Archive Category: Architecture
Military Installations Converted Into Homes
A well-insulated 20,000 square foot home complete with an airstrip and a Jacuzzi sounds really nice. This one is underground in an abandoned missile silo! It was once the home of an Atlas-F missile built for the Cold War, but it’s been converted into a luxury home. See seven such military installations now used as living spaces. Link -via Dark Roasted Blend
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Temple of Trash
In the Follydock IFCR festival in 2007, artists, designers, and architects came together in an abandoned part of Rotterdam, the Netherlands, to design "follies" or strange and playful structures that defy traditional architectural wisdom (not to mention common sense).
This one above, the Temple of Trash, was made by the SALZIG Design Team. It’s composed of 100 tonnes of plastic bottles compressed into bales of garbage.
Link | More at Follydock’s website – via Recyclart and MAKE
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Hair As a Building Material
Paula Sunshine of Lawshall, Suffolk, UK, built an extension onto her 16th Century thatched house with hair. Cattle hair has been used as a traditional building material, but Sunshine is using primarily human and dog hair:
“Traditionally people would use cattle hair from long-haired cattle.
“But we don’t get many long-haired cattle around here any more so I use human hair.”
She added: “People say it is not thick enough but you just put more in.
“I don’t human hair is a lot different.
“It is just the fibre that you need the hair for and human hair does the same thing as cattle hair for plaster.
“It is the fibres that holds the plaster together.”
Link via The Corner
Photo: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
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What's behind door #1,543?
A friend of Neatoramanaut Andrew Wirtanen snapped this photo of a construction site with a unique screen hiding the building being worked on in Seoul, South Korea. The screen is made entirely out of doors!
A little Googlin’ brought another view by waynekorea [Flickr]; this wonderful house made entirely out of old doors in Elberton, Georgia; and this amazing "door/portal" group on Flickr.
Thanks Andrew!
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Tower Made of Living Trees
Architects from the University of Stuttgart in Germany constructed a treehouse with a difference. The nine meter tall structure is made from living trees! Some of the hundreds of White Willow trees are planted in the ground; others are in containers. They are all expected to grow together into one giant plant. The experimental tower will be open to the public beginning September 19th. Link -via Unique Daily
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8 Incredible Green Roofs
Green roofs, or roofs made of or covered with plants, come in all shapes and forms, as you can see in this collection from all over.
Green roofs have been around for centuries in Northern Scandanavia, but they’ve really only become a popular trend in the last few decades. Recognized now for their ability to reduce the urban heat island effect while also reducing heat loss and energy consumption in winter months – among many other benefits – green roofs are really taking off, all around the world. And these aren’t just your average pieces of sod plopped on top of a building, either.
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Not Your Typical Low-Income Housing
Discarded frame samples become ceilings, license plates become roofs, wine bottle bottoms become stained glass windows… Dan Phillips is a self-taught carpenter, electrician and plumber who has created an unusual connection between two seemingly unrelated problems: The shortage of affordable housing in his neighborhood and the plethora of junk and discarded materials filling landfills.
“Look at kids playing with blocks. I think it’s in everyone’s DNA to want to be a builder. …You can’t defy the laws of physics or building codes,but beyond that, the possibilities are endless”
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How to Earthquake-Proof a Building
Image: Physorg.com
How do you earthquake-proof a building? Apparently it involves allowing the building to shake in a controlled fashion. Clay Dillow explains one new use of this approach:
A research team led by Stanford and the University of Illinois successfully tested a structural system that holds a building together through a magnitude-seven earthquake, and even pulls it back upright on its foundation when the quaking stops. The key: embracing the shaking, by limiting the damage to a few flexible, replaceable areas within the building’s frame.
When a quake strikes, the new system dissipates energy through steel frames in the building’s core and exterior. These frames are free to rock up and down within fittings fixed at their bases. Steel tendons made from twisted steel cables run the length of each frame, keeping the frames from moving so much that the building could shear. When the quake stops, these tensile tendons pull the frames back down into the “shoes” at their bases, returning the building to its plumb, upright position.
