How to make a Green (literally) Church

Faced with unattractive architecture (aren't we all), cover your church in greenery!  This is Parroquia del Huerto de los Olivos in Buenos Aires, Argentina.  Their architecture doesn't look too bad, but nevertheless....choose an evergreen so it doesn't look like a bird's nest in winter, and to avoid damage to the building, grow the vines either on trellising or wires running through eye hooks screwed into the facade.  

Shipping Container Youth Room

But my dream youth space would be like this shipping-container construction by architect Adam Kalkin...everytime I think about youth spaces I return to this.  Vibrant color, central gathering space, function rooms, lots of light, stairs (youth love stairs!).  More here.

More DIY ideas for the Youth Room

Please no more of those over-literal themed youth rooms in the vein of surf shacks or western lodges...a few high-impact design additions are cheaper, last longer, and will serve as a background to the group's own decisions about the space.

Vintage automobile headlamps attached in series to conduit.

Foosball coat hangers--available from Loony Design, but DIY would be more fun...the foosball table was a center of my own youth room growing up.

The simple addition of painted black corner lines to solid features makes everything look like a cartoon! This is from the Luise Hotel in Berlin. 

Make a stack of old school TVs and speakers, as here at the Facebook headquarters, at the entrance to your space.

Have a google for the designs of Odili Donald Odita, whose work fuses modernist and African influences, for color inspiration.   Plan carefully, number, and tape the sections in advance for a massive paint-by-numbers day!

Definitely get the youth involved in these projects...they love group DIY.