house-plans-blog

Selling or Buying a House? Make sure the Plans are up to date!

Wed, 07 Mar 2018 07:39:14 +0100

I often get asked whether you need a set of plans to sell your house here in South Africa. I also get called a lot to get illegal / 'as built' additions and buildings approved at Council. Fortunately Johannesburg Council is a lot more relaxed than elsewhere in the world and usually will only order demolition if you have built over a servitude or the building/addition is unsafe or poorly built.

Increasingly banks and mortgage lenders are making it a requirement for a seller to have a complete set of up to date plans and often an Occupation Certificate before granting a loan to the buyer.

It is a big risk to go ahead and build without planning permission, not only could this bite you when you want to sell your property, but your Buildings Insurance will only cover the part of your home/building that has Municipal Approval.

Noncompliance also effects the banks that finance these buildings since this will severely impact on the income potential of the property, which is in most instances, the banks security. In the case of a Council taking action income can be lost and this situation can be even worse in case of fire or structural collapse. It is understood that some banks are withholding final payment on new developments until the lender can present the bank with a valid occupation certificate. To read more go to : -
https://www.bebee.com/producer/@claire-cardwell/selling-or-buying-a-house-make-sure-the-plans-are-up-to-date

World's Tallest Sandcastles

Fri, 08 Sep 2017 09:35:54 +0100

The Guinness World Record for the World's Tallest Sandcastle record has just been beaten. The Sandcastle is in Duisburg, Germany and was commissioned by Schaunisland-Reisen a German Tour Company. It is 16.58m (54.72ft) beating the previous record for a sandcastle in Odisha, India (which measured 14.84m (48.8ft tall).

Unlike one of previous record holders - Ed Jarrett this project used Excavators and Cranes rather than hand packed sand. The design features famous buildings around the world including The Great Sphinx of Giza, Thai Buddhist Temples, the Leaning Tower of Pisa and The Parthenon in Athens, Greece. It took over 25 days to complete and 19 Sand Artists from around the world took part..

Photo Credit - Lucas Bruggemann
https://www.bebee.com/producer/@claire-cardwell/world-s-tallest-sandcastles

New Drone Footage Shows that BIG's LEGO House looks Like "A Real Lego Play".

Fri, 08 Sep 2017 05:31:44 +0100

Bjarke Ingels Group's new LEGO House is nearing completion at the centre of Billund, Denmark and the world-renowned toys manufacturing brand Lego has released a new drone footage video to experience every part of this stacked complex interactively, showing that how each colourful boxes are balanced and coming together cautously. The Eagerly anticipated LEGO House will be officially opened on September 28 2017 - the playful looking complex will provide a unique place with a number of new LEGO experiences and a sea of LEGO bricks.will greet children and adults alike, inviting them to unleash their creativity.
Since some of the areas of the building are still under construction, the official exterior and interior images of the building are not released and all updated photographs from exterior and interior will be unveiled at the end of Septmber, just before the opening.

http://worldarchitecture.org/architecture-news/cvghf/new_drone_footage_shows_that_big_s_lego_house_looks_like_a_real_lego_play_.html

Eco-friendly 'plyscrapers' on the rise

Thu, 24 Aug 2017 06:06:22 +0100

Ever since the 10-story Home Insurance Building in Chicago was called the first "skyscraper" in 1885, architects have been striving to create ever-taller buildings. Ten stories quickly became 20, 20 became 50, and on and on. In 2009 the Burj Khalifa in Dubai became the world's tallest building, with its 154 floors towering above ground level.

So why is the mayor of Portland, Oregon, calling a modest 12-story tower set for completion there next year “a true technological and entrepreneurial achievement?" It’s not the affordable housing the building affords, nor its dozens of bike racks or even the roof farm that has Ted Wheeler gushing. It's that the Framework apartment building will be made almost entirely of wood, reports NBC News.
https://www.bebee.com/producer/@claire-cardwell/eco-friendly-plyscrapers-on-the-rise

Humans have killed nearly half the trees on earth so far.

