I keep hoping the new Institute for Nanobiomedical Technology & Membrane Biology in Chengdu, China will be finished sooner, rather than later, but it’s still in progress. I heard about this structure a while back and it’s really cool. The Institute’s designers and architects, Shuguang Zhang, Sloan Kulper and Audrey Roy; and architects at Tsinghua University, have created a vision that includes the basic human cell as the design focus and inspiration. Cellular Structure

Above is the proposed exterior and below is an interior shot. If you took biology in school, you’ll recognize the shapes and designs based on cellular …read more

Don’t you hate it when people say things like, “OMG!!!” Obnoxious, no? I think so too. However, this house warrants a major OMG!!!

I guess this is a few years old, but it’s still sooooo worth seeing. It’s an art creation – a farmhouse turned human sized dollhouse. Amazing. I love dollhouses, especially odd ones, so this is completely spectacular. I just can’t believe I never saw it before.
This Life-Size Dollhouse by Heather Benning was posted at Ohdeedoh. Not only can you see more of this incredible biggie sized dollhouse at Ohdeedoh, but you can see their nice collection of all …read more

[Found at Utility Fog Blog - see all the random weirdness here if you dare]

Now, if you’re a music know-it-all, maybe you can guess from the post title which classic offbeat structures we’ll be viewing this week.
Did you make a guess yet?
What sort of structure will it be? Let’s see…

A while back, my pal Deb sent me a cool slideshow of random funky architecture. I’d seen most of the structures before, but among them was one neat house I’ve never seen (yay!). Take a look:

Somehow I don’t think my son, my records, and I would all fit in there. Still, this is pretty neat-o. This residential car-house in Austria is just 300 sq meters, but cost (get this) 1 million euros. In case you can’t tell, this little home was inspired by the VW Beetle, and has some eco-features too. It’s really hard to imagine how this looks on …read more

This first one is sure not very hidden. Still, there’s no denying that it’s camouflaged.

[photo via: UT]
Personally I like that tree camouflage house that was sweeping the web last year, the one on every architect and design site known to man. I never showed it here, mainly because it was everywhere -overkill. That said, it’s a super slick home, and being that it was everywhere, I can’t remember where I first saw it, but one place I did see it was freshome, which is a blog I adore so I’ll send you there to see more of this lovely, and …read more

Superuse.org is this great site that consists of (as you might think) recycled items made new again.
From Superuse.org:
“Superuse.org is an online community of designers, architects and everybody else who is interested in inventive ways of recycling. The site allows you to post items at various scales within the reuse-topic. All examples of small commodities, furniture, interiors, buildings and reuse on urban scale are welcomed. Next to exhibiting applications, we promote the development of knowledge on the subject by starting up discussions, adding historical background and allowing user comments.”
Here’s one amazing find – the recycled house – made from an airplane! …read more

I know it’s always been my lifelong dream to live in an onion – what about you?

I’d actually rather live in something a little more sweet, like a blackberry for instance.
See more kooky homes at Funny Real Estate Photos at eBestAgent (lots of funny stuff).

I’ve been spending a lot of time looking over the archives of Faces in Places, a stupendous blog. As you might imagine this blog searches out the weird of the weird when it comes to faces in, well, places you don’t expect. I love the idea and double love (as my boy would say) the whole blog. My son looked at all the cool faces for a good long while – and blogs mostly bore him.
Check out these two examples – I gravitated to the home posts (are you shocked) but couldn’t resist the bird photo. 
Shocking view

Lucy in the sky

I …read more

Little mod birdhouse.

Via Heike Schlauch & Robert Fabach