Chances are that you have never visited an auto dealership purely for an afternoon of fun. That may change once construction is complete on a new car showroom megaplex.
Said new car showroom megaplex is not located in the United States, China or Germany, as you might expect. Instead, the Autopia Europia is being built in a suburb of Istanbul, Turkey. The massive building will be the world’s largest car dealership. Though we’d argue it will be much more than that.
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Trying to categorize the lodgings offered by the Acido Dorado, located on the edge of California’s Joshua Tree National Park, is like trying to solve a Zen k?an.
Acido Dorado isn’t a house—it is too open to the elements for that. It isn’t a glamping (glamorous camping) experience and certainly isn’t a cabin—the setup is way too luxurious. The accommodations here aren’t indoors, though nor are they outdoors; rather, it is some ingenious melding of the two.
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It may resemble a giant Jenga game. But to Japanese architect Sou Fujimoto his wooden bungalow (photo, above) represents the next generation of home design.
The primary qualities of Fujimoto’s vision: minimalism, compact design, harmony with surroundings and multi-use spaces.
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There’s a scene in The Simpsons in which a cartoon rendering of architect Frank Gehry casually tosses a piece of paper onto the ground, gives it a look and then says to himself “Frank, you genius! You did it again!”
That joke is probably funnier seeing it than reading our recounting. And it’s certainly funnier if you are familiar with certain Gehry-designed buildings—like the Walt Disney Concert Hall in L.A., the Experience Music Project in Seattle and, especially, Bilbao Spain’s Guggenheim Museum—which really do bear some resemblance to crinkled paper (if you squint a little).
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˙uʍop ǝpısdn plɹoʍ ǝɥʇ uɹnʇ ʇɐɥʇ—puɐloԀ puɐ ɐıɹʇsn∀ ‘˙∀˙S˙∩ ǝɥʇ ‘ʎuɐɯɹǝפ ‘ɐpɐuɐƆ ‘uıɐdS uı—sǝɹnʇɔnɹʇs uǝʌǝs ǝsǝɥʇ ɟo puoɟ ʎllɐıɔǝdsǝ sı ɟɟnʇS looƆ ʇodS ʎɥʍ sı ɥɔıɥM ˙ʎʇılɐǝɹ uo ǝʌıʇɔǝdsɹǝd ɹnoʎ ǝƃuɐɥɔ uɐɔ ʎǝɥʇ :ǝɹnʇɔǝʇıɥɔɹɐ puɐ lǝʌɐɹʇ ɥʇoq ɟo ʇɔǝdsɐ looɔ ǝuO
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There are advantages to living in an all-glass house: the views, the natural sunlight, the passive solar heating on chilly sunny days. There are disadvantages too: the lack of privacy, the unwanted extra heat on warm days, the common wisdom ban on throwing stones while living in one. So what’s a home owner to do?
If you are Ross Russell of Suffok, England the answer is: Build a house that slides open.
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Spot Cool Stuff admits to being a LEGO purist. We like the basic plastic interlocking LEGO bricks that haven’t changed much since 1958, the ones that can be built into virtually any construction that can be imagined. We generally aren’t as big fans of many of the LEGO model sets (the trains series being a big exception) because their pieces can really only be used to build a specific shape, or specific plane or specific whatever. So it was with some surprise to us how great we found the LEGO’s newest series: LEGO Architecture.
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You needn’t have a spooky mansion, eccentric tastes or a now-it-puts-the-lotion-in-the-basket creepiness to have a secret door in your home
For as long as Spot Cool Stuff has been fantasizing about the house of our dreams—the mansion we would build if money were no object—our imaginary plans have included trap doors, secret rooms and hidden passageways.
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