Bolko Loft, ul. Kruszcowa Bytom, Poland. Renovated: 2003. While this place isn’t to my personal taste, I very much admire medusa group’s conversion of a structure in a former mining and steelworks complex, for owners Joanna & Przemo Łukasik. Before some of you start shrieking about how ugly/brutal/depressing this place is, think about the artists in the 1940’s who ventured forth and pioneered the adaptive reuse of industrial spaces in places like, say, SOHO in NYC……… Owner’s statement at end of post.

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Kratir House, Antiparos, Cyclades Islands, Greece. Size: 500 m2 (5381sf). Built: 2004. This house is the first of a series of nine houses in a development by Antiparos Design Properties, and is the firm’s first built project. And, it’s available for rent…………. The name comes from the fact that the house sits high up on a hill overlooking the village, and to protect it from the Meltemi summer winds, the plan called for the house to be built in an excavated ‘crater’……

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Denis-Ortmans House, Jehanster-Verviers, Belgium. Built: 2000. ‘A modern primitive hut’ for the 21rst Century. The text below explains best the brilliance of this house.

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The Primitive Hut of 2000, Mount Pelion, Greece. Built: 1999. I remember seeing this in a coffee table book a few years back,and I was instantly drawn to it. I could not remember where I saw it, or who designed it, so it was a joy to come upon architect Katerina Tsigarida’s site. The woman does beautiful work. Shown here is the ‘hut’, and at the end of the post are several drawings of an ongoing project, Gentleman’s Residence in Mytilene.
The ‘hut’ sits high up on a huge rock outcrop and faces out to the sea. Originally, there was a small stone shack set among some olive groves - it was renovated and new buildings were added to create a small complex of covered terraces, verandas, stone benches and tables.

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Threefold House, Oita, Japan. Size: 132.30 m2. Built: 2003-2005. . No text or anything available on the site. I just think the stepped design is striking…

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RestorationTrades.com: state by state directory, by zip code, of Building Restoration Artisans, Contractors, Designers, Fabricators & Suppliers.

Traditional Building: Building and Restoration resources for commercial, civic and religious building projects.

The Old House Parts Company: Architectural Salvage from 1730 to 1930. Amazing resource, located in Kennebunk, Maine. Be careful not to get drool on the keyboard, m’kay?

The Earthsci kids built this cool camp in Far North Queensland, Australia a few years ago: “….using two conventional shipping containers to create 90 square meters of living space in dense rainforest adjoining World Heritage Rainforest. The facility, on a nature refuge is used for rainforest research. The terrain is extremely difficult and accessed via a narrow track made by woodcutters in 1928. The techniques are simple and require only very basic skills. They produce a dry, durable ,vermin proof, comfortable, removable facility with a low ecological impact.”

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B2 House, Büykhüsun, Ayvacik, Turkey. Built: 2001. This weekend house designed by Han Tümertekin’s firm, Mimarlar, for two brothers won the Aga Khan Award for Architecture in 2004. The house is smaller than appears in these photos, with one open living space below and two bedrooms above. I’m really digging those aluminum and reed shutters…

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Prototype of a really cool-looking portable house with pop-outs for entry, kitchen and bath. I like it: when you leave for extended periods of time, you can really lock up this house! Tired of your location? Pick the sucker up and move it.

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I was perusing the LivingHomes site recently and came across this shot of a nice way to install Naturemill’s Automatic Home Composter in the kitchen.