That may all be true, but as the open office trend has grown, so has an entire industry of products designed to correct all of the problems they present for employees who struggle to focus, hear one another, and enjoy any measure of privacy in their distraction-riddled environments.

Sound-dampening privacy pods provide a compromise between the new open office ethos and hallways lined with separate enclosed rooms for each employee. Enter the headquarters of just about any large company today, and what you’ll see is almost certainly a wide open space filled with modular pods designed for small meetings or solitary concentration.

At an office like AirBnb’s San Francisco headquarters, these “pods” might actually take the shape of padded illuminated niches cut into a giant wooden “ship” or house-shaped booths for private phone calls, but you don’t have to have the budget of a multi-billion-dollar corporation to make the concept work for your space.

The “Planet for Two” by Ukrainian design duo MZPA is a portable solution that can be placed in any open space for instant privacy, and it’s cool-looking, too. Built to fit two people (as its name suggests), this geodesic meeting room is made from connected triangles of plywood, powder-coated metal connectors, and a plush fabric mattress in customizable colors. It’s based on a previous design called “The Planet,” which itself accommodates a single user.

The designers envision both of these geometric pods as multipurpose rooms-within-rooms that can be used for meetings, lounging, brainstorming, phone calls, or even in place of a desk for employees who work more efficiently in less open environments. Communication is key in any business, they note, and while open office plans seem like they should foster more of it, too much noise and activity can make people feel like they have to shout over each other to be heard, worsening the problem.

Available for delivery anywhere in the world, the Planet for Two retails for $5,700 and comes with a built-in LED lamp, speaker system, USB charging port for electronic devices, and even a few optional solar panels so you can place it outdoors if you like. It’s easy to imagine these pods fitting right into places like airports, cafés, and college campuses.

“It’s great for moments when you need to stay alone, gather your thoughts and focus, and have a cup of coffee,” say designers Julia Kononenko and Artem Zakharchenko.

More than anything, pods like the “Planet for Two” demonstrate the need for offices to remain flexible to both the diverse needs of staff and changing trends in office interior design. Give your employees enough privacy and quiet, and they might not have to resort to such desperate tactics as noise-cancelling helmets that look like a joke from a comedy set in outer space.

The post Planet for Two: Expanding Geodesic Pod Offers a Cozy Soundproofed Refuge 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.

This colorful Ho Chi Minh City apartment is the perfect example of how the maximalist madness is taking over homes IRL, not just in design mags and social media feeds. Dubbed the “Dreamscape” apartment and designed by the Saigon-based Red5Studio, the space is a colorful ode to space-age design that perfectly encapsulates the swervy-curvy, topsy-turvy, vividly playful vibes taking the design world by storm.

Home to a couple who makes their living in the art world, the Dreamscape Apartment was created to provide inspiration while also evoking a welcoming, homey environment. With a focus on curvy lines and soft edges as opposed to the hard, straight lines and sharp angles so commonly seen in minimalist decor, the home feels like a retro retreat — one bursting with skittle-worthy colors that pop against its white-walled palette.

The middle of the apartment is dominated by a burnt orange sofa that looks straight out of a (comfy) spaceship — but that’s not all. A swirly, partially enclosed blue-walled “cave” faces the space-age sofa and houses DJ equipment for entertaining guests. The room itself is open, airy, and full of light, highlighting the many pops of riotous color that draw the eye — a flower power rug here, a globe light fixture there, the perfect balance of kitsch and low-key elegance.

The open plan main room flows purposefully into a dining room that’s by far the most understated space in the apartment. Dominated by a clear resin table that catches the light and swirls with delicate ripples, the effect is subdued yet magical. You can even spot a touch of whimsy in the accompanying black and green chairs, and the matching green kitchen counter behind them.

The bedroom continues the space’s study in bright, shapely furnishings with a gold upholstered bed complete with zebra-patterned bedding and super groovy light fixtures.The curved doorway and mirrored room divider are straight out of the 1988 Geena Davis classic Earth Girls are Easy — think a “futuristic” 1950s design aesthetic seen though the lens of over-the-top 1980s glam.

