The Guesthouse

Your first stop upon arriving at the Treehotel grounds is the Guesthouse, where you check in to your room. The nine rooms in here give off a distinct throwback vibe, drawing on inspiration from designs of the 1930s to 1950s. Don’t worry, though — they still have Wi-Fi.

The Blue Cone

Set upon posts, this square red building is raised off the ground and handicap accessible. In stark contrast to its rustic exterior, the Blue Cone’s birch interior emanates a calm, sleek Swedish design. It also provides four beds, a sleeping loft, lounge area, and bathroom.

The Dragonfly

Perfectly suited for use as a meeting room, the Dragonfly boasts a table that seats 12, a lounge area, bathroom, and two smaller group rooms. Even if you’re ditching work for a personal stay, you’ll find that this lodging comfortably sleeps four people. Whatever the reason for your visit may be, the Drangonfly’s large panoramic windows are sure keep you feeling close to nature.

The UFO

The name helps paint an accurate mental picture of this silver orb nestled into the trees. To top it all off, guests gain entry to the UFO via a retractable staircase that stretches down to the ground. Inside, you’ll find a much cozier scene, with a main room that accommodates up to five people.

The Cabin

On first approach, the Cabin appears to float weightless in the trees. Intended for two guests, it’s a long capsule-shaped room with a double bed, bathroom, and terrace.

The Bird’s Nest

Camouflaged in the surrounding trees, one might trek right past this room if they didn’t know what to look for. Completely encased in branches like the massive nest of a bird, the Bird’s Nest is also accessed via a retractable staircase.

The 7th Room

As you’ve probably already guest, this addition came about only after the first six rooms were designed and built. Looking up at it from ground level, you’ll see a reflection of the surrounding forest printed on its underside. But while it blends into its surroundings on the outside, the 7th Room offers a very different atmosphere inside, with contemporary decor and massive northern-facing windows that facilitate views of the northern lights. Guests can even lay in a large cargo net off the deck to take in the sounds of the forest and obstructed views of the sky from a height of about 32 feet off the ground.

The Mirrorcube

Distinct even among unique designs, the Mirrorcube looks exactly like its name suggests. Its aluminum-framed base was contoured around the base of a neighboring tree before the reflective glass walls were added to complete the cubical concept. Like the other rooms, though, its interior brings nothing but warmth, comfort, and sleek amenities for two guests to enjoy.
Nearby buildings offer breakfast, lunch, and dinner options, as well as showers, a sauna, and a bar. When you’re not too busy enjoying the spectacular views from your room, visiting with other patrons in the sauna or Guesthouse, or eating your way through Swedish delicacies at the on-site restaurant, you might find yourself taking in the nearby hiking, rafting, kayaking, wildlife viewing, horseback riding, fishing, or fat bike riding options.

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Now, over a century later, many carriage houses have been converted into homes, and they often have significant historic value. In Dublin, on a 200-year-old estate called Bolton Hall, both the main house and carriage house are protected structures. So when Ferreira Architects was commissioned to helm a renovation, they had to adhere to strict rules about what could be updated, and about what must be restored.

To preserve all of the carriage house’s original details while bringing in some modern flair, the architects worked alongside interior design firm Kingston Lafferty Design from the very beginning, involving them in fundamental decisions that would influence the overall look and feel. The renovation also involved reimagining the interior architecture and incorporating a new contemporary addition and exterior terraces.

The firm also developed the home’s interior design, landscape design, and much of the furniture design, bringing together a cohesive palette of colors and materials that you might not expect to find in a rural setting.

“The new design combines and juxtaposes the old and new buildings as one interesting and exciting multi-level, unique space,” they explain. “The existing coach house is brimming with character, charm, and original detail, so we opted to maximize this with the design. We deliberately created interesting spaces, nooks, and crannies, contrasting the old building with a juxtaposing minimal and streamlined extension design.”

“We wanted to provide the user with the optimum exciting experience, with multiple routes and ways to use the space. We employed mild steel portals to link the different areas and a floating timber stair[case] to act as a strong feature connecting the stone walls. To maximize the beautiful exterior spaces, we designed two exterior terraces, with one linking the indoor to outdoor via a fully tiled cantilevered table and bi-folding window detail.”

