Wednesday, May 19, 2021

Cob Houses - The Natural Homes



This is one of the Cob Homes built by Architect and Natural Builder Ileana Mavrodin of Casa Verde in Banat, Romania. She with a few others, are using Natural Materials in Romania to help people rediscover their Local Skills and Community Spirit.




This Home was the Ist Fully Permitted Cob House in Canada. It was a collaboration between Pat and Tracy, Lanto and Elke with a team of Volunteers. The Roof is totally load bearing on the Cob Walls. The House built in 1999, is 600 sq.ft (56m2) on 2 Floors.





This Beautiful Cob Home sits on the Banks of a Small Stream in Somerset, England. Recently the Little Stream became a Torrent that almost burst its Bank, a close call for one of The Most Artistic Natural Homes in the World. It's the work of Lisa and Rich who built the House with Clay from the Stream and Round Wood Pine and Hawthorne thinned from the Local Woodlands. The Roof is tiled with Cedar Shingles and the Walls are Straw Bale on the north and east with Sculpted Swirls of Cob on the south and west.





These are some of the Beautiful Cob Homes in Coquille, OR, USA, built at Cob Cottage Company by the many people who go there to learn how to build using Natural Materials. These Little Homes cost very little to build. Lanto and Linda, the founders of Cob Cottage, talk about their work in a video where you will find out just how cheap these Natural Homes can be.





This is a Cob and Straw Bale Round House by Earthed World. The Round House is an Outdoor Classroom at Arden Grove Infant School in Norwich, England. It's a starting point for the School to meet before exploring the outside environment. The Round House sits within a Growing Forest Garden which lent itself to a Theme of Trees for some of the Artistic Features in the Round House.





This Hotel is set in Woodlands near Dnipropetrovs'k, Ukraine. The Dome Rooms were built using Traditional Ukrainian Building Methods where a Wooden Framework is coated first with a mixture of Clay and Straw and then with Clay mixed with Sawdust. The Roof is mainly 40 cm of Reed Thatch. The Building is by Yuri Ryntovt. Before designing this Hotel Yuri built and lived in a Cob Eco Village.





This is one of The Loveliest Natural Homes on the Planet. It's Lanto and Linda's Cob Home in Coquille, OR, USA at Cob Cottage Company. There are often opportunities to join Lanto and Linda at one of their many Cob Cottage Workshops.





This is 'Little Cottage' sitting in the optimistic shade of a Small Wild Apricot. It's one of the Natural Homes at Jill Hogan's Alternative Technology Centre in McGregor, South Africa about 130 km west of Cape Town.

The Round Wood Sticking out of the Cob Walls is part of a Simple Cooling System to carry Loose Sticks in the Summer to provide shade for the Windows. The Sticks also scatter the strong South African light adding one of the many patterns from 'A Pattern Language' that you'll find in this home.





This Quaint Cob Cottage in Deddington, England cost almost nothing to build. It was built by Michael Buck almost exclusively from Materials from his Farm. The Clay for the Cob came from the site and the Long Straw for the Thatch came from a few Fields away. Poplars were planted by Michael 8 years before they were felled for joists. Reclaimed Floor Boards and Windows were donated by Customers of his Local Vegetable Box Scheme. Water comes from an Old Well and a Spring. Apart from some Additional Straw and Thatching Pins it cost nothing to build and used no Power Tools in its construction. 





This is the Cob Meditation Sanctuary at Hollyhock on Cortes Island, Canada. The building has a very nice ‘Entrance Transition’. That's the gradual movement from the Public Space to the Private Space of the Building. 

Saturday, May 8, 2021

The Hanging Restaurant - Soneva Kiri 6 Star Resort


Soneva Kiri Resort is a Beautiful 6-Star Resort on the island of Ko Kood in Thailand. 



It is part of the Six Senses Chain and offers its Guests a Luxurious Stay in a Tropical Environment. 



The Innovative Element of Soneva Kiri is its "Hanging" Restaurant. 



The Tables are Inside Constructions Hanging from the Trees from a Height of 5 Meters, 



While the Waiters use Ropes for their Movements ! 



