There are small homes, then there are smaller homes … then there are super-skinny, ultra-mini houses inside of homes. The strange starts on the outside but quickly works its way to the interior. For starters, the whole (larger) home is sandwiched between thick and solid concrete slabs that rise straight up on either side of an extremely narrow building site. But step inside, please, and see an even smaller surprise.

Within the thick exterior walls, a wood cabin-shaped box serves as a suspended loft bedroom space. The wooden siding and conventional cabin (or mini-house) shape make it seem almost like a forest retreat … except that it sits within a living room area in an already-small house. This curious little home-in-a-home part even has windows and a skylight of sorts.

Kitsch or not, this room-within-a-room concept turns a somewhat cramped-feeling master bedroom interior into a cozy sleeping quarters – the wood serving to warm the space and set it apart from the colder concrete and bare white surfaces around it.

A multi-story vertical space serves to create some breathing room in the middle of the house while also acting as a light well. This openness is mirrored in the open-tread stairs that cling to the concrete sides and drop down from the lofted bedroom. These slim metal staircases also serve as bridges to connect spaces across voids, allowing movement but maintaining a sense of separation and spaciousness as well.

Even at three stories tall, this slim Ryoichi Kodi Kojima boasts less than a thousand square feet of space – and that is if you include the small front porch below and tiny deck area on the third floor above. All things considered, it is hard to tell that this complex Japanese home is so small (at least by American standards) from the dynamic floor plans and three-dimensionality of the interior.

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Set within the city’s High Fashion District, the industrial club has plenty of interesting things to look at, not the least of which is the 01, a compact crossover plug-in hybrid featuring a 177-horsepower, 1.5-liter gas engine and an 80-horsepower electric motor. Though it’s available for purchase, the main appeal of the 01 is Lynk & Co’s monthly subscription service, which grants you use of the vehicle whenever you need it without worrying about things like insurance and maintenance. The car can also be borrowed for shorter periods. It’s designed to appeal to a broad range of tastes, and it offers all the functionality most people need in an urban vehicle.

A partnership between Chinese company Geely and the Swedish Volvo, Lynk & Co knew that people curious about renting or borrowing the 01 vehicle would want a chance to see it in person, but they didn’t want it to feel like visiting your neighborhood Toyota dealer. They decided to bring the car to the people who will use it most — those located in large cities — instead of opening a larger public facility in a more suburban location.

Designed in collaboration with Gothenburg-based studio New Order Arkitektur, the company’s Milan location is the tenth such club to open in the past few years. The interiors repeat some motifs like a cocktail bar and a signature mustard yellow sofa, but it also boasts elements that are distinctly Milanese. A neon “whirlpool light” wraps around a column in the center of the mostly concrete space, which is also outfitted with stylish furniture, a curving lamppost sculpture by local brand Seletti, and the Lynk & Co 01 set under a skylight.

The Tarot Room offers guests a chance to look into the future, and the Candy Shop Toilet encloses sweets within glass tubes, with everything else in the restroom painted a lurid pink. The company’s commitment to sustainability is also on display in the form of recycled materials and objects for sale that hew to the same vision (like Triwa watches with recycled plastic straps). A wood-clad meeting room is lined with reproductions of famous Milanese art. Runways also weave through the space, paying homage to Milan’s reputation as a center of the fashion world.

Previously, Lynk & Co opened a second club in Barcelona designed by Masquespacio. That space was designed to evoke “a world of utopias,” drawing in curious passersby on the well-trafficked Paseo de Grácia with big, colorful sculptural elements visible through the front windows. Other clubs are located in Gothenburg, Antwerp, Rome, Berlin, and Amsterdam, with a new location coming soon in Dusseldorf. Lynk & Co seems to be focused on Europe for now, but CEO Alain Visser has said the company sees market opportunities in U.S. states like New York and California.

