Green building trends for 2011 — going off grid — should cold homes be illegal?

Happy new year to all Construct Ireland readers. We're getting right back into the swing of things here with a new issue due out before the end of the month. Here's a few interesting stories you might have missed over the holidays.

Six green building trends to watch for 2011 Jetson Green 

Ten more (slightly US-centric) trends for 2011, also from Jetson Green

A review of green technology in 2010 Guardian

Largest postwar prefab estate set to be demolished Guardian

Following on from Mark Stephens's blog posts for us on going off grid, here's another guide from Green Building Advisor

How one US town is dealing with the problem of vacant houses New York Times

Should dangerously cold houses be illegal? (I'm going with yes on this one) Treehugger

From the Ireland After Nama blog, a post on the "true extent of Dublin's functional urban region", and a series of interesting-sounding papers on the future of Dublin city