As many of you know renewable energy plays a big part in many, if not all new buildings that are being constructed. Well on that note a couple of days ago Belgium inaugurated the Princess Elisabeth Base which is a Zero Emission Polar Station.

This year is almost over with only one day left till New Years so lets take a look back at some of the amazing tree houses that have been popping up through out the past months. In my childhood tree houses where simple and built in the tree in your backyard with nothing to crazy or amazing. Well many years have passed and now people are expanding the way they used to picture tree houses and created the following.

We have seen everything from concepts of Solar Powered ships to placing a huge amount of solar panels on warehouse rooftops. Well designers don’t want to stop there. This time Solar PV developers are concentrating on solar panel windows which are transparent and can go on the side of any building. The windows can generate anywhere from 80-250 watts each, depending on the size and you an cover the entire side of a building without having to worry about not being able to have a view.

Architects MVRDV have recently won the Gwanggyo City Center Competition with a very unique and amazing design. This center, if built, will be a fully sufficient city that can hold up to 77,000 inhabitants. This will be located in South Korea and will concentrate on making an everything in one city, reducing the need to drive or travel far distances therefore reducing its carbon footprint.

The East Japan Railway Company has recently informed that they will be experimenting with piezoelectric elements, which generate power when mechanical stress is applied to them, on the floors of their Tokyo station. They are set to start testing on December 10th and will continue testing through February of 2009. They will be installing a power generating floor that will cover an are of 25m squared and will be installed at 7 ticket gates as well as 7 staircase steps. The East Japan Railway Company expects the floor to produce 1,400 kW/sec each day which will be used to power ticket gates and electronic display systems throughout the metro.

Recently constructed in Seoul, Korea is a Commercial and Entertainment Center which you can tell by simply looking at it that it is green. Designed by MassStudies this entire building is covered in moss. Not only is the moss on the outside but parts of the inside as well. The stairwell leading down has its walls covered in moss giving this place a very unique feel to it. I wonder how hard it is to maintain it looking so nice though. You can check out more pictures below.

The Toronto Zoo has recently stated that the poop produced daily could power a New Toronto Biogas Facility or maybe just feed that hungry little guy pictured above. They stated that the poop from over 5,000 animals that they have in their zoo could easily cover the costs of their new Biogas to Power Facility. But it doesn’t stop their though because not only will it power the zoo but thousands of the surrounding households.

Every once in a while we stumble upon an amazing looking building that is also “green” related in some way. This is the Brazilian Leaf House located right outside of Rio de Janeiro. It sits right in front of a beautiful beach which looks like something that came out of a movie. This beach house was designed by Mareines + Patalano and really came out amazing. The beach houses main concept is to look as if they where giant leafs branching out as well as a very open floor plan and landscape which is meant to encourage interaction between the people who go there and nature.

Here is an amazing piece of architecture designed by MVRDV and ADEPT Architects. This is the Stackable Sky Village High Rise and consists of units which are 60 sq meters and are stacked on top as well as to the side of each other. This High Rise not only looks amazing but is also ECO friendly. Some of those things include  grey water recycling as well as 40% recycled concrete in the foundation.

If your a boat or ocean lover then your going to like this. This is The Sustainable Modern House Boat called the Schwimmhaus and was created by German architects. It basically takes the concept of a house to the water. You may think hey that’s basically a yacht but this has more of a homey feel to it. With a front deck, side windows and a design that actually looks like the outside of a house. Solar panels on the roof would also be a nice touch.