A team from the Middle East Technical University (METU) won the Green Dot 2010 1st Prize with their design “PET-TREE”. Considered as one of the most prestigious environmental competitions in the world, the Green Dot Awards 2010 were announced earlier this month. The DESIGNNOBIS team led by Hakan Gursu of the METU Faculty of Architecture won the award with a multi-layered vertical eco-planting system with re-used PETs called “PET-TREE”. More than 4,000 projects from 43 countries joined participated in this year's competition. Hakan Gursu said in an interview with the the Turkish Weekly on Tuesday that their design was the result of their goal to create extraordinary solutions to environmental problems. “As all natural resources decrease in the world, the only increasing resource is garbage. Our multi-layered vertical eco-planting system will make valuable contributions to protection of environment and the process of re-cycling. We re-used scores of PETs in our design to decrease the carbon emission to the minimum level,” he said. DESIGNNOBIS won the Green Dot Award 2008 Green Transportation Vehicle of the Year with a new lightweight and futuristic concept boat for circumnavigating rivers and seas, using solid-sails and only wind power and solar energy (Volitan). The team has received 45 awards in the last five years. BM
