Guy-Olivier Deveau, who lives in Quebec City, is a contestant on the second season of the Canadian reality show Race Against the Tide, where participants sprint to complete giant sand sculptures on the beach of the Bay of Fundy. The judges select the winner on each episode just moments before the tide washes all the art out to sea.

While some sculptors might be frustrated by the temporary nature of sand art, Deveau loves it.

“A lot of people wonder, ‘Oh, how does it feel knowing that your art will be destroyed soon?'” the artist said in an interview with Canada’s CBC network, adding: “…I really don’t mind it because when I’m starting it, I know what I’m in for.”

He finds sand art freeing for several reasons. “I like ephemeral art. One of the things is that they’re very quick mediums to work with,” he explains. “A two-meter sand sculpture will take me like, two or three days. If I were making the same thing out of wood or out of stone, it would take me weeks, if not months.”

Deveau also enjoys the ability to make and fix mistakes easily. With sand, he says “you can scratch it off and start again or try something new. The commitment is not so high. If you’re going to be working on a piece for four months, you know, if suddenly you don’t feel like doing it anymore or if you’re not into it, well, you’re stuck with it. But with sand, you just iterate a lot and then you’re always working on something new.”

His particular brand of sand art has a harder edge than most of the competition. Skulls, disintegrating heads, and skeletal creatures are prominent motifs in Deveau’s work.

“I like to jokingly say that my inspiration is philosophy, death metal, and video games,” Deveau says. His influences include H.R. Giger, the artist who created the creature from the Alien movies. Deveau also incorporates themes from Japanese fantasy role-playing games, adding: “Also, I like anything that has a death metal or black metal aesthetic — that is dark and sometimes a little bit disturbing.”

“I know there’s a lot of other artists that are doing that style in different mediums, but when it comes to sand, this has become my signature style, so maybe that’s what makes me unique,” he says. “Sand sculpture is often a bit more family-oriented, so my style may kind of clash with what’s expected.”

The artist’s horror-laced creations have at times been too much for the judges, but his vision eventually grew on them. “All the stumbling blocks that I came across just became fuel for the energy to do it better,” he confesses.

The second season of Race Against the Tide aired on July 10th, 2022. The winner will be named in the last episode, set to run on Sunday, September 11th.

Fans can check out Deveau’s amazing sand art, as well as his ice, snow, and wood sculptures on his Facebook and Instagram pages.

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Leigh and Mark first bought a shipping container and modified it into a comfortable (albeit cramped) place to live during the building process — no small feat in its own right. Leigh’s father worked on their new home with his crew during the week while Leigh, a high school teacher, and Mark, a marketing director, went to work. On weekends, the couple took on whatever tasks they could to speed the process along.

The design changed more than a few times along the way, as Leigh explained in a feature on Apartment Therapy (with photos by Olga Wrezel). The cost of many building materials have skyrocketed throughout the pandemic, leading to both hard choices and ingenuity to make things work. They had to sacrifice features that would have been nice, like floor-to-ceiling windows, and overcome disagreements about the interior styling. At first, Mark envisioned a modern minimalist interior, but Leigh wanted to bring in colors and textures that give it a slightly homier, more rustic feel, including the softly shifting shades of natural lime paint and plenty of wood.

Throughout the many phases of designing and building the home, one essential element remained the same. Leigh and Mark were determined to give pride of place to a painting by their friend, up-and-coming Montreal artist Dan Climan. Before they even broke ground, they made sure the proportions of the living room would be just right to put the painting on display.

Leigh explains: “Our cottage captures the idea that you inherit much from your parents and family genetically, and that as adults you have to build on it to grow as a person. This cottage was truly a family endeavor. My father spent countless hours helping, my mother would come randomly to help paint siding or bring cookies, and my aunts would do the same. We spent hours chatting about the past and the future, listening to their suggestions (sometimes ignoring their suggestions), and building something that was us, but also them.”

“My husband loves random art (he had a friend who is an artist paint Oscar the Grouch under the wooden toilet seat) and so we have many different styles within our attempt at an English cottage, but it is that ‘eccentricity’ that captures us. I chose lime paint and a pale brown palette for the walls and rooms as my homage to English country houses (or at least how I picture them in my mind). This is a place of relaxation and our palette certainly helps us achieve that.”

