A straw bale roundhouse, step by step. The 7m diameter French roundhouse (6m internally) stands on a rubble trench [see picture 1] cut deep enough to reach below the frost line. This protects the building from movement in the winter when the ground above the frost line freezes and expands. The trench is filled with rubble over drainage pipes that channel out any water collected from above. A ring (often incorrectly called a henge) of debarked douglas fir roundwood, 15-20cm diameter, stands on stone pads that rest on the rubble trench [2] braced by six timbers to stop the frame twisting. The floor is a limecrete mortar consisting of 2 parts subsoil, 1 part sand, 2 parts pozzolane gravel (volcanic rock a bit like pumice) and 1 part lime (NHL5) poured over a geo textile sheet resting on a 15cm deep layer of stones. It's rare that any house is built by one person and this house was no different because Matthew had help from many hands including Tony, Joe, Kristian, Sam, Ali, Edouard and Guillaume.
Build Naturally...Blog: Collaborate with the sun...passive solar design basics Passive solar design takes advantage of solar orientation and other climate conditions to minimize (and in some conditions, eliminate) heating and cooling requirements for a building. The name says it all... PASSIVE = no mechanical parts & minimal if any maintenance SOLAR = uses (free) energy from the sun DESIGN = integrated into the building design The result is free heating (& cooling) that works because of how a building is design, so it cannot break. The basics are simple! 1. The easiest direction to control when the sun enters your space is from the South side (see #2 below). 2. Have you ever noticed that the angle of the sun in the sky is lower on the horizon in Winter and almost overhead in Summer? 3. The biggest mistake made with a passive solar home is to make the Windows on the South too large. You also need to consider the size of windows facing North, East, & West. 4. This simple strategy is often overlooked, but is quite effective. Recommended Reads
A Simple DIY Thermosyphon Solar Water Heating System Search The Renewable Energy site for Do-It-Yourselfers System schematic -- Thermosyphon Solar Water Heater As shown in the schematic, when sun is on the Solar Panel, the water in the panel is heated, becomes less dense and rises up into the Storage Tank. Sun and gravity take care of the circulating the water, so no pump is needed. The system as shown here does not have freeze protection, so it must be used in non-freezing climates, or be drained for the winter. Building the Collector I used a roll of aluminum 10 " wide, which I cut to length and fit under the tubes. There is a 3/4 insulation sheet behind the plywood and another thinner plywood on the back to protect the insulation sheet. There are two sheets of sun tuf corrugated polycarbonate on top. For more more construction details on on a similar type of collector construction here... and here... Collector Installation Some more pictures of the finished collector. Storage Tank and Plumbing Click on pictures for full size Results To Date
IMPRESSEDbynature Turn Trash into Stylish Accessories with “Pick a Jewel!” If you were a kid in the era of pull tabs on canned drinks, you must remember pretending that you were giving your friend a diamond ring when you placed it on their finger. Maybe you collected pull tabs and made chain necklaces! With a little imagination the pull tabs were beautiful pieces of jewelry, if only for a moment. These days pull tabs have given way to stay-on tabs and, sadly, soda can accessorizing is no longer possible. What is possible is making lovely jewelry out of items you’d normally throw away. Pick a Jewel accessories, which can be purchased from the Novelax Store International, allow you to fashion what would be considered waste into jewelry you can be proud of. Pick a Jewel was created by Igarashi Shousei and Mami of Japanese design studio Fift. Mami gives some tips on making the perfect accessory with Pick a Jewel: “The more unexpected the creation, the more interesting it is. The clip is made from three thin stainless plates bound together. Source: Excite Bit News
The Book Cover Archive May 2011 For Nuit Blanche, finding the ideal site is almost as important as the concept of the installation itself. After debating numerous times on the typology of site we were hoping for (jumping between alley ways, open courtyards, sheltered spaces) we found a small parking lot that provides us with qualities from all these types of spaces. Located just off Yonge Street, the site is a small back service area to several apartment and commercial buildings on Temperance Street, directly beside Toronto's "Cloud Gardens". The site provides many opportunities to create flow as well as areas where people can stay and loiter. 25 AWESOME Packaging Designs Guaranteed To Delight You. Why Isn't All Packaging This Creative?! A good packaging design can serve as the best advertisement for the product it was created to hold. No wonder many advertisers and designers spend a great deal of time and effort to create eye-catching, meaningful, funny, and clever packaging designs. Here’s a collection of some of the most creative and inspiring packaging ideas that immediately put a smile on your face. You won’t believe how clever some of them are. 1. Gnome Bread Packaging Designed by Lo Siento Studio 2. Designer Corinne Pant 3. Designed by Soon Mo Kang 4. Designed by Andy Winner and One Show Merit 5. Designed by Maksi Marbuzov 6. Designer: Alex Creamer 7. Advertising Agency: JWT, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia 8. Designer unknown 9. Designed by Lacy Kuhn 10. Designed by Clara Lindsten 11. Designed by Alexandra Istratova 12. Designed by kokeshi-m.com 13. Designed by Simon Laliberté 14. Designer: Cecilia Uhr 15. Designed by Igor Mitin 16. Designed by Designers Anonymous 17. Designed by Preston Grubbs 18. Source: packaginguqam.blogspot.com 19.
