“Everyone thinks of the desert as monochromatic,” says Schweitzer. “But when you look carefully, there are all these amazing colors: a vivid green lichen growing on a rock, a bright red flower, and the impossibly blue sky. This compound takes those colors and builds them at the scale of man, which is bigger than the flower, but a lot smaller than the rocks.”

The Monument House is one of many multicolored homes in the park. “Following in the footsteps of Lloyd Wright’s nearby New City of Mentalphysics, this home continues a rich tradition of experimental and radical architecture in the California high desert,” says the website for Homestead Modern, the Joshua Tree rental firm currently managing the property.

The listing follows a recent renovation of the Monument House. The home’s moss-colored building features an open plan living room with comfy but modern furniture and a bright orange fireplace, with views of the desert landscape framed by trapezoidal windows and doors on all sides. These playful geometric openings are meant to mirror the shapes of the large boulders in the surrounding park. While there’s no TV here, there are plenty of books, games, and internet access to provide entertainment.

In the blue structure, a canary yellow “chef style” kitchen has all the essentials for small gathering meal prep. The dining room is equally sunny, with a table by Roy McMakin and chairs designed by Schweitzer himself. If you’d rather eat outside, you’ll have no problem dining al fresco in the home’s red-colored outdoor gazebo, complete with a propane barbecue grill.

Come nighttime, visitors to the Monument House can stargaze around the outdoor firepit before heading inside to the solo bedroom with its plush mint king-size mattress from Tuft & Needle. Or they take a dip in the outdoor hot tub (hidden in a deck) to enjoy 360-degree views of the five-acre estate and beyond. The home also includes an electric vehicle charger for any EV-driving guests.

The property location is idyllic. Located just one mile from the entrance to Joshua Tree Nation Park, the house is easily accessible while retaining a secluded feel, standing alone against a rocky hill in a valley of boulders. It’s important to note that guests are not permitted to use the rental for any photo or film shoots without advance permission. Bookings at the historic Monument House start at $299 for a two-night minimum stay.

The post Colorful Joshua Tree Monument House is Now Available to Rent first appeared on Dornob.

Jamais Content is a unique architectural room divider solution created by Atelier Marc Ferrand and produced by Italian furniture company Bottega Ghianda. The modular system is, first and foremost, a functional bookcase with large open square-shaped shelves. But it’s also the foundation for building your own rooms-within-rooms — even rounded ones. That’s the coolest part of this kit of parts. You can assemble them to create organically shaped spaces in your desired proportions and forms.

The modular bookcase is made of individual pieces of citronnier, a type of wood sourced from Ceylon Island, along with a satin-finished brass “cross” element that acts as a decorative fastener. Small brass bolts connect the wooden elements to the crosses and to each other for stability. The wood shelves come in two different sizes, and a leather door is available as an optional add-on to create “a fascinating interplay of solids and voids.” The process is meant to be experimental. If you build something and don’t like it, or your needs change, just start over. The name, Jamais Content, translates to “never satisfied” in English.

The possibilities of this system seem virtually endless. Sure, you could create linear installations, much like you would with any other modular bookcase or room divider system, but the ability to produce rounded rooms is just too fun to resist. Imagine creating a little rounded office, reading room, meditation space, or study area for kids within your living room. As Ferrand explains, Jamais Content is architecture, enveloping and protecting like any other shelter.

Rendered in sophisticated materials with a focus on fine craftsmanship, Jamais Content is definitely a step up (okay, quite a few steps up) from IKEA. Based near Lake Como in Italy, Bottega Ghianda is a leader in Italian cabinetmaking known for its expertise with wood. That 200-year-old reputation shines through in this piece.

About Atelier Marc Ferrand

As the designer’s website explains: “The work of Marc Ferrand, nourished by minimalist forms, is characterized by a reflection on the temporal nature of matter and its relationship to architecture, creating a design that evolves with time and each imagination. A designer who graduated from the École Bleue (Paris, 2006), Marc Ferrand became the same year a collaborator with the Japanese architect Shigeru Ban, for whom he was responsible for the design of nomadic and temporary architectures.”

“In this capacity, he was notably in charge of the Hermès Pavilion in Milan, the Shiseido Pavilion for the Venice Biennale of Arts, and the Paper Tower for the London Design Festival. Atelier Marc Ferrand develops industrial design projects with international publishers, designs reconstruction projects, and pursues research on forms and their relationship to the body and architecture.”

The post Modular Bookcase System Lets You Build Endless 3D Storage Structures first appeared on Dornob.

There’s nothing conventional about this second-floor addition to a compact house in the Babylon area of Long Island, New York. Not only does it flout the very modest conventional styling of the existing home, it looks like an entirely different home was just plopped right on top of it. That effect is intentional. The architects didn’t want the home to simply blend in, but rather offer a contrast of past and present, both visually and programmatically. While the original home is clad in light gray vinyl siding, the addition features thick stucco exterior walls. The two volumes are merged together by a splash of pale pink tiling flowing across the facade.