Ultimately, the home is a tranquil marriage of clean, simple lines, natural materials, and gorgeous views of the surrounding forests. It’s a great example of how budget constraints can actually produce a more satisfying result. The owners were able to take a hands-on role in the process and allow it to evolve naturally as they went.

The post A Quebec Couple Built This Cozy Minimalist Cottage on a Budget first appeared on Dornob.

One level of the home is for a young family, one is for their parents, and another offers a recreational sports space and gym for the residents and their guests. The third volume rises above the others, jutting out vertically over the cliffside so that one tower-like section feels like it’s hovering in the air. A continuous stairway can also be glimpsed through the windows, making it sort of like an observation tower. Both the son’s house and the parents’ house have their own private backyards tucked somewhat safely against the cliff, and a shaded corridor offers access to the swimming pool from the son’s house.

One of the coolest aspects of this design is its wooden rooftop shades, which can be either closed or opened to let sunlight flood inside (a nice treat in this rainy part of the world). The glass walls facing the water unfold into balconies reminiscent of vertigo-inducing skyscraper platforms like the Skydeck at Chicago’s Willis Tower, the swimming pool features an infinity edge, and if you look closely, you’ll see what looks like the world’s most dangerous swing at the edge of the outdoor terrace. In other words, this residence is for daredevils only, and anyone who’s clumsy or afraid of heights need not apply.

If you think this concept looks unlikely to ever actually become a reality, you may be right, though Iranian architect and interior designer Milad Eshtiyaghi says construction plans are underway and set to begin later this year. It’s a daring project, but not impossible, and it wouldn’t be wildly out of place among the more luxurious homes in British Columbia. You can see short animations of the home’s interiors and various angles of the exterior, including the approach from the top of the cliff, at Eshtiyaghi’s website.

Eshtiyaghi is known for dreaming up incredible architectural concepts that veer into futuristic and fantastical characteristics without losing the sense that they could be real. Anything but ordinary, these projects often reconceptualize what homes and apartment buildings or condos can look like. For instance, the Villa Residential Complex, envisioned for the north of Iran, consists of a bunch of stacked triangles in various sizes ranging from singles to duplexes and triplexes facing both the southern forest and the northern sea.

Another dramatic cantilevered project, Suspended House, takes an ultramodern silhouette in black and dangles over half of it over the edge of a cliff. Cables attach the home to a huge steel mast that bears the weight of gravity while withstanding lateral and upward wind forces. “We designed the mast of the project as someone who has been bended by opposition and is pulling a rope,” says the designer.

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The Fibonacci House is a tiny 3D-printed house that gets its name by following the famous Fibonacci sequence in its spiral form. Currently in progress near the company’s headquarters in British Columbia, Canada, the house was built with their Laticrete 3D Printing Mortar M68 concrete printers, boasting both a compact footprint and enough head room for a loft in order to sleep four people.

To build it, the company used two main classes of printing mortar: a slow-drying one that’s strong enough to support subsequent layers above it before fully curing, and another one with a drying accelerant added so it can dry faster. The second type is kind of like a concrete-based glue, allowing Twente to print overhanging structures and bridge gaps between parts, all of which were printed off-site in a controlled environment where the printers can be protected and work 24/7.

The house was divided into 20 parts and shipped to the location, where the pieces were assembled. The walls aren’t load-bearing in their own right, but the system includes columns and shear walls to hold up the exterior. Each piece is dual-layered for thermal insulation. The house isn’t complete just yet, but when it is, we expect to see some more photos of its unusual form and how the walls look inside.

In mathematics, the Fibonacci sequence (discovered by Italian mathematician Leonardo Fibonacci) is formed by adding numbers so each one is the sum of the two preceding ones, starting from 0 and 1. When you tile squares whose side lengths are successive Fibonacci numbers, like 1, 1, 2, 3, 4, 8, 13 and 21, you can form a spiral closely related to the “golden ratio” by drawing circular arcs connecting the opposite corners of the squares. The sequences appear frequently in nature, like the arrangements of petals in a flower. It was also frequently used in Renaissance architecture.

