Singleton House by Richard Neutra

Commissioned in the mid-’50s by industrialist Henry Singleton for a site on a spectacular peak atop Mulholland Drive. The house has been restored by legendary stylist Vidal Sassoon and his wife, Ronnie. Although the Sassoons made use of Neutra’s original materials and vocabulary to an astonishing degree, the changes were considered sacrilege by some design purists. Ronnie, however, is unapologetic: “Unless the house is a museum, or you only spend a few weeks a year there, you just can’t live this way today. And given how valuable the land is, the house would have been torn down.”

When the renovations were complete, the couple turned to decorator Martyn Lawrence-Bullard, a close friend, for advice on the interiors, particularly upholstered pieces and textiles. “Ronnie and Vidal both have such an amazing eye,” says Lawrence-Bullard. “They bought great midcentury French and Italian furniture, including important pieces by Charlotte Perriand and Gio Ponti.”

Singleton House, Bel Air, California, by Richard Neutra, via: Architectural Digest

TrayBowl by Philippe-Albert Lefebvre

TrayBowl shamelessly exposes the chaos it contains. Inspired by salt/ pepper and oil/vinegar service trays, TrayBowl lets one separate hers or his two favorite capsules flavors. The way to use the object is clear, yet nonrestrictive. The black melamine tray allows for an easier reach at the last capsules remaining in the bottom of the bowl.

TrayBowl Capsule Dispenser by Philippe-Albert Lefebvre Product Design for Nespresso

Perke by Atelier d’Architecture Bruno Erpicum & Partners

The garden that separates the main part of the house is south facing, the bottom of the plot presents a level area that ends 6 metres higher up. These are the only constraints to guide the project: a residence based on two rings: a vertical ring ensures the connection between the levels, a horizontal ring includes the earth pressure at the rear and forms the interface between the main part and the rooms on the first floor. Everything is designed so as not to have to reveal the intimacy of the premises to passers-by, in this way, only a small section of the South facing garden is reserved to welcoming visitors and the entrance to the garage. To the right, the site climbs. Steps lead you to two levels in the area bathed in light … the upper garden. The vertical wall folds round to form the ceiling; it covers the living space which is simply organized around a white service area. The floor is black, it moves outside to the south, to form a vast patio. The view overhangs the neighbours so only the tops of the trees can be seen, two birches perforate the vertical patio encircled by the screen wall that makes the night-time areas on the lower level concealed from public view. The bedrooms and office situated in the depth are completed by their own patio. Three vertical circulations have been organised: the hall stairs, the lift and the family stairs that pierce the volume to the swimming pool. On return to the lower garden, a swimming pool takes the tangent from the partition wall and extends 25 metres further. Each time of the day has its own living framework, and one is never bored.

Perke, Belgium, by Atelier d’Architecture Bruno Erpicum & Partners, Photography by Jo Pauwels

House in Leiria by Manuel Aires Mateus

The functions are banal: a house divided in private area with bedrooms, and social area with living-rooms. The private areas are at street level under the plot, around a central courtyard with rooms opening to private patios in a intimate environment. The living rooms are around a void, that collects light from above and gazes the castle at the city centre. The house is a recognizable archetype emptied of its centre by the light designed by a three heighted courtyard that opens horizontally at the garden level. The bedroom courtyards, revealed in the garden, relate with this archetypal object providing different readings on its scale. Scale and volume are controlled in a chaotic context, with a clear identity that from its core relates with the historical legacy far away: the Leiria Castle.

House in Leiria, Portugal, by Manuel Aires Mateus
Photography by Fernando Guerra, Sergio Guerra, via: Arch daily

Chauffeuse Marie-Sophie by Pierre Brichet

Marie-Sophie is a comfortable chair made from simple and raw materials, with a design that emphasises craft skills. The steel trellis forms a structure which is covered with leather, creating a rich contrast. The base of the structure that looks complex at the first sight is actually creating a variable geometry depending on the angle of view. This gives an illusion of volume which is in fact generated by the empty spaces of the structure. Thanks to its natural suppleness and flexibility, the leather suits the curved steel to create the seat and back of the chair.

Marie-Sophie, by Pierre Brichet, for Coming Soon galerie, (Limited edition for the gallery : numbered and signed copies 8 + 1 artist’s edition)

Fez House by Álvaro Leite Siza

This home and studio space, ‘the work of my life’ according to Álvaro Leite Siza, took 12 years to complete, assembling the site, designing the house, and then building it. The home’s size is almost statuesque with its lines and angles.

“To do architecture it’s necessary a client, a promoter. When I realized, in certain moment of my career that to continue my path I would need to occupy that role too, I didn’t hesitate. I conciliated objectives, interests, goals, I pursued an ideal and I achieved a dream. I also had the need to be, in this work, supervisor, coordinator and project director, in an organization in direct administration. I started this work in 2004 and I finished it in early of 2005. The construction begins in February of 2006 and was concluded in July of 2010. The project of personal house-atelier is the first where is present touching figures in their own atmosphere, exalting pieces, personalities that derive from history, versus the sensibility, recreating individually realities, with no intention previously defined. They appear in the middle of delivery to ones believe beyond what we need (specific program and functional), sublimation underlying to authentic communication of the creative process.”

