This week’s stories of the week include: 00:18 Best ways to stay cool 01:31 Berlin Airport to become Eco neighbourhood 02:58 German city goes dark to save energy 04:22 South African Clean Water Solution
Category Archives: Videos
Australian Architecture: ‘Fitzroy Bridge House’
A modern house, Fitzroy Bridge House is a work of collaboration led by Matt Gibson Architecture + Design. Featuring a glass bridge – from which the project receives its name – the home emerges as a considered and personal dwelling that celebrates its older architectural elements.
Video timeline: 00:00 – The Local Project’s Print Publication 00:20 – The Name Behind Fitzroy Bridge House 00:57 – South Fitzroy Heritage Precinct 01:36 – Moving Through the Home 01:53 – Dissolution of Interior and Exterior 02:16 – The Bridge 02:40 – The Rear Retreat 03:14 – Involvement of the Clients and Their Non-Negotiables 03:57 – Key Sustainable Moves 04:51 – The Cellar
Located in the southern Fitzroy heritage precinct, Fitzroy Bridge House sits an enviable two kilometres from the Melbourne CBD. The residence occupies a long, thin site and is comprised of distinct pavilions, encapsulating both the pre-existing architecture and the work of the modern house.
As Fitzroy Bridge House is situated in a heritage overlay, the exterior of the home could not be altered in relation to the front two rooms. Entering the home, residents move through the Victorian-style environments before reaching the rear architecture of the modern house that features a refined internal courtyard settled into the dining room interior design.
Connecting two pavilions, the glass bridge forms the focal point of the modern house. The bold feature provides a view down to the manicured garden in the Japanese-inspired courtyard – a fine work of landscape architecture requested by the client and executed by Robyn Barlow. A product of collaboration, Fitzroy Bridge House is closely connected to the client. Warm, inviting and personal, the modern house expresses its own built narrative, enabling the client to retell the story of its creation for years to come.
Walks: Lake Annecy In Haute-Savoie, France (4K)
Lake Annecy (French: Lac d’Annecy) is a perialpine lake in Haute-Savoie in France. It is named after the city of Annecy, which marks the start of the Thiou, Lake Annecy’s outflow river.
It is the third-largest lake in France, after the Lac du Bourget and Lac de Grand-Lieu, if the French part of Lake Geneva, which is shared between Switzerland and France, is excluded. It is known as “Europe’s cleanest lake” because of strict environmental regulations introduced in the 1960s. It is a popular tourist destination known for its swimming and water sports.
The lake was formed about 18,000 years ago, at the time the large alpine glaciers melted. It is fed by many small rivers from the surrounding mountains (Ire, Eau morte, Laudon, Bornette and Biolon) and a powerful underwater source, the Boubioz, at a 82-metre depth (269 ft).
Documentary: Lebanon’s Historic Economic Crisis
Lebanon is now going through the worst economic crisis in its history. 80 per cent of the population lives below the poverty line. In one year, food prices have jumped 500 per cent due to galloping inflation. Lebanon was long regarded as the Switzerland of the Middle East.
But those days are gone. A series of crises have plunged the nation into the abyss. And its people are suffering. For Riad, who runs a grocery store in the suburbs of Beirut, business has become hellish. Every morning, calculator in hand, he changes the labels of his products according to the day’s exchange rate. An operation made all the more complex by the fact that his store is plunged into darkness, due to a lack of electricity.
The Lebanese government no longer provides more than two hours of electricity per day in the country. It is impossible for the population to heat, light or use their refrigerators. Taking advantage of the situation, a network of private generators has emerged. The Lebanese pound, the local currency, has lost 90 per cent of its value.
The only people unaffected are those paid in dollars. The greenback, which can be exchanged for a small fortune against the local currency, has created a new privileged social class in the country. A salesman in an international pharmaceutical company, Joseph lives like a king in a ruined Lebanon. Thanks to his new purchasing power, he repaid his mortgage in two months, instead of… twenty years!