See This Unique and Cool Restaurant









 

Wednesday, May 5, 2021

Mirrorcube - The Invisible Luxurious Tree House

 Inspired by the documentary "The Tree Lover", Scandinavian architects Bolle Tham and Martin Videgard decided to create a Tree House that allows people to live in Nature among the Tops of Trees. 

They created the Mirrorcube which is one of the units of "Treehotel" in Harads, Sweden. The Cube of 4 sq.m. is connected to a Tree and is completely covered by a Mirror.














Tuesday, May 4, 2021

Woodpecker Hotel - A Hotel on Tree


Remember the Favorite Nutcracker - Cartoon 
that drove young and old crazy with its funny adventures?

It's time to get to know his house, the Woodpecker Hotel, an Eco-Shelter in the Heart of a Park.


This Idiosyncratic Hotel is located in Sweden's Vasteras Municipal Park, built 13 meters above the Ground on the Branches of a Tree.


Creator Mikael Genberg, an Artist and Pioneer in the design of Original Hotels, placed this Unique Room on a 130 year old Oak Tree. 


It is one of the Smallest Hotels in the World, as it can accommodate only One Person or a Couple. The Rustic Room includes a comfortable Terrace, where the Guest can enjoy his coffee, literally in nature.


Access is only possible by an Escalator and the view of the Park and the adjacent Lake is magnificent.







 

Thursday, April 8, 2021

The Dancing House and The Stone Age Home

 1-The Dancing House in Prague



2. The Tree House in Cincinnati



3. Eco-Conscious Round House in Australia



4. Forest Spiral Apartments in Germany



5. UFO-Style Houses in Sanjhih, Taiwan



6. Space-Inspired House in Chicago



7. Crooked House in Poland



8. Cheetah House in Chicago



9. Conch House in the Caribbean



10. Stone Age Home in Portugal






















Wednesday, March 24, 2021

ROOPKUND - Lakes

 Roopkund (locally known as Mystery Lake) is a high altitude glacial lake in the Uttarakhand state of India. It lies in the lap of Trishul massif and is famous for the hundreds of human skeletons found at the edge of the lake. The area is uninhabited, located in the Himalayas at an altitude of 5,029 metres (16,499 feet). Surrounded by rock-strewn glaciers and snow-clad mountains, the lake is a popular trekking destination.




A shallow lake, having a depth of about two metres, Roopkund has attracted attention because of the human skeletal remains that are visible at its bottom when the snow melts. Many theories and opinions exist, from purely spiritual to scientific ones, attempting to explain the existence of these skeletons, which date back to 9th century CE. Because of the human remains, the lake has been called Skeleton Lake in recent times.




Human Skeletons:
The human skeletons were rediscovered in 1942 by a Nanda Devi game reserve ranger H K Madhwal, although there are reports about these bones from the late 19th century. The skeletons are visible in the clear water of the shallow lake during a one-month period, when the ice melts. Along with the skeletons, wooden artifacts, iron spearheads, leather slippers, and rings were also found. When a team from National Geographic magazine retrieved about 30 skeletons, flesh was still attached to some of them. Geneticist Neeraj Rai at Center for Cellular and Molecular Biology at Hyderabad conducted DNA tests on a hundred samples from the lake and compared them to the current Indian population. Results indicated that 70% of them had an affinity with Iran, while the remaining belonged to the local population. It is hypothesized that the Iran group took the help of local porters to seek a new land for settlement. Later studies placed the time of mass death around the 9th century AD (1200 years old).




The local legend says that the king of Kanauj, Raja Jasdhaval, with his pregnant wife, Rani Balampa, their servants, a dance troupe and others went on a pilgrimage to Nanda Devi shrine, and the group faced a storm with large hailstones, from which the entire party perished near Roopkund lake.




Remnants belonging to more than 300 people have been found. Radiocarbon dating of the bones at Oxford University's Radiocarbon Accelerator Unit determined the time period to be AD 850 ±30 years. The Anthropological Survey of India conducted a study of the skeletons during the 1950s and some samples are displayed at the Anthropological Survey of India Museum, Dehradun.