Here is some beautiful and strange architecture. Enjoy the video.

Some consider Fallingwater House to be Frank Lloyd Wright's masterpiece. He was one of America's greatest architects, having done many of his famous designs during the decades dedicated to the Tribute to the 20s, 30s and 40s Newsvine group. Fallingwater House was designed and built during the period from 1934 to 1937. Wright even designed much of the furniture for the house. More recently it required a very large investment in repairs, and is now a museum, visited by school groups and others.

"When designing a building, you have to account for things like terrain, materials, weather, handicapped accessibility and, of course, ghosts.

"You can design a building more awesome than the Guggenheim and nobody will want to go in it if there's evil spirits just running through it willy-nilly. With that in mind, here's how people in different parts of the world build guaranteed demon-free housing.

"Behind these groundbreaking walls is an idea -- we should be free to live in an environment that is non-toxic; one that helps clean rather than contaminate the air, the earth, and our bodies. That was the pivotal point of my conversation with design/builder Anthony Brenner on his house made from hemcrete based on industrial hemp-- the first in the US."

There's so much that's special about Taos:
The crescent-moon of mountains on the east that embrace this place; the desert that spills out from this container toward the west—and our ever more beautiful setting sun; the great chasm that provides and protects our water sources in the form of the Rio Grande Gorge; rainbows that splash across the sky in layer upon layer after summer rains; the Pueblo, stacked to take advantage of the concept of "smallness" that allows desert dwellers to shed heat in the summer and share heat in the winter; the multicultural community that includes the children of Mexicans, Central, and South Americans of every indigenous mixture; Native Americans from Plains and Pueblos and Woodland cultures; crypto-Jews; Europeans; Africans; and Asians of many lineages… our culture, and thereby our traditions, our foods, our music, our architectural forms…These are the things which make Taos divine.

The beauty of being something that was created as a response to a living environment, and not as an imposition or adaptation that works despite the environment, is what makes Taos' remoteness so precious. It preserved who and what was created here. The forms you see in the Plaza, at the Pueblo, as you gaze out over our agricultural landscape from the overlook in the gardens at the Couse House, and even the Earthships on the mesa - are real, living beings. They breathe the sun and wind and what little rain there is. In the spring, as the mountain is transformed from a snowy pleasure-seeker's paradise into a green living breathing ancestor, the water overflows the banks of the acequias and brings life to all. We see wildflowers larger than you can imagine, animals and gardens flourishing, hummingbirds and monarchs and every manner of wild animal, and the people working the land as best they can. In our hot dry summers, before the rains come, if they come at all, all the beings of Taos – the buildings and the people, the acequias, the plants, and the animals - all move closer to the earth, into the shade where it is cool.

Taos responds to the environment and the cultures within, and provides a unique, rich and varied shelter to those that seek it out.

We are artists, musicians, craftsmen, writers, architects… we are healers, creators… spiritual beings searching for our voices. We come here to find sanctuary. Sanctuary, since the 4th century in England, is a concept of having a right to safety, and to pursue life outside of what was expected… It is the right to 'be', outside of political, religious, or cultural requirements. Taos was these things when Mabel Dodge Luhan brought her salons here from New York and Europe to the beautiful home on the east end of Kit Carson, and this spirit and the artistic and architectural forms it produces are still very much alive today.

When designing a truly eco-friendly home, or a eco-settlement in concert with the land, it is key to remove all the concepts of boundaries that you come with. A truly ecologically-based site design takes into consideration not just acquisition of the literal chunk of land - but also the relationship between your needs and the land's. The collective settlement of piece of land - the creation of a community - should aspire to this also, however in order to do so, the community must let go the concept of a square or rectilinear boundary.

In so far as you are able, leave the land alone. Use swales and berms to provide groundwater recharge and direct water flows to ponds, but be mindful of diverting streams, or creating them for that matter. Water and the land are inextricably in relationship so mindful management is key to survival of both, as well as to the health and well being of the plants and animals.

