Construction

Tucked away in a valley on the west coast of Sweden is Hus-1, a tiny home that resembles a giant log. The eco-lodge is a free-standing structure that was designed and built by Scandinavian architect and carpenter, Torsten Ottesjö. The original concept was to create a structure that would reflect its landscape without attracting too much attention. “I wanted to try to build a house which was seen as beautiful in the same complex way as nature,” states Ottesjö. The result is an energy-efficient small home that was cheap to build and has minimal impact on its surrounding environment.  Read More

Described by its creator as "a secret treehouse hiding in the woods of Whistler," in the Canadian province of British Columbia, the HemLoft is, unlike many buildings that describe themselves such, a treehouse in the truest sense: the entire weight of the egg-shaped structure is supported by the tree around which it is built. Though welcome to visitors - the right sort of visitors, at least - one first has to find it. And the ongoing story of the HemLoft's ever-widening profile is as compelling as the story of its construction - and it's a story with an uncertain ending.  Read More

Taking inspiration from a toy, a team of researchers at MIT have developed a new engineering structure that is mechanically unstable, yet collapses in a way that is predictable and reversible. The structure, formed out of a single piece of rubber-like material, is fabricated so that it collapses in harmony to form a smaller structure that can then be expanded into the original shape. This structure opens up new potentials in everything from architecture to micro-medical applications.  Read More

For some, architecture is considered "the will of an epoch translated into space" (Mies van der Rohe), for others, it's "frozen music" (Goethe), but for most of us, the topic remains quite subjective. Now, top online architecture review site ArchDaily has finally sifted through over 65,000 votes to come up with the winners of their 2011 Building of the Year awards - a fascinating selection of innovation and creativity that will wow some and challenge others. Numerous images for each structure are available in the gallery.  Read More

What do you do when you want to build a worry-free home on land that also happens to be a 100-year flood plain? If you're smart, you'll do what the owner of Delta Shelter did and have Olson Kundig Architects build you a metal fortress to withstand the elements in style. The compact 1,000 sq ft (93 sq m) steel-walled hideaway with a footprint of only 200 sq ft (18.6 sq m) looks ready to handle whatever the Washington wilderness can throw at it - even, perhaps, a 1,000-year flood.  Read More

Researchers at Cornell University have built a robot prototype capable of navigating a three dimensional truss structure, disassembling and reassembling the structure into new forms as it goes. The project hints at a possible future when buildings and robots may be designed in close harmony for autonomous buildings maintenance.  Read More

Leap day 2012 saw the completion of the world's second tallest structure, the Tokyo Sky Tree television transmitter and observation tower. At 2,080 feet (634 m) the tower stands nearly twice as Japan's previous tallest frame, the 1,091-ft (333-m) Tokyo Tower transmitter. It's an audacious technological feat when one considers this is at the heart of an earthquake zone.  Read More

The growing popularity of 3D printers, such as the Printbot or MakerBot's Thing-o-Matic, testify to the fact that additive manufacturing is slowly entering the mainstream. The devices are now small enough to fit on a desk and they can make all sorts of stuff, such as toys, chess figures, or spare door knobs. But what if you want to make something slightly bigger - say, a house? Then you need to turn to Enrico Dini, the founder of Monolite UK and the inventor of the D-Shape "robotic building system."  Read More

The Shannon Solo Dumper is an easy-to-operate, remote-control, four-wheel-drive, high-tipper-dumper with a carrying capacity of 500 kg (1100 pounds) and remote-control-range of 100 metres from the operator. Apart from doing a lot of work at cheap rates, reducing many two person jobs to single person tasks, it significantly reduces operating risks where there is a risk to the person operating a traditional drive-on dumper: demolition sites, sites where there is a threat of falling debris, with a gradient, confined spaces, narrow access, busy highways, contaminated land, unstable ground, ad infinitum. The GBP12,750 (US$20,000) Dumper has been so well received that the Solo Fire Hose (GBP19,500 - US$30,600), Solo Sprayer (GBP13,500 - US$21,200) and Solo Mower (GBP17,950 - $28,200) have been added to the range and a portable winch version will soon be added.  Read More