Unusual Life

In Hong Kong, because of the space, apartments are small and expensive. Gary Chang, an architect, decided to design a 344 sq. ft. apartment to be able to change into 24 different designs, all by just sliding panels and walls. He calls this the “Domestic Transformer.”

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This amazing Dune House is located in Atlantic Beach, Florida.

This design by architect William Morgan adopts a Lord of the Rings aesthetic with a very different initial inspiration. The project is actually built into the earth, making two separate townhouse apartments carved into a sand dune. The apartments are entered at street level and a common stair leads to the upper floor’s entryway, bedroom and bath. On the main lower floor, the living, dining and kitchen with mostly built-in furniture open oceanside to a covered terrace at beach level.

The building was constructed in 1975 using swimming pool technology, a gunite-concrete shell anchored to a cast concrete floor. It’s also one of the original green roofs, as it’s topped by a mantle of earth stabilized by native landscaping which helps to maintain a 70-degree temperature inside.

Slide Tour by William Morgan Architects

The Cave, located in Richland, Missouri, is the nation’s only restaurant located in (you guessed it) a cave, serving American steakhouse/seafood and Italian fare. The space may not get much natural light, but it has waterfalls, fish ponds, and even a view of the Gasconade River.

The space began as a natural cave that served as a dance hall in the 1920s, situated three stories up on a limestone bluff at a campground (visitors can still rent the cabins). Back then it was not spacious enough for 225 to dine, as it is today; the rest was carved and blasted out over the course of four years.

More weird restaurants from MSNBC

Home Office, originally uploaded by chelseagirlz.

The Longaberger Company is maker of handcrafted baskets and offers other home and lifestyle products, including pottery, wrought iron, fabric accessories and specialty foods. The company is based in Newark, Ohio, and there are approximately 45,000 independent Home Consultants located in all U.S. states who sell Longaberger products directly to customers.

They have the coolest Home Office in the world, shaped like the baskets they sell!

Features of the “Home Office”:

Offices are situated around a seven-story, 30,000 sq. ft atrium where employees and guests can enjoy the natural daylight from the skylight.

Two basket handles are attached to the building with replica copper and wooden rivets.

The handles are heated to prevent ice from forming.

Two Longaberger tags are attached to the sides of the building. The gold leaf painted tags are 725 lbs each and measure 25′ long x 7′ tall x 3″ thick.

Curbed has a great feature today on some unusual chapels, including the the Tiffany Chapel at the Morse Museum in Winter Park, pictured above.

My favorite chapel in Seattle is the Chapel of St. Ignatius on the campus of Seattle University. It’s beautifully designed by Steven Holl, and you can view interior photos here.

Jeroen Koolhaas and Dre Urhahn, known as Haas & Hahn, saw potential in places that most Brazilians view as unsightly, undesirable and terrifying. Favelas like Vila Cruzeiro and Santa Marta drip with sewage and ring with gunshots and police sirens, but Haas & Hahn wanted to give local residents a source of pride. The Favela Painting Project started with a huge mural called ‘Boy Flying a Kite’ and expanded into covering nearly every surface in Santa Marta with cheerful shades of green, blue, pink and yellow.

Slums into Rainbows

Java Jive Teapot – Tacoma, Washington, originally uploaded by Vintage Roadside.

Who doesn’t love the Java Jive? Run down and derelict, but a great piece of roadside architecture. When I was growing up, there were live monkeys behind the bar and instead of a piano bar, they had an “organ bar”. It’s nasty, but it’s ours!

Continue down the road a bit on South Tacoma Boulevard for more great roadside attractions and vernacular architecture.

Box Office 1 Providence R.I., originally uploaded by BlueisCoool.

The Box Office is a three-story building made from 32 recycled steel shipping containers. The 10,000-square-foot building is targeted at start-up businesses and artists, with up to 12 office and studio spaces ranging from 640 square feet to 2,560 square feet, and is located in Providence, Rhode Island.

What a creative re-use of existing materials! My only concern would be insulation — would it be hot in summer? And maybe pretty cold in the winter unless they put batting or fiberglass insulation in the walls and then put up more metal or sheetrock.

This is an awesome Powerpoint slideshow of the Thousand Islands area that straddle the U.S-Canada border in the Saint Lawrence River as it emerges from the northeast corner of Lake Ontario.

The number of islands was determined using the criteria that any island must be above water level for 365 days per year, bigger than one square foot (roughly 900 cm²), and support at least one tree or shrub. The area is very popular among vacationers, campers, and boaters, and is often referred to as the ‘fresh water boating capital of the world.’

Be sure to press “Full Screen” to view this, as it’s quite stunning:

This beachfront home’s dramatic pool lights up in vivid shades of blue and purple, creating an incredible setting. The pool features an adjustable swim current for when you want to break a sweat, plus a champagne-glass spa when you just want to relax. When it’s time to dry off, this amazing outdoor spot also has multiple balconies and a private rooftop deck for sun bathing. And the price has just been reduced to only $9.9M!

Mountain Googie, originally uploaded by Chimay Bleue.

This unusual building is near Lake Tahoe in Incline City. This was originally an Orbit gas station and has been vacant since around 1998. They’ve been arguing about whether to demolish it or turn it into a Visitors Welcome center for years. Most locals are not fond of the building.

It’s a great example of Googie architecture, modern and eye-catching, awaiting the future in the land of tomorrow.