“Being present in Milan means not only being part of a beautiful city that renews itself on a daily basis, but it also means entering a fabric where the community that lives there pulsates with ideas: with our club and the events we will organize here,” says Visser. “We want to give space to all those people who want to change their concept of mobility and lifestyle. It’s important to have fun while driving towards a more sustainable future.”

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“We’ve tried to take all the iconic qualities of Quito – such as the enjoyment of living in one of the most biodiverse places on the planet, in a city on the equator where the seasons are perfect for both human and plant life – and bring that experience into the vertical dimension,” says BIG’s founder Bjarke Ingels. “IQON is an entire vertical community of individual homes; an extension of La Carolina Park that now climbs all the way up to the rooftop.”

BIG approached the design in characteristically bold fashion. “IQON’s architectural identity is defined by its ‘stripped back’ facade.” the BIG website says. “The raw, exposed concrete simultaneously functions as the building’s structure. Individual ‘pixels’ are stacked 32 floors high and rotated to provide the best possible views while simultaneously creating terraces for the apartments.”

The building consists of 220 residential apartment units ranging from one to three bedrooms in size. Some apartments even have panoramic views of the city and the nearby Pichincha volcano. “Each apartment floor features through-units – apartments that have terraces on both the north and south facades – which not only allows for views across the entire city, but also offers the opportunity for cross ventilation and a sense of openness, ” explains BIG partner Thomas Christofferson.

The country’s rich biodiversity is fully embraced in the IQON plan. “Celebrating native trees and plants, the building integrates greenery wherever possible to take advantage of Ecuador’s temperate climate and ecology – the country with the most plant species per square meter in the world,” the company website says. Trees and shrubs adorn each balcony, and the ground floor features a public vegetable garden.

The building’s ecosystem is intentionally circular. As the company explains, “The building also acts as an urban tree farm; once the vegetation planted on the terraces outgrows its planter, it can be replanted in parks all over the city. In this way, the building becomes part of a green cycle – from park to building, and back to park.”

The lower floors incorporate room for five retail shops and 36 commercial offices, and the inside of the ground floor offers a soft contrast to the building’s sharp-angled exterior. “The ground floor plaza includes generous public spaces, retail units, and public art. This central plaza functions as a new east-west pathway, connecting the park to the rest of the neighborhood,” the BIG website says. “Upon entering the lobby, the material palette transitions from the raw, pared-back exterior to a more refined aesthetic; marble stone pavers complement the custom millwork reception desk, and concrete touchpoints nod to the facade. Deep emerald green tones are utilized on the ceiling tiles, mailboxes, and through to the elevator lobby – an area located beyond a blackened-steel portal.”

IQON also boasts a rooftop pool and terrace, sports and spa facilities, a music room, and a bowling alley.

“IQON…represent[s] the ongoing transformation of Quito into a cornerstone of architecture, design, and innovation,” said Uribe Schwarzkopf’s co-founder Tommy Schwarzkopf. “As the first residents move in and businesses begin to take space in the building, we are looking forward to seeing [it] come to life and become part of the fabric of the city.”

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Located inside LA’s Westfield Century City shopping mall, the SKKN pop-up displays small cylindrical and spherical products on huge slabs of cement and alcoves in the smooth, bare walls. Perron-Roettinger co-founder Willo Perron says he drew inspiration from rock quarries when designing the 1,330-square-foot space, bringing in large-scale shapes meant to evoke massive chunks of raw minerals. Instead of contrasting with the products, the setting amplifies their simple, elemental forms.

If the products are a little mysterious, that’s because they’re meant to be. Perron-Roettinger created opaque containers that obscure their contents, with labels like “face cream” and “exfoliator” printed in tiny, barely legible text. The refillable containers are also housed within secondary packaging that’s textured to resemble naturally occurring materials.

“We like how it feels to hold a ceramic mug, the natural color of a clay pot, what it feels like to run your hand through sand, and all the different shades and textures of limestone quarry,” Perron-Roettinger co-founder Brian Roettinger told It’s Nice That.

