BrightFarm Rooftop Greenhouse
Solar is not the only green feature appearing on affordable housing projects these days. In fact, a project in the South Bronx is hoping to combat food miles and food deserts at the same time, growing fresh, nutritious vegetables in a 10,000 sq ft rooftop greenhouse on top of a six story affordable [...]

Forest in Maryland.
Speed is not a word typically associated with trees; they can take centuries to grow. However, a new study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences has found evidence that forests in the Eastern United States are growing faster than they have in the past 225 years. The study offers a [...]

Hiatchi designs world’s fastest elevator
Hitachi is stepping up efforts to finalize the design of the world’s fastest elevator.   In April, it will open the 213-metre tall G1 Tower in Japan, where it will conduct verification tests on an elevator with a speed of 1,080 metres per minute (m/min).
 

The Ecorium Project, South Korea’s planned nature reserve, is a stunner. The 33,000 sq. meter park includes a wetland reserve and  a wild plant area. The structure will comprise a series of connected domes, each of which contains its own greenhouse.

Sponsored by the National Ecological Institute of South Korea and designed by Samoo, the Ecorium Project [...]

I want a secret fort too!

The “Daily Shelter” by artist Ingrid Brandth is a dining-room table that converts to a secret fort: “At first glance it looks like an ordinary table. But for the one who knows its secret, it can be transformed into a shelter where one can hide from scary sounds, ghosts or [...]

Your ordinary log cabin is laid out with lengthwise logs stacked to make its outer walls. Piet Hein Eek, charged with building a cozy recording studio for friend and musician Hans Liberg, did not make any ordinary log cabin.  (Pics)
 

8000 years of history.
 
Israeli archaeologists have found remains of an 8,000-year-old building as well as hippopotamus bones and pottery shards in the Tel Aviv area, the Israel Antiquities Authority said on Monday.
 
 
“For the first time we have encountered evidence of a permanent habitation that existed in the Tel Aviv region about 8,000 years ago.”

That places [...]

Can the Dubai real-estate slump be blamed on ambitious projects that tried to recreate mini magical kingdoms? Don’t know, however that’s not stopped the designers from their creative thinking so let’s overview a challenging project that’s aimed for Boston residents. Christened The Boa (Boston Arcology), this floating city isn’t worried about the threat of rising [...]

The Vatican Secret Archives rate high on the list.

The world is full of secret and exclusive places that we either don’t know about, or simply couldn’t visit if we wanted to. This list takes a look at ten of the most significant places around the world that are closed to the general public or are [...]

Feeding in the Hole

Montreal artists Claudia Ficca and Davide Luciano present ‘Potholes,’ a photography series showcasing seventeen rural craters in a comedic and creative fashion.
They started imagining different scenes that take place in a pothole. In one shot, the pothole is a baker’s cauldron in which doughnuts are frying. In another, it’s a vessel for [...]

Transparent house
 A meeting of transparencies that heightens the senses.   A collaboration with founder Carlo Santambrogio and designer Ennio Arosio, their ‘Simplicity’ range features a series of iconic furniture pieces, beds, sofas and bookcases, along with architectural elements such as staircases and kitchens, all fashioned from ‘extraclear’ glass, that are elegant and distinctive, whilst perfectly complimenting [...]

Del Webb had friends in high places and low, and was not yet sure where he should count Ben Siegel, his new client. Webb, a Phoenix construction man with a can-do reputation, had taken on an unfinished Nevada hotel as a favor to a banker friend with serious money at stake. Before he knew it [...]

Teahouse
Too High Teahouse:  Completed in Spring, 2004, Terunobu Fujimori, a professor of architecture at the University of Tokyo, built his boyhood dream hideaway in Takasugi-an (Chino, Nagano), a teahouse on stilts, in the bottom of his father’s garden. So said his father when he saw it: “There goes Terunobu, making something wacky again.”
 

Smarter, Safer, Greener House Contest
Everyone is invited to enter the Smarter, Safer, Greener House Contest as a Team and compete to win bragging rights and a minimum cash prize of $500,000.  Individuals, businesses, educational institutions, and government agencies from anywhere in the world may enter the Contest. 
 

New Rules for Travel in India

Britain and the US have lodged a diplomatic protest with India after the government in Delhi introduced rules barring tourists from returning to the country within two months of any visit.
The new visa rules, which also apply to other foreign nationals, are apparently a reaction to the arrest in the [...]

Pyramids in China???

Egyptian pyramids? Sure, everyone knows about the ones at Giza – and a few aficionados might know about the 138 others (!) scattered around them. Mesoamerican pyramids? Okay, a lot of folks know about them, too — or even that the great one at Cholula is considered to be the largest one in [...]

Golden ratio is also known as the divine proportion
The golden ratio is believed to have guided Egyptians in the construction of the Pyramids and Athenians to erect their imposing architecture.
 

Less is more for home buyers
Out of the depths of housing’s worst downturn, smaller new homes are turning into a bright spot for some home builders.  The trend toward more compact new homes is being driven partly by the fact that more customers are first-time buyers who have less to spend.
 

It took 300 people to construct a 400 square foot model of the USSR’s capital city back in 1977. Today you can buy that super-detailed, scaled-down version of Moscow for a mere $3 million.

Stunning, isn’t it? Apparently every single of the itty-bitty windows in the model can be lit up and there are effects to [...]

30-mile Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge
China Daily reports the commencement of the 30-mile Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge, the longest sea bridge under construction world-wide. The six-lane expressway will cut travel time from three-hours to around 30-minutes to and from the densely populated and lucrative centers of manufacturing, finance and tourism located in and around Guangdong Province to Hong [...]

Undergound Hill House
Often people are fascinated by a beautiful scenic spot of land and decide to build their dream house there. But those who dream and are fascinated by a beautiful hilly land, they build their homes on the hills. And these people did not wish to obstruct the natural appeal of their surroundings. Believe [...]

Office 24/7
With this year’s Art Basel/Design Miami in the can, you’d think Miami would quietly sink into the shadows, away from the international design spotlight. Not so fast. A new architecture competition recently announced its winners, bringing global attention to the city’s built environment for the third year. The annual contest, named DawnTown focused this [...]

Competition will range from community groups, to corporate teams, to int’l teams
On Tuesday evening the Longmont City Council gave the green light to DaVinci Quest CEO Karl Dakin to proceed with the 2010 Smarter, Safer, Greener House Competition where teams from around the world will compete to retrofit existing homes to maximum efficiency. DaVinci Quest [...]

Urban forest
You may remember MAD Architects from their equally mad designs, such as this star-shaped floating city. Now they’ve got the wobbly-looking, 1,250-foot-high Urban Forest for Chongqing, China that does away with the traditional walled skyscraper for one that’s a series of terraces. (Pics)
 

When cookie-cutter planned communities are the standard, it takes balls to step outside the box with some seriously daring design.  A crazy concept can become the trademark of the neighborhood or the bane of the block. Here are 10 monuments to end the monotony, built and owned by those not afraid to buck the trends.