Twente Additive Manufacturing’s Fibonacci House design aims to do two things: show off what their 3D printers can do, and demonstrate a new way of building that reduces excess material consumption. It’s their first full-scale building, but the company has already pulled off a number of other cool projects, including stairs, bridges, planters, decorative window grilles, and an outline of a Kootenay Salmon that will serve as the mulch barrier for a new playground in B.C.

Prefab construction can be significantly more eco-friendly than on-site construction because each piece is precision-cut to avoid waste; the materials are stored out of the weather; the construction process generates less noise, dust, and site disturbances; and building times are usually much shorter. 3D printing could potentially revolutionize the process, but the use of energy and resource-intensive concrete as a primary material isn’t ideal, so hopefully some more innovation is on the way in that department, too.

The post Spiraling 3D-Printed Tiny House Inspired by the Fibonacci Sequence first appeared on Dornob.

Any casual lover of architecture knows the names Mies van der Rohe, Le Corbusier, Louis Kahn, and Robert Venturi, but far fewer have heard of Phyllis Lambert, Blanche Lemco van Ginkel, Cornelia Hahn Oberlander, or Denise Scott Brown. But that’s not because their work was any less important to the field.

City Dreamers, a documentary directed by Joseph Hillel, sheds light on the work of these four influential women in architecture and design. All now between the ages of 87 and 97, the women broke into the traditionally masculine industry just after the Second World War, when the work to rebuild was plentiful but prominent woman architects were not.

The film’s subjects were chosen because their careers “intersect, resemble, and complement each other,” says Hillel. For starters, their highly original work addressed major societal issues rising at the time, like traffic, population density, green spaces, ghettoization, urban sprawl, and heritage preservation. Sound familiar? We’re still dealing with all these issues today. By examining creative solutions from the past, maybe we’ll be inspired to improve upon them for the cities of the 21st century.

Shot on location in Philadelphia, Vancouver, Toronto, and Montreal, City Dreamers features interviews with Lambert, van Ginkel, Oberlander, and Brown, shows off some of the greatest examples of their respective bodies of work, and includes archival materials illustrating how cities have changed since the mid-20th century.

You may not be familiar with these women, but you’ve almost certainly seen their buildings before. And if it weren’t for the patriarchal glass ceiling they continually had to fight back against throughout their careers, they’d probably be celebrated alongside their most famous mentors and colleagues.

The doc’s official website explains: “Phyllis Lambert, for example, was responsible for the construction of the Seagram Building in New York, in addition to being the founder of the Canadian Centre for Architecture and Heritage Montreal. Blanche Lemco van Ginkel is credited, along with her husband, with saving Old Montreal from being destroyed to make way for an expressway and with helping develop the master plan for Expo 67. Cornelia Hahn Oberlander, for her part, reinvented how we develop urban green spaces and introduced the concept of green roofs in several major cities. And Denise Scott Brown revolutionized the way we think about contemporary architectural and urban heritage, along with her husband Robert Venturi.”

“These women, who are for the most part still active, hold the titles of architect, urban planner, landscape architect, curator, educator and/or activist, and have amassed a long list of illustrious accomplishments, publications, honorary degrees, and other distinctions over their respective careers. But while the credentials and achievements of these great women deserve to be more widely known and celebrated, they are not the only focus of this feature documentary. City Dreamers is above all inspired by what has united these four women throughout their careers: the ‘dream’ of a fundamentally human and inclusive city.”

Nominated for a Canadian Screen Award in the Best Cinematograpy in a Documentary category, the film was released widely in 2019. In Canada, you can watch it on the Documentary Channel. In the U.S., it’s available to stream on Amazon Prime.

The post “City Dreamers” Documentary Highlights 4 Influential Women in Architecture first appeared on Dornob.

Converted shipping containers have become a popular choice for all of these reasons, but they still aren’t ideal, partially owing to the fact that they require extensive modification to be made comfortable for both hot and cold environments.

Even better than shipping containers are not just prefabricated but “pre-made” workspaces that ship fully assembled. These plug-and-play structures can be set down virtually anywhere by crane, and then it’s just a matter of filling them with the features and furniture your particular needs require.

