The Tiny Home Built from Scratch for $11,000
In one small swoop, Idaho architect Macy Miller has opted out of paying rent or even a mortgage with her perfectly formed ‘Tiny House’ – that cost her only $11,416.16 and which she broke her back building. Finding herself divorced, unemployed and losing her home to foreclosure two years ago, the Boise resident enlisted the help of her dad and later her boyfriend to start building her 196-square-foot dream home. The house which is built atop a flatbed trailer – made complete with sustainable materials – has the unlikely boast of its $2,000 compost toilet being the most expensive amenity or appliance in the whole cute build.
Macy Miller’s tiny house in Boise, Idaho, which is only 196-square-feet – but boasts all the modern conveniences of a normal, lager home. Continue reading »
Most Beautiful Abandoned Places of the World
1. Mirny Mine is a former open pit diamond mine located in Mirny, Eastern Siberia, Russia. Continue reading »
European Communities by Immo Klink
As devotees of Cabin Porn, we have spent many an idle moment daydreaming about fleeing our noisy, stressful urban life for the isolated pleasures of a rustic shack. So we were immediately intrigued by German photographer Immo Klink’s beautiful images of remote dwellings, which we spotted at Feature Shoot. The photos are part of a series called ‘European Communities’, which documents the off-the-grid lives of people around the continent who have chosen to retreat from society and forge more environmentally sustainable existences. Continue reading »
16 Best Architecture Photos of the Year
The Architectural Photography Awards, hosted by Arcaid Images, have announced the winner, runner-up and shortlisted images for this year’s best architecture photos.
Overall Winner: Trollstigen, Norway by Reiulf Ramstad Arkitekten
Category: Sense of Place — Images should show buildings or spaces in their wider context and environment. Photographer: Ken Schluchtmann. Continue reading »
Mortsafe: Protection from the Living Dead
Mortsafes were contraptions designed to protect graves from disturbance. Resurrectionists had supplied the schools of anatomy in Scotland since the early 18th century. This was due to the necessity for medical students to learn anatomy by attending dissections of human subjects, which was frustrated by the very limited allowance of dead bodies – for example the corpses of executed criminals – granted by the government, which controlled the supply. Continue reading »
The Buzludzha Monument
Buzludzha is a historical peak in the Central Stara Planina, Bulgaria and is 1441 metres high. In 1868 it was the place of the final battle between Bulgarian rebels led by Hadji Dimitar and Stefan Karadzha and the Ottoman Empire.
The Buzludzha Monument on the peak was built by the Bulgarian communist regime to commemorate the events in 1891 when the socialists led by Dimitar Blagoev assembled secretly in the area to form an organised socialist movement with the founding of the Bulgarian Social Democratic Party, a fore-runner of the Bulgarian Communist Party. The Monument was opened in 1981. No longer maintained by the Bulgarian government, it has fallen into disuse. Buzludzha is reached by a 12 km side road from the Shipka Pass. Continue reading »
Little Planets By Clement Celma
“My Little Planets” by Clement Celma takes an interactive and panoramic approach, exploring beautiful architecture from all angles Continue reading »
Floralis Generica – Buenos Aires
Floralis Genérica is a sculpture made of steel and aluminum located in Plaza de las Naciones Unidas, Avenida Figueroa Alcorta, Buenos Aires, a gift to the city by the Argentine architect Eduardo Catalano. Catalano once said that the flower “is a synthesis of all the flowers and is both a hope that is reborn every day to open.”
It was created in 2002. The sculpture moves closing its petals in the evening and opening them in the morning, although this mechanism is currently disabled. The sculpture is located in the center of a park of four acres of wooded boundaries, surrounded by paths that get closer and provide different perspectives of the monument, and placed above a reflecting pool, which apart from fulfilling its aesthetic function, protects it. It represents a large flower made of stainless steel with aluminum skeleton and reinforced concrete, which looks at the sky, extending to it its six petals.
