All posts by Fabian Doe

Make a house cellar

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I will tell you a little story.

My neighbors had long wanted to have a cellar to store their collection of fine wines. When they decided to build their house, they asked the architect to design a cellar with the plan of the house. And then their house was completed, they moved in, and they stored their bottles of wine in the cellar. And then one day they went on vacation for a week. And it rained a lot in the area where their house is. Back from vacation, they found their cellar completely filled with water. And the bottles had all lost their label.

All this to tell you that we do not build a cellar without some precautions:

  • First of all, do you want a buried cellar or cellar with access to the outside?
  • Is there water in the soil?
  • What is the nature of the soil (clay that prevents water from flowing, or sandstone, sand, limestone)?
  • Should we drain all around the cellar to eliminate water?
  • Can drainage be connected to the water flow system in the city?
  • Is there a stream like a stream or a river to drain the drainage water?
  • Is the ground of the house sloping to let the water drain?
  • Is the land in a bowl?
  • Is your land in a flood zone (normally, no, but in practice it is possible)?

There are several types of materials to build the walls and the floor of your cellar. But if you need to insulate your cellar against rising water, do not forget that it is much more efficient to insulate your cellar from the outside. Do it when the house is being built. Once the house is built, it will be impossible to do or very expensive.

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Beautify your home

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You are at home, sitting comfortably in your chair, and you say that life is beautiful. However, you say to yourself: my house is very beautiful but it lacks a little personality. What can I do to make it more attractive?

We will give you some ideas for beautification.

First of all, you have to do all the little renovations, such as electricity, plumbing, small holes in the walls, water leaks.

Then, here are some suggestions:

  • An original door
  • Joinery with colors
  • A garage door in color
  • Blue shutters pastel type
  • All frames of the same color different from the walls
  • A colored chimney
  • Add stones, or slates, or wood on the walls
  • Put slates on the roof instead of brick tiles (be careful, depending on where you live, there may be obligations)
  • Wooden fences to demarcate vote ground
  • Wooden fences for your vegetable garden
  • Small light terminals
  • Cut trees type “Bonsai”
  • Small jets of water

It’s up to you to test all these suggestions. If you have other proposals, or achievements, do not hesitate to send us your comments / photos.

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How to fight against mosquitoes

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Mosquitoes are distributed in 3500 species and are found around the world.

They do not all sting but when they bite, it is the female who does it.

The mosquito egg gives birth to an aquatic larva, then to a nymph, and finally to a winged adult.
The mosquito is often considered as a nuisance, but it should not be forgotten that this insect pollinates the flowers by foraging them and thus contributes to the propagation of flowering plants such as bees.

But it must be said that mosquitoes carry many diseases and are considered in some countries as a real scourge.

For example, the tiger mosquito appeared in France only a few years ago and has invaded all of southern France. If you plan to go on holiday in France, take your precautions.

What can you do to protect yourself from mosquitoes without using chemicals?
Here are some ways you can exploit:

  • Limit nesting sites, especially stagnant water (beware, tiger mosquito larvae can develop simply in a wet area such as mud or compost)
  • Protect yourself with covering clothes, mosquito nets, especially in the morning and evening (be careful, the tiger mosquito can sting all day)
  • Put cobwebs everywhere (I do not know if you prefer mosquitoes or spiders …)
  • Sleeping under a mosquito net (be careful, the mesh should be very thin and the mosquito net should go under the mattress)
  • Use a fan (the mosquito’s flight is quite unstable and can not stand wind)

In conclusion, no ideal solution. Keep this rule to eliminate all kinds of stagnant water and avoid dark places. I know people who decided to cut the hedges around their homes: the effect was spectacular.

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Unsaleable house, what to do?

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A house can become unsaleable for a lot of reasons:

  • Half of the houses in the village are empty
  • There are no economic activities
  • No access road
  • No shops
  • Terraced house with a ruin
  • Termite problem
  • Lead problem

Of course, we can find many other reasons.

First of all, it is primarily a price problem. Indeed, if the price is low enough, we always find someone who is interested.

And then we can do a home staging job to make the house attractive:

  • Empty all furniture and decorations
  • Repaint all in white
  • Beautify the garden
  • Do minor repairs: electricity, plumbing, window cleaning

Finally, prepare a speech to attract potential buyers. The important thing is to make people understand the interest they can have in living in this house. Do not stay too factual, play on feelings.

