Sono tornata!

E così eccomi di nuovo qui: si ricomincia un nuovo anno di blogging! Le vacanze si sono concluse: anche quest'anno siamo andati in montagna, il mio Trentino, poi in Austria. Abbiamo camminato tanto, scoperto nuove città e ci siamo immersi in tanti meravigliosi scenari. In molte mi avete scritto chiedendomi consigli su come portare i bambini in montagna e come farli camminare, quali sentieri scegliere e come organizzare lo zaino. Dedicherò un post a questo molto presto. Nel frattempo... #keepgoing e #keepexploring, perchè quello che mi porto da questa vacanza è la voglia, sempre forte in me, di viaggiare e di far conoscere il mondo ai miei bimbi!

East Delhi to soon get 8,000 flats in its two smart cities

By Rumu Banerjee, TNN | 31 Aug, 2015, 10.35AM IST

NEW DELHI: The east side of the city is all set to get smart. Starting early next year, two new infrastructure projects offering 8,000 flats are coming up in Karkardooma and Trilokpuri. 

To be built on TOD (transit-oriented development) guidelines, both the projects will give commercial as well as residential spaces. While the Karkardooma project will have 5,000 flats, at Trilokpuri—where the flats will come up right opposite Sanjay Lake—3,000 will be up for grabs. Also tagged as smart cities, the complexes will be built near Metro stations and will have landscaped parks and green areas. The buildings, too, will be totally green with complete recycling of waste, including plastic.

"Both the projects are in critical stages of planning and design. We have already identified the basic plan, including the number of flats that will be on offer, along with the commercial segment of the projects. Both will have an iconic, signature building of 100 storeys that will have both commercial and residential spaces," Mittal said. 

They will also provide retail space, a five-acre park, sculptures, a laser park and a circular skywalk. According to NBCC, the EWS housing will be largely subsidized. Other units in the semi-luxury, middle-class and luxury housing, serviced apartments etc will be sold to the public like any private development. "NBCC will maintain the complex for 30 years," said Mittal. 

3 Ancient House Designs That You Can Build Really Cheap

Want to learn how to build a cheap house? Look no further. Let me ask you; how would your life change if you never had to pay rent or interest on a mortgage again? I bet it would take a significant weight off your shoulders. It sure would for me.
You’re not alone, in fact today most people in “civilized” parts of the world don’t own their homes but are indebted to banks or rent from a landlord. But it has not always been this way, as Henry David Thoreau so truthfully writes in his book Walden:
In the savage (Native American) state every family owns a shelter as good as the best, and sufficient for its coarser and simpler wants; but I think that I speak within bounds when I say that, though the birds of the air have their nests, and the foxes their holes, and the savages their wigwams, in modern civilized society not more than half the families own a shelter. In the large towns and cities, where civilization especially prevails, the number of those who own a shelter is a very small fraction of the whole. The rest pay an annual tax or this outside garnment of all, become indispensible summer and winter, which would buy a village of Indian wigwams, but now helps to keep them poor as long as they live.
Is this the best humanity can do?
Is it impossible to imagine a future where humans, just as other animals, own their shelter free and clear and don’t have to pay a “tax” their whole lives just to stay protected from the elements?
Of course not. This is crazy!

In the list below you’ll find examples of homes that “savage” people throughout the world built with their own hands using locally available materials that Nature provided for free. No mortgage or rent required.

Most of the examples on this list are small house designs. They are small because a small house takes less fuel to heat, less time and building materials to build, and for some of the more portable designs a small home is much easier to move.
What you take away from this list is up to you, but I have no doubt there’s a lot to learn from how our ancestors lived in harmony with their surroundings and adapted perfectly to their environments, no matter how harsh.

The Burdei

The burdei dates back as far as 6000 years and it’s a type of half-dugout shelter somewhat between a sod house and a log cabin, usually with a floor that’s 1 – 1.5 meters under ground level.
This type of shelter is native to the Carpathian Mountains and forest steppes of eastern Europe but has seen use in North America as well by many of the earliest Ukrainian Canadian settlers as their first home in Canada at the end of the 19th century and by Mennonites from Imperial Russia who settled in the Hillsboro region of Kansas.

The Log Cabin

Some of the first log structures were built in Northern Europe many thousands of years ago, and they’re most commonly associated with Scandinavia and Eastern Europe.
They’re built out of logs laid on top of each other horizontally, with notches at both ends to form weather tight corners. The thick solid wood provide much better insulation over a timber frame covered with skins, boards, or shingles.
With suitable tools and logs, a log cabin can be erected (and disassembled) from scratch in days by a family but it can stand for potentially hundreds of years. In fact, not far from where I live you’ll find one of Sweden’s best preserved old farms with log structures built in the 1700’s that’s still in good condition.

Just as with the Clochán, the log cabin gets its structural integrity from compressional forces, and a log cabin tends to slightly compress as it settles over a few months or years.

The Bamboo House

Not a house design but rather an excellent building material, bamboo has a high strength-to-weight ratio useful for structures. It grows fast, it’s light-weight, and is a sustainable source of building material.