The client didn’t care much about resale value, opening up the potential for the architects to experiment. Instead, he asked them to update the original layout of the existing home and draw down some of the new features to create visual transitions, like a bold sculptural yellow staircase. The circular form of the staircase is echoed by the curves of the addition, including its street-facing facade.

“This prompt set the stage for a design process rooted in extensive research into the cultural history and architectural taxonomy of the surrounding suburban neighborhoods,” the architects explain. “In particular, co-principals Orsini and Roseboro were interested in the home’s proximity to Levittown, NY, a suburban development archetypal of the relationship between race, inequality, and housing in America, in which segregation was embedded in its formation through exclusionary contracts and redlining.”

The firm adds: “In Levittown, African Americans and indigenous communities could not access sales contracts by specific prescription of the Levitt & Sons Company; this was true of similar developments across suburban America and their surrounding neighborhoods. Further inherent in the typology were architectural features and layouts that fostered the isolation and introversion of the nuclear family, rather than the community.”

The original home’s design was identified as mimicking that of the standardized homes made popular by Levittown, which emphasized conformity and a lack of flexibility. The architects identified architectural elements like windows, porches, and roofs that are often found on these suburban homes and “hacked” them to simultaneously reference the neighborhood’s architectural history and defy it.

While most suburban homes are concerned with privacy, the client wanted to challenge those norms, creating big open cut-outs and and terraces that don’t attempt to hide from the prying eyes of strangers. He also requested that the architects eliminate the typical suburban separation of bedroom and bathroom in the upstairs suite.

“House on House” may not be for everyone, but that’s the point. The project questions whether seeing more expressions of personal tastes and preferences in the architecture around us could inspire more people to appreciate the little differences that make us who we are.

The post House on House: An Experimental Way to Expand a Suburban Residence first appeared on Dornob.

Nicholas and Stanley spent every weekend working on the house over the course of 15 years, making use of found and recycled materials and allowing their plans to grow and change as they went. Today, the home looks nothing like the cottage it once was, or like any other house on the street. It’s entirely unique. And while the jagged black exterior isn’t for everyone, it suits them perfectly, and it’s more welcoming inside than you might imagine.

“We changed so much from when we started at the age of 25 to when we finished at the age of 40,” Stanley told Dwell. “By being hands on and playing around with ideas, we came up with a lot of stuff that we wouldn’t have if we were sitting at the drawing board and pushing to get things done quickly. And, as young architects, getting your hands dirty is the best way to learn.”

Collecting materials from warehouses and country yard sales, the couple began adding vertical exterior cladding made of Oregon timber beams. They staggered the heights of each board to mimic the way a city skyline rises and falls. It also extends higher than the actual roofline, providing enough privacy for a rooftop bath. They kept the gabled form and scale of the original home but opened and expanded it, creating new nooks and crannies both inside and out. The gable shape is echoed with a pergola on the rear facade. Zig-zag shapes along the exterior walls create space for large expanses of windows without sacrificing privacy.

Inside, the jagged black motif is repeated, and black is used to anchor many interior elements within an airy, light-filled space that’s otherwise painted white. This color palette, plus the incorporation of materials like a welded steel framework to which they attach elements like hammocks, gives the former cottage an industrial feel. Over the years, some mezzanine areas that were open have been partially enclosed to create newly private rooms, while low ceilings were eliminated. But the entire home maintains an open traffic pattern, with most rooms, including bathrooms, flowing into each other without doors.

Believe it or not, after all that, the couple decided they were ready for something new altogether. They put their one-of-a-kind home on the market and purchased a new property on the same street in order to start their creative process all over again.

The post Splinter Society Gives a Melbourne Home a Spiky Black Makeover first appeared on Dornob.

The answer was something unique. “A place where the cuisine is based on the Italian virtues and combines them with the Japanese. It does not exist in Denmark. Both kitchens focus on simple, good ingredients and don’t combine a whole lot of different flavors — they keep it simple,” explained Andrea Calducci, Head Chef of the new Restaurant Levi, in an interview with European media.

Calducci, a renowned chef who has run prestigious restaurants in Shanghai, London, and Dubai, was persuaded to come to Denmark by Restaurant Levi founders Jesper Boelskifte and Peter Trauboth. They named their new place, built out of a former parking garage, after their muse, famed Italian grappa master Romano Levi.

“Romano Levi managed to create his very own universe, where both the product and the packaging were completely unique,” the owners say on their website. “That’s what we strive for with Levi. We want to make something completely clean and personal — a restaurant and a kitchen that doesn’t hide behind anything.”

