Tag: Creative Real Estate

If you saw last week’s installment of the Creative Real Estate series, I have little doubt you were short of amazed. The owner, who was an architect in Hong Kong, had devised a 24 room configuration for his 330 square foot apartment (I know!!!).

Now, from Spain, we’re introduced to Christian Schallert, who has pulled it off with a 248 square foot home. His approach is not dissimilar, in that there’s a basic cube with highly customizable, versatile, and movable parts that can be configured in dozens of different ways. It’s referred to here as a lego house. You just have to see it – this is spectacular ingenuity.

I think I like last week’s Domestic Transformer better. I find it a little more amazing. But, I’d rather live in Spain than Hong Kong, so … hmmm… dilemmas. I’d love to know if anybody in the Bay Area has done something this creative with a small living space. What’s your take? Which one do you like better?

This has to be the most incredible example of efficient use of living space of all time.

I lived on the outskirts of San Francisco’s Chinatown for about 6 years, and I did pick up an appreciation for some that neighborhood’s ability to effectively utilize space and resources in general. But this Hong Kong architect has taken the idea to an awesome extreme. If I said 330 square feet, and 24 rooms, does that make you kind of wonder?

You’ll simply need to watch this (4 minute) video. It’s our latest in the Creative Real Estate series.

The oddest part about it is that it appears that Chang has a significant amount of the space allocated for shelves containing what I believe are CDs. I have to think that he could rip those artifacts onto a hard drive and consolidate the collection to something about the size of two or three CD cases.

Those are some tight quarters – do you think you could handle that kind of living arrangement?

I’ve been to East Hampton, NY, and it’s quite a different world from here in the Bay Area, but this property struck me as something you’d be more likely to find here in the Bay Area than on the east coast. At the very least, it would fit in well enough. Here’s the latest in our Creative Real Estate series:

As a matter of fact, if you could find a place to build something like this, it would fit anywhere. Simply because one of the primary attributes is that the home blends into its surroundings discreetly.

A few years ago, I was approached about financing what was called an “Earth Home” here in the Bay Area. It was under development in the East Bay, and the owner was looking to secure a loan post-construction. In that case, a little more extreme than this one, the home was almost entirely subterranean, with windows essentially facing in one direction, like someone had cut a wedge into a hillside and shoved a house in there. The design was amazing, but it was really an outside the box approach. (Reminds me of what was probably my favorite ever scene from the series Lost…)

If you’ve ever been involved in trying to obtain creative mortgage financing for a quirky or unique home, you might recall that one of the frequent trip-ups is when there are a lack of ‘comparable’ properties for the appraiser to develop a sense of relative value. But I digress…. take a look at this feature on the East Hampton home pictured above from WSJ Online, and be sure to watch the video inserted into the page.

Ever seen an earth home in the Bay Area? Could you live in one? Ever tried to finance one? Share your thoughts below!

Just think – you could have your very own “Meat House” (yeah, just what it sounds like) complete with sphincter doors and windows. In the latest installment of our Friday ‘Creative Real Estate‘ series, take a look at a few innovative ways we could literally grow our houses.

This is in line with last week’s look at Building Green. In fact, I think it’s more green than anybody had in mind, even around here in the San Francisco Bay Area real estate world.

I might be up for the tree house idea, but… thoughts? Share below!

If you’re interested in the Green Movement, a hot topic in and around Bay Area real estate circles, I think you’ll find this video (~6 minutes) fascinating. I really like the economic approach behind the planning; there are all kinds of cost/benefit evaluations. From this angle, costs are viewed, at least in part, in terms of energy and resource consumption; the basis for “Green” thinking and planning.

If you have a story about green style home improvements, construction, or planning in general, we’d love to hear about it below.