Ordinarily, I hate to be negative – this site is usually very positive and presents great ideas and products. But billboards occupy a special place in my heart.

“The KRob Ken Roberts Memorial Delineation Competition has celebrated the best in delineation in architecture (architectural drawing).”

OK, this is a drawing contest. I can see that.

An award for the blight of an ‘upgraded’ urban billboard, I don’t see.

Billboards are blight on the land, flowering like so many dandelions of doom to scenery, call it visual pollution if you wish, and in many cases they are adding to or increasing soil erosion. I don’t even want to think how toxic the paint may be that is used to protect these structures is in the environment.

I cannot envision anyone wanting to live on top of a pole, some distance from any infrastructure (water, sewer, etc) not to mention the climb to and from ‘home. I suppose some would view it as some kind of modern (hellish) ‘tree fort’ that would appeal to an inner child but really – would anyone *actually* live in one?

Thinking outside of the conventional box may save us all in the end – energy efficient housing, zero emission/carbon netural homes and the like. But billboards? I must have missed the joke.

(anti-billboard rant off)

So will it be built, or will it just be a pretty design?

Many such concepts never see the light of day. This is no small reassurance to me that we haven't gone completely off the deep end.
Nice drawing tho. Maybe underground?

I don't much care for billboards, but if you spend any time in a crowded urban area, you can see how this might be a useful design.

For better or worse (worse, I think), cities are infested with billboards. One need not be out in the midle of nowhere, away from utilities and amenities. And the design does feature an elevator.

There has been a lot of attention given to expensive penthouse style roof additions to existing buildings. This could be sort of a low-budget version of the same idea. Think of it this way; is a nice ecological rooftop apartment a bad idea if the building underneath were inhabited by, say, ExxonMobile? No.

Denser cities are a Good Thing, and designes like this would help create denser cities. Are there more beautifu ways? Of course! But not everyone can afford beautiful.

I am living in china. they use every square inch for unintended or creative use of spaces that have been unnoticed or had a lack of supervision.

so this solution is odd for most people. but perhaps almost mainstream in a developing world.

i once lived in a tree house myself and once in a bomb shelter that was built in the 60's by the founder of pan -am airlines.

when i was young in detroit i heard about a family that lived in a giant stove that was a symbol of detroit's manufacturing of stoves.they say the irish policeman who would walk by and say nothing ...allowed that family to live in a non-traditional house during the depression.

i consider the concept just a new way of looking at design problems.might be not such a bad idea in new orleans or in coastal areas.

timothy ivory

I am living in china. they use every square inch for unintended or creative use of spaces that have been unnoticed or had a lack of supervision.

so this solution is odd for most people. but perhaps almost mainstream in a developing world.

i once lived in a tree house myself and once in a bomb shelter that was built in the 60's by the founder of pan -am airlines.

when i was young in detroit i heard about a family that lived in a giant stove that was a symbol of detroit's manufacturing of stoves.they say the irish policeman who would walk by and say nothing ...allowed that family to live in a non-traditional house during the depression.

i consider the concept just a new way of looking at design problems.might be not such a bad idea in new orleans or in coastal areas.

timothy ivory

build it and they will come.....yes.

td

i live in austin and we have ramarkably few billboards. the ones we do have are strongly regulated by the city as to what they can show and what condition they are in.
I still can't imagine anyone wanting to live on one, though.

Not a bad way to to increase green yields and green tax advantages?

Am I missing something? All this guy did was draw one stylized pic of a cartoonish looking box on a pole?

Where are the drawings of the interior? Details on the cost? Details on the materials? Is that available online? I looked at the links and couldn't find it.

If all it takes is one drawing ad a 50 word caption to win a design award, then I'm in the wrong job!

I have small kids. I could not imagine having them up so high. It seems dangerous. I imagine quite a bit of road noise too.

This is such a ridiculous design. Its all about fancy architectural form without any consideration for the environmental impact such an idea would have. I am surprised and disappointed that treehugger condones such projects.

So how do people feel about living in a house that sways back and forth in the wind? Like many things, neat in theory. In practice? Not so much. Points for creativity tough.

Yea, goofy award to this one. As already said, lack of water/sewer kind of makes this idea, well... goofy.

Maybe, once the world of Soylent Green comes to pass, there might be something to this.

I actually like the idea of using a space ordinarily non-occupied. It's actually very TH as it's using the infrastructure that was placed into it into creating something useful, not just the eyesore. According to Washington Post, there are 450,000 billboards across the US and cost about $1million to put up... that's a lot of unused infrastructure. No, not along the highway as this design suggests, but in the Chicagos and NYs of the world. A pre-cursor to the Jetsons!

Someone commented on building this in New Orleans, I think that idea has merit. Since we are rebuilding we need to do so with the knowledge that there will be another flood.

Also - if we could turn the billboard platforms into rail stations for lines that run alongside highways - I think that'd be the killer app for this. Otherwise... its an interesting idea and well rendered.

Points for the creativity. Far fall to fall if you slip though or if the elevator gets stuck. Maybe instead of a home it could be turned into a greenhouse or maybe unused billboard can be taken down and the billboard materials can be made into new home.

stupid.

In large cities there are enough of these already connected or very close to the plumbing infrastructure to be considered viable. Most already have electricity.

Why worry about the plumbing issues as there are plenty of alternative methods to deal with obtaining and disposing [rather re-using] of the water.

motion? noise? sewer/water, ect?.....these "pods" could be viewed simular to living on a boat or (ultra modernist) trailer park.....unobstructed solar, wind power....modern (recycled) plastics and design can be used to cut noise, vibration and for construction materials...sounds like a great location for the "urbanist" in you just dying to put off the anchor of 2.5kids, wife/husband and dog.....got kids? need a yard? "go suburbanite".....if i wasnt going "float" (living on a boat).....id do it.

td