MetaFilter posts tagged with houses and architecture

Treehouses for grownups

madamjujujive — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 19:56:00 -0800

Whole Tree Architecture - if you'd like a house built by pioneering architect Roald Gundersen, your first step might be to hike in your nearby woods to choose some young, wind-bent, and diseased "Charlie Brown" trees. Small diameter round trees have 150% the strength of milled lumber and twice the strength of steel in tension. Besides structural and environmental advantages, whole trees make for some beautiful and naturally sculptured environments. From the NY Times article: "And when the trees are left whole, they sequester carbon. “For every ton of wood, a ton and a half of carbon dioxide is locked up,” he said, whereas producing a ton of steel releases two to five tons of carbon. So the more whole wood is used in place of steel, the less carbon is pumped into the air. These passive solar structures also need very little or no supplemental heat. Tom Spaulding, the executive director of Angelic Organics Learning Center, near Rockford, Ill., northwest of Chicago, knows about this because he commissioned Mr. Gundersen to build a 1,600-square-foot training center in 2003. He said: “In the middle of winter, on a 20-below day, we’re in shorts, with the windows and doors open. And we don’t burn a bit of petroleum."

Living Small

filthy light thief — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 13:03:59 -0800

With the economic downturn and a steady downward trend in family sizes, the end of the McMansion could be at hand. Some people are living in and building tiny houses (previously) to decrease their impact on the environment, while others can't afford more (or wish to own something small instead of paying off something big). Sergio Santos saw his small budget and limited space as a challenge (gallery), maximizing his 77 square foot space as a bedroom, office, and mini-kitchen. Claire Wolf lists the four pieces of living small: building, gadgeting, decorating, and coping. If these spaces are too small for you, Dan Maginn suggest 900 square feet for a 2 bed, 2 bath house, and outlines how to design your own small home (his tips: think "events" more than "rooms," and don't forget the cupboards and water heater closet).

Detroit schools urban exploration & reclamation.

Item — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 03:49:39 -0800

Urban exploration has been featured here once or twice before, but Jim Griffioen's site photo-documenting his discoveries in and around Detroit deserves a look. Griffioen was recently interviewed [direct mp3 link] on the American Public Media radio program The Story. Jim is most interested in schools. He's taken photos of trees growing through books and other things left behind. Recently Jim has gone beyond documenting what he sees and is reclaiming what he finds. He collects abandoned library books and other school supplies and gives them to community centers. Previously - blog post by Griffioen on Detroit's abandoned Belle Isle Zoo

100 Abandoned Houses in Detroit

dersins — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 12:33:51 -0800

100 Abandoned Houses. A photo essay from Detroit-based photographer Kevin Bauman.

Sliding House

Knappster — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 12:34:13 -0800

"The brief was simple: to build a house to retire to in order to grow food, entertain and enjoy the East Anglia landscape. The outcome was as unconventional as they come. A structure that has the ability to vary or connect the overall building's composition and character according to season, weather or simply a desire to delight. Wallpaper* took a trip to the site to capture the physical phenomenon in the only medium that serves it justice - film." via

Bigger than a breadbox.

dobbs — Sun, 31 Aug 2008 12:05:45 -0800

Tiny Houses - Design Boom compiles a nice list of tiny residences around the world.

solar chic

madamjujujive — Sun, 21 Oct 2007 18:33:29 -0800

The Solar Decathlon is a just-completed competition in which 20 teams of college and university students competed to design, build, and operate the most attractive and energy-efficient solar-powered house. View a photo gallery or take video tours of the homes. Inhabitat has been blogging the event - here's their view of Germany's winning entry. Note: There are links above each photo in the photo gallery that will bring you to details of the project and a link to the college or university's home site for each project. More coverage from Inhabit:

Second prize: University of Maryland’s Leaf House
University of Colorado Solar House
Universidad Politécnica de Madrid
University of Cincinnati
2005 winning entry led to business launch: Cornell Zero Energy home

Unusual Homes. Amazing Architecture. Strange Places. Fascinating People.

dersins — Tue, 09 Oct 2007 08:44:58 -0800

Unusual Life Dot Com: Unusual Homes. Amazing Architecture. Strange Places. Fascinating People.

Future House Now

dobbs — Mon, 04 Jun 2007 10:56:59 -0800

"Future House Now is dedicated to exploring ideas about better living in family homes that are affordable, modern, efficient, healthy, environmentally responsible and available today."