Thu, 13 Apr 2017 04:15:32 +0100

This is the kind of news that makes us groan. A new study of arboreal density around the globe indicates humans are directly responsible for killing almost half the trees on the planet. This latest report confirms the devastation we already knew, but in a very real way, since this study is the first of its kind to be derived from actual data, giving us a more accurate picture of the Earth’s forests than ever before.

Like many scientific reports, there is good news and bad news in this one, which was just published in the journal Nature. This study is the first-ever data-driven global tree census, so it provides the most accurate count of trees to date. Researchers calculated there are some 3.04 trillion trees on Earth today, which breaks down to approximately 422 per person. That’s good news, because it surpasses previous estimates that put the figure at just a fraction of that. The bummer, though, is that the current number of trees represents a 46 percent decline since humans started cutting them down.

Arriving at the new tree density figures was a feat partly of mathematics and partly of wizardry. Researchers collected 429,775 ground-sourced measurements of tree density from every continent except Antarctica (because, you know, there are no trees there). They combined that information with satellite data on climate, topography, and human land use. The resulting models predicted tree density around the globe down to a single square kilometer.

Comparing those tree density predictions with spatial maps of forest loss, the researchers calculate that humans are removing approximately 15.3 billion trees each year, with the highest rates of decline happening in the tropics. Forest regrowth accounts for a little more than 5 billion trees per year, making for a net loss of around 10 billion trees annually. That’s a lot of tree killing we’re doing, people.

http://inhabitat.com/humans-have-killed-nearly-half-the-trees-on-earth-so-far/

MAD and Stefano Boeri propose crinkled towers and vertical forests for Milan's disused Railway ...

Thu, 13 Apr 2017 03:55:21 +0100

MAD, Stefano Boeri Architetti and Mecanoo are among five architecture studios to unveil proposals to completely transform unused railways across Milan, creating high-density housing and swaths of greenery.

The five proposals emerged from a workshop held in December 2016, which invited architects to reimagine the brownfield sites of Farini, Porta Genova, Porta Romana, Lambrate, Greco, Rogoredo and San Cristoforo as public parks, social housing and hubs for sustainable modes of transport.

The ideas for the regeneration project – called Scali Milano – were presented at this year's Milan design week.

The Green River proposal put forward by Milan-based Stefano Boeri and his team is an "urban reforestation project".

Aiming to cover 90 per cent of the available area in public parks, forests, orchards and a network of bicycle paths, the office estimates the scheme could absorb over 45,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions and produce 1,800 tonnes of oxygen.

The other 10 per cent of the land would be used to create areas of dense building comprising housing, workplaces and services such as libraries, clinics and kindergartens.

https://www.dezeen.com/2017/04/12/mad-stefano-boeri-crinkled-towers-vertical-forests-milan-disused-railway-yards-architecture/?utm_content=buffer099b3&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer

Solar Powered Safari Lodge offers Sustainable Luxury in Botswana

Sun, 09 Apr 2017 03:17:11 +0100

If visiting the rich wildlife at the Okavango Delta is on your bucket list, consider a stay at Sandibe Okavango, a sustainable safari lodge in Botsgo simultaneously blends in with the landscape and stands out from lowana that boasts a light environmental footprint. Designed by Michaelis Boyd and Nick Plewman, the recently reopened Sandibe Okavancal architectural typology with its curvaceous timber-clad form. The striking and sculptural 24-bed lodge overlooks the banks of the Sandibe River, a waterway rich with the sounds and sights of animals ranging from frogs to hippos.

Elevated on stilts, the sustainable and cocoon-like lodge takes its inspiration from the pangolin, an endangered scaly animal native to the African bush. The architects clad the curvaceous facade with natural and locally sourced shingles and woven saplings in a bid to minimize the building’s environmental footprint. The building is entirely concrete-free and a solar panel farm powers the electricity.

http://inhabitat.com/solar-powered-safari-lodge-offers-sustainable-luxury-digs-in-botswana/

Dropping Costs in Renewable Energy spurs rapid shift to Clean Energy

Sat, 08 Apr 2017 10:46:04 +0100

Welcome to the clean energy revolution – with or without Trump. A new report from the United Nations Environment Programme, Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF), and Frankfurt School – UNEP Collaborating Centre for Climate & Sustainable Energy Finance reveals plunging costs in renewable technology have generated a whole new world of power. Unsubsidized renewables in more countries are now the cheapest new form of energy.

