Be the show drama or comedy, the scenes set by designers for television programs tend to become as familiar as the characters being acted and the stories they tell – with these interactive models from HomeByMe, you can take a step back and see some famous and classic sets from a new perspective. As a bonus: you can also click to download any view as a static image, too, or check out some of other TV home plans hand-drawn in 2D – meanwhile, start by clicking on the images below to spin them around.

First on the list: Dexter‘s sleek Miami loft full of whites, blacks and grays but largely devoid of color – a perfect home for a calculated killer trying to fit in yet finding it hard to show (or even have) emotion. You can even see his closet where he keeps, well, never you mind.

On a lighter note, this apartment was home to half the cast of Friends, Rachel and Monica mostly but with some rotation as well (no pun intended). Spin the model to see their bedrooms, bathroom, living room, kitchen and deck from different angles.

On the set of How I Met Your Mother has some added elements of seasonal decor, including a Christmas tree as well as some figures of the cast sprinkled in for scale and perspective.

The Big Bang Theory features a surprisingly odd-shaped dwelling when seen from a distance – perhaps not as obvious in the show itself, the floor plan is full of strange intersections, extraneous spaces and odd angles, not too unlike the minds of its inhabitants.

The race for space has shifted gears in recent years with the rise of private programs, leaving a series of amazing space-related graveyards around the United States, which this photographer has spent 25 years exploring and documenting.

In his upcoming book, Abandoned in Place, Roland Miller takes readers on a “photographic exploration of the American space launch and research facilities that played a crucial role in the early period of space exploration. The goals of this project are to preserve and portray these abandoned, deactivated, and repurposed sites through photography that surpasses the official government approach to documentation and to lend historical and artistic insight to the subject.”

With special permission (and an escort every time), Roland has managed to visit locations including the Marshall Space Flight Center in Alabama, the Stennis Space Center in Mississippi and the Kennedy Space Center as well as Cape Canaveral in Florida. His book features 100 full-color photos – the best and brightest of his extension decade-spanning collection.

The photographs cover all kinds of incredible objects and details, from cranes and gantries to blast doors, flame deflector tracks, launch rings and even lunar modules. The book will be released by the University of New Mexico Press and contain poems and essays alongside its rich imagery.

This project is part guide book and part historical document – it “serves not only as a documentary body of work, but also as an artistic interpretation of these historic sites. The blockhouses, launch towers, tunnels, test stands, and control rooms featured in Abandoned In Place are rapidly giving way to the elements and demolition. By my estimates, fully half of the facilities I have photographed no longer exist. The costs involved in restoring, maintaining, and securing these sites are enormous. Most of these historic facilities are located on secure military or NASA facilities, which drastically limits access by the public. Therefore, photography is the only practical method to preserve and portray these historic locations.”

“The facilities photographed in AIP portray one of the most historic and technical adventures of the last century–from our first unmanned flights beyond the atmosphere to landing men on the moon. A sense of the urgency of the space race is evident in many of the images. Signs and labels in the images reflect the technology of the era. The structures depicted also recall the darker threat of nuclear war. Some of the images describe a future that could have been if the cold war had heated up. These launch complexes, engine test stands, and wind tunnels are the Bunker Hills and Gettysburgs of the cold war. References to the Great Pyramids, Chichen Itza, Stonehenge, and other major archeological sites foreshadow the future of these modern ruins.”

What if high schools replaced shop classes with results-driven, full-scale architectural projects, where the goal was to collaborate and make something substantial for the entire community? If it sounds idealistic, perhaps it is – the reality on the ground can be full of setbacks and surprises, as this film illustrates in evocative detail. The title of the documentary in perhaps intentionally open-ended, because, unlike the phrase’s cinematic inspiration (Field of Dreams), what will happen if you build something is never quite clear until you try.

Directed by Patrick Creado, If You Built It is the compelling story of a one-year design/build program set in a small American town – a story that is both inspirational and heartbreaking. Its protagonist teachers are enthusiastic visionaries who are exceptionally driven. Its director shows these strengths but is unafraid to also highlight their steep learning curve, right alongside that of the students, who struggle at first to understand what two outsiders want to teach them and why.

Studio H, a collaboration of designers/builders Emily Pilloton and Matthew Miller, is named for its focus on “humanity, habitats, health and happiness”. Its mission is born of a noble desire to enable people to change where, how and how well they live, all through design.

