Plenty of companies sell log cabin kits. But Argos seems to be the first major retailer to market an attractive and affordable model that reportedly can be built in two days by just two people. The British retailer’s basic five-room cabin, measuring roughly 32×17 feet or 8×5 meters, costs GBP 10,999. An upgraded model, with amenities such as laminate floors with in-floor heating, costs GBP 13,099. Both models are suitable for year-round living and are made by Finnish forestry company Finnforest using wood from sustainable forests.
Argos’ cabins open up several new-business opportunities. For starters, there’s likely a much larger market for ready-to-move-in cabins than for cabins that must first be put together, however easy their assembly might be. Thus, one option would be to buy the kits, assemble them and then resell the homes. The cabins’ low price coupled with their short assembly time would make the potential profit margin a lot greater than would be the case with conventionally built homes that require weeks to build. And the second opportunity: buy a dozen or so cabins and create a turnkey resort. That’s what another low-cost home manufacturer Bamboo Living suggests.
The Hawaii-based company’s kit homes are manufactured in Vietnam out of fast-growing eco-friendly bamboo and shipped worldwide. Places like the Australian Lattice and Timber, Melbourne lumber yard are seeing a portion of their market fly over to bamboo with news that Bamboo Living has already spearheaded resorts in Bali, Belize, the Cook Islands, Hawaii and Vietnam. (IKEA’s fast-selling BoKlok prefabs, on the other hand, aren’t DIY—the homes are assembled by local builders.)
Two things to remember before launching into any venture involving prefab dwellings. First, check local building codes carefully, as kit homes employ non-traditional construction methods. Likewise, be sure to factor in the kinds of costs associated with any building project, such as site surveys, utility hook-ups and permitting.
Website: www.argos.co.uk
Contact: www.argos.co.uk/static/StaticDisplay/includeName/ContactUs.htm
I had a fun time doing an interview for Lucy Feagins’s site http://www.thedesignfiles.net . You can read me saying silly things and you can see pics of my studio’s texta rainbow.I’m in a contemporary art survey exhibition called Optimism at the Gallery of Modern Art (GOMA) in BrisVegas opening in November. They’re giving me an 8 metre wall and I’m looking for naked ladies in Brisbane to feature in some outdoors Textanudes to be created during my residency with GOMA in June. Please pass the word around. The setting will be bush nature and I’d love to get some circus types hanging from the trees or…
I’m a finalist in this year’s National Works on Paper. Will my texta portrait of Taylor Mac , button laden bathing suit clad New York trannie performance artist with dreaded beehive, take the prize? Hmmm. The show opens at the Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery at the end of the month.
A new texta calendar for 2009 is in the works! All dates guaranteed! This calendar is special because Third Drawer Down is making it a calendar teatowel! I’ll let you know when and where it’s available.
My latest brief but beautiful animation, originally made as a flip book for Tape Projects, and sequenced for the screen with the help of Ashley Baker, is showing in the inflatable Schmigloo at Esky during the Next Wave Festival on Saturday 31st May! On the day go to www.whereiseky.com
to find out location or SMS the word “esky” to 0428 477 128
My Naked Landscapes of Victoria project has wrapped up the camping portion and I am frenetically colouring in all my ladies naked in the bush. Look out for the show in 2009. Claudia Rowe from Rebel Films has been making a doco about the project so that maybe on your TV sometime soonish!
Th gallery I curate, Brunswick Bound has a show coming in June called The Fortune Garden by Elaine Chew. It’s a plastic flower paradise, and I’ve done some field drawings that will be on show amongst the fantasy flora. Opens Sat June 7th 2 – 4 pm with afternoon tea. Show runs til the June 30th. 361 Sydney Road Brunswick, VIC 3066 www.flickr.com/photos/brunswickbound
textaqueen: http://www.textaqueen.com/
Adland is still too embarrassed to depict homosexuality without resorting to terrible cliché
Ten years ago this week, a good-looking young woman walked down the street, dropped her shopping and a good-looking young man stopped to help her. They flirted a little, hands touching as they picked up an apple. She thought she could be in. But guess what? A second man loomed into view and signalled for the first man to come with him. That’s right – they were gay! Cut to shots of Quentin Crisp and a puppy in a studded leather jacket, for those who needed a bit of semiotic help.
More>,..
Black Robe White Mist brings to the RMIT Gallery Melbourne, the elegant calligraphy, rustic pottery and fine scroll paintings of one of the most successful female Japanese artists and poets of the 19th century, Otagaki Rengetsu (1791 – 1875).
Rengetsu, whose name evocatively translates as Lotus Moon, was a Buddhist nun, renowned for her inspired poetry, pottery and calligraphy. Her early life was one of extreme difficulty, but her poverty encouraged her to explore many avenues and in her mid forties, she began to make tea ceramics, inscribed with her own poetry.
Her work has a strong sense of the region around Kyoto where she lived and her brushwork has been described as unique, using fine lines without variation, a delicate writing with an inner tension. Her delicate, modest poetry is transcribed onto every item which appears in this show.
Rengetsu made a living through her art, and her idiosyncratic, personal aesthetic engendered a strong following that continues today. According to legend, she produced more than 50,000 works of art in her life,and the inexpensive work proved so popular that almost every household in Kyoto owned pieces.
This National Gallery of Australia touring exhibition was curated by Melanie Eastburn, Lucie Folan and Robyn Maxwell. It reveals the beauty of the understated and unconventional and is significant as the first major exhibition of Rengetsu’s work to be held outside Japan.
The works of art have been drawn from private international collections in Europe, Japan and America, as well as works from the National Gallery of Australia’s collection.
Catalogue Black Robe White Mist: art of the Japanese Buddhist Nun Rengetsu $39.95; Edited by Curator Melanie Eastburn features essays by some of the world’s foremost scholars of Japanese art and Buddhism.
This is the first English language book on Rengetsu’s work.
Website: www.rmit.edu.au/gallery
CALL FOR ENTRIES – LOCAL CONTENT
BFF are looking for locally-made films with a strong theme or character of Bicycles. This includes all mediums and styles such as animation, experimental, narrative, documentary and music videos. The films can be up to feature-length but shorts are preferred. We want films about bikes, cyclists, and the local bike scene.
Festival dates: 20 – 23 November 2008
Deadline for entries: 12 September 2008
Download entry form at: http://www.ambiguoushorse.com
For inspiration visit: http://www.bicyclefilmfestival.com
