Hasta La Gadget!

It was a big week for superlatives in clean tech and green architecture — particularly in Europe. First, construction on The Shard, architect Renzo Piano‘s shimmering, 72-story skyscraper, wrapped up in London, making it the tallest building in Europe. A nighttime celebration, complete with a laser light show accompanied by the London Philharmonic Orchestra was held. Just about a mile down the river, construction is moving forward on Blackfriars Station, the world’s largest solar bridge. The historic bridge is being fitted with a solar array that will produce 900,000 kWh of clean electricity per year. And in Germany, solar producers have set a new world record, pumping an astounding 14.7 TWh of electricity into the grid during the first six months of 2012 — 4.5 percent of the country’s total power production during that period.

Continue reading Inhabitat’s Week in Green: rise of solar power, cardboard forts and a Death Star ping pong ball

Inhabitat’s Week in Green: rise of solar power, cardboard forts and a Death Star ping pong ball originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 08 Jul 2012 20:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Have you ever wondered what LEGO trees would look like if they actually grew in to the size of real trees? What would plastic trees look like in our world? Well, wonder no more. Plastic plant life has now emerged in a desert near the mining town of Broken Hill, Australia.

And it looks pretty darn cool. This isn’t the work of one overzealous LEGO fan. It is the work of LEGO’s marketing division for Australia and New Zealand, who planted 15 life-sized LEGO trees and flower beds in the middle of the Outback.

You can see this spectacle until July 12, and as Caroline Squire, Director of Marketing, LEGO Australia and New Zealand said, “The contrast of the larger-than-life green trees against the vast red Aussie land is an unforgettable sight!” I would have to agree. You can check out more pictures of the installation here.

[via Neatorama]

We all love Lego don’t we? Well, so does German street artist Martin Heuwold a.k.a. Megx. But he took his love for Lego and art to a higher level by giving a bridge in Wuppertal, Germany the perfect Lego makeover. Megx transformed the bridge into a giant Lego-like structure using colored panels that looked like Lego bricks. Megx said that he had to get the full cooperation of the city and that the project took about four weeks to complete. Now, the 250 square meter-bridge that used to be a part the Wuppertal Bewegung e.V. – an old train line that is now used as a pedestrian and cycle path – is now widely considered a local attraction. Isn’t that cool? You can check out his work via his official website.

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Google brings the Lego experience to Chrome browser, OLED Lego train station is one cool setup,

If you are a board game fan, you will recognize what this is immediately, an amazing LEGO version of Settlers of Catan. If you don’t know what that is, you have been missing out on a fun board game.

This Settlers of Catan board made entirely out of LEGO parts and that makes it pretty awesome. It is completely functional and was being shown off by creator Ryan H. at this year’s Brickworld convention. It features interlocking tiles and the tiles actually look like the different resources that they are supposed to represent. You can still put the roads and settlements on the board too.

It might be hard to transport, but if you show up with this at your local game night, people are going to freak out. This must have taken him a lot of time to finish. Awesome work!

[via Brothers Brick via Geekosystem]

Remember the fan made LEGO Portal 2 figures? Remember how your insides hurt for days from wanting those toys so bad? Round up that desire and channel it into one mouse click. A group of fans have submitted a proposal to LEGO for three sets based on the hit puzzle game.

The concept was submitted by Team Jigsaw, four LEGO enthusiasts who banded together in 2011 to compete in LEGO competitions. Now they need our help to make their concept come true. Although after you see what they have in mind I bet you’ll need no convincing. The three sets are GLaDOS’ Chamber, a Modular Testing Chamber and a Puzzle Board Game. All the major characters are represented here: Chell, Wheatley, the Companion Cube, the turrets and of course the adorable and murderous GLaDOS. And the potato.

As with all LEGO pieces, you can mix and match these sets with each other, not to mention other LEGO sets, like the Minecraft set. But before that can happen, you and about 8,800 other people need to vote for the concept on LEGO Cuusoo. Go on, make your dreams come true.

[via Brothers Brick]