In a bankrupt state, plagued by corruption, six out of ten Lebanese now dream of leaving the country. In Tripoli, in northern Lebanon, Mohammed and his son set out for Germany by sea. Even though the trip was cut short off the Turkish coast, the young father is still ready to take all possible risks to reach the European Eldorado.
Battery Tech: Storing Energy On A Massive Scale
As the planet gets hotter, engineers are racing to find ways to store energy on a massive scale, clearing the way for a transition to renewable electricity.
River Walks: Trosa In Southeastern Sweden (4K)
Trosa, a small town by the Baltic sea that sleeps through the winter. During summer the whole town suddenly wakes up and becomes a bustling meeting point. People arrive in masses; city dwellers come looking for some peace and quiet in their summer cabins in the area, and foreigners visiting the town on their vacation to Sweden.
With the nickname “Världens ände”, translated from Swedish to mean the world’s end, this charming coastal town attracts visitors of the more unknown kind as well as the cultural elite. Don’t be surprised if you run into the Swedish prince Carl Philip or one of the guys from ABBA in the queue at the grocery store. Word has it that they are all very sympathetic people.
Walking Tour: Ankara – Capital Of Turkey (2022)
Ankara, Turkey’s cosmopolitan capital, sits in the country’s central Anatolia region. It’s a center for the performing arts, home to the State Opera and Ballet, the Presidential Symphony Orchestra and several national theater companies. Overlooking the city is Anitkabir, the enormous hilltop mausoleum of Kemal Atatürk, modern Turkey’s first president, who declared Ankara the capital in 1923.
Coastal Walks: Trogir In Western Croatia (4K)
Trogir is a town on the central Adriatic coast of Croatia. Its preserved old town, known for its mix of Renaissance, baroque and Romanesque buildings, lies on a small island connected to the mainland and the island of Čiovo by bridges. The 13th-century Cathedral of St. Lawrence houses the Renaissance Chapel of St. John and offers sweeping views from its bell tower. Parts of the medieval city walls remain intact.
Australian Architecture: A Tiny Home In Adelaide
A sculptural tiny house enveloped by the garden, Plaster Fun House represents a light-hearted shift from the residential norm. Designed by Sans-Arc Studio, the extension of the tiny house sees the old and new united in a home defined by curves. Located in Torrensville, a western suburb of Adelaide, Plaster Fun House takes inspiration from its cultural surroundings.
Video timeline: 00:00 – The Local Project’s Print Publication 00:14 – Introduction to Plaster Fun House 00:50 – An Interesting Brief 01:15 – Integrating Old and New 01:41 – A Backyard Oasis 02:00 – Curves in all the Right Places 02:28 – Taking Inspiration from Migrant Housing 03:00 – Colour Splashing Throughout 03:50 – A Display of the Clients Personalities 04:32 – Interacting with the Surrounding Environment 05:45 – Subscribe to The Local Project’s Print Publication
Though, a house tour reveals that the primary architectural aspects of the tiny house contrast the immediate built landscape, testifying instead to an art deco style. Sans-Arc Studio introduces curves into the architecture, interior design and particularly the custom joinery of the tiny house.
As well as injecting a playful character into the home, the curves enable effortless movement through the compact space. Responding to the clients’ request for terrazzo to be used wherever possible, Sans-Arc Studio employs terrazzo benchtops. Stepping down into the extension of the home, the terrazzo material of the kitchen island benchtop unites the old and new aspects of the dwelling, a staggering from kitchen bench to dining surface marks the threshold between new and existing.
Across the façade of the tiny house, natural light plays across the stucco wall treatment; a crafted ode to the Mediterranean-inspired housing of the surrounds. The resulting home is peaceful, artistic and unique, providing the clients with a new and inviting extension.
Aerial Views: Tucson In Southeastern Arizona (4K)
Tucson, city, seat (1864) of Pima county, southeastern Arizona, U.S. Tucson lies along the Santa Cruz River on a hilly plain of the Sonoran Desert that is rimmed by the Santa Catalina and other mountains. The city lies at an elevation of 2,410 feet (735 metres) and is situated about 115 miles (185 km) southeast of Phoenix.
Boomers Daily 