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Posts Tagged ‘converted’

Groundscrapers: Survivalist Condos in Converted Missile Silos

02 Feb

[ By WebUrbanist in Architecture & Houses & Residential. ]

luxury condo exterior entry

Located in a converted subterranean silo near Concordia, Kansas, the first complex of these high-end survival accommodations is already sold out and their creators are working on a second nuke-proof silo transformation project for eager buyers. Many silo homes exist already, but few are designed for multi-family living and many remain semi-theoretical as yet – this one is luxurious and fully realized.

luxury condo floor plan

luxury underground living complex

Luxury Survival Condos boasts both the nuts and bolts, “physical protection, redundant infrastructure for power, water, air, and food,” as well as a surprising array of amenities: facilities for “cross training, aquaponic farming, medical support” including a “community swimming pool, dog walking park, rock climbing wall, theater and general store” as well as a jail for anyone who misbehaves.

luxury subterranean underground condoes

The eye-popping prices are compared by founder Larry Hall to Manhattan residences, but seem steep even by New York City metrics: $ 1.5 million for a half-floor unit just under 1,000 square feet, $ 3 million for a full floor and $ 4.5 million for a “penthouse” (two floors). For those who can afford it, the company also offers their services for transforming whole silos into single-family survival retreats.

missile silo montage

The first space was purchased in 2008 and features seven floors of living spaces, able to accommodate up to 75 occupants. The various areas are connected by elevators (to be powered by green off-grid sources in an emergency) as well as stairs for redundancy. Each resident is allocated a 5-year supply of freeze-dried food in addition to the vegetables and fish grown and bred underground. Water and air treatment are addressed as well, with a 750,000-gallon reserve of drinking water as well as filtering systems. Generators and wind turbines feed into a battery bank to store up at least some level of power reserves as needed.

luxury silo climbing wall

luxury silo facilities power

luxury silo split level

Given how much people pay to buy these units one has to wonder if they ever bother to use them under normal conditions, perhaps to get a sense of what life would really be like should they end up living there in a real end-of-world scenario. Of course, the standard problems apply: if others know where this is, what is to keep the hordes from attempting to overwhelm it were a global disaster ever to unfold?

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Aerial Rugs: Images from Above Converted to Carpet Patterns

06 Oct

[ By WebUrbanist in Design & Furniture & Decor. ]

aerial dimensional carpet design

Created by an architect and landscape enthusiast, this limited edition series of custom textiles derives its geometries and colors from aerial views shot around the world.

aerial landcarpet custom series

aerial urban suburban image

Florian Pucher, an Austrian designer now based in Beijing, has long traveled by day to take in as many sights from the sky as possible. Since 2007 he has collaborated with graphic designer Sophia Liu Bo to redraw and abstract images shot from above, turning them into unusual rugs using high-quality New Zealand wool.

aerial carpet close up

aerial carpet urban center

Each LANDCARPET creation is 1 of 88, signed and numbered in the spirit of traditional artistic prints.

aerial carpet with cow

aerial carpet cow scale

The subjects cover the globe, from Europe and the USA to Africa and Asia, urban settings to rural sites.

aerial carpet signed dated

aerial rug design detail

There is a rich variety from one to the next, showcasing an array of lines, curves, organic land forms, urban topographies, and other natural and man-made patterns and features.

aerial carpet city grid

aerial carpet grid pattenr

Each edition takes approximately five weeks to produce, combining real depth and hand-tufted textures.

aerial rug topographic detail

aerial rug colorful topography

The source images range from aerial photographs and satellite images to maps and other views from above. His work as an architect exposes Pucher to all kinds of site maps, master plans and other inspirational materials.

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Roaming Homes: 15 DIY RVs, Converted Buses & Tiny Houses

16 Sep

[ By Steph in Technology & Vehicles & Mods. ]

DIY Mobile Homes Neverwas Haul 1

Japanese tea houses spring from the roofs of ordinary-looking trucks, ornate handcrafted cabins are tacked onto school buses and fire trucks are converted into monster off-road RVs when industrious and determined DIYers decide to take on building their own mobile homes. One tiny house on wheels even has a back deck with a full-sized hot tub, and an incredibly fun two-story Victorian house on wheels makes its way around the desert.

The Neverwas Haul: A Steampunk Mobile Home

Neverwas Haul 3

DIY Mobile Homes Neverwas Haul 2

RVs rarely get more ornate than this – a two-story Victorian house on wheels, designed, naturally, for Burning Man. The Neverwas Haul was built over six months in 2006 and is made almost entirely of recycled materials. Designer and builder Shannon O’Hare used the skills and experience he gained creating theme park structures around the country to come up with this amazing vehicle, which is built upon the base of a fifth wheel travel trailer.