The fusion of Japanese and Italian food is meant to be a seductive surprise with every visit. “Every time we (re)visit the honest and simple Italian cuisine, we are overwhelmed by how little it takes to create an irresistible taste. At the same time, we are captivated by the elegance and constant balancing on a knife edge that we find in Japanese cuisine. We are thrilled by the exotic ingredients and the many unexpected flavors,” the website explains. “When our chefs pull on the apron, they are forced to experiment in the meeting between the two approaches. Thus, the weekly menu at Restaurant Levi is the result of a constant search and curiosity that characterizes our kitchen.”

The company’s Instagram feed highlights pictures of dishes like pasta covered in crispy octopus, lamb, and artichoke in a salty Japanese broth, and fine cuts of wagyu beef over risotto.

The bistro’s interior design was crafted by restaurant partner Johannes Torpe with an eye towards the warmth and comfort of old Italy and the sophistication of Japan. The color scheme of jade green and natural wood is soothing and sumptuous. The custom banquettes curve around the restaurant, flanked by window views of the bicycle-lined avenue of inner-city Copenhagen. The green-swirled marble countertops and the terrazzo floors bring in extra Italian flair. Public reception has also been overwhelmingly positive. Since its opening in March, Restaurant Levi has boasted fully booked weekends.

“The future of the Danish gastronomic scene is bright. Copenhagen is — rightly so — among the most hyped food cities in the world, and so it will continue,” adds Jesper Boelskift. “In the run-up to the coronavirus pandemic, we [were] once again seeing a resurgence of new places and new concepts. The lockdown was tough, but it also gave room for new thoughts and ideas. We also felt that it gave time and space for the development of our restaurant, which is why today we stand here with Levi.”

The post Copenhagen’s Restaurant Levi is Fusion Food at Its Finest first appeared on Dornob.

Rammed earth buildings can be found all over the world, but they’re usually medium to large in size. Have you ever heard of anyone using this alternative building method to craft a tiny house? Architects Merve nur Başer, Aslı Erdem, and Fatma Zeyneb Önsiper did just that with “The Rammed Earth House,” designed for the grassy flatlands of Dobrava, Slovenia.

Created as part of an architecture competition, the design concept is unusual in a few ways. It consists not just of rammed earth walls, but also a rammed earth roof, which is itself protected by a secondary green roof that shades it. Stretching out past the dimensions of the rammed earth peak beneath it, this secondary timber roof is pitched to let in winter sunlight on the south facade, where solar panels are located.

“The traditional form with the pitched roofs and windows expanding from those, is reinterpreted in a new way by experimenting with the rammed earth material,” the architects explain. “We aimed to use rammed earth material as much as possible in the design and wanted to create a holistic approach by building the house with rammed earth from the ground to the roof. We intended to merge traditional and modern by trying experimental forms and materials.”

Inside, an open plan with large triangular windows makes the home feel surprisingly spacious given its limited footprint. Rammed earth walls tend to be quite wide, and in this case they provide both a warm, comforting ambiance and deep window ledges that double as seats. The fireplace is in the northwest corner and has few windows to minimize heat loss in winter. The kitchen, living area, and fireplace are all visible from the lofted bedroom, where occupants can also watch the stars or the sunset.

The project was inspired by the team’s admiration for the seemingly “levitating” roof designed by Slovenian architect Oton Jugovec. The Dobrava Floating Roof reduces shelter to its most minimalist form, consisting of just a roof supported by two pillars. Jugovec himself drew from the influences of traditional Slovenian hay racks found throughout the countryside.

The Rammed Earth House ultimately puts a contemporary spin on these vernacular aesthetics while achieving natural passive heating, cross ventilation, solar electricity, and rainwater collection and reuse. Set on a concrete foundation, it features a wrap-around oak deck and a pass-through to the kitchen for seasonal outdoor living. The lush green roof disguises it from above and mimics the feel of a tree’s canopy, integrating the structure with the surrounding forest.

The post The Roof of This Rammed Earth Tiny House Feels Like a Leafy Canopy first appeared on Dornob.

GRNDCNTRL is envisioned as a “Shanghai nightlife cultural center” that inspires people to see and be seen, putting on sartorial displays that rival Manhattan’s Studio 54 in its heyday. While the underground aesthetic emphasizes a sense of being hidden and secretive, with DJs tucked into dark corner booths, GRNDCNTRL arranges multiple levels of booths around a large open area. Wenqiang was inspired by the way ancient Greeks built theaters on hillsides so audiences can sit on stone chairs overlooking circular performance areas. From the moment guests walk in, they’re drawn into what feels like an entirely different reality. The visuals are a little surreal, with bright white lines of light cutting across a dark multi-level space.

