Conscious Design Magazine
In This Issue
  • Feature - Dome Homes
  • Feature
  • Seasonal
  • Green and Sustainable
  • Sacred Places - The Alhambra
  • Bau-biologie and Ecology
  • Money Corner
  • Product Review
  • Feng Shui
  • Media Room
  • Nature Notes
  • Featured Home for Sale
  • Profiles and Pioneers
  • Resources

  • Shop - Connect - Join

    Jan 1 2016

    Wishing you all a very Happy New Year. I am excited to welcome in 2016 with the Conscious Design Magazine's rebirth.
    In this issue, enjoy learning more about Geodesic Dome homes, the beautiful Aerie home design based on "eagles in flight", New Years tips, Feng Shui Interior rescue, and Building Biology advice. Enjoy it.

    I hope you enjoy this issue as much as I have enjoyed connecting and working with all of you ! I hope you will share your stories and tips with us. We all have a light to share !

    Blessings,
    Renae



    Feature - Dome Homes
    It's all about the Dome !


    By Renae Jensen, FSII

    Weather Resistant and highly cost and energy efficient, a geodesic dome might be the right home for you !
    These attractive and low maintenance homes are gaining popularity around the world. From 1970, Monolithic Domes have been built and are in use in virtually every American state and in Canada, Mexico, South America, Europe, Asia, Africa and Australia.

    Green technology at it's best, a Monolithic Dome uses about 50% less energy for heating and cooling than a same-size, conventionally constructed building. The dome can be built on any type of site: beaches, mountains, and even underground or underwater.

    Many homeowners that live in hurricane and tornado areas are moving into Dome homes as they can handle high winds and storms. " The high wind resistance for a Monolithic Dome is rated at 200 mph, allowing it to withstand virtually any hurricane and most tornadoes. Several Monolithic Domes were in the paths of the 2004 series of hurricanes that ravaged Florida, and all survived intact. The Dome is also very resistant to earthquake damage."

    Read more:

    Feature
    Feng Shui Design

    By
    Mary Dennis

    Mary Dennis is Co/Founder and President Emeritus of the International Feng Shui Guild, and Principal Director of the School of Graceful Lifestyles

    Mary Dennis invites you to view her Portfolio, featuring pictures of a project and explaining some ways Feng Shui Design influences the feel and energy of the space.

    " I don't know what to do with my living space", was the cry I heard on the other end of the phone.

    What to do with a large, awkward shaped room?

    Read more:

    Seasonal
    Happy New Year 2016

    On New Year's Eve, kiss the person you hope to keep kissing. New Year's Day is a national holiday celebrated on January 1st, the first day of the New Year, following both the Gregorian and the Julian calendar. This New Years' holiday is often marked by fireworks, parades, and reflection upon the last year while looking ahead to a newer and brighter future. New Years traditions are many and bring luck and success for the year ahead.

    Noise - Noise - Noise

    Open the doors, bang some pots loudly, and let out bad spirits !
    Firecrackers are popular in Chinese culture to remove negative energy.
    Guns were fired in early American colonies to mark the hour.
    Church bells peal, Sirens and Party horns sound and drums beat to bid the old year farewell.

    Cross the Threshold - First Footing

    A common New Year's belief involves the first foot to cross a threshold after midnight. That First Footer or Lucky Bird will predict next year's fortune. So for the best luck, your wishes are for a tall dark-haired stranger to enter. Also, new mothers and brides are deemed lucky.

    Turn over a new leaf !

    The practice of making New Year's resolutions, said to have begun with the Babylonians as early as 2600 B.C., is another way to reflect on the past and plan ahead. New Year's marks a date of newly found happiness and a clean slate. For many celebrating New Years, it is their opportunity to learn from the prior year and make positive changes in their life. Making resolutions or goals to improve one's life.

    More about New Year

    Green and Sustainable
    Aerie House

    By Mary Kroul, PH.D

    Eco Architecture Design Works, PC
    Janus Welton, CSBA, LEED AP BD+C, Architect

    The Eco Architecture design charrettes were fascinating: architect, engineer, materials specialist, green technology expert, lighting designer, cultural anthropologist, and so on, you get the idea -perspectives clashing like waves at the shoreline. The site: a rocky cliff overlooking a broad valley, guaranteed to take your breath away. The challenge: a small right sized house that is a living ecosystem. The result: Aerie House, a showcase of sustainable practices inspired by eagles in flight; kite-shaped, perched with birdlike "feet" to minimally disturb its site.

