Iron Man 2 continues the adventures of billionaire Tony Stark and his superhero alter ego Iron Man. The main character is played by Robert Downey Jr. and the whole movie features amazing effects and state-of-the-art technology.

But the home of the character is by far the most interesting aspect of the movie- from my point of view at least. I have to admit that i was amazed and also reserved when i saw all the technology and interior design that his mansion “owned”. Iron Man the 2nd was my 1st Iron man as i didn’t see Iron Man 1  first and then go to see part 2, but i have to tell you it was an awesome movie which deserves to be seen. Of course the next day i saw Iron Man 1 aswell which was also pretty nice, alot of “crafting” made by Tony Stark in harsh environment but it had it’s funny moments. Aside the actors, another common puzzle piece for both parts of Iron Man was Tony Stark’s awesome, high-tech with minimalist design, on the verge of some Malibu “abyss” residence. It was so perfect and real that it kinda’ annoyed me!

This may come as a huge disappointment to some of our readers, but what you see in the photos below is digitized fiction. Jon Favreau, the director of the film explains that the home was falsely positioned on a site in Malibu. It is forbidden to build an architecture project there, so they came up with a different solution: computer graphics. The interiors were built on a sound-stage area in Los Angeles and everything was synchronized with the computer plans.

Those people have decided to create something unique and something that you don’t see everyday and yet it is cheap and it is built from a recycled materials.

This house is one of the examples how home can be built without spending much money. This house has been built from a cheap recycled materials and it is also eco-friendly.

But those people are not just savvy they are also pretty creative, you can see how some of the walls, doors and roof are mosaic-like decorated. And when you look it inside it looks really nice and makes you wonder who wouldn’t like to live there.

The Leaf House, a tropical beach house was designed by Mareines + Patalano Arquitetura is located in Angra dos Reis, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

The Leaf House was inspired by Brazil’s Indian architecture, perfectly suited for the hot and humid climate where it stands, Rio de Janeiro. The roof acts as a big leaf that protects from the hot sun all the enclosed spaces of the house, such as the verandas and the in-between open spaces. These last two types of space are the main social areas, the essence of the design. They allow trade winds from the sea to pass trough the building, providing natural ventilation and passive cooling.

The architects see this as low-tech eco-efficiency where it has the greatest impact; as the concept of the architectural design. Mareines +Patalano, in agreement with the client, understand the idea of a tropical beach house as a means of enhancing the interaction between man and nature, trying not to separate them completely. There are no corridors and inside and outside are almost fused. Rain water is harvested from the roof for re-use. With its natural finishes, organic aesthetics and richness of details, the house is in harmony with the exuberant Brazilian nature.

Homes in the tropics rarely need much more than a breeze in order to keep the environment comfortable. As for other sustainable design techniques, the roof harvests rainwater for use in the house, and the interior is naturally finished with wood, stone and natural fabrics. We suspect the wood was harvested locally, and can only hope it was done so in a sustainable fashion. Above all the Leaf House is amazing inspiration for organic design that brings the outdoors in. It protects the inhabitants from rain and sun, while bringing in fresh breezes to cool the interior.

Simply a piece of paradise!

Located in the forest of Karuizawa, Japan, this one-of-a-kind design boasts the cross-section of a seashell, with its double-elliptical shapes and curves. Supported by concrete and wood, the home surrounding decks are as artful as this modern house design itself. Floor-to-ceiling windows offer views into the contemporary cave-like interior featuring soft, sandy textures and an organic structure that flows continually from ceiling to wall to floor. Circular skylights throughout this modern home enhance its architectural interest while flooding the dark corners with bright, natural light. Artechnic.

At FINNE Architects, they have been practicing sustainable design for over fifteen years.

They are members of the Cascadia Green Building Council and are LEED certified. Every project is designed to fit to the site in a sensitive manner, to conserve resources by using passive heating and cooling, to maximize the use of natural light, and to employ sustainable building materials. They also promote a philosophy of building smaller homes, but with a focus on quality, rather than large homes with no real character. Smaller homes are more sustainable, and they also promote local suppliers of major building materials such as windows, siding, roofing, etc. Another important part of our practice is the attention to detailing and craftsmanship in their projects. Sustainable design is not simply creating a laundry-list of green materials, rather, it is creating enduring building form and construction with appropriate long life-cycle, low-energy consuming materials.

