Talk about green architecture! Talk about interior design! If you’ve ever prowled the American Southwest, you’ve doubtlessly observed how cool a cliff dwelling is during a scorching Arizona day. I lived in a cave on the island of Rhodes and never longed for electrical devices, heating or appliances. And now, you can buy the ultimate in cave homes just on the outskirts of Bisbee, Ariz.

Subterranean conversions feel just like home

Photo by Yahoo

This week, Yahoo reported on a 37-acre estate replete with a 2,890-square foot dwelling that includes a guest house, home office, and library. For $1.5 million you can take it all for granite.

Interior design for romantic primitives

Photo by The Seattle Times

An American photographer and her Turkish partner bought this lovely cave in Ortahisar, Turkey, and they outfitted the bedroom with a brass bed. They bought the cave for around $5,500, thereby forever avoiding Turkish window glass prices. Check out the story in the Seattle Times.

Going native

Photo by Inhabitat

Missouri is renowned for its sandstone caves. Here in Festus, Curt and Deborah Sleeper performed a mind-bending cave conversion into this 15,000-square-foot home that uses geothermal and passive solar energy. You won’t find a heater or air conditioner in the place!

Man-cave inside a cave

Photo by Underground Homes

If you love man caves, you’ll marvel at what the owner has done with this place in Coober Pedy, South Australia. Coober Pedy calls itself the “Opal Capital of the World” and more than half its residents live in underground homes.

Pass the SPF 5.

Set sail in the Schwimmhausboot

Photo by We Are Super Famous

German designers Flo Florian and Sascha Akkermann not only dreamed up this unique and ecologically green floating house, they went ahead and built it. These designers may work for a firm that calls itself “Confused Direction”, but there’s nothing confused about the re-use of 250-year-old salvaged larch wood. View more photos of the project at The Contemporist.

Silo artist

Photo by Accidental Mysteries

Gigaplex Architects built this 1,800-square-foot silo conversion on the banks of the Provo River in Woodland, Utah. Actually, it’s made from two silos joined at the hip. Southern exposure creates passive solar heat gain in the winter, while a digital thermostat activated by computer controls the propane heating stove.

Life on Earth

Photo by Design Home Online

This earthen home community in Dietikon, Switzerland is reminiscent of the childhood home of Luke Skywalker on Tatooine. Nine homes circle around a human-made lake and use recycled glass and other materials. If you dribbled wet sand on the beach to create futuristic homes as a child, you’d love living here. Well-insulated by design, these homes reduce the number of doors and windows, while skylights let in welcome sunlight to rooms beneath the ground.

Home in the nurbs

Photo by Ruiz-Geli

That’s right, I said nurbs, not burbs. Spanish designer Enric Ruiz-Geli originally created this bug-like “Villa Nurbs” home of joined pods as a work of art. Located along Spain’s elegant Costa Brava, Villa Nurbs features built-in ceramic protection from the ravages of hot summer sun. There’s a great story on Villa Nurbs and Ruiz-Geli in The New York Times.

Now let’s pop the cork on 2012!

What is it about Victorian architecture, anyway? Well-kept or restored Vicks are a delight. There’s one overlooking the sea where I live that always takes my breath away. And it’s green, too, with well-matched energy efficient replacement windows and a new copper roof.  Nonetheless, an unkempt old house is enough to scare the pants off of me to this day.

How to terrify, Pt. 1

Photo by Austin Home Restorations

According to the folks at Austin Home Restorations, a scary house has to be old and large, have neglected house exteriors and a spooky background story.

Salem architecture

Photo by The Mirror Up to Nature

Not all spooky homes are Victorians. I’ve never been to Massachusetts, but I can see that some parts of Salem are haunted to this day. The exteriors of this place recall the Amityville home where those gruesome murders took place. Come on, people! Painting an old house isn’t all that difficult.

Bewitchingly apt

Photo by Andrew's Blog

This New Jersey home in Freehold was used for the exteriors in the production of Sabrina the Teenage Witch. Add a dark night with clouds streaming across the face of the moon, mix with a dash of moaning hounds, and finish it off with a wind-blown creaking gate. Brrr!

Green center of horror

Photo by The Green ABC's Blog

Indiana’s April Brewster Smythe posted this blog photo to promote the Green Center Haunted School House. Just a few miles from Churubusco, Green Center is located at the intersection of CR 300S and CR 300E in Noble County, just in case you want to walk by some creepy evening.

In December, Romans celebrated the solstice for Saturn, the god of agriculture, by decorating their homes with evergreens. Pick your own reasons to celebrate. But no matter your beliefs, please, please do not decorate your home with objects that look like these:

Getting the decorating brush-off

Photo by Apartment Therapy

I really don’t need to know the spiritual connotations behind this holiday tree. I suppose you can fit empty beer bottles over the brushes and clean them for constructing a larger tree.