Tiny House with a Built-In Hot Tub
Tiny House Hot Tub 5

Tiny House Hot Tub 1

You can even tack a generously sized wooden hot tub – powered by wood, if you like! – onto the back of your very own custom-built tiny house. UK-based Tiny Wood Homes builds both hot tubs and little houses on wheels, making this combo a natural fit. The whole setup is small enough to be towed around via truck and sells for about $ 57,000.

Matthew Hofmann’s Renovated Airstream Trailers
DIY Mobile Homes Hofmann Airstream 1

DIY Mobile Homes Hofmann Airstream 2

DIY Mobile Homes Hofmann Airstream 4

Architect Matthew Hofmann purchases old Airstream trailers and renovates them into beautiful and modern mobile spaces, custom-creating everything from backyard offices to tiny roaming homes. The project began when Hofmann decided to downsize from a large house to an Airstream of his own. People took notice and soon enough, demand turned into a business opportunity.

Wothahellizat
DIY Mobile Homes wothahellizat

DIY mobile Homes wothahellizat 2

DIY Mobile Homes wothahellizat 3

Sound out the name of this creation phonetically – that’s basically the reaction of everyone who sees it. Australian photographer Rob Gray wanted a home base while adventuring in the Australian wilderness, so he created his very own monster RV complete with a viewing deck, hydraulically operated roof and a bedroom over the cab. It’s got all the amenities of a standard camper, but can go off-road.

Al’s Housetruck
DIY Mobile Homes Al's Houstruck

What looks like no more than a narrow cabin from the back is revealed to be an incredibly intricate hand-crafted mobile home, built right onto the back of an old Dodge bus. Featured in the 1979 book Rolling Homes by Jane Lidz, ‘Al’s Housetruck‘ has a sleeping loft over the cab, a wood stove, stained glass windows and decorative porch railings.

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Roaming Homes 15 Diy Rvs Converted Buses Tiny Houses

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Subway Cars to Churches: 15 Creatively Converted Offices

22 Jul

[ By Steph in Architecture & Offices & Commercial. ]

Converted Offices Soccer 1

Anything from a graffiti-covered subway car to a Route 66 gas station can become the setting for creative modern offices. Architects and intrepid homeowners have converted junked buses into home offices, $ 20 construction trailers into backyard studios and subterranean garages into company headquarters.

Slice of an Old Bus Turned Home Office
Converted offices School Bus 1

Converted Offices School Bus 2

One creative thinker in Hungary saw something most of us wouldn’t when he gazed at an old bus sitting in a junkyard: a corner office. That is, a home office in the corner of his bedroom, made from a sawed-off section of the bus. A new paint job and working lights give the bus a fun update.

Former Steel Plant to Light-Filled Work Space
Converted Offices Steel Plant 1

Converted Offices Steel Plant 2

The existing shell of a former steel plant has become a wide-open industrial setting for the offices of engineering firm IMd, with sections in the two-story structure linked by foot bridges. Translucent volumes set within the large space provide quiet and private places to work and meet without sacrificing the spacious feel.

Underground Garage to Architecture Studio
Converted Offices Garage 1

Converted Offices Garage 2

Half-hidden by an overgrowth of ivy, all that’s visible of this architecture office from ground level are a few desks and some unusual lighting. Architect Carlo Bagliani remained an underground car garage as an inhabitable workspace filled with industrial accents. A long glass wall facing the lawn prevents the subterranean space from feeling dark and cramped.

Low Budget House-to-Office Conversion
Converted Offices Low Budget House

Austrian architecture firm Bad Architects turned a house in Innsbruck into their own office on a tight budget using sliding-wall systems made of foam to divide the interior spaces. The foam panels feature cut-out patterns that let light pass from one space into another, and give the office visual appeal from the street.

Graffiti-Covered Subway Cars to Rooftop Offices
Converted Offices Subway Cars 1

Converted Offices Subway Cars 2

Graffiti-covered subway cars (or ‘tube carriages’ as they’re known in the UK) were hauled onto a rooftop and stacked together to create offices for international arts charity Village Underground. The spaces are leased to creative small businesses and art-related start-ups, who’d naturally feel right at home in a reclaimed urban space decorated with vivid street art.

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Subway Cars To Churches 15 Creatively Converted Offices

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Holy Beer: 12 Pubs Converted from Churches, Urinals & More

05 Jun

[ By Steph in Architecture & Offices & Commercial. ]

Converted Pubs Main

If knocking pack a pint in a subterranean Victorian urinal doesn’t sound like a good time to you, read on. Extensive renovations have transformed the most unlikely of settings into quirky and often beautiful places to have a drink, from dumpsters and sheds to historic bank vaults and gothic churches.