“Art does not examine known reality, but seeks the truth of ideals,” says Wenqiang. “The entrance reveals an avant-garde, experimental, and immersive ambience, evoking vivid imaginations and taking people to a surreal world full of mysterious light and shadows.The wall decorations adopt a balanced composition, featuring the style of stage setting. A sequence of symmetrical, curved lighting installations draw on the deep, long lane form of local antique Shikumen buildings, with lines and rhythms guiding experiential circulations and extending inward.”

Leather, steel, brass, and jade accents contrast the field of black, which is itself multiplied by mirrors on almost every wall. “In order to balance the non-reflective and reflective black materials, all the stitching and structural closure became the biggest problem,” Wenqiang notes. The strips of LED lighting define the space and blur its edges at the same time, making it unclear which spaces are real and which are mere reflections. A bar lined with beautifully patterned jade and a central column clad in black mirrored stainless steel become visual anchors in the larger performance area, with its nearly 30-foot ceilings. A band of LED screens behind the lifted DJ booth can be raised and lowered to add additional ambiance.

This big hall “features the hip-hop music style with a strong sense of artistry and technology,” while the smaller hall is inspired by house and techno music with immersive lighting and shadows to create “a film-like retro atmosphere.” Lounges with mirrored ceilings visually echo the ever-changing and shifting lighting patterns so guests almost feel like they’re in a video game. The restrooms are a little more grounded, meant to provide a “backstage” respite from the lights and music.

Whether the design inspires clubbers to recreate the exclusive exhibitionist atmosphere of Studio 54 remains to be seen, but it will certainly take them on a journey.

The post TRON Meets Ancient Greece at Shanghai’s GRNDCNTRL Nightclub first appeared on Dornob.

Mousarris Design Studio cut fabric-covered foam into interlocking puzzle pieces that can be fit into a wall frame or pulled down and stacked on top of one another to create avant-garde “sofas.” Strong magnets within the furniture keep it from shifting with weight and also allow the units to attach back to the wall when being put away.

The Summit Sofa’s seven pieces can be arranged in dozens of configurations, and the website even encourages users to transform them into a “play area for you and your friends.” Admittedly, the connected shapes probably don’t have the same comfort and repose value of a traditional sofa, but they are robust enough to provide additional seating for short-term gatherings.

While the foam sections are in use, the wall frame reveals a navy background intersected with white wavy outlines. It serves not only as art itself (resembling overlapping mountain ranges), but as a template of where to replace the pieces when done.

The Cyprus-based furniture company was founded in 2015 by industrial engineer Stelios Mousarris with the intention “to produce high-quality pieces of conceptual furniture and unique objects beyond the boundaries of the imagination.” His bachelor’s degree in modelmaking frequently comes into play in his sculptural creations.

Mousarris has experimented with the boundary between art and furniture from the beginning of his career. His Wave City coffee table takes the folding cityscapes from the hit 2010 movie Inception and rolls them into a living room conversation piece. The precariously balanced, gravity-defying shape of the table simultaneously produces feelings of awe and uneasiness. It turns out that so many people are okay with that emotional contradiction that the price of the coffee table has jumped a whopping €3,000 in the past five years, leading the company to produce an accompanying “Wave City Bar.”

Mousarris is also known for his Carpet Chair, a handmade seat constructed from traditional Persian rugs in a way that “gives the illusion of a magic carpet floating in the air.” Each chair takes four months to complete and looks like it could never hold any weight but is actually surprisingly sturdy.

The designer’s more recent Zen Kusshion looks convincingly like a large boulder placed in the middle of rippling pool. But this stone gives way to soft comfort, offering a great seat for relaxation and finding a zen state of mind.

The company website also says that a collection of Mousarris’ work “can be found proudly displayed permanently at the Louvre museum’s 21st-century design wing” and has been published in three different books.

The new Summit Sofa is selling on the company site for €3,400. While no specifics were given for this design, Mousarris’ furniture is often produced in limited editions of 25 or less due to its unique nature, so this puzzling seating may not last long.

The post Mousarris Design Studio’s Summit Sofa Turns into Wall Art for Easy Storage first appeared on Dornob.

In fact, there’s now such a huge selection of strange Chinese buildings to choose from, Archy.com started an annual Ugliest Building Survey, and its 12th annual contest has a whopping 87 contenders in the running. That number may dwindle in the years to come, since President Xi Jinping issued a government directive calling for an end to “oversized, xenocentric, weird” projects, and that’s part of the point of the contest. The organizers hope pointing out ugly architecture will “promote architects’ social responsibility” and cut back on wastefulness.

Voting is open until December, when a commission of architects will select the final 10 winners. Here are some of the projects currently in the lead:

Donping Poly Plaza, Foshan, Guangdong

Nobody really wants a big imposing building in their city to look sort of like a modernized Eye of Sauron, do they? Incorporating a four-story atrium with a flying staircase design, a basement level, and four towers, this complex is supposed to be a lively gathering place for residents of Foshan New City. The reasons Archy listed for nominating this project include “extremely inharmonious with the surrounding environment and natural conditions,” “idolizes Western culture,” and “weird and vulgar.” Voters mostly just think it’s depressing.