Staying within the same limited gray and beige color palette, Kardashian’s SKKN Home Accessories Collection is also on display at the LA pop-up. The five-piece houseware collection aims to capture the “calming aesthetic and neutral color palette of Kardashian’s home.” All made of hand-poured concrete, the collection consists of a vanity tray, spherical storage container, waste basket, tissue box, and a canister with a lid.

“I knew I wanted to complement my skincare collection with home accessories, designed to display my products and elevate the home with modern, minimalistic elegance,” Kardashian says. “When designing this collection, I wanted to bring the monochromatic interior design elements from my home to others. I’m excited to be able to share this collection with everyone.”

The SKKN pop-up shop will remain in place until the end of the year. As stark as the interior design and products may be, there’s no confusing the store for that of any other brand. Two enormous digital displays splashed with Kim’s face bookend the space, reminding shoppers what they’re really there for: a little bit of bottled essence du nouveau riche.

Willo Perron previously designed a pop-up store for Kardashian’s brand of undergarments, SKIMS, in 2021. Located on the ground floor of the Parisian department store Galeries Lafayette Paris Haussmann, the store was similarly smooth, beige, and low on embellishments, but drew inspiration from the hues and curves of human bodies instead of stone. The same design was repeated for a second pop-up store in Los Angeles later that year.

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“In this renovation, instead of designing everything from the beginning, we designed it while proceeding with dismantling,” the architects explain. “The elements of the past, which emerged as the demolition progressed, provided considerable inspiration for the design.”

Located in the Koishikawa/Hakusan area of Bunkyo Ward, an area historically full of bookbinding and printing-related facilities, the building once housed a printing factory in its lower half and a private residence in its upper half. The second owner converted the entire structure into a home. When Akira Mada and Maya Mada of MAMM Design purchased it, they wanted to restore its former live/work layout, but adapt it to their personal needs and style.

They started with the staircase, which was contained within its own dark, dim walled stairwell. At first, they envisioned knocking out the concrete walls and putting a skylight at the top to create an atrium, replacing the old stairs with new ones. But as the demolition revealed the jagged concrete edges of the walls and the internal rebar supporting the old concrete stairs, they realized they wanted to keep some of these elements in the finished product.

Thus appeared the home’s star feature, the skeletal metal staircase now entwined with living vines. Stretching the full height of the building, the stairwell is topped by a skylight that can be opened for exposure to the fresh air, with a ladder providing rooftop access. The old rebar staircase is now purely decorative, with new stairs piercing the floors and ceilings in other locations.

The rugged nature of the exposed concrete and metal contrasts beautifully with new elements the architects brought in, like blond plywood, salmon-pink tiles, and translucent partition walls. Additional plants, like small trees in oversized planters, help draw a sense of vitality into the rest of the home and out onto the balcony and rooftop.

The renovation also revealed some surprises. Had they started the process with rigid ideas of how everything should look, the architects might have missed out on some defining features that add a lot of texture and historical context to the redesign.

“In order to apply a new finish to the outer wall, I scraped off the existing plaster finish, and found the glossy tiles from the beginning of the new construction,” says Akira Mada. “I thought it would be a good contrast with the green of the newly planted trees, so I polished it and decided to use it as it is. In this way, as we proceeded with dismantling, we carefully read the existing shapes and materials, and sometimes gave them new meanings.”

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Seeking a home for their young family and their retired parents, one Belgian couple purchased such a property and contemplated their options. Ultimately, they decided they wanted to preserve the history and character of the existing buildings, hiring Aalst-based firm Objekt Architecten to bring their vision to life.

The design brief was relatively unusual. The clients wanted one home for themselves and their children, and a separate but connected “care home” for their elderly parents. This aging-friendly home would need to be set up so that the parents could live there for the rest of their lives, even as their abilities changed. Both homes would require privacy and nice views of the surrounding farmlands while maintaining easy access to each other in case of emergencies.

