Do you remember the Barbapapa books, by Annette Tison and Talus Taylor? Of all the books I read when I was small, the illustrations from these books imprinted themselves deeply into and took up residence in the recesses of my imagination. I loved the circular, flowing rooms of their homes, dug into the ground, cuddled by earth.
I also quite enjoyed the television show Fraggle Rock, for much the same reason. I spent my very young years growing up in Labrador, where my siblings and I would have to find ways to amuse ourselves outdoors on (endless) cold winter days. One of my favourite ways to play was by digging tunnels through the huge mountain of snow the plow left in our backyard after clearing our driveway. We called our snow tunnel mountain Fraggle Rock. We also built plenty of igloos and snow forts – very stereotypically Canadian behaviour.
I have always enjoyed odd and interesting homes and hope the future is filled with unique and clever structures that are more organic and connected to the earth. These are a couple of designs I find really interesting both aesthetically and functionally:
Nautilus House, designed by architect Javier Senosiain of Arquitectura Organica, is both intriguing to look at as well as earthquake proof. You can find Nautilus House and more amazing designs by this firm at: http://www.arquitecturaorganica.com/
FAB TREE HAB: Living Graft Prefab Structure; designed by Mitchell Joachim, Lara Greden and Javier Arbona of Terreform 1: Nonprofit Organization for Philanthropic Architecture, Urban + Ecological Design.
The FAB TREE HAB is meant to be created from trees grown and grafted into shape. The home is designed to source power, water and food supplies from the structure itself as it interacts with nature. This innovative design firm has come up with some of the quirkiest and most forward thinking concepts for private residences, urban environments and transportation. Check out the FAB TREE HAB and other brilliant designs at : http://www.terreform.org/projects.html
Don't forget to check out the Barbapapa Official Web Site at: http://www.barbapapa.fr/ and Fraggle Rock at: http://www.henson.com/family.php
Take care. Talk to you again soonJ
Clickty Click Barbatrick! Cool post Nance. I want to live in Nautilus House.
ReplyDeleteI watched Fraggle Rock too and loved when they would get postcards from the brave Uncle Traveling Matt about the silly creatures in "Outer Space".