Of course, working with a community as outsiders is challenging, as this pair learned when they moved to Bertie County, North Carolina, for the first year of their program. Their mission: to start small and build up to a student-decided project for the community, which turns out to be a farmer’s market inspired by contextual farm architecture.

In the press, idealized renderings and carefully-staged architectural photographs often gloss over the gritty reality of designing and building projects, as well as the slow change in thinking that comes with learning to design. Likewise, a look at highly-funded architectural programs and never-to-be-built college-student projects can make it easy to forget we have an opportunities to educate high school students everywhere through designing to build.

For anyone not educated in design, this movie provides  a unique window into how it can be taught and how understanding design processes can help us see unrealized possibilities in our everyday lives and built environments. For the broader public, the documentary also provides fascinating insights into the present and uncertain future of rural America.

In the end, the film is neither a tale of outright success or total failure, but it does show how even the best intentions may not work in every situation. In a key flashback, we are shown scenes of a home built for charity by Miller as a thesis project that ultimately failed in practice but also provided him critical real-world feedback on projects where the owner is just a passive recipient. Anyone interested in the intersection of architecture and education should watch If You Build It and sign up for screenings to share it with students.

A synopsis: “IF YOU BUILD IT follows designer-activists Emily Pilloton and Matthew Miller to rural Bertie County, the poorest in North Carolina, where they work with local high school students to help transform both their community and their lives. Living on credit and grant money and fighting a change-resistant school board, Pilloton and Miller lead their students through a year-long, full-scale design and build project that does much more than just teach basic construction skills: it shows ten teenagers the power of design-thinking to re-invent not just their town but their own sense of what’s possible.”

Graffiti art is a big part of the urban voice. It has become its own art form and developed its own subculture. But there are big risks involved in urban graffiti, and not all of us are willing to take those risks. If you love the look of graffiti art and lettering but don’t want to deface property or risk legal troubles, an online graffiti creator can safely satisfy your artistic impulse. Or if you’re looking for a product that’s uniquely yours, you can use a tutorial to create your own graffiti in Photoshop.

Draw Here

Draw Here lets you tag online while you’re visiting a web page, so you can leave your mark all over your favorite sites. When you create a masterpiece, you can choose to save it and share it with other users. And if you own a website, you can add a Draw Here button to invite visitors to scrawl all over your pages.

Graffiti Creator

Graffiti Creator is one of the most fun online graffiti creators we’ve found. You choose your font, type in a message, and choose from several effects to enhance your graffiti. Customize your colors, and then you’ve got your very own graffiti creation. If you’re up for a challenge, join the current months battle: submit a graffiti piece of the selected word and compete against other artists. While you’re there, be sure to stop by the gallery to check out pictures of real-life graffiti.

Photoshop Graffiti

You can create plenty of awesome things with Photoshop, including realistic-looking graffiti. This tutorial from PS masters Photoshoptalent (part 2 here) will guide you through adding a graffiti tag to an existing photo. As the narrator says, you can brag to your friends that you’re anti-establishment without actually going through the trouble of doing any real graffiti.

This tutorial doesn’t put the graffiti tag into a photo; rather, it just helps you draw a cool tag with the help of some special brushes and simple techniques. Then you’re free to put it onto your website, make a desktop wallpaper out of it, or whatever you like.

This tutorial gives step-by-step instructions to create realistic-looking graffiti that  you can insert into your existing photos. It even includes details such as fading the lettering so that it looks like it’s been on the wall for a while. Once you’re a master graffiti maker, you can draw on pictures of your own house, landmarks and historic sites with no guilt or danger.

Graffiti Playdo

Graffiti Playdo lets you create awesome graffiti with other people who are online at the same time. Much like the chat rooms of yesteryear, several people are in each room. Every person gets a turn to paint, and when you’re done you’ve got a collaborative public art project that you helped create without ever leaving your desk chair.

ZeWall

Playing with ZeWall feels almost like you’re really there. The applet lets you paint on pictures of real backgrounds with a variety of brushes. Paint brick walls, plaster walls, trees, trains, trucks and more without ever worrying about getting caught. The best pieces are compiled into massive virtual frescoes that visitors can peruse.

Graffiti Studio (LRPD Vandalsquad)

This game gives you the thrill of painting in different locations and hiding to avoid getting caught. Create your masterpieces on trains, but be careful of the Vandal Squad, who will come after you from time to time. Hide to avoid them until they’re gone, then carry on with your virtual vandalism. You can choose to download the game or play online.