Objekt Architecten started by preserving as many of the exterior walls of the crumbling buildings as they could. They chose concrete as a primary material to complement the neutral tones and textures of the existing brick, plaster, and mortar. Red terracotta floor tiles and traditional red clay roofing tiles were also brought in to mimic the look and feel of the original elements.

The architects left the appearance of the existing house and barn unchanged, turning the old farmhouse into the care home portion of the estate. Designed with accessibility in mind, the single-level structure contains sleeping quarters, a bathroom, and several spacious storage rooms, as well as covered outdoor areas. This home connects directly to the young family’s new house, which was built within the shell of the adjacent barn.

Clad in a striking bronze-colored aluminum finish, the new volume is set back from the original walls under the same new roof to create covered outdoor walkways. The roof of the care home was extended to stand perpendicular to the new volume. On the other side, the roof rests on the original exterior wall. One long hall links all the bedrooms, and skylights let in an abundance of natural light.

The architects call this project “Old & New,” reflecting both the contrast in historic and modern architectural styles and the contrasting but complementary needs of various generations of the family.

The team explains that “in the new house, the choice fell on a low-maintenance, polished concrete floor. In the sitting area — which houses the lounge and the play area — a contrasting sandblasted oak herringbone parquet was chosen. In the center of the house, we find a royal blue core, which on one side houses a toilet, a cloakroom, and a staircase, and on the other side is part of the kitchen and storage room. The rounded kitchen island, finished in a natural wood tone, has a peach-colored countertop.”

“Together with the brass accents, these give the whole a contemporary, luxurious look. With this renovation, we tried to transform an existing house into a care home where the original residents feel at home and can live a lifetime, while the clients do not have to sacrifice modern comfort and privacy.”

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Casa TO features nine spacious suites acting as private sanctuaries in contrast to the open public areas. A covered infinity pool and terraced solarium form the heart of the hotel, offering stepped seating areas for guests to lounge in the sun and then wander down into the water to cool off. Enormous round portals in the massive concrete walls create interesting geometries and frame various views of the interiors and exteriors: the pool sparkling in the sunlight, vines crawling up the textural wall, inviting seating areas, and the lush vegetation outside.

“The project was outlined under the imprint of simplicity and conceptual elegance, where tradition and avant garde are amalgamated in an unprecedented structure embraced by the tranquility of nature,” the architects explain. “Its name, Casa TO, arises from the idea of serene contemplation in a defined space, as the reinterpretation of an Oaxacan temple, which generates a radical sensory experience just by entering it. The structure evokes the lattice pattern of two historic waterworks of timeless beauty, the Basilica Cistern — Yerebatan Sarayi — in Istanbul, dating from the 6th century, and the Hornsey Wood Reservoir in London’s Finsbury Park, built in the 19th century.”

The team adds that “Casa TO’s natural environment defined its interior design, which was inspired by the natural hue of a blue Madagascar palm tree — Bismarckia nobilis — located on the original grounds. The color palette is made up of the typical tones of concrete and stainless steel, which are complemented by shades of turquoise, present in the ironworks, the lamps by Natural Urbano Studio, and some decorative details; in addition to yellow, blue, and green accents, which contrast in the glassware and textile elements made by Vivenda, Alfredo Orozco’s Experimental Textile Workshop, and the Taller Ocho rugs.”

The influence of Oaxacan temples is evident in the hotel’s vaulted ceilings and steps, as is that of traditional Mexican courtyard houses, which are evoked in the solarium and the tropical greenery sprinkled throughout the hotel. Furniture built by expert carpenters from Puebla, Guadalajara, and Oaxaca stands alongside bamboo pieces by Tiago Solís Van Beuren. Guest rooms are open to the fresh air, with the beds tucked into little sheltered nooks and small private terraces acting as giant skylights.

Casa TO is perhaps the most dramatic and innovative project yet from Ludwig Godefroy Architecture, an elevation of the firm’s signature aesthetic of clean concrete forms accented by warm natural materials. Check out their previous project, Casa Zicatela, a home that looks like a bunker from outside but hides luxurious private spaces and reflecting pools behind its sturdy walls.

