Rezoned Space

Actually, my dream home is to take some oddball space (warehouse, gas station, old bar, school, boat, I don't know!!!) and turn it into my home. Below, example: Architect and IKEA-designer Olle Lundberg lives with his wife in a salvaged car ferry, found in Iceland and now tied to a pier in San Francisco.

"Although he is known for polished modernist houses for high-profile clients, Mr. Lundberg, 51, is no smooth-talking, Prada-draped operator. On the contrary, he is a slightly scruffy scrapmaster, a no-nonsense guy who lives in homes he fashioned from found parts.

Architects are notoriously fond of industrial refuse, from the corrugated metal and chain-link fence that Frank Gehry installed around his Santa Monica bungalow in the 1970's to the shipping containers that Shigeru Ban stacked on a Manhattan pier this spring to create a temporary gallery. But Mr. Lundberg has taken the romance of refuse a step further by surrounding himself, at home and at work, with reclaimed materials. During the week, he and his wife, Mary Breuer, live aboard the Maritol, a decommissioned Icelandic car ferry docked at Pier 54 in the Mission Bay neighborhood of San Francisco. "Is there discomfort?" said Ms. Breuer, 61. "Yes, but the trade-off of living where we do is worth it." [source: The New York Times, writer:Raul A. Barreneche, photos Peter da Silva]