Fanatical About Cats? Then You'll Want One Of These!

I know we all love our pets, and some are, shall we say, a little fonder than others! So I just happened to stumble across someone who we might say is just a little bit fanatical about cats! So much so that they decided to pretty much convert their house into a cat's paradise!

Peter Cohen is a professional house builder and designer. When he bought his home in California, there were two feral cats that lived in the yard. What started out as a way to aid a couple of feral cats, later became a safe haven for 15 rescues that live the dream life! Cohen built bridges, indoor tunnels, and passageways throughout the home and the cats LOVE it! How cool is this?

Source: http://blog.theanimalrescuesite.com/catparadisehome/

Rotterdam's Beautiful Architecture - Must See

If you're interested in the history of Rotterdam's architecture, you might find this interesting! Expand your vision and find delight in something that is both functional and brilliantly designed...

Cube-Houses

Built in 1982-1984 according to designs by award-winning Dutch architect Piet Blom, the Kubuswoningen, or ‘Cube-Houses’, offer an inimitable living experience. These 40 small yellow dwellings, shaped like tilted cubes, are each perched on concrete pillars, giving the impression of architectural ‘trees’ clustering together to make a forest. Blom envisaged the complex as a safe, peaceful community, set apart from the bustling city centre below with each cube comprised of three floors and a panoramic viewing gallery. Down among the ‘tree-trunks’, on street level, shops, a school and a children’s playground are available for residents’ use. Anyone dreaming of living in one of these fascinating houses can see what it is like by visiting the Kijk-Kubus or ‘Show-Cube’.

Maastoren

The pair of riverside skyscrapers known as Maastoren are currently the tallest buildings in the Netherlands. Constructed between 2006 and 2010 and designed by the Odile Decq Benoit Cornette and Dam en Partners Architecten firms, they are made principally of aluminium that grows lighter in shade as it approaches the sky with each tower topped by a glass viewing gallery. The tallest of the pair measures 181 metres and has 44 floors while the other rises to almost 100 metres in height. Both house the offices of several prestigious corporations so unfortunately it is not possible for regular visitors to go inside, but the outside view can be admired from many spots along the River Maas.

Here's the original source: http://theculturetrip.com/europe/the-netherlands/articles/stunning-structures-the-best-of-rotterdam-s-architecture/

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A $9000 Dream House In Thailand For Anyone?

When most people imagine their dream home, they probably think of a large, sprawling vacation house that cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. When Steve Areen thought about building his dream home, all he had to do was find $9,000 and a place to build. He did just that and, in a few weeks, he had a vacation home in the middle of Thailand that could make anyone drool.

In just 6 weeks, Steve was able to create the home of his dreams.

With a Thai friend's guidance, his son-in-law's masonry skills and a lot of work, the team made progress quickly.

Steve was given a place on his friend Hajjar Gibran's mango grove to build his home.

The basic structure only cost about $6,000.

In Thailand, materials are cheaper, but it's still mind blowing to know just how little this cost to make.

The end result...
Not bad at all!!



For more pictures of this his dream house, check out his site here: http://www.viralnova.com/dream-dome-home-thailand/

Organic Architecture: Amazing Sustainable Home Designs Inspired by Nature

When we think of the word “house”, we probably conjure the image of a conventional rectangle-with-triangle-roof shape, the kind we used to draw in our elementary grade pictures.

Nowadays, architecture is widely taken for granted; it is safe to deduce that in the corporate spirit of our times, architecture is mostly a means of accommodation and practicality; aesthetics are somewhat overlooked, especially in large cities (unless you live in the suburbs). And let’s not even get started on the environmental uses or sustainability of most architectural structures.

Let’s admit it: most buildings are boring. They only contribute to stressing the modern person out and become yet another factor of psychological claustrophobia.

The antithesis of that, however, is a newly rising (though it has existed for a long time now) wave of architectural style, called organic architecture. We may as well call it the “mother” of “green buildings”. Organic architecture is not a new thing. The term was actually coined by a man who lived more than 50 years ago.

His name was Frank Lloyd Wright, and he was the very first man to come up with the concept, and in turn, inspire and teach thousands of other architects. From his writings on that architectural style, we can see some of the principals of transcendentalism being reflected, and a yearning for Wright to re-unite man with nature, without leaving him homeless and without shelter from nature’s wrath.

It is an argument of the movement that organic homes will not only be built with better aesthetics and a more natural tone, they will also represent a natural motif in their structure and design, thus emulating natural organisms.

Geometrical themes and moods, spanning from the material, to the windows, interior decorations, even the way the house consumes energy, are meant to function in a holistic, interconnected and ever existing, sustainable and recyclable manner, working, in effect, much in the same ways that Mother Nature does; through the endless cycle of regeneration and transmutation of elements and life forms.

Organic architecture even has its own set of rules, called the “Gaia Charter”:

Let the design:

• Be inspired by nature and be sustainable, healthy, conserving, and diverse.
• Unfold, like an organism, from the seed within.
• Exist in the “continuous present” and “begin again and again”.
• Follow the flows and be flexible and adaptable.
• Satisfy social, physical, and spiritual needs.
• “Grow out of the site” and be unique.
• Celebrate the spirit of youth, play and surprise.
• Express the rhythm of music and the power of dance.”

Organic architecture is not simply an architectural utopia. On the contrary; it is very much a reality, with examples such as Gaudi’s creations, Kendrick Bangs Kellogg’s “Desert house” in California (a structure seemingly integrated into the rocks on which it has been built), the breathtaking aquatic Nautilus House in New Mexico, the ephemeral Sphere Houses on Vancouver Island.

Read more: http://www.lifeadvancer.com/organic-architecture-amazing-sustainable-home-designs-inspired-by-nature 

Related article: Design Indulgence by Sherry Hart