles promote healthier indoor environments and includes information demonstrating the positive impact of high performance schools on student learning, comprehension and test scores; improved student health; greater productivity; and impressive financial rewards. More

Top Architectural Interiors for 2009
from the Architectural Record
Architectural Record offers its annual compendium of top interiors from the magazine, featuring projects that manifest inherent architectural strategies to organize and embellish space. More

Ultra-Green Demonstration Home Rises in the Hamptons
from Custom Home Online
The market for green-built homes in the Hamptons is very limited, but that may be changing. One design team has taken on the challenge of achieving LEED Platinum certification for a rebuilding project, in partnership with the Hamptons Green Alliance, hoping the idea will catch on. More

Green Consumers Out to Save Money, Not the Planet
from Kitchen & Bath Business
Green consumers are more concerned about saving money than saving the planet, according to new research from advertising agency the Shelton Group. The study found that while 59 percent of green consumers identify the economy as their top concern in making purchases, a mere 8 percent considers the environment. Many consumers of green products in the study showed only a modest understanding of environmental issues. More

Real Estate Confidence Trends Upward: Survey
from Commercial Property Executive
Confidence in the real estate market jumped a bit in August, according to Point2 Technologies Inc.’s monthly Real Estate Confidence Index that found an overall confidence reading of 5.9 in the real estate market. The RECI draws on the opinions of 3,151 real estate professionals across the United States, including brokers and agents, asking them to rate their current local real estate market on a scale of 1 to 10 (with one being “bad” and ten being “good”). More

Patient-Centered Design for Children
from Fast Company
Fast Company magazine spotlights the Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh with a slide show that points up its child-friendly features, including the use of color, imagery and controls, to enhance the patient experience and promote safety. More

Rough Luxe
from The Wall Street Journal
As movements go, it may be too early for this one to have a name, much less a manifesto. But if every new era is at least to some extent a reaction to what came before, then the one now taking shape shows signs of being antiminimalism and antiperfection—a repudiation of the old notions of luxury and the mindless accumulation of more stuff. Rough luxe is, at first glance, a study in Contradictions, an attempt to reconcile the antique or the just plain old with the contemporary, the accumulated with the newly acquired, the decrepit with the pristine. It’s artful dissonance. For those who have come to think of luxury as smooth, shiny, polished, refined and expensive, rough luxe will undoubtedly come off as unfinished, unplanned and somewhat chaotic. But that’s judging by the standards of a Gilded Age that’s officially over, and though the economy will rebound—seems, in fact, to be rebounding as we write--it is doubtful that the culture of bling will be back anytime soon. More

High-rise Design: Highlight the Views
from the San Francisco Chronicle
"Always check the size of the freight elevator." That's the first piece of somewhat pragmatic advice offered by interior designer Joel Hendler, of Hendler Design, when discussing his approach to high-rise condos. He makes a good point. You may envisage a scene of elegant European sophistication, marrying the highest-quality furniture with some choice pieces of art, but if the beautiful sectional sofa you have ordered from Italy - and on which the entire vision is founded - can't make it up 42 floors, it's all rather academic. More

Rotterdam Plans Most Sustainable Building in the Netherlands
from Inhabitat
The city of Rotterdam recently released a bevy of gorgeous green designs for a new mixed-use city hall building that will become “the most sustainable in The Netherlands”. The city challenged designers to create something spectacular, something that will be super energy efficient, use sustainable materials, be useful for various people and events, generate its own energy, recycle and take out its own trash. Well, ok maybe not take out its own trash, but you get the drift. Read on for a look at the five stunning finalists. More