Despite its excesses, the Dreamscape apartment is still quite livable. Its rainbow-hued grooviness is perfectly complemented by its soft edges and muted, swirling aesthetics. It’s nighttime neon and DJ cave make it the perfect place for a party. A scintillating blend of futuristic funk and retro vibes, this Ho Chi Minh City apartment is the epitome of multidimensional maximalism — and the height of “good vibes only” style.

The post Space-Age Style Gets Its Groove Back in this Retro Ho Chi Minh City Apartment first appeared on Dornob.

The homeowners in Loughton, Essex were looking for “a space for modern day living and a stronger connection to their beautiful garden.” The original main floor had three rooms crowded in the back of the house: a constricted kitchen with dated fixtures, a tiny living room with no windows, and a dining room extension added in the 1980s. The bottom floor sat a full three feet above the exterior ground, with just one steep staircase granting passage to the back garden. Very little light made its way into this downstairs level, thanks to a large nearby outbuilding that blocked many of the existing windows.

After demoing that outside structure, the architecture firm solved the limited space problem by extending out the back exterior wall at garden level, connecting the addition to the current interior with three wall-to-wall stairs to and an overall open concept. The kitchen was also rehoused in the new ground-level addition, providing direct physical and visual access to the beautiful green spaces around it.

Natural light now streams in through three unique and ingenious windows and doors. The custom-made archways and the U-shaped window balance each other in geometric harmony. From the outside, it almost looks like the glass shapes spell the letters “n-n-u,” the name Studio Jayga gave this design.

The “nnU House” window is set into the wall, creating a perfect resting seat for enjoying the outdoor splendor while also taking advantage of the indoor climate. The top of the window extends above the ceiling line, jutting into a skylight and allowing even more light in from above.

The kitchen island takes its cues from the rounded windows, curving around in a gentle oval and further softened by a ribbed lining of cylinders around its base. Elsewhere, a comforting green envelops the wall of cabinetry, bringing the outside in. It complements the playful, multi-hued terrazzo stone backsplash and countertops.
The rest of the eating area is filled in with neutral floor tiles and crisp white walls, creating an airy space for gathering and working.

The connected living room is framed in on one side by tall, natural-colored timbers that outline the separate space while still offering clear sightlines to the kitchen. Birdseye maple flooring laid in chevron patterns draws the eye over into this area.

The outside of the addition was covered in timber charred on-site in the ancient Japanese style of “shou-sugi-ban,” giving the siding a cultivated and aged look.

Studio Jayga Architects was founded by Abul Mahdi, a member of the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) who got his start building a village clinic in Bangladesh. Perhaps that experience influenced the studio name, which comes from a Bangla word meaning “place.”

“We believe that the spaces we inhabit should have a sense of place; this means that architecture should engage with its social and physical context to create a sense of belonging and community,” the company website says. “We believe that good quality design can benefit and improve people’s lives significantly.”

The post UK Kitchen Addition Takes Geometric Design to the Next Level first appeared on Dornob.

That’s why the firm focuses on designing homes that feel connected to nature and as peaceful as a monastery. 23o5 Studio isn’t trying to force rural architectural vernacular into urban settings, though. Their designs are modern and well-suited to their environments, often made of concrete. But each one is envisioned not just as a shelter, but as a place that makes you forget all your worries the moment you step in the door. In 2015, they completed “Longcave,” located in the city of Vinh Long, a long and narrow home that blocks out views of direct neighbors and city streets while bringing in elements of sunlight, water, and living greenery. Now, with “Longcave 2,” the architects have taken that sense of serenity one step further by introducing an indoor fish pond that surrounds the main living area.

Inspiration for the project came from Hang Son Doong, a cave located with the UNESCO-listed Phong Nha-Ke Bang National Park. It’s the world’s largest cave when measured by cross-section, renowned for its spectacular underground rainforests, unusual formations like cave pearls, rays of sunlight streaming through natural openings overhead, and placid pools full of fish. From the street-facing facade, the all-white home doesn’t look like much, but that’s because the wonders within are only visible to the residents and their guests.

The architects conceived the home as a series of voids. Like the original Longcave, it occupies a long skinny strip of urban real estate measuring about 32 by 164 feet. Indoor spaces are staggered with perimeter walls and private courtyard gardens to encourage a sense of discovery. The primary living spaces are completely open and lacking interior walls, their areas defined instead by the positioning of skylights and double-height atriums. The dark ribbon of water forms a perimeter around the living room and tea room, koi glittering beneath the surface. Rays of sunlight piercing the skylights, broad-leafed tropical greenery, and the feeling of openness combined with varying ceiling heights do, in fact, make the home feel like a cave — in a very good way.

