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Posts Tagged ‘Dwellings’

Muji Huts: 3 Minimalist Prefab Dwellings Starting at $25,000

11 Nov

[ By WebUrbanist in Architecture & Houses & Residential. ]

muji wood hut

Three designers contributing to the Muji Hut project have pitched their tent-, cottage- and cabin-inspired ideas for tiny retreats at Tokyo Design Week, each structure borrowing lessons in simplicity from Japanese housing traditions. The spaces are intentionally essential, featuring just what one needs to relax and enjoy natural surroundings and family gatherings.

muji hut glass

The Wooden Hut by Naoto Fukasawa is both open and cozy, with floor-to-ceiling windows, a soaking tub hidden behind a wall and a wood-burning stove to warm the interior. A wood-burning stove heats the interior, which is furnished with a cot, dining table and chairs, and kitchenette.

muji bathtub

“When I hear the word hut, I’m attracted,” says designer Naoto Fukasawa. It’s not quite a villa but not as simple as a tent. With a small hut you can burrow into the wilderness whenever you want.”

muji hut cork

The Cork Hut by Jasper Morrison has space for cooking, eating, gathering and sleeping, featuring a trim aesthetic with simple lines brought to life by variegated cork surfaces.

muji living room

“Whenever I think about going to the country for the weekend, I start imagining a small house with everything needed for a short stay,” says Jasper Morrison.

muji dining eating space

“The dream usually collapses when I think of the complexity of building a new house, but with this project I realized there was a chance to design such a house as a product rather than a one-off.”

muji two story

The Aluminum Hut by Konstantin Grcic has a small footprint to avoid the need for building permits. A ladder leads occupants up to sleeping lofts while flexible aluminum awnings protect it in transit.

muji panel doors

“The hut is just a space — it doesn’t have to be a fully functioning place for living,” says Grcic.

muji ladder space

“There doesn’t have to be water or electricity. It is just a space for doing something.” The trio of huts will go on sale soon, starting at approximately $ 25,000 USD.

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Pocket Tent: Tiny Prefab Home Inflates Itself with Body Heat

A brilliant application of material science toward simple living, this portable self-inflating structure folds up into a manageable miniature package but …
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Temporary Retrofit: Micro-Dwellings for Unoccupied Buildings

Designed for empty warehouses or buildings under construction, these material-light shelters provide functionality for liminal interiors either past their …
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Speedy Prefab: How a 9-Story Apartment Was Built in 5 Days

We see conceptual modular designs of this kind all of the time, but rarely such exquisite real-world proof of how fast construction can be in the age of …
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Light House: Translucent Dwellings in an Abandoned Parking Garage

24 Oct

[ By Steph in Architecture & Houses & Residential. ]

light house 1

With their cavernous abandoned spaces, the hundreds of stalled skyscraper projects throughout tropical Asia could serve a purpose by hosting low-budget micro-dwellings aimed at ‘urban nomads.’ Economic conditions put many high-rise building projects on hold, while the global housing crisis is making it difficult to impossible for young people, the middle class and the urban poor to find affordable accommodations in desirable cities. A project called ‘Light House’ offers a temporary solution.

light house 5

light house 4

Designed especially for mild climates, these prototype housing units consist of perforated metal grid frames, plastic-laminated plywood floors and walls made of layered textiles. “The different degrees of perforation of the walls give variation to the space within by selective filtering of external elements,” say the creators, Bangkok design firm All(zone). There are shelves for personal items, a changing room with a closet, and a bed surrounded by mosquito net.

light house 2

light house 3

light house 10

Each one costs $ 1,200 to make and can be quickly assembled and disassembled, taken to a new location when the current ‘host’ is no longer available. The designers themselves lived in the prototype units to test them out. But would the average young city resident really want to live in a space like this?

light house 6

light house 7

The need for affordable housing, adaptability and reclaiming vacant urban spaces is undeniable, but flimsy structures like these seem like just one shaky step above homelessness, and might be better suited to serving that population instead. The transparency of the walls could be seen as a statement on what it’s like to live in the streets, perhaps making an even more profound statement on the housing crisis than the creators intended.