Do not build on aquifers if at all possible. If impossible, use a community-wide sewer type system and single mass production plant to make methane for the community house instead of a septic type system, which will spread the effluents all over the (currently functioning) aquifer instead of a localized place where it's healthy bacteria and scrubbers have a chance to defend the whole.

Do not plow or plant more than 12% of available meadows unless you are using entirely locally occurring plants, and even then only plant 50% of the available space. (This is mainly for the safety and health of the wildlife who may not understand why your carrots are off limits.)

Allow the low parts of stream, river, and lake areas, especially those with grasses but also those within the 50-year floodplain, to remain untouched to allow riparian access to streams, give the water plenty of space to be cleaned, and allow hardwoods to grow. If you want to build near a stream, that's okay, just build within the forested area so that the grasslands that filter the water for the stream are allowed to function correctly.

To minimize erosion and the accidental diverting or creation of new water channels, do not build or farm on slopes over 12%. Do not build roads on slopes over 20%.

Allow your natural weed management system – goats and otherwise – to free range so that erosion is not localized and the plants have a chance to heal.

If you have any USDA Category 1 soils on your lands, allow them to recharge the rest of the land. Use only the edges of these soils so that your topsoil stays healthy and can be recharged. Only build 1 large building (1500SF footprint) per 25 acres in these prime soil recharge areas.

Build centrally so that you have the shortest number of roads. Allow a single controllable entrance because eventually you will have visitors and a means of preparing for their access to the site, complete with guide - a description of the community; maps to your garden stand, the orchard, the smithy's house, etc. Plus you can know if everyone's okay because they pass by from time to time. It's just good community-building.
Only allow 1 house per 3 acres in steep terrain or in the deepest parts of the forest. Allow 1 house per acre on mid-steep to flat terrain at the forests' edge.

Following these simple pointers will help the earth to be allowed to "do her thing" and work for you. She can then purify the air around you, recharge your groundwater and stream, and hold back erosion which fills up the streams at the detriment to those downstream, including not only man but also the trout and egrets and wolves and bears.
Hopefully these guidelines will help you to manifest your ideal oasis - one that will last your family several lifetimes, and become more beautiful with age.
square or rectilinear boundary.

In architecture school we studied the creation of space. It was a balancing act between the loud cries of structural engineers, mechanical/electrical/plumbing engineerss, contractors and owners to bring something beautiful together that met everyone's needs.

In the days after completing my master's degree, which was largely a study of historic buildings in the Eastern U.S. and Europe, I determined that I wanted to really understand "sacred space." From the construction of the Ziggurats of Mesopotamia to the missions in Latin America, to Feng Shui and Vasstu from the Ancient Orient, I wanted to learn how "sacred" was defined in architectural language.

What I discovered was that, like religions—many of which share some basic tenets—the creation of sacred space in just about every culture involves a simple set of ideals that everybody can use to create space, which somehow allows us to become the beings we are destined—and hopefully, determined—to be.

The key ingredients:

CLEARING

What you collect in your clutter-drawer, your closets and your beliefs represents what stands between you and your real self. Only clearing out what is no longer NEEDed can clear the way for new things to become. The challenge comes in remembering the difference between WANT and NEED.

Before you start "making," you have to "unmake" what you no longer need. Sit with your space, feel what's not right, take it away. Gift it to someone who will love and cherish it, sell it, donate it—but don't put it in a box to deal with later. To put something off until later just means you have issues you are willingly choosing to repress.

Inside of your space and yourself, in every nook and cranny, if it doesn't serve you, be rid of it. Think about why you kept it past its usefulness. It is likely that you will see a pattern that develops. This pattern will help you identify what you want to change about yourself, on the inside, which is ultimately the reason why we do this exercise.

INTENTION

It is vital that when you begin to create space around you, you understand how you want to use that space.
Will it be:

Ceremonial? (often, entries and dining rooms)
Comfortable? (usually bedrooms, living rooms, and patios)
Functional? (kitchens, laundries, garages, guest bathrooms, guest bedrooms)
What do you want to come from your effort of creating the space? Will it be the perfect room for romance? An art studio? Do you want to feel less compressed?