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Nuisance at home

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When you want to buy or build a house, you want to have all the necessary comfort. But it is also useful to think of the nuisances that one can have.

There is a lot of nuisance. For example :

  • Bad orientation of the house compared to the sun
  • Leakage of water, of pipe
  • Bad smells
  • Cracks in the walls
  • Presence of rodents in the attic or walls

But if you do a search on Google, you will find by typing the word “nuisance” that the results mainly concern noise. And it is true that noise is considered by a majority of people as nuisance number 1.
What kinds of noise generate nuisances?

Some of the most common are:

  • Car or truck noises, train noise
  • Neighbors’ noises, above, below or beside
  • Aircraft noise
  • Factory sounds
  • Wind noise
  • School sounds
  • Construction noise
  • Sounds of bar or restaurant

I cited only some noise. If we had to quote them all, this post would not be enough.

In conclusion, and considering that the noise nuisance is the first disadvantage cited by the people, it would be useful if the people who have a project of purchase or construction of house make use of a specialist consultant to avoid this type of problem.

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Methods to make the mice fly away

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The mice are cute but can cause problems in your home.

They can circulate in the insulation of the walls of your house. As they are rather nocturnal, they make noise and can prevent you from sleeping.

They can also enter your home through a crack in a wall or simply by the electrical ducts and move the electrical outlet.

Once inside the house, their goal is to find food. And they are so agile that they can sneak everywhere, in a closet, in a bedside, or climb on furniture. And here, if you left bread, candy or chocolate, it is the feast assured. Do not think that chocolate packaging will withstand them.
How do you find a way to get rid of them without killing them?

Many solutions :

  • Put cat litter on the mouse passages
  • Put repellent plants like mint, bay leaf or sage
  • Put cloth soaked in repellent plant extract
  • Try ultrasound

In conclusion, the idea is not to eliminate mice, which is almost impossible. But to reduce their number. And do not do like this friend who set traps to catch the living mice. He was releasing them just outside the house …

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Technology in architecture

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Technology has always been present in architecture. Of course, we do not talk about electronics or computers.

For example, the pyramids of Giseh or the buildings built by the Incas: huge blocks of stone are sealed together without using mortar. We can think that it took a lot of know-how, and probably technology, to build these buildings.

Much research is being done to understand how the ancients could move such blocks of stone, how they carved them, and how they adjusted them.

Closer to home, we can only be amazed by Gustave Eiffel who built a huge tower with iron bars and bolts.

Nowadays, technology has taken a leading role in architecture.

For example, we can build houses with 3D printers. Thanks to this technique, it is possible to create forms impossible to achieve with bricks or blocks.

Drones can also bring a lot to the architecture, for example by making it possible to carry out controls on buildings already built, with software that allows to ensure quality monitoring.

Home automation has come a long way and makes it possible to have smart homes.

It is also possible to design fully mobile houses that orient themselves in relation to the sun.

In the future, we can imagine that the construction techniques by 3D printing will still progress, the machines will be less and less expensive. Thus, poorer people will be able to access homes at affordable prices.

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Architectural Schools in the United States

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We present in this post the best architectural schools in the United States:

  • Yale, School of Architecture

Website

Phone: +12034322288

    • Harvard Graduate School of Design

Website

Phone: +16174951000

    • University of Pennsylvania, School of Design

Website

Phone:

    • University Cornell, College of Architecture, Art and Planning

Website

Phone: +16072559110

    • University of Cincinnati, Design, Architecture, Art and Planning

Website

Phone: +15135564933

  • Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo, College of Architecture and Environmental Design

Website

Phone:

  • University of Michigan, Taubman College, Architecture and Urban Planning

Website

Phone: +17347641300

  • University of Syracuse, Syracuse (New York), Syracuse University School of Architecture

Website

Phone: +13154432256

  • University of Texas, Austin, School of Architecture

Website

Phone: +15124711922

  • University of Kansas, College of Architecture, Planning and Design

Website

Phone: +17855325047

  • Florida International University, Miami, FIU School of Architecture

Website

Phone: +13053481323

  • University of Columbia, New York, Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation

Website

Phone: +12128543414

Arbitrary?

