Gizmodo: apartment

Remainders - The Good, Bad and Ugly Things We Didn't Post (and Why)

Dan Nosowitz — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 02:20:00 EST

Today in the last frontier otherwise known as Remainders, we've got a mysterious (possibly viral) video involving an apartment stowaway, a prank featuring gay porn and an LCD TV, and a surefire way to kill your Facebook self.

Video Shows Mysterious Stranger Hiding Out in NYC Apartment Crawlspace

This is a video that's been making the rounds lately, but I've never seen it and it sparked a lot of discussion amongst the staff this morning. That it's fake we could all agree on, but exactly why—that we couldn't decide. A viral video? But for what? What could be the purpose of faking such an odd thing, besides hundreds of thousands of YouTube views? Take a look and see for yourself. [YouTube]

Free LCD TV—Nevermind the Burned-In Gay Porn

This is a pretty great prank. I'll let the Craigslist listing explain it:

My room mate thought it would be "hysterical" to pause gay porn on my TV while my girlfriend and I were on vacation for 2 weeks, thus burning and image into the screen. So...If you dont mind a sillouette of a skinny white guy taking a load in the face from the biggest black penis in recorded history forever adorning your new TV, Its yours.

Childish, yes. Hilarious, also yes. [Craigslist]

Facebook Allows Users to Gift iTunes Giftcards to Other Users

This ends up in Remainders because I am literally snoring right now, as I type this, but Facebook is now allowing users to buy and deliver iTunes giftcards through the site. You can choose which date the gift will be delivered (like, say, a birthday), which is actually a pretty nice feature. This is, unfortunately, US-only for now, because people who hate freedom enough to resist living in the Land of the Free don't deserve iTunes gift cards. [TUAW]

Seppukoo Lets You Kill Your Facebook Self

It sounds kind of interesting in theory: An entire site dedicated to eradicating Facebook profiles. It must be some kind of statement on avoiding association with social networking, right? Well, no; it's actually just another social networking site, trying to get you to cancel your account with the most popular one. It's not going so well, either—apparently only six people "killed" their profiles yesterday. [Techie]

This Is What Happens When a Star Wars Fan Is Loaded

Adam Frucci — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 10:00:00 EDT

There are nerds who have their collections on shelves in their apartments, and then there are rich nerds who turn their apartments into an incredible museum of obsession. And this is the craziest version of the latter I've ever seen.

Apparently, this took him 20 years to put together, which is pretty apparent. This takes whatever "impressive" collections of props and replicas I've ever seen and puts them to shame. This is some next-level shit right here. I guess if you're going to live in a fortress of solitude, you might as well make it a badass one.

[The Oriens via Coudal via The Daily What]

The Citadel: The World's First Floating Apartment Complex

Dan Nosowitz — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 01:00:00 EDT

Since Holland is mostly under sea level, keeping houses from flooding is a constant problem. This concept fixes that problem by just having an apartment complex that floats.

The Citadel is the residential part of the "New Water" complex, which tries to embrace Holland's waterworld-ness instead of fighting it. It'll have a floating road to the mainland as well as plenty of boat docks for its 60 units. Apparently it'll also be 25% more energy-efficient than an equivalent complex on land by using the surrounding water for cooling. It looks kind of crazy, but the sort of crazy that could actually work. [Inhabitat]

Entire New 13-Story Building Tips Over in Shanghai

Dan Nosowitz — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 01:30:00 EDT

This past Saturday, an entire apartment building in Shanghai collapsed. To be fair, the building was under construction and thus unoccupied, but it's still a minor miracle that there was only one fatality.

Sounds like there was a problem with some nearby flood prevention walls at the Dianpu River, but there's no hard evidence as to why this huge building simply fell over. Anyway, here are some sweet pictures of the architectural carnage. [Cellar.org via Twitter]

Alley House Brings Luxury Living to Cockroach Cracks

Mark Wilson — Fri, 09 May 2008 13:30:00 EDT

There's plenty of room left to build in the world's major cities; we just have to be MacGyver about it. Because when one group of architects looked at an alley, they saw the perfect lot for a five-story building that's less then eight feet wide.

Built on a steel frame, this home office took only a few weeks to construct. It's particularly eco-friendly (as it can piggyback off heat from adjacent buildings otherwise lost to the alley's air), and while each level is absurdly small, the floor to ceiling windows do wonders to cut through the jail syndrome (evoking more of a caged hamster vibe). Really though, it all makes sense...other than the bathtub on the roof.

For more images from the project, hit the link. Next up: sewers. [Archinect via Treehugger] [Images by Luc Roymans]

Backpack House: Plummet To Your Death in Style

Sean Fallon — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 19:00:25 EST

I suppose it goes without saying, but the "Backpack House" concept is probably the most ill conceived design idea ever. Basically, the idea is that the square footage of an apartment can be increased by hanging a 2-ton add on from the roof or the facade of a building. That means that users would have to crawl through their windows to enter a room that hangs precariously over the street below. Fortunately, the idea was intended as a work of art—not an actual means of increasing living space. Let's just hope it stays that way. [Convertible City via Freshome]

An Apartment's Worth of Furniture In a Box

Jason Chen — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 18:40:44 EST

I've moved 10 times in the last nine years, which means I know quite well how much of a pain it is to pack up an entire apartment's worth of stuff and drag it into a new place. If I had this Casulo, however, moving would be cake, as long as I didn't mind sleeping on a tiny bed sitting on a little stool for eight hours a day. Nevertheless, this design idea is fantastic and actually won the "Abraham & David Roentgen Award" last year for being so great. You actually get a desk, bed, shelves, dresser, and some other random boxes in the package. Hit the jump for video of the amazing process.

[Project Page via Treehugger]

Star Trek Apartment Video Tour

Charlie White — Fri, 30 Mar 2007 16:00:00 EDT

The guy who converted his apartment into a Star Trek: Voyager set has been attracting lots of attention lately, and that's a good thing because he's still trying to sell the place. This video gives you an even better idea of the scale of the studio apartment and its impressive level of detail, right down to the sound effects. – Charlie White

Video Tour Of The Star Trek Apartment [The Uber Review]