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The Developmental Association for Renewable Energies (DARE) has begun a scheme to tackle the litter problem in the region around the village of Sabon Yelwa by using discarded plastic bottles – which take around 450 years to biodegrade – as the building blocks for new homes.

The project also gives work to unemployed teenagers in the construction process, which involves filling the bottles with sand, putting the cap back on and them lying them side by side in layers cemented by mud.

The sand-filled bottles create a very strong wall and keep the interior cool in Nigeria’s scorching hot climate.

Yahaya Ahmed, who is leading the DARE project, told Architeure News: “Compacted sand inside a bottle is nearly 20 times stronger than bricks. We are even intending to build a three-storey building.”

We can only applaud this green and novel approach to tackling waste and providing homes and jobs – all at the same time. More shots below.

[Source]

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Steampunk. For those adhering to the Victorian-influenced view of how the future might look, all brass and pipes and strange steam-driven machinery, Steampunk is less a design statement and more a way of life.

The owner of this Chelsea loft in Manhattan, NY, takes the whole love of steampunk to an altogether new level.

It took two years to convert a plain old 1,800 loft apartment into this Steampunk wonderland, complete with suspended, light-changing Zeppelin, massive wooden cogs weighing in at a cool 500lbs, brass and copper submarine portholes and doors and – wait for it – a bed that rises and falls using a deactivated bomb as a counterweight. Wild. And it’s yours for just $1.75 million.

This is just about as ‘out there’ a living pad as they come and we love it

Check out the video above you’ll see what we mean.

[WSJ]

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There are homes that are designed to allow the passing public a little glimpse of how cool it is inside and there are homes that throw the doors wide open.

And then there’s House NA, a Japanese glass box that does for privacy what Sharon Stone in Basic Instinct did for underwear. Not a lot, then.

Designed by Sou Fujimoto Architects, the thin steel pole framework supports a number of different sized glass boxes. Think treehouse crossed with minimalism. Everything is white and crisp and there’s no doubt that it’s a cool, if somewhat exposed, house.

The architects say: “In one way the house is like a single space, but each room is also a tiny space of its own. The clients said they wanted to live like nomads within the house – they didn’t have specific plans for each room. The house looks radical but for the clients it seemed quite natural.”

Thankfully, at the end of the video, you can see the clever use of hidden blinds and window drapes. So, only on show in the daytime then. Phew!

[Link]

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You might live in a beautifully restored old building, a chic modern block of white concrete and glass or a simple colonial wooden clapboard house but, the fact brought home in the past week, is that you can never be too prepared for a hurricane.

The tragic loss of life and home in Vermont [see photo] and New York State, courtesy of Hurricane Irene, continues to unfold with hundreds of homes, roads and infrastructure severely damaged. At Funktion we cover the best in design and architecture but, it would be wrong of us not to highlight some of the best resources out there for helping you protect the home you’ve worked so hard for.

There’s really not much you can do if you’re caught right in the path of something like that but there are things you can do to help reduce the impact and possible save your home and belongings.

The National Trust for Historic Preservation has compiled a list of 18 detailed documents and guides for helping home owners and businesses prepare for disasters and recover from them afterwards.

One of those most relevant about what’s happening now is Hurricane Preparedness: Are You Ready? (North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources).

Even if you are lucky enough to have weathered the worst of it, you may learn something that can help someone else.

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Canada has been dishing out the design and architecture awards recently and the winning residential prize in the first AZ Awards went to the exceptional, Linear House, by Paktau Architects.

As its name suggests, the house – located on a farm on Salt Spring Island – runs in a straight line for 276 feet along a row of fir trees. The main building is divided using a breezeway from the main living area to the guest quarters.

As you can see from its design, making the most of the stunning views was a priority during the build with the extremely long windows acting as giant canvasses onto the scenery.

The longest piece of glazing is 78 feet wide [see photo above] and is fully retractable, allowing the house to be transformed into an open air pavilion during the good weather.

The view from the other side of the house can be seen below.

