Unusual Life

Bamboo’s become all the rage, from furniture to flooring, to huts to homes.

Bamboo is versatile with a short growth cycle. It can be harvested in 3-5 years versus 10-50 years for most softwoods and hardwoods.

Bamboo can be harvested and replenished with virtually no impact to the environment and is a viable replacement for wood.

Dr. Menlo notes an architecture design competion of bamboo homes and buildings.

Bamboo Technologies

Bamboo Building

“1000 Things Made of Bamboo” via Boing Boing.

Earth Blocks are blocks of compressed soil that are aesthetically pleasing as well as cost and energy efficient, fire and pest resistant, virtually soundproof, durable and structurally sound. They provide complete architectural freedom and are made from a non-toxic readily available natural raw material dirt.

The cost of building with Earth Blocks is competitive with other construction methods and materials. Building costs vary depending on the site location, soil composition, and architectural design. In addition to the cost-effectiveness of this building technique, significant savings are realized after construction completion due to capitalizing on the advantages of thermal mass.

Earth Houses

Mayne Island Cobb House, earth-built house photos on Flickr.

Picture gallery of cob homes built of earth and straw.

Aluminum Siding 12 Ounces at a Time!

Who doesn’t love a frosty mug? John Milkovisch does. He consumed 39,000 cans of beer over 18 years to create a magnificent Homage to Beer at his house in Houston, Texas. He linked pull-tabs into long streamers to make curtains that chimed when the wind blew. (Thanks to Boing Boing)

Take a tour of the Beer Can House.

Jeff Lebo’s “House of Beer Cans”

Here are a few photos of the “House of Beer Cans”. The building and displays were constructed between 1998 and 2001 with the help of Jeff’s father Fred, friends and other family members. The collection, which numbers in excess of 50,000 different cans, is the second largest of it’s kind in the world. The collection is divided into geographic regions, with seperate rooms for each region. Thanks to www.OffbeatHomes.com

Take a tour of Jeff’s Beer Can House.

Ricky is artist-in-residence at this fabulous, fanciful and phantasmagoric house, cozily nestled in a forest glade amidst the wilds of woodland New Jersey. Surrounded by an elaborate profusion of flora and populated by an exotic menagerie of fauna ranging from pigs to peacocks, Luna Parc is a continuously evolving expression of Boscarino’s creativity and provides a constant source of inspiration for it.

Ricky Boscarino’s Luna Park

Unusual Homes. Unusual Artists, Extreme Homes

The Living Barge Project is a large-scale, temporary public art installation by Sarah Kavage and Nicole Kistler that is moored on Seattle’s Duwamish River during April 2006. Native plants will be installed on an industrial barge, creating a temporary floating island full of ferns, shrubs and tree seedlings. The barge will be moored on the Georgetown side of the Duwamish River between the 1st Ave. S. Bridge and the 16th Ave S (South Park) Bridge.

The Living Barge Project

See some great photo’s on Mark Sullo’s blog.

More great photos on Dan Bennett’s blog

Wikipedia on Artificial Islands

Vital 5′s Island Project in Seattle

Many people don’t know that Harbor Island in Seattle was, for awhile, the world’s largest artificial island. It appears that it is now second to Rokko Island in Kobe harbor in Japan.

Quote from Best Places to Stay in Hawaii “This is one of the more unusual places to stay I have ever seen…If you want a bit of mystery and imagination in your vacation, and little stories lying in wait around every corner, you’ll appreciate it here. It’s enchanting, rather like you’d expect a hobbit’s house to be.”

The Hobbit House is located on the The Big Island in a breathtaking setting above Waiohinu Village. Lush landscaping and tropical forests surrounding the estate offer quiet privacy and is not far from the sightseeing wonders of Volcanoes National Park and the bountiful sights and flavors of Kailua and Hilo.

Hobbit House is located 60 miles, about a 1 1/2 hour drive, from the Kona and Hilo airports and 1/2 mile up a jeep trail away from the highway noise.

Hawaii Hobbit House