“With thoughts create a place, not just a house, but it is where emptying anxiety, fear, the only remaining calm,” the architects say. “’The Longcave’ is inspired space section of Son Doong cave, and human life in the initial period of the cave. When stepping through a door and step in space without walls, the space is a combination of the voids. The different sectional shape for the same equivalent area create different feelings for each space. The boundary between inside and outside is blurred away. Light is deliberately set up with zones that directly and indirectly separate the space into different components: light, materials, transitions, tranquility.”

Obviously, homes like this are out of reach for most urban residents in Vietnam (and virtually everywhere else in the world). A private oasis in the middle of a dense, highly developed city is a luxury, especially when it’s as beautifully designed as Longcave 2. One can only daydream about a reality in which everyone is deemed significant enough to deserve access to the comforts of nature left behind as society urbanizes. Who’s ready to campaign for skylights, courtyards, and indoor pools for all?

The post An Indoor Fish Pond Makes This Tropical Vietnamese Home Even More Tranquil first appeared on Dornob.

Restoring a historic hacienda to its former glory can be an intimidating project, but if you start from scratch instead, it’s possible to capture the luxurious tranquility that haciendas radiate while updating them for a new era. Architecture firm Chain + Siman collaborated with Modo Manera to do just that with Casa Rancha Avándaro, a weekend retreat in the Valle de Bravo area west of Mexico City. Their version draws inspiration from the openness of the traditional hacienda while enhancing its connection to nature and adding numerous all-glass walls to let the daylight stream inside.

The architects’ goal was to produce a relaxing retreat that functioned as an independent home for the clients while also providing plenty of connected spaces for guests. They wanted to incorporate key aspects of Mexican haciendas like solid volumes, interior patios, and gardens into the project while replacing the standard courtyard fountain with a jacuzzi. The home is divided into three volumes plus an annex, all with walls made of yellow stone from a nearby mine. The central volume is the tallest, flanked on either side by smaller gabled volumes.

Inside the central volume is a living room and dining room, which look out onto the terrace and the jacuzzi through the front glazing and a central patio through the back. One of the smaller connected volumes contains the main bedroom, with its own lofted study, while the other contains the kitchen and additional services. The annex, connected to the main house by a glass bridge crossing the central courtyard, hosts guests. This space is able to maintain its own sense of privacy and autonomy without feeling too separate from the main home, and it still enjoys the same beautiful views of the impeccably landscaped grounds, and the boughs of mature trees swaying in the breeze.

The result feels distinctly Mexican, preserving the best elements of the traditional vernacular architecture and all the charm they convey. The exposed beams and earthy materials connect the home to its natural setting, while updates like floor-to-ceiling windows, black steel, open plan interiors, and built-in furniture made of black plywood bring in contemporary comforts and preferences.

“The interior design is supported by the lighting, the finishes, and the vegetation of the place. Inside, the stone preserves its natural essence and is complemented by elements of black ironwork, wood in different shades in the lofts, furniture, and dividing walls, and concrete in the floors, kitchen, and bathrooms,” the architects say. “The house is a cozy, comfortable, and warm space that creates a dialogue between classic elements of the haciendas and contemporary solutions. There is a balance between luxury, aesthetics, and functionality.”

The post Historic Hacienda Style Gets a 21st-Century Update Outside Mexico City first appeared on Dornob.

Contributing to its awe-inspiring presence is the fact that it’s three stories tall – certainly not the kind of modest structure you’d expect to come upon while walking in the woods. Designed as a vacation home for a Finnish-born client who now lives in California, the stark modern cabin is visually inspired by its setting in remote Kontiolahti, within rocky terrain full of jagged boulders.

This sense of drama is integral to the experience, according to the architects. They want visitors to glimpse it through the trees as they approach on foot, wondering what on earth this “mystical dark object” could be. Its facade is entirely inscrutable by night, and in the daytime, it’s no less mysterious, albeit a little less intimidating.