But this ranking  of the best architectural schools of the United States is necessarily arbitrary because it includes many criteria. Indeed, for a student living in New York, a nearby school but less prestigious will be preferable to a school in Los Angeles more prestigious. The criterion of employability can also be considered essential. Leaving a school with a degree is not enough. You have to be able to find an interesting and well paid job. But it also depends on the reputation of the school, for example internationally. To make a big project in Asia or Europe, we will rely on the reputation of the school in addition to the CV of the candidate.

University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA
The best architectural schools, Photo by Fran on Unsplash

 

Important criterion

Finally, the most important criterion is the following: whatever the level of school, it is the motivation of the student that is important. Being first in school, even if it’s average, will sometimes be better than being the last of a prestigious school.

We will return regularly to this post to modify it and take into account the evolution of the reputation of these schools.

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Facebook or Google?

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We present today the list of the most visited websites in the world :

  1. Google.com
  2. YouTube.com
  3. Facebook.com
  4. Baidu
  5. Wikipedia.org
  6. reddit.com
  7. Yahoo.com
  8. QQ.com
  9. Amazon.com
  10. Taobao.com
  11. Twitter.com
  12. tmall.com
  13. vk.com
  14. instagram.com
  15. Live.com
  16. sohu.com
  17. sina.com.cn
  18. jd.com
  19. weibo.com
  20. 360.cn

Unsurprisingly, the most popular site is Google. But be careful, the numbers do not always have the value that is expected of them. For example, in this list, numbers 1 and 2 are Google and Youtube. But these two companies are part of the same company: Google LLC. So, Facebook has to be compared to Youtube and Google together, the first place in the ranking, far ahead of others.

Beware of Wikipedia which is in 5th position, but most of the traffic comes from questions asked on Google.

Interestingly, we can also note that US companies dominate this ranking. But the Chinese are not absent, even if they do not occupy the first places.

The first site is Baidu, a Chinese search engine in 4th position. But we also have QQ in 9th position, and plenty others companies. Note that the second social network after Facebook is Twitter in just 11th position, and the third is Instagram, in just 14th position.

We will regularly resume this article to make it evolve based on news.

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What is estate planning?

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The estate planning is for everyone.

In fact, you have an estate. Why ? Because it concerns everything you own. Your home, of course, but also your car, your bank accounts, investments, insurance, and even your electric bike. You want to have control over all these properties, especially who you want to give them to or from whom you want to receive them, and of course by paying the least taxes and taxes possible.

Home as part of your estate plannig

Estate planning is the act of controlling all your assets as part of a plan. Almost no one does this, and yet it concerns a lot of money. Imagine that a company does not do this, it is bankruptcy assured.

What does it take to have a good estate planning? We have some recommendations. Attention, this list is not exhaustive:

  1. Take out life insurance that will allow your loved ones to have no trouble if you die.
  2. Take into consideration the consequences if you become disabled or dependent on others
  3. Take a lawyer to minimize taxes, including inheritance
  4. Predict the succession of your business in case of retirement, disability or death
  5. Plan who can take care of your minor children in case of problems
  6. Predict the divorce

And more generally, do the estate planning regularly over time and not just once or twice.

As you can see, there are many topics for discussion and I am sure most of you have not done this work. As a result, the best time to start this job is now!

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Do drones replace fireworks?

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One can really ask the question, as the drone technology has made a lot of progress in recent years.
First of all, drones can do a lot of things that were not possible thanks to the miniaturization of electronic components. They are often equipped with high definition cameras. But they can do many other things. They can :

  • send flames
  • send insecticide to destroy Asian wasp or hornet nests
  • carry packages as for the Amazon company
  • carry people like Airbus
  • and lots of other properties

They can also simply be equipped with light of all colors.
Another property is very interesting: the flight of drones can be controlled by distance, and directed through a computer program. As a result, they can very accurately coordinate their flight not related to each other and perform an overall flight.
So we begin to see shows of hundreds, and sometimes thousands of drones with fairies of color and movement in the dark sky.

What are the benefits of these shows compared to conventional fireworks?

