Sanjhih is a small town on the north coast of Taiwan. It's near Taipei, the capital of Taiwan.
Our friends Emily and Devin lived close to them, but by the time the Mister and I got to Taiwan, I'd heard they'd been demolished only a few months before. The story goes, in the late 1970's, a keeper of a rubber company worked out the prototype of the modern space age UFO housing complex using his own factory. He wanted to build a contemporary modern style holiday resort. However, the rubber company closed down in the energy crisis in 1980 and the houses were left unfinished. The UFO houses were seized by the mortgage lender and sealed up by the bank.
In 1989, a development company bought the unfinished UFO houses. Their plan was to change the ailing modern UFO complex into a 5 star resort hotel with the first yacht dock in the north coast of Taiwan. The were supposeed to have have been painted white, and there would have been a beautiful modern swimming pool with slides that would start inside the UFO homes and would end in the pool! In the winter of 1989, almost a year after they started the reconstruction, they decided to shutdown because of fair of some of their investors. The development company abandoned the site and left the buildings, with many of them finished by that time.
The International space-age craze of the 1960's stirred interest among architects, but there was only one Finnish project that can be regarded as a "bona fide" sample of space-age architecture: the Futuro house designed by Matti Suuronen. The idea behind the design reflects the optimism of the sixties. At the time people believed technology could solve all problems for the human race. The ideal was of a new era, a space-age, where everybody would have more leisure time to spend on holidays away from home.
The Futuro house was completely furnished and could accommodate 8 people. It was constructed entirely out of reinforced plastic, a new, light and inexpensive material back then. The plan was to mass-produce it, so it would be cheap enough to house all people around the earth. Because it was so light-weight, it was easily transportable by helicopter. Mobile living was the new possibility for the future. People could now take their moveable home with them, to wherever they went, and live like modern nomads. Unfortunately the 1973 oil crisis spoiled all these plans. Prices of plastic raised production costs too high to be profitable. Only 96 Futuro houses were ever built.
Visionary architect John Lautner has a number of homes in California which are still today in use use and highly valued. Lautner was a structural pioneer, designing truss-roofed homes, mushroom-like homes (like the Chemosphere seen below), and thin-shelled, biomorphic homes of reinforced concrete - not plastic. Bringing about a sense of stability and longevity vs. the plastic, move-as-you go homes of the 60's and early 70's.
While nowhere near as architecturaly intereresting as each of these modular homes above, if UFOs are your thing, you can rent you very own UFO house in Tennesee.
The Spaceship House hovers on stilts on the side of Signal Mountain, TN. This house has been in private residence since it was built in 1972 but for the first time this spacey place is now available to the general public for over-night accommodations. Newly restored and updated, the spaceship house offers a unique back-in-time experience with a modern retro flair. This two-bedroom, two-bath house comes with a full kitchen, bar and a round bed master bedroom with a custom round 70’s tub. FAR OUT! It's a little heavily IKEA decorated, but really would you want to subject your best 60's atomic furniture to renters?
Taiwan Picture credits:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/cypherone/2285253051/
Here's a fun project (originally from DS) using the IKEA Knuff magazine holder. At $4.99 a holder, you can do all kinds of things including Todd Oldham's multi-holder.
here’s what you’ll need:
wooden magazine holder
stain and/or paint (optional)
two screws and two washers
1. paint, stain or decoupage your magazine holder (or leave it plain)
2. pre-drill two holes for the screws and mark your wall where the screws will go, making sure they are level.
3. mount your box to the wall, using washers so the screw heads don’t sink too far into the wood.
4. if you’ve got an outlet nearby, you can even charge your cell phone or ipod by snaking the cord through the hole in the front of the box.
Make your own tool chest with the IKEA Fira:
It's been a while since I updated you all on my Netherland house bunny - Mr. Owen Fluoride. And just so you know, he just had his birthday. He is six. Which is 51 in human years I've learned. He's a spoiled fella, with a two story bunny condo I'd built complete with hanging art. I love that people I admire like Amy Sedaris not only own a house rabbit also, but are part of the House Rabbit Society, a great site about teaching owners about their own furballs.
"Now run along and don't get into mischief. I am going out"
He and I have agreed upon a new routine which, for a rabbit who does not like to be held, is pretty freakin' great. At night, about the time he gets his bedtime dinner (another routine used to get him into the office so we can shut the door and go to bed), he comes over and nudges my feet, let's me pick him up, snuggles into my lap, and let's me scratch and rub his head and ears for as long as I want. Usually about ten minutes before I get bored.
And now here it is; it's late, I have insomnia, he's cute, and I have a camera. Really, these can't be helped.
Late Night With Owen
Chupacabrowen
Paparazzied
The Ghost of Fluoride
X-RABBIT
My mom left balmy Florida to visit the mister and I in Portland for a week. We'd been having a heatwave but with our dry heat vs, her humid, she didn't seem to mind. Since I moved here in 1997, I think it's her sixth time here and still there are new things to do. We only see each other for a few days at a time every year so I'd been making a mental list of things to do...bake a fruit pie, see the Japanese garden, visit the Oregon Historical Museum store, get fresh fruit at Sauvie Island, go to the Ape Caves, and our favorite past time - shopping.
On Saturday, we three took a drive to Ape Cave, just south of Mt St Helens in Washington. It was a gorgeous day, sunny and a mere 94 degrees ouside. Down a hole in the forest floor, we entered a pitch black, 42 degree F tunnel carved out of lava and smoothed over with water.
Unprepared with poor lighting and inaproprate clothing on our part we climbed only a quater of a mile of the five miles. Stil fun tho. Then to Swift Reservoir for a swim...
One afternoon we wandered up to the Japanese Gardens to have a mini camera lesson on the macro lense and other features of our cameras.
We did get to stop at a few food carts that Portland has become so famous for, the Perierra Creperie over on SE 12th and Hawthorne for nutella and banana crepe and a lavender and honey shake and also for chaat at the Indian Chaat House on 12th in SW.
Mom was sorely lacking in any type of walking shoe and so after repeatedly calling my Keen's "ugly" I dragged her to REI where she realized how comfortable ugly is. She bought Merril's size kid's 2:
Finally, a stop at Voodoo donut where she succombed...
There is so much that happens throughout the year, that packing it all in is pretty exhausting, but I think we managed to do a lot. Miss you mom already!
