I do find some of the headlines on The B1M videos to be a bit extravagant - it’s the biggest this, the greatest this, the worst of this, etc. etc. But this one about the “world’s most remote infrastructure project” caught my eye because, well, of course it did. The video takes a look at a network of undersea tunnels that is connecting the disparate Faroe Islands and it’s a fascinating watch.

Like many others, I’ve been intrigued by the high concept building The Line in Saudi Arabia, and have been keeping an eye on its progress. I really thought it would just be a concept piece and never come to anything, but lo and behold, the building teams have actually broken ground and started work on the 170km long building. This video from Two Bit da Vinci sums up the project so far and adds some really interesting thoughts and questions about the next steps.

I wrote recently about the new The Line building revealed as a concept design based in Saudi Arabia. Whilst I was busy marvelling at the structure’s size and scope, I hadn’t considered two additional reasons why buildings like this might be the future. I did touch upon the fact that you’d be hard pushed to convince people to live in the Saudi Arabia desert if they’re just rocking up to inhabit a suburban two-bed, but that this insular-style building might be more of a draw.

I totally missed this when it was announced a couple of months ago, but the new huge building called The Line that was revealed as an innovative concept design is really bizarre and interesting. It’s based in Saudi Arabia and it’s not without it’s problems, but I do love it when people start thinking outside the box for architecture and living conditions. Or in this case, it’s more like inside the box.

I’m always intrigued by the desire to live in compact spaces - whether it is seeing how they manage to fit impressive buildings into small pockets of land on Grand Designs, or a great layout on a narrow boat. Today I stumbled across this video from Gizmodo, in which there is some great design thinking on display to make the most of zero space in a New York City apartment. I love these concepts, but I know immediately that I wouldn’t have the patience to pack and unpack everything each time I wanted to use it. I am quite messy by nature and like to just pick things up and put them down so they’ll be right there when I need them next time.

30 abandoned places that look truly beautiful An incredible look at some former buildings that have been left behind by humans and reclaimed by nature. Some are eerie, some are gorgeous, some fascinating - a great collection to look through.

Recently, an underground house in the Swiss Alps started doing the rounds on the web. The house has one side facing out to the world, similar to the property in the Grand Designs episode I live-blogged about previously. The rest is buried underground so as not to prove an eye-sore in the beautiful landscape. Apparently, Swiss planning laws say you have to have a timber frame version of the building put up on site before they will grant it. For this underground house, they skipped that part!

Why settle for a simple bunker underground when you can have an entire skyscraper delving into the depths of the earth? The BNKR Arquitectura company (great URL, by the way), have come up with a concept for an upside down pyramid for the middle of Mexico City. Starting with a wide opening at the top, the pyramid piles layer upon layer going down into a single point. There’s a great full-length picture here, whilst the top looks something like this.

I’m sure you’ve seen it by now, but the best way to avoid a zombie attack has been doing the rounds on the internet for a while now. A concept house designed to withstand any form of attack but specifically the undead kind, this fortress looks incredible. I call it the Zombie House, but officially, the title is The Safe House, and you can see why. When opened up, it looks like any somewhat regular, if a little fancy, house you might see on Grand Designs. But it has the ability to fold in on itself and create a sealed concrete castle.

You’ve got to love it when randomly browsing the web, you come across a company who have named themselves after the exact thing you are trying to achieve. Step forward Underground Living Ltd. It looks like they do one thing, but they try and do it well. It’s more of an addendum to a house, rather than a complete underground living area, but the gallery and the animation on the site look lovely and clean and tidy.

Channel 4’s fantabulous program Grand Designs featured an Underground House in the third series, so this evening I watched the show via 4OD and took copious notes! Here’s what I found out as I watched. They built their house in a conveniently house-sized gap in a quarry that was already dug. The guy said he wanted a house like that to both “hide away and not impose.” Sounds about right. She was more into the eco effort, which we are less worried about. They only have one bit that sees daylight, so all of that was glass. The back of the house was lit by sunpipes. More on that later. She was expecting a baby! Big surprise. They dug down and found a big hole. That’s a problem. And another hole! The architect is called Mr Bodger. What could possibly go wrong? Base layer of concrete, then insulation. No heating required. Six times the insulation used in a normal house. Next layer is waterproof layer. Leaks would be catastrophic as there’s no way of repairing it once you’ve buried a house. They are just filling the holes in with earth that they dug up from somewhere else. 76 tonnes of concrete. 300mm base layer. House weighs 500 tonnes - two and a half times a normal house. Big ol’ brick things for the walls that Kevin McCloud couldn’t even pick up they were so heavy. Lots of steel and concrete in the walls to withstand horizontal pressure from the earth. Kevin finally uses the word “bunker.” Woohoo! Sheep! Internal walls also made from concrete. She’s not doing very well on the eco side of things, but concrete is the only way. It’s raining. Quite a lot. Kevin says building an underground house is a bit like building a swimming pool, except you’re trying to keep the water out. The sides are being waterproofed the same as the base was. Something about bitumen and sticky back plastic.

If you have access to the BBC, and particularly iPlayer, I want to recommend the Saving Britain’s Past series. I have seen the first couple, and was very struck by the second episode in the series, all about the Park Hill Estate in Sheffield. The programme tracks the attempts to save some of the more iconic developments in Britain’s history, with other episodes focusing on country houses and the iconic buildings in Bath. The episode about Sheffield really captured my imagination though.

Three things I need to admit to before I start this post: I didn’t know there was such a thing as the Stirling Prize before we caught the awards on television. We only watched two and a half out of the six entrants I am biased towards all things F1 So, flicking through the channels, we stumbled across Kevin McLoud. I got all excited, thinking a new series of Grand Designs had started without me knowing, but soon realised it was actually coverage of the Stirling Prize announcement. The Scottish Parliament building won.

Truro Cathedral.