A title's pointless. Who wouldn't click on a link called that?

dobbs — Mon, 11 Dec 2006 08:47:30 -0800

Architecture and the Velvet Fist of Happiness - click 'view the book" in the top left. {Flash, slight sound, NSFW}

Small solutions for big problems

madamjujujive — Tue, 02 May 2006 18:54:22 -0800

The Katrina Cottage is economical, rather charming, and can serve as a "grow" house. At $35,000 for 308 sq ft, it compares favorably to the $75k FEMA trailer. Not a totally new idea - some of the 1906 earthquake refuge shacks are still in existence in San Francisco. Might tiny houses be the future for disaster relief? (via The Blues and Then Some)

John Lautner's Chemosphere: part Jetsons, part Bond and vintage L.A. Modern.

matteo — Thu, 07 Apr 2005 09:21:46 -0800

The most modern home built in the world. "From the outside it looks like a spaceship you cannot enter. But if you go inside, it feels very cozy… very Zen and calming. Maybe because you are floating above the city, in the sky". John Lautner's Chemosphere residence is the product of a fortuitous union of architect, client, time and place. Leonard Malin was a young aerospace engineer in late-1950s L.A. whose father-in-law had just given him a plot north of Mulholland Drive, near Laurel Canyon. The only catch: at roughly 45 degrees, the slope was all but unbuildable. Lautner sketched a bold vertical line, a cross, and a curve above it. "Draw it up," he told his assistant. Now publisher Benedikt Taschen owns Chemosphere (NSFW), and after 20 years of neglect the house has been beautifully restored (.pdf) by Frank Escher.

Tiny footprints: living in small houses

madamjujujive — Sun, 13 Feb 2005 05:03:47 -0800

How small could you go? Tumbleweed houses, the m-house, the wee house, the mobile hermitage and other varieties of tiny houses serve as charming abodes, offices, or retreats. Some are evocative of the gypsy vardo or the caravan. Many aficionados are attracted by the whimsy while others see small space homes as a vital cornerstone for sustainable living.

Year of the Build Environment

cmonkey — Tue, 23 Nov 2004 15:02:06 -0800

Houses of the Future - houses made of cardboard, steel and clay.

postscript houses.

christian — Mon, 07 Jun 2004 16:03:13 -0800

Could this revolutionize architecture? A robot that can "print" a 2,000 sq-ft house in one day without the use of a single human hand. What sort of effects will this have on the future of houses?

The Fututo House - funky space age living

madamjujujive — Mon, 22 Dec 2003 06:09:26 -0800

The Futuro House - designed in 1968 by Finnish architect Matti Suuronen, this funky place is an example of space age utopian architecture. Made largely of plastic, the oil crisis nipped the design in the bud. Should you decide to build along these lines, here's some ideas for '70s decor.

Our Victorian House

Ufez Jones — Thu, 23 Oct 2003 11:12:16 -0800

Craig and Yvonne are in the process of renovating their 1891 Victorian House. Progress can be followed on their site. Be sure to check out the before and after pics, which are pretty impressive.

Airplane homes

mathowie — Sat, 19 Jul 2003 00:53:01 -0800

A pole in the ground + an old Plane on top of it = home sweet home. A company in Tennesee is selling old airplanes as homes on ebay. I wonder if the new homeowners ever get tired of eating those little packets of peanuts every night.

Prague

plep — Fri, 18 Jul 2003 07:08:34 -0800

Stone inhabitants and extraordinary houses of Prague. More at the Praha experience.
If you like this, you might also like fifty doors of Paris and San Francisco.

Dream Houses And Great Architects

MiguelCardoso — Sat, 31 May 2003 19:31:37 -0800

I So Want This House It Hurts. Mies van der Rohe's Farnsworth House is up for sale. If price was no object and location wasn't a problem, where would you choose to really live? What architect, living or dead; what building, available or not, would you choose? [NYT reg. required for main link..]

feelinglistless — Sat, 28 Sep 2002 16:04:07 -0800

Small house, big ambitions. I've always lived in small houses and flats so this would be the perfect little place for me. As people are progressively continuing to stay single for longer into their lives, are homes like these what they'd be looking for to settle into?

folktrash — Mon, 12 Aug 2002 19:17:15 -0800

Trash homes a.k.a. earthships sound like the way to go. Now if they would start building them here in Seattle...