The vaulted brick ceilings and stonework of the original carriage house are clearly the dominating element, setting the tone and providing a whole lot of character. To balance its ruggedness, Kingston Lafferty brought in clean-lined, minimalist elements like smooth, pale wood floors, sharply defined doorways, and translucent panels, all of which have been married to the stone by way of textured concrete.

What makes this renovation stand out, however, is the elegant, feminine sensibility of the custom furnishings and fixtures, like a striking pink couch accented by red hanging lamps. A lot of designers would have leaned into the industrial nature of the building’s history, giving it a bit more of a masculine energy, but instead of an overabundance of concrete and metal pipes, we find polished marble, patterned tile, and gleaming brass.

The juxtaposition of these elements is thrillingly effective and enhanced by the fluidity of the spatial layout, making it seem like there’s always something interesting to discover around the next corner.

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Monochromatic black houses are certainly a bold choice, but they’re growing increasingly popular, and a new set of rural cottages in the Hudson Valley present an argument to continue the trend.

Thomas Phifer and Partners, an architecture firm based in Manhattan, completed “Hudson Valley House II” in 2018. Set in an idyllic clearing full of native grasses and surrounded by conifers and deciduous honey locust trees, this “house” is really a series of small black buildings arranged around a central communal garden. Perhaps you’ll look at the photos of these stark pointy structures half-obscured by trees and liken them to the foreboding huts of scary old witches, or perhaps you’ll be intrigued, drawn in by the interplay of the textural shingles and the lush green branches.

Two of the structures are connected, housing a living and dining room in one and a bedroom in the other. The third, which looks like an archetypal gabled house that’s been cut in half, offers the residents a tranquil chapel from which to contemplate the setting, just as singularly dark inside as it is out. But venture into the other structures, and you’ll find pale wood-lined spaces that feel bright, light, and well-ventilated, perfectly complementing their dark facades.

Each of the pavilions is covered in cedar shingles treated with Swedish black tar, a natural surface treatment made of 100-percent pine tar. Not only does this ancient treatment impart the look of black paint, it also acts as a natural preservative, creating a water-repellent vapor barrier that will keep the wood looking beautiful for decades on to come.

Set against the lush greenery of summer, the overall effect of the Hudson Valley cottages is subtle, but one wonders just how much the mood of the complex might change once winter arrives.

The firm’s website reads: “Since founding Thomas Phifer and Partners in 1997, Thomas Phifer has completed an expansion of the Corning Museum of Glass in Corning, New York, the United States Courthouse in Salt Lake City, Utah, the North Carolina Museum of Art in Raleigh, North Carolina, the Raymond and Susan Brochstein Pavilion at Rice University in Houston, Texas, and numerous houses in the Hudson River Valley of New York State.”

“Since 1997, Thomas Phifer and Partners has received three Design Excellence awards from the General Services Administration and more than 20 honor awards from the American Institute of Architects, as well as numerous national and international citations. His projects have been published and exhibited extensively in the United States and overseas. A monograph on the work of Thomas Phifer and Partners was released in 2010 by Skira Rizzoli.”

All photos courtesy of David Miranowski

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Set on a remote mountain field overlooking the rugged landscape, the home serves as a vacation getaway, guesthouse, and showcase project for the designer, who also owns it. Yes, Jurjen van Hulzen found the 100-year-old original structure in very poor condition when he first found it, but he felt inspired by its use of vernacular materials. Seeing it in context spurred him to take on the project, envisioning all the things it could become.

“Concrete columns and steel beams were carrying a typical Ibizan ‘sabina beam’ roof,” says the firm. “A mix of the industrial structure combined with the rustic roof formed the concept for the rest of the design: an interesting play and contrast between rustic and industrial. That’s also how it’s got the name ‘Campo Loft,’ which basically means ‘industrial open living space on the field’.”

The architects preserved the traditional building structure to remain in character with typical Ibizan architecture, mixing modern and traditional materials throughout the renovation process. They laid concrete floors, added new chalk and mud plastered stone walls, and made use of “sabina beams” from trees that only grow on Ibiza. Steel accents, like those seen in the kitchen, bring in a modern element to contrast with the older surfaces.