    Aerie House harvests its own water and energy and processes its own waste, but it also enhances the ambient beauty and imparts a sense of comfort to its occupants.

    A self-contained structure and infrastructure, Aerie House sits on a foundation of steel helipiles to minimize disturbance of its environmentally sensitive site-it perches into the earth. A shell of recycled-steel shipping containers adapts available resources and alters them to work in an evolutionary strategy. The containers both nest and expand in a patterned modularity.

    Read More

    Sacred Places - The Alhambra
    The Rose - a journey to the Heart

    'Deep in the Rose for all to see The Wisdom, The LOVE and the power that is Me Beautifully wrapped in petals sublime Is the weave and the Mystery of the Divine'
    Except from Rose Ba Gua 2 - The Rose Oracle for the Heart - Sandy Humby

    The Rose has woven her way right through my life, from my earliest memories playing in my grandfather's garden in the middle of the New Forest in Hampshire, England.
    My Grandfather was a professional gardener and in front of his little cottage was his Rose garden. To ensure the vitality of his Roses he kept a small shovel by the gate to the forest road waiting for the passing animals to leave him fresh manure... I learnt very early on in life that the Rose was an Alchemical plant that loved nothing better than transforming the 'manure' of life into fragrance, beauty and blossom!

    From that early start the Rose wove her way into my work as a Couture Wedding Dress designer. All of the women who found themselves sitting with me in my studio felt a deep connection with the Rose as she speaks of the beauty and grace of the essence of the feminine. Inevitably Roses ended up on the dresses and in bouquets and headdresses.

    But it was not until 5 years ago, over 10 years from the date that I had closed the door on my last shop that the Rose really started to call me. I was no stranger to the field of metaphysics and the esoteric for that had been my chosen study for over 20 years, but there was a really strong inner calling that I became aware of to visit The Alhambra in Granada, Spain
    So I went in the early summer of 2010 with my favourite camera, not even realising that it was Rose time. The Alhambra is a Moorish Palace built in 11th century when that area of Andalusia was occupied harmoniously by the Moors, the Jews and the Christians. The Alhambra means the red palace and it certainly would have been a powerful citadel at that time, placed on a hill nestled alongside the Sierra Nevada mountain range.

    The rich carvings and spaces within the actual Nasrid Palace that is the main building sitting at the Heart of The Alhambra, flow from one another seamlessly. It is just one experience of beauty and symmetry after another, with waterways and reflective pools giving an air of restful calm and balance. The gardens are set out in the same patterns - waterways and Rose beds fill the outside 'rooms'.

    So it was that I came back with a camera full of gorgeous Rose images. Little did I know that something more magical was afoot!

    A couple of days later as I woke a voice whispered "We would like you to gather 11 of us together and work with us'- the invitation later continued ' We have come to heal the Magdalene wound - the wounded heart of the feminine in mankind'

    And so my journey to the Heart of the Rose has started
    Sandy Humby www.RoseAlchemy.com 31st December 2015

    www.RoseAlchemy.com

    Bau-biologie and Ecology
    9 Building Biology Tips for Safer Living

    By Carol Cannon, BBEC, Certified Building Biology Environmental Consultant

    1. Unplug any unnecessary electrical items in your bedroom so you are not sleeping in a "sea" of electromagnetic fields (EMFs).
    Most importantly, keep items such as alarm clocks, tape players, radios at a "safe" distance from your head.

    2. Use 100% natural linens for your bed, to avoid allergies. Avoid polyester!

    More Tips:

    Money Corner
    Embracing That Clutter !!!

    By Renae Jensen

    With all the upset about finances this year, I find this a great opportunity to help you view your abundance and create positive shifts - through the eyes of your clutter .

    Fact 1: If you have Clutter and Stuff, you are in a state of "having"; therefore are already abundant.
    Fact 2: If you have Clutter and Stuff, you have lots of room to create movement. You have resources to work with !
    Fact 3: If you have Clutter and Stuff, you know have the ability to "trade" stagnant abundance for a different type of abundance by moving out the old and bringing in the new.
    Fact 4: Many of us are in greater abundance than we "see" ourselves. It is time to be in gratitude for what we have, and be able to release and reinvent ourselves.

    Time to get busy !


    Product Review
    Gunlocke Savor Guest Chair

    Savor, a commercial wood guest chair designed by Gunlock has been named one of the Top 10 Green Building Products for 2016 by BuildingGreen

    A global first, the Savor chair uses a new biomaterial called MycoBoard in the seatback construction. MycoBoard is a particleboard made from agricultural waste and mycelium (mushroom "roots'').

