Eagle Ridge Residence by Gary Gladwish Architecture

54 years ago she visited Orcas Island for the first time and decided that one day she would live there. 40 years passed before she saw it again and purchased a forested piece of land on a hillside populated with madrone trees, firs, beech, thistle, moss and rocks with magnificent views to the west of the San Juan and Canadian Gulf islands. Throughout her life rocks, nature and landscape played an important role in her artwork. It was this attraction that convinced her that this was the perfect site. She requested an open, simple, low maintenance design which works with the site in such a way that her views of the island, forest and ledges were always present within the house.  The program consists of a combined kitchen-dining-living area, study, master suite, art studio and storage area. The solution utilizes some of her favorite materials; old barn wood, rusty steel, moss and rocks. Large doors slide away to open the house to the expansive views, creating a living room in the woods. The entry garden bisects the house creating two zones while it carries the site and the eye out to the view. The 800 s.f. art studio and storage area are left raw to facilitate converting them to additional bedrooms at a later date.

Eagle Ridge Residence, by Gary Gladwish Architecture, Photography by Will Austin

Apartment in East Sydney by Katon Redgen Mathieson

A one-bedroom apartment located within the Republic 1 development in East Sydney. Although small, the apartment is enveloped in glazing on three sides that provide access to light, cross ventilation and city views. A floating kitchen bench sits clear off the floor and is a planning solution to the extensive glazing. Refrigeration and storage is accommodated in adjacent concealed full height cupboards. A floating joinery unit to the bedroom provides storage whilst acting as handrail between the bedroom and void to the living room below.

Apartment in East Sydney, Australia by Katon Redgen Mathieson

Jamirang Sofa by Bora Kim

Ja-mi-rang refers to falling into sleep, with sleep in Korean language. Glamorous solid characteristic shows comfort that ease the tension, straightly stretched legs from round cushion express its abstained force on soft lines.

Jamirang sofa No.1, Jamirang sofa No.2, by Bora Kim

Notchless Tape Dispenser by Mamoru Yasukuni

Notchless is an adhesive tape dispenser which leaves clean, straight edges without zig-zags on cut tape, simply by tearing it on the edge of a blade in the same easy way as with conventional tape dispensers. Adhesive tape without zigzags has an attractive appearance, and it does not break up when peeled as does tape cut with conventional dispensers. It thus has the advantage of not causing stickiness or dirtiness at the cut edge, increasing the utility of adhesive tape. This patented blade technology cuts adhesive tape with a straight edge in an easy and safe manner.

Notchless Tape Dispenser, by Mamoru Yasukuni, Kikuchi-Yasukuni Architects

Residential Church XL by Zecc Architecten

Dutch practice Zecc Architecten has completed Residential Church XL an abandoned church located in Utrecht, Netherlands which has been repurposed and converted into a single family residence. hundreds of empty churches are scattered throughout the Netherlands and since 1970 more than 1000 churches have been closed by communities with over 1/3 of those structures being demolished. Re-use is the only way to prevent long-lasting vacancy or destruction of the historical layer within the city. The purpose of the re-use of the St-Jakobuskerk was to revalue the dignified monument with little interventions as possible. The facade stands inconspicuously along a street at the Bemuurde Beerd in Utrecht city. Religious services have not occurred at this location for twenty years and was even used as an antique furniture showroom. The church also served as meeting place and venue for small concerts and dictated the implementation of a large mezzanine floor. This floor was an important factor in the designing process and has been substantially modified to recover and enlarge the interior spatial qualities. Partial removal of the floor generated interesting sight lines allowing light to permeate the ground floor. Underneath the manipulated floor reside the bedrooms, study and a bathroom. Ambient daylight enters through vacant spaces in the floor and openings in walls.

At the rear of the dwelling, the functional section of the kitchen is adjacent to a dining table created from old pews. To strengthen the relationship with the backyard and to provide additional daylight, three new fenestrations were added. the sleek transparent facades contrast the original stained glass windows allowing colored light to stream through the preserved exterior. The existing wooden floor and doors were retained and repaired where necessary. the new white floor sculpture is pulled away from the original walls, columns and arches. The sleek stucco volume is constructed from steel, wood and sheet metal. Closed parapets guide sight lines and encompass the living areas. Transparent surfaces within the volume constantly offer another insight of fragments in the interior while simultaneously reflecting historical elements, fusing the old and new.

Residential Church XL, by Zecc Architecten, Photography by Frank Hanswijk,
via: designboom

Under Pohutukawa House by Herbst Architects

The property was 90% covered by Aukerlands native Pohutukawa trees, which created a challenge for Herbst, a New Zealand based architecture firm founded in 2000 by Lance and Nicola Herbst. “In order for the home to exist it would require the destruction of a large number of mature trees. To do this we looked to the trees themselves to give us the cues that we needed,” the two architects explained.

“We separated the brief loosely into private and “public” components, giving us smaller individual masses with which to articulate the forms. The private functions of bedrooms and garage are housed in two towers which are construed as freshly sawn stumps of the trees that were removed. To allude to the bark of the stumps the skins of the towers are clad in black/brown stained rough sawn irregular battens. The interior spaces are then seen as carved out of the freshly cut wood, achieved by detailing all the wall / ceiling and cabinetry elements in the same light timber.”