The Temple: Victorian Urinal Pub
Converted Pub Victorian Urinal

Once dark, dingy and far from sanitary, a subterranean Victorian urinal is now a popular pub in Manchester, UK. One of the city’s smallest bars, the Temple nevertheless offers a vast array of foreign bottled beers. Meanwhile, in London, a urinal from the same era has now become an eatery after a $ 150,000 renovation.

Oran Mor Church Pub
Converted Pubs Oran Mor Church

Europe is brimming with former places of worship that have since been converted into private residences, hotels and more due to an overabundance of churches that just don’t draw the same crowds that they used to. The Oran Mor in Glasgow, Scotland is just one (particularly stunning) example, which has become one of the nation’s hottest nightspots after a major renovation that includes trippy murals painted all over the ceilings.

Woodhenge Shed Pub
Converted Pubs Shed

It’s not hard to see why John Plumridge’s handmade backyard structure won Shed of the Year in 2012. After all, not many sheds are lined with hundreds of bottles of ale. Plumridge spent 4 years converting his Woodhenge Pub Shed into “a great venue for family and friends to party in.”

Dumpster Bar
Converted Pubs Dumpster

Urban waste and a dumpster became a tiny, charming bar as part of the Foundation Projects by designers Rikkert Paauw and Jet van Zweiten. This adaptive reuse project shapes found materials into little dumpster houses that have practical purposes throughout the cities in which they’re built.

1926 Bank Vault, Chicago
Converted Pubs Bank Vault

A beautiful 1926 bank vault in Chicago with many of its historic features still intact – including that incredible door – is now known as The Bedford, a local kitchen and bar serving food and cocktails in a signature mix of German and Southern cuisine.

Hop On Inn: Double Decker Bus Pub
Converted Pubs Double Decker

Named for its hop-on, hop-off rear platform, the Hop On Inn is a renovated 1966 London double-decker bus that now hosts a full bar downstairs and a lounge area upstairs complete with a stage and removable roof cover for live music. The bus, which once served Piccadilly Circus, is among the last classic Routemasters that were taken out of service in 2005.

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Holy Beer 12 Pubs Converted From Churches Urinals More

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Abandoned Nazi Bunker Converted to Power Plant & Cafe

18 Feb

[ By Steph in Architecture & Public & Institutional. ]

Converted Nazi Bunker 2

The words ‘Nazi power’ have taken on a new meaning in Hamburg, Germany as an abandoned bunker formerly equipped with anti-aircraft turrets has been transformed for a surprising new use. The Hamburg-Wilhelmsburg flak bunker helped shield city residents from aerial attacks for four years during World War II and was abandoned for decades until its conversion by IBA-Hamburg into a renewable energy power plant and memorial in one.

Converted Nazi Bunker 1

Converted Nazi Bunker 3

Converted Nazi Bunker 4

The fortress now meets the heating demands of 3,000 local households using 85% renewable energy including a biomethane-fired heat and power plant and a solar array on the roof that heats a 2-million-liter water tank for dwellings in the Weltquartier district. 30 meters above the ground, a cafe has opened for business inside one of the aircraft turrets.

Converted Nazi Bunker 5

Converted Nazi Bunker 6

The conversion project stands as both a symbol for the ‘Renewable Wilhelmsburg’ Climate Protection Concept, which aims to incorporate sustainability into urban planning, and a historic attraction. Before it was restored, the bunker was stained and shrouded in ivy.

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Mobile Hotel: Converted Double-Decker Bus B&B Still Drives

24 Jan

[ By WebUrbanist in Boutique & Art Hotels & Global. ]

bus hotel with tractor

Quintessentially British, this boutique suite sleeps six, features a wood-burning stove and much more, but perhaps most amazing of all: the vehicle remains road-worthy, despite its conversion to a sweet retreat.

bus boutique road worthy

The Big Green Bus was originally part of the west midlands metro transit system and purchased by its new owner (and renovator) Adam Collier-Woods for approximately $ 7,500 at auction on eBay.

bus hotel renovation project

bus hotel working kitchen

The still-working bus, driven back into the countryside by its buyer (and moved around on demand), required more than $ 15,000 to be turned into a unique three-bedroom accommodation, including a functioning kitchen and bathroom facilities.

bus hotel big green

bus hotel seating sleeping

bus hotel wood stove

Currently set on a “glamping site in the heart of the Sussex countryside,” the bus has its own decking area, a fire pit and all this next to a beautiful pond.” The rural property can accommodate extra campers for parties larger than six who wish to enjoy a stay. In addition to pantry essentials (tea, coffee, milk, herbs and olive oil), logs for the fire pit or stove are available on request.

bus hotel outside view

bus british countryside site

More from its maker and operator about its present location: “A gorgeous 15 minute walk away through country lanes to Chiddingly is the Six Bells pub, a classic traditional country pub, luring all sorts of music, poetry and arts lovers to its various festivals. Brighton is close by too with all its various charms, is 25 minutes drive down the road, or leave your car at Glynde and take the train. Lewes has more trains per hour, Make sure you get to the Lewes Farmers Market on the first Saturday morning of every month.”

