About a year ago, I saw an article in the New York Times about the latest in swimming crazes: Dumpster pools. Yes, Dumpster pools. No, this has nothing to do with swimming in liquefied garbage. It’s just a unique way to cool off on a hot summer day in urban spaces where space might be in short supply.

In the original New York Times article, the Dumpster pool was part of a secret “urban country club” in Brooklyn. An unused city space was suddenly outfitted with a pool, lined and filtered.

And now via Curbly, the Dumpster-as-pool trend is coming to the forefront again during these dog days of summer. Unlike last year’s hipster installation, these Dumpster pools have the backing of the establishment — Mayor Michael Bloomberg to be exact. They’ll be open on Park Ave. on the first three Saturdays of August, so if you live in New York, be sure to check them out.

What do you think? Is this an ingenious use of a necessary but maligned object? A perfect way to squeeze a pool into a tiny yard? Or does this idea of swimming in a Dumpster pool seem just a little bit gross?

Image courtesy of WBUR on Flickr

Perhaps you think your modern kitchen is sleek, stylish and minimalist. Well, chances are you have nothing on this kitchen when it comes to being sleek and minimal. Kitchen designer Susan Serra dissects the design of the space and offers a few thoughts on whether it would work for the typical homeowner or kitchen user.

Whether you’re looking for a bit of that modern style or just some more usable space, this ideabook from Houzz.com, also written by Serra, might be helpful. It will give you some ideas about incorporating an effective and useful islands or workstations into your kitchen, whatever your style or functional need.

If an ultra-modern kitchen isn’t your style and you’re not looking to take the big step of working an island into your kitchen, maybe these simpler kitchen remodeling ideas will give you something to work with. Relatively minor remodeling tasks like updating your lighting or refinishing your cabinetry will go a long way toward making you happier with the room in which you likely spend a good amount of your home time.

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“Off the grid.” The phrase brings to mind quite a few things. For some people, it brings to mind survivalists living in mountain cabins. For others, it’s a way to lessen their impact on the earth.

Here’s a real-life example of an “off the grid” house” (Inhabitat via World Architecture News).

Known as the Cliff House, this Ontario house by Altius Architecture is designed to blend in with the landscape. It’s built into a cliff overlooking a lake and self-sufficiency was the goal from the beginning.

Stone, wood and large expanses of windows make the Cliff House beautiful. But this house has more than just a pretty face. To make it off the grid and sustainable, the house also features:

• A “green” roof to control temperature and runoff
• The house was built to take advantage of solar power
• Contra-flow masonry heaters the provide powerful supplemental heat
• Tube solar collectors heat the house’s water
• Photovoltaic panels and battery banks give the house electricity

It’s an altogether impressive package! What can you do to go “off the grid”?

Photos courtesy of Altius Architecture.

Spring has sprung (at least for the moment), but here’s a look back on a winter pastime.

When the snow falls in record amounts, what on earth do you do it? Ed Hagele decided to build an igloo for a good time. But it needed a final, special touch. In order to let the sunshine in, Ed decided to add a window to his building masterpiece. Luckily, Ed had an in when it comes to windows. One of his parents, Re Hagele of Hagele Architects had a sample of a Marvin window that he could use.

Ed’s beautiful igloo was a great addition to the Hagele backyard until the snow melted…and one of the more unusual “applications” for a Marvin window!

In the story of The Three Little Pigs, the straw house went down quickly, courtesy of the big bad wolf. In real life, straw is a unusual building material that can lead to some great-looking houses. Courtesy of MSN Real Estate, here are some straw houses. Who knows, they may even inspire you to use straw instead of brick in your next house! Check out the rest of the homes here.

Images courtesy of MSN Real Estate.

In its simplest sense, “home” means a place of shelter. For most of us, we also want somewhere that makes us feel safe, buffered from the outside world and proud of our little castle. And some people skate off in the other direction, creating their homes to look like works of art.

MSN Real Estate profiled 18 of these unusual houses. Check out the whole list here, but here are some of our favorites:

It may look like a beautiful old manor, but this photo doesn’t do the Winchester Mystery House justice. Built by the heiress to the Winchester rifle company in San Jose, Calif., this house fills up four acres–and that’s a downgrade from when it filled over 160! Added on to over the years, the property has 47 fireplaces and 40 bedrooms.

Yes, this is someone’s home. At one point though, its only occupant was a nuclear warhead. Years of renovations have now made it a livable (and dare we say secure?) residence in central Kansas.