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Restaurant owner and chef Motonori Hirata was looking for something brand new that felt long-established. “I was asked to design a building as ‘heavy’ as possible,” says Ishigami. “’I want an architecture whose heaviness would increase with time,’ [Hirata] said. ‘It cannot be artificially smooth but rather something with the roughness of nature. Authentic cuisines require such a place.’ He also told me that ‘it has to look as if it has been there and will continue to be there for the longest time.’”

Creating such a structure in the middle of a modern residential neighborhood presented plenty of challenges. Instead of focusing on what he currently had to work with, Ishigami took a subtractive approach, concentrating on what he could have if he removed parts of the existing space.

That line of thinking resulted in an underground cave dwelling that’s every bit as organic and “heavy” as it is practical and functional. Ishigami began with a design that would leave the roof of the new building flush with the ground level. Using state-of-the-art 3D software, he was able to determine the exact points for pile driving. When construction began, workers “dug the holes manually for precision while constantly confirming the position and shape on an iPad.”

Once all the holes were hollowed out, concrete was poured in to create the form of the organically-shaped columns. Then the rest of the space was excavated to create the living and working areas.

Ishigami tried to embrace accidents as they popped up, working the unknown into the process. “Unexpected factors such as growing grass, soil collapsing, or errors due to manual labor were tolerated as much as possible,” he notes. He hoped that the by accepting these “un-precisions,” he would create an architecture that “internalizes natural distortions and uncertainties.”

The original plans called for washing away all the dirt to reveal a gray concrete structure, but Ishigami and his team were so impressed with they way the soil-caked columns looked that they chose to leave them as-is. That decision is what gave the project its cave-like feel and inspired a redesign of the interior spaces, which now include a bedroom, bathroom, industrial kitchen space, and three courtyards that can be filled with dining tables during restaurant hours (or used as living spaces at other times).

Almost imperceptible glass creates walls around the structure to keep it warm and safe from the elements. The flat roof was filled in with concrete except for three skylights, and whitewashed to keep it distinctive from the surrounding topography.

Considered a design wunderkind in architecture circles, Ishimgami started his career with Kazuyo Sejima at SANAA, after graduating with a Master’s in Architecture and Planning from Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music in 2000. In 2004 he started his own firm, junya.ishigami+associates, and has since gone on to win multiple awards, including becoming the youngest-ever recipient of the Architectural Institute of Japan Prize in 2009 for his ultra-thin glass Kanagawa Institute of Technology workshop. In addition to his architectural work, Ishigami also serves as the Kenzo Tange Design Critic at the Harvard Graduate School of Design.

The post Junya Ishigami Crafts Cave-Like House and Restaurant in Japan first appeared on Dornob.

Measuring a mile and a half long and nearly half a mile wide, the project is truly astonishing in scale. But what might be even more astonishing is the fact that it’s actually done, especially to those in the art world who thought it would remain an unfinished money-suck for the remainder of Heizer’s life. The 77-year-old artist first broke ground on “City” in 1970, building the first part, “Complex One,” over the following decade with a crew of workers. At first, he paid for it himself, raising the rest of the funds from art institutions and collectors over the ensuing decades. Heizer and a group of supporters also founded the nonprofit Triple Aught Foundation in 1998, which contributed $30 million.

Long enamored with the idea of monumental art, Heizer got the idea for “City” after visiting Egypt with his father. The influence is evident in the structure of Complex One, which resembles that of the stepped pyramid Zoser. The raised earth structures of “Complex Two” are also reminiscent of Egyptian pyramids, as crisp and unblemished as they once must have been. Another monument, called “45°, 90°, 180°,” is made up of rows of huge triangles and rectangles standing on a concrete plaza. They are all in fact modular pieces of what would be a single wedge, if they were ever assembled.

