Dornob | Design Ideas Daily

Pop-Up Porch: Prefab Enclosure Expands Your Backyard

Posted: 09 Oct 2012 10:00 AM PDT

[ Filed under Architecture & in the Additions category ]

Whether your are looking to add an office, pool cover, spare garage or community space to your yard, this may be a perfect fit: an elegant, durable but ultimately also portable structure for expanding your enclosed space.

AirClad has constructed this structure to pack down with remarkable ease, converting each 100 square meters of space into just 1 square meter of materials requiring transport.

But aside from mobility, part of the point is to create something that looks and feels more permanent and like a potentially-intentional part of your home, rather than a spindly and ill-conceived conventional gazebo or hardware-store shade structure.

Keep Going - Check out this Great Related Dornob Article:

Helicoptered Home: Flown Micro-Prefab Set Up in 5 Minutes

Houseboat? Hah! Buy a Full Floating Cabin, Porch & Garden

[ Filed under Architecture & in the Additions category ]

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Fast Fungi Bricks: Mushroom Blocks Better than Concrete?!

Posted: 08 Oct 2012 04:00 PM PDT

[ Filed under New Materials & in the More category ]

Most people pay attention to the part of the mushroom we see (and sometimes even eat) that grows above the ground – but what about the latticework of tendrils that intertwine inside the dirt from which they grow?

As it turns out, this malleable network can, per Philip Ross, “be used to form a super-strong, water-, mold- and fire-resistant building material. The dried mycelium can be grown and formed into just about any shape, and it has a remarkable consistency that makes it stronger, pound for pound, than concrete.” (via Inhabitat)

Stools and chairs are just the start – stone-like arches and eventually whole buildings may be yet to come. Like bamboo, the speed of growth and workability of the material make it a great candidate for locally-grown architecture, particularly in fungi-friendly climates. The strength of concrete, but easier to create and lightweight to boot – we have not seen the last of mushroom-based building technologies.