When Powers Construction of Vancouver, Canada needed to upgrade their own portable offices for their site managers, they decided to come up with their own design. The result is the ‘Site Shack,’ a tiny 8 x 12-foot pre-made cabin that’s as cute as it is rugged.

“For this office, we wanted to design and build an iteration from scratch, thus removing the structural constraints of the shipping container module,” the firm explains. “The goal was to create a seamless Corten steel form reminiscent of a traditional pitched roof house. The roof pitch was calculated so truck transportation would not require over-height permits.”

“The interior was to be heated with a traditional wood stove. One end was to be fully glazed, [while] the other incorporated a hidden steel door. Throughout construction, the design details were refined. This allowed fulfillment of the initial desire for a seamless, finely detailed exterior.”

Made of a 2 x 6-inch wood frame with 5 x 5-foot steel angles at each end, the shack has a heavy-duty feel befitting its usage, and its built-in Cubic Mini interior wood stove made of cold-rolled steel is just right for the chilly climate of British Columbia. On top of that, Corten steel develops a beautiful rust patina over time that doesn’t corrode the material, holding up to rain, snow, ice, and fog. A two-inch layer of Outsulation, a rigid type of foam, offers thermal regulation to the interiors, which themselves are lined with fir plywood.

The handsome prefab presents a stark contrast to the usual facilities at any given construction site, which rarely get much fancier than a trailer and a port-a-potty. It’s also a lot more aesthetically pleasing than the average shipping container, albeit less stackable.

While it was initially created with the company’s own needs in mind, the Site Shack is adaptable to all kinds of other uses. Powers Construction says they’re already building limited numbers of semi-customized shacks on demand. It’s easy to imagine the design offering a peaceful backyard refuge as a mobile office for all kinds of work, a guest room, or a studio for art, music, or yoga. It could also serve as a sort of instant off-grid cabin in a remote location.

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A Vancouver native, LeBlond relocated to the remote Canadian Yukon a few decades ago in hopes of immersing himself in nature and enjoying the tranquility of the area’s vast landscapes. More unexpectedly, this region is also home to a thriving arts community, which LeBlond quickly became enthralled with. Though not exactly an artist by trade, he still knew enough about crafting from his days as a repairman to deftly execute his artistic vision. Taking a bunch of old bicycle wheels and inspiration from Buckminster Fuller’s iconic geodesic dome, he formed a 16-foot-wide dome of his own: one held together entirely by zip ties. To this day, it is sited in his front yard, turning the street into something of an open-air gallery. Visitors can even step into the dome through a door the artist has installed in its perimeter. Once inside, they might be surprised to discover that there’s a full-sized birch tree birch in there. LeBlond explains that the whole reason for building the dome in his yard was to protect this tree from the elements.

This is not the first time that bicycles have taken center stage in an art installation. Renowned Chinese artist Ai Weiwei has been touring his impressive sculpture Forever Bicycles all over the world lately, with the immense structure appearing in cities like Buenos Aires, Argentina, Austin, Texas, and London, England. The sculpture is comprised of 10,000 bicycles, each one of which was manufactured by Shanghai bike company Forever Bicycles.

The fact that these bikes are all identical is a reference to China’s reputation as a leader in mass production — and to the position that the bicycle itself occupies in Chinese society. For decades, the Chinese relied more on bicycles than they did cars, only changing in recent years as the country began to modernize and develop a booming manufacturing industry. There is also a lesson in the construction of Weiwei’s Forever Bicycles installation. Namely, the bicycles are immobile, rising up into the air because they are stuck to one another and contradicting the idea that a bicycle represents freedom and movement. Of course, the illusion, the play of light and shadow, and the mere immensity of this sculpture each have artistic impacts of their own, and it’s safe to say that both LeBlond and Weiwei have elevated the humble bicycle to the upper echelons of the creative world.

The post Former Repairman Puts Old Bicycle Tires to Artistic Use first appeared on Dornob.

