June 15, 2013

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Renzo Piano designs tiny, off-grid home

Renzo piano has designed some of the world’s most iconic buildings from the giant glass shard in London to the Los Angeles Motion Picture Academy.

Ever since the 60s he has been experimenting with tiny, low-cost, one-person homes – back when he taught students at London’s Architectural Association in Bedford Square.…

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Price of harvesting rain in South Africa

The price of water is rising sharply in the ritzy yet dangerous countryside around East London. Even the rich, old, white landowners are going into rainwater harvesting to protect themselves from municipal price increases.

Land surveyor Neil Henderson is doing it at his Nahoon Mouth home – collecting water off his roof, storing it in tanks and he believes it is the way to go.

He recently had eight 5 000 liter tanks installed. He says in 2007 each tank would have cost 2785 Rand (about $276 US), a 5% a year increase from 2004, and at today’s R3369 would have amounted to 10% a year escalation.…

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