    MycoBoard will not split, is naturally flame resistant, has almost no production waste or hazardous emissions, and can be composted at the end of its lifespan.

    Link

    Feng Shui
    FENG SHUI TIPS FOR NEW YEAR RESOLUTIONS

    Aroon Ajmera,

    Consultant, teacher, author of 4 books and creator of a global Feng Shui site: www.fengshuiglobal.co
    Contact: email:aajmera999@aol.com or Telephone (+44) 020-8455-1158

    New Year is a time for to make life-transforming resolutions. Time for self-reflection, to see how you can enhance each of the nine Feng Shui areas of your life. And boost your emotional, mental and spiritual sides for living in harmony, balance and peace.

    Area 1:
    Discovery or Journey: Set yourself a goal. Visualise your next step. Always look forward to something better in life. Choose to do what you can do well.

    Area 2:
    Love or Relationships: Make a resolution to be compassionate and loving towards everyone to gain love, respect and admiration from others. "Give the best you have and the best will come back to you!"

    More Tips

    Media Room
    The Future of Architecture in 100 Buildings

    BY Marc Kushner, HWKN architect

    RECOMMENDED reading as one of the best Architecture and Design books of 2015 by Architectural Digest. "You live in a house, you work in an office, you send your kids to a school. These places aren't just the backdrop to your life, they shape your life-they define who you see, what you see, and how you see it. "Architecture impacts how you feel every day, which isn't surprising considering how much time we all spend inside buildings. The average American, for example, spends 90 percent of their time indoors, yet so many of our buildings leave us without natural light, shelter us with low ceilings, and ignore our personal, social, and environmental needs. "


    Nature Notes
    Pine

    A Symbol of long life, endurance, integrity and purity, the Pine is revered around the world. Used in many cultures and traditions, the Pine's healing qualities are many. Pine is used traditionally as a Native American remedy.

    Scandinavian practice was to use pine branches in saunas, both fragrant and healing to the respiratory system. Mattresses were stuffed with pine needles to dispel flea, lice, bedbugs and others. Pine needle mattresses are used to treat rheumatism in Switzerland.

    Pine trees are a feng shui symbol of abundance with their tall presence and "ever green" nature. Pine is used ceremonially to ward off negative influences and protection.
    Meditating with Pine will uplift your energy and moods, and renew your energy.

    More about Pine Power

    Featured Home for Sale
    Geodesic Dome in New Jersey

    Own one of the architectural gems of NJ:
    The original in open concept living; a 38 ft diameter Geodesic Dome with great flow

    Embrace the cathedral ceilings from the moment you enter the foyer & see the very unique windows & skylights that permit tons of natural light.
    Randolph Township of Norther New Jersey

    Listing Link

    Profiles and Pioneers
    R Buckminster Fuller

    Buckminster Fuller was a design scientist, 20th century inventor and visionary dedicated to resolving global challenges related to energy, ecology, education, housing and poverty.

    In 1954 he unveiled his visionary design for the geodesic dome, achieving housing that was extremely strong , light and most cost-effective structure ever created. The geodome was popular for its small ecological footprint and its durability in any climate. Today there are over 300,000 geodesic domes around the world.

    Leaving the world a richer place, Buckminster Fuller held 28 patents, wrote 28 books, and was the recipient of 47 honorary degrees. His influence continues to ripple out and to inspire new architects, and scientists working to create a sustainable planet.

    The Buckminster Fuller Institute

    Resources
    The Green Building Center

    The Green Building Center provides real estate developers, design teams, facilities managers, and owners with an indispensable, one-stop, sustainable solution for every phase of a project from conception to completion, creating an integrative project delivery experience with our vetted member network.

    The Green Building Center provides integrated project delivery services throughout the Mid-Atlantic Region. With convenient Centers located in New York City and Lambertville, New Jersey, members have access to collaborative design space, a green construction products showroom, an education center, meeting and conference facilities, and floating desk space. A Center is planned for Philadelphia .

    Link
    Conscious Design Resource Links
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  • Our Philosophy

    We are learning that we are connected: to the earth, to each other and to the places we live and work. An empowered home, school or office creates empowered people. The art of feng shui and sacred geometry has formed the foundation for intelligent transformational space analysis, designed with the backbone of good design, and built with the healthy products found in the Green Design Industry. This integrated Conscious Design® system provides a complete strategy for healthy space. ~ Creator, Renae Jensen.