Narrow But Elegant

Elegant house on a narrow lot in Portugal.

Details at archdaily> http://tinyurl.com/afbdv6l

Cutting Edge House in Spain

Stark concrete house in Spain. More neo-brutalism?

Via dezeen> http://tinyurl.com/a3xjq7a

4 Small Houses in a Mexican Garden

 4 small-footprint houses in a Mexican garden. Project: compare footprint, area, and cubic feet. As usual not enough information. But they look good!

Pix & floorplans via archdaily> http://tinyurl.com/a7bvlcf

Not Your Ordinary Tree House

Three swaying wooden sphere accommodations, up in the trees in Vancouver. Best of the tree houses in NYT T Magazine. 


Freespiritspheres> http://tinyurl.com/ae4dmmm

All You Need Is a Lot of Ma

Japanese "Coupled House" demonstrates the use of "ma" = empty space. 

Interiors and floor plan via designboom>http://tinyurl.com/b7qlwes

Concrete Summer House in Argentina

Concrete summer house in Argentina. 1000 sq ft.


Details via designboom> http://tinyurl.com/akprv7j

Save the FBI Building

Save the Brutalist FBI building in DC! Perfect for its time and site; still an effective image for FBI. Push the FBI into the suburbs and into invisibility? For architectural madness, see Wikepedia entry below....But where is the Times architecture critic?

NYT Real Estate> http://tinyurl.com/ass28t2

Elegant Swiss Agrcultural Shed

 Expressive and elegant agricultural shed in Switzerland. Uses local typologies and topology, plus local materials.

Go to designboom> http://tinyurl.com/ba37weu

World's Most Elegant Oyster Shack

Is this the "world's most elegant oyster shack" as claimed by Remodelista? Yes. It is on the coast of Brittany.

Remodelista story and more pix> http://tinyurl.com/aju63of

Tree House Is Not What You Think

Concrete "tree" (main structural support) imitates real tree growing through house....

Found at subtilites.tumblr> slideshow>http://tinyurl.com/aa47x66

Tent Tenements Can be Elegant

Modular Tent "Tenements." Better to call them tentacles or tent villages or tent colonies.

First sited on living-off-the-grid then to> dornob>http://tinyurl.com/beoqc9b

Japanese TARDIS House for Family of Five

Another TARDIS house from Shinozaki. Inside is definitely bigger than outside....."House for a Family of Five." Dr. Who's telephone booth TARDIS is bigger inside then outside, really bigger. 

Slide show> http://www.shnzk.com/detail7.html

TARDIS House for Japanese Couple

More from Shinozaki --- "House T for a Couple," Tokyo. Built, I think on what the Japanese call a flagpole site: alley frontage leads to "flag" for house. Again the interiors are spectacular... House is also a studio. 

Slide show> http://www.shnzk.com/detail11.html

Narrow House for Violinist

More from Shinozaki --- "House F for Violinist." Compression! But note the lovely arch entrance on ground floor. 

Slideshow> http://www.shnzk.com/detail12.html

It's All in The Angles!

H House in Chiba uses angles and beams inside and out as a plus...

Via Leibal > Shinozaki Associates>http://www.shnzk.com/detail15.html

Studio and House in Apple Orchard

Small footprint house and studio for a musician, in an apple orchard in New Zealand. Need an apple? Just reach out, to the strains of William Tell.

Txt, pix, & floorplans via designboom> http://tinyurl.com/arwjvkx

Off-Grid Cabin in Maine

On an island off the coast of Maine, sustainable, off-grid cabin --- 30 years in the making.

From inhabitat to dwell > ttp://tinyurl.com/agpn3ux

Neo-Brutalist House in Ecuador

Multi-use, Neo-Brutalist (?), concrete and glass living space in Ecuador...

Txt & pix via designboom> http://tinyurl.com/ag7teuy

Earthquake Housing Prototype

Prototype of Japanese "Gathering House" for earthquake homeless completed. The practical can be spectacular. Note: Image is of completed house. Follow link to see interior. 

Go to designboom> http://tinyurl.com/ajupfsc

Portable Shipping-Container Hotel!

Portable, shipping-container hotel. Moving to a view near you!

Txt & pix via designboom> http://tinyurl.com/beur2rs

Clever Log Cabin With Concealed Windows

Check out this hide-out!  Where are the windows? 

http://archdai.ly/WImH8f

Beautiful Chilean Guest House With Tile Wall

1000 sq ft guest house in Chile features tile wall. Let's sell the main house and live in the guest house!

From designmilk to trendir> http://tinyurl.com/b988fss

Lopsided Argentine House With Party Wall

Argentine house called lopsided by some, but not by us. Seems cleverly done, to gain light, avoid nosy and noisy neighbors, and encompasses a party wall too. A party wall is a sound barrier between abutting buildings. 

Pix, text and floor plans from dezeen>http://tinyurl.com/bh8gdwa

What Is Wrong With This Beautiful Spanish House

What is wrong with this new Spanish house? Too big! Takes up too much land. Separated rooms use more materials than ordinary house would require. But....I like it anyway. You never hear anyone in the next room; there is no next door room! No head-knocking, floorboard-kicking, stiletto/boot heel stomping sounds. A house made up of cabins.

