A 30-foot by 60-foot limestone building in Wisconsin’s unincorporated community of Yellowstone began life as a hostel or hotel. Travelers who were transporting goods in the region would stop, rest, get supplies, water their oxen and horse teams, and be on their way. But some stayed. They built houses, and worked and schooled their children. … Read more
Pam and Dave bought an old disassembled grain silo and converted it into a round tiny house in Canada. They live off-grid in the home using solar power for electricity, a well for water, a composting toilet, and propane for heat and hot water. The home has a small mud room for coats, boots, and … Read more
Pedro Pedrosa and his wife Sofia left city life over a decade ago to live in a mostly-abandoned farming village in Central Portugal. After creating their home from several small outbuildings, they continued to experiment with local building materials- cork, pine, lime, and slate- by transforming three stone storage sheds into “Nature Houses.” Their town, … Read more
Cempedak is an island hotel built in Indonesia entirely of bamboo, recycled teak and rubber wood and topped with grass-thatched roofs. There are no walls, not even in the second-floor bedroom and shower, in order to catch the sea breezes and be lulled to sleep by the lapping sea. The architects converted the conceptual drawings … Read more
Students at the University of Stuttgart in Germany have developed a hybrid flax fibre/cross-laminated timber (CLT) roof for a prototype pavilion in Germany which enables column-free spans and demonstrates the structural application of a bio-based alternative to timber. This system forms the wave-like roof of an experimental building designed for a garden show on the … Read more
Reminiscent Home is a century-old residence in Spain that has recently been renovated by the founder of architecture practice Funcionable and it happens to be the where he was born. “Many of the transformation operations have resulted in involuntary restitution of very ancient previous states, prior even to the author’s brief period of residence in his … Read more