In its natural form, bamboo as a construction material is traditionally associated with the cultures of South Asia, East Asia and the South Pacific, to some extent in Central and South America

Reese Witherspoon Home Tour- Grand LA home

-Address Homes

Who wouldn’t want a lavish 6956 sq foot Spanish style estate in the happening LA? Well, 3D power acknowledges academy award winner, actress Reese Witherspoon literally lives king-size in her luxurious apartment. While the bright and sunny city itself makes you fall in love with the outdoors, the interiors of this grand five-bedroom, six-bathroom home is as lavish as comfortable. Tour the home and take a look at the highlights.

To begin with, the cozy and homey vibe is what makes anybody comfortable here. It’s is neither too glamorous and shimmery nor a lot minimal; it blends classic furnishings with Spanish architecture to present a rather elegant and chic home.

Today’s Archidose

An architectural style is characterized by the features that make a building or other structure notable and historically identifiable. A style may include such elements as form, method of construction, building materials, and regional character. Most architecture can be classified as a chronology of styles which changes over time reflecting changing fashions, beliefs and religions, or the emergence of new ideas, technology, or materials which make new styles possible.
Styles often spread to other places, so that the style at its source continues to develop in new ways while other countries follow with their own twist.

3D Power has gathered some photos of the Basque Culinary Center in San Sebastián, Spain, by VAUMM (2015), photographed by Ximo Michavila. These photos depict the same style and fashion we’ve mentioned above. Have a glance at it!

What Did Houses in Ancient India Look Like?

Let 3D Power put some lights on houses of Ancient India.

The beginnings of civilization on the Indian subcontinent sprang up with urban centers that thrived around the Indus River. Between approximately 2500 and 1700 B.C., the Indus Valley Civilization flourished in what is now the Punjab, an area spread between modern-day Pakistan and western India. Most evidence of ancient Indian houses comes from remains in this area. These houses were built with comfort and security in mind. They were simple structures, grouped in clusters around a shared common space. They had few windows and small entryways.

Building Bylaws
In the Indus Valley, urban houses were built and ordered based on a greater consideration of the city as a whole. This order and structuring was laid out in various building bylaws which specified how to arrange the houses in a city, where and how to plant trees, and the arrangement of homes based on the Indian social hierarchy called caste. Higher-caste groups had taller, multilevel houses, while those of lower caste lived in smaller structures. Households of the same caste were grouped together, meaning houses on the same street were of equal height.

Ancient Homes Uncovered
The most extensive remains of the Indus Valley Civilization have been uncovered at Mohenjo-daro and Harappa, sites located in present-day Pakistan.The houses found in Mohenjo-daro varied in size from the large impressive structures of the upper castes to small two-room homes of the poor. Archeologists described the dwellings as plain, and designed more for comfort than for style. Most of the homes included a bathroom, a system of covered drainage and a well. Vertical drainpipes have been discovered in remains of some homes with upper levels, indicating that larger homes had multiple bathrooms.

Communal Living
In these ancient urban centers, houses were built to accommodate communal living. Blocks of houses owned by different families were constructed around an open space in the center. The back sides of the houses faced outward, forming an enclosure that protected the enclave from the outside, broken only by small entryways between the homes running in from the street. The shared space in the middle was used by all inhabitants. The communal system of living is a cultural phenomenon still practiced in India today.

Construction Materials
The walls of the homes were made of hand-formed baked bricks while the foundations were laid with sun-dried bricks. Instruments were used to ensure the exact vertical alignment of the houses. The interior and exterior walls were covered with plaster and often painted. The roofs of the homes were flat and made of wood. Although bricks were the standard building material in the north, wood was more frequently used to build houses in the southern part of the Indian subcontinent.

John Abraham’s Sea Facing House In Mumbai

John Abraham’s house at Bandra Bandstand is an AJA or Abraham John Architects project, which is the interiors firm run by his father Abraham John and brother Alan Abraham. This project has won the National Runner-Up at IIID Anchor Awards and was also nominated for the World Interiors News Awards in 2013.

His duplex style house covers an area of around 5000 sq. ft. and has two storeys. John wanted his personal space to encompass nature and has used wood and glass to convey his thoughts of simplicity. His bathroom has all the modern accessories including a Jacuzzi and a 130 inch projector screen. The terrace consists of the media room which has a home theatre system.

There’s a staircase that goes from the living and dining space to the room, which was previously the outhouse and now renovated into an entertainment centre. Since John hates bright colours, the central theme of the house has been kept warm, earthy and functional with no unnecessary clutter; his walls have no photographs or wall hangings.

His furniture and accessories are from the Genelec, Paola Lenti, BoConcept and Villeroy & Boch collections. The sleek, contemporary spa bathroom, gives great view of the sea and greenery outside. The master bedroom suite is an expensive space which includes a private terrace looking onto the ocean, a functional walk-in wardrobe and a lavish open plan spa bathroom which has no walls anywhere.

There is an open kitchen with a brushed stainless steel island platform which is accompanied by an enclosed kitchen. Careful attention has been paid to the automated lighting which can be changed according to the mood.

The entire home was renovated in 14 months into a sleek residence with two labourers working on it.