I quite hate the idea of mobile homes. Everything is so cramped up and you can never be fully comfortable. But I must admit that 'Blob VB3' by architectural firm dmvA is pretty cool. It's designed as a mobile unit for the office of Xfactoragencies as an extension to the 'house'. It resembles a massive space-egg and includes a bathroom, kitchen, lighting, a bed and several niches for storage. The nose of this blob opens automatically and it doubles as a porch. Apparently, it's very easy to manoeuvre around. Take a look at the pictures, it certainly packs a punch.

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Believe it or not this large delicious offering is not a giant cake factory but a display made from cardboards! Known as Cakeland by artist Scott Hove, this large sculpture is sure to fool anyone at first glance. The unique sculpture has brought to life every cake loving, sweet-toothed persons fantasy to life! This is definitely the best and most delicious cake art display I have ever seen.

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The latest talk of the town is the British biomass power station which is yet a concept, but involves controversial environmental topics. The visually appealing Teesside plant is basically going to provide fuel to about 50000 homes, will be powered by palm kernel shells and will be covered in greenery. British architect Thomas Heatherwick will design the site in such a way that it will appear to rise up from the ground level and will have grasses and other plants planted on the slope. This way the current barren land will be put to some good green use and will thus boost the greenery and help to restore the flora and fauna to the region. If the project gets approved, it is expected to create hundreds of jobs over its two-year construction period and bring GBP150 million (about US$240 million) dollars of investment to the area.

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Constantin and Laurene Leon Boym, the designer couple have added to their contentious "Buildings of Disaster" sequence with a limited edition of bonded metal miniature of the Taj Mahal Hotel. This was done to remember the dreadful terrorist attacks which had taken place in Mumbai just over a year ago. It indeed was a gory massacre and needs to be remembered in the future.

[Core77]

Need a rest on the lap of nature, away from civilization? Olga Kalugina from Ekaterinburg, Russia has designed Bloom, the mobile living module working on renewed energy. Some parts of the module are developed from its outside, considerably increasing its internal space. The living space includes the entrance zone, three private living zones and the general territory. The private living zone is an open room for two persons where as the general territory includes the lunch zone, the sanitary and hygienic block and the kitchen. The module works completely independently on renewed energy sources such as solar batteries, air and liquid solar collectors etc. The module is transported by means of motor transport or the helicopter. The size of the module is multiple to the sizes of standard containers. It is also possible to connect some modules together. It sums up to a great idea for a quiet holiday.

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A fireplace has amused me, reminding me of the times we would long for the bonfire to listen to old tales from our grandma. This interesting fireplace, rather a firehouse has been designed taking inspiration from the Norwegian turfs and indeed looks like a flame. Made on a concrete base, the wooden construction is made of 80 layers of circles. Every circle is made out of 28 pieces of naturally impregnated core of pine that are placed with varied spaces to assure chimney effect and natural light. The designers claim this is meant especially for children. The only thing that I don’t appreciate in this design is that a combination of children, wood and fire is very unsafe, but nevertheless an artist has to be given that amount of creative freedom to experiment and open horizons.

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A unique ‘concept’ classroom, designed by students from the University of Glamorgan, opened its doors on the Treforest campus this week, 10th December. Out of 27 student designs submitted, second year interior design student Luke Gillard’s design was selected as the winning entry. His design splits the classroom into four zones, each providing a different element of functionality for the users. Zone 1 and 2 are packed with state-of-the-art modern features and technology. Zone 3 is a ‘reflective’ space, featuring a grass floor and images of a sunny sky on the walls, thus providing a natural setting. Zone 4 is a fully fitted out ‘executive office’ for mock interviews, meetings, presentations etc. The University deserves praises for giving an opportunity to their students to turn their designs from concept into reality as much as Luke Gillard deserves for his work.

[Glam.ac]

Did you know that the tall skyscrapers are the major bird-killers and not the wind turbines? Yes, it’s true. The birds cannot see through the glass wall of the skyscrapers, because of which they dash right into it and kill themselves.

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This 3 x 9 meter off-the-grid housing module has been designed by Cannatá & Fernandes. This self-sustained house looks amazing and is very well structured. It is just a simple rectangular shaped long horizontal structure. It is made of concrete, though looks like it is made of wood. It is long and very beautiful from the inside. Also it looks sturdy enough to be able to withstand wind blows upto a certain level. [IndustrialDesignServed]

We have so many skyscrapers and high rises that I’m tired seeing them now. Vertical expansion is the only solution in today’s space crunched world, so much so that I crave to live in a tree house in a forest and experience nature up, close and personal. MAD has completed the concept design of a 385 meter high metropolitan cultural complex in the city center of Chongqing – The Urban Forest. They propose this new architectural concept to actualize a sustainable multidimensional highrise where nature blends into architecture. [Dezeen]

I love the VW Beetle. Never mind that it was designed by a tyrant it’s my dream to own one someday, somehow. But do you ever notice, no matter how much you may be a fan of something, there’s always someone out there who makes you seem like you’re just an average follower? Well as big a fan as I may be with my posters and models and T-shirts etc., Austrian engineer Markus Voglreiter took is fan-ism to a whole other level and designed his home to look like the car. Awesome! The house has two separate areas designed to suite the adults and the children. A barbecue pit is located at the rear so where the exhaust pipe would be and the headlights are actually the bedroom windows. All that’s left is to make it mobile. Sorry, that was spiteful but I’m jealous.

Via - [Newlaunches]

Architect David Tajchman has designed Fluid Miami- Aerial metro station in a concept proposal for a new station in downtown Miami. His design is meant to provide the city with an elevated public transport system situated on the north edge of Museum Park. The hovering ultramodern station would be accessible by car and foot and would include circular cut-outs throughout its roof and sides to let natural sunlight into the space. In times of traffic snarls, its elevated base smoothes the traffic flow by allowing people to pass below the station’s structure rather than only around it. If it becomes a reality, it would definitely make commuting easier for the masses.

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Nature and beauty are always easily associated with France. This house is a testimony of this fact too. Designed by architect Pierre Minassian right outside a small village near the French town of Lyon is a house that is 23m x 7m parallelepiped, made of concrete, steel and glass. While concrete is used for the rood and flooring, steel is used in the framework of pillars and windows. Apart from this, he has designed an external curtain made of untreated exotic wood iroko. The wood curtain is the specificity of the house. It is composed of shapes that have been named ‘biscuits’. Apart from not allowing heat to enter and by creating a mirror effect between the curtain and the window pane, the wood curtain gives a look and feel of a traditional warm and cozy home.

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You can always trust Italy to come up with extremely elegant and classic designs that are made to suit your level and caliber. A similar design has done by an Italian designer Progettospore, who has designed a sailing club in Italy. The design looks very classy and elegant to me. Made form materials like wood, glass, brick and hemp, the look of the architecture is very light and sharp. Though it is an architecture, it is definitely not a visual barrier between the pedestrian promenade and the sea. It is a beautiful frame that is perfect for thes ea side or a beach. Thin and strategic construction makes the design look very luxurious and rich.

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Cottages, I always thought had to be made of wood. Even in books, as a kid I’d read about people living in small but warm cottages would often generate a feeling in me also to live in a cottage. But this particular cottage in Japan has been made of aluminum! Though, this two-storied building looks strong and metallic from the outside, there is enough wood work on the inside and so the typical cottage feel has still been maintained. To me on the outside it looks very intimidating and I wouldn’t want to enter, but on the inside the home looks quite warm and friendly.

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