The 13 Coolest Tattoo Artists In The World 1. Amanda Wachob in Brooklyn, N.Y. Amanda Wachob does the impossible with tattoo ink — her pieces look so impeccably close to real paintings. 2. Known in the tattoo world as Dots to Lines, Chaim Machlev creates stark black-ink geometric tattoos that are both intricate and pristine 3. If you want the sort of nature tattoo that looks straight out of a weather-worn vintage textbook, you might want to consider a trip to Portland to see Alice. 4. Ien works solely in black ink. 5. Working out of his own Love Hawk studios, David’s ornamental artwork is tinged with a folk-art spirit 6. Kenji is known for a dotting technique called stippling. He’s also a traveling tattoo artist, so if you want your very own Kenji original, you’ll want to follow his Facebook page to see where he goes next. 7. Marcin uses incredibly vibrant inks to achieve his brand of highly vivid surrealist tattoos. 8. Madame Chän does a few different styles, but my favorite ones are the dreamy, chimerical tattoos she specializes in.
Tra foto e acquerelli Aliza Razell è un'artista eclettica ed innovativa che ama le contaminazioni e lo dimostrano le sue opere originali che utilizzano acquerelli e autoritratti fotografici. La fusione delle due tecniche è possibile in Photoshop. La sua prima serie intitolata Anesidora, coinvolge la storia del Vaso di Pandora (Il vaso di Pandora era in realtà un barattolo , un dettaglio frainteso nel 1400), mentre il secondo si ispira alla parola finlandese"Ikävä" , cioè la sensazione di perdere qualcosa o qualcuno. Oliver Moriss | Whitezine Oliver Moriss is not (yet) the type of photographer you can easily find information about. Apart from saying that he is pretty up and coming for a photographer-student. Apart from mentioning that he uses a 35mm camera. Still, there is no information needed to state that his pictures are multiple exposure with just the perfect mix between models and landscapes. In the wood Face Horizon Walking Tall grass From the back Skull In the field The look Wind
Heart and Mind | Luke Ramsey This is a story that shows the transformation of a baby to an elderly man. The baby’s mind is born with a peaceful mind, but as it grows older it’s mind becomes corrupt. The heart eventually prevails. This story was originally published in Cafe Royal (UK) Number Two Large print available- Buy Online ‹‹return to portfolio Playfully Adorable Illustrations That Will Make You Smile Kuala Lampur, Malaysia-based artist Lim Heng Swee loves to doodle. With a bright attitude towards life, he creates adorable illustrations that are playfully paired with funny phrases and word puns. He brings ordinary objects like sheets of paper, pieces of fruit, and pairs of pants alive with personality. Things that don't usually go well together become perfect pairs with good intentions, bright smiles, and sweet sentiments. The clean and modern designs merge colorful shapes with bright, solid backgrounds. Heng Swee Lim's website via [L'Acte Gratuit]
DIY home decor Ever since I moved to New York, one of my favorite things to do is create things for our apartment. I love adding dramatic things that change the whole vibe of the room-- and nothing is more dramatic than a chandelier. A couple months back we moved from a teeny tiny apartment around the corner to the one we're in now. Since I think we'll be in this apartment for a couple years, it's been SO fun to be more aggressive with the decorating. For my bedroom, I really wanted to find a chandelier. :) Here's my new bedroom in the apartment. I've been looking for a chandelier for a while, so when Lamps.com reached out to see if I wanted to check out any of their items, I jumped at the chance. Chandelier #1, Chandelier #2, Chandelier #3 Normally you're supposed to mount these lights in actual light fixtures, but my dad showed me how to convert these types of lights into lights that you can plug into the wall. -Chandelier -Plug (I got mine in the hardware store, but you can get them on Amazon.)