On a hill in an olive grove overlooking the sea and the monasteries of Mount Athos in the Mediterranean, Eva Sopeoglou designed a low-maintenance weekend home that reflects a season’s and a day’s evolving sunlight. The project is highly experimental and employs cutting-edge digital CAD/CAM technology in an innovative way. The design itself carefully considered … Read more
Braelyn and James are two artists who poured their creativity into this beautiful DIY tiny house build. For just under $60,000 CAD they built a 32-foot tiny house with two staircases, two patio doors, and two king-sized lofts with a bridge connecting them. The interior design was inspired by Mykonos Island in Greece, which is … Read more
Most often I don’t appreciate modern architecture, finding it too boxy, but this house is rather striking. Kapsimalis Architects, who designed the Vineyard House on the Greek island of Santorini, imagined a residential space that fit into its natural surroundings and offered an unbroken view of the landscape. The substantial roof is made of rammed … Read more
China is sometimes called the “Kingdom of Bamboo,” because it is the world’s largest producer of the woody grass. But modern architecture has relegated bamboo to the “poor man’s timber.” Now, however, bamboo is being recognized as a superior building material for sustainable reasons. As environmental issues climb to the top of headlines, bamboo is … Read more
“Permaculture uses systems thinking and design principles to consciously design ‘landscapes which mimic the patterns and relationships found in nature, while yielding an abundance of food, fibre and energy for provision of local needs’” (David Holmgren) but one might think it go beyond this definition. EDGE EFFECT is a feature length documentary by Ana Sany … Read more
Researchers at southern Ben-Gurion University in Israel have developed some new formulations of hempcrete that are less energy intensive to make. Hempcrete is usually made with hemp hurds and lime, which requires a fair amount to heat to produce. The researchers have found that they can replace some of the lime with natural minerals (such … Read more