Architect Gary Chang from Hong Kong did an amazing job retrofitting his tiny 334 square foot apartment. Check out this Pecha Kucha presentation he did explaining the evolution of this apartment over time.

… and a special presentation on his space here

Diogo Aguiar is an architecture graduate from the Oporto School of Architecture in Portugal who created an ingenious temporary bar using TROFAST storage boxes from IKEA as the main building material.

Every year, the students of the school of architecture are invited to create a temporary bar to represent their institution and Diogo Aguiar came up with a great concept. Needless to say, he won the first prize!

VERSION 1

The first version was simply the concept. I love the way he presented his concept like an IKEA instruction booklet and his sense of humor. Notice the passed out IKEA character?

VERSION 2

The second version, which was built in only one week, was a bit taller and included LED light to give it a completely different look at night. I think he did a really great job!

source : Diogo Aguiar | ikea

The architects from Mareines + Patalano in Brazil, created a beautiful eco-friendly beach house in Angra dos Reis, called Casa Folha (Leaf House), one hour south of Rio de Janeiro. Shaped like a giant lotus flower, this house’s concept is inspired by Brazil’s indian architecture, said to be perfectly suited for hot and humid climates. For this project, the architects were looking to integrate the living spaces with the surrounding environment, connecting the occupants with nature. As such, most of the living spaces are open to the outside and most of the materials used for the construction of the house are natural.

There’s a lot of neat green elements in their design. The roof protects the occupants from the sun and collects rain water in the center. The roof is also supported by a central steel column that also redirects the collected water to be used to water the plants in the garden and to flush the toilets.

There are no air conditioning systems in the house. The house is cooled through natural ventilation, taking advantage of the breeze from the sea. Most of the material used for the construction of the house is natural or recuperated. For example a portion of the wood floors comes from old electrical posts. This is definitely a green vacation home that’s respectful of its surroundings and the environment. Hopefully this is the beginning of a new era of environmentally friendly vacation homes.

source: Mareines + Patalano | inhabitat

During one of my many walks in Ibiza town, I noticed this great looking public building. I was surprised when I realized that it was actually a hospital: Centre Salut Vila. It looks nothing like the typical depressing institutionalized hospitals I’m used to seeing. This one looks good: simple, modern, minimalist. I actually peeked inside (sorry no pictures from inside, I didn’t feel it was respectful to the patients inside), the indoor space was really nice as well. It had a very open and airy feel and there was a lot of natural light coming inside the building, partially due to a little indoor courtyard. I imagine it’s much better to work in a hospital like this one than the typical old, stuffy and dark hospitals. I think good design and integration of natural light and plants help patients feel better faster in a hospital.

The two large openings in the following picture are for the ambulances to come in. The garage seems to have been designed in such a way that the passerby can’t see too much of the “action” as ambulances arrive to the hospital, which is a great idea.

I love the way the windows and garage entrance were designed. They look like they were carved out of the building.