“This building puts 4,450 households on two acres and it is actually designed with energy conservation in mind. By going huge they are getting tremendous manufacturing efficiencies; by going vertical they get the kind of repetition that makes it affordable. By going half a mile high and 220 stories they are going to get noticed.”

That is Lloyd Alter describing the sustainable case for what will be the world’s tallest building. See more pictures and a video here: One Building, One City: World’s tallest prefab, Sky City, is breaking ground in June

© Thorncrown Chapel

“An odd set of corporate, municipal and grassroots bedfellows has coalesced in Northwest Arkansas around opposition to a proposed Southwestern Electric Power Co. power-line project that critics say could encroach on some of the most scenic places in the Ozarks. The proposed project would push through a 150-foot-wide cleared right-of-way studded with 150-foot-tall electrical transmission towers. One route for the project would bring the power lines within 1,000 feet of the iconic Thorncrown Chapel in the woods near Eureka Springs.”

via Arkansas’ Thorncrown Chapel under threat from energy company

Wow, it is incredible what you can do with a small space with the right design! Check out this Tiny NYC half-bedroom converted into elegant chamber (Video) 

(via Biggest Bucky Fuller Fly Eye Dome being restored and moved to France)

(via Cabin in the Woods - Neatorama)

This is an amazing base that just opened in Antarctica. It crawls to keep it from freezing to the ice! Lots more cool details inside. Amazing Green Modular Halley VI Crawling Antarctic Base Opens

For the Ainu, the indigenous people of Japan, the traditional way of winter-proofed building is called “chise,” referring to a home that is built with earth, clad with bamboo and sedge grasses, with radiantly heated floors and interiors kept warm by a central hearth that is never allowed to go out.

© Kengo Kuma & Associates

In an experimental project for the Meme Meadows environmental research facility on Japan’s Hokkaido island, Japanese architect Kengo Kuma has constructed a dwelling that uses these indigenous principles and combined them with modern materials to create a translucent house that operates in rhythm with natural patterns of light and heating.

See more photos: Experimental Japanese Winter Cabin Blends Traditional Methods with Modern Materials

© Athanasia Leivaditou

Every architecture student has done it: The all-nighter where you end up sleeping on or under your desk. (When I did it, it was under a traditional drafting table). Now designer Athanasia Leivaditou of StudioNL has brought a whole new level of comfort to the overnight in the studio with this clever desk that hides a bed.  Transformer desk turns into bedroom

You may be able to one day print your own house. Yes, that’s a thing. Softkill Design joins race to build the first 3D printed house. 

Austin Architect Bercy Chen’s proposal for a modern version of the traditional pit house built by ancient Pueblo and Cherokee Indians. See more photos here: Bercy Chen completes high-tech update of traditional pit house

© 1st Options

Water towers do not make for easy conversions; there are going to be lots of stairs. London developer Leigh Osborne took a tower dating back to 1867 and converted it into “one of the most lavish and eccentric residences in the city”. It was a challenge; he tells the Penarth Times that “There were 2,000 dead pigeons in there, and poo that went up to the top of your wellies!”

See more: Water Tower Converted Into Superluxe London Home

procrastinationfeast:

The Shire can be found near Renndølsetra village, Norway

Love the green roof! See more real world Hobbit houses. 

(via repmekevets)

3D Printed House Is a Giant Möbius Strip!

(via Bridge Being Built From Shipping Containers : TreeHugger)