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Last month, we used our Job Highlights series to profile an opportunity to design rural getaways at the full-service Brooklyn studio HUTS. The role offered an example of architectural careers intersecting with popular culture; in this case, the alluring cliché of leaving a bustling city to find... View full entry
The Bronzeville neighborhood of Chicago is the site of a proposed new microgrid project set to improve its resiliency as the historic and predominantly Black community pushes towards energy independence. The microgrid will purportedly be the first of its scale found anywhere in the... View full entry
San Francisco based architects Kuth Ranieri Architects have unveiled a speculative proposal that aims to retrofit existing and underutilized office building clusters into mini-neighborhoods containing many of the daily necessities for residents of a post-pandemic city. The firm's Post-Pandemic... View full entry
In March, Tesla cut the ribbon on this groundbreaking grid-scale battery installation, a key test of the viability of energy storage in making renewable energy a more reliable part of the grid. With 50,000 solar panels and 272 batteries, the combined solar-and-storage plant provides enough energy to power 4,500 homes for four hours.
If Tesla can help keep Kauai solar-powered around the clock with its batteries, then it can apply what it has learned elsewhere in the country, and around the world
— grist.org
In her Longreads/Grist piece, author Amelia Urry explains the changing nature of solar power challenges that off-grid dwellers as well as smaller, geographically isolated microgrids face now that battery storage on an industrial scale is becoming more lucrative. The article tells the story of a... View full entry
While the gapahuk (which in Norwegian means "a simple wooden structure with two or three walls and a roof") is not new, Snohetta's conceptualization of it as a multi-terrain, potentially solar-panelled off-the-grid insta-cabin is. The gapahuk has a purposefully tight layout to make it easy to... View full entry
Cheryl Smith planned to move "off the grid" and into a small house near Clark's Harbour, N.S., a year ago.
But thanks to Canadian building regulations, the four-by-six metre structure remains half-built and empty. [...]
Canadian laws require living spaces to have access to power to run smoke detectors and air exchange systems.
But Smith said the point of moving into her tiny home was to disconnect from the power grid.
— ctvnews.ca
More from the tiny home world:Seattle high schoolers push to provide moveable, minimalist shelters for the homelessThe problem with tiny homes - they can get stolenSwedish architects design for un-permited small-space livingThe Tiny House Lover's Guide to RomanceTeenager builds tiny home to avoid... View full entry