credit: Lynne Knowlton
Interior designer Lynn Knowlton always wanted a tree fort. So she built a little dream of one in a grove of trees on her property, two and a half hours northwest of Toronto. Every bit of it is recycled; the basic building is made from the wood from a barn.
See more pics of this charming treehouse here: Lynn Knowlton’s House In The Trees Is Built From A Recycled Barn
Treehugger is on Tumblr, you guys #TumblrTuesday.
Best of 2012: The Year in Architecture
- Architizer wrote in Design, Architecture and Creativity
It would be strange to say that architecture had a good year in 2012. Architects, as a professional workforce, couldn’t have started the year off at a greater disadvantage, what with the continued stalling or entire cancellation of projects shrinking the job market. Naturally, these developments could only hurt architecture students, who, not being able to find proper, compensated work, have no recourse but to settle for grueling unpaid internships that offer little in the way of useful education or experience.
At the same time, the year’s several high-profile events like the London Olympics—where Zaha Hadid’s sculptural diving boards billions of people saw while cheering on Michael Phelps—and the Venice Biennale have extended architecture’s reach in the public sphere. Who would have thought that the architecture of the presidential debate would have been sure blog bait? This side-effect, however, has already begun to fade, and news media continues to remind architects-in-waiting of their poorly considered ambition and career plans.
But you’re here for the inevitable year-end list. Well, about that…
A Floating School for the Flooded Nigerian Coastline
- Adele Peters posted in Architecture, Design and Resilience
Makoko, Nigeria, floods so frequently that people live in homes on stilts, and canoes are more common than cars or bikes. Climate change increases the risk of flooding even more. A new school design for the area takes the water into account: it floats. It’s intended to be built from locally-sourced wood kept afloat by used plastic drums.
Google’s New Tel Aviv Office Design Is Totally Over the Top
- Yasha Wallin wrote in in Design, Technology and Architecture
In December, Google revealed images of their brand new office space in Tel Aviv, Israel. Occupying eight floors and 850,000 square feet in the Elektra Building with stunning views of the city, this ambitious office space boasts three restaurants (non-kosher, kosher dairy and kosher meat), and an entire floor dedicated to “Campus Tel Aviv,” a new hub for entrepreneurs and developers that acts like a home base for start up companies. The entire campus was designed by Camenzind Evolution, in collaboration with Setter Architects and Studio Yaron Tal.
This Disaster Housing Can Be Built in 5 Hours
A Dutch designer created this Lego-like emergency house, which is laser-cut on a CNC machine and then can snap together in as little as five hours. The house was made for Haiti, and includes a roof that can collect rainwater and filter it for clean drinking water.
Shared by GOOD Community member Adele Peters in Design, Architecture and Environment
Animation Intermission: The ABC of Architects
- Pete® Karinen wrote in Design, Living and Architecture
This video lists the most famous architects in the world in alphabetical order, along with a sample of their work… a helpful tool to seem smart at parties!
This Tel Aviv Cargotecture Bridge Puts Shipping Containers to Fresh Use
- Yasha Wallin wrote in Environment,Design and Architecture
More than 800,000 shipping containers are discarded each year around the world after being use for maritime transit. That amounts to huge amounts of waste, but also presents a new resource for architects and artists to use in a variety of projects. One of these projects is the Econtainer Bridge, proposed by Israel’s Yoav Messer Architects which will incorporate recycled containers to make a 525-foot long land bridge connecting Arial Sharon Park and a main thoroughfare into Tel Aviv.
Design for Equality: A Voice for Justice in Architecture
- Mia Scharphie wrote in Architecture, Equality and Designers
Four months ago, Caroline James and Arielle Assouline-Lichten, both members of Harvard’s student group Women in Design, launched an online petition that quickly went viral in the design world.
The petition asked for Denise Scott Brown’s equal recognition in the 1991 Pritzker Prize, architecture’s most prestigious award. It had been given solely to her husband Robert Venturi, despite their deeply collaborative working relationship. This was not the only time the Pritzker Prize Committee refused to recognize female collaborators: Just last year, the award given to Chinese architect Wang Shu omitted his wife and collaborator Lu Wenyu.
Illustration by Kate Slovin
Infographic: The World’s Oldest Trees
- Adele Peters posted in Environment, Sustainability and Design
A recent study in Science reported that some of the world’s oldest trees—most between 100 to 300 years old—are dying rapidly, in part because of climate change. This infographic (from 2010, but still relevant) shows the location of trees that are even older, and now at risk.
3D Childhood: Crayon Creatures Turns Kid’s Drawings Into Sculpture
- Yasha Wallin wrote in Creativity, Design and Art
These days everyone’s jumping on the 3D Printing bandwagon, from volumetric architecture to food production, the possibilities of new printing technology are endless. Now, using this technique, the Barcelona, Spain-based company Crayon Creatures has come up with a way to turn children’s drawings into mini sculptural keepsakes—making the adorable, even more so.
-
Also check out the artist at Child’s Own Studio who makes stuffed animals from kid’s drawings. Thanks for the find, Adele!
The best new buildings are designed to complement the landscape, both aesthetically and through the efficient use of natural resources. As Martin Hunt, Head of the Built Environment at Forum for the Future, puts it: “If a building is going to be called ‘worldclass,’ it’s vital that sustainability is integral to the design.”
Image: (cc) view of the north side of the Monte Rosa Hut by Wikimedia user Hwking.
See all the eye catching—and environmentally sound—buildings here →
Slideshow: The Best Eye-Catching New Bioclimatic Architecture Around the World - Design - GOOD
mattjosephdiaz-blog