The polyhedron-shaped building is made of prefabricated cross-laminated timber (CLT) panels, a relatively new innovation in the world of engineered lumber that’s extra strong and lightweight, enabling timber buildings to take on all kinds of shapes and sizes. The thick wood walls are also air-insulated, and all functional and utility elements are disguised within them for a minimalist effect. Even the roof is made of solid wood, oiled to protect it from the elements.

Meteorite’s interior is enchanting in a whole different way, lined with pale wood and brightened up by natural light. Transparent acrylic railings along the stairs and landings add to that sense of airiness, while hardware-free black cabinetry is set within the walls to create a visual anchor. A central atrium rises all the way to the top floor, where a 107-square-foot skylight provides unobstructed views of the stars. A net on the third floor even offers a built-in hammock for lounging, reading, and napping.

“Meteorite is not a large house, but on the inside it represents a completely new 3-dimensional open-concept way of organizing living space,” says Ateljé Sotamaa co-founder Kivi Sotamaa. “Unlike traditional houses where each room has a specific predetermined purpose, Meteorite’s architecture supports more dynamic relationships of its residents and a variety of life situations. Digital design and new prefabrication and construction technologies enable the creation of unique, aesthetically high-quality ecological wood buildings that add experiential value to their locations.”

Client Ulla-Maaria Koivula, who’s the founder and CEO of education technology provider ThingLink, had the cabin built on her grandparent’s old homestead. It was initially envisioned as a vacation home that would be visited a few times a year, but due to the pandemic and California wildfires, the family decided to live in it full-time and work from home.

”Every building materializes our relationship with the natural environment,” Koivula says. ”My inspiration to have a unique wood house built in this country sprouted from the rocky hills and rugged woods of Koli, rich in erratic boulders that also served Finland’s defense during the Winter War. Meteorite reflects the connection my soul has to Finnish nature, and looking through one of its large windows to the misty fields around takes me back to the calm days of childhood.”

“We use the house as a creative space for remote work, hobbies, and hanging out together. In the old days, families gathered into a large horizontal kitchen space to be together. We now interconnect vertically with each other and with the surrounding nature. In this time and age with effective telecommunications and speed trains to the metropolitan region, this is a paradise for us to get settled into the good life.”

The post Meteorite is a Mysterious 3-Story Black Cabin in the Forests of Finland 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.

Studio SAAR, a young architecture firm based in both England and India, was commissioned to design the Secure Sanand electronics manufacturing factory in Sanand, Gujarat, India. The firm is dedicated to creating sustainable solutions centered on the needs and aspirations of both local people and the environment. That directive is front and center at the factory, which houses state-of-the-art production facilities, visitor spaces, and comfortable areas for employees connected by open-air walkways across a lush green campus.

The 25-acre site is a former lakebed that was adapted for industrial use (though exactly how that conversion fits into the sustainability aspect of the plan is unclear). The architects have set aside a portion of the campus as a seasonal lake that shifts in size from one to three acres depending on rainfall. This lake helps cool the site, manage flooding, and replenish underground aquifers.

Trees planted at the edges, along with thousands of additional plantings planned in the near future, help soften the facility’s concrete exterior and integrate it with the surrounding fields. Solar panels provide about half of the facility’s power, while insulation and an integrated floor cooling system help reduce energy needs.

The masterplan includes four main buildings: the manufacturing hall, a utility bay, an employee canteen and recreation center, and a reception building. The walkways that connect them are covered in white fabric canopies that flutter softly in the wind and create a geometric effect when viewed from above. Sawtooth facades on the large, open-plan production facilities let in lots of natural light and nod to the history of industrial architecture. The visitor welcome building is an elongated oval topped with a tilted open canopy, and includes meeting rooms, a training room, changing areas, locker rooms, and a medical center.

This reception zone leads to directly to the heart of the facility, the circular employee hub housing a recreational area, canteen, kitchen, and gym with 300-degree views of the lake and greenery. Wide extended eaves cantilever out to provide shade and add architectural interest. Designed and built during the COVID-19 pandemic, the facility also includes both passive and active ventilation for safer conditions.

“We are standing at a crossroads and architecture is not the answer in isolation, but it is a part of the solution,” says Studio SAAR. This is true when it comes to both human rights and the climate crisis. Integrated as part of a holistic effort to improve labor conditions and elevate workers out of poverty worldwide, architecture can help transform the world we live in and bring the interconnectedness of human well-being and environmental health into focus.