Site Issues

Solar Orientation to capture maximum passive solar heating.
Wind Orientation to capture prevailing breezes.
North-facing glass minimized to limit heat loss.
Careful site study to minimize disturbance to native vegetation.

Building Form

Deep overhangs provide solar shading and protect exterior materials, give longer live cycle for exterior materials.
Rainscreen” detailing of exterior walls provides air layer behind siding, protecting against rotting and extending life cycle of materials.
Extensive glass areas for natural lighting, ventilation, and passive solar heating.

Rainwater

Channeled for re-use as irrigation.
Directed back to soil so as to minimize contribution to storm sewer systems.

Insulation

2×8 wall construction to achieve 42% higher insulation value than standard 2×6 walls.
Some projects have walls up to 12″ thick for even greater insulation value.
Use of cellulose blown-in insulation, made from re-cycled paper, instead of fiberglass batt.

Exterior Materials

Stone used for maximum life-cycle costing and durability.
Wood used as renewable resource, with certification if budget permits.
Wood structural members chose from engineered lumber, employing wood waste products.
Metal siding used for maximum durability.

Interior Materials

Linoleum for counters and floors.
Counters from recycled materials such as aluminum, glass, or paper.
Resin panels with various embedded materials such as sea grass.
Low VOC paints.
Mecho Shades for extensive solar shading.
Wood certified to be sustainably harvested.

Heating/Mechanical

Radiant heating.
Natural ventilation through extensive use of high clerestory windows.

Lighting

High clerestory windows and extensive glass areas for daylighting, minimizing energy consumption.
Energy-miser light fixtures.
LED’s used to minimize energy consumption and maximum lamp life.
Fluorescent fixtures used whenever possible.

Construction Recycling

For renovation projects, we work with “second-use” companies that re-use windows, doors, cabinets, appliances, etc.

Our construction sites typically re-cycle large amounts of construction debris to minimize impact on landfills.

Brilliant in their simplicity, the geometric shelters are constructed from renewable materials and can be folded into a variety of structurally sound shapes. Their elegant design was recently honored as a notable mention in this year’s Re: Construct competition sponsored by San Francisco’s Urban Re:Vision.

The idea…

Ming Tang came up with the idea for his Folding Houses after a magnitude 7.9 earthquake struck central China last May, killing 69,000 people. Upon learning that the Chinese government planned to create up to 1.5 million temporary homes, he decided to design a shelter that was easily produced, cheap and environmentally friendly. His geometric folding houses are beautiful, dynamic, and can adapt to respond to the needs of different situations.

More details…

The concept utilizes a system of bamboo poles that are pre-assembled into rigid geometric shapes. The geometry of these forms provides each structure’s integrity, allowing a range of lightweight modular structures to be quickly assembled in factories and transported to their destination. Once constructed, the shelters are then covered by using post and pre-consumer recycled paper.

They all needed more and safe play space as the children are growing older. The new space should serve as a painter’s studio, garden shed, table tennis venue and sleep-over place. developing the somewhat neglected rear of their garden became and alternative to moving away into a larger property.

The outside of this timber structure is clad in thin skins. Beyond weather protection these surfaces are meant to re-enforce the presence of the garden and to frame the seasons. An 8m long mirror reflects the diverse floral range and defies the solidity and proximity of the wall it is mounted on. Semi-transparent striped polycarbonate interferes with the shadows of the moving leaves above. The summerhouse sits in the rear of an elongated victorian garden and the design attempts to screen out this urban setting. Baroque ideas of illusion, distortion, camouflage and capture of nature create a contemporary, rigorous and surprising building.

Learning and building an Eco-Dome is an excellent way to prepare for building a larger design such as the 3-bedroom house, because it provides a hands-on learning experience on the essential aspects of Superadobe construction. The Eco-Dome’s size of approximately 400 square feet (interior space), makes it a manageable structure for the first time owner builder. The finished “very small house” is self-contained and can become a small guest house, studio apartment, or be the first step in a cluster design of an Eco-Village of vaults and domes.

