Los Angeles recently hosted the Cleantech Corridor and Green District Competition, where it asked entrants to come up with new ideas to add a touch of green to the city. The winner of the competition was a giant mushroom, called a solar evaporator, that can tap into the city’s sewage to collect and clean the black water.
“The clear water is distributed and released into the streets through a process of evaporation and condensation triggering a transformation into a network of lush, cultivated landscapes,” explained the creators of the project, which has been dubbed UMBRELLA. “Green webs spreading out from the evaporators generate incentives for new, sustainable developments. The central urban plazas become focal points for a gradual process of transformation that will affect the way people will see, use, and experience their city.”
The winning team, which hails from Oslo, Norway, earned a $5,000 grand prize for its contribution. And while we probably won’t see giant solar powered mushrooms in Los Angeles for quite some time, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa hopes that the competition will eventually help transform the downtown core into a hotbed of green technology and jobs.
Via Inhabitat.
High-end kitchen appliances and gadgets can get pretty high tech if you’re willing to spend some money, and appliance manufacturers know it. Most manufacturers are always on the look out for ways to design and build next-generation products that pack more tech into smaller space. Electrolux recently held their annual Design Lab Competition, and the winner was 
