Since we have not had any silly examples of rampant green consumerism of late, we offer the £139.99 Ovetto differenziato, or recycling egg.

MEMO: You own the Housing industry now, Here is what you should do with it.

Now that the United States Government owns all the mortgages, the guarantors of the mortgages, and the reinsurer of all the insurers, and possibly pretty soon $700 billion worth of foreclosed houses, what should you do with it?

Usually when a government nationalizes an industry, they have a plan for what they want to do with it. Now that the American government owns it, here are a few ideas that might help build a greener, healthier and more energy efficient nation. We have seen how when people are given the freedom to chose what they want instead of what is good for them, they pick granite counters instead of extra insulation. Now that you own all the lenders and guarantors and insurers, you can tell the people of this nation what is good for them and if they want a mortgage or insurance, that is what they get. Isn't nationalization wonderful?

Argentinean architects Gustavo Dieguez and Lucas Gilardi took 18 wood boxes that were waste from the Brazilian automobile industry and transformed them into the Plug and Live System: a collection of modules to build transitory habitats and experiment with different ideas of housing.

As the project moves on to team up with companies and NGOs to recover more waste and build cultural spaces, the original 18 boxes arrive in Brazil for the second exhibit that shows them turned into art, Moradias Transitorias.

Read on to follow the story of the boxes and see more pictures.

Image source: KLTV

Warning! If you do not want to live in a straw bale house with a living roof and solar panels to power your satellite internet connectivity, DO NOT watch the video over the fold!

Because when you see this video of Nick Moser's straw bale house project, you will not be able to resist making your own natural house. The gorgeous timber framing which sets a spiral patterned layout inspires the craftsperson in you. The video of Nick merrily pitching clay onto the bale walls looks like so much fun, you will want to build a house just so you can vent your frustrations about the whole housing market collapse thing. Nick crawls over his green roof model, and only one hesitation remains: how will this house stand up against the weather? The news that the walls withstood Hurricane Ike closes the deal. Let's learn how to build a straw bale house!

Photo credit: Jax and Bones

Jax and Bones may not be completely eco-friendly, but it's still taking significant strides to ensuring a more sustainable future for us and our four-legged pals, which in our opinion, is plenty to bark about.

It's entire bedding collection, for instance, is made in-house in the United States. The beds themselves are filled with post-consumer fiber made from recycled plastic bottles, and we'd love to see hemp or organic cotton covers as a next step.

Heating, cooling and lighting our houses belches out a third of our carbon dioxide and sucks a lot of money out of our wallets in the process. There are so many guides and websites that tell you what to do fix this from insulating your walls to changing your windows. But if you are into frugal green living, what should you do first? What is the most effective thing to do? What gives the most bang for your buck?

Well, actually it is Paul Kedrosky quoting David Rosenberg from Merrill Lynch who is probably out of a job now, but it's on Kedrosky's blog:

[people are going to start paying down debt.] That means that the savings rate is going to be forced higher. This, again, is going to be very, very disinflationary. It means that fashions are going to change. It means frugality is going to set in. We're going to be living in smaller houses, driving smaller cars and living more frugally. It's not going to be the end of the world; it's going to be a necessary process to truly embark on getting the balance sheets down to more comfortable levels so that we can actually embark on the next cycle.

Recent Comment by Willy Bio : "James, I don't necessarily disagree with you. But right now, our culture is ak..." [read]

The New York Times covers 78 year old Hans Zwimpfer's Pile up housing. They call it a solution to sprawl, describing it as follows: "Take single-family houses, whose benefits — space, privacy, light, a yard — suburbanites are loath to give up. Then simply stack the houses, one on top of another. Voilà: The comforts of suburban living, with the convenience and ecological benefits of urban density."

But Sally Crane does not go into the most unusual and controversial part of Zwimpfer's work- he patented it.

Recent Comment by TrollPatrol : "Lloyd, While I like the building I have to say that the current patent system i..." [read]