Urban Planning Blog

PUNK HOUSE documents a journey that most of us will have never taken; it shows us homes that most of us have never seen; it gives a small taste of a way of living most of us have never lived, and it does so in an easy yet successful way. The photos range from disgusting (the bathroom at Casa de Otto comes to mind —is that blood or hair dye?) to the artistic (is this a junk pile of sticks or is it considered sculpture?).

Timothy Findlen along with photographer Abby Banks spent three months driving cross-country to visit and photograph sixty-five punk houses—communal, low-rent houses typically crammed full of punks, squatters, and artists.

[source].

After taking a stab at designing the ‘ultimate’ home, Scott Adams (of the Dilbert fame) takes on the challenge of an ultimate city plan. I hope someone has told him that it has been tried before only to fail miserably.

For those not living in the shadow of the Empire State Building and wondering what color is it displaying today, this site may be useful to satisfy that curious cat in you.

…is in Algarrobo. Where’s that? In Chile. In the San Alfonso del Mar Resort. That thing is nearly a kilometer long and holds 66 million gallons of water [via Neatorama]. Of course, Dubai is pissed that it doesn’t have something as large and is rumored to be promptly building something just as large. Yeah, we know Dubai is in the desert but if you haven’t heard they already have an indoor ski slope so what’s so great about a large body of unfrozen water?

The Long Johns (John Bird and John Fortune) on the mechanisms of the market that takes a poor black man sitting on a crumbling porch in rural Alabama to High Structured Enhanced Credit Funds. Hilarious but tragically true.

“There’s so much comedy on television. Does that cause comedy in the streets?” - Dick Cavett.

…the top of the list of leaning buildings. A German church steeple that leans at a 5.19 degree angle as opposed to Pisa’s 3.97 degrees now sits atop the list of leaning buildings.

Public restrooms/bathrooms/toilets need not be bare, monotonous, and dull. Here are some of the more unique ones. No foot-tapping permitted in these though.

I know that the toilet bowl in one heck of a sculptural design piece but why would you design a house to look like it?

What do you do when neighborhood change is making it expensive for you to live in? Hide small sound devices in containers around the block to “keep your voice in the neighborhood”, of course.

In an age of MacMansions, it is a pleasure to see wafer-thin houses. Got any more around where you live?

We all love beautiful architecture, don’t we? But that doesn’t mean there isn’t any ugliness in our world. Deputy Dog presents 9 repulsive buildings on Earth.

I can definitely add at least a dozen more to that list but maybe sometime later.

Believe it or not, this is a fully functional house. You can see more images and walk through video here.