Xi’an International Children’s Art Museum, Shanghai

Some people think this school inspired by the “Arabian Magic Carpet” is cute and fitting for its purpose, with its undulating roof and facade full of round cut-outs. Others seem to be experiencing a touch of trypophobia (fear of holes). It has been called “really psychologically uncomfortable,” “disgusting,” “vulgar” and even “secret terrorism.” One voter wrote of the building’s pale beige curves and orifices, “it’s like a breathing monster composed entirely of flesh and blood.”

Glass Bridge Tower of Jiuhuanghsan Mountain in Mianyang, Sichuan

Something about the monumental figures standing on either end of this glass bridge in the Jiuhuangshan Scenic Area seems to make it extra terrifying for many onlookers. Comments include “Really insulted the beauty of this mountain,” “nightmare-inducing,” and “don’t look at me, I’m afraid.”

Hainan Danzhou Hengdahaihua Island Complex

There are so many outlandish structures on this series of three manmade tourist islands that the Ugly Buildings contest organizers couldn’t choose – they just lumped them all together as one big anger-inducing mass. “This is the garbage dump,” wrote one voter. “A game of capital, making a pile of rubbish, what a bad thing to do with this money,” wrote another.

Violin Church, Yanbu, Foshan, Guangdong

This local church isn’t even the only violin-shaped building in China, but locals hate its garishness, its overuse of concrete, its high cost, and the way it has apparently overshadowed more demure adjacent buildings. It was nominated because “the function of the building is extremely unreasonable.” Fair enough.

South Gate of Zijingang Campus, Zhejiang University

You might be surprised to learn that this comparatively tame-looking structure has earned the most votes by far. But Chinese voters are annoyed that such a high-cost, high-profile project is both painful to look at and dysfunctional. Apparently, the unnecessarily extravagant gate impedes both vehicular and pedestrian traffic, forcing everyone to stare at it even longer while they’re stuck in the area. “When the design plan came out, the teachers and students in the school objected to the curse,” wrote one voter.

The post China’s Ugliest Buildings Contest Shames the Wasteful and Distasteful first appeared on Dornob.

Commissioned by the tiny home startup Bambau and designed by architecture studio Precht, “Bert” is an imaginative modular home that can sprout up vertically as well as horizontally in the form of additional prefabricated rooms and stairwells. The layout of the home mimics that of a tree, with its upward movement and ability to branch out.

For inspiration for their build, studio co-founders Chris and Fei Tang Precht tried to get inside the mind of a child. “As architects, no matter if young or old, we have an inner child that looks at the world with playfulness and curiosity,” says co-founder Fei Tang Precht, adding that “that curiosity makes us want to explore, experiment, and create. That same curiosity gave birth to Bert.”

They even used elements from children’s entertainment within their creation. “We are fully aware that architecture is this serious and profound craft with a long culture and tradition. You see that when we architects find reference for our projects in art, philosophy, literature, or nature,” says Chris Precht. “For this project, we also looked at art to find reference. But not at Michelangelo or Dali. Rather we looked at cartoon characters of Sesame Street or Minions.”

The name even came from the Sesame Street character Bert, beloved for his long, cylindrical head, while the structure’s round, oversized windows were intended to look a bit like the one-eyed minions from the Despicable Me film series.

“We took a playful look at this project and wanted to create a rather unique character than a conventional building,” adds Chris, “a quirky looking character that becomes part of the wildlife of a forest. I think this quirkiness can create feelings and emotions. And maybe these are attributes in architecture that are missing these days.”

The treehouse begins like any sturdy sapling, building its foundation into the ground with a circular base. Then “the trunk” of the edifice begins to grow, with tube-shaped units like kitchens, living rooms, and bathrooms being stacked on top of each other or creating new horizontal limbs.

Constructed from wood, the exterior is covered in leaf-shaped shingles to give the treehouse an element of camouflage in the forest. Inside, dark fabrics keep the home cozy and hold in the heat. If an off-grid system is required or desired, Bert can be fitted with solar panels on the roof and a composting toilet and water treatment facility can be built into the ground floor. Alternate plans are available for Bert in less forested regions, too, as it can be fabricated from steel instead of wood.

Studio Precht, based out of mountains of Austria, continually tries to build distinctive, climate appropriate, and culturally defining structures. They disdain the “International Style” of buildings made of concrete and steel that are essentially “a copy of a copy of a copy” and make cities look indistinguishable from each other.

Chris and Fei “know that buildings like Bert are not the path forward on a big scale, but [we] think as an industry, we need to dare more, try more, and experiment more towards a more diverse future of our cities.”

The post Bert Modular Treehouse Can “Grow” Like the Forest Around It first appeared on Dornob.