Weighs eighteen tons and is 23 meters high. Continue reading »
House in Black
Haus in Schwarz (House in Black) was a 2008 public art piece by artists Erik Sturm und Simon Jung in the city center of Möhringen, Germany. The piece was meant as a farewell to the building which was slated for demolition, with the matte black paint acting as a sort of final curtain to an exterior that had recently been used by numerous street artists, shown below.
After demolition, the owner, art gallery manager Karin Abt-Straubinger built a new gallery (but the House in Black still haunts Google Maps). Continue reading »
The Incredible ‘Unbalanced Hotel’ to be Built into the Side of a Cliff in Peru
A hotel set to be built in Peru has been designed to look like a giant, off-center picture frame.
The cliff-hugging structure, designed for a private client by Madrid-based architecture firm OOIIO, will serve as the perfect frame for the Pacific Ocean on one side, and the Andes on the other. Provisionally named the Unbalanced Hotel, the building is intended to become a landmark for Lima, where it will be built into cliffs outside the city center. The Unbalanced Hotel will have 125 rooms, restaurants, conference rooms and exhibition spaces.
A hotel ‘constructed in a traditional way would be a visual barrier… that could block the ocean view,’ according to the OOIIO website. ‘Thanks to [the hotel’s] peculiar shape, the landscape is now even more relevant – we have framed it!’ The design was commissioned by a private South American client but the plans have yet to be approved by city planners. Continue reading »
Walkie Talkie Building in London Creates ‘Death Ray’ with Reflected Sunlight
A new London skyscraper dubbed the “Walkie-Talkie” due to its distinctive shape, has been blamed for reflecting light and heat from the sun onto buildings in the next street, scorching sidewalk, dazzling passersby and melting cars parked on the street. Business owners and motorists hit out at developers of a new skyscraper for starting fires and causing damage to paintwork, cracking tiles, and smoking a carpet. One journalist even managed to fry an egg on the hotspot. The half-finished 37-storey tower in central London has been thus dubbed the ‘Walkie Scorchie’.
The beam from the concave south side of the building, officially known as 20 Fenchurch Street, was only noticed last week when the sun reached a certain position in the sky. The “Walkie Scorchie” phenomenon apparently lasts for around two hours a day and will come to a natural end in about three weeks’ time as the autumnal sun stays closer to the horizon. Continue reading »
The Festina Lente Bridge
Festina lente (Latin for “make haste slowly”) is a pedestrian bridge over the Miljacka River in Sarajevo. The bridge is 38 meters long and features an unusual looping in the middle, suggesting slowing down and enjoying the view. Conceptual design for the bridge was created by three students of the Academy of Fine Arts in Sarajevo: Adnan Alagic, Amila Hrustić and Bojana Kanlic. The bridge connects the Mak Dizdar embankment (close to the Academy) with Radic street. It was officially opened on 22 August 2012. Continue reading »
Watertower By Tom Fruin
Brooklyn-based artist Tom Fruin installed a beautiful steel and plexiglas water tower in Brooklyn’s DUMBO neighborhood. As sunlight streamed through the colorful structure, photographer Robert Banat snapped the incredible photo below. Continue reading »
Bryan Cranston’s Green Beach House
The star of Breaking Bad opens the doors to his family’s recently completed beach house located just outside of Los Angeles. Photos by Art Streiber. Continue reading »
Chinese Home Builders Find Great Location: On Top of a Shopping Mall
In a densely populated city, land can be an elusive commodity. But that was no such hurdle for the residents of these extraordinary villas. While there may not have been any suitable square footage at ground level, they have instead built their homes on the roof of a shopping centre. Located in the city of Zhuzhou in central China’s Hunan Province, the Jiutian International Plaza is home to one of most famous wholesale markets for shoes in the region.