So where does all that energy go? At the base of each frame is a flexible steel “fuse” that takes the brunt of the force, keeping the frame and constituent tendons from shouldering the entire load. The fuses are easily replaceable when they blow — just like an electrical fuse — so after a quake, the building can be refitted with fresh fuses for its next bout with Earth’s occasional tectonic fits.
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V-Houses
These V-Houses were designed by Heinz Legler for use as eco-friendly shelters. They are in temporary use for workers is a forest near Yelapa, Mexico, but have proved so popular that more have been ordered to house resort guests. They feature solar panels, composting toilets, and a greywater system to reuse as much water as possible. No excavation needed to set these treehouses up, just stick them in the ground! Link -via Digg
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LEGO House Under Construction
Photo: Flynet
A month ago, I linked to a news story about plans for a full-sized LEGO house in the UK. James May, the TV host responsible, has construction of the three-million brick project well underway. And yes, it has a functioning bathroom. You can view twenty photos of the construction process at the link.
Link via Geekologie
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A Building Shaped Like a Möbius Strip
Image: BIG Architects
Kazakhstan has commissioned BIG Architects to build a library and cultural center in the city of Astana. The design that the firm submitted in response is shaped like a Möbius strip — a structure that has only one side:
The building itself is a complicated juxtaposition of different ideas and concepts. It forms a spiraling circle around a strong vertical core that allows visitors to the library to move between floors. The museum’s curves form a möbius strip, so the interior becomes the exterior and back again; likewise the walls become the roof and the roof transforms back into the walls. The interior corridors are naturally daylit through geometric openings in the exterior shell, creating beautifully lit spaces perfect for reading.
To minimize cooling loads on the library, BIG Architects employed some advanced computer modeling to calculate the thermal exposure on the building envelope. Because of the warping and twisting of the exterior, some parts of the building receive more light than others. By taking that information, BIG was able to create a geometric pattern or “ecological ornament” to regulate the solar impact.
Photo gallery at the link.
You may not be able to travel to Kazakhstan to view the building, but you can experience the same one-sided sensation with our Möbius strip t-shirt, now on sale at the Neatorama Shop.
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Plans for the World's Tallest Wooden Building
Illustration: Reilulf Ramstad Architects
Norway plans to construct a wooden building 16-17 stories tall with carbon neutral construction techniques. The Norwegian Barents Secretariat will use it for a cultural center for the nation’s northern coast. It will house a library, a theatre, and art studios in its approximately 10,000 square meter interior space and will highlight sustainable development:
The idea is to construct a building which will be CO2-neutral, where the concept of the cycles of nature will be preserved. The innovative solutions on modern wooden constructions will stand as a token of the level of competence in the region, says architect Reiulf Ramstad.
As far as I have been able to determine, the record for tallest wooden building in the world is currently held by the 43-meter tall St. George’s Cathedral in Guyana.
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Waiting for the End of the World
Many folks built small bomb shelters to survive a nuclear attack during the Cold War, but others took the idea to great lengths. Good Magazine has a pictorial taken from the book Waiting for the End of the World by Richard Ross, in which you’ll see the interiors of shelters meant to house people waiting out the apocalypse. From Switzerland to Texas, you’ll see how people prepare for the end of the world as we know it. The underground dining room shown is in Sanpete Country, Utah. Link -via Dark Roasted Blend
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Jenga-Inspired House
Architect Sou Fujimoto created a house inspired by the table game Jenga. It consists of cedar blocks 35 cm wide and was completed in Kumamoto, Japan in 2008.
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James Dyson's Wrong Way Fountain
Inventor James Dyson’s fountain, inspired by the work of MC Escher, gives the illusion that its water flows uphill:
Covering the ramp is a glass surface. Water is pumped in at the bottom, and comes out of the opening at the top. At the opening, some of the water is diverted back down the ramp, covering the glass in a thin layer of water.
Compressed air is also pumped in where the water enters – bubbles then travel up the ramp to the opening. These bubbles, combined with the thin layer of water going downhill, are what create the illusion that the surface of the ramp is not just a glass lid.