The post Studio SAAR’s Employee-Oriented India Facility is Redefining Factory Work first appeared on Dornob.

The clients wanted to preserve the aspects of the site that felt special, like its rocky terrain, tall trees, and breathtaking views. So the architects created an unusual floor plan that avoids removing any existing trees, arranging triangular volumes to fit in between and around them. These volumes are offset from each other, gently flowing in a stack from the elevated street level down the slope of the hillside. Most importantly, the layout leaves a central private garden around which the living spaces are arranged, allowing sunlight to reach every room.

The structural base of the home consists of concrete textured to resemble the natural boulders and a steel framework that seems to shift from white to silver depending on the light. In between the polished concrete floors and the elongated triangular shapes of the roof panels are floor-to-ceiling expanses of glass, frosted in some areas for privacy and transparent in others. The glass reflects the silhouettes of the surrounding trees and the color of the sky.

The central patio functions as “the heart of the project,” the architects say, planted with lush greenery that’s echoed inside and on a multitude of outdoor terraces. The garage also features glass walls, turning the car into a display piece with a prominent presence directly above the level of the swimming pool. Black cabinetry and mostly monochromatic furnishings help visually anchor the home to the cliffside and keep the focus on the nature outside.

Though this is clearly a luxury residence, it’s not hard to imagine using concrete and steel as relatively affordable materials in a lower-budget project, finding ways to arrange them as artfully as RE+D has done here. The firm’s founder and lead architect, Susana López González, is a former professor of architecture, industrial design, and fabric design with a master’s degree in sustainability design, and it’s interesting to see how those influences come together in her work. Like Casa Cañadas, many of RE+D’s residential projects use the dynamic qualities of diagonal lines, contrasting geometric shapes, and textural materials for spaces that feel uniquely tailored to their locations.

“With a contemporary language and with the use of exposed materials, the social area is developed with the concept of the open plan; in this way the user has the freedom to handle the furniture in different ways and combinations, giving ownership to the space,” the architects explain, adding that “with the help of a curtain wall, the social area is unified with the terrace to generate communion between the spaces and moments of coexistence, which respond to the need to generate more flexible and comfortable spaces.”

The post Casa Cañadas: Angular Mexican Home Sparkles in the Sunlight first appeared on Dornob.

Bringing in ultrasound scanners, the council learned that the tunnels spread out over 65 feet in every direction, right beneath neighboring houses, and one even leading to the rail line. Lyttle, a retired engineer who became known in the press as “The Hackney Mole Man,” was evicted, and the city filled most of the tunnel system with aerated concrete to stabilize the ground, noting that it was a wonder a bus hadn’t fallen right through the street. Lyttle was moved to council housing, where he tried to dig through the floor of his apartment before dying in 2010.

The home was abandoned until 2012, when it sold at auction to British artist Sue Webster. She was fascinated by its bizarre history and found the shabby exterior charming. The process of cleaning it out was arduous, to say the least. Incredibly, among the 300 dumpster loads of junk unearthed from the home were three cars and a boat. Webster then hired architect David Adjaye to transform it into her own home and studio while preserving as much of its history as they could. They dug out 2,000 tons of the city council’s aerated concrete to create a basement level in tribute to the home’s subterranean history and creatively repurposed some of the junk, like a set of “stairs to nowhere” that became a terrace.

Adjaye says the design was borne “from an archaeological exercise, a gradual reveal of time through the process of excavation.” The newly reconfigured interiors have an open plan surrounded by a sunken landscaped garden along the perimeter. Multiple entrances on different levels reveal the locations of some of the former tunnels, aiming to preserve the feeling of discovery as you walk. The contrast of old and new, high and low can be found in every space. Wood formwork left organic imprints on all the concrete walls and ceilings, complementing the salvaged wood flooring and built-in plywood cabinetry. Webster has also filled the home with things like salvaged industrial details, artwork, modern furniture, and plants.