Renewable energy detractors love to claim it’s too expensive, but that criticism simply doesn’t hold up anymore, according to the new report. Per megawatt, the average dollar capital expenditure fell by more than 10 percent for wind and solar. The report also revealed worldwide solar generation costs fell by an average of 17 percent in one year. Onshore wind dropped by 18 percent, and offshore wind plummeted by 28 percent.

BNEF advisory board chairman Michael Liebreich said in the report, “The question always used to be, ‘Will renewables ever be grid competitive?’ Well, after the dramatic cost reductions of the past few years, unsubsidized wind and solar can provide the lowest cost new electrical power in an increasing number of countries, even in the developing world – sometimes by a factor of two. It’s a whole new world…instead of having to subsidize renewables, now authorities may have to subsidize natural gas plants to help them provide grid reliability.”

138.5 gigawatts (GW) of new renewable energy capacity came online in 2016, greater than 2015’s 127.5 GW, but the 2016 GW were built with investment 23 percent lower than 2015. Investors now get more bang for their buck, according to the report’s foreword.

“Moving from fossil fuels to renewable sources such as solar and wind is key to achieving social, economic, and environmental development,” according to the report. Renewable energy creates jobs, provides electricity for people who didn’t have it before, and reduces air pollution, all at an increasingly low cost.

http://inhabitat.com/dropping-costs-in-renewable-tech-spurs-rapid-shift-to-clean-energy/

Inside Zaha Hadid Architects under construction One Thousand Museum in Miami

Fri, 07 Apr 2017 12:23:19 +0100

Inside Zaha Hadid Architects’ under-construction One Thousand Museum in Miami.
Located on the water’s edge and overlooking Herzog & de Meuron’s Pérez Art Museum, ZHA’s One Thousand Museum’s curvaceous exoskeleton makes a statement. In accordance with the vernacular of condominium buildings in the city, the structural framework is all white, but that’s where the building’s flirtation with Miami modernism ends.
While serving as a structural device and taking on the typical billowing form ascribed to Hadid’s aesthetic, the exoskeleton also produces wide-open floorplans. “We wanted it, to a degree, to reflect what was going on inside the building,” said Lépine. In addition to the penthouse, there are eight full-floor apartments and 70 half-floor units.
Aside from palatial living units, One Thousand Museum is laden with luxury amenities: thirty thousand square feet of communal areas, including a two-story aquatic center, a sky lounge, a multimedia theater, a wellness spa, gym facilities, and a private event space—naturally, a “bank quality” vault is also included.
Ground broke on the building in December 2014. During the summer of 2015, one thousand trucks rolled onto site to pour 9,500 cubic yards of concrete in 24 hours to start the One Thousand Museum’s foundational work. The building is currently due for completion in 2018.
https://archpaper.com/2017/04/zaha-hadid-architects-one-thousand-museum/#gallery-0-slide-0

Hanging Spherical Lodge is a Treetop Retreat in Laos.

Tue, 04 Apr 2017 09:37:36 +0100

Spherical eco-lodges that hang from the trees could allow visitors to observe and immerse themselves in the flora and fauna of the Nam Et-Phou Louey Biodiversity Conservation Area in northern Laos. Coupled with new observation decks for observing the area’s endangered tiger population, the suspended sleeping pods give guests a protected and unique place to sleep. The project by Cole Company would be located near the village of Nam Poung, and it would create jobs for local villagers.

Inspired by structures found in nature like bird and insect nests, the spherical floating lodges are made up of a bamboo and timber frame, and basket-like base. The base fits two guests comfortably.

Stretched over the upper parts of the floating orb is lightweight hydrophobic fabric sourced from Vietnam that protects occupants against rain. The lodges are kept in place with taut cables which are secured to neighboring trees, ensuring a minimal environmental footprint.

The project would also include an elevated bamboo and timber observation deck, which is also suspended between three or four sturdy trees. The deck would allow guests to watch wildlife without disturbing their daily habits.

http://inhabitat.com/hanging-spherical-lodges-keep-eco-tourists-comfy-and-dry-in-laos/