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Bridges You Will Probably Die Crossing
Now That’s Nifty has a post about the nine bridges where you will probably die if you try crossing them. I don’t know about you, but I would look for the long way around.
I’m fine crossing big, sturdy bridges, no problem. But small, rickety, POS bridges? Mmm-mmm, no thanks. Here are 9 such bridges, that will in all likelihood lead to your demise. Drowning, impalement, smashing your head on a big rock, all real possibilities.
This is a bridge between two Pakistani cities Passu and Husaini. I’d probably just stay home.
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Flak Towers: The Continuing Legacy of the Luftwaffe
In 1940, Hitler, incensed by the successful bombing of Berlin by the RAF. ordered the construction of three enormous flak towers to protect the city. Soon afterwards, this idea quickly spread around Germany.
Considered invulnerable at the time – and they pretty much were – many of these colossal structures still stand today, albeit serving much more "civilian" purposes:
The L Tower in Vienna is now, well, you take a guess. If your German is any good then its current name – Haus des Meeres is a complete giveaway. If not, then you may be surprised to discover that it is an aquarium. Instead of weapons of war and people huddling from falling bombs it now houses over three and a half thousand animals, with huge fish tanks containing sharks, turtles and piranhas (in different tanks one assumes). There is even a new tropical house with free flying birds and free-running monkeys.
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10 Houses Made of Strange Materials
It seems like all the new houses in my area are covered in stucco. I got to wondering, what else are houses made of, besides wood and brick? Well, now that’s nifty has 10 unique examples.
I saw a show on TV the other day, about this little town in Arizona, where everyone builds these houses out of tires, and they are almost entirely self sufficient. This got me wondering about what other types of housing material has been used. I found some pretty neat stuff.
A house made of trash. I guess no one will really notice that your house is messy, since it’s made of garbage.
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Living Root Bridges of India
When the War-Khasis tribe needs a new bridge to cross one of the many criss-crossing rivers of the cherrapunji region, they don’t build one. They grow it.
The root bridges, some of which are over a hundred feet long, take ten to fifteen years to become fully functional, but they’re extraordinarily strong – strong enough that some of them can support the weight of fifty or more people at a time.
Because they are alive and still growing, the bridges actually gain strength over time – and some of the ancient root bridges used daily by the people of the villages around Cherrapunji may be well over five hundred years old.
Link – via rootbridges
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What’s Dovecote to Do With It
For centuries, architectural marvels known as dovecotes were built to house the birds of the nobles. As you can see, you’d have had to be powerful and wealthy to obtain the rights to build these kind of pigeon coops on your property!
Pigeons were an immense passion and hobby for Romans, and typically the most powerful of men had these buildings constructed with marble powder coated roofing. Varro, Columella and Pliny the Elder wrote works on pigeon farms and dovecote construction. In the time of the Republic, the internal design of “pigeonholes was adapted for the purpose of disposing of cremated ashes after death: these columbaria were generally constructed underground.”
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A Floating Apartment Building
Dutch architect Koen Olthuis responded to the rising sea level by designing a floating apartment building:
The Dutch are uniquely accustomed to dealing with fluctuating water levels; much of the Netherlands is below sea level, and vast swaths of land, known as polders, are continually pumped free of the accumulating rainwater that threatens nearby homes and buildings. The Citadel will simply rise and fall with the changing water levels, making it impervious to flooding, tides, and sea waters inching upward as a result of global warming.
Built atop a floating heavy concrete foundation, The Citadel will house 60 luxury apartments, a parking garage, a floating roadway, and boat docks. Each apartment will naturally have waterfront views via a garden terrace, and greenhouses will be interspersed throughout. But the greenest feature of the Citadel is its cooling system: submerged pipes will pump water throughout the structure to cool it, reducing its energy use by 25 percent compared to a conventional building.
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Iran's Subterrenean City
The Kish Qanat is an amazing feet of human engineering that covers over 10,000 square metres underground. The tunnel complex, built before the Roman Empire, serves as a way to transport water from Iran’s mountain region to less arid land several kilometres away.