Commissioned by a doctor for his two adult daughters, these bold residences are set within Torrazza Piemonte, a neighborhood which principal architect Stefano Pujatti calls “cookie-cutter.” Aerial photos back this up, especially on this particular block. Behind the houses sits a row of near-identical homes in contemporary Italian suburban style, with typical gabled shapes and terracotta roof tiles. Pujatti’s designs are more siblings than twins: composed of mostly the same shapes and materials, but clearly individuals, one more linear and orderly than the other.

To come up with these shapes, Pujatti started with a stack of business cards, cutting slits into them to arrange them into house-like shapes. He was inspired by another project his firm completed back in 2013 in a Sardinian quarry, where the clients asked the firm to invent a new way of using granite that was precision-cut with wire saws. What if, like these cards, he used slabs of this heavy and durable yet breathable material to construct dwellings? Elastico Farm experimented with using the material for load-bearing walls without losing a sense of sculptural expression.

The architects pieced the granite slabs together with prefabricated concrete panels using interlocking cuts, a technique that allowed for both quick assembly and creative arrangements. The granite is naturally resistant to compression and flexure, like reinforced concrete, enabling it to be used as enormous monolithic load-bearing elements. Metal pins hold the slabs together, and timber panels bring in a little warmth and softness.

Pujatti designed each residence, which he calls “Cat House” and “Dog House,” with its own individual formal logic. One is more orderly, the other more dynamic. “Cat House” was an experiment in using orthogonal joints, which the firm ultimately found to have seismic vulnerabilities. They added bracing steel reinforcements to boost its resistance to tremors. “Dog House” is arranged radially around a central patio, giving it a higher seismic rating, so it didn’t need any bracing. The open courtyard brings daylight into the depths of the home, making it brighter than the other.

Inside, the dry-fit panels slot together into each room for a playful effect that looks something like a child’s toy project. The natural texture and pattern of the granite and concrete become an essential part of the interior decor, and the project as whole proves that we could do with a lot more experimentation in contemporary architecture to break up the same old cookie-cutter structures seen all over the world.

The post Houses of Cards: Ultramodern Granite Duo Shake Up the Status Quo in an Italian Neighborhood first appeared on Dornob.

The site, formerly owned by the Assistance League of Southern California, was special in the first place. Its primary structure is a classic Neocolonial building designed by Paul Williams (the first recognized Black architect to work in Los Angeles), which the firm renovated for the project. It’s now used as the main entrance for the co-working campus and its largest indoor space, featuring a café, bar, restaurant, event and conference hall, resting areas, terraces, and 200 workspaces. A second building on the lot was demolished to make way for 60 new oval-shaped single-story offices and meeting rooms.

It’s these pods that make the site so unique. Not only are they scattered among palm trees and tropical greenery, but they’re also ringed in glass to offer 360-degree views of the gardens. Birds of Paradise, ficus, ferns, and other plants double as privacy screens for the people working in each individual office pod. The architects envision these workspaces, capable of hosting 700 people, as oversized plant pots. They sit on top of an existing underground parking facility and are nestled into a four-foot layer of soil atop the concrete slab, creating a sunken effect.

The effect is remarkably relaxing for a workspace, and seems true to Second Home’s claims that it’s the healthiest place to work in the entire city. If you prefer to work in the open air, you can do that too at any number of open tables, benches, and loungers sprinkled throughout the campus. The vivid yellow hue of the office pods makes the whole place feel cheerful, and that mood continues into the indoor communal spaces, which are also full of greenery.

The site is the first American location for Second Home, a London-based co-working company, and opened in September 2019. Not the best timing for a communal workspace, considering what came to pass in the following year. But while many other co-working companies hemorrhaged cash during the pandemic, unable to pack their facilities full of busy workers, Second Home Hollywood was able to continue functioning more or less as usual. Each pod is individually ventilated and has windows that open. The design could serve as a blueprint for similarly healthy office spaces in our post-pandemic future, though of course it might have to be modified for colder climates.

“How architecture relates with the environment is crucial to our well-being,” says Diego Cano-Lasso, a partner at Selgascano, in an interview with the Los Angeles Times. “One of the best aspects of living in L.A. is to be able to open a door and be surrounded by nature. That close relationship with the good weather, hummingbirds and flowers is lost if you have stairs, elevators, or corridors in the way. The goal was to work in a garden, where you can be indoors but the outdoors is just a door away.”

The post Selgascano’s Second Home Hollywood is an Experimental Outdoor Office Packed with Plants first appeared on Dornob.

In the search for new ways to power cars with less reliance on fossil fuels, car manufacturers are investing in their R&D departments to generate new battery and engine designs. With the Sián, Lamborghini is trying out a variation on the bulkier, slower charging lithium ion batteries that currently dominate the market.