Outside, Webster wanted to maintain the building’s “derelict bunker-like appearance,” so Adjaye reconstructed the masonry facade with 15,000 reclaimed London bricks while adding large windows bordered by patinated bronze. Touches like these help it retain its its sense of timeworn history and curiosity. One wonders what Lyttle would think of it now, but it certainly seems like it fell into the right hands. Instead of being demolished by a developer and paved over with a new cookie-cutter project, it’s been given new life by someone willing to steward its spirit of wonder and adventure.

The post Crazy Network of Illegal Subterranean Tunnels Transformed Into Modern “Mole House” first appeared on Dornob.

Known for their bold use of hues and shapes, Point Supreme brought new life to the tired interior of the Trikoupi apartment, located in the center of Athens in one of the city’s many “polykatoikia,” or Greek multi-family units. With its three bedrooms, the space was roomy enough, but it lacked energy, texture, and color. Point Supreme brought plenty of all three.

The renovation began with gutting the living areas to produce a single open-plan flow. The team made the existing light shaft in the middle a focal feature by installing large windows on all four sides, welcoming in more daytime glow and fashioning a clear view across the space.

With this change, “an abundance of natural light and cross views through the whole depth of the apartment are revealed and create an unexpected sense of grand dimension. This is strengthened by the rich variety of materials and finishes applied that create different atmospheres,” the architects explain in their brief for the project.

Point Supreme was co-founded by Konstantinos Pantazis and Marianna Rentzo. Both designers began their architectural studies at the National Technical University Athens before parting ways, Pantazi heading to The Berlage Institute Rotterdam and Rentzo to Bartlett School of Architecture in London. After each taking different positions around the world, they reunited in Rotterdam to form their company in 2008 but have since returned to their roots in Athens. The pair’s work is multi-faceted, incorporating not only architecture, but urbanism, landscape, and research.

Their philosophy is guided by a quote on their website from French writer and poet André Breton: “Everything leads us to believe that there exists a certain point in the mind at which life and death, the real and the imaginary, the past and the future, the communicable and the incommunicable, the high and the low, construction and destruction, cease to be perceived in terms of contradiction. Surrealist activity, therefore, would be searched in vain for any other motive than the hope of determining this point.”

The exploration of those contradictions is evident in their use of contrast, pattern, and texture in the Trikoupi apartment. The petite kitchen’s cabinets are covered in light and dark shades of mauve, accented by a neutral marble top. The miniature taupe floor tiles in the kitchen offer a dichotomy of parquet and traditional pattern wood flooring.

Opposite the kitchen’s fire-engine red table is a wall of green-stained cabinets and shelves, bisecting a tucked-in bench and an extending teal sofa.

The entry is defined by a negative space timber screen and a shiny crimson floor rimmed with monochromatic triangles.

The bedroom is the most subdued room in the unit, with a wall of blond cabinets balancing the mass of the bed.

Cobalt blue storage lines the hallway leading to the bathroom, which is itself covered in a wave of mini square white tiles.

Point Supreme also crafted several custom pieces of furniture and built-ins around the home to accommodate seating, storage, and dining. The Trikoupi apartment is the most recent in a long list of projects from the firm known for pushing the envelope of aesthetic contradiction.

The post Point Supreme Uncovers Hidden Light in a Traditional Athens Apartment first appeared on Dornob.

Vienna-based architectural studio Smartvoll peered into an empty industrial building that once housed soldiers and a tank station and saw something wholly unexpected. Within this simple oblong building, with its weathered bricks and hard concrete floors recalling decades long past, the architects envisioned a futuristic open-plan loft. They submitted their proposal to an international contest that called for an adaptation of the space into a luxurious residence within the larger Panzerhalle complex and won, and it’s not hard to see why.

At the epicenter of the new space is a minimalist kitchen contained within a 23-foot-long block, which itself is flanked by a pair of sweeping concrete staircases. Made of black lava stone, this monumental cabinet features a planting area for herbs and individual spaces for food preparation, cooking, and dining. A table pulls out of one end on demand. Above it soar the wing-like platforms of the gallery level, which follow the contours of the building and offer access to more private spaces.

The dramatic staircases split off in three directions. Smartvoll explains that they shouldn’t be seen as merely functional ways of accessing various levels of the home, but rather “as an electric spatial experience.”

