8 amazing micro-apartments This is a very wide sales promotion by the real estate lobby and industry to alter the minimum legal apartment size in New York City and elsewhere. They have the billionaire Mayor, who has several whole houses for himself, behind them and even set up a pr exhibit at The Museum of the City of New York to promote all the joys of cramming into smaller space! If they can only make them smaller, they say, the apartments will be cheaper and more plentiful! In fact if they could only set tenants up in refrigerators or coffins and make it sound cool, exciting and profitable, they would! This is a gross scam and should not be promoted on here or anywhere else.
Simple Aquaponics System for Growing Your Own Food & Fish At Home This aquaponics system is different than most. It’s a scaled down version of the system Will Allen over at Growing Power Inc uses to grow 1 Million pounds of food on his 3 acre farm in Milwaukee, WI. The whole system uses just a single pump and uses very little energy to pump nutrient rich water up to the gravel bed on top for filtration. The upper bed is slightly angled so the water can slowly drain down to the second bed below. And then finally back into the main tank where the fish are kept. This system is scalable and will produce a large amount of food in a very small space when compared with traditional row cropping. This system has almost unlimited potential yield, and scalability. Also, this system can be housed in a greenhouse for year-round growing. So, what are you waiting for? Image: Comments comments
NYC "Swiss Army knife" apartment's walls open, fold & slide Rosa and Robert Garneau’s Chelsea apartment is small- just 550 square feet of usable space with a bedroom just 8 feet wide-, but they can both work from home, find privacy (even for meetings while the other is sleeping) and fit all their belongings (sports equipment and lots of office gear) thanks to walls that don’t stand still. Nearly every “wall” in the Garneau’s Transformer Loft opens to reveal cabinets, a bed or even a home office. And all of it was carefully designed for utility and precision by the couple (both architects self-employed by Studio Garneau). “It's all about the hardware," explains Robert whose father was a carpenter and who at one time worked in nautical design. "I mean I'm quite geeky in terms of hardware so I like playing around doing the research with what piece of hardware will do the job that I need to do... you know the hinges, the lid supports, the tracks.” The hydraulics on their Murphy bed are so perfectly balanced that it opens and closes with fingertips.
tree tents by luminair nov 26, 2012 tree tents by luminair ‘tree tents’ by luminairall images courtesy of luminair the culmination of three years worth of research, these ‘tree tents’ by luminair are coming to forests near you. bringing awareness to the timber harvest and lifecycle, these suspended capsules bring comfortable and low impact retreats up in the canopies. the living spaces are contained by a sustainable structural frame enclosed with high density cotton canvas fabric. a combination of green ash wood and strong, lightweight hybrid aluminum sub-frame components are easily transported and assembled. steam-bent into a spherical shape, the form spreads loads across the structure to absorb movements of inhabitants. its 100% waterproof exterior is insulated with sheep wool, making the shelters perfect for year-round use and semi-permanent camps. it comes in olive green, red and natural. spherical tent suspended amidst tree trunks ladder leads into front door side window door entry fabric door rolled up bedroom
Your Phone is Tracking Your Every Move on a Hidden Map. Here's How to Stop It. Has your special someone been peeping over your shoulder while you're on your smartphone recently? You better keep that passcode extra secure, because if not, there's a hidden option in iOS 7 and Android that keeps track of everywhere you've been—down to the minute—that they're going to want to get their spying little hands on. Trust us, it's a jealous person's gold mine. iOS 7 and Google Now in Android keep track of users' locations to help the smartphone makers provide personalized information through their location-based services, like Siri. But the details they track go further than just knowing that you went to Best Buy on Saturday to check out other phones—their maps actually log in HOW LONG you were at each location. Take the above example, for instance, of an employee here at the Complex offices. So if you want to check out your information and turn it off (or leave it on), head to your iPhone's Settings. From there, you should see everything your phone has on you.
Affordable and Versatile Sommerhaus Piu Prefab Vacation Home The collaboration between German industrial designers Patrick Frey and Björn Götte led to the construction of this small but comfortable vacation house named Sommerhaus Piu Prefab Vacation Home. The affordable house can act as a vacation home, a weekend retreat or even a year-round home for those with a small budget. The cabin home displays a modern design that stands out in the middle of nature with its slightly pitched roof and colour duality. Covered in horizontal wood planks, the prefabricated house was designed to offer its inhabitants both comfortable interior spaces and outdoor relaxation facilities. A porch painted in a darker colour defines the edges of the house – this darker accent spreads to the roof and margins of the cabin, creating a contemporary visual appeal. The roof shapes a veranda that wraps around the house and shades part of the building.
Seven Giant Herbs You Can Grow at Home Large Leaf Italian Basil By Erica Glasener - networx.com I admit it, I live to eat. For best growth and production most herbs need full sun (4 to 6 hours of direct sun) and excellent drainage but you don’t have to have a big garden to grow them. 1. Giant Italian parsley (Petroselinum crispum) is a biennial in Zones 6 to 9, but often grown as an annual. 2. Another evergreen herb, native to the Mediterranean, is rosemary (Rosmarinus officinalis). 3. Winter hardy in Zones 5 to 10, sage (Salvia officinalis) can grow 2 to 3’ tall or taller and 2’ wide. 4. Also known for its fragrance is the perennial herb lemon balm (Melissa officinalis) hardy in Zones 4 to 9. 5. If you love lavender scented soaps and sachets, try growing some of your own lavender, including the cold hardy English lavender (Lavandula angustifolia); perennial in Zones 5 to 9 and popular as a companion for roses. 6. 7. Hyssop (Hyssopus officinalis) is a perennial herb in Zones 4 to 9. About the Author
Inspiring Tree House by KAA Design Group The Los Angeles chapter of the American Institute of Architects is actually developing into the one-stop destination for amazing architecture. This time around, the KAA Design Group introduces this Tree House in Manhattan Beach. With lofty Southern Californian coasts to the fore, the unitary house (which obviously is not a tree house) combines aesthetic exteriors with stunning interiors studded with wood, concrete and glass.