Rather than stand out in the environment, the long design of the house, combined with the charcoal-colored render outside makes the house virtually invisible through the fir trees [see below].

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Discarded shipping containers have been shown to be ideal candidates for re-use in creating innovative commercial and residential. At Funktion, we have always been big fans at the way in which these large, unused shipping containers can be bought cheaply and, with some clever design, turned into proper homes, among other things.

Above is the Containers of Hope, a home designed and built by London-based Benjamin Garcia Saxe in Costa Rica for just $40,000. That’s right, $40,000.

The couple he built it for wanted to live close to nature, their horses and most importantly, debt free – a goal far more people should aspire too in our uncertain financial times.

Saxe believes clever design can do just that, with the container house costing less than a Costa Rican social welfare home.

“I believe that the power of design comes from inspiring others with our work to look at alternate and creative solutions for dwellings in order to provide and gift them with a greater financial freedom.”

There are more shots of this clever and beautiful dwelling after the jump, from containers arriving on site to the finished project.

Here are some other container projects we have covered:

Thinking Outside the Container

‘Cargotecture’ At Its Best: The View Tube Café

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This is the Closet House and considering it is just 44m2, it is very well named. But, like all great architecture, it takes limitations and transforms them into something truly clever. So clever, that it scooped the ArchDaily award in the Best Interiors Category 2010.

Smart design and home automation have transformed a small apartment into a much larger living space.

The apartment, designed by Consexto in Portugal, has five living spaces but to really make it work, everything had to have more than one use.

Take, for instance, the use of one of the walls, which doubles as a cabinet. The movable wood wall on one side serves as a bedroom wardrobe while on the other it hosts an extendable table, the TV, home cinema set-up and even a mini bar.

The design remains clean throughout, with almost everything in the kitchen stored behind automatic shelving and storage compartments.

A worthy winner indeed. Thoughts?

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Going to the beach can be a double-edged sword – yes, there’s water and sun but there’s also sand getting everywhere and other people’s annoying kids and pets.

Outspoken comedian Bill Hicks once summarised his own feelings by describing the beach as ‘where dirt meets water’ but, the beach can be a better place if you’re willing to invest some cash – a lot of cash – in a cutting edge piece of ‘nature-friendly habitation’.

Meet the Y-Bio habitation module [above] from Archinoma – a transformable modular architectural system – which is a designed to be taken to the to the beach [or anywhere] for a few days or more. It can be customized too, from a large number of different shaped modules.

The steel tubes snap together to form a mini-house that doesn’t actually touch the ground but swings gently on the morning breeze like a giant hammock. There is no need for any kind of foundation or footing. Just pick your modules – from tearoom and massage room to inhalation spa – whatever that is.

All you need now is around $40,000 – hey, that’s the price of escaping the rest of the people, kids and dogs on the beach. More shots below.

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At one time or another we have all built or climbed into someone else’s treehouse. And they were great, even if they were constructed badly using nail-studded planks and fell a long way short of health and safety regs. Despite the fun factor though, would you like to live in one?

Meet the gang at Finca Bellavista, a residential treehouse community in development in the rainforests of Costa Rica. Designed to make the most of its surroundings, this eco-friendly village exists well-off the ground and is connected by an elaborate “Sky Trail” network of rope bridges and zip lines high in the canopy.

The level of work goes well beyond my own childish construction efforts and, as rustic homes go, these are very well put together, boasting hot showers, electricity, communal rooms, and even a Wi-Fi zone.

According to the founders, the number of tree homes there is starting to grow, and there are now a handful of cabins and treehouses ready for rentals and tours. The whole community nestles in 300 acres of secondary rainforest and reclaimed pasture land.

The video [above] lets you see this one-off treehouse community and hear from those who have put it together and those who have visited it.

Not sure I could sleep 24/7 with all that jungle racket going on – and those monkeys will rob you blind – but I could certainly chill there for a week. Check out their website here.

Or, if you want something a little more upmarket in the trees, check out the Treehotel.

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