MNN - Mother Nature Network

The New York Times partakes in some incandescent light bulb hoarding with several stubborn (and often misinformed) designers and interior decorators including Darren Henault, Bunny Williams and Bryan Batt, who may or may not be suffering from "profound light bulb anxiety." 

 

The Wall Street Journal chitchats with Dutch garden designer, High Line landscape overlord, and New Perennial kingpin Piet Oudolf, who, among "plant people," is a "veritable rock star for his eco-meets-high-design style and unconventional ideas." Oudolf's seventh book, a retrospective titled "Landscapes in Landscapes," is out now from The Monacelli Press.

 

Re-Nest makes the trek to Black River Falls, Wisc., for a tour of the Bauhaus-influenced, IKEA-heavy net-zero energy home of Tom and Verona Chambers. 

 

The Los Angeles Times shares the good news that San Francisco-based group solar buying program One Block Off the Grid will now offer individual leases on solar panel installations. Explains Susan Carpenter: "Targeting homeowners who want to go solar to generate their own, renewable electricity but who don't want to bear the entire cost burden up front, One Block Off the Grid's solar lease lets consumers get a price estimate online without a salesman coming to their homes."

 

Curbed reports that the infamous Surry, Va., McMansion that was once home to Bad Newz Kennels, NFL player Michael Vick's horrifying dog-fighting operation, may undergo renovations and be transformed into a $2.5 million facility called the Good News Rehab Center for Chain and Penned Dogs. Donate here to help make it happen. 

 

Swissmiss admires the KartonKlunker, a klassy kardboard chandelier that kosts $290. I love the looks of this Basel-made beauty, but that pricetag is killing me. 

 

Dwell takes a bunch of pictures at the Bay Area edition of Maker Faire 2011, an event dubbed as "the world's largest DIY festival." I'll be attending the festival when it's in NYC in September, so stay tuned for that ...

 

Core77 unwinds in one of Providence-based metalsmith/designer Boris Bally's recycled street sign "Transit" chairs. I've seen these cool but uncomfortable-looking seats and other upcycled Bally creations for a while now and they never get old. 

 

Jetson Green digs ORE's eco-modern landscape containers that are outfitted with LEDS to evoke "something of a 'TRON: Legacy' feel." 

 

TreeHugger hosts The Great Prefab Debate, an old-school, livestreamed debate for the resolution that "prefabrication is a greener way to build." Speaking for the affirmative was prefab pin-up girl Michelle Kaufmann while developer/builder Chad Ludeman of 100k House fame spoke for the negative. Allison Arieff and Preston Koerner judged while Lloyd Alter manned the stopwatch. Watch the whole thing in the embedded video below. Which side do you fall on?