Happy Magic Water Park

Remember this?

The water cube became the symbol of the 2008 Beijing Olympics.  The building was noted for its unique design, energy efficiency and innovative use of materials. It is also considered one of the “fastest” pools in the world and boasted 25 world records during the Olympics.

Well, fast forward to 2010 and take a look at the water cube now.  Redesigned as Happy Magic Water Park the building has taken on a new life.  The water park is so popular it has become China’s second most visited tourist attraction next to the great wall!  The Olympic pool is still used for swim meets, but the water park utilizes the rest of the facility.  What a great way to re-purpose the building.

All photos via inhabitat.

Rain Barrels

Did you know that residential water usage goes up 40% during the summer months?  This is why a simple rain barrel is a great eco-friendly solution to enhancing your water supply.

What is a rain barrel?

A rain barrel collects and stores rainwater from rooftops to use later for lawn and garden watering. If this water is not captured it will flow through your gutters and then become runoff headed to storm drains.

What are the advantages of a rain barrel?

• Stores water for when you use it most.
• The rain water containing no lime, chloring or calcium
• Potential to save homewoners 1300 gallons of water
• Saving water not only helps the environment it decreases your water bill.
• Decreases runoff to streams which may have potential pollutants

Where can I find a rain barrel?

The easiest way to find a rain barrel and compare prices is through a quick internet search.  You can also find them at local hardware stores or nurseries.  Prices generally range from $89 to $159.

Do you have a rain barrel?  We’d love to hear if you find them useful.

News on LEED Certification

Starting this summer, the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) has opened the Building Performance Partnership (BPP) program to all current whole-building LEED-certified commercial and residential projects. The BPP is a program designed to engage owners and managers of commercial and residential LEED-certified green buildings, optimize the performance of buildings through data collection, analysis and action. BPP plans to further efforts to understand how buildings perform from the time of LEED certification and years beyond.

This partnership among USGBC and thousands of LEED project owners is projected to result in the population of a comprehensive green building performance database, as well as enable standardization of reporting metrics and analytics for establishing new building performance benchmarks. Current participating LEED-certified buildings cooperate on a strictly voluntary basis. More than 120 projects are participating in Phase One, which is focused on energy and water. A basic information report will be available in time for Greenbuild 2010 in Chicago this November.

To read more, click here or visit the USGBC site.

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