Catharine Mphee: Buildings and Architecture

Showing posts with label Buildings and Architecture. Show all posts

Living in 320 Square Feet Home

Two years ago, Debra and her family lived in a nearly 2000 square foot home on an acre and a half of land. Then her husband lost his job and they began to work 4 jobs between them to pay the mortgage, until one day they remembered they had a choice.

Before having their son, Debra and her husband Gary had spent 9 years living in very tiny homes in South America. Living small hadn't felt like a sacrifice, but a way to stay focused on what is important. They decided they wanted to get back to that. They stopped working so hard, sold or gave away all of their extra stuff and began looking for the perfect tiny home.

Debra had always liked the Mississippi shotgun style homes, and one day, while browsing craigslist, they noticed an ad for a local Arkansas company custom building tiny homes for a price that could mean an end to house payments. Six weeks and $15,000 later they had their own fully paid-off dwelling. Today, Debra, her husband and 13-year-old son live in a 320-square foot home that is not a sacrifice, but exactly what they need.

Cool Pictures

Inside The AOL Offices

AOL launched a company-wide initiative to adapt to changes in online culture which the company had been instrumental in creating in the first place. As part of this effort, AOL moved its West Coast headquarters to a new corporate space in Palo Alto and brought in Studio O+A to give the office a fresh design.

Image courtesy: Jasper Sanidad
Cool Pictures

Coober Pedy - The Underground Town in Australia

The Australian town of Coober Pedy has a population of around 2,000 and is famous for two things. Firstly, the town is known as the opal capital of the world because of the quantity of precious gems that are mined there. Secondly, and the reason for this gallery, Coober Pedy is renowned for it’s underground residences, mostly in refurbished mines.

The severe desert climate made a lot of residents move to live underground, in caves. In summer temperatures on the surface can reach 40-50 degrees Celsius (over 100 degrees Fahrenheit). A cave home usually has three bedrooms, kitchen, bathroom and lounge that are excavated out of the rock in the hillsides. Such homes don’t require air-conditioning, because they remain at a constant temperature.

Coober Pedy attracts tourists from all over the world. The mines, underground churches and graveyard are the most interesting attractions here. The trees you can find in this town are iron welded. You can play golf at night only to avoid hot temperatures. The local golf is free of grass that is why players take a small piece of tee-off turf with them.

Coober Pedy is featured in many movies, including Opal Dream, Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome, Red Planet and Priscilla, Queen of the Desert. NASA is planning to train astronauts for a planned mission to Mars here in 2012.