Awesome Architecture

Currently available in the UK, U-Build is a DIY modular and flat-pack wood and hardware system for building structures, furniture, and storage. You design your layout and dimensions on its website, then the parts are sent to you. You need only basic tools to put the frame together.

The Shanghai Tower is “only” the world’s second tallest building. But it has other bragging rights. It has the world’s fastest elevators – three of them, in fact – capable of going 40mph, enough to go from the first to the 121st floor in just 55 seconds.

Living Big in a Tiny House often features homes that were made with mobility and affordability in mind. But Marnie and Dan’s home came out of a desire to have a minimalist lifestyle. They made their new home in the backyard of their regular house, which they now rent out.

The B1M lists some of the world’s most locked-down buildings, and highlights their measures to protect their contents from access and attacks. There’s a military surveillance outpost, a data center, the Vatican’s archives, Fort Knox, and the White House.

If you ever find yourself passing through Stockholm, Sweden, consider spending a night at Jumbostay. Parked adjacent to Arlanda Airport, the retired Boeing 747 jumbo jet has been converted into a hotel, with rooms in its passenger cabin, cockpit, and engine nacelles.

LEGO builder Luke Taylor shows off his labor of love for the last decade – a sprawling, futuristic city made from countless bricks. Like the real deal, it’s an ever-changing, ever-growing urban landscape. Another great video from Beyond the Brick’s Joshua Hanlon.

After assembling the epic LEGO Bugatti Chiron model, The Brick Wall decided his supercar needed a superbridge to go with. He built this impressive roadway from over 32,000 pieces, over the course of 96 hours. He even included LED streetlights for night viewing.

Tokyo has experienced explosive population growth. To help cram more people into limited space, a famed Japanese architecture firm came up with the idea to build an enormous pyramid to house a million residents. Kento Bento explains their unusual idea and its challenges.

“Performance architect” Alex Schweder and artist Ward Shelley’s unique tiny home is only meant for residents with an iron stomach. The entire home not only spins in the wind, but it see-saws as its occupants move back and forth. We’re assuming the furniture is all nailed down.

Fiction Factory’s Wikkelhouse is a modular prefabricated house that uses cardboard and plywood as its main structural elements. Instead of rooms, the house comes in crosswise segments. Customers usually pick 4 or more segments for their house.

With tech like Alexa, Nest, and Hue already in our homes, it’s already feeling pretty futuristic around here, but Grant Imahara and The Verge take a look at some of the other things we might look forward if we rethink the way we design and build homes.

Time-lapse footage captured from the Swiss Tech Convention Center, which has installed a complex network of spiral lifts which can reconfigure the number, arrangement, and height of 2,300 of its seats with the push of a button. Engineered by Gala Systems.

Art Insider takes us on a tour of the world’s largest architectural model. Located at the Queens Museum, this incredibly detailed miniature of New York City was first revealed at the 1964 World’s Fair, and was updated with new buildings all the way until 1992.

DROP Structures‘ Mono cabin is its signature product. It’s a prefabricated living space that measures only 8.5′ x 12′ x 16’, so you don’t need building permits for it in North America. It has lots of customization options, including furniture, heating and appliances.

Got half a mil burning a hole in your pocket? You could be the new owner of this California desert home by architect Fritz Haeg. This 1 br 1 ba home features a unique blend of natural materials and modernist style, and sits on 45 acres. Contact agent Paul Karr for more info.

While the building has yet to be completed, we still are wowed by the idea that a 400 foot-tall skyscraper has a working 350 foot-tall waterfall built into its facade. The Liebian International Building is being built in Guiyang, China. Sadly, they can’t run it all the time.

Zupagrafika’s cut-out model book lets you build your own cold and impersonal miniature city filled with the brutalist architecture of Central and Eastern Europe. Includes seven buildings from Serbia, Moldova, Russia, the Czech Republic, Lithuania, Poland, and Russia.

At first glance, we thought we were watching another video by Primitive Technology, but this hobbit-style hut was constructed by competing YouTube channel Primitive Survival Tool, using found wood, straw, mud, and grass on its triple-arched roof. Bonus points for the ASMR.

Acme Studio’s ballpoint pen is the perfect addition to any architect, contractor, or designer’s toolbox. It got an ergonomic, roll-proof triangular design, and rulers in various drawing scales, ranging from 1/2 to 1/500. Available in silver, black, or pink.

For those of you unfamiliar with Nanoblocks, they’re teensy LEGO-style building blocks. We really love these sets, which feature mini cityscapes of New York and London. The also have architectural models of the Taj Mahal, Himeji Castle, and the Vatican, among others.

Brikawood building blocks allow for the construction of wood homes without the use of power tools, screws, or nails. Other than the base structure and roof, the walls of a Brikawood house simply slide together using notched wooden blocks and a mallet.

The Ecocapsule is a tiny, egg-shaped fiberglass home that crams living, cooking, working, storage, and bathroom areas into a 68 square foot space. It operates off of wind and solar power, captures and recycles rain water, and is completely self-contained.

Footage captured in and around Qatar’s Khalifa Stadium, as it went through a 4-year renovation, including a new sculptural roof and many other upgrades. We love watching the shadows move across as time passes during the daytime, and the fog rolling in at night.