Photographs of the finished project reveal these ancient influences, but also associations that hit a little closer to home. Its shapes and proportions recall those of 20th-century modernist architecture, and taken as a whole, they could almost be seen as future ruins of contemporary society viewed by our distant descendants. It’s a reminder that as a species, we and our creations are simultaneously enduring and fragile. It wouldn’t take long for the desert winds to completely cover our cities in dust after we’ve gone.

Most of “City” consists of natural materials like dirt, rock, and clay sustainably sourced from the Great Basin landscape, in which the piece is set. In 2015, former President Barack Obama designated 700,000 acres of the desert containing and surrounding the project as a national monument, protecting it for future generations.

Not many people will actually get to experience “City” in person. Tickets are limited to six per day, at least for now. Those lucky enough to get their hands on one will have to fly into Alamo, Nevada, where they’ll be picked up and driven to the installation. Once dropped off, they won’t be led on a guided tour or follow any marked paths. The project is meant to be experienced as if you wandered in on foot and roamed around in awe and wonder, having no idea what you’ve found. “I am not here to tell people what it all means,” Heizer told The New York Times. “You can figure it out for yourself.”

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The project combines StoneCycling’s expertise in construction waste mitigation with Biomason’s innovative biocement, a binder that produces a material made by bacteria and sand. Combined with StoneCycling’s recaptured mineral waste, the biocement becomes a tile that’s three times stronger and 20 percent lighter than typical concrete masonry while maintaining a near-zero carbon footprint. And while conventional cement takes 28 days to fully cure, precast modules of BioBased tile cure in just 72 hours.

Ginger Krieg Dosier, co-founder and CEO of Biomason, has spent the last nine years searching for a way to “grow” cement bricks and tiles with bacteria. The process sounds pretty fascinating. Biomason uses natural micro-organisms to produce carbon-based material in ambient temperatures just like coral does in nature, though exactly how they manage to do that is apparently proprietary information.

That carbon is combined with calcium to produce biocement materials, which can even be seeded with marine microorganisms to give it self-healing abilities and enable it to anchor itself to the ocean floor and create marine infrastructure, breakwater assemblies, and near-shore sediment stabilization.

BioBased tiles shape the biocement into easy-to-use modules with all sorts of applications, so it can be used almost exactly like traditional concrete. They’ve been installed at businesses around the world, including the Dropbox headquarters in California and Helix Lab in Denmark. More recently, Biomason struck a deal with retailer H&M to install it in many of the company’s 5,000-plus retail locations around the world.

If it continues to take off, this bio-based material could make a huge environmental impact. Concrete’s carbon footprint is currently larger than the entire aviation industry and those of the countries of China and India. It’s also the second most in-demand substance in the world after water. Biomason estimates that its biocement could eliminate 25 percent of the concrete industry’s global carbon emissions by 2030.

“The demand for low-carbon building materials is clear,” says StoneCycling’s Massa. The aim of our partnership with Biomason is to accelerate the use of sustainable building materials and architecture even further. We share the belief in our collective ability to solve climate change, and we’re thrilled to be working with Biomason on new low-carbon products to revolutionize the construction industry.”

“Since our inception 10 years ago, we have focused not only on disrupting the cement industry with groundbreaking technology, but also in establishing a licensing and partnership ecosystem to enable broad adoption of our solutions throughout the construction industry,” Krieg Dosier says. “StoneCycling will be a key partner as we scale commercially and bring BioBased tiles to the European market.”

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“This project was an opportunity to make new experiences within the Gomos building system: in each house, all the technical installations (water, electricity, and climatization) were concentrated in just one module and extended to the other models externally,” the architects say. “This procedure was standardly repeated in the whole project, accelerating its production/assembly process.”

Summary’s Gomos building system consists of concrete modular elements that simplify the building process. Derived from the way ordinary sewer pipes are constructed, the system is redesigned in order to make it habitable while preserving the stability and rapid deployment abilities of the concrete shells. It takes just a few days to assemble the buildings once they arrive on site.

