Hobbit Houses: 15 Grassy Hill-Shaped Dwellings. “In a hole in a ground lived a hobbit.
Not a nasty, dirty, wet hole, filled with the ends of worms and an oozy smell, nor yet a dry, bare, sandy hole with nothing to sit on or eat: It was a hobbit hole and that means comfort.” This line by J.R.R. Tolkien, author of the beloved The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings fantasy novels, has inspired hundreds of copycat underground hobbit homes around the world – and is itself inspired by ancient Viking hill houses. These 15 green-roofed dwellings that take a page right out of Tolkien’s books come in all sizes for all kinds of functions, from hotels in New Zealand to backyard playhouses and vintage underground hill-dug duplexes.
The World’s First Hobbit Motel (images via: wayfaring.info) For tourists the world over, New Zealand will forever be associated with The Lord of the Rings, since it served as the filming and production location for the film version of the saga. Modern Hobbit Home in Switzerland (images via: toxel) (images via: webecoist) Biomimicry based Urban Eco-community Design. One of the big realizations that designers have when they play with biomimicry is that it’s not a tool, it’s a mindset shift - Dayna Baumeister, co-founder the Biomimicry Guild Biomimicry is fast becoming an integral part of sustainable design.
Nature-inspired decisions can add tremendous value to a project. A biologist working in biomimetic design is known as a Biologist at the Design Table( BaDT). There are currently only a handful of BaDTs in the world today but eventually, the goal is to have a BaDT in every design firm. In 2010, Fast Company organized the What Would You Ask Nature? One of the selected cases was Portland-based Brightworks, a sustainable development company. Mithun Architects+Designers+Planners and a team of specialists were part of this project and recommended ideas such as: water independence (using water immediately available from rain or ground)greenways for natural animal habitatsa high-rise district in the center of the neighborhood that featured green buildings.
Design Inspiration. Nature inspired design. 54 Gorgeous Geometric Structures - From Geometric Cut-Out Facades to Jenga-Inspired Beach Homes. Architecture inspired by spiders. In The Mind Of The Architect: Episode 3 - Corrugated Dreams. Architects are the builders of our hopes and dreams.It’s their visions of Australia that we live in.
If we are what we build, we put great trust in the mind of the architect. Brian Donovan, architect: Pure pleasure just through experience. What gives an architect the confidence to produce a great Australian building? A good site, a flexible council, tolerant neighbours or a gifted builder.But most of all a brave client with a lot of money. Timothy Hill: If the client comes to the architect because we’ve got more telephone numbers than they have, or because they see us as this medium by which we can enable their highly specific dreams to come true, then we’re not going to be able to have a constructive relationship with them.
Architects would like to be given free rein by clients and the community. Tina Engelen, designer: For Ian and I, it’s just our internal belief, it’s our religion almost. If there is an Australian architecture maybe this is a good place to start? Folding Architecture: Top 10 Origami-Inspired Buildings. Photo: Ake Lindman Architects love origami because it achieves what buildings rarely do: frame space through extreme economy of means.
Origami artists can produce a panoply of shapes and forms using only a single sheet of paper. Their constructions are inherently structural and can even be engineered to bend, contract, and expand---things that buildings can't do either. Festival Hall of the Tiroler Festspiele Erl Erl, Austria Designed by Delugan Meissl Associated ArchitectsLearn more about this project in the Architizer database here. Add To Collection Save this image to a collection Tel Aviv Museum of Art Tel Aviv, Israel Designed by Preston Scott Cohen, IncLearn more about this project in the Architizer database here. Photo: Paúl Rivera Nestlé Chocolate Museum Mexico City, Mexico Designed by Rojkind Arquitectos Panteón Nube Murcia, Spain Designed by Clavel ArquitectosLearn more about this project in the Architizer database here.