  • Less noise, even if the flight of drones is not perfectly silent.
  • Indeed, fireworks often frighten birds and some die
  • An infinity of figures in the sky, computer programs being unlimited
  • Better environmental protection because more particles are released into nature with fireworks

On the other hand, it is necessary to regulate the risk of falling of a drone on spectators. The obvious solution is to make these shows over risk-free areas: lake, river, mountain, …

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Real estate for sale

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The magic expression that one seeks when one walks in a city is: real estate for sale, or real estate homes for sale, or homes for sale.
Real estate agents have many ways to communicate when they want to offer a house for sale:

  • Put posters on the window of their shop
  • Put house ads for sale in specialized magazines
  • More and more, put ads on social networks like Twitter or Instagram
  • The most classic way: put a poster on the front of the house for sale.

And it is true that this last possibility is effective. Indeed, many people want to buy a house in a city or a particular neighborhood. While walking, they can see what are the houses for sale, the advantages of this house as the appearance, the garden, the proximity of shops, public transport and potential nuisances such as noise, power lines, exposure to the sun, noisy neighborhood.

That’s why real estate agents give a special importance to the sales panels that are installed on the properties.
But these agents sometimes face the reluctance of the owner of the house.
What are the reasons ?
Sometimes the owner does not want to indicate that his house is for sale, by discretion. Indeed, if this person is often on a business trip, it may indicate to thieves that his house is empty at this time.
Other owners consider that a sales sign on a property is not aesthetic. Moreover, we advise real estate agents to work on the aesthetics of their sales panels to counter this difficulty.

Finally, a sales sign can tell other real estate agents that this house is for sale. As a result, the landlord may be beset by phone calls from real estate agents who also wish to sell this home.

In conclusion, a sales sign bearing the mention “real estate for sale” is very useful for a house sale but it is careful that this panel does not cause difficulties for the home owner.

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Home renovation

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Renovate or buy a house, what is the best strategy?
I will not tell you what the answer is to this question, because it is not easy.
First of all, what is the point of having a new house built? We can cite several:

  • Choose the number of rooms you want, rooms, bathroom, kitchen
  • Choose the surface of the pieces you want
  • Choose the orientation in relation to the sun and the wind
  • Choose the number of windows, the size, and all those kinds of things
  • Have insurance in case of poor workmanship

But there are several disadvantages:

  • Seeking land to build
  • Check that this land is well located
  • Choosing a good home builder
  • Well check all connections, water, electricity, phone

We see, build your house is not necessarily very simple. And we can make many mistakes that we will see once the construction done.

And there is a saying that says it’s the third house build that gets the perfect home.
So, why not buy a house already built? This is indeed a solution for people who have already built a house and do not want it anymore.
The benefits are many:

  • No work to do (beware, there are sometimes bad surprises …)
  • Faster availability

But there are also disadvantages:

  • Work to do in case of unpleasant surprises
  • A profitability not necessarily good: the cost of buying the house plus renovation costs may cost more than a new house
  • Standards not updated: if the house is relatively old, you may have to redo the electricity or plumbing.

So what is the solution ?
It’s hard to make the right choice. In my opinion, the first step is to get help from professionals, either home builders, real estate agents, or architects, to help you with your problem. And to interview people who have already bought or had a house built before you. And, importantly, if you have spotted a land to buy or a house, do a neighborhood survey: the neighbors will help you.

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New in inflatable objects

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In the construction of apartments or houses, hard materials such as concrete or brick are often used.
But we forget that we are in the era of innovation: many technologies such as 3D printing allow us to think about the construction of tomorrow.
One approach is to use inflatable objects.

One can for example use these inflatable objects to build a gigantic structure in the courtyard of a building:

You can also use large inflatable balls with light and colors to decorate the interior of a house:

You can also make furniture in inflatable objects. Convenient to move, just deflate:

We can finally create structures such as bridges or tunnels in inflatable material:

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Inflatable architecture

More regarding this post:

Pools in the sky

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As you know, I like bold constructions. And among these, hanging pools are one of my preferences. You will find at the bottom of this post some references.
At first, I wanted to introduce you to the crazy project of an architect. This is to make a swimming pool hanging over a Norwegian fjord.

Some balconies are arranged above this pool to enjoy the show:

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Pool in Norway

Also a swimming pool hanging in Honolulu:

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Pool in Honolulu

And finally, a swimming pool which is at the top of a skyscraper, completely transparent and without rim, what give you the thrill:

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Pool in London

In addition to this post:

Architecture plans

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Many people would like to get architecture plans. Why ?
When you want to build a house, you have to go to a builder or a real estate developer. Each company has its own list of architecture plans.
So you have to go from one company to another to find the one that best fits your personal style. For example, you can choose between:

  • House with wooden structure
  • Concrete house
  • Tiny house
  • Loft style house
  • Organic house made of mud, straw and mud

But you can also if you have the budget make houses that look like castles, mills, bunkers, and everything you can imagine.
But you will not always find the company that can make you the house of your dreams.

