What do you do when you desperately need to put a parking garage into the bottom floor of your Victorian apartment building, but the city's Department of Planning says "No". The simple and expensive answer: Create an elaborate secret garage door.
Here in Los Angeles, there are a plethora of amazing houses precariously perched on the hillsides of Hollywood, Pacific Palisades and Malibu. Striking to look at, the thought "earthquake" is never far from one's mind, however.
The resourceful fisherman of Holy Island (Lindisfarne, Northumberland, UK) are upcycling beautiful old fishing vessels into storage sheds. Flip it upside down, add a door, and the result is striking.
This is one serious example of trophy architecture. Extreme engineering in prosperous countries like this one in Singapore is meant to stir envy. The Marina Bay Sands infinity pool opened this month, and is located 200 meters off the ground, 150 meters in length. The entire hotel complex is part of a $5 billion investment, and the opposite of a DIY sensibility.
These Dutch architects fear that those Chinese drivers might get confused! You may think I'm making a cheap joke about Chinese drivers. But I'm not. The Hong Kong-Zhuai-Macau bridge is a 31-mile, $10.7 billion project and this unique design is meant to address a clash of two driving conventions.
Experimental house, "Roll It", is a collaborative project within Germany's University of Karlsruhe. The basic concept is as follows: using a cylindrical design to maximize space within a minimum housing unit. Not sure how "space efficient" this would actually be, but using it as transport could be fun (until the nausea inevitably sets in).
What is it about the fantasy of the treehouse? Escapism. Other worldly, bird-like elevation. Beauty and peacefulness. Backwoods simplicity (although in some cases, truly elaborate works of fine architecture). Whatever the draw is, I'm dying to have my own treehouse in the woods, and I'd gladly take any of the examples below.
Heatherwick Studio's London based rolling bridge is an engineering marvel. Lots of fun, and immensely satisfying to watch (via YouTube, assuming you can't see it in person).
Who wouldn't love an indoor swing? The upcoming cold winter season is one good reason to build one, but truly, an indoor swing is just plain fun all year round. Luckily Apartment Therapy has posted a How-To on building a simple wooden plank swing.
Evolver is a fun little piece of architecture with an incredible 720º panoramic view of Zermatt, Switzerland. The structure was built by second year students of the ALICE Studio at Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL).
Because of this one video, the company mail room can once again reclaim its destiny as a cultural Mecca. Face the facts: xeroxing your behind-crack during lunch break is so ... yesterday.
