The post The Farmer’s House by AR Design Studio first appeared on Dornob.

When approached to design a vacation rental in the rural Nakhon Nayok area two hours outside of Bangkok, architect Tung Jai Ork Baab had to get creative to work around the narrow village roads, which make it difficult for large construction vehicles to get through. On top of that, the region is plagued by a lack of skilled contractors and construction workers. For both of these reasons, utilizing a prefabricated structure seemed like the easiest and safest choice. Thus, the idea of the “Container Cabin” was born.

Since the project would be located in the low and marshy land of an empty rice paddy, Tung Jai Ork Baab started by having a small reservoir dug out, using the dirt to fashion enough high ground for a house and accompanying orchards. With the ferocity of Thailand’s rainy season, being built on a raised berm was essential for protection against potential flooding.

Employing the notion of an all-weather, indoor-outdoor space, the architect connected two 20-foot shipping containers to craft the main common room, adding full floor-to-ceiling windows on the ends to let in plenty of light, with the original loading doors providing shelter during storms.

An open-air courtyard connects the living room to the dining and pantry space, housed by yet another container. That gateway deck, with a second-story shipping container forming the roof, is intended to be the home’s main gathering space, thanks to the perpetually warm weather in the area. Chairs and cushions are scattered throughout the courtyard for lounging in the tropical temperatures, with a tire swing suspended from the ceiling for the enjoyment of little vacationers.

The top floor container comprises a private bedroom, with the tall A-frame creating balconies and alfresco lounge areas all around the sleeping quarters. The shape of the cabin was intentional: the sloped rooflines shade the entire residence, avoiding the problem of heat transfer to the metal containers. One section of the roof was replaced with a translucent material to let natural light into the middle deck. Steel plate louvers are built into the frame to deflect frequent rains but still allow light and wind to flow through the entire space for ventilation.

An outdoor cooking area bridges the gap between the A-frame and a detached container bedroom. That room connects to an above-ground pool encased in a deck space that seriously bumps up the rural getaway’s recreation game. And since the vacation home was designed with traveling families in mind, the front of the property also features a wooden playground and sandbox structure.

The interior spaces throughout were painted a fresh white for a clean and airy feel. The exterior got an earthy brown treatment, helping it to blend in with the natural environment.

This Container Cabin is a beautiful addition to the resourceful (sometimes questionable) architectural trend of using cheap and readily available shipping containers as housing accommodations when circumstances allow.

The post Shipping Containers Make Up This Beautiful Vacation Home in Rural Thailand first appeared on Dornob.

The south Tyrol AEON Hotel was designed by noa* (network of architecture), a firm based in Bolzano, Italy who used this project to highlight the boundaries and connection between old and new worlds.

“The creation of an ambivalent tension between the centuries-old tradition of the rural complex and an exclusively modern statement was the basic principle underlying the design process,” explains designer Christian Rottensteiner on the noa* website.

Instead of one large structure, the architects decided to begin the theme of duality with two separate barn-shaped buildings. The exterior forms pay homage to the 550-year-old farm on which the B&B resides. Gabled roofs and wood siding harvested from the property’s own forest, as well as the family’s old coat of arms from 1464 posted on the entry, highlight the past of the hotel that was formerly the historic Lobishof Inn. Pentagonal floor-to-ceiling windows on every floor provide stunning views of the Merano Alps, Dolomites, and Rittner Horn.

Moving inside, the first building houses the common areas, including a reception desk, bistro, bar, and wellness area. The color contrast is immediately apparent and striking. A deep blue covers the ceiling and top one-third of the walls, while whites and creams comprise the bottom two-thirds and the floor. The hues were chosen specifically to convey a sense of the past and future: “A soft beige – communicates feelings of being grounded, familiar, delicateness – meets a mystical blue that embodies the future, the mysterious, the uncertain,’ the noa* website says.

These tint divisions don’t merely run through the walls, but also cut across furniture and fixtures at the exact same horizontal planes. Only in the wellness area is the color play inverted, with navy on the bottom and white on top, representing the feeling of wading or floating in water.

To enter the second building, a collection of 15 guest suites, there’s no need to enter the outside world again. Instead, the designers created a tunnel between the two structures, ingeniously buried under a manmade hill. Moving through this tunnel is a similarly transportive experience, as the walls are intersected by harsh angles of contrasting blue and white. “Guests are invited to move through and sense this cosmos between polarizing environments,” explains noa* interior designer Patrick Gürtler.

The tone of the B&B shifts in the guest suite barn, where all color divisions become vertical. Rugs, bed, tables, and even lamp shades cannot escape being split by these lines. The Gallery Suite is perhaps the most arresting example of the separated verticality, as it features a two-story-high ceiling and a “living platform” on the roof for cozily gazing into the heavens.

