Oh you Europeans, there you go again; thinking outside of normal conventions and creating something unique.

Dutch designer Maartje Dros recently created a play space for both children and dogs for design biennale ExperimentaDesign2008 in Amsterdam.

How fun! The idea behind ExperimentaDesign2008 is to think of creating more of a natural habitat in our urban environment since cities take up most of the space on our planet.

What a great way to simplify your life by taking your kids to a city dog adventure park and hand your dog off to your child to play with. It’s a win, win situation.

Urban cities in the U.S. are screaming for these. And so are your dogs.

…is just that. It’s a custom made home located in NE Portland, OR, built by DaVero Genuine Homes–a subdivision of Bridge City Inc.–from the ground up, using as many re-purposed materials as possible like salvaged wood flooring from a local dairy farm and a roof made out of recycled concrete.

Recently open to the public during the 2008 Build It Green! Tour of Homes owner Adam Rust jokes that when asked his favorite question (by those touring the home), “When you remodeled the house, did you have to knock out that wall?”, his answer always made him smile; confirmation of a successful project whose goal it was to build sustainably and imitate other historic homes in the area.

From one who believes strongly in sustainability, that must feel awesome.

Adam, who lives in the 2,000 square foot 4 bedroom 2.5 baths home with his wife, Jodie, two young daughters, Mercy (on right) and Reya and another couple, is living his dream.

Born and raised in Southern Oregon’s Klamath Falls, Adam grew up out in the woods. He jokingly says he was “raised by a pack of wolves.” His father, the sole proprietor of an excavation company taught Adam a skill set, formative in his personal and professional evolution.

When Adam moved to Portland, he immediately became excited about community and sustainability and viewed those things as important to our culture and race.  He saw how real estate could be used in promoting community, livability and became a real estate agent who conducts all his business by bike. He is often referred to by locals as the ‘Bike Realtor.’ His dedication to eco-living includes his entire family who all commute by bike.

When Adam connected to the small development company, DaVero Genuine Homes, he saw a unique opportunity to pursue sustainable building, while also working on the marketing end of the business. As he says, “The three of us have shared interests and take on different aspects of the company. Those ideas get implemented into building projects and my house is the latest project.”

I’m inspired and will keep my eye on DaVero Genuine Homes when I’m ready to build my green home.

Thank-you Adam for sharing.

For more info on the green architecutral details and fabulous photos of The Recycled Residence, click here.

Architects who follow their creative impulses, pushing limits and concepts outside of traditional standards, spark my internal flame and keep it lit.

I recently wrote a post called, the rise of the renaissance generation, where I talked about a new book, RenGen: The Rise of the Cultural Consumer and What It Means to Your Business, which explores the concept of creatives (like you and I) giving birth to a new type of renaissance - one that just might lead us into the next generation.

In keeping to the theme of celebrating new ideas, here are some design concepts on the future of architecture by the Next 20 Gene Project - An international group of architects out of Taiwan - for the Venice Architectural Biennale.

You might not resonate with all of these but that’s really okay. They are interesting enough to get us to start thinking differently.

Villa Paladio by Ian+ is named after a famous 16th century Italian villa. The idea according to the architects is to allow ‘villa to become the interface of nature and scenery.” My first reaction was unfamiliarity and thefore a bit uncomfortable, yet as I continued to look more closely, I became more attracted to the idea.  The movement and texture of the roof feels harmonizing to me. An abundance of natural light brought in by all the open windows is carefully considered and very attractive. There is movement and flow, a soft vertical water feature on the right side with the exterior linear features balancing out and giving focus to the structure.

The concept behind Chromosome-H by Hsueh-Yi Chien is fasinating. There is the correlation to the human genetic code and the movement of messages from one part of the body to the other.  That idea is transformed into Chromosome-H - a facilitator of dna replication. My translation: Each area of the space speaks to the other in a linear, more scientific context. I’d be doing some major softening in the interior design.

Calligraphic House by Yu-Tung Liu is my favorite of the three here. The architect talks about, “drawing a wild cursive on Mother Earth” which actually put the biggest smile on my face. The intrinsic nature between a calligraphy line and the lines in the Earth is evident. There is something very light about not having a linear roof above when inside a space. And imagine all the natural light coming in from those grand windows. That would be a dream space to decorate.

For more fascinating examples of Gen20, visit their website: www.nextgene20.com. Make sure to click on English.

Wacky and zanny, yes, but that happens from time to time around here. There is an architectural exhibit opening next week at Le Gallery in Toronto, Canada showing residential buildings that are made of household objects by David Trautrimas and yes he is an actual human.  What do you think? Could you live in one of these?

The exhibition called Habitat Machines and according to dezeen, “includes compositions made from objects including coffee pots and bathroom scales.”

There is something very Wall-E about this whole thing. Does this scare anyone? This is my favorite, definitely. Imagine the views.

I happened to be one of the lucky 36 millions visitors to attend the 1992 World Expo in Seville, Spain.  I was 23 at the time and it rocked my world. The collective energy of all those countries together in celebration of the world was magical. The time to hold that special event will happen again in Shanghai China in just two short years. I’m tempted to buy my ticket now along with my carbon offsets. Philip?

As explained on designboom, “the world expo aims to promote the exchange of ideas and development of the world economy, culture, science and technology, giving exhibitors the opportunity to publicize their achievements and improve international relations.”

Love it. Congratulations to Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG) - a Copenhagen based group of 85 architects, designers builders and thinkers– who have won the danish pavilion for Expo 2010,  “with their proposal of a loop, a velodrome and an interactive fairytale.” BIG (I imagine) are going to have fun creating and the visitors even more fun biking and walking around that loop.

In an effort raise awareness around sustainable urban alternatives in the growing traffic in Shanghai, the Danish Pavilion will offer its 1500 city bikes to visitors for the duration of the Expo. I’ll let designboom explain this interesting eco-fact: “Denmark’s polluted harbor activities have been replaced by harbor parks and cultural institutions, and the water is so pure you can swim in it, whereas in Shanghai the situation is not as perfect. For the Danish Pavilion, BIG’s aim was to try and bring the Danish approach and perspective to Shanghai. In the heart of the pavilion there will be a mermaid pool, filled with sea water from Copenhagen’s harbor and will allow Chinese guests to swim, feel and taste the water.” That’s so way cool. If they can do it, so can we. Here’s a sneak peak at BIG’s proposal for the pavilion:

Yep, that pool you see in the middle of the pavilion will be swimmable.