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The Apelle wooden home located in Karjaa, Finland stands out out from your average eco-home, as it was constructed as if it were a boat. The building is nestled amidst its natural surroundings of rock beds and trees, where the utmost care was taken not to disturb the natural habitat. Designed by architect Marco Casagrande, the unique home took one year to design and another year to complete construction. It was built with the help of two local carpenters who usually build wooden boats – they maintain that the home is actually a boat.  Read More

Romanian non-profit green-tech firm Justin Capra Foundation for Sustainable Technologies and Inventions (or FITS), has unveiled the Soleta zeroEnergy range of sustainable off-grid homes. The flexible dwellings are available in several shapes and sizes, and combine rustic modular design with the proverbial kitchen sink of energy saving and producing technologies.  Read More

Though a large imposing house may draw admiring glances, it’s also generally expensive, and a waste of resources for a smaller family. Los Angeles-based Big & Small House by Anonymous Architects bucks the trend of sizable LA residences, and instead offers an example of small living at its most practical and appealing.  Read More

Architects are increasingly designing houses which produce as much energy as they consume, which has led to a plethora of innovative sustainable homes, some conventional in design and some decidedly not. The Mo Ventus luxury house concept from Todd Theodore Fix of FIXd Architecture/Design falls squarely in the latter category, with plans that call for retractable screens that regulate heat and light, along with a curved design to harness wind power more efficiently.  Read More

At Gizmag, we're suckers for interesting looking houses. We've covered the world's narrowest house, houses made from a shipping containers, and so many other interesting abodes. One thing we've not seen before is a house with a profile that mimics the shape of a dinosaur's head, that is until we encountered the OLS House.  Read More

Even someone who lives in a penthouse in Lower Manhattan may feel the need to “keep up with the Joneses,” to some extent. One way to impress New York City's penthouse-dwelling elite is to choose a location which affords particularly stunning views, while another is to select only the finest interior furnishings. The SkyHouse penthouse renovation by architect David Hotson does both, but ups the ante with the addition of an 80-foot (24-meter) slide which sprawls throughout the interior of the home.  Read More

Last year, we saw an interesting concept for the OdMEx, an enormous mobile home with a billboard on the side, on which occupants could sell advertising space for some extra income. Mexican paper company Scribe recently funded a similarly-styled house, but with a much different goal. The Billboard House is a simple home built onto the back of a billboard in Mexico City to temporarily house an artist while she works on a new hand-painted advertisement.  Read More

Edgeland Residence is a modern dwelling designed by the Bercy Chen Studio which sees the company rehabilitating land once considered unsuitable for occupation. Claimed to set a new standard for sustainability, it draws inspiration from the Native American Pit House, and is designed to impact the environment as little as possible.  Read More

The Hobbit is a story that has endured for more than seven decades, with children and adults alike drawn into the fantasy realm created by J.R.R Tolkien. Thanks to Peter Jackson, who previously brought The Lord Of The Rings to the big screen, a whole new generation of fans is likely to be created. Reading the book and watching the movies is one thing, but having your own real-life Hobbit Hole in the back garden is quite another ... one that's now possible thanks to Wooden Wonders.  Read More