You then need to determine in which of these rooms you most need to create a space that "sings" for you. This space needs to take priority over all others.

Start thinking about what you'd really like to see there. Start going to garage sales, flea markets, stores that you LOVE, and fill that space with things that inspire you. Do layaway if you need extra time. Just set your intentions and DO IT.

You will find that it will start growing without your input, just from the energy you used to create your intentions.
Once you have that room done, determine which one should be next. Work down the list. Multitask and do multiple rooms if you are fired up. Just listen to your needs and try with all your heart to fulfill these desires.
Secondly, clean it. From tip to toe. If there is anything bugging you about it, fix it. That light bulb has been burned out for a year. That's long enough. Change it. Set your intentions to create a "flow." Then manage it so you keep the flow always moving.

DETACHMENT

We normally live a life that has cause and effect relationships. Our emotions sometimes get negatively aroused by an object that reminds us of something that was painful. We have a chair around that belonged to our spouse prior to the divorce. We can use this understanding to clear and create an environment that we really want to be in. What I have learned about these relationships is that the most amazing things happen when we want "for the best" rather than for a specific outcome. Like prayer, we attempt to ask, not for "my mom to be cured of cancer" but rather, for "my mother to accept with ease and grace, the lesson of her sickness, so she can be healed with as little pain and suffering as possible." That leaves the doors open for real miracles, because it is not presumed that the outcome you were assuming is best, actually is.

BUT WHAT ABOUT THE "RULES"?

Ask a Feng Shui master in Black Hat Sect, Compass School, Nine Gates, or a Vaastu practitioner what to do about your bad romance luck and you are going to get four different answers. Likely, you'll get as many different answers as there are divisions within the practices. Each practice has its own "fixes" which are strategies employed to alter the energy flow within a space toward a desired outcome.Why? Because historically these studies were done within specific politico-social-ecosystems.

The predominant winds in Taos may come from a different direction that the predominant winds in a mountain village in Mongolia, which means the people living there will associate a different cardinal direction with the element of wind. [please clarify]. Also, emperors, fighters, merchants and peasants all had access to different levels of education and medical knowledge. So what an emperor could intellectually process and afford as far as fixeswere vastly different than the farmers in the regions the emperor controlled. What became clear, in every caste, was that the local witch-doctors, shamans and healers found local and indigenous plants, elixirs, stones, and the like, that seemed to solve problems within their specific system. Thusly, these traditions got passed down within each "tribe." Though the fixes are different in two locations, they still work.

What's this mean to you?

You can pick the system you want to work within. As long as you set your INTENTIONS, have DETACHMENT, and are CLEAR, you yourself can heal "what ails ya."

Think about painting the living room purple if that's what you've wanted to do for "forever." There is a reason you want it, and you may not even know it. Then, when you do it, watch what happens, and document it. This will tell you what the doing of it means. What purple means. What living in a purple room means. What changes? What doesn't?

Pick a practice, buy a book, try some of the remedies. What color represents water to you? Is it green instead of blue? Fine. If the book says put blue there, you put green there. Because it has to matter to YOU. Every time you look at the "remedy," think of what you are calling in by putting it out there and acknowledge it.
Then watch what happens.

Trust in your inner voice—there is a reason why it tells you to do these weird things sometimes, t o take a chance on something invisible that you want to believe in. You want to believe you can change your destiny. You can only change it if you try, believing you can.

I can implement many of the traditional forms of Feng Shui, Vaastu, Native American shamanic "fixes," sacred geometry…that's my job. What I want is to give you the tools to heal your own space and know that you can adjust it anytime you want. All you have to do is make up your mind, and feed the idea of change. Then be open and available.

Rachel Preston is an architectural designer whose focus is on technology-free green design, historic preservation, and creating spaces of sanctuary. You can email her at intentiondesign@gmail.com or visit her website archinia.com.

""I have never felt salvation in nature. I love cities above all. " This quote by Michelangelo describes his attitude toward art extremely well. Unlike one of his contemporaries, Leonardo Da Vinci, he did not draw on nature, but did his best to do away with it. This is perhaps more evident in his architecture than anywhere else.