Architects love finding new uses for old materials. With the design world becoming ever more eco-conscious, repurposing discarded pieces from architectural and infrastructural projects helps architects create some pretty imaginative buildings without having to deplete precious natural resources. Recycling used parts in new projects is often welcomed enthusiastically by the public—just take a look the the TuboHotel, one of Architizer’s most viewed projects.

In the Prahan district of Melbourne, Techne Architects took a little inspiration from the popularity of repurposing. Attached to the Prahran Hotel, a two-story corner pub with a streamlined Art Deco façade, is a new addition made out of concrete sewer pipes. Completed in May, the new extension dramatically increases the pub’s capacity, while acting as an eye-catching sculpture that suggests stacked kegs or barrels to passersby. Click through to read more!

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These mailboxes by Bill Playso, head of Australian design brand Playso, give a whole new meaning to the “carrier pigeon.” A bright, playful greeting to your neighborhood mailperson, the Koo Koo mailbox comes in a variety of colors and materials. The angular bird accepts your daily snail mail, while newspaper is placed in a sharp geometric triangle that is perched on top of its back.

Designed and manufactured in Australia, the Koo Koo is a result of a collaboration between Playso and industrial designed Justin Hutchinson. To learn more about this chirpy mailbox, or find out how to get your own, contact Playso at bill@playso.com.au. We know it will brighten your mail carrier’s day! More photos after the jump!

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Johnny Rotten’s spikes have nothing on JDS Architects’ VM House. Photo of John Lydon, 1976, by Ray Stevenson/Rex USA

Studded leather jackets and spiked colors are back, thanks to the Metropolitan Museum’s highly publicized “Punk: Chaos to Couture” show, which opens tomorrow in New York City. And while we know that punk constitutes much more than just stapling some metal accouterments onto your shirt and calling it a day, well, we were so inspired by the exhibition’s spinous fashions that we decided to their architectural equivalents. So cue up some Sex Pistols and click through to see some seriously spiky, badass buildings.

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Despite what right-wing media and reddit trolls would have you believe, architectural counterfeiting is not limited to emerging East Asian countries (duh). The fact is that architecture, in the West or East, is no stranger to copying, a (professionalized) practice that continues to this day in all corners of the world. (For sterling proof see these 10 copycat buildings.) We find the latest example in Australia, where at the National Museum of Australia (NMA) in Canberra, strolling visitors may come across a black replica of Le Corbusier’s Villa Savoye.

Spotted on the Tumblr webz this week, the sinister doppelgänger is every bit as awkward and cheaply built — or not so cheaply, the structure cost $13.8 million to build — as you’d imagine a copy to be. The double is actually one of several follies that dot the grounds of the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies (AIATSIS), which shares its campus with the NMA. The replica was “designed” by architecture firm Ashton Raggatt McDougall at 1:1 scale with the original, though the latter’s canonical forms have here been submitted to strange mutations. A staircase grows from one of the structure’s sides, connecting the second floor to the quad, while the upper loggia and roof deck are nonexistent, hemmed in by a panes of dark, opaque glass. The white stucco specified by Corbu is replaced with black aluminum panels that scream “bad  80s achitecture,” and which, when coupled with rooftop’s solidified forms, lend the structure a heaviness entirely missing from the original scheme. It’s also scary as hell.

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Project: Bridge House

Architect: Max Pritchard Architects

Location: Ashbourne, Australia

An idyllic site near a creek and billabong—that’s Aussie for a pond left over after a river changes course—called for a home that would “touch the earth lightly.” To minimize the impact on this picturesque setting, Max Pritchard took a few clues from bridges and designed a home that spans the small creek’s path, barely occupying any land and providing the experience of living in the treetops. Keeping the intentions green, the home’s narrow plan allows for significant cross-ventilation in the summer, while a wood combustion heater supplements the natural passive heating. Solar hot-water heating and photovoltaic cells positioned on the garage roof further reduce the home’s carbon footprint. Now that’s what we call sustainable!

Read more about this project in the Architizer database.

Photos: Sam Noonan

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This project won the 2013 Architizer A+ Jury Award in the Higher Education & Research Facilities category. See the full list of winners here. 

Decked out with advanced Environmentally Sustainable Design (ESD) features, the futuristic hub of RMIT University Design proposes a new path forward for collaborative learning. Melbourne-based Sean Godsell Architects wowed our distinguished jury with the perfect blend of cutting-edge technology and innovative spatial organization, securing the Architizer A+ Jury Award for Higher Education & Research Facilities category. New thinking in the design of “knowledge communities,” like that employed in the RMIT Design Hub, is revolutionizing how universities evaluate architecture. Read more!

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This project won the 2013 Architizer A+ Popular Choice Award in the office interiors category. See the full list of winners here.

Two years before the Apple spaceship was even a blip on our archi-galactic radar screens, the designers at Clive Wilkinson Architects were exploring the space station as a model for a hyper-collaborative take on the office tower. The architects’ 330,000-square-foot interior for the financial services group Macquarie features a 10-story atrium punctuated by cantilevered meeting pods “docked” on each floor. Located on the Sydney waterfront at One Shelley Street, the Fitzpatrick + Partners-designed structure (completed in 2009) supports 3,000 employees, who flit from floor to floor like a mobile workforce within their own building. With soaring ceilings and a panorama of glassed-in pods, One Shelley Street might look like something out of The Matrix if it didn’t sound so, well, friendly. The design won the Architizer A+ “Popular Choice” Award in the office interiors category. Read more!

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Project: Beached House

Architect: BKK Architects

Location: Victoria, Australia

This prime focus of designing this beachside home by BKK Architects was the special ritual of leaving the chaos of the city for the sanctity of the holiday home. Conceived as a formal exercise in volumetric origami, the home is nestled into the terrain and has the feeling of being washed ashore. External spaces are orientated according to the shift in the wind and sun patterns throughout the day, and offer alternatives for occupation and shelter depending on the prevailing weather and time. The architects hope that residents will continually be delighted and surprised by experiences linked closely to the climate and location.

Read more about this project in the Architizer database.

Photos: Peter Bennetts

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Project: Cairns Botanic Gardens Visitors Centre

Architect: Charles Wright Architects

Location: Cairns, Australia

Charles Wright Architects recently completed this new gateway to the botanic gardens of Cairns, a city with a mission to be seen as progressive and sustainable both nationally and globally. Moving away from the traditional, vernacular architecture of the city, this striking mirrored building reflects the surrounding vegetation and blends seamlessly into the landscape and gardens. The visitor center is a model for green building, featuring solar panels for feedback into the energy grid, stormwater harvesting tanks, mixed-mode air-conditioning systems, long lifecycle-efficiency materials and construction, and naturally ventilated circulation corridors.

Read more about this project in the Architizer database.

Photos: Patrick Bingham Hall

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Project: Hewlett House

Architect: MPR Design Group

Location: Bronte, Australia

To make the most of coastal views and breezy weather, this house was designed as three main “tubes.” The length and openness of the upper tube provide unimpeded vistas, while bringing winter sunlight into the living spaces and allowing for ventilation from northeastern winds. Meanwhile, the lower tubes feel more private and organic, employing dark stone floors, a wall made of natural bedrock, and a beautiful sinuous staircase.

Read more about this project in the Architizer database.

Photos: John Gollings

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