The architects also had to bring in modern utilities like electricity, water, and sewage, but they did so with off-grid methods, using solar panels for hot water, floor heating, and electricity. The result is a self-sustainable home that feels fresh, luxe, and organic. Van Hulzen also designed a floor plan that incorporates a large open space on the south side of the building to take advantage of the views, connecting it to a generous private terrace. The bedrooms are tucked into the north corners to keep them naturally shady and cool.

The sun-dappled kitchen connects to a dining alcove illuminated by a skylight, and the bathroom features a free-standing bath with windows that can open to the living area to give bathers views of both the fireplace and the landscape beyond. Small touches like herringbone terra cotta tile floors root the home in visuals associated with its Spanish location.

The architects add: “To finish off the design, [we] have collaborated with [our] familiar project partners: 100-percent natural beds from Coco-mat, and all the furniture, lighting, curtains, and carpets are from their partner store The Modern in Amsterdam. The urban and rough steel kitchen island with marble top is from Eginstill, and the walls have been decorated with art from gallery Vroom & Varossieau. They’ve used the bath and sink from Not Only White, and the taps and shower are designed by Piet Boon from Cocoon.”

The dreamy mountain home certainly looks like the ultimate place to rest, recharge, and luxuriate in the essence of Ibiza.

The post 100-Year-Old Shed Transformed Into a Contemporary Ibiza Home first appeared on Dornob.

When renovating old buildings for contemporary use, some architects deal with this challenge by replacing the original windows with large expanses of glazing, or by knocking down nearly all interior walls. Ivo Carew, a London-based architecture firm known for its conservation-led projects, looked toward the sky instead.

“The Bakehouse” is an airy transformation of a 19th-century brick bakery on a quiet backstreet in London’s Peckham neighborhood. You don’t get a sense that the building has changed much over the last century until you look up, taking in a new translucent glass volume poking out of the roof. The architects say their goal was to preserve the “simple unostentatious grace of the building” while renovating it into a comfortable home for a client working in the music industry.

The unapologetically modern rooftop extension is clad with glass panels that flank a defunct chimney left over from the former bakery’s operations, adding a whole new set of rooms to the original structure. The box’s cloudy glass diffuses light from the outside and draws it inward, granting the interiors a much-needed glow. It’s exterior appearance alone  presents an intriguing contrast with the warm earth tones of the aged brick around it, but the addition’s interiors look absolutely nothing like what you might imagine a Victorian bakery to be.

Starting with a material palette that would freshen up the brick without overwhelming it, the architects brought in tones of pale wood, dark limestone, Douglas fir floors, textural tiles in various shades of gray, and lots of white paint. Nearly all of the surfaces are new, though the architects did leave a brick wall exposed here and there. In line with their intentions, the result is unfussy, putting the focus on the quality of light that now streams in from spacious anodized aluminum windows.

If you can’t spot a second extension on the building from looking at the photos, then the architects have truly succeeded in their design. They intentionally used new yellow stock bricks (handmade in London) to blur the boundaries between old and new on the ground floor addition, along with a frameless square window. This extension creates an L-shaped living area comprised of a kitchen, lounge, and dining room, while stairs lead to the two upper floors.

Ivo Carew hopes the result will help temper the growth of the Peckham area during a period of rapid change. While the modest neighborhood was traditionally home to families and students in the past, the arrival of a new Campari bar, a multi-story parking garage, and a train line linking Peckham to east London have led to an influx of young professionals.

“We have designed a number of new art spaces and studios nearby and another one will be beginning shortly. These projects required converting redundant industrial buildings into dynamic spaces,” Carew told Domus. “It is really important that building projects in Peckham continue to take an idiosyncratic approach and resist large-scale commercial development. This is the best way to maintain the vitality of the area.”

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While some renovations take great pains to keep impact on the existing structures to a minimum, others forge boldly ahead with complete remodels, adding contrasting modern elements that visually highlight the passage of time. An example of the former approach might make all modern alterations temporary and removable, like a 300-year-old Japanese home wrapped in a protective extension, or virtually invisible from the road, like a rural homestead that’s sort of like the architectural version of a mullet: traditional from the front, ultramodern out back. In cases like “A Country Home in Chievo” by Italian architecture firm Studio Wok, the original structure becomes little more than an envelope containing a whole new house.