“Transitional spaces, the porticos, the lamps, the light, the doorknobs, the doors, the hand rails, even some paintings and the furniture was designed for me, but also other of XIX century (timeless pieces) that came from my family that fit the environment perfectly, beyond other elements, complement the creation of environments that exalt Mozart, Leonardo da Vinci, Miguel Angelo and surrounded by a lot of extraordinary Art works, that aren’t limited to the atmosphere of purely imaginary architectural.”
- Álvaro Leite Siza

Fez House, Porto, Portugal, Designed and Built by Álvaro Leite Siza
Photography by Fernando Guerra, Sergio Guerra, via: Arch daily

Wearable Architecture by SUUM

Designed for modern mind and ritual, SUUM SUMS are wearable architecture that requires the human form to build, support, and embody. More than metal. SUUM SUMS are the experience of acquired function and multi-faceted beauty when beings and design concept work together. Each SUUM SUM is a collection of precision, interrelated stainless-steel components. Original compositions are chosen and may evolve over time with additional sculpture- and material-altering components, known in SUUM terminology as EVOLVERS.

Wearable Architecture: Rings, by Nava Wiegert, Brianna Kenyon SUUM

Espresso Lamps by Piers Mansfield-Scaddan

Piers Mansfield-Scaddan is launching a new range of furniture and table lamps at Design Indaba inspired by industrial fabrication techniques and craftsmanship. Showcasing several industrial processes, the range reflects Piers’ obsession with all things technological. The tongue in cheek Espresso Lamp series draws inspiration from stove top Italian Espresso pot, functioning as a quirky desk light which works either in a domestic setting or home office. A visually arresting minimal design parodies frilly lamps found in your grandmothers attic, yet is industrially fabricated from sheets of anodized aluminum. Espresso’s are available in candy apple colours from lilac, and turquoise to aubergine and more established finishes of golds and bronzes to black. The Espresso Lamp and is available in a wide range of colours and in 3 sizes, referred to as single, double and mini espressos!

Espresso Lamp, by Piers Mansfield-Scaddan, Fly-Pitcher

Books: Ivan Leonidov

Ivan Leonidov (1902 – 1959 was a constructivist architect, but also a painter, urban planner and a dreamer. He realised only one project in his lifetime: a staircase on a hillside in Kislovodsk.

“It is sad that the vast majority of sketchbook plans and competition entries reproduced in this album were never built. Ivan Leonidov was surely one of the most innovative and humanistic architects to come out of early Russian modernism. His Constructivist-inspired projects embody the same revolutionary spirit as Vladimir Tatlin’s celebrated 1919 tower. In his later buildings, medieval Russian motifs mingle with pyramids, amphitheaters, pagodas, to reflect his love of Eastern and classical cultures. Many of his visions were quixotichis United Nations headquarters, for example, or the Island of Flowers park in the Dnepr River but all are inspirational. Vilified in the 1930s, Leonidov has lately undergone a “rehabilitation” in the Soviet Union.”

In the first half of his life, Leonidov’s work quickly became widely known. Even Le Corbusier and Niemeyer had fell under the charm of the strong so-called leonidovskogo “definitive breakthrough”. Then the Soviet coined the term “leonidovschina” and the great architect of the Iron Curtain was isolated from the world of architecture. After the war, Leonidov developed with his sketches some grandiose projects of the utopian City of Sun. The conception of this ideal city began to emerge in Leodinov’s thinking during the thirties. It took shape during the war years, and was inspired by Campanella’s book of that title and the Italian socialista-utopian’s concepts.

Russian Utopias, Ivan Leonidov, via: dpr-barcelona

Leonidov, by Andrei Gozak and Andrei Leonidov, 216 Pages, Published by Rizzoli, 1988, ISBN: 084780951X
Buy the book: Amazon

Blackbird Carbon Fiber Guitar

The Blackbird Rider features an all-hollow uni-body shell setting it apart from any guitar in the world. That is the body, neck, and head are cast in one-piece with the sound board, fretboard, tuners, etc. added to that main component. Forming the main component in one-piece eliminates the weak and sound-absorbing joints associated with standard guitars. This patent-pending construction relies on the incredibly strong and stiff properties of carbon fiber as well as plenty of unique design features to create the strongest, most resonant small-bodied guitar available anywhere.

The first model was the Rider steel-string, a truly satisfying and nearly indestructible travel companion which set the benchmark for the category. Blackbird’s singular blend of F1/aerospace design technology and traditional craft gives form to a new highly resilient and responsive guitar annually and including the first carbon fiber ukulele. Each Blackbird is individually made by small team of luthiers in San Francisco.

Carbon Fiber String Instruments, by Blackbird