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SCADpads: Parking Garage Turned Tiny House Village

Just how livable can a 135-square-foot micro-house really be? That’s what an interdisciplinary group of students, faculty and alumni at Savannah College …
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Skinny Portable House for Singles Takes Just 1 Day to Build

These narrow, movable, single-person residences provide affordable housing for young people shut out of more conventional options by the housing crisis in …
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Low Cost House-in-a-House Made of 2 Shipping Containers

Two colorful shipping containers set inside a garage-like outer structure form a spacious yet incredibly affordable family home free of the issues that can …
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Multimodal Micro-Homes: Tiny Dwellings Travel by Truck & Rail

13 Jul

[ By WebUrbanist in Architecture & Houses & Residential. ]

ship modular multimodal dwelling

Designed around an aging shipyard and its crosscrossing maze of leftover railroad tracks, these series of expandable little dwellings can be rearranged or even moved entirely on demand. Each unit is small enough to fit multiple on a standard cargo truck, then undergoes a simple expansion once deployed on rails to create more living space.

shipyard compact kitchen chair

shipyard portable micro homes

Polish architecture students Tomasz Zablotny and Pawla Maszota are following in the footsteps of other great designers and speculators. The idea of a city on rails has origins both in conceptual architecture as well as science fiction, with authors like China Mieville imagining an entire world made up of ever-moving trains (Railsea).

shipyard site plan

shipyard modular units

shipyard expanding box home

Designed for a specific site in Gda?sk, Poland, the project could of course be expanded to other places, but begins with a real location that could use a productive urban intervention. The ease of mobility inherent in these units makes it possible to reconfigure them for events, creating clusters that in turn leave open spaces for gatherings, festivals or exhibitions.

shipyard plan section

shipyard expanding home

In the past two decades, the number of workers along the docks has dropped by 90%, from 20,000 to just 2,000, leaving plenty of space for such an influx of new inhabitation and activity.

shipyard exploded axon drawing

shipyard bathroom space

There are still some issues yet to be resolved, like indoor plumbing and electrical connections, but some of these (like showers) have already been considered, with auxiliary buildings to be created around this community. Should more permanent transformations ever be called for, the entire place essentially be packed up and moved along, traveling along the tracks or closed up and put back on trucks.

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Snoozeboxes: Mobile Container Hotels Travel by Truck & Rail

Modular, stackable and robust, these cargo containers may not look like much on the outside but provide surprisingly refined accommodations inside and can be …
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Truck-A-Tecture: 2 Convertible Nomadic Dwellings on Wheels

With participating design studios from around America, this exhibition features a series of amazing mobile spaces that use technology and ingenuity to explore …
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Mobile Village: Seattle Teens Build Micro-Homes for Homeless

Serving a nomadic homeless shanty town known as Nickelsville, the Impossible City project involves a group of a teenagers who are creating not just tiny houses …
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Truck-A-Tecture: 2 Convertible Nomadic Dwellings on Wheels

14 Aug

[ By WebUrbanist in Technology & Vehicles & Mods. ]

truckatecture scissor lifted shelter

With participating design studios from around America, this exhibition features a series of amazing mobile spaces that use technology and ingenuity to explore new possibilities for the modern nomad. Two of the four projects in particular are worth a closer look, whether or not you are able to visit and see them on display in Omaha, Nebraska this month (images by Tom Kessler via Kaneko).

truckatecture truck based architecture

The Office of Mobile Design contributed the Aero-Mobile to the Truck-A-Tecture collection, using a scissor lift system to raise up and deploy a pod that then extends over the cab of the vehicle.

trucktecture

truckatecture top fabric steel

Fold-down walls expand usable space while the elevated platform allows for a smaller footprint and thus more versatile parking options (not to mention some safety in areas with aggressive or curious wildlife).