The country villa was actually not a house but a barn in its former life. Located in a rural area outside Verona near the river Adige, the building’s earthy facade offered an intriguing possibility for rebirth as a family residence that maintained traditional architectural typologies of the area with its extensive use of river pebbles and local stone. Since its interiors were almost entirely open, it was essentially a blank canvas for Studio Wok’s vision.

The architects removed the existing barn loft and stalls, adding new interior volumes along with modern energy-efficient doors and windows framed in larch wood. They reopened a large arch facing the garden “as a reminder of the site’s historical function,” focusing views on a mature magnolia tree the clients wished to preserve.

“The project’s leitmotif is a spatial and material dialogue between history and modernity, and it is also characterized by the great care taken in terms of environmental sustainability,” say the architects. “In addition to the use of technical devices and systems for efficient energy, special attention has been given to the surrounding territory and landscape in the use of materials and design choices.”

Inside, birch plywood cladding creates smooth, unfussy surfaces to complement the rugged nature of the stone and brick, defining the interior spaces and making a clear distinction between the older and newer elements of the villa. Set across three floors, the house features a full-height living room, a library with a brick fireplace, and bedrooms tucked into the new wooden volumes that appear to hang from the ceiling. Outside, the all-important magnolia offsets a gorgeous swimming pool.

“Bordered by a square black flowerbed, in contrast to the stone flooring on which the pool is set, the tree is the protagonist of the outdoor space and perfectly dialogues with the house: the shadow of its foliage is projected at sunset on the stone facade and is visible from all rooms.”

The post Italian Country Villa Gets a Stunning Modern Update first appeared on Dornob.

Kelly Wearstler

Wearstler’s universal lifestyle brand combines original designs with urbane emotional qualities. She’s known for contrasting the unrefined with the sophisticated, bonding erudition and feisty impulsiveness, and blending furniture from several different time periods. Her portfolio consists of both extravagant hotels and majestic private homes, in places from the most opulent Beverly Hills neighborhoods to the far corners of the globe.

Studio Peregalli

If history infatuates you so deeply that you literally want to surround yourself with it, Roberto Peregalli and Laura Sartori Rimini, aka Studio Peregalli, might just be your new favorite interior designers. The pair gathers bits and pieces of choice memorabilia from various eras and enlists expert artists to bring everything together and pay tribute to the past in comfortable, spellbinding style.

Stephen Sills

Using his vast understanding of design history and awesome perception of 21st-century needs, Sills is renowned for taking mundane spaces and converting them into ageless displays of cutting-edge modern design. Like an anthropologist uncovering ancient ruins, Sills studies the function, architecture, and history of the spaces he works on before planning out and executing his magic. One of his most notable projects was the renovation of the St. Regis New York.

Nate Berkus

Over the years, Berkus has gone from a friendly and engaging TV host to a heavily sought-after interior designer for the rich and famous. He’s known for his affinity for neutral colors and his incorporation of tactile materials like wicker, leather, and linen into his décor schemes.

Jean-Louis Deniot

If you feel like the only solution to your design dilemma would be actual magic, Jean-Louis Deniot is the man to call. Known for his spontaneous and ingenious ideas for transforming the mundane into the magnificent, his style can’t be described with simple adjectives like “simple” or “indulgent.” His inspiration seems to emanate from every complex niche of life while never losing focus on elegance, tranquility, and honesty.

Bill Brockschmidt and Courtney Coleman

The background of architects Bill Brockschmidt and Courtney Coleman gives them a sense of balance between space and content that’s imperative to good interior design. This artistic insight lets them artfully combine unique color schemes that are surprisingly appealing to look at. Their trained eyes also allow them to mix and match patterned wallpapers and fabrics to create roomscapes unlike any you’ve seen before — but can’t wait to see again.