The four homes are so well hidden on the eight-storey complex that many of the locals have failed to notice them, it was reported on www.hugchina.com. Continue reading »
2013 World Architecture Festival
The Halley VI centre designed by British architects Hugh Broughton in Antarctica which is a dismantlable research station created in the icy wastes for the British Antarctic Survey and has been shortlisted for a global architecture award. (World Architecture Festival 2013/PA Wire) Continue reading »
Horeca Strategies Agency for Desperados Brand
Horeca Strategies Agency has created for Desperados pop-up bars and DJ Stands, which will be used during festivals, concerts ad in promotional areas. To build them, freight containers were used and adapted as to resemble industrial storage space. They can be arranged in multiple combinations, also one over the other. Bar container, of which side wall opens completely is also equipped to serve beer. Using rough, made of metal decorations points out urban, industrial style of Desperados brand. Continue reading »
LEGO Architecture Studio
Explore, experiment and create with LEGO® Architecture Studio with 1210 bricks and a 272-page guidebook endorsed by leading architects.
The Cube Project
The Cube restaurant interior design by Igor Sirotov, Ukrainian designer. Continue reading »
The Iglu Hotel
Welcome to nature amidst a carefully designed environment made of glistening snow crystals – rebuilt every season from 3000 tons of snow at six locations in the Alps and the Pyrenees. A vivid product for exciting events and one of the most innovative hotel concepts of our times – CO2-neutral and sustainable. Continue reading »
Grand Canyon Skywalk
The Grand Canyon Skywalk is a transparent horseshoe-shaped cantilever bridge and tourist attraction in Arizona near the Colorado River on the edge of a side canyon in the Grand Canyon West area of the main canyon. USGS topographic maps show the elevation at the Skywalk’s location as 4,770 ft (1,450 m) and the elevation of the Colorado River in the base of the canyon as 1,160 ft (350 m), and they show that the height of the precisely vertical drop directly under the skywalk is between 500 ft (150 m) and 800 ft (240 m). Continue reading »
Head in the Clouds by Studio Klimonski Chang Architects
Head in the Clouds structure’s armature is made from 1.5″ aluminum tubes that use less material and are easier to transport than more traditional materials such as wood. All the materials are recyclable. Klimoski and Chang worked with schools and local organizations, including New York Road Runners and NYCRUNS, to collect the 53,780 milk jugs and water bottles needed to create Head in the Clouds. The jugs were used to create 120 “pillows” that give the cloud its bumpy, organic shape. The bottles, accentuated with organic food coloring and water, create the interior’s blue hue. Continue reading »
Toledo Metro Station by Oscar Tusquets Blanca
Opened in September 2012, the Toledo Metro Station was the 16th station built on Naples Metro Line 1. Set along one of Naples main shopping streets, Via Toledo, a second entrance to the station is expected to open into Naples Spanish Quarter, Quartieri Spagnoli, in February 2013.
Designed by the Spanish Firm Oscar Tusquets Blanca, at 50 meters deep, the station extends below the ground water and is the deepest metro station built on Line 1 to date. One of Metro Napoli’s Metro Art Stations, it was designed around the themes of water and light. Continue reading »
San-Zhi – The Abandoned Pod Village in Taiwan
San Zhi, Taiwan is an abandoned vacation resort on the northern coast of Taiwan. It was built in the early 1980s, but construction of the futuristic resort ceased after a series of fatal accidents.
Even though it never opened as a vacation resort, San Zhi can still be toured. The strange pod-like buildings act as a tourist attraction. The colors of the pod-like buildings depend on their location. The buildings in the west are green, in the east pink, in the south blue, and in the north white. Continue reading »
Wood Bridge In Netherlands
Commissioned by the Province of Friesland, Oak (Onix and Achterbosch Architecture) has developed a road bridge that connects 2 districts of Sneek on either side of the A7 motorway. The bridge was designed for a municipality that wished to establish a new city marker along the motorway. Framework The Department of Public Works, the user of the bridge, stated that it wished to use more wood in its constructions.