After working around the tree issue, Herbst put their minds together to design the interiors. Warm woods were used on the walls and furniture with a complementary color scheme of oranges, tans, and browns to keep the interiors cohesive with the exterior architecture. The living room became the featured space of the home, with its large ceilings, fireplace, welcoming furniture, and unique lighting; Herbst created a comfortable and contemporary place for story telling and hosting. Part of the living room opens up to the forest, letting natural light and ventilation to breathe into the space. The living room and other piblic spaces are the main areas that link the private spaces of the home. A walkway links the towers at the upper level allowing engagement with both the natural and man made canopies. The Pohutukawa home is designed to be the perfect get away, secluded, a chance to re-connect with nature.

Under Pohutukawa House, New Zealand, by Herbst Architects, Photography by Patrick Reynolds, via: KNSTRCT

Aluminum Stool #1 by Monstrans

The idea for the aluminum stool came from a fascination with airplane, bridge and ship building parts that plainly display the way the industrial machine body is assembled. Made from five 18 gauge bent and riveted aluminum pieces, the stool is naturally strong and light and weighs less than 2 lbs., which makes it inexpensive to ship to you and easy for you to carry around. Once assembled, the metal parts are power coated, then the seat is cut from 1/4” thick natural wool felt, and adhered to the stool to serve as a soft resilient pad for the body.

Aluminum Stool #1, by Monstrans

Exhibition: Ronan & Erwan Bouroullec, Bivouac

The Centre Pompidou-Metz presents the first major exhibition in France dedicated to the work of Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec.

A fabulous Bivouac, staged across 1,000 square metres in Galerie 3 of the Centre Pompidou-Metz, this exhibition of works by Ronan & Erwan Bouroullec sets out the result of almost fifteen years of mutual collaboration. Their first major solo show in France, Bivouac highlights an exceptional international career, during which the two brothers have worked with some of the greatest names in design, been crowned by numerous awards and the presence of their work in public collections.

Imagined as a temporary encampment – hence its name – Bivouac is deliberately divested of scenographic elements other than the Bouroullecs’ work. Movement is imparted by contrasting scales, transparency and superpositions. Visitors are invited to wander around the gallery, moving between prototypes and finished objects, mass-produced and hand-crafted works. Bivouac highlights the immense diversity of these creations and economies achieved in production. It also addresses key concepts in the Bouroullecs’ research: objects which are nomadic, ephemeral, modular, organic, flexible.

The exhibition is neither an inventory nor a retrospective of their work. Rather, it illustrates the current state of their designs and research, in constant evolution.

Ronan & Erwan Bouroullec, Bivouac, 7 October - 30 July, at Centre Pompidou-Metz

Residence in Belo Horizonte by Anastasia Architects

Due to the reduced size of the site, residual and crossing spaces were practically left out (for example, there is no entrance hall, in behalf of a visual permeability with the entrance garden, achieved through large pivotal doors in the facade).

The floor plan is rectangular and compact, stretching till the site’s sidelines. The rooms are illuminated by large doors front and back facades and also by matted glass locking (u-glass that acts as a good thermal insulation due to the existence of an air layer between the glass sheets) between the lagged cover labs. A glass cover over a concrete pergola complements the illumination through an indoor garden. Therefore, the house is flooded by zenithal and indirect natural light that besides avoiding artificial lighting during the day, also avoids excessive heat from direct sunlight. The prevailing wind comes from the street, thus the entering doors work as regulators of wind speed. Totally opened in the summer, praise cross ventilation, or closed in the winter, or even semi opened if little ventilation is desired.

The residence was established in the street level, one meter above natural ground, in order to avoid unevenness and improve accessibility of the social areas. And, it also let the house more protected from the soil moisture. It is important to remind that one of the reasons for the implantation of compact field, reducing its footprint, was to increase the permeability of the ground, something really needed in our cities.

Solar collectors (that meet the house and the pool) occupy the most of the cover slab which prevented the use of this area initially contemplated. Due to the large spans desired, supported by few points of foundation, and also to the large porch swing, the upper walls are concrete beams built by ripped forms of wood left apparent. Its aesthetics comes from a structural option, hence follows that it is not decorative. This structural gymnastics was important, as the support pillars on the porch would be contrary to the intention of integration between interior/exterior desired. The result was a lightweighted residence (despite its aesthetics of exposed concrete), lighted and ventiladed, with pleasant and proportional spaces that puts into to practice the initial desire to the best possible use of external area.

Residence in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, by Anastasia Architects, via: Contemporist

Villa Rotonda by Bedaux de Brouwer Architecten

Addressing security and privacy for the inhabitants, the strategic arrangement of the perimeter walls creates an introspective atmosphere. A vernacular appearance and stone gable roof was maintained to reference the zoning requirements of the established residential fabric. A shallow pool surrounds the home while a void between the masonry walls allows fish to swim freely into an open air court and abut the large glass windows bordering the ground level.

Outward views from the interior consist of a palette of gray brick and green leafy vegetation mirrored within the reflective water. The solid walls enable natural light to filter inward providing a soft ambient illumination. The closed front elevation is contrasted along the rear of the structure, surfaced with glass windows to provide views of the expansive private garden. Rooms are configured to overlook the grounds producing a feeling of isolation within the densely developed neighborhood.

Villa Rotonda, Goirle, Netherlands, by Bedaux de Brouwer Architecten
Photography © Michel Kievits, via: designboom