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This stylish “cabin” is called “Maralah,” a word meaning “person who was born during an earthquake” in the language of the Native Americans who used to inhabit the area. This modern concrete volume juts out from the raw cliff face and eventually comes to a point (the corner of which is fully glazed), blurring the lines between interior and exterior and surely setting off someone’s vertigo if they are uncomfortable with heights.

Maralah is envisioned as an isolated retreat for anyone who’s looking to get away from the madness of city life and reconnect with nature in a luxurious fashion (rather than in a rustic log cabin). It takes its cues from architects like John Lautner and Frank Lloyd Wright, offering a particular sort of masculine retreat — namely, a rural man cave for the discerning male.

The floor to ceiling glazing at Maralah’s corner affords the people inside panoramic views out over the river below and the forest beyond — a truly spectacular sight to behold. Measuring only 45 square meters, the cabin is made entirely out of raw concrete and black steel. Internally, there is a kitchen/reading area, which leads down into the bedroom via a small set of steps. A bathroom pod is located in the corner of the bedroom area and separated both visually and physically by opaque glass screens, offering privacy and material tension to the cabin.

From the renderings that have already been released for the project, it appears as if the granite cliff on which the cabin will sit will also make an appearance inside, with one of the walls being made up of nothing more than raw hewn rock. The cabin’s footprint is square, but it will be rotated on the cliff to allow the glazed corner to cantilever over the drop, creating an interesting relationship with the landscape and taking advantage of the impressive views around the curve of the river.

As of yet, the project is purely speculative, but by the looks of things, Maralah will make the perfect destination for the driver of the new QX80. So far, the films that have been used for Infinti’s advertising campaign have all been shot in Calgary by production company Zuma4 Productions. It remains to be seen whether or not the cabin will actually come to fruition, though, as extreme projects like this one often prove difficult to execute in reality.

The post LAAV Architects Build Modern Cabin Into Canadian Mountainside first appeared on Dornob.

The Bird Hut takes the shape of a pointy A-frame, with steep pitches on each side resting on the timber stilts that prop it 2.7 meters above the forest floor. The gable end is clad in red cedar shingles that are almost cartoonish in appearance, like an illustration you’d see in a children’s story book. They lend the hut a whimsical and endearing quality. The shingles have also been custom-cut with several openings to allow birds in, making them of some of the treehouse’s most defining features. These circular openings range in size to accommodate all twelve species of birds in the area, from large pileated woodpeckers to petite warblers. The concept is that the two-person hut can be shared with the local wildlife and that the birds will be drawn in by both the presence of these “birdhouses” and the nature of the structure itself.

“In addition to being an inviting place for people to nest, the whimsical facade has twelve birdhouses, each designed for various local birds that live in the mountains of the Columbia Valley. The materials, form, and orientation of the Bird Hut were designed to offer nesting opportunities for as wide a variety of local birds as possible,” explains Studio North. The firm also looked to the vernacular identity of Canada for inspiration when designing the construction of the hut. “Mimicking the process of a bird building a nest, the materials of the Bird Hut were scavenged from the immediate surroundings. To give a sense of being in the canopy of the trees, the roof of the Bird Hut disappears with clear, eight-millimeter polycarbonate panels. As a result, the space is passively heated by the sun, acting as a kind of greenhouse that is passively ventilated by the two circular windows,” they add.

The treehouse is very cute and quaint, and internally, it’s been adorned little planters and plywood walls to give the space some warmth and connect it to the exterior. Two large circular windows further this connection by providing views out into the woods beyond. The hut is accessed from a bridge, and down below, there’s even a path that leads visitors to a campfire and a natural spring for the true Canadian camping experience.

The post For the Birds: Fairytale Treehouse in a Calgary Forest first appeared on Dornob.

Traditional boathouses usually consist of little more than a roof and perhaps two or three walls raised above water level on stilts or pontoons. Sometimes, they’re modified to include living quarters, and many older boathouses have even been adapted to include restaurants, bars, and other leisure facilities. Regardless of whether they’re imbued with humility or enhanced with all the luxury trappings of an adjacent mansion, boathouses are rarely as stunning as this recent project in Canada, which was completed in 2016.