In the end, the architects hope their design will help guests sense the unseen bonds around them. “Boundaries – between past and future, between dream and reality, between inside and outside: noa* makes the invisible lines visible, which become part of the full picture and, above all, instead of a separation, a connection between two worlds.”

The post AEON: Italian B&B Toes the Line Between Modern and Rural first appeared on Dornob.

Measuring 1,477 square feet, the three-bedroom home built in 2003 is a few miles from Goose Rocks Beach in one of Maine’s most picturesque regions. Travel through the forest on a dirt road and you’ll find it tucked into a grassy clearing. It’s immediately apparent that the home’s creator, sculptor Daphne Pulsifer, is an artist. The poured concrete dome is attached to a tiny addition resembling a quaint English cottage complete with a cedar shingle roof. It’s also powered by a solar photovoltaic electrical system and a gas water heater, with well water on site, making it completely off grid.

Inside, the home is warm and charming. Pulsifer and her partner Daniel scavenged the woods for logs and branches to use as beams and columns with loads of rustic personality. Earth-tone tile floors, white plaster walls, and arched windows complement the rural setting and the sculptural, organic nature of the house. Soaring ceilings make it feel bright and airy inside, and an antique wood stove offers both heat and a cooking surface. Down the hallway, the bedrooms have boldly painted walls in contrast to all the neutral natural materials, and upstairs is a study with views of the surrounding treetops.

“I think of this home as my largest sculpture, and from the beginning we designed it with the satisfaction of knowing we were fulfilling our dream,” Pulsifer told Dwell. “This type of construction process was very new to Kennebunkport at the time, but with Daniel’s determination and my design, we navigated the permitting process and quickly began work on the site.”

The couple and their children started the house as a DIY owner-builder project, and when it was time to add the electrical and plumbing work, they consulted the Monolithic Dome Institute in Italy, Texas. If you love the look of the property, but you’re not quite ready to move to Maine, the Monolithic Dome Institute might be a great resource for building your own super-insulated, steel-reinforced concrete structure in the location of your choice. People have built domes with their help all over the United States, measuring from eight feet to 340 feet in diameter.

As for the so-called “Road to Misery,” it’ll undoubtedly find new owners very soon. With a fenced-in pasture and such a large acreage, you could build a whole compound of artsy handmade homes in whatever styles you could possibly dream up.

The post This Charming Handmade Dome Home in Maine Can Now Be Yours first appeared on Dornob.

Officially called the “Wicker House,” the cabin sits near the city of Noor in the northern Mazandaran region of Iran, a place where the architecture has evolved according to the natural climate conditions. Situated along the southern coast of the Caspian Sea and adjacent to the Central Alborz mountain range, the weather is fairly temperate, with temperatures ranging from roughly 50 to 90 degrees Fahrenheit. Homes in the region have traditionally been built of stone, stucco, and natural roofing materials.

After examining the project requirements, the Iranian Shaygan Gostar Architectural Group decided to let the landscape determine the form of the home. “This architecture regarding the structure was completely dependent on nature – that is to say, for the construction of a building, all the components of the architecture natively have been prepared from the nature of the local region,” the Group says.

The house was originally to be built next to nearby agricultural land, but a survey of the site revealed that a spot overlooking a small dam and the surrounding landscape would be more suitable.

To satisfy the demand for a “new experience,” the architects designed an A-frame structure comprised of simple geometric forms. The available photos even include step-by-step instructions. After the main triangle was created, a box from the base was removed. Then a triangle was removed from each side for the window and doors, after which stilts and stairs were added. Finally, the patio box was added to the front of the house, with one side removed to provide water access to the patio.

To meet the requirement to conform to the local architecture, the materials were kept simple: wood and metal for the frame, straw, clay, and bulrush for the roofing and exterior sides. The architects explain that this maintained “the available space so that it can be in harmony with the rural houses left from the past. The long gable roof has been used at cabin form to be close to the rural housing typology.”

The interior is essentially one long, open space with a small bathroom and attached covered patio. Colorful rugs warm up the space, as well as a traditional fireplace with an elegant cylindrical flue that cuts through the angled roof line. Modern lighting and a small kitchenette make modern life attainable even in this more rustic structure. Floor-to-ceiling windows and doors leading to the terrace provide a perfect view of the pastoral landscape, including glowing sunsets that create beautiful pond reflections of the surrounding mountains.

Shaygan Gostar stayed true to its own personal architectural style with this build. In 2020, thy completed a concrete factory in North Kandovan with similar pop-out boxes and lots of clean lines.

The Wicker House is an example of how modern ideas can effortlessly flow through spaces without disrupting the aesthetic of the surrounding landscape.

The post Shaygan Gostar’s Wicker House Brings the A-Frame Cabin to Rural Iran first appeared on Dornob.