How refreshing, how green

Photo by Ugly Christmas Trees

See, just stack your freshly washed beer bottles into this glass obelisk to celebrate Bacchus, the god of headaches and projectile vomiting. Check out the more of offensive year-end shrubbery entered into a bad-taste contest at Ugly Christmas Trees.

Ugly or unique: You decide

Photo by Xigre

Let’s put it this way: either this tree was constructed by designers who emptied the green beer bottles into their gullets or by quirky aficionados of the tuba school of home decor. If you like this, Xigre has more to show you.

My tree

Photo by Philadelphia Weekly

You don’t complete seven years in college studying literature without learning how to arrange your bookcase to honor the equinox. The volume at the top, The Collected Novels of Henry Miller, is probably inappropriate.

If you’re going to grandmother’s house, then pac, man

Photo by Xigre

The cultural savvy of how to choose your decoration is passed down through generations. If you were skipped over, Reader’s Digest can tell you how to pick the perfect tree.

One last thing:  No matter your choice, please use safe and non-toxic Christmas tree preservatives this year. If you don’t, yule be sorry!

Camp, but cozy green chairs

Photo by Earth 911

Okay, so some reuse furniture may not fire the imagination. I do like the audacity of The Rubens Collection of chairs designed by Dutch designer Frank Willems, employing used mattresses. Earth 911 reports that a single discarded mattress can take up to 23 cubic feet of landfill space. And this chair flat-out looks cozy!

Reuse that’s been places

Photo by Dornob

What were you going to do with that vintage valise anyway? Convert it into a drawer, complete with pull-handle and latch. You can pick up plenty of good suitcases at garage sales or thrift stores and make your own dresser. See more photos at Dornob.

Up-cycled green lighting

Photo by Design Blog

Enpieza eStudio of Madrid has found a clever way to put 347 used pens to work. The Volivik 347 chandelier helps provide full-spectrum beams of light.

Rags-to-riches furniture

Photo by Adaptive Reuse

This Rag Chair for Droog by Tejo Remy is built from 15 independent bags of rags. You can order one at Droog and even contribute your used clothing for stuffing.

Free-trade reuse

Photo by Pichaus

I don’t really know the conditions under which the coffee that once filled the vintage sacks of this chair was grown and wholesaled. I do know that it will cost you $622 to order and ship one of these arm chairs from Etsy. They look like comfortable chairs if you have the reuse itch!

Not all the new homes and commercial buildings are boiler-plated, functional post-Mao boxes. Have a look at what’s going on in unique Chinese architecture.

Green designs for 45 million passengers

Photo by Arup

Shaped like an airliner, the Shenzhen Bao’an International Airport Terminal 3 was designed to cut traditional energy costs by a fourth. It will be the first National Green Building Star Label certified airport terminal in China, according to sustainable architect-engineering firm Arup.

Unique house at heaven’s door

Photo by Dornob

Lixiaodong Atelier designed this reflection-pond home that sits at foot of the Yulong Snow Mountain in southwestern China. The house has a breath-taking traditional simplicity about it. Every room is oriented to view the mountain. Read more about it at Dornob.

He said, she said

Photo by Inman

Designs for the $125 million Comics and Animation Museum planned for 111 miles southwest of Shanghai incorporate playful interlocking “word balloons” in keeping with the comic theme.  The designer is MVRDV of the Netherlands. You can view an animation of the proposed structure at You Bent My Wookie.

They’re playing our song

Photo by Inman

The Piano House completed in 2007 in Anhui province has gotten a lot of press, but deserves another look. The Huainan Fangkai Decoration Project worked with Hefey University of Technology to build the black piano and clear violin that rests against it. The house serves as a practice facility and doubles as a concert hall. See additional photos at the Homedit blog.

This week, Forbes Magazine listed the nation’s cities with the filthiest air quality and, no surprise, seven of the ten worst are  in California. Here’s what lung cancer looks like:

Exray by Prep for MD

Forbes writer Christopher Helman crunched data from The American Lung Association’s State of the Air 2011 report to find that Bakersfield has 60 days a year of air ten times worse than the lowest acceptable levels of polluted, breathable air.

Bakersfield, America’s Mordor

Photo by Forbes

Just north of Los Angeles in California’s San Joaquin Valley, Bakersfield is home to 800,000 residents who inhale the worst year-round particulate pollution level in the nation and second-worst ozone pollution levels. Simply disgusting.

Consistently grotesque

Photo by Furman University

Just over the hills from Bakersfield lies the greater Los Angeles-Long Beach-Riverside metropolitan area, ranked second-worst in the nation for year-round particulate pollution and tops in ozone pollution. Why 17.8 million people continue to live there is a mystery to me. Many Angelinos flocked south to the beach-side communities in San Diego for relief, but now that metro area ranks 9^th on the Forbes list.

Pass the oxygen mask

Photo by Eco Trees

Visalia-Porterville, Calif. ranks third on the top-20 list, treating its 430,000 residents to the third-worst ozone pollution levels in the country. The City of Visalia touts the place as the “Crown Jewel of the San Joaquin Valley” and a place that “draws visitors from metropolitan areas with its picturesque communities and stunning landscapes against the backdrop of the Sierra Nevada Mountains.” Good luck seeing them.