Which method?

One of the methods to get this house is to buy house plans already made. It costs a little money, but it is possible. But if you want to do something really special that does not exist, you can ask an architect to make a plan. Be careful, having a made-to-measure house plan can be quite expensive.

The best method

A much simpler method is to make a house plan with online software. In most cases, you can make some plans for free. If you want to go further, for example:

  • Make many house plans
  • Edit these plans in pdf

You can take a subscription that is often cheap, much cheaper in any case than the rate charged by an architect.
Advantage: you can make all the changes you want without thinking about the price it costs.
And if you want to take an architect, it will cost you less because you can offer him directly the plan you have done and want it to improve.
Ready for the project of your house plan? So, draw plan.

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Draw Your First Floor Plan

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Your first house plan: how to do it?
I have a piece of advice: you take a pencil, an eraser, forgiveness of erasers, and a sheet of paper, sorry several of paper.
You start tracing your house on a piece of paper, and that’s where the trouble starts. Oh, I forgot, you need a double decimeter, and a protractor to draw angles. After 5 tries, I bet you put all your plans in the trash.

Plan 3

So, of course, you can practice with online software such as roomsketcher, archiplain or floorplanner.
I invite you to try these 3 programs, and you will see which is the easiest to use.

Let’s go further in the discussion. To make your first plan, do not try to make a detailed plan of the Palace of Versailles. If you do not know, there are 2300 pieces, of which only 1000 can be visited … Start with a more modest project, for example a studio apartment. There are few rooms, and like that, you can practice integrating all rooms, openings and furniture. Ready ? So, it’s up to you to draw your first apartment plan. And if you wish, send me your plan, I will be happy to publish it in this blog.

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Artificial or natural flowers?

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Recently, I told you about flowers. Remember, I proposed to make a house in 3D printing that looks like a flower (Here).
In a first project, people have imagined creating artificial flowers to feed the insects of cities:

More:

https://www.dezeen.com/2018/11/12/matilde-boelhouwer-artificial-flowers-feed-urban-insects/

In this second project, an artist took plastic pipes and blew them like glass to transform them into a flowerpot. The result is amazing:

More:

https://www.dezeen.com/2018/04/17/kodai-iwamoto-transforms-pipes-into-flower-vases-milan-design-week/

And finally, what about this lamp that opens and closes like a real flower:

More:

https://www.dezeen.com/2014/03/07/flower-shaped-lamp-that-blooms-at-night-by-constantin-bolimond/

Create High-Quality Floor Plans

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To make quality, one must first be precise. In the archiplain software, you make walls the length you want, 10, 20 or 30 meters for example. And even if these walls are long, they will be accurate to 0.1 inch. If you prefer the metric system, they will be accurate to the millimeter, which is much more accurate than a real house construction.

We can put color inside each room, and also make each wall with a different color. This property can allow you to differentiate the rooms, in green for example, the rooms of water like the toilets, the kitchen and the bathroom in blue, the living room in purple, the dining room in yellow. Openings such as doors and windows can have their own color.


You can vary the wall thickness with the same precision as before.
As you can see, with this tool, you can make house plans with great precision, much better than you need to build.

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Special houses

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From time to time, I like to present houses that are a bit unusual, either because they have been renovated a little bit, or because a somewhat original architect has decided to make creation, or because nature has changed it.
First of all, here is a renovation. Usually, the one who renovates a house tries to put a little color on the walls and ceilings. here he decided to paint everything in black. I must say that the result is interesting:

More:

Anders Ruhwald converts abandoned Detroit building into all-black installation

In this second project, it is marriage (you will understand why I use the word marriage) between tiny houses and chapels or small churches. It is not very expensive, quickly made and, let’s say it, very ugly:

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S-AR builds tiny concrete chapel La Providencia in Mexico

And in this third project, we take a basic unit, the container, we put several on each other in an unordered way, we throw a big pot of pink paint on the whole, we put a little light, there you go:

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Dixon Jones designs sculptural shipping-container building for Edinburgh