Inhabitat’s Week in Green: ice castles, cardboard columns, and the Geneva Auto Show

Each week our friends at Inhabitat recap the week’s most interesting green developments and clean tech news for us — it’s the Week in Green. This week Inhabitat showcased several jaw-dropping feats of architecture, starting with a series of amazingly complex computer-designed cardboard columns that boast between 8 and 16 million facets. We were also struck by a stunning new net-zero Solar Academy in Germany, and we showcased a Swiss chalet that is the world’s first apartment building to be heated entirely by solar thermal energy. On the cooler end of the climate spectrum, a Minnesota man has created a series of soaring ice castles using water from his geothermal heating system. The Geneva Auto Show also kicked off with a bang this week as Koenigsegg unveiled its supercharged Agera R racer and SAAB rose from the ashes with a futuristic PhoeniX hybrid . We also heard big news from some of the world’s most luxurious automakers as Bentley rolled out a biofuel-powered supercar that can go 200 MPH on ice and Rolls-Royce unveiled their all-electric 102 EX Phantom . Two-wheeled transportation also took a leap forward as Daymak unveiled the world’s first wireless electric eBike and Los Angeles approved plans for 1,690 miles of bikeways . We also kept on the cutting edge of consumer tech with a look at the green credentials of Apple’s iPad 2 , and we brought you researchers’ plans for a hot new breed of batteries made from “frozen smoke” . Finally, we learned from a recent study that cellphone signals actually boost brain activity , and we shared a fresh new line of iPod nano watch straps just in time for spring. Inhabitat’s Week in Green: ice castles, cardboard columns, and the Geneva Auto Show originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 06 Mar 2011 21:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink

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