TOP 10 DESIGN STORIES OF 2013

The top ten design stories of 2013
By Lloyd Alter, Treehugger, 23 December 2013.

It seems that our readers really like tiny houses!

10. Man Converts Dumpster into Deluxe Backyard Pool

The video that was attached to this post is gone, but the photos are still there, a conversion of a dumpster into a backyard swimming pool. Except by the time he lined it with foam and a pool liner and did all this work, it is questionable whether it was any cheaper than a drop-in fiberglass one of the same size. Still, readers loved it. More in TreeHugger

9. Stair of the Week: Minimalist Gem or Death Trap?

I find it very surprising that this was the 8th most popular post of the year in design, given that I thought it was a pretty esoteric subject. However it turns out a lot of people are put off by architect designed stairs of this kind, with comments like "I see allot of failing marriages installing a set of these. How could a jury not believe she/he just fell." More in TreeHugger

8. "Smart Student Unit" is a 100 square foot timber wonder

Credit: Tengbom Architects via Designboom

Cross-laminated timber is hot these days and this little student apartment is smoking. It is perfect for students, indestructible and solid. Not everyone loved it like I did, with one commenter saying "I have seen zoo cages with better design." More in TreeHugger

7. 10 More Ways To Hide The Bed (Some of Which You Can Actually Afford)

Credit: Clei

I am happy that this one made the list, one of my favourite of the year, a roundup of both high end European hideaway beds and more economical and plausible ones for people starting out. More in TreeHugger

6. Eco-minded 204 sq. ft. tiny home packs in tons of thoughtful details (Video)

A lovely tiny home, occupied by apparently lovely people. All in 204 square feet. They liked it so much that they are now selling them. More in TreeHugger

5. The world-changing ten foot cube

Wow. This wasn't even a proper post, just a link to David Freidlander's post over at LifeEdited. But it proves the overwhelming interest in the subject among our readers; fully half of the top ten posts of the year are about tiny homes. Watch for more next year. Meanwhile, not much more in TreeHugger.

4. Micro-community of tiny homes flourishes on rehabilitated vacant lot

The problem with all those tiny houses is the fact that most of them are alone in the middle of nowhere or hiding illegally in backyards. In fact, for them to really take off, it takes a village, a community. Here is one in Washington that does exactly that. More in TreeHugger

3. Touring Graham Hill's LifeEdited Apartment

This is actually a roundup post of our various looks at Graham Hill's amazing LifeEdited apartment. Graham describes why he founded TreeHugger:

When I started TreeHugger in 2004, the stereotypical "environmentalist" wore torn bell-bottoms, drank out of mason jars and smelled faintly of patchouli oil. Don’t get me wrong, this was not a fair description, nor would there be anything wrong if it were. But it was a stereotype lodged in the collective consciousness that kept environmentalism fringy.

Not any more. More in TreeHugger

2. One Building, One City: World's tallest prefab, Sky City, is breaking ground in June

Well, this is embarrassing. I started the post with "Broad Sustainable Construction informs us that a long and arduous approval process has been completed, and that they are starting excavation and construction on Sky City in June, 2013."

And they did; there is a photo I took of the hole at the site. Then it all got shut down, mainly because of the politics of building the world's tallest building in the suburb of a provincial capital. Chairman Zhang says it will start soon, but in the meantime he is building a 97 storey version near his factory. That is not so tall a poppy. More in TreeHugger

1. Build a US$300 underground greenhouse for year-round gardening

Credit: Neo-farms

And the most popular design post of the year (and the second most popular post on the entire site) is another hole in the ground, this one a semi-underground greenhouse. Kim writes:

Greenhouses are usually glazed structures, but are typically expensive to construct and heat throughout the winter. A much more affordable and effective alternative to glass greenhouses is the walipini (an Aymara Indian word for a "place of warmth"), also known as an underground or pit greenhouse. First developed over 20 years ago for the cold mountainous regions of South America, this method allows growers to maintain a productive garden year-round, even in the coldest of climates.

More in TreeHugger

[Source: Treehugger. Edited.]