Some features of the Eco-Dome include:

• Built from local earth-filled Superadobe coils (soil-cement or lime-stabilized earth).
• Tree free.
• Maximum use of space through alternative options.
  The main dome and four niches, depending on local code approval, can function as:
  a) main living room, entrance hall, kitchen, bathroom, bedroom (called “bed-womb” because of it’s small, organic form!)
  b) living room, entrance hall, and three bed-rooms.
  c) living room, entrance hall, two bedrooms, and a bathroom.
• Self-contained single unit (potential for a guest house or studio apartment) or double unit (larger family residence).
• Can be repeated and joined together to form larger homes and courtyard houses.
• Can be built by a team of 3-5 persons.
• Designed with the sun, shade and wind in mind for passive cooling and heating.
• Wind-scoop can be combined with a rated furnace unit, depending on local code approval. Solar energy and radiant heating may be incorporated.
• Interior furniture can be built-in with same material.

Most of us…

have seen a tower of shipping containers at least once in our life. Throughout the US there are over 700,000 abandoned shipping containers. As the US moves away from being a manufacturing economy, we receive many more of these containers than we use to export goods, creating a surplus of containers that, well, don’t contain anything. Reusing them for importing more goods is inefficient, since it’s usually less expensive to manufacture a new container than to reuse an old one. Thus we are left with man-made mountains of empty steel boxes sitting in shipyards across the United States.

As the world scrambles for ways to become greener…

people are looking for ideas for recycling these old containers, and putting them to some good use. With the help of some creative entrepreneurs and architects, these cocoons of the industrial age are undergoing a metamorphosis into portable stores, emergency housing, and luxury homes. These containers allow for innovation in construction, as well as an efficient and environmentally friendly way of building our new homes and businesses.

The most popular type of shipping container construction is…

modular construction. Modular construction involves pre-fabricating the containers at a site, then shipping them to the end location to be assembled. This sort of construction allows for single containers to be fabricated as small homes or offices and be delivered as is, or alternatively to be constructed as a series of connecting parts. Simply choose the size and floor plan for your new building and the required containers are assembled together. It’s like the IKEA version of home building. From two story homes, to schools, to extremely affordable apartment buildings, shipping containers allow for quick construction and additions. Because they are already designed to be stackable, very little modification and preparation is needed to add new floors to existing container structures. Container City, one of the most successful modular shipping container construction firms in the world, was able to install a fourth floor to Container City 1 in less than 48 hours.

People are also looking to shipping containers…

to solve problems of world housing. Millions of people around the world live in what are considered “sub-standard” living conditions. Pablo Nava recently won Notre Dame University’s Social Venture Plan competition and received funds to start a business that will convert these shipping containers into single family homes, with the goal being a final price tag of $8000. Mr. Nava’s company Por Fin Nuestra Casa (Finally, a home of our own), is a for-profit company because of the belief that this will further promote its success.

Not only is shipping container construction incredibly environmentally friendly but…

it can also be used for emergency relief. In disaster relief or refugee situations, shipping containers can be modified to be emergency housing. Future Shack has modified a container to be a fully self contained disaster housing that can be deployed in less than 24 hours. The construction includes solar panel cells to power the unit, bathroom, and a fold-away bed and desk. While it’s currently only in the prototype phase, the incredibly durable container could be reused around the world for up to 25 years, giving shelter relief to dozens of people during its lifespan.

Shipping container construction is the new craze…

in modern architecture. They can allow for buildings made out of up to 80% recycled materials. More importantly they allow contractors to return to their childhood dream of building with legos. However, this does beg the question: how do you ship shipping containers?

The NGH is a small weekend house that overlooks the River Kuma in Kumakura, Japan. It’s approximately a 13′x13′x13′ cube, but  functional enough due to the ramshackle space that is formed by the cedar logs, creating spaces for seating, sleeping, eating, storage, etc. Due to the fact that fact that it is made out of cedar logs it is considered not to be very eco-friendly.