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Beer Bath: Underground Brewery Converted to Thermal Spa

28 Dec

[ By Steph in Boutique & Art Hotels & Global. ]

Converted Brewery Bath Spa 1

Lounge in large wooden vats that once contained gallons upon gallons of beer, gazing up at the original stone arches in subterranean vaulted chambers. The Hürlimann Brewery in Zurich, built in 1836, has been transformed into a hotel and thermal spa with naturally heated water from a nearby spring.

Converted Brewery Bath Spa 2

Converted Brewery Bath Spa 3

Guests don’t actually bathe in beer here (there are other places to do that) but they get to enjoy the next best thing in spacious hot tubs made from the reclaimed barrels. The clean lines of wood and steel in the new construction contrast with, yet complement the aged stone architecture of the original facility.

Converted Brewery Bath Spa 4

Converted Brewery Bath Spa 5

Converted Brewery Bath Spa 6

Enclosed tiled rooms offer large pools in which to lay on your back and float, and the places to soak extend all the way up to the hotel’s rooftop, with heated pools looking out onto the city of Zurich.

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Salt Mines Converted to Stunning Subterranean Museum

06 Dec

[ By Steph in Global & Travel & Places. ]

Salt Mine Subterranean Museum Romania 1

Between the eerie glowing lights, the otherworldly cavernous spaces and the long strange trip it takes to get there, this subterranean museum feels like it could be located on an alien planet. The Salina Turda Salt Mines of Romania have been converted to the world’s largest salt mining museum, but this is no dry historical tour – there’s weird wooden architecture, a playground and even a ferris wheel.

Salt Mines Subterranean Museum 2

Salt Mine Subterranean Museum Romania 3

All of the LED lights sticking out of those unusual architectural shapes at the center of the museum make it quite a sight from far above, when looking down into the mine plunging 120 meters (393 feet) into the earth. Visitors take elevators to each of the three museum chambers at various depths to see the restored equipment.

Salt Mines Subterranean Museum Romania 4

The sports arena, amphitheater, mini golf course and bowling lanes are reason enough to take a trip to the mine, but the caverns themselves are the main attraction. Uplighting shows off the amazing natural patterns on the excavated walls. There’s even a small subterranean lake with boats for rent.

Salt Mine Subterranean Museum Romania 5

The mines were first excavated in the 17th century and provided a vast wealth of salt for the Romans. The interior is totally free of allergens and almost entirely devoid of bacteria, and maintains a temperature of about 52 degrees with 80% humidity.

 

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School’s Out Forever: 12 Crazy DIY Converted Bus Homes

21 Oct

[ By Steph in Architecture & Houses & Residential. ]

Converted Buses Main

Flimsy, factory-made RVs have nothing on these totally customized, cozy buses converted into compact rolling homes. Dusty, run-down clunkers of school buses and city buses may not look like much at first, but creative DIYers transform them into comfortable living spaces complete with wood floors, transforming furniture, wood stoves and full bathrooms with hot showers.

Waldmire Road Yacht

Converted Buses Road Yacht

This amazing half-wooden contraption is a converted school bus known as the ‘Waldmire Road Yacht,’ built by Rob Waldmire, who traveled in his handcrafted creation for decades along Route 66. It’s now part of the Route 66 Hall of Fame Museum in Pontiac, Illinois.

Run-Down City Bus Converted to DIY RV

Converted Buses City Israel 1

Converted Buses City Israel 2

This city bus seemed beyond saving when two Israeli women initially found it, but they saw the bones of their own highly customized DIY RV. The women tore out the interior and gave it a fresh, modern new look with pops of bright color.

Bus to Minimal Mobile Home

Converted-Buses-Minimal-Mobile

Converted Buses Minimal Mobile 2

Tired of just drafting imaginary buildings in studio courses, architecture student Hank Butitta decided to get his hands dirty: he bought a bus for $ 3,000 and completely transformed the interior, spending $ 6,000 to improve it with an array of transforming modular features. Those include a bed system that unfolds in various ways for different sleeping configurations, lots of hidden storage, and seats withs egret flip-up and slide-out panels.

School Bus Turned Home That Sleeps Ten

Converted Buses Solar Power Ten

‘I think my mom’s reaction was, ‘this isn’t the sixties,’” says co-owner Rachel of the bus she converted with her partner Richard. It may not be conventional, but this living situation allows them to go wherever they please. Buying a school bus cheap gave them a blank canvas, and they designed every detail of their new home – which has transforming beds to sleep up to ten.

Next Page:
Schools Out Forever 12 Crazy Converted Diy Mobile Homes

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