Speaking of Americans (see below), we just came across this very cool project in Detroit.

The Ice House Detroit. Image: Greg Holm/dwell.com

A collaboration between photographer Greg Holm and architect Matthew Radune, the Ice House Detroit is just what it seems to be. A completely frozen house.

Read more about the project on their blog, HERE

It’s been in the works for a while, and for the past few months, they have worked in 24-hour shifts, continuously spraying the two-story structure with a firehose to build up the layers of ice.  (Had they done the project a bit further north, they could have saved themselves some work.)

Another view of them at work on the Ice House. Image: Jeff Williams/dwell.com

From Dwell.com: In order to raise the funds they needed, Holm and Radune utilized the relatively new Kickstarter—an online crowd-funding system that allows internet users to make micro contributions to projects they find worthy of support. They raised $11,000 through the contributions of 53 backers, with final costs rounding out a bit higher than that.

Last week, Holm and Radune did a photo shoot of the Ice House and now they have scaled back their round-the-clock work schedule and resigned themselves to the effects of warming temperatures. They don’t purport to have instigated a groundswell of change in Detroit’s housing crisis but they did gain attention for their work and they also gave back, not only through the forthcoming demolition of the home but by also paying the backtaxes on another house in foreclosure, allowing a Detroit resident to hold onto her home.

Read more of the story, plus an interview with Greg Holm, on Dwell’s website HERE