Located on Lake of the Woods in Manitoba, just across from the U.S. state of Minnesota, this 2,500-square-foot structure by Cibinel Architecture features an airy streamlined modern silhouette that contrasts with the rougher textures of the rocky coastline bristling with lush, vivid evergreen trees and dramatic cliff faces. Its shape recalls the refreshing minimalism of mid-century modernism, looking almost like a house that’s been stripped of its walls altogether.

Cibinel’s clients requested a modern structure that evoked the classic lake lifestyle and offered a focal point for social gatherings, capturing sunlight from every angle throughout the day and spotlighting spectacular northeastern views of the water. It would have to offer parking for multiple boats and year-round storage, too. The architects describe the resulting design as “playful,” noting its appeal across all four seasons.

Horizontal steel planes clad in warm unpainted wood sit on narrow supports, cantilevering a third of the structure over the water in an intentional echo of a boat’s profile. Two small custom-shaped niches nestle the clients’ boats when they’re not in use, making it easy to climb in from the sturdy docks around them. The upper deck is half sheltered, half open to the sky, so guests can sunbathe on it or lounge on cozy couches beside a warm wood stove in rainy weather.

Mosquitoes are no problem thanks to a sliding curtain that can screen in the covered half of the upper terrace at a moment’s notice. A glass wall at one end protects against strong winds and eliminates the need for a guard rail, opening up the view. Doesn’t it make you wish you had a boat or two of your own, even if just to hold an epic party at a boathouse like this?

Cibinel Architecture is a professional consulting firm based in Winnipeg, Manitoba that attracts clients who are looking for clever solutions to unique design challenges. They’re known for their work on a number of heritage, academic, institutional, cultural, commercial, and residential projects.

The post Lake Life: Gorgeous Modern Boathouse in Canada first appeared on Dornob.

Bunkies are a kind of Canadian (at least in Ontario) slang for a small cabin, and the inspiration for this rather adorable compact cottage for short-term stays.

Made primarily from CNC-cut plywood, the concept is a collaboration between 608 Design and BLDG Workshop. Its construction follows principles of built-ins and furniture rather than stick-frame architecture.

A rigid shell allows two ends to remain entirely glazed. A fold-down bed is complimented by fold-out furniture so the structure can be easily converted between day and night use (and open-floor-plan adaptability) with a still-minimal site footprint.

The shape is reflective of the conceptual goal, looking more like an extruded home model than an actual frame-and-cladding house – a neat effect that sets it apart visually from conventional homes or cabins, while still providing a nod to domestic traditions.

“The Bunkie was originally conceived as an overflow space for cottagers in Canada’s beautiful Muskoka Region. Since then, the Bunkie’s appeal has expanded it’s use into a wide variety of contexts. The Bunkie Collection comes in 4 distinct models that can be combined with a large range of interior options to fit anyone’s lifestyle. All models measure 106 SQ. FT, allowing construction to take place without a building permit in virtually everywhere across North America.”

“Our manufacturing process utilizes CNC routers to cut precision plywood parts that provide ease of assembly and superior structural strength. Unlike traditional ‘stick frame’ buildings, The Bunkie can be assembled with simple tools and practical step-by-step instructions.”

“We offer a variety of exterior and interior options that fit your life. A queen-sized wall bed, modular cabinetry, ethanol burning fireplace and detachable seating can be arranged any way you like. When everything is folded back into the walls, the space can be used for a variety of activities, games, movies, or even yoga.”

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Nothing like a good schwitz to get through cold and flu season, right? Or really, anytime of the year if you’re Scandinavian or Japanese or Icelandic, or … Hey, we are missing out! We need a sauna. In a box. Such as the wood burning sauna box by Toronto-based design studio Castor, built right into an 8x8x8-foot reclaimed shipping container.

It’s conveniently self-sufficient with a wood-fired stove and solar panel. But wait, there’s more. It comes with – in perfect man cave fashion – an electric guitar hookup. In case you want to shred while dripping for your health. There’s also an awesome, hand-carved limestone stool, an iPod stereo, truck light and, oddly, bronze antlers. The interior is done in Western red cedar and red steel. Cost? $41,000.