Darryl Carter

Attorneys becoming interior designers isn’t exactly commonplace, but Darryl Carter made that transition better than almost anyone else. His penchant for law and order comes through in his design projects, which are most commonly characterized by no-nonsense lines and orderly, minimal color schemes. Dark wood furniture, rich neutral fabrics, and reserved accessories against matte white walls scream sophisticated manliness.

Jesse Carrier and Mara Miller

Jesse Carrier and Mara Miller are a married couple that creates unique interiors that perfectly balances modern and timeless design features. One of their rooms might reflect a no-holds-barred bohemian style, and the next be decked out in overt minimalism. Their combined tastes and talents yield décor schemes that are both welcoming and homey, with splashes of raw energy peppered throughout.

The post 8 Interior Designers to Watch in 2019 first appeared on Dornob.

White’s sculptures usually depict human entities, whether they be nymph-like women or grotesque body parts and hands. Using intricate detailing on all his pieces, White paints and styles them using mold, moss, and water droplets to give them the look and feel of weathering, deteriorated relics. He explains: “The juxtaposition of natural and man-made features, in combination with the skewing of scale, proportion, and material, helps in creating an altered perception – forcing the viewer to look closer.”

Most of White’s works stick to an earthy color palette of browns, rustic oranges, yellows, and gray concrete tones, though a seemingly out-of-place splash of color will make an appearance every now and then, such as the bright pink brain in his sculpture “Food for Thought“ or the blue and piercing gold eggs featured in “Tipping Point.” These vibrant anomalies are often placed alongside the ‘wooden’ sculptures as symbols or statements about the ways we perceive our temporary existence.

Utilizing several different sculpting techniques like molding, modelling, and casting to create different visuals and textures, White’s work perfectly reimagines the cycle of growth that both humans and nature are subjected to throughout their lives. The artist strives to convey the idea that “permanence is the ultimate illusion” and that there is actually exquisite beauty in the decaying of life — after all, death and decay are natural processes, and not always ones that should be viewed negatively.

Our everyday interactions with the natural world have the ability to change our lifespans, lifestyles, and even the things outside ourselves. White believes that even though our biological patterns are echoed all throughout the universe, we decide to create boundaries and barriers between ourselves and nature in order to feel power over the thing that actually sustains us and makes us who we are. He adds: “The repercussions from our persistent consumption are tipping the balance towards a bleak future that endangers our very survival. Given the unparalleled state of our technological and scientific achievements, it is not only possible but necessary to find a new balance that promotes a thoughtful and sustainable relationship with nature.”

In 2015, White received his Masters of Fine Arts in Craft Studies from Virginia Commonwealth University after graduating with a Bachelor’s degree in Ceramics from Indiana University in 2012. He was awarded “Most Environmentally Conscious” at INLight 2014 and has had his work featured in acclaimed publications like My Modern Met, Colossal, Juxtapose, and Beautiful/Decay.

Where Can I Find White’s Work?

White’s phantasmagorical sculptures have been showcased in international galleries and museums all around the world, including the Daejeon Museum of Art and Suwon I-Park Museum of Art in South Korea, Hartwick University’s Foreman Gallery in New York, and the Abmeyer & Wood Gallery in Seattle. You can see and read more about his creations on his official website. 

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Caspalata Restaurant in Seville has flawlessly checked all of those boxes, much to the delight of the two flourishing young restaurateurs who opened it. The duo chose the top designers at Madrid’s Lucas y Hernández-Gil to transform a former coffee shop into an upscale restaurant and cocktail bar.

Finding Inspiration

The designers quickly agreed that they wanted to take a fresh approach to the project without having the décor overshadow the quality of the dining experience. They strove to foster a distinctive, simple, alluring, tranquil, and comfortable environment that lent itself to individual interpretation. After extensive brainstorming and research, the team found inspiration in the paintings of artist Giorgio Morandi.

The Morandi Influence

Giorgio Morandi, a 20th-century still-life artist whose paintings are perhaps most famous for their tonal nuance, had a unique style that generally put vividly-colored household objects such as vases and bowls against soft backdrops. Following that fascinating color scheme, the Lucas y Hernández-Gil designers opted to create a light gray canvas on the walls and floors of Caspalata and use brightly-colored furniture and accessories to create an incredibly magnetic environment. Subtle curios in a wide range of colors are strategically placed around each room, themselves illuminated by softly glowing lights and vibrant green plants. The result is a combination that gives the restaurant a fresh, cozy ambiance in a huge pool of tranquil gray.

