Half outdoor space

An interesting design concept: "Half-outdoor space." The idea is to bring the outside indoors.
As I get back into my Vancouver mindset (I'll be heading home this Friday,) I've been thinking about a key concept for our design. I love the idea of healthy minds and bodies through design. Working with professionals like kineseologists and yoga instructors may prove to be one way to completely rethink design for the future. Psychologists may be another group to consult.

Small, prefab homes out of Surrey!

We're seeing it happen more and more in Vancouver- Smallworks, Inhabit, and now this!

This is a globe and mail article reporting on an architect named Tony Robbins, who started showing his tiny prefab homes in BC recently. From the article:

"We've had over a 130 inquiries already," says the architect, who recently revealed his design for a 500-square-foot unit in a palette of steel, glass and wood to an enthusiastic audience at a B.C. home show in Vancouver.

It's a very minimalist and open design, which I think is the key to making tiny seem huge. It's also really exciting to see this movement coming to Canada. With all the  space, we have a lot of potential for urban sprawl- so I like the timing of it. 

Right now, I'm getting all amped up for Jay Shafer's workshop- it's a 2day design-your-own kinda setup. Hooray! In fact, that really needs it's own post at this point. 

Instructables: Where MIT goes to play

Everyone has been telling me to go check out things on instructables, so I dedicated a little time this morning to having a peek.

Oh my god.
Seriously- the kinds of things people are building on that site are mind boggling. Build your own laser cutter instructables aside, I was all hyped up to see things like jabroutin's Personal Power Plant, and Eco-friendly home design, and this Bike Powered Generator.


Oh, and on an unrelated note, this is sexy.