“The stairs are an architecture within the architecture,” they continue. “Concreted in-house, the engineering is being exhausted in all respects. Tender objects with minimal dimensions but tremendous spatial impact. Something that does not allow for competition: besides the concrete, only subtle, semi-transparent materials are being used, such as Profilit to separate the guest area and curtains for the bedroom…Every other piece of furniture seems to be integrated into the construction. An unalterable picture [that] celebrates only free space.”

Everything about the loft seems to float. The staircase hovers above the kitchen, creating a lightweight roof that belies its own solidity. The curtains that delineate the bedrooms waft in the breeze. A bookcase comes out of the brick wall near the back of the home and hangs down into the ground floor below. Even the shower feels weightless, having been projected into the main space as an open glass box. Nothing about the Loft Panzerhalle is meant for the shy and reserved. Its boldness is what sets it apart from top to bottom.

“At the lower level, the room is connected to two balconies. However, even this façade aligns itself with the carriers of the concrete sculpture in the slant; the balconies look like additional alcoves of the overall concept. They feature a contemplative zen garden, including a grassy knoll, a jasmine tree, and a classic [relaxation] terrace.”

These outdoor spaces offer views of the rest of the Panzerhalle complex, including a market space that was also renovated by Smartvoll and several restaurants, salons, event spaces, and a co-working facility, all of which are unified by their buildings’ original brick facades.

The post Former Army Barracks Transformed Into an Extraordinary Modern Loft Apartment first appeared on Dornob.

When American film producer Ken Kao and his wife, Japanese fashion model Jessica Michibata, purchased one of the most stunning estates in Los Angeles, it was initially kept a secret. Only after several months of sleuthing did the sale of the mansion, designed by architect Noah Walker and built on speculation by Nathan Frank, a concert violinist and scrap metal industry giant, go public.

The two-structure manor sits on a three-and-a-half-acre parcel in the mountains that overlook Beverly Hills. It’s further complemented by the natural countryside of the area, including 130 native oak trees scattered throughout the property. Upon completion in 2015, one of China’s most renowned film producers and investors, James Wang, bought the property for $19.9 million. Four years later, he sold it to Michibata and Kao for an all-cash payment of $22.5 million.

The 8,000-square-foot main house has an uncharacteristic floor plan. All the communal rooms are positioned above the bedrooms, which themselves are partially sunken into the hillside under a live roof of edible herbs. The two-story 2,000-square-foot guesthouse is a renovated barn topped with a wood-clad upper floor. Like the main house, it also merges seamlessly with the surrounding nature. Glass walls and open-concept common areas give both structures an open, airy feeling.

Two of the most fantastic features of the Michibata-Kao home are the triangle-shaped courtyard sunken into the main house and the 75-foot swimming pool, which itself is infinity-edged on three sides and situated directly under one of the largest oak trees on the site. The courtyard’s stark focal point is a fire pit while the rest is kept open and simple, with concrete walls that reach the sky to round out its calming, isolated feel.

Kao, who previously teamed up with Ryan Gosling to create the Arcana production company, is the lone son of multibillionaire Min Kao, a Kansas-based tech magnate who co-founded GPS colossus Garmin (whose reported net worth is over $4 billion). Besides modeling, Michibata’s brief marriage to Formula One megastar Jensen Button — and the apology she received from Richard Branson for touching her face and making her uncomfortable many years ago when he was drunk — are among her other news-making experiences.

The Kao family is used to making real estate news headlines. In 2019, Kao’s older sister Jen Kao paid Jodie Foster $15 million cash for a sprawling house in the Coldwater Canyon area. Kao’s parents also own one of the most massive estates in the Beverly Hills Flats (once owned by Kirk Douglas), which they purchased for $15.4 million in 2013. And nine years ago, Min Kao paid $40 million for a penthouse at 15 CPW, one of Manhattan’s most prominent residential structures.

The post Son of Billionaire GPS Titan Scores Sleek $22.5 Million Beverly Hills Mansion first appeared on Dornob.

Japanese architects mtka found a creative compromise while renovating a 20-year-old single family home in the Kodaira neighborhood of Tokyo. The ground floor contains the bedrooms and bathroom, while the upper floor is a completely open-plan living space. The new owners, a couple with two children, felt like they could use a little more room for the kids to play.