The Process

The design team began the project by removing the original paint from all the walls and then covering them with a smooth, thin coat of concrete. The floors were already bare concrete, though the designers did buff them to a smooth, muted finish. Next, they built a partition with a large porthole in the center that just begs to be peeked through as you pass by. The view through the porthole is of another dining room with a perfectly centered long timber table surrounded by lemon mousse-colored chairs. The petal-pink walls in here are coated with colored gypsum: a soft mineral typically used in plaster and blackboard chalk.

Other rooms pair a gray background with perforated seafoam green tables of all shapes and sizes, which themselves are complemented by cherry and salmon-colored seats. Finishing touches include oversized halo-shaped light fixtures and circular mirrors that mimic the central porthole, both of which have been scattered throughout the dining rooms. Above, exposed metal piping gives the ceiling a capricious veneer.

The Goal

Lucas y Hernández-Gil strive to create an atmosphere of elemental cohesion in all their work. In the case of the Caspalata Restaurant refurbishment, they sought to have customers enjoy the ultimate culinary experience by keeping the background in the background and letting the food take center stage, effectively “blurring the lines of the environment to focus on what is within reach.”

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The Beijing and Vienna-based architecture firm Penda argues for a new paradigm for rural living that would make everyone more self-sufficient at an individual level. With “Yin & Yang House,” a proposal for a small town in Germany, the architects suggest that anyone able to work from home should move back to the countryside and grow their own food to reduce human reliance on industrial agriculture. According to them, that still doesn’t have to mean purchasing many acres of land and becoming a part-rime farmer. Instead, we could build homes that take all of our needs into consideration, providing us with a private living space, a separate but easily accessible workspace, and a garden that could adapt to the changing seasons.

Such is the concept behind the Yin & Yang House. Two opposite but harmonious spaces interconnect with each other within a small footprint, and every available square inch of space is put to good use. These two separate parts angle in towards one another at the center of the home, creating two terraced rooftops with staircases on either side. Because platforms and planters have been built into these rooftops, they also serve as a sizable garden for the residents to utilize. The house thus becomes a landscape in its own right, full of little hills and valleys.

“Whenever architects design a building, they take an area away that used to belong to nature,” says Chris Precht, one of Penda’s co-founders. “We try to give this space back to plants on the roof. At the same time we provide a gardening system for the owners with greenhouses in winter and rows of planters for the rest of the year.”

The roof’s shape also allows it to easily capture rainwater, funneling it into storage containers for future use. On top of that, flexible greenhouses can be added to certain sections of the garden to continue growing crops during the winter. Add renewable energy like solar power into the mix, and one could very well go fully off-grid.

Penda explains that growing your own vegetables, fruits, and herbs changes your relationship to food, making its production a part of your identity. They also believe it enhances your connection to the earth itself.

“When architecture supports the way we grow our food, a house becomes more than ‘just’ a building,” says Precht. “It attracts all your senses. Nature makes the house visually appealing because it changes its look according to the seasons. Natural materials make it haptic. You can hear your house, because different animals like bees or birds become part of daily life. It has its own natural scent, based on the plants growing on the roof. And in a way you are able to eat part of the house. This sensible architecture creates a special bond to the building and it creates a personal relation.”

It’s safe to say that even with edible plants covering your entire rooftop, you wouldn’t be able to produce everything you needed to survive, but a garden space like Yin & Yang House is certainly a good place to start. Construction is scheduled to begin in the summer of 2018.

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To create such a transitory space in a colder part of the world, it seems like your walls would just have to disappear whenever you needed them to! If you’re like most people, then that sounds completely impossible to you. Even modern homes that have been equipped with sliding walls have to store them somewhere. Usually, that means overlapping the automatic walls with stationary ones or sacrificing some outdoor views. In an effort to solve this dilemma, Bergmeisterwolf Architekten has come up with a stunning alternative.