It’s like living in a sculpture! This Mexico City house is called the Nautilus and it’s not only its exterior that interesting–the inside is filled with vegetation and trees.

Yes it’s small, and yes it’s crooked, but what really makes this London house interesting is its (now-sealed) passage to Windsor Castle. Supposedly, it was used as an access point to the castle for a king’s mistress.

Photos courtesy of MSN Real Estate.

Many people dream of more square footage when thinking about building or remodeling. But there are those who take the term “downsizing” to a new level. Cal Finder featured some small houses that are big on style. The advantages to living in such a house are many, including energy savings (less space to heat and cool), less time spent cleaning large rooms and overall simplification of life (objects that go in the house must be truly loved). Let’s take a look…

This modern marvel is only 77 square feet. Its cube-like architecture disguises that fact though. Looking at this picture, it’s easy to think that it could be 1,000 feet. No doubt its structure keeps the interior spacious.

If you want some bragging rights, you might want to look into this house: it allegedly is the smallest in Toronto. It is 300 square feet and cleverly uses the space of a driveway.

Don Botsford has 20 acres of land in Ann Arbor, Mich., but his house occupies a very small part of it. It isn’t even on the ground. It’s a small, beautiful and completely livable tree house, with a sleeping loft and solar-powered lighting.

If you have been wondering how to downsize your house, take some inspiration from these homeowners!

Photos courtesy of Cal Finder.

If you saw any haunted houses this weekend over Halloween, you will appreciate these abandoned Russian houses. They may not be haunted, but there certainly is something haunting about them.

According to Charles & Hudson and Beach Bungalow 8, these houses have been abandoned, although they don’t say when. Surprisingly, the interiors seem to have held up well, and the exteriors, although a little worn, still show a faded beauty.

So where did the inhabitants go? That’s unknown, but it is interesting that there currently are not people living in the houses. These houses continue to sit deep in the Russian woods, 300 miles northeast of Moscow.

These houses don’t use an architectural style we see very often here, but some of the interiors have pieces and elements that look fresh and modern. The red hutch in the photo below would not look out of place in a farmhouse-style kitchen.

What these houses’ histories are, we do not know, but their romance and grandeur remain.

Photos courtesy of Beach Bungalow 8 and Andrew Qzmn.

New England? No, this house is located in the heartland of Madison, Wisc. It takes its inspiration from the shingle-style houses of the 1800s, with a modern twist.

This lake cottage is a modest house — only 2,190 square feet. But it packs a wealth of features into its space. Designed by Arleta Chang of Jarvis Architects in Oakland, Calif., the house’s rooms have bright pops of color and distinctly designed personalities.

Since the house is located on a narrow lot in an urban area, it was important that the property allow passersby to also enjoy the lake view.  The entrance is two steps above the main level and has a lake view, but the horizon is revealed only after stepping down to the living spaces. A garage and boathouse complete the luxuriously simple lake life.

Numerous Marvin products were used in this lake cottage, including clad in-sash round tops, eyebrow and half-circle units, casements, awnings and French doors. To learn more about this project and see more pictures, visit the Architect’s Challenge page.

This beautiful project is the third in our series of winning projects from the myMarvin Architect’s Challenge.

If you’ve ever been to Europe and visited any of the grand cathedrals there, it is hard not to feel awed by the beautiful structures people built so long ago. People continue to build houses of worship nowadays, but it isn’t often you see the large old-style churches being constructed.

In LaCrosse, Wisc., however, it is estimated that, for the first time in 50 years, a major Catholic church has been built in the classical style. The Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe serves not only as a church, but as a place for a pilgrimage.

Visitors to the church may well think they are in a European cathedral, but this modern church fools the eye. Every element of the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe, from the nave to the fabulously detailed dome, was designed to look as if the church has always been there.

Marvin windows help flood the church with natural light. Light in The Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe is introduced through windows in the side aisles, clerestory windows in the nave, transepts, and sanctuary, and through the dome with its clear windows and oculus. There are twelve different custom window types at The Shrine in all shapes and sizes, each requiring their own details. Marvin’s custom capabilities helped the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe achieve the exact look desired.

The Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe’s exterior was designed by Michael W. Swinghamer of River Architects in LaCrosse and the church’s interior was designed by Duncan Stroik of Duncan G. Stroik Architect in South Bend, Ind.