Urban Neighbourhood

Discussion of Creative and Reclaimed Home Construction: Dan Phillips at TED

Dan Phillips discusses human psychology and it’s impact on the home construction industry. In this funny and insightful talk from TEDxHouston, builder Dan Phillips tours us through a dozen homes he’s built in Texas using recycled and reclaimed materials in wildly creative ways. Dan examines the why of the rational that causes so much waste in the construction industry and offers ideas on how to create low-tech design details will refresh your own creative drive.

http://www.ted.com

Contemporary Architecture and Christmas Deliveries.

When home designers don’t consider all factors.  Buck Brown brings a a great little cartoon about Santa’s feelings when it comes to delivering Christmas presents to contemporary homes.

Seattle’s Lighthouse Apartment in the Smith Tower

For those of you who love to look inside other peoples apartments, the New York Times takes us on a tour of one of Seattle’s most interesting and until now, mysterious apartments. Word has it that the apartment had taken on the status of an urban legend in Seattle that oscillated from occupied by crazy cat lady to home for a line of artists who have passed the key from one tenant to the next. Well the legend has passed from fiction to fact as the New York Times managed to get themselves a tour and sets the record straight.

How did a 46-year-old choreographer-turned-venture-capitalist-turned mom win a long-term lease on what may be the most extraordinary apartment in the city: the space at the top of the historic Smith Tower in Pioneer Square?

Read more: A Home in the Pyramid Atop Seattle’s Smith Tower.

See the photo Gallery Here.

Mummy Dance Party at Bryant Park

via one of our new favorite sites: Urban Prankster

Improv Everywhere is a group that we have mentioned before, and it is a driving force behind the flash-mob movement. In one of their latest variations on the flash-mob the folks at Improv Everywhere have started The Mp3 Experiments, wherein they post an Mp3 online for participants to download and listen too simultaneously.  The most recent of these was Experiment 7 that started in the retail stores surrounding Times Square and culminated with a Mummy Dance Party at Bryant Park.

Edited by Keith Haskel / music by Tyler Walker