For “House F on Lake Garda,” a 250-square-meter extension of a 16th-century villa in Toscolano-Maderno, Italy, the firm created a series of sliding floor-to-ceiling windows that sink into the ground with the push of a button, turning an indoor space into a room that’s fully exposed to the elements. The design redefines what an indoor/outdoor space means by blurring the lines between the two areas more than ever before. Plus, it’s just plain fun to watch the walls in action, because they look like something out of a science-fiction film. Not bad, huh?

House F’s roof functions as a second-story terrace for the historic home and boasts an exterior staircase that leads down onto the lawn. The architects used dyed concrete “in symbiosis to the existing plastered stone facade” of the villa, contrasting modern and traditional styles in a way that isn’t too harsh or jarring. Warm wood accents brighten up the structure’s color palette and counter the roughness of the surrounding concrete. There’s a sense of harmony to the way space flows from the interiors of the original structure into those of the extension and finally out into the yard.

Outside, the rectilinear shapes of the glass-walled extension are echoed by a long and narrow lap pool, whose graduated floor gently slopes from the shallow end down to the deep. The pool reflects the sky and adds a sort of elemental balance to the lakeside lookout.

The architects describe the project as “[a]n integration of existing, new building and garden. A canopy to the house and again to the canopy. Glasses, which can be displaced downwards or disappears effect this change. Roofing, the roof at the same time developed as a terrace with an integrated exterior staircase develops as a connecting element between the garden and the garden… working with distances, and interspaces. Integrated into the garden itself, a bathing house is created, positioned between an existing limonaia wall and the 100-year-old palms.”

All photos by Gustav Willeit

The post Italian Villa Features Glass Walls That Disappear Into the Ground first appeared on Dornob.

The structure consists of a circular roof that is held up by a group of slender metal trusses at its center, not unlike a tree and its trunk. The roof sails above a set of free-standing indigo walls that were built using wooden batons. These three partitions loosely enclose the space, curving underneath the timber canopy to form an oval that matches the shape of the concrete base they rest upon. The light tones of the roof slats above contrast with the darkness of the walls underneath, creating an interesting tension between the two different treatments of timber.

In the center of the roof, an open ring allows natural light to pool into the pavilion below. On a bright day, the roof’s supporting trusses blend into the sunlight and make the entire structure look like it’s floating. Some cylindrical seats have been placed around this central ring, allowing visitors to look up at the sky and take in the elements. Since the Serpentine Pavilion is typically used as a place for gathering, a lot of architects have taken it upon themselves to incorporate its natural surroundings into their designs. Kéré’s work is just one of many to have partaken in that tradition.

The structure’s aversion toward openness and light can be found in Kéré’s other architectural works, too. Nearly every aspect of the pavilion has a certain translucency to it, from the widely-spaced timber slats on its roof to the porousness of its surrounding walls. The color contrast at play in the pavilion is magnified by all of the light allowed inside. As the day goes by, the structure almost looks as if it’s changing shape, but it’s only a clever lighting trick.

Kéré says that the blue used in his pavilion is the same color that young men in his village must wear when they go on their first dates. He explains, “In my culture blue is an important color. For a young man when you’re going to meet the dream of your life for the first time, you wear the best clothes you have. What I wanted to do here, I wanted to present myself, my architecture, in blue – it is a great place, and if you have the chance to do something like I did here you come with your best color, you show yourself from your best side. This is indigo blue.”

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A crystalline volume projects dramatically out into a historic stone plaza in Nanjing, China, creating a juxtaposition of tradition and modernity hidden away from passersby. Minggu Design’s glass addition has been worked into “Lai Yard,” a hidden gem of a building that’s been nestled in an alley near the ancient city wall for hundreds of years. In its courtyard, complex arrangements of pitted brick and stone open up to reveal a brilliant blue sky. It’s a serene retreat and a refuge from the bustle and noise of the modern world.

When Minggu began their renovation project, Lai Yard was in poor condition. Reviving the historic building to its former glory while preserving its original features and time-worn character required a great deal of care and attention to detail. The courtyard itself, in which Minggu placed their transparent meditation room and two other pseudo-classic structures, is hemmed in on all sides by the original residence.