The ancient water provision technology can be described as the greatest contribution made by Iranians to hydraulics. This system must have been started at least 5000 years ago in Iran. The water from the qanat flowed in a natural underground stream between a layer of corals on the surface of the island. The drinking water flowed from northeast of the Island to the sea and after 10 centuries it continues to flow.
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Construction of Full-Sized LEGO House Planned
James May of the British television show Top Gear is planning to build a full-sized house out of LEGOs:
On Friday, more than three million Lego bricks were delivered to the vineyard in preparation for the task.
Denbies marketing and business development manager, Jeanette Simpson, said: “The millions of bricks came all the way from the Czech Republic. The house will be life-size with a staircase, toilet and shower.”
Link via Geekologie
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10 Oddest Places to Work or Live
Fast Company has a slideshow of unusual buildings in which people live or work, using unique materials or shapes. These include high-grade bricks made from cow dung, a house made from hemp (pictured), a building made from shipping containers, and one designed like a concert hall.
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Not Fooling Anybody
The site Not Fooling Anybody is a gallery of business conversions that retain the ghosts of past architecture. For example, this chiropractic office used to be a …you know. The big bucket still on the sign post should be a dead giveaway. You’re invited to submit your own photographs. Link -via mental_floss
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Storage Barn by Gray and Organschi Architecture
This ain’t your father’s backyard shed – take a look at Storage Barn, a workshop and storage facility designed by Elizabeth Gray and Alan Organschi of the firm Gray and Organschi Architecture. The spatial arrangement of the storage area around the outside of the building gives it a fascinating texture:
The building serves as a dimensionally economical and energy efficient storage rack for heavy materials, in which tightly packed and palletized stone and wood are stored in a flexible external shelving system that allows access to any pallet in any position on the rack without disturbing others around it.
Link – via Dinosaurs and Robots
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Tianzi Hotel
The three men in this picture are Fu Lu Shou, which means good fortune, prosperity, and longevity. But in this version they are a ten story building! Tianzi Hotel is in Hebei Province, China, and holds the world record for being the “biggest image building”. See more pictures at Killer Directory. Link -Thanks, David!
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Simulated Earthquake to Shake Condo
Today, Japanese scientists are going to shake a six-story wood frame building on a table to simulate a 7.5 Richter scale earthquake and evaluate its effects on the structure:
“We’re taking it to an earthquake level that’s associated with being on the verge of collapse,” said civil engineer Michael Symans of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, who helped design the test building. “We don’t expect it to collapse, but we expect it to be very vulnerable to a strong aftershock that could cause it to collapse.”
The 23-unit condo building currently sits on the world’s largest shake table, a 50-by-60-foot structure in Miki, Japan. The table will simulate the motions of the 1994 earthquake in Northridge, California, amplified about 1.5 times. Sensors on each floor of the building will record motion and detect internal damage, generating valuable data about how wooden structures perform in a quake.
You can watch the webcast live at 11 AM EDT today.
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Converting a Church (Yes, With Its Own Cemetery) Into a Home
Sure it’s got high ceilings and amazing stain glass windows but wouldn’t you feel a little bit intimidated taking showers and sleeping in this house? After all, it used to be the House of God …
Apparently, it didn’t bother Sally Onions and Ian Bottomley – the couple converted a Georgian church in Kyloe, Northumberland, England (complete with its own cemetery outside) into a residential house.
All About You has a gallery of photos of the converted house (from the House Beautiful magazine): Link (if you don’t like clicking through the photos, SwipeLife has kindly um, "borrowed" all the photos)
Previously on Neatorama: Man Converts Church Into a Home
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Zipper Pond
Just how awesome is this: the Zipper Lotus Pond at the Juming Museum outside of Taipei, Taiwan. The zipper pond is created by Taiwanese sculptor Ju Chun and I, for one, am surprised that it doesn’t say "YKK" (look at your zipper, I betcha it says YKK)
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