The solution with which they’re experimenting is supercapacitors. With a name like that, it’s a natural choice for supercars. One advantage of supercapacitors is that they weigh about one-third as much as a traditional battery. That’s a win off the starting line when calculating weight distribution. Located behind the seats at the front of the Sián’s engine, the supercapacitor is accessible without being noticeable.

The second, and critical, feature of supercapacitors is the way they transfer power. In contrast to batteries that charge very slowly and then hold it steadily, capacitors fill with power fast and release it quickly. The capacitor mechanism is completely different from a traditional battery. Think of it as two metal plates with energy in between them. The magnetic energy repels the plates, keeping them separate. Drawing on the basic design of a normal capacitor, supercapacitors offer plates that can absorb more energy, allowing for efficient energy storage. The space between the plates is also more efficient—you might say “super” efficient.

Weight and power are both great reasons for the Sián to use the supercapacitor technology, but we are talking about a hybrid here, so the discussion has to include sustainability. Unlike other car batteries, supercapacitors don’t contain harmful chemicals or toxic metals that are difficult to dispose of. Plus, in contrast to batteries that degrade over time, supercapacitors can be charged and discharged almost infinitely. That means basically no battery waste, a potentially major environmental benefit.

Of course, Lamborghini isn’t looking to directly compete with commercial electric or hybrids, since most people aren’t in the $2 million car market. Instead, their goal is incorporate the benefits of electric power into the world of supercars. Like many electric cars, the Sián produces energy while braking. During acceleration, it practically erupts, delivering the blast of power high-performance drivers expect. While the V12 engine still does the majority of the work, the hybrid components help the Sián explode from zero to sixty in just under three seconds and hit top speeds of 217 mph.

Electric car enthusiasts might note that these specs can’t compete with the upcoming Tesla Roadster, which can make 0-60 in just over two seconds and reach a top speed of 250 mph, all for a price tag of just $200,000—ten times less than the Sián. The extra $1.8 million seems like an awful lot to pay for a flashy exterior design masking inferior performance, though that may not be an impediment for die hard, wealthy Lambo fans.

Supercapacitors offer some promise, but they’re a long way from the mass market. They’re expensive, and with their short energy retention, they can’t power the Sián—or any other car—without help from another power source. Lamborghini is working with the experts at M.I.T. to expand the capabilities and possibly create the first electric supercar sometime down the road.

The post Lamborghini Hits the Hybrid Car Market with Innovative Supercar Sián first appeared on Dornob.

These changes rarely happen without comment from society. Fashion used to instigate uprisings and outrage, from the flapper dresses of the 1920s to the women’s trousers of the 30s, the wild zoot suits of the 40s and 50s, the denim jeans and daring miniskirts of the 60s, and the gaudy flower-powered fashions of the 70s. But that doesn’t stop designers from coming up with some of the weirdest clothes and accessories imaginable—nor does it stop at least a few people from trying them out.

Here are just a few outrageous styles you might see on the streets (or at least at the beach) sometime in the near future:

Velvet Swimwear

Velvet has long been reserved for special occasions, but it’s now making a splash as the “it” fabric for swimwear. The silhouette of each velvet swimsuit may vary, from classic one-piece styles to strappy bikinis. If you thought velvet teddies were daring, hang on to your pearls, because this bathing suit trend is certainly hot.

Harness Shorts

The exact advantage of these “shorts,” may be in question, but that’s a moot point when it comes to fashion. High-waists are in vogue right now, and these shorts also have cutouts on all sides. Even the leanest body will curve out a bit under the fabric, accentuating its humanity. Maybe “Bulges Are Beautiful” will be the new runway mantra!

Ultra Narrow Bodysuits

For under $25, you can pick up a garment with hints of both lingerie and sportswear. Some people find them uncomfortable, but others love the freedom of motion and the daring lines. These garments can be great in hotter weather, and fit naturally into the trend of wearing body suits in combination with some comfy pants, playing with our perception of the line between public and private.

Jeans with Mesh Sides

The fashionable high waist of these jeans makes them a cool power piece, while the sparkly, see-through sides convey a youthful exuberance. Expect to see designers find increasingly creative ways to incorporate layered visibility into their styles.

Transparent Garments

This trend takes that instinct to its natural extreme—full visibility. As cultural confidence grows, clear hats and jackets are giving way to shirts and even pants made from transparent materials, for a look that says “I love my body, and I do things my own way.”

Gridline Pants

These leg-shaped frames are made of tiny strips of fake leather. Their deconstructed design has an industrial, post-modern feel, revealing rather than covering the shapes of the human beneath. Like the other items here, they make a bold statement about the confidence of the person wearing them, and hint at expectations that the world will get even warmer in the years ahead.

The post Prepare Yourself For Extreme Body Positive Fashion first appeared on Dornob.

