Living Videos - The Documentary Network

The House of the Future

Documentary.net staff — Mon, 15 Jun 2015 22:02:47 +0000

Car giant Honda drives sustainability research with its innovative zero-net energy homes. Honda's smart house is an innovative eco-friendly, energy efficient lab, that is able to generate its own power as a solution to living off the grid. As we get more and more electric vehicles we're going to have to be more careful in the way they integrate with the house and how they integrate with the electric grid. So by putting the house and car together as a system, the system can be more than the sum of its parts. Created in partnership with the University of California at Davis, Honda's zero-net energy home is heated and cooled by the earth and generates enough power from solar energy to also run a car and feed energy back into the grid. In designing the home, scientists at Honda said they took local weather conditions into account to optimise heating and cooling. They say once their data is made public, people will able to incorporate elements into the planning and design of their own homes.

We The Tiny House People: Small Homes, Tiny Flats & Wee Shelters

Documentary.net staff — Sun, 30 Sep 2012 15:26:48 +0000

Kirsten Dirksen invites us on her journey into the tiny homes of people searching for simplicity, self-sufficiency, minimalism and happiness by creating shelter in caves, converted garages, trailers, tool sheds, river boats and former pigeon coops. Features: Jay Shafer (Tumbleweed Tiny House Company), Austin Hay, Jenine Alexander (Forge Ahead Construction), Stephen Marshall (Little House on the Trailer), Suchin Pak (MTV, Hester Street Fair), Graham Hill (TreeHugger, LifeEdited), Felice Cohen, Luke Clark Tyler, Eric Schneider, Michael Chen (Normal Projects), Sarah Dickinson & family, Henri Grevellec, Matthieu de Marien (Fabre/deMarien Architects), Jérémie Buchholtz, Eva Prats (Flores Prats Architects), Christian Schallert, Pascual Alberola, Jorge Cortés (Enproyecto Arquitectura), Johnny Sanphillippo, Heather Wilcoxon Locations: California (Sonoma County, San Francisco, Sausalito); New York City; Hawaii; France (Saint-Gilles-Croix-de-Vie, Grezille, Puy-Notre-Dame, Bordeaux); Spain (Barcelona, Ibort, Vall de Laguar).

Networked Society – “Thinking Cities”

Documentary.net staff — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 06:50:59 +0000

The film deals with one of the most dramatic societal trends happening today: urbanization. The world population is expected to soar to more than 9 billion people by 2050, with roughly 70 percent living in cities. At the same time, Information Communications Technology is extending its reach. These parallel trends are intersecting at a time in which the world faces serious economic, environmental, and social challenges in achieving a more sustainable development. Thinking Cities explores the challenges and opportunities of urbanization in the networked society. by Ericsson

A Tiny Apartment with 24 Rooms

Documentary.net staff — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 14:13:16 +0000

In Hong Kong, because of the space, apartments are small and expensive. Gary Chang, an architect, decided to design a 344 sq. ft. apartment to be able to change into 24 different designs, all by just sliding panels and walls. He calls this the "Domestic Transformer."

Living prehistoric animals

Documentary.net staff — Thu, 10 Feb 2011 12:51:01 +0000

A German research team recently returned from an expedition to the Great Barrier Reef off the coast of Australia. It made some spectacular discoveries: organisms that have existed for more than 65 million years, and have hardly changed since the age of the dinosaurs. The team discovered some of these living fossils in the shallow reefs, others in deeper hollows using a remote-controlled submarine. This enabled them to compare living members of the nautilus family with their extinct ancestors. The research has opened a window onto the past, with views of geological and evolutionary history.