Burton, who stumbles upon most of these places in his travels, can’t offer any answers, though he does circle back around to his subjects occasionally only to find that they’ve since perished without a trace, seemingly erasing their entire existence. One is a wooden farmhouse set beside two trees, surrounded on all sides by lush green crops. “The Substation Fire here in Oregon burnt this abandoned house and 70,000 acres of land just a month after I took this photo,” he tells Monster Children.

The Portland, Oregon-based photographer has been photographing abandoned places since 2011. For “Thin Places,” each property was shot with a drone to fully capture just how isolated they are. Burton says it’s the liminality of the spaces that draws him in. They exist somewhere between past and present, perhaps even somewhere between this realm and another.

“There is a Celtic concept regarding places that feel strangely magnetic,” Burton says. “It is said heaven and Earth are only three feet apart but in Thin Places that distance is even shorter. Abandoned houses are a perfect example of this phenomenon. These places are at the intersection of archeology and fantasy, and you can visit these sites but can never get the full story. So curiosity keeps bringing me back. What makes people leave, and what keeps things standing? How much of a life gets left along with it?”

Burton’s own childhood on a farm in rural Oregon informs much of his subject matter. A thread of wistful Americana runs through his body of work, whether he’s photographing homes that look like archaeological studies in danger of collapse or portraits set in foggy forests. Most of his imagery starts with road trips through the sparsely populated countryside, where he and his friends often enter empty-looking buildings and sort through the belongings left behind by whoever last lived there. Burton likes to immerse himself in each setting before he shoots, taking in its emotional essence and using that feeling to set up the photos.

Burton’s parents put a disposable camera in his hands when he was just six years old, but he began taking photography seriously at the age of sixteen, when he acquired his first digital SLR camera. An early focus in conceptual photography has shifted over time to be more documentary in nature. “I guess my style lately has been a mix of Children of the Corn with vaguely “Post Nuclear Fallout Exploration,’” Burton told My Modern Met in 2017. “I’m so obsessed with adding ambiguity to my work now, if I can come up with more than one storyline behind the image, I’ve succeeded.”

Burton will soon travel to Appalachia for a new photo series. Keep up with his evocative work by following along on Instagram @burtoo.

The post Thin Places: Photo Series Captures the Poetry of Isolated Abandoned Homes first appeared on Dornob.

“The design concept starts with the radical difference between the rural and urban interpersonal networks,” explains the Macau-based Studio A()VOID team, adding that it “reinterprets the native cave dwellings of the site as vertical ‘grottos’.” The 23-foot-tall huts are laid out irregularly on a 13-by-19-foot grid, each calculated on the length-to-width ratio of the original cave structures.

Composed of double-layered gray brick, the buildings curve organically into gentle rectangles. Individual bricks protrude asymmetrically along the outsides, too, marking the levels where scaffolding was used in the construction process.

Each pod is topped by a giant skylight, and together with the uber-tall ceilings, they encourage visitors to appreciate the verticality of the space. The access to natural light all day long also recalls the agricultural roots of Xiyaotou village. The studio says it “contextualizes residents to rurality’s rhythm of ‘working from dawn to dusk” and “exposes their sensitivity to the sun’s trajectory.”

In the winter, the double-thick walls use those sunrays to help warm the grottos from the average outside temperature of 50 degrees Fahrenheit. When it gets hotter in the summer, heat can escape through the pods’ strategically-placed windows, and through the chimney effect of each unit’s elongated geometry. The windows and doors of each cave structure are composed of pre-weathered steel that pushes out from the brick facade. Individual units are connected on the second story by a raised wooden walkway.

“By flowing the bridge of connectivity in between the private grottos, the design attempts to realize a community in which public and private coexist,” the studio explains, adding that “it serves as the keynote for the layout of the corridor structure and supports the new building complex in a spiritual sense.”

The bridge is held up by pine columns and snakes in between each dwelling to provide a link to all the units. The elevated sidewalk also gives walkers a birds’ eye view of the surrounding landscape, including a dense grove of trees, a nearby shoreline, and the “aboriginal architecture of Yu County.” The empty spaces below the boardwalk are designed to provide room for hosting workshops, exhibitions, and even markets.

The grotto sanctuary, completed this year under the direction of lead architect Yun Hon, was created as part of a larger Chinese initiative to rejuvenate rural “hollow” villages across the country like Xiyaotou, most of which have seen conditions deteriorate as residents have migrated to newer areas. The idea is to transform abandoned communities into destination places for tourists, with unique accommodations, local cuisines, and fun activities. Grotto Retreat Xiyaotou’s compilation of clustered units was designed to be flexible to these types of future needs and more.

Studio A( )VOID characterizes itself as a design group that “celebrates the emptiness and possibilities of a