The nine-piece “Little Creatives” collection is designed to promote creativity in a child’s home environment, incorporating sweet pastels and prints in a line that stays true to the brand’s overall aesthetic. You won’t find any plastic chairs, primary colors, or clunky silhouettes here — it’s all just as sleek and elegant as the rest of the Swoon offerings.

Produced in collaboration with Studio Tilt, “Little Creatives” includes the Hunter Craft Trolley, Emmeline Chair, Freddie Desk, Harri Toy Box, Fynne Drawing Tray Table, Ailya Coat Rack, and more, with four of the pieces named after the kids who inspired the ideas. They’re all fun and creative, and unlike most kids furniture, they fit right in with modern interior decor.

“It has been a really fun collaborative process, bringing these ideas and designs to life with the help of the children,” says Sam Baldry, Swoon’s Head of Design. “We believe that the importance of creativity will only grow, so it is essential to nature creative thinking at a young age. We hope these pieces will encourage parents and children to do just that at home.”

“The idea to curate and co-design with children was to focus on the theme of creativity, to both excite and include children but also to engage in the debate about creativity in the education of young people,” says Oliver Marlow, co-founder of Studio Tilt. “We wanted the ideas and experiences of the young people to come alive in the products they created, and to excite and delight other children, too, as part of the range.”

“It’s the first of its kind in children’s furniture, and we’re thrilled to be a part of it. The quality of the pieces is testament to the insight and creativity of children.”

Pieces in the Little Creatives collection range from £49 to £249, and will be available on Swoon’s website from September 16th on.

Swoon began when Debbie Williamson found herself wishing all the high-end furniture she lusted over wasn’t so expensive — and that it was easier to order on the internet. She quickly realized the furniture market was open for a lot of reinvention, starting a company that provided great value, free delivery, and free returns.

Swoon’s business model deviates from the traditional furniture industry in other ways, too. Instead of releasing new collections twice a year, the brand has a design cycle every month so they can refresh their selections almost constantly. They use an experimental testing model, too, producing small batches to see what’s popular and then scaling up production on the most successful items.

Five new products debut on the Swoon website each and every day, and they often go fast, so if you see something you like, better snag it while it’s hot!

The post Swoon Launches First-Ever Line of Kids Furniture first appeared on Dornob.

Does furniture have to be comfortable, or even functional, to be worth creating? Most people would say yes, but perhaps the answer depends upon your perspective on the line between art and design. Good art aims to provoke an emotional response, or at least an intellectual inquiry, and design is supposed to be useful. But sometimes that line is blurred.

Copenhagen-based artists Lea Hein and Magnus Pettersen, working together as Pettersen & Hein, love to play with that liminal space. Their collections of strange furniture are unquestionably beautiful, and from some angles, you might see them as functional objects. From others, they look like gallery pieces that should never, under any circumstances, actually be sat upon or used.

The pair asks: “What happens when design is no longer comprised by function but longs for the aesthetic and ethical freedom of art? American artist Richard Artschwager once said, ‘If you sit on it, it’s a chair. If you walk around it and look at it, it’s a sculpture’.”

“Some objects [accommodate] different ways of living and using a space by paying homage to materials, color, and form rather than functional use, thereby taking on a clear unique, bold position, the end-result often being intriguing and extraordinary. When boundaries between design and art are effaced, [the] potential for magic occurs.”

It’s not hard to see that magic in their work. Hein is a furniture designer, and Pettersen is an artist specializing in concrete sculptures. The objects they create are recognizable as lamps, tables, vases, and chaise lounges, but there’s something charmingly unique about each one.

Some, for instance, have faces. Some look like they might serve some sort of arcane purpose known only to a select few. Some are just more fun than average, like a full-length mirror that flows down onto the floor. But they also take mundane items a few steps further than they have to, expanding upon them and embellishing them in a fresh and creative way.

Many of Pettersen and Hein’s boldest designs are from their 2017 collection “Home,” including a set of anthropomorphic tables and wavy mirrors. They said they wanted that furniture to feel psychedelic and alive, representing “who you are both physically and mentally.”

Ultimately, what you get feels like more than you bargained for, but in a good way. Each individual piece is both an eye-catcher and a conversation starter, grand enough to put on a pedestal and illuminate as the focal point of a room.

Pettersen and Hein are arguably at the forefront of a new wave of Danish modern design — one that feels rooted firmly in the 21st century. The recognizable style of their collaborative work is instantly iconic.

“To place yourself outside a category creates new potential,” says Hein in an interview with Disegno. “When working in the space between art and design, you are free from restrictions, [and] there are no rules. Having fewer limitations allows you to work experimentally. It is really exciting to take things from one context and put them in another because you see things in new ways. I think it is about refining and transforming something boring and industrial into something that is more poetic.”

The post Design Duo Specializes in Making the Weirdest Possible Furniture first appeared on Dornob.