A Japanese Engineer Unveils Guesthouse Made Out of a Plane
An Arizona engineer has finally finished his four-year pet project to build a guesthouse in his backyard.
It's not just any guesthouse, and it's not just any backyard, either. Toshikazu Tsukii lives at La Cholla Airpark and his two bedroom guesthouse looks like it could take off along the private runway residents of the park enjoy.
The two-story guesthouse is made almost entirely of aircraft parts.
Tsukii used three aircraft bodies to create the quirky dwelling: the nosecone of a 737, the fuselage of two 707s and the tail end of a 727, reports the Arizona Star.
The pool is covered with the fuselage of a Boeing 747 jumbo jet.
Tsukii, an engineer for Raytheon, accomplished several goals with the completion of his guesthouse.
The ambitious Japanese-born airplane enthusiast had always wanted to be an engineer, an aviator and an architect. With the completion of his guesthouse, he's crossed that last one off the list.
The 76-year-old designed and built the climate-controlled pad after seeing the nose cone of the 737 in a scrap metal yard which sparked his imagination.
At La Cholla Airpark, each of the 91 homes are arranged around a landing strip for the exclusive use of residents.
All the homes are on seven acre lots, leaving plenty of space for Tsukii to build his dream house.
He made the floor wider by cutting one 707 fuselage in half and spreading it apart. He also used first-class airline seats and improvised other furniture with parts, such as glass-topped tables from the engine cowling of a DC-9 and the wheel of a B-57.
Tsukii has always been inventive and a jack-of-all-trades.
The Arizona Star reports that a 1962 article from the Fort Scott (Kansas) Tribune described how Tsukii, then 24 and a Wichita State student, was putting himself through college working as a TV repairman, electronics technician, sign painter, judo instructor, photographer, folk singer, guitar player and Samurai swordsman.
He is still working full-time as Principal Engineering Fellow at Raytheon Missile Systems and flies his two Cessnas as one of only 3,000 monocular pilots in the U.S., having lost one eye to glaucoma.
Tsukii's wife of 50 years, Doris, says she's 'very proud' of her husband.
Passively-cooled Caterpillar House built from shipping containersA Japanese engineer unveils guesthouse made out of a plane Science & Technology World Website
The use of shipping containers in residential builds is quite popular nowadays, and with good reason: there are untold numbers of the waterproof and durable metal boxes available, so why not put a few to good use? With this in mind, the latest such dwelling to grab our attention is Casa Oruga, or Caterpillar House, by Chilean architect Sebastián Irarrázaval, which also features passive cooling.
Caterpillar House is located on a hillside just outside Chile's capital city Santiago, and boasts views of the Andes Mountains. The decision to use shipping containers as a primary building material derives from a desire to both speed up construction time, and reduce the overall cost of the project.
The property measures 350 sq m (3,800 sq ft), and comprises a total of 12 used shipping containers: five 40-foot (12-m) units, six 20-foot (6-m) units, and one open-top shipping container, which serves as a swimming pool.
Owing to the owner's wishes for Caterpillar House to blend in with the scenery as much as possible, some sections of the home slope with the hillside. This results in an unusual interior layout, with each of the children's rooms sporting an inclined nook, where the bed is placed. The shipping containers were also modified with multiple windows, skylights and adjoining pieces.
Rather than incorporate an energy-guzzling air conditioning unit, Caterpillar House features passive cooling. The home was arranged so as to make full use of the cool natural air coming down from the mountains, which passes through windows, doors, and a ventilated facade.
Perhaps the designers missed a trick here, as a greater degree of sustainable technology could have reduced the home's energy requirements down to a very modest level indeed. Regardless, it's certainly a desirable example of a shipping container-based home as it stands.
Caterpillar House was completed in 2012.
sources：[http://en.twwtn.com/Bignews/58266.html]
It's not just any guesthouse, and it's not just any backyard, either. Toshikazu Tsukii lives at La Cholla Airpark and his two bedroom guesthouse looks like it could take off along the private runway residents of the park enjoy.
The two-story guesthouse is made almost entirely of aircraft parts.
Tsukii used three aircraft bodies to create the quirky dwelling: the nosecone of a 737, the fuselage of two 707s and the tail end of a 727, reports the Arizona Star.
The pool is covered with the fuselage of a Boeing 747 jumbo jet.
Tsukii, an engineer for Raytheon, accomplished several goals with the completion of his guesthouse.
The ambitious Japanese-born airplane enthusiast had always wanted to be an engineer, an aviator and an architect. With the completion of his guesthouse, he's crossed that last one off the list.
The 76-year-old designed and built the climate-controlled pad after seeing the nose cone of the 737 in a scrap metal yard which sparked his imagination.
At La Cholla Airpark, each of the 91 homes are arranged around a landing strip for the exclusive use of residents.
All the homes are on seven acre lots, leaving plenty of space for Tsukii to build his dream house.
He made the floor wider by cutting one 707 fuselage in half and spreading it apart. He also used first-class airline seats and improvised other furniture with parts, such as glass-topped tables from the engine cowling of a DC-9 and the wheel of a B-57.
Tsukii has always been inventive and a jack-of-all-trades.
The Arizona Star reports that a 1962 article from the Fort Scott (Kansas) Tribune described how Tsukii, then 24 and a Wichita State student, was putting himself through college working as a TV repairman, electronics technician, sign painter, judo instructor, photographer, folk singer, guitar player and Samurai swordsman.
He is still working full-time as Principal Engineering Fellow at Raytheon Missile Systems and flies his two Cessnas as one of only 3,000 monocular pilots in the U.S., having lost one eye to glaucoma.
Tsukii's wife of 50 years, Doris, says she's 'very proud' of her husband.
Passively-cooled Caterpillar House built from shipping containersA Japanese engineer unveils guesthouse made out of a plane Science & Technology World Website
The use of shipping containers in residential builds is quite popular nowadays, and with good reason: there are untold numbers of the waterproof and durable metal boxes available, so why not put a few to good use? With this in mind, the latest such dwelling to grab our attention is Casa Oruga, or Caterpillar House, by Chilean architect Sebastián Irarrázaval, which also features passive cooling.
Caterpillar House is located on a hillside just outside Chile's capital city Santiago, and boasts views of the Andes Mountains. The decision to use shipping containers as a primary building material derives from a desire to both speed up construction time, and reduce the overall cost of the project.
The property measures 350 sq m (3,800 sq ft), and comprises a total of 12 used shipping containers: five 40-foot (12-m) units, six 20-foot (6-m) units, and one open-top shipping container, which serves as a swimming pool.
Owing to the owner's wishes for Caterpillar House to blend in with the scenery as much as possible, some sections of the home slope with the hillside. This results in an unusual interior layout, with each of the children's rooms sporting an inclined nook, where the bed is placed. The shipping containers were also modified with multiple windows, skylights and adjoining pieces.
Rather than incorporate an energy-guzzling air conditioning unit, Caterpillar House features passive cooling. The home was arranged so as to make full use of the cool natural air coming down from the mountains, which passes through windows, doors, and a ventilated facade.
Perhaps the designers missed a trick here, as a greater degree of sustainable technology could have reduced the home's energy requirements down to a very modest level indeed. Regardless, it's certainly a desirable example of a shipping container-based home as it stands.
Caterpillar House was completed in 2012.
sources：[http://en.twwtn.com/Bignews/58266.html]
Source...