truckatecture modular furniture shelter

truckatecture interior structure view

The Pneumad by Min|Day is an inflatable structure that takes up relatively little space but spreads out to create a geodesic shelter with modular furniture.

trucktectwo

truckatecture inflatable dome home

The idea is, in part, to reduce the spatial and energy requirements of a portable shelter, making it possible for smaller vehicles to tow a part-time dwelling.

truckatecture other mobile shelters

truck a tecture gallery

On display through for two more weeks, the exhibition was organized “to explore the potentials of mobile living and adaptable architecture [and] generate conversation on current-day trends toward nomadic lifestyles. [It] offers new perspectives on transformable spaces. the projects utilize various mechanical techniques to provide the itinerant individual, traveling by vehicle, the ability to spread out when temporarily stopped.”

“A mash-up of popular and elite cultures, Truck-A-Tecture will transcend the current definitions of ‘pre-fab’ and ‘mobile architecture.’ Topics of nomadism, transportation, trucking culture and the nature of ‘home’ are among the topics to be explored in this exhibition. Other issues to be considered in this dialogue are sustainability and technological advances that have led many to a leaner, more efficient lifestyle.”

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Bike Tire Tent: Compact Travel Shelter Wraps Inside Wheels

For the cycling nomad, this design uses space you never knew you had, and helps free up room in front-of-handlebar baskets or on above-back-tire racks for …
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Art on Wheels: The Magnificent Truck Art of Pakistan

The under-appreciated, indigenous Pakistani tradition of truck painting has an extraordinary history, starting in the days of the Raj.
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Lunar Soil Structures: 3D-Printing Dwellings on the Moon

10 Mar

[ By WebUrbanist in Conceptual & Futuristic & Technology. ]

3d printed space base

One of the biggest challenges of settlements in space is the cost of transporting materials and technologies for construction, a problem addressed beautifully via 3D printing technology in this architectural proposal (currently being prototyped on Earth).

3d robot space printer

The design by Foster + Partners (in conjunction with the European Space Agency) uses a minimum of imported materials – mainly: an inflatable core, pumped up into domes and tunnels on site.

3d base concept prototype

Yet despite its simplicity, the project addresses everything from extreme temperature fluctuations to gamma radiation in this ingenious multi-person dwelling, effectively allowing humans to bypass the need to burrow below the surface while still using it effectively as a shield.

3d space home model

The man-made domes at the center of the concept are augmented by 3D-printed material derived from locally-sourced soil – a concrete-style foam substance providing stability, safety and structural support.

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Lunar Soil Structures: 3D-Printing Dwellings on the Moon

08 Mar

[ By WebUrbanist in Conceptual & Futuristic & Technology. ]

3d printed space base

One of the biggest challenges of settlements in space is the cost of transporting materials and technologies for construction, a problem addressed beautifully via 3D printing technology in this architectural proposal (currently being prototyped on Earth).

3d robot space printer

The design by Foster + Partners (in conjunction with the European Space Agency) uses a minimum of imported materials – mainly: an inflatable core, pumped up into domes and tunnels on site.

3d base concept prototype

Yet despite its simplicity, the project addresses everything from extreme temperature fluctuations to gamma radiation in this ingenious multi-person dwelling, effectively allowing humans to bypass the need to burrow below the surface while still using it effectively as a shield.

3d space home model

The man-made domes at the center of the concept are augmented by 3D-printed material derived from locally-sourced soil – a concrete-style foam substance providing stability, safety and structural support.

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Augmented 3D Printing: Architectural Model Overlay App

Augmented reality meets architectural modeling in a remarkable best-of-both-worlds hybridization for architecture designers, builders and clients.
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Lunar Soil Structures: 3D-Printing Dwellings on the Moon

07 Mar

[ By WebUrbanist in Conceptual & Futuristic & Technology. ]

3d printed space base

One of the biggest challenges of settlements in space is the cost of transporting materials and technologies for construction, a problem addressed beautifully via 3D printing technology in this architectural proposal (currently being prototyped on Earth).

