short lease in a slick machine: a personal essay about apartments
Suddenly, we were in a prison of design. This was a place for performing living, and we, as normal people, simply wanted to live – wanted to leave clothes in…
U-Build hands-on: a flat-pack modular home you can assemble
U-Build is a modular construction system even completely inexperienced builders can assemble with simple hand tools. The flat-pack kit is made from CNC-cut plywood; components are slotted together like puzzle…
How Abandoned and Eroding Victorian Mansions of the Gilded Age Came to Symbolize Impending Doom
In a portentous video essay for Vox, producer Coleman Lowndes explains why the highly decorated, overly trimmed Victorian mansions (McMansions of their time) of the Gilded Age went from being…
Builder transforms old RV into unique tiny home
When Joe Weissbeck lost his property in 2009, he began converting a rundown RV- purchased for $350- into a one-of-a-kind mobile home. While living in it, he tore it down…
Portland’s 359 skinny house follows the sun like a sunflower
Ben Kaiser’s 359 house can be rotated by just one person- or two kids- pushing a bar and walking around it. It’s what he calls the logical union of the…
Aldo Leopold plants a forest and a meadow
In 1935, Aldo Leopold bought a worn out farm along the Wisconsin River. Taking up (second) residence in a former chicken coop, they wanted to live close to the land.…