Since it creates its own power, you can set the Sauna Box up wherever you desire: your off-the-grid plot of land, your suburban backyard, or your flat rooftop (weight considerations allowing). When not in use, you just lock it up, like any box.

This little beast is sold by Matter, a gallery, showroom and manufacturer in NYC devoted to not just scouting and selling stuff, but providing a “platform for an ongoing conversation about design by the design community and the public alike.”

We’d certainly like to have a conversation about the electric guitar!

“This traditional wood-burning sauna is built into a shipping container. The Sauna Box is completely self-contained with solar power and a wood-fired stove. The box comes standard with iPod stereo, guitar hook-up, Castor Stool, magnetic truck light, wool toque and bronze antlers. The Sauna Box can be customized to suit the site.”

“Castor Design was established 2009 in Toronto. Led by Brian Richer and Kei Ng, Castor Design is committed to innovation in design. Its work tests the limits of materials, both in terms of aesthetic and structural properties, blurring the line between the practicality of engineering and the indulgence of art.”

“Castor Design’s products involve thoughtful experimenting with process and techniques, finding new ways to use familiar materials. The Recycled Tube Light earned Castor their reputation for recontextualizing; the attention to narrative is maintained throughout their lines of lighting, furniture, and accessories.”

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Cooler weather is perfect for saunas, since plunging into ice cold water after a sweaty session is mandatory in many a traditional regimen around the world. Sauna design by the water was taken to new heights by Partisans Architects, who nabbed the 2015 OAA (Ontario Association of Architects) Best Emerging Practice and Design Excellence award for their spectacular Grotto Sauna.

While the Grotto Sauna, a project for a private client, who wanted a waterfront sauna escape from the city, was inspired by hidden Italian grottos, the structure in Georgian Bay, Ontario, Canada, also brings together traditional Japanese elements and quintessentially Canadian influences.

The sauna’s smooth, curvy, sculptural beauty on the inside “emulates Lake Huron’s waves and mirrors the Precambrian shield—a soft, undulating rock surface that has been worn over billions of years.” In contrast, the sanctuary’s charred cedar exterior looks weathered thanks to the Japanese Shou Sugi Ban pre-aging method. The idea was to make it appear as though it had perched here for years and years. It’s a study in opposites: a sensual, intimate interior sheltered by a rather plain, rugged exterior looking perfectly at home and unobtrusive in its rocky and remote Georgian Bay island setting in northern Canada.

The space is sustainable, created with the help of 3D scanning technology to anticipate and reduce environmental impact.

Partisans was founded in 2012 by a Alex Josephson and Pooya Baktash and has been drawing attention for their variety of successful projects. As per their website, their mission is to listen, to transmute, to provoke and to create beauty, in their own words: to “build architectural narratives that elicit counternarratives—stories that spring to life through spontaneous mutations and unexpected cracks.”

Other Partisans projects include The Bar Raval in Toronto, the revitalization’s of that city’s Union Station, and Farmageddon, a rehabilitation project in the hills of Caledon, Ontario.

The post Sensuous and Sculptural: The Grotto Sauna first appeared on Dornob.

A social housing development in Vancouver is the first in Canada to utilize shipping containers as building materials. The Alexander Street Project is a small housing community built on a site just 25 feet wide. With two buildings and a courtyard, the compact development is a beautiful example of contemporary architecture.

The 12-unit development is home to low-income people and older women who are either previously homeless or at risk of homelessness. The rents are low to allow the residents to have a safe and attractive place to stay without worrying about how they are going to pay the rent.

Each unit is an average of 290 square feet and includes a living room/bedroom, a small kitchen, a full bathroom, and laundry facilities. Although small, the apartments are comfortable and feel like real homes. You would never guess that their shells were once used to ship consumer goods across oceans.

Using shipping containers as the exteriors of the buildings helped keep costs down for Atira Womens Resource Center, the group behind the project. They didn’t put elevators in the three-story buildings, and they struck a balance between cost-saving and making the homes comfortable and attractive places to live. The project has been so successful that the resource center is working on a complementary project that will house young women at risk of domestic violence.

The post Recycled Shipping Containers Become Homes for the Needy first appeared on Dornob.