An ugly, far-from-green environment

Photo by SF Gate

Fresno’s 1.1 million residents choke down the fourth-worst air in the nation, according to Forbes, where the skies combine traffic pollution with agricultural waste products that are leeching into the atmosphere from America’s Breadbasket. The San Francisco Chronicle reminds us that when Congress passed Clean Air Act Amendments 20 years ago, it promised to deliver across the nation Federal mandated levels for ozone pollution by November 2010. How’s that going, by the way?

Simply Capitol!

Photo by Sacramento Environmental Solutions

Sacramento rounds out California cities in the top-ten. It’s a state-house community where 2.4 million people wheeze away as their elected officials gaze out their windows at the nation’s 5th-worst levels of ozone pollution. Don’t forget sunscreen and a hat when you go calling!

In the face of losing so much of the natural world to development, it’s delightful to see that grown-ups with childlike wonder are building green structures again in the trees. Today’s treehouses for adults are still made of recycled wood, just like ones of yore.

Ten-story architecture with its own story

Photo by Oddity Central

It took Horace Burgess 14 years for to build his wood Minister’s House in Crossville, Tenn. A landscape architect, Burgess pounded some 258,000 nails into timber to complete the 97-feet-tall treehouse. Burgess claims he heard a message from heaven that if he started the project, there would be plenty of wood for the job. The place receives 500 visitors each week, according to Oddity Central.

Swiss chalet style, eco-friendly design

Photo by Treehouse Workshop

Seattle’s Treehouse Workshop built this home from salvaged Madrona wood and re-claimed leaded glass windows on Washington State’s Olympic Peninsula. It comes with running water, electricity, and sleeping accommodations for four.

Grow your own arboreal support

Photo by Treehouses.com

The Out’n'About Treehouse Treesort is a lofty stay-and-play adult tree-house built by Oregon’s Michael Garnier. Garnier, owner and designer, has created the Garnier Limb support system that helps trees grow around support brackets to provide a natural backbone. Read more about the Treesort, Garnier, and his Treehouse Institute of Arts and Culture in Takilma, Ore.

Interiors from Hobbitville

Photo by Treehouse Workshop

The Treehouse Workshop team designs and builds as many as 15 unique homes in the trees a year. It employs wood from old houses and materials from salvaged building products in Seattle. There’s a cool roundup of contemporary treehouses at Yahoo Real Estate.

And yes, I still want one of my own to live above it all.

Looky-look architecture

Photo by William Morgan Architects

Gazing out like the eyes of T.J. Eckleburg in The Great Gatsby, the twin windows of the Dune Home peer out to the shore.  The unique enclosure keeps the interiors at a lovely 70 degrees around the year. Morgan received honors from the American Institute of Architects in recognition of his lifelong research into architectural creativity. You can view his dazzling portfolio at William Morgan Architects.

Designs that get out of the way

Photo by Yahoo Real Estate

You have to love the unobstructed view of the sea from the home, currently rented out as twin 750-square-foot apartments, each with a two-story living area, single bedroom and bath. Morgan wants to get out of having to find suitable renters, so he’s selling the place. Yahoo Real Estate rounds up the details.

Splendor in the dunes

Photo by Yahoo Real Estate

Atlantic Beach comprises the northernmost line of unspoiled beaches heading out from Jacksonville. The Dutton Island Preserve offers residents a fishing pier, wending threads of hiking trails, and a floating dock for kayaks and canoes. The last U.S. Census reported that the community has 25,398 residents, with more women than men, and a higher level of post-secondary education than the national average.

If Mr. Morgan would like to donate the property for development of a very small writers’ colony, he can contact me here at the blog.

Furniture from a house of cards

Photo by Recyclart

Caldwell rounded up more than 350 cards from Las Vegas casinos to create this Deuces Wild Chair. Recyclart has a pair of views of the chair in case you need a second look.

Really re-cycled furniture

Photo by Trend Hunter

Trend Hunter calls Caldwell’s Chain Rocker “very badass”–  if that’s a politically correct design term for you. The chair is a 98 percent reuse of steel, putting old bike chains and rubber tires to new practice. Vrrrrooom.

Pipe down and relax

Photo by Cultureshoq

The writers over at Culture Shoq took a fancy to Caldwell’s lounge chair made of half-inch PVC conduit from an interpretation of the classic pipe organ. The plastic covered cushions contain thousands of white foam balls that would otherwise get underfoot.

Get hammered

Photo by BRC

Caldwell developed his “Functional, Nonfunctional Hammer Chair” out of old piano hammers and the backs of piano keys. It’s a great way to play musical chairs in your home.  As Caldwell says, the chair is definitely not for sitting, but rather for hanging on the wall, Shaker style.

Check out the rest of the BRC collection.