The entire roof of this house slides back to reveal a greenhouse/living room. The owners asked the architects to design a house where they could retire and grow food in the countryside. They said they were “prepared to be radical.” The result is super-cool and I want to go to there.

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The Best Links:

1. The Sliding House, by dRMM
2. dRMM: the architects’ website
3. via UniqueDaily.com
4. More fun with architecture - the Solar Decathalon brings fully functional solar houses to the National Mall
5. More fun with architecture - MOMA’s recent exhibit on prefab housing
6. Solar-Powered Walking House [VIDEO]

This is a concept for a “tree hotel” designed by the Swedish architectural firm Tham & Videgard Hansson. Honestly, they had me at “tree hotel”. But the thing is also made of mirrors and thus totally invisible . OK, not invisible at all. But it blends into its surroundings in a very cool way. Click through for more pics and schematics.

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The Best Links:

1. ‘Invisible’ Treehouse Hotel Is Hard To Find
2. Treehouse by Tham & Videgard Hansson is Almost Invisible
3. The World’s Weirdest Hotels
4. 8 Treehouses Fit for Treehuggers
5. Ghost Hotels
6. Worst Hotel Ever

STYLE BUZZ: A blog devoted solely to stair photography. Porn, here, is used in the loosest possible terms, of course. But some people just really love stairs.

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The Best Links:

1. Architecture Is Sexy!
2. Stair Porn Blog

Click the image for the story of the “Clingstone” house. So far it has resisted stormy weather and high seas for 103-years.

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The Best Links:

1. NYT Article on Clingstone

CULTURE BUZZ: Temporary inflatable structures are the future of transformable, space-saving architecture. I had this idea when I was at a birthday party at age 8 that I really did want to live inside of a giant SpaceWalk.

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The Best Links:

1. Couple Gets Married in an Inflatable Church
2. Company that Specializes in Conceptual Inflatable Creations
3. Swiss Design Firm Creates Temporary Inflatable Architecture that Can Be Easily Installed, Removed
4. The Inflatable Tea House by Kengo Kuma
5. Concrete Instant Housing Great for Things Like Refugee Camps!
6. The Future of Inflatable Architecture: Inflatable Shipyards
7. Inflatable “Skeletons” Used to Create Robotic Sculptures

STYLE BUZZ: Dutch architects invent a window frame that can be extended into a balcony. I could see these being totally ubiquitous and being sold at an IKEA near you. There was probably a time when sofabeds seemed really ingenious and innovative.

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The Best Links:

1. Response to Rising Popularity of Balconies in Sweden
2. YouTube - Watch How the BloomFrame Extends Out to Become a Balcony
3. Expect to See It out in Summer 2008
4. Bloomframe’s Official Website
5. Hofman Dujardin: The Architects Who Invented It
6. BloomFrame on Kanye West’s Blog