As we move into the months where mould climbs anew up the walls in Asian cities, speckled smudges blossoming over night across walls and ceilings. Unhealthy spores fill the air but are equally noxious chemicals the only alternative?

In this new section we look at home and lifestyle choices that go beyond the decisions that you make at work through to the decisions that affect you, your friends and family.

We start by looking at interior paint. The wall covering of choice for most across the region can be not only environmentally detrimental but extremely unhealthy. Paint companies tell us how bad it can be, what to watch out for and available alternatives. Read more on A Slap of Paint…

Victim of tremendous industry expansion, LEDs still have a way to go before being embraced as the promised alternative. But the future is still looking bright.

Global regulations for long life energy saving technology, low heat emissions, low maintenance, low fire risk, instant on and off, absence of heavy metals and new levels of programmability are advantages making LEDs what Adam Cameron, COO looking after, Etrilum, a China based OEM manufacturer of energy-efficient lighting, calls a “gold rush” industry. Despite already widespread application in offices, shops, hospitals, carparks and street lighting, LED is still waiting for wholesale adoption. This is partly due to inability to cross the upfront vs operational cost chasm and end user reactions to quality and usability as a useful, economic and rational interior and exterior light source,. However, existing markets continue to grow and Optiled, a LED manufacturer, predicts within the next two years focus will shift to high-end and mid-market shopping environments as the measurable results of real operations will show the attractiveness of LED in general lighting applications. Read more on Lighting Up To Expectations…

How the Vancouver Winter Olympics site proved that consultants are not at the mercy of their clients. {jcomments off}

Roger Bayley, Founder, Merrick Architecture was lucky enough to be involved in a project that made a difference. The project was Vancouver’s Olympic Village at Southeast False Creek: Millennium Water. Working on government initiated or public projects can be characterised by unproductive debate, controversy, bureaucracy and stifling financial and traditionalist constraints. Not this one. This one, with Bayley’s and many other inspired consultants’ advice, pushed boundaries of what can be possible in terms of innovation and sustainability in a large scale development. This project is proof that all architects, engineers, contractors and everyone else with expertise in making urban spaces need to make difference is an open mind. Read more on Architect as Educator…

In one of Asia’s greenest developments sits Solaris; less of a building, more like a walk in the park.

SOLARIS is located in the research and business park in central Singapore’s onenorth community, the groundbreaking green work, live community . The building is a flagship project in the second phase of this locality. Fusionopolis is an R&D hub for Infocomm Technology, Media, Physical Sciences & Engineering industries which is intended to facilitate innovation and entrepreneurship in these fields. This masterplan for the visionary mixed-use development was prepared by Zaha Hadid Architects. Read more on The Living Office…

Manit Rastogi encourages architects, designers and urban planners to put the environment at the fore front when planning cities for the Global Indian.

The urban scape of the modern day city is little understood and a largely neglected space today. Shifting economic paradigms over the last few decades have left it a result of financial dynamics and not a response to human habitat needs. Today in many so-called boom towns, the surreal visual of inanimate cranes loom large over the city skyline and halfcomplete, abandoned building sites are an increasingly common sight. Whilst Dubai may be dismissed as an extreme event, in modern day India too, urban development does not seem insulated from the economic dynamics of the last decade. Read more on Indian Architecture: A Paradigm shift…