3d robot space printer

The design by Foster + Partners (in conjunction with the European Space Agency) uses a minimum of imported materials – mainly: an inflatable core, pumped up into domes and tunnels on site.

3d base concept prototype

Yet despite its simplicity, the project addresses everything from extreme temperature fluctuations to gamma radiation in this ingenious multi-person dwelling, effectively allowing humans to bypass the need to burrow below the surface while still using it effectively as a shield.

3d space home model

The man-made domes at the center of the concept are augmented by 3D-printed material derived from locally-sourced soil – a concrete-style foam substance providing stability, safety and structural support.

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Expand on Demand: Secret Deck Spaces for Small Dwellings

19 Feb

[ By WebUrbanist in Architecture & Houses & Residential. ]

balcony unfolding design

When it comes to tall apartment and condo buildings, the idea of adding more space is almost always out of the question – but what if you could push a balcony outward on demand, rather than adding an entire deck or patio? Here are three designs to expand outdoor space in creative ways.

balcony extension electronic system

The Bloomframe is a Dutch architect-designed system that turns a simple set of windows into a spacious exterior extension that can be electronically deployed and retracted – like a convertible top, you can experience the outdoors during nice weather, take out the grill, then close the unit as desired.

space extension juliet balcony

An alternative from Fakro works with existing frame sizes on angled roofs, and provides you both a way to lean out (a form of Juliet balcony, with window frame doubling as front rail) as well as overhead shelter from the rain. This system is also simpler and entirely mechanical, so deploying it is as easy as opening a normal glass window.

space saving deck furniture

And for those who already have a deck, but not enough room to put any furniture on it, this space-saving furniture solution (Spaceless) by Sandy Lam is a great source of inspiration: her designs for a table and seat set that fold up for use and hide, camouflaged amid wood decking, when tucked back away.

space small balcony pictures

From the designer: “the average price of residential buildings in downtown Vancouver BC has reached $ 800 per square foot. Many people have to give up their garden living and move into concrete buildings because of this increase in housing prices. Even though living space is expensive, there is one space rarely used in condo buildings—the balcony. The goal of having “Spaceless” is to use the condo balcony to maximize living space and to improve the building environment by enhancing the functionality of the balcony space.”

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Expand on Demand: Secret Deck Spaces for Small Dwellings

15 Feb

[ By WebUrbanist in Architecture & Houses & Residential. ]

balcony unfolding design

When it comes to tall apartment and condo buildings, the idea of adding more space is almost always out of the question – but what if you could push a balcony outward on demand, rather than adding an entire deck or patio? Here are three designs to expand outdoor space in creative ways.

balcony extension electronic system

The Bloomframe is a Dutch architect-designed system that turns a simple set of windows into a spacious exterior extension that can be electronically deployed and retracted – like a convertible top, you can experience the outdoors during nice weather, take out the grill, then close the unit as desired.

space extension juliet balcony

An alternative from Fakro works with existing frame sizes on angled roofs, and provides you both a way to lean out (a form of Juliet balcony, with window frame doubling as front rail) as well as overhead shelter from the rain. This system is also simpler and entirely mechanical, so deploying it is as easy as opening a normal glass window.

space saving deck furniture

And for those who already have a deck, but not enough room to put any furniture on it, this space-saving furniture solution (Spaceless) by Sandy Lam is a great source of inspiration: her designs for a table and seat set that fold up for use and hide, camouflaged amid wood decking, when tucked back away.

space small balcony pictures

From the designer: “the average price of residential buildings in downtown Vancouver BC has reached $ 800 per square foot. Many people have to give up their garden living and move into concrete buildings because of this increase in housing prices. Even though living space is expensive, there is one space rarely used in condo buildings—the balcony. The goal of having “Spaceless” is to use the condo balcony to maximize living space and to improve the building environment by enhancing the functionality of the balcony space.”