Summary calls this system “evolutionary,” explaining that each module leaves the factory completely ready to live in, including all interior and exterior finishes, insulation, windows, water and electricity, and even built-in furniture. The system is designed to be flexible, so the structures can be sized up or down or given slightly different proportions according to the user’s needs.

In Paradinha, this translates to a series of angular modern buildings sheltered from the harsh sunlight and set at just the right angles to take advantage of the views. To the casual observer, the location of each one may seem a bit random, as if they were scattered across the plot and allowed to remain where they fell. But in reality, they were carefully arranged to follow the contours of the landscape and create privacy for the inhabitants of each one.

“They are distributed across the plot according to the natural configuration of the terrain, altering it as little as possible,” say the architects. “The old stone walls and the existing trees were preserved — the houses were carefully placed around them. Combining this apparently arbitrary positioning with different orientations allowed the houses not to block each other’s views. From the balconies, behind the wooden slates, we can see the forest and, in some cases, the river.”

The project proves that modularity doesn’t have to mean cookie-cutter identical structures all in a row. The concrete prefab cabins consist of four different shapes and sizes, ranging from 300 square feet to 625 square feet. Some are oriented horizontally, others vertically, their layout determined by pre-existing trees and landscape features. Each one features inscrutable concrete facades pierced by geometric windows, with one all-glass facade screened with latticed wood for shade in the heat of the afternoon.

“Resorting to prefabricated structures was not just a choice, but the only efficient option we had to simplify the building process within such conditions,” the architects explain.

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The entrance is purposefully mysterious, finished in black steel with no apparent function. The intention is to raise expectations for the interior space, taking inspiration from the entrances of traditional Japanese shrines. Carving the new retail space right into the thick concrete walls and leaving their unfinished contours in place, the architects create the sense of penetrating into a deep, dark cave or bunker. Seeing all the watches lined up on their pristine white and steel shelving, one wonders if they’ll find the Batmobile around the next corner.

The architects intentionally chose materials that would be in conflict with the rough nature of the concrete to create a visual tension. Shallow beds of gravel make the transition between the original surfaces and the new tile flooring. Most fascinating of all, perhaps, is the choice to subtly highlight the brokenness of the concrete in some areas with gold powder in the spirit of “kintsugi,” the Japanese art of repairing broken vessels with gold to highlight the beauty of their imperfections.

“By laying gravel between these spaces, we express a sense of calmness and beauty reminiscent of a Japanese garden,” say the architects. “The floor was finished by old lumber and floated in the space as a stage for encountering rare products. The stainless steel showcase makes a sensation of an otherworldly bank vault and the rarity of the product stand out more. The display stand of the watch uses natural stone as it is, and by contrasting it with the natural beauty of the stone, it enhances the attractiveness of the artificial beauty of the wristwatch, which can be said to be the crystallization of advanced craftsmanship.”

The firm adds that “you can bring your favorite products to the negotiation booth and carefully examine them. The booth is a neutral space finished with white steel and plastic and surface emission from the ceiling makes [it so] you can concentrate on the detail of the product. The strong contrast of various materials makes each space stand out independently. And through those ‘space’ experiences, you can feel the connection with the concept of ‘time.’”

There’s a certain poetry to Kenta Nagai Studio’s approach to this project, especially given the history of Shinjuku City. Now known as Tokyo’s major commercial center, home to the busiest railway station in the world and most of the city’s skyscrapers, Shinjuku was almost 90 percent destroyed during the Tokyo air raids in 1945. Only its roads and rails remained, preserving its pre-war form for post-war reconstruction. In this sense, those roads and rails are almost like the gold lines of kintsugi passing through the city, knitting together old and new.

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The latest project from Mexico City architects PALMA is a shining example of how designers are re-envisioning mixed-use spaces. No stranger to innovation, the firm designed “Chiripa” to “see how different users would interact with one another in a hybrid building that’s part house, part hotel.” The result is a spacious yet unassuming space that stuns visually without overpowering the landscape’s natural beauty. Unobstructed views of Mexico’s Bay of Sayulita complement the complex’s white stucco and exposed concrete slabs, while the clean lines and curvy staircases and bridges add a touch of understated luxury to the scene.