With its sloping roof, the home didn’t have enough ceiling height for a full third floor, and adding a conventional loft on the higher side would have cut off natural light to the rest of the space. The design team’s workaround is pretty brilliant. As they put it, they changed the flow of the house with a “maximal ellipse,” a mezzanine level with a giant oval cutout that maintains the spacious feel of the high ceilings while creating a new inhabitable surface.

This new level is almost flush with the lower side of the ceiling, but provides 5.9 feet (1.8 meters) of head space on the higher side, just enough for the inhabitants to stand up. Not only does its unusual shape help keep the south wall of windows open to the rest of the living area, but it also provides structural support. On the higher side of the home, it’s a loft; on the lower side, it’s a shelf.

“By putting a single maximal object in this large studio, I thought of updating the flow of people, the flow of power, the flow of wind, and the flow of lights and creating an architecture suitable for a new family,” says mtka co-founder Murayama Toru. “Therefore, a super-elliptical perforated ceiling was inserted at a level of 1.8 meters in the horizontal material of the south window. Since the center of gravity of the space is based on the south side, the center of gravity of the living room, which had no base, was pulled to the center, creating various places around the ellipse.”

“The ceiling is neither as thick as a wooden floor, nor as thin as a suspended ceiling. [Built] from an existing wooden construction, it is an autonomous and substantial object. And the oval stairwell is empty without any substance. Standing on the floor of the living room on the second floor, the edge of the ceiling, with a thickness of 101 millimeters and a height of 1.8 meters, is recognized as a single endless line, which makes it look like a large horizon.”

Building codes in many countries would at least require a safety railing around the opening, eliminating the ability to sit at the edge, but it’s still doable. The elliptical opening gives the home some visual interest by incorporating a rounded shape within an otherwise rectilinear box, but it always avoids overpowering the rest of the space.

The post Japanese Home Renovation Features Elliptical Cutout Mezzanine first appeared on Dornob.

At the Mercado Libre Office in Buenos Aires, Argentina, a collaboration between architects and designers has produced some of the coolest tunnel-style stairs you’ve ever seen. BMA Arquitectos, Studio Elia Irastorza, and Methanoia came together to produce a working area for the company that would “boost and inspire talent and creativity,” embodying the booming Latin American e-commerce brand’s young, innovative, and distinctive style.

For the designers, that meant imagining stairs as a social space, and using them as a series of connections between floors that would allow employees to navigate the building “in a more unpredictable and personal way.” Key to the flow of the space is a principle of freedom of movement, offering users a choice of two or more different ways to move up or down within the building.

Multiple circular “tunnels” of stairs pierce each level at various points across the floor plan, each one lined entirely in medium-toned wood that contrasts with the starker, more industrial elements of the building.

The designers say they were aiming for a material palette that communicated comfort and warmth, not only from the wood, but also from living plants, lots of natural daylight streaming through massive glass windows, and oversized art pieces like sculptures and murals. They also identified multiple “areas of influence” where employees from different departments can congregate and socialize.

The architects add that the “multifunctional, fluid, and adaptable space was developed as an area that nurtures teamwork and leaves room for personal growth. It understands the office as a whole, instead of [dividing it into] separate floors, with the key instruments for integrating all of the different areas of the project [being] the ‘social stairs.’ These links are the protagonists, creating several connection points between each level. [From them,] a new type of communication arises, allowing the users to experience the office as one whole democratic space that encourages the exchange of ideas, and a dynamic workspace. Instead of [implementing] a traditional and static method of circulation, this new system embraces a non-linear movement. Since there are two links in each floor, one can walk around the nine office floors through a different path each time.”

“The core of the project resides on the sixth floor, where the stairs evolve into terraces that can even turn into a grand amphitheater. This space houses the main public area and the reception. Throughout the project, artistic interventions that fuse with the architecture through different materials and textures appear, creating a richer [sensory] experience. The other central concept introduced in the project was the use of vegetation in strategic points. Vertical divisions made of green walls and virtually enclosed spots allow certain areas of the plan to become more private and quiet for spontaneous meetings.”

The result takes what could have been an overwhelmingly large, cold, and impersonal office facility and injects it with friendliness and personality — two things a lot more workspaces could use in greater doses.

The post Step Into the Void: Tunneling Stairs at the Mercado Libre Office in Buenos Aires first appeared on Dornob.