Awesome Architecture

Building an actual house requires lots of different skills. OUROBOROS ARQ shows how you can apply the same experience and materials to the creation of a miniature dwelling, as they lay down a concrete and rebar foundation, erect beams and walls, lay bricks and install a tile roof for their literally tiny house.

You’d think that cardboard wouldn’t be a great homebuilding material, but Fiction Factory says their tiny cardboard house is durable enough for permanent structures. The tiny house is assembled using layers of premium “goldboard” which is wrapped around a special mold, then covered with glue, a protective film, and wooden slats.

Mom and dad always told you not to play with your food. But we think they’d make an exception for these connectors that let you build structures using dry spaghetti. They come in 3-sided and 4-sided versions, in packages of 100 connectors each. Just don’t boil your noodles if you care about structural integrity.

Located in Manchester City, UK, Etihad Stadium is one of the most iconic stadiums in Europe. Model maker FoBIRD took about 20 days to fabricate a miniature replica of the football stadium, using wooden skewers as his construction material. He did a great job capturing the facility’s architectural highlights.

You’d think going to a park during the pandemic would be safe, but people don’t always obey social distancing rules. To solve this, Austrian design firm Studio Precht has created “Park de la Distance,” a concept urban park where each path allows just one person at a time, and hedges keep people over 6 feet apart.

Driving around Los Angeles, it’s nearly impossible to miss the many diners, car washes, and other buildings with their kitschy and angular retro-futurist looks. Cheddar explains the origins of so-called “Googie” architecture, and why it became so popular.

Ever feel like just chucking it all and moving to a tiny house? Hunting for George takes us on a tour of a wonderful off-grid dream house located on Bruny Island in Tasmania, Australia. Its got a full kitchen, a lofted bedroom, a chill dining space with idyllic views, and a hidden outdoor tub. Designed by Maguire + Devine Architects.

Dogs love tennis balls. To celebrate this cherished relationship, architecture firm CallisonRTKL created a very special doghouse, covered with 1,019 tennis balls – each of which can be removed to play with. The 3D-printed doghouse was auctioned off to benefit the SPCA of Texas, but we’d love to see this sold in kit form.

If you’ve ever wondered just how much bigger the Avengers tower was relative to Ant-Man’s mobile lab, this video answers that question and many more. MetaBall Studios‘ compares structures from movies, TV, and video games and puts them into perspective. We always suspected the Tyrell Corporation was enormous.

Artist Hongtao Zhou uses 3D printing to produce these wildly innovative works of art. Each one offers up a tactile and dimensional sculpture of a city, sculpted from letters of varying heights, and forming words which describe the locale. Some of his works are even printed on a flexible background so they bend like paper.

This impressive model of Tony Stark’s office tower from The Avengers series was built by FoBIRD using skinny wooden sticks and glue as its primary building materials. Watch as he painstakingly builds up the facades section-by-section, using architectural elevations he initially drafted onto paper.

A look at an incredible handmade structure being used to access and repair damaged temples in Bagan, Myanmar. These scaffolds are constructed entirely from bamboo and coconut husks, yet are apparently strong enough to hold several construction workers.

Exploring Alternatives introduces us to Catherine and Wayne, who have lived for nearly 30 years on a tiny man-made island in Tofino, BC, Canada. Freedom Cove was built by hand, using recycled and sustainable materials. It has multiple greenhouses, an art gallery, and a floating dance floor.

Zach Both was looking for a way to pursue his dreams of traveling the country and developing his filmmaking career, so he set out to make the ultimate live/work mobile office – a fantastic vehicle which started out as a simple white panel van. Learn to DIY with The Vanual.

Coolest Thing introduces us to Bryan Berg, a professional card stacker who holds several Guinness World Records for his gigantic houses of cards. Now, Berg attempts to build one of his paper skyscrapers with a twist – assembling it outdoors. Along the way, he explains a bit of his architectural technique.

Take a tour of the beautiful and serene Seashore Library, which sits along China’s Bohai Sea near Nandaihe Pleasure City. Architect Dong Gong’s design was designed to provide each occupant of its reading room with an unobscured view of the beach outside, and a sense of peace and solitude for each visitor.