See more pix and floorplan at designboom>http://tinyurl.com/app9nql

Emergency Architecture You Hope You Never Have to Use

Some architecture is architecture you hope you never have to use....Emergency Architecture.

Pix & txt via archdaily> http://tinyurl.com/bgotxt6

Dennis Maher: Architectural Repair

NYT Home & Garden piece on Dennis Maher (whose show "House of Collective Repair" opens Saturday at the Albright-Knox, Buffalo) stays at home (in its own territory). If you really want to see his art follow links below to Albright-Knox, but above all his own website.

NYT> http://tinyurl.com/ab8tcjz
Albright-Knox> http://tinyurl.com/b5cdzvh

MAHER WEBSITE > http://tinyurl.com/amqy5ml

Japanese Tardis House: Bigger Inside Than Outside

Another Japanese TARDIS house where the inside is bigger than the outside. TARDIS is Dr. Who's telephone booth time machine, which is the only thing interesting about the Brit TV kiddie/pop/si-fi series. 

pix ext via designboom> http://tinyurl.com/a7cq8ok

Canadian Bunkie Cabin Knock-Out

"Bunkie Sleeping Cabin" (Canada). Canadian architecture is not all devoted to the eternal '70s. I stand corrected. 

Great design> http://design-milk.com/the-bunkie-sleeping-cabin/

New Japanese Hat House

Japanese "Hat House" for small plot, ungainly on the outside but follow the link below and check out the interiors! 

story & pix via designboom> http://tinyurl.com/bfauwlk

The House Detective: Edinburgh Cube House

ARTOPIATECTURE APPROVED! Mike Page's Edinburgh Cube Project. Ten cubic feet; 6.5 ft headroom; clever stairs; big bed; solar panels earn money in U.K. Go to site for video tour and interactive panorama.

Here> http://www.cubeproject.org.uk/

The House Detective: Is Small All Over?

Three stories in NYT House & Garden Section about small housing. Does this mean it's [AMBIGUOUS] all over? Tiny is so cute and coy. Stop using it. Rational housing is not upscale downsized-housing or folk art. 

NYT> http://tinyurl.com/a6cydv2

Image is of "Cowboy" which can be ordered as small as 650 sq ft from form&forest> http://tinyurl.com/9wwh99v

Found on> http://www.smallhousestyle.com/

The House Detective: NYC Micro-Apt Winner!

Mayor Bloomberg announces My Micro NY is winner of quest for new micro-apts.

Pix etc via businessinsider> http://tinyurl.com/ag88frn

The House Detective: chic Modular Home

A bicycle rack-inspired modular home, this beauty comes flat-packed in a 4-by-10-by-3 foot box.

Details:  http://su.pr/7ehWbn

The House Detective: Stitched Plywood Shelter

Chilled to the bone? Seek this temporary shelter in Copenhagen; made of stitched plywood, with central hearth. 

More pix & story at designboom> http://tinyurl.com/bj87akx

House of Glass

13-ton, optical-glass wall of Japanese house protects and projects an urban garden.

Story & pix via designboom> http://tinyurl.com/at3a5ce

Poet Findlay's Goose Hut

"Goose Hut" by poet Ian Hamilton Findlay restored in Scotland. It's made of heather and wood.

Story and pix of garden via gardenista>http://tinyurl.com/amkyujd

Mouse House Gene?

Mouse house-building DNA discovered, says New York Times. We need to know if humans have a similar gene.

Story via NYT> http://tinyurl.com/ar6gsn5

ARTOPIATECTURE PREDICTS!

Residential Architecture predicts more family cluster-housing. Self-sustaining communities. Lock those gates! Pull up that drawbridge! On the other hand, ARTOPIATECTURE predicts pads, pods, cabins, retreats, and new mobile, prefab and floating homes. Small is the new luxurious. Temporary is the new eternal.

Residential Architecture> http://tinyurl.com/b4uldt7
Artopiatecture> http://pinterest.com/johnperreault1/retreats/

Ceiling Shots of NYC Mini-Rooms

ARTIOPIAPROBE: How do people actually live in mini-apartments? Menno Aden's "Room Portraits" snoop it out, from above. 


Menno Arden> http://mennoaden.com/room_portraits.html
Story at inhabitat> http://tinyurl.com/bjmm423

Printed Mobius House

Dutch, mobius "Landscape House" to be 3-d printed in strips... What next? Certainly a surfboard. Maybe a car.

More info via dezeen> http://tinyurl.com/bkv5763

Japanese Sliding Door House

Japanese sliding-door house at the edge of a sweet-potato field.

More pix at design-milk> http://tinyurl.com/aa36oty

Experimental Cold-Climate Japanese House

Japanese experimental, translucent, cold-climate house. Glowing wayfinder at night, cozy all the time (I hope). 

More pix at dezeen> http://tinyurl.com/ay87a2d