Beautiful Green-Roofed Barn Extension in France is Barely Visible From Afar This barn extension in the Pyrénées Mountains has a gorgeous green roof that minimizes its impact on an incredible site overlooking the Adour de Lesponne river valley in France. When the client commissioned PPA Architects to extend the original stone barn building that once stood alone on this enviable pastureland, they made it clear that the existing site and vernacular architecture had to be preserved at all costs. So the firm tucked the new holiday home into the side of the slope and gave it a deceptive log facade wrapped in steel, ensuring that the extension is barely visible from afar. The new extension consists of a guest room, a multi purpose room, a utility area, and a garage. Typical of the architecture in this historical agricultural region, it is nestled into the side of the slope for both insulation and fiscal purposes. This storage area is quite deceptive. + PPA Architects Via Arch Daily
Lush Green Walls Protect a Pond-Topped Sunken Chapel in Mexico The clients visited BNKR Arquitectura‘s La Estaancia Chapel in Cuernavaca and loved the feel of it, so they asked the firm to design a private chapel for their own yard at their home. They asked for the chapel to be non-religious and discreet, but also a spectacular space where they would feel something special while inside. The result is a sunken chapel that is barely visible from the house and the yard. In fact, the roof is made to look like a pond that is part of the landscape. Related: BNKR Arquitectura Builds an Entire Pavilion from 5,000 Recycled Coca-Cola Crates As visitors approach the chapel, they see a downward spiral and blooming flowers that direct them down into the space. + BNKR Arquitectura Images ©Jaime Navarro Related: Ethereal Rio Roca Ranch Chapel is a Wooden Church Filled with Air and Light
Great earth house designd by Vetsch architektur Advertisement This is a great earth house designed by Vetsch architektur in a very special way as you can see from the picture. Lättenstrasse house is located in Dietikon, Switzerland and it has an amazing architecture. Here is the description of the architect: Technical data: Earth House Estate Lättenstrasse Location: Dietikon, SwitzerlandSize of lot : 4000 m2 totalLiving space : 60 m2 bis 200 m2 per houseCubature: 1500 m3 bis 2200 m3 per house This settlement finds itself in contrast to the surrounding of traditional single houses. Source: erdhaus
Gigantic Airship Hangar Transformed Into Tropical Island Resort This supermassive hangar once housed gigantic airships, and now it has been given a second life as an indoor tropical resort that holds the world's largest indoor pool and water park. Located in the countryside between Dresden and Berlin, the building was modified to bring in lots of sunlight and the huge doors were welded shut to keep in the heat -- even during the snowy German winter. Inside, a small oceanside village gives visitors a tropical escape. The dome is the world’s largest freestanding building, and it was originally owned by a company attempting to develop a transport dirigible. If you like big numbers, this project has some jaw droppers — the roof is 70,000 square meters, the indoor pool is the size of four Olympic sized pools, and the interior holds 5 million cubic feet of space. This is a spectacular reuse of a unique building for a novel purpose in the heart of Europe, and we love the imagination it took. + Tropical Islands
Underground Homes: How To Get Started, Part 1 - Green Homes The Emergence of Underground Homes Underground homes, or earth shelters as they are technically called, are gaining in popularity..even more now than they ever have. It used to be that only a certain group of people wanted to live in earth shelters and that has changed. Many towns around the country have an underground house that is tucked away in a neighborhood or located just outside of the city limits. That is the point when I get an email from someone around the country that is looking at building an earth shelter/earth berm/underground home. It is tough to figure out where to start when it comes to building an earth shelter. I always ask those who email me about building or consulting on earth shelters to send me pictures of their land. We are just finishing up a project that is an earth bermed house, with berms just below the soffit on three sides of the house. We have barely scratched the surface of what you should do to get started in your quest for an underground home.
World's First Quiet Treehouse Provides Safe Haven in a Noisy Environment Living in a noise-filled world isn't just annoying--it can also be hazardous to your health. To create a safe haven from the onslaught of noise, Blue Forest designed the world's first Quiet Treehouse, an enchanting and acoustically engineered timber structure. The cocoon-like treehouse was created in collaboration with John Lewis and the Britain-based nonprofit Quiet Mark, and will be donated to The Chestnut Tree House Children's Hospice in West Sussex. Luxury treehouse design and construction firm Blue Forest has charmed us before with their beautiful timber structures and this year’s Quiet Treehouse is no exception. Related: New CDC Study Links Highway Noise Pollution to Widespread Sleep Disturbances, Risk of Heart Attack and High Blood Pressure + Blue Forest Images © Blue Forest
Green Building Elements | From brick and mortar shops to city planning, we cover sustainable trends in construction, renovation, and more. A byproduct of fossil fuel addiction, massive pit-mines scar the landscape of several US states. The mines have destroyed families, ecosystems, towns, and- when they close- economies. Despite the harm that these mines have caused, however, they may yet play a part in a sustainable utopian future. Not as a mine, but as a vertical, underground, sustainable city. That’s the vision of Matthew Fromboluti the designer behind an “underground skyscraper” that he believes could help heal the mine-scarred landscapes of the US, starting with the desert outside of Bisbee, Arizona. His 2010 design project from the Washington University of St. At the heart of Frombulti’s design for these pit mines-turned sustainable cities is a passive climate control system (shown, above) that he calls a solar chimney. You can see more of the Above Below design project below, and see several more pictures at the Frombo design site using the source link at the bottom of the page.
Tentsile Treehouse Tents Provide a Safe Haven in the Treetops! Tentsile is a portable habitation unit that can be suspended amidst trees to provide accommodation for three people. With three anchor points and the use of tension instead of poles, the Tentsile is part tent and part hammock. The structure is made from a collapsable frame of webbing straps with fire retardant, UV PU and water resistant polyester fabric infill panels. The three points serve as sleeping chambers and the middle is held in suspension and serves as a vestibule and gathering space. The UK tent maker touts this tent for a wide variety of travel styles, for backpacking in the woods, and even as disaster relief shelters. + Tentsile
Watch As This Piece Of Land Becomes The Most Efficient Of Homes.... Underground Tree Houses: Fairy Tale Castles In The Air Features 50 Breathtaking Tree Houses From Around The World Email Ilya Korolev, an architect friend of mine, once designed a tree house that was to act as a kid-friendly annex to our lean-to cabin in upstate New York. The design (pictured in the image above) resembled a yurt suspended ten-or-so feet off the ground by high-capacity cables with rope ladder access. The “flying yurt,” as we affectionately referred to it, is yet to be built. But I thought of Ilya’s design as I reviewed the equally brilliant designs featured in Tree Houses: Fairy Tale Castles in the Air. One day…
Earth Sheltered Earth Sheltered Homes "Another type of building is emerging: one that actually heals the scars of its own construction. It conserves rainwater and fuel and it provides a habitat for creatures other than the human one. Maybe it will catch on, maybe it won't. The earth sheltered house uses the ground as insulating blanket which effectively protects it from temperature extremes, wind, rain and extreme weather events. Fifteen feet below ground the soil maintains a fairly constant temperature equal to the annual average temperature of the area's surface air. There are two types of earth sheltered building. Honingham Earth Sheltered Social Housing. Looks like vertical placed logs are helping to support the berm on the right. Earth sheltered home with conventional facade. Earth sheltered home, as above. The facade may accommodate any architectural styling of the home owners choosing. An award winning earth shelter dwelling by Cam Architects. Side wall of above Sedum House: camarchitects.co.uk