A few people have now sent me this TED talk by architect Débora Mesa Molina. But I watched it for the first time today. I guess my personal brand is pretty closely associated with architecture and design.

In it, she talks about her firm's approach to using overlooked and/or standard building materials in unconventional ways. For example, here, she used stacked precast beams to assemble a house in Madrid (c.2008). The entire structure came together in only 7 days.

My first reaction is that I like the idea and approach -- which is really quite interesting -- more than the final designs. I am also curious if there were any cost savings as a result of using "standard" materials. What are your thoughts?