Melbourne Rectangular Stadium

Sustainably designed stadium harvests rainwater and natural light.

Trying to grace the sports world with a green stadium, Cox Architects has designed the Melbourne Rectangular Stadium that combines state-of-the-art engineering with sustainability. The stadium has a bubble-like façade and is expected to be completed in 2010.


The stadium will have enough space to seat about 30,000 spectators and features a unique cantilever design, which coupled with a triangular panelized façade uses 50% less steel than a typical cantilevered roof structure.

The envelope will be composed of a combination of glass, metal and louvers, and the architects are planning a photovoltaic thin-film integration that will help power the stadium’s LED lighting units. The dome will also feature a rainwater harvesting system, natural lighting and natural ventilation to lower the structure’s dependence on grid electricity.

Nature furniture for fresh indoor air

Indoor furniture equipped with air plants for air purification.

The rise in outdoor pollution has made health conscious homeowners make use of the hi-tech air purification systems that are good for their own health, but not actually so good for the environment, especially because of the amount of energy they consume to keep the air inside your house clean.

When it comes to air purification, nothing beats nature, and industrial designer Mingling Wang has tried to bring nature inside your house to provide fresh air to the inhabitants. The Oxygen of Green indoor furniture concept is designed by combining air plants with a living room table.



The system produces a decent amount of oxygen, especially after dark and does that at the place where it’s most needed – the center-section of the house. Air Plants (Tillandsias) grow without soil, since water and nutrients are absorbed through the leaves and absorb CO2 from the air and produce oxygen in the night time.