The building’s distinct but connected volumes were placed at opposing orientations to allow for an airiness and openness that lets natural light into every nook and cranny while simultaneously creating a separation that allows for privacy within. Two of the four levels are cleverly built into the site and concealed from street-level views, further highlighting the space’s perfect integration into the surrounding landscape.

Comprised of six total units, Chiripa is accessed through a central walkway/entrance hall at the top. A half-circle staircase allows residents to traverse both blocks, while a series of open-air connecting bridges builds on the complex’s airy vibes. Here, the natural surroundings aren’t just a backdrop: they’re part of the space itself, blending seamlessly with the central garden and views of nearby bay.

While the site’s multi-use configuration does overlap in common areas like kitchen and dining spaces, the privacy of the additional rooms cannot be overstated. All in all, it’s an ideal space for both short and long-term residents. Each level also features its own covered terrace that extends from both the common areas and bedrooms. Both structures boast their own rooftop pool and shared terraces that offer panoramic views of the surrounding area.

Hybridity isn’t just a buzzword, it’s a way to create spaces that are multi-use and convey a sense of fluidity in both commercial and residential spheres. With their new complex overlooking Mexico’s Bay of Sayulita, PALMA does exactly that, showing that functionality and style need not be mutually exclusive.

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A recent Pew Research Center poll of Americans with jobs that can be done remotely found that 60 percent of those working from home want to continue doing so when the pandemic is over. That’s great for the well-being of the workforce, but it also brings up a potential complication. As remote workers flee expensive cities around the world, demand for homes in rural areas is expected to rise, putting pressure on the few remaining undeveloped spaces we have left.

In Argentina, APS/Arquitectos Pablo Senmartin came up with a model for building houses in environmentally sensitive areas, adding to housing density without harming the ecosystem. Located in the picturesque Villa Parque Síquiman in the Cordoba province, “Bioclimatic House” takes advantage of beautiful views on a sloped parcel while barely touching the earth beneath it. The architects completed an in-depth study of current construction problems in natural areas and developed a building style that met the stringent requirements of LEED v4 sustainable housing certification.

The home is set within a mountainous area overlooking Lake San Roque, adjacent to a protected natural area. The area is characterized by extreme environmental fragility, with periods of long drought, wildfires, loss of native forest, and lack of infrastructure. But it also offers a beautiful setting with lots of opportunity for recreation, so it’s caught the eye of many Argentinians looking to relocate.

Instead of building onsite, the architects took advantage of prefabricated elements that can be dry-assembled quickly with minimal impact on the setting. At its base is a section they call “Plinth — the cave,” an earthquake-resistant structure made of reinforced concrete that allows water runoff beneath the building. It functions as a parking area and meditation space beneath a swimming pool. As the foliage grows up around it, it will virtually disappear within the landscape.

The home is accessed by a dock-like pier element at street level, which transforms into a terrace and solarium as it enters the house and terminates at the infinity-edge swimming pool, which visually blends into the lake beyond. The rest of the home is envisioned as a two-level box made of wood, steel, and glass for an overall feeling of lightness. The tightly spaced wood cladding fades into an open screen as the house stretches from the street out to the pool, opening up the views.

The home’s zero-maintenance roof is a single sheet of ventilated metal that collects rainwater in the technical room of the plinth. The home is insulated with washed sheep’s wool, and the floors are made of sustainably sourced pine wood. Local recycled materials were incorporated wherever possible.

“The incorporation of time in the architectural space, through a succession of vertical elements that accelerate the view towards the landscape, this relationship changes during the course of hours and days,” say the architects. “The harmony [and] color of the material represents an abstraction of the color of the surrounding nature [and proves that] in the end, environmental quality is what matters when it comes to living.”

The post Bioclimatic House: A Responsible Way to Add Homes to Sensitive Natural Areas first appeared on Dornob.