The meditation room is a transitional space between the privacy of the home’s dimly-lit interior and its sunny outdoor courtyard. Minggu used some of the building’s original columns to frame the room’s entryway and positioned the structure to face an abundance of garden greenery, including a sparse line of bamboo stalks. In doing so, they hoped to create a spacious area that was filled with an abundance of natural light. By contrast, Lai Yard’s other rooms have been left in relative darkness to preserve their sense of privacy and practicality.

The word “lai” means “to come” in Chinese, or, more specifically, the transition from there to here. Minggu named the project “Lai Yard” to convey the shift from traditional to contemporary architecture and from the rougher, weathered conditions of the old courtyard to the clean, clear shine of its additions. In this way, the architects have successfully superimposed order onto disorganization, just as meditation can do for a busy mind or a schoolroom can do for unruly children.

While it might not have been initially planned as such, the design team was certainly pleased by all the contrasts they encountered in the home. They explain: “The interior structure is inspired by primary and secondary ranks that correspond to deep and bright colors. The two narrow rooms that are located on the left and right of the enclosed space are indented to ensure a sharp contrast to the master room in the middle. The layout of this project is decent, but also full with surprising details. Contrary elements, such as the old and the new, the interior and the exterior, the light and the dark, the conventional and the contemporary, are found to meet here, and merge into a harmony existence.”

The carefully positioned glass room allows sunlight to travel through the home’s living spaces as the day progresses, transforming them several times over as the angle and intensity of light continue to change. “Just like a couple who is in a love and hatred relationship, ‘light’ and ‘dark’ also involve nexus between worship and loathing, encourage and damage,” says Minggu. “In the darkness’ perspective, the light appears brighter and more attractive.”

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There’s no stopping the forward march of progress, and cities have to grow to keep up with the changing world, but sometimes that growth can be hard to watch. Particularly when it’s designed in the local vernacular, older architecture has sentimental value, standing as tangible reminders of decades and even centuries past and reflecting the history of a specific neighborhood.

In our modern age of rapid urbanization, streets that were once quiet residential havens can become bustling thoroughfares full of skyscrapers virtually overnight, and developers have few incentives to preserve aging structures when towering buildings full of pricey condominiums offer the biggest possible return on their investment. But for locals, seeing historic architecture disappear – especially when it represents a particular culture that has been pushed out of the neighborhood – can feel like a terrible loss.

We want our futuristic cities full of high-density solutions that curb urban sprawl, but many of us also want to see the character that makes our neighborhoods what they are preserved through all the changes. This expansion in Mexico City’s historical Colonia Condesa district is one example of how we can promote the preservation of buildings that aren’t historic enough to have protected status through the government. While most of the original structure was removed to allow for nearly 30,000 square feet of additional office space for the city’s growing population, its facade was integrated into the design of the new building.

The Sonora 113 project by Mexican architect Iñaki Echeverria rises six stories into the air from its tiny original plot, upon which the little house stood. The new structure provides workspace for creatives like interior design and architecture firms as well as advertising agencies. Taking up just 26 feet of street-facing width, the new structure wraps around the old, maintaining a restrained color palette of coated steel, glass and concrete so the beautiful facade patterns and wooden trim still shines.

The restraints of the tiny plot required the facade of the extension to be pushed out all the way to the sidewalk, which does sort of engulf the old house, making it feel boxed-in. The overall effect, then, is one of a ‘holdout house,’ known to developers as ‘spikes’ – tenacious structures that evade being demolished to make way for incongruous new projects so they end up being squeezed on all sides. The most famous example of a ‘holdout house’ is Edith Macefield’s ‘Up House’ in Seattle, which served as inspiration for the animated film of the same name.

Not all older architecture still has this much value so long after it was originally built, especially when we’re talking about all of the cheap structures that went up in the ‘70s and ’80s, but clearly this Mexico City house is unique and deserving of its place of honor on the street. Maintaining a mix of architecture from various eras makes cities more interesting, and helps ease the growing pains we often feel during rapid transitions.

The post Artful Contrast of Old & New: Traditional Facade with Modern Extension first appeared on Dornob.