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A-cero is Awesome: 12 Dynamic Ultra-Modern Dwellings

05 Nov

[ By Steph in Architecture & Houses & Residential. ]

Spanish architecture firm A-cero is known for its striking modernist villas in its home country, as well as a growing body of international work. Influenced by contemporary sculpture, A-cero’s residences are sprawling arrangements of geometric shapes, curves and ramps in stark white, gray and black marble and concrete. Here are 12 of the firm’s most impressive private homes, including a high-end apartment renovation.

Open Box House

(images via: freshome)

Inspired by the modern works of Spanish sculptor Jorge Oteiza, A-cero’s Open Box House on the outskirts of Madrid consists of textured, angular concrete shapes complimented by the simplicity of a Japanese garden. The dramatic entrance includes bright, colorful LED lights set into the floor, and surrounding the home are several reflecting pools with geometric stepping stones.

Concrete House II

(image via: dezeen)

A single-story house doesn’t have to be less visually interesting than larger, multi-story residences. A-cero gave this low-lying home near Madrid concrete ‘fins’ that are occasionally filled with soil and planted with grass, creating slopes that lead up onto the roof.

House in Somosaguas

(images via: archdaily)

A-cero’s ‘Home in Somosaguas’ almost looks like a massive house boat from the side, especially when seen adjacent to a large reflecting pool. Stacked, staggered horizontal shapes create interior living spaces as well as outdoor terraces and a rooftop pool.

1001 Nights House

(images via: adelto)

Perhaps among the most unusual homes of the last decade, A-cero’s 1001 Nights House in Madrid features sloping outdoor surfaces that resemble skate ramps. The architecture firm brings out the colored LED lights to an even more dramatic effect, highlighting the curves and geometric forms as well as pools of water in white stone beds.

Three-Level House in Madrid

(images via: freshome)

Responding to a request by the homeowners to create a multilevel house that makes the most of the plot of land and also takes advantage of beautiful views, it’s safe to say that most architects wouldn’t have put forth a design that looks like this. A-cero says “The formal solution has been the result of an aesthetic look for categorical volume playing with their own heights and shapes and the surrounding environment.”

Memory House

(images via: freshome)

Perhaps one of A-cero’s most conventional-leaning creations, Memory House fits into its suburban surroundings while maintaining the firm’s signature sculptural style. The three-level home features an exterior made of white marble, bamboo and a combination of angular and curving shapes.

Casa de Campo

(images via: archdaily)

Though from most angles, this home looks unlike most other residences in the Dominican Republic, the sloping shapes of the roof greeting the pool in the back yard are suggestive of more traditional beach huts. The home is made of an indigenous stone that pays tribute to the seaside location and also reflects lots of light within both exterior and interior spaces.

Marbella House

(images via: archdaily)

Working with a difficult sloping home site, A-cero crafted a luxury residence with staggered levels that enable sweeping views of the Mediterranean Sea. The main level includes a large rectangular pool, and just above it is a first-floor bedroom with floor-to-ceiling glass windows and doors.

Concrete House I

(images via: a-cero)

Completed in 2006, the Concrete House (I) is a contemporary residence in Pozuelo de Alorcón, Spain. The solid-looking home is pierced by a number of unexpected hallways, courtyards and other voids, and decorated along the exterior by architectural projections like a black pergola extending out to the swimming pool.

Vivienda 19

(images via: a-cero)

Straight lines and simple shapes dominate this Madrid house, made of Travertine marble. The combination of all the white, large windows and built-in lighting give it a light feel despite the heaviness of its materials.

A Coruña

(images via: contemporist)

This home stands out among A-cero’s accomplishments simply because it’s not solid white, but rather a beautiful contrast of black and white marble. The L-shape of the house was determined by a triangular, sloped site, with the interior angle opening to a view of the estuary of A Coruña in Spain.

Apartment Renovation

(images via: freshome)

A-cero’s structures are so dazzling, it’s hard not to get caught up in the exteriors and forget about the interiors all together. But this apartment renovation in Galicia, Spain is one example of how the firm can infuse a space with its particular brand of aesthetics. Of course, the apartment is full of high-contrast colors and materials as well as lots of curves and geometric shapes.

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