I was reminded of this after a family member sent a picture she took in Africa—the building was modest, but bright colors and decorations made from old soda cans made it beautiful. And over the years, people have been using bottles and cans they already have to create what they need, whether that’s construction, decoration, or something that manages to become both.

Bottle as Building Material

Since the early 1900s, people have been building with bottles, using them just like bricks bound together into structures with mortar. According to agilitynut.com, the earliest bottle house was constructed in 1902 by William F. Peck in the mining town of Tonopah, NV. Since saloons were some of the first commercial structures in mining camps like Tonopah, empty bottles were plentiful, and bottle houses were born.

While that house was torn down in the 1980s, you can check out a bottle house that currently serves as a store at Knott’s Berry Farm in Buena Park, CA. Though you probably shouldn’t leave your empties behind, even there.

Bottle Bricks

Upping the bottle building ante, in the early 1960s, Alfred Heineken of Heineken Beer visited the Caribbean where he noticed that not only was there was an excess of old bottles littering the beaches, but there was also a shortage of affordable building materials. As a result, he hoped to solve with both problems and asked Dutch Architect John Habracken to design a “brick that holds beer”—the “WOBO” (world bottle).

According to Inhabitat, the bottles were designed to interlock and came in two sizes, and while 100,000 of them were produced in 1963, only a small shed on Heineken’s estate and a wall at the Heineken Museum in Amsterdam were ever built with them, and the brewery stopped supporting the project.

It was a brilliant idea, and surprising that this failed—after all, what’s more perfect for a frat house than a beer bottle house? Time to teach those boys some building skills and get these bottles off the ground and out of the trash.

Color Blocks

By varying the color of the shingles, this townhouse in Berlin seen on Notcot, creates a bright pattern, using a traditional cladding type to make a modern reference—the pixel. By choosing a nature-based color palette and using a familiar material for this super-contemporary reference, the architects leave the viewer with something unexpected and eye catching instead of too trendy or traditional.

Heavy Metal

Photo by Nigel Young

Architects Foster + Partners found a different way to modernize the shingle on their CircleBath hospital, featured on Dailytonic. Instead of using a modern reference like the pixel with a fairly traditional shingle, Foster + Partners rethought what a shingle could be, transforming it from rustic and natural to sleek and modern. CircleBath, a hospital designed to feel like a luxury hotel, is clad in shingles made from aluminum and turned on their corners, so they’re barely recognizable to the viewer as familiar shingles, yet upon closer inspection are clearly exactly that with their overlapping edges.

Tarred and Feathered

Image: Nord Architecture and Living Architecture

Designed to reference the traditional shingle-sided homes nearby, NORD Architecture’s Shingle House featured on ArchDaily, tries a third approach to modernizing the shingle. Instead of creating a new shingle type or a modern graphic, NORD uses black tarred shingles across the entire home to create mass and texture, while still ensuring its exterior relates to its environment with material choice and traditional gabled form.

So despite their historical basis, it’s looking like shingles themselves aren’t very old-fashioned. Though no one is reporting on the doily situation inside.

I hope they all wake up with a horse head in their bed. Unless that’s going to become the next big thing.

1) Mustaches

Oh, my old friend irony. I thought we’d gotten enough of you with trucker hats, but over the last couple of years, you’ve been popping up again and again with the mustache trend. If you’re going to put a mustache on something, you better be willing and able to grow one instead of just put one on a stick.

Mustache on a Bike

Mustache on a Hankie

Mustache on a Glass

2) Cupcakes

I’m amazed that the cupcake trend has had such a long shelf life—that’s more what you’d expect from Twinkies. If you need proof that this trend has gotten too big and gone on too long, just check out Etsy for the more than 35,000 listings for cupcake items.  If only all these cupcakes were actually edible we could take this trend down in mere bites.

Cupcake Dish Towel

Cupcake Plate

Cupcake Wall Decal

3) Clouds

Why clouds? Cute? Happy? Dreamy? Sad? Wet? I don’t get it, but given that you can purchase cloud decals in almost any mood and style, from cumulous clouds to smiley clouds, I can certainly spot an overworked trend.  Actually, with clouds and decals, that’s two overworked trends.

Happy Cloud Decal

Rocket Toys & Clouds Decal

Thunder Cloud Decal

4) Owls

Owls initially seem like a surprising trend, then you think about it—they were big in the 60s so you get the mod/vintage indie cred, plus they’re cute—all round and sad looking—so you can sincerely love the adorable animal while still having something cool. That means you can be hip and not even have to resort to irony.

Owl Wall Decal

Owl Coasters

Owl Flannel Fabric

5) Antlers & Trophies

More irony. Yes, you’re not hunters, farmers, 80s TV PIs.  You’re hipsters. I can tell thanks to your skinny jeans, I don’t need ironic antlers to tell me, too. Kill the trend, not the animal.

Cardboard Trophy

Antler Electric Plate

Trophy Necklace

Baby Back

This barbeque, constructed by David Klose of BBQ Pits by Klose from a 1906-era baby carriage, might be more appropriate for Halloween than Labor Day, given the grisly images it conjures up.

Creepy, for sure, but like many unexplained yet deep loves, Klose clearly has invested a lot of time and care into this baby carriage barbeque, taking it from rusted out to completely functional with three weeks of hard work and a welder, adding features like a fold-down hood for smoking. He won’t sell you this one, but he will build you a custom beer bottle or pistol cooker, because nothing goes together better than alcohol, guns, and fire.

Getting Racy

I’m not sure what the demographic overlap is for people who love NASCAR and people who have a spare $17,000 to drop on a grill, but there must be at least one guy. Or, given that this grill was offered for sale on eBay, maybe there’s no overlap except in the minds of the custom manufacturers CampfireMaster.

And as over-the-top as the look is, it’s features are too–four-flame propane burner,coolers, six-speaker stereo, iPod input, LEDs, and custom rims. Totally pimped. Add that to the weird demographic mix.

Built for Speed

The guys who build these custom barbeques must have heard too many stories about cooking on the engine, or maybe they just didn’t realize those engines were supposed to be running.

Anyhow, you too can own an engine-themed gas or charcoal barbeque (although it’s an engine–gas is the only option that makes sense) constructed from racing parts with polished chrome plating and cast iron grilling surfaces. Vroom!

Home Page

Artist Sumer Erek’s Newspaper House, featured on Treehugger, was constructed out of rolled newspapers that anyone could bring in to add to the house as part of a public art project, designed to raise awareness of waste. The artist points out that “Newspapers pile up in our houses, lie on the streets and on public transport. […] We are urged to consume without thinking about how to discard. The first step is inviting people to think about and value the material itself, and to consider the issue of ‘waste’.” He sounds a little like a therapist–”knowing is the first step”–though I’m pretty sure he’s about $150 per hour cheaper.

Threading the Needle

At the other end of the size spectrum, Greetie van Tiem spins 20 yards of paper yarn from a single sheet of newspaper. Green Upgrader claims this yarn is almost as strong as regular yarn and can be woven into almost anything when spun tightly and woven. And while you only need three things to do it in seven steps, one of those things is a spindle, which means, against all logic, that newspaper house might be a simpler project.

Seed-Stage Investing

Probably a bit more practical for the everyday newspaper reader and the everyday homeowner, the paper pot maker, available from Seed and Garden, is a simple tool that lets you turn your old newspapers into seed starting pots. The wood tool presses strips of newspaper into 3″ paper pots with a twist of the tool. Because the pots are just paper, you can drop them right into your garden.

I may aspire to newspaper houses and spinning yarn, but this I–and anyone–can actually do. And I hear knowing is the first step–now we all know what we can do.

You’d be surprised how many things are out there celebrating a stink-hole you can fall into in the dark after having to haul yourself outside in the dead of night. But they are indeed part of our cherished history, so let’s celebrate them.

Making Plans

Seems like you can buy plans to build just about anything, and the outhouse is no exception. After learning about the history of the outhouse and getting “inspired” by seeing pictures of other people’s outhouses at the Outhouses of America Tour website, you can order plans from them for just $24.95. And you can use the plans to build a real working outhouse. I guess it’s cheaper than renovating your bathroom, but some things are worth springing for. Although it might be helpful to keep unwanted house guests from staying too long. Or at all.

I hope the plans are printed on toilet paper.  Nothing could be more appropriate.

Getting Out

Want to bring a little of the outdoors in?  Why stop at flowers, when you can add a lovely outhouse-themed wallpaper border to your rooms? Pre-pasted and peelable, it’s easy to put up and remove, just in case the primitive bathroom theme may not be the right look for your modern kitchen after all.

Cleaning Up

Now, I’m not sure why you’d want to make your bathtub look like an outhouse, but you certainly can with this outhouse shower curtain from Kmart. I wonder if I’m the only person who can see the danger of making the place you go to get clean look like a place you go for our less clean activities.  Seems like that could lead to confusion for certain people.

So, when I balk at something pet related, it’s probably a good sign that it’s a little too ridiculous.  After all, I’m a little ridiculous, so use me as your guide.  You don’t want to be crazier than a cat lady.

Catios

For instance, the New York Times recently featured an article on “catios,” outdoor enclosures that let indoor cats get a taste of the outdoors without actually letting them roam free to terrorize the local bird population or get busy with the felines on the other side of the tracks.  But I think I’ll reserve my architectural enhancements for spaces for humans—after all, my cats have never expressed any interest in my architecture books, and their favorite feathers are on the end of a stick.

Catrooms

But if you’re the sort of person who thinks your pet deserves their own outdoor space, you’re probably are also the sort of person who’s horrified by the fact that you have a stylish Japanese toilet and running water while they’re doing their business in a tacky plastic box.  That is the only reason I could imagine why you’d shell out almost $200 for the ModKat, an iPod-ish plastic box for your cat to desecrate.  But if you’re feeling bad about your comparative privilege, remember that humans invented running water, not cats. Though that might have something to do with their built-in bathing abilities.  Maybe they could have and just didn’t bother.

Catresses

If your cat has done a lot of international travel, he may have run into these over-the-radiator cat beds featured on Apartment Therapy popular in the UK, which offer warmth and comfort for their 18-hour-a-day sleep addictions. Remember—cats didn’t invent indoor plumbing, and they also didn’t invent central heat, so this is also probably unnecessary. But then again, central heating’s another built-in cat feature—fur.

Bombs Away

For the guerilla gardener—or the truly lazy—LA’s Common Studio is busy converting candy machines to seed bomb machines with the over $10,000 they raised through Kickstarter. The machines will dispense seed balls made from native plant seeds, compost, and clay that you can toss anywhere, allowing anyone to anonymously green “grey spaces,” not to mention raise awareness and funds.  It’s as easy as littering.

Drop some money into a vending machine, grab a seed bomb, and toss.  These are bombs that make a better world place.

Signed, Sealed, Delivered

Another clever garden product delivered through the mail, Postcarden from London-based A Studio for Design turns your card into a garden, so it’s not a waste of paper that you can only enjoy for a short time, but a lasting, growing, interactive gift that’s value increases over time.

The cards can be delivered through the mail and have space for a message, then pop up into urban and botanical themes.  Then you just moisten the paper, scatter the seeds, and let it grow.

Getting Trashed

Paul Stamet’s Life Boxes featured over on Cool Hunting turn your trash into trees.  These shipping boxes are infused with about 100 tree seeds and fungal spores that help one another grow—not just reducing waste, but transforming your waste into trees that can offset carbon and rebuild where all that cardboard comes from to begin with.

With these boxes, you don’t have to feel so bad about that two-day air shipping you just added to your order.  Give it 30 years and you’ll be offsetting like crazy.

Because while there’s all sorts of tacky out there, there’s also tactless.  Lighting should never allow someone to giggle, roll their eyes, or, yes, write a blog post that involves anything that seem remotely like making fun of things people hold dear and should remain sacred. Which is why Jesus lamps are always a bad idea—totally tasteless, tacky, and tactless. Also, Mary, angels, and pretty much any other religious icon.  Heck, I’ll throw Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny in there, too, just to protect the innocent.

Touched By An Angel

This is the light I spotted that started it all: a touch-controlled lamp featuring an angel protecting an innocent girl. Given that light-filled halo, I’m not sure you should have to use a bulb with this one.  Though my favorite part has to be the “Touch Me!” tag on it—how often do you get to touch an angel instead of the other way around?

Oh, Mother

The fact that the light in this porcelain lamp of Mary holding baby Jesus from eCrater is located solely in her calves makes me wonder if there’s something about the light of God that I never understood properly before.

Under the Sea

Given the sea shells and coral, this lamp being offered for sale on Etsy seems to have confused the Little Mermaid with the Bible, unless Hans Christian Andersen’s works have suddenly been elevated.

Batteries Not Included

“Luminous” and “hauntingly beautiful”?  Not exactly the words I’d use to describe anything made out of acrylic that requires AA batteries like this light from Temptation Gardens—those materials that seem better suited to remote controls and kids’ toys than religious icons.  While you’d think they’d give Jesus a little more respect than the game of Operation, I’m starting to wonder if it’s actually a sign that that porcelain Mary might almost be classy.

So, even with architects and engineers doing the math, we can’t always count on our structures to be so structural. And your contractor?  May not be so good with stuctural either. So the next time you’re building something, stop worrying about the details and focus on the most important part: will it stand?

Falling for You

Looks like this 13-story building in Shanghai, China, needed a slightly more solid foundation, or maybe just a weeble wobble base. Though you have to give them credit—there was barely any damage to the building itself despite it completely falling over. If only they’d spent that much effort on keeping it up, it would probably have been very sturdy.

Investigators attributed the tipping over to workers digging out an underground garage on one side of the building while piling up dirt on the other, with an investigator saying, “Any construction company with common sense would not make such a mistake.”  Common sense—add it to you checklist for contractor requirements.

Touching the Sky

Ah, the architectural equivalent to tying a mattress to your car’s roof and having it take off. This 35-year-old building in Surat, India, collapsed after high winds pounded the giant signs tethered atop it.  It probably would have been fine had the signs not been attached to the foundation columns, which led to the whole thing collapsing.  Oops.  Advertising really is taking over everything.

Weathering the Storm

Another victim of weather, this building collapsed “likely under the weight of heavy rain.”  That must have been some pretty heavy rain. I thought buildings were intended to keep the rain out, but I guess that’s only the really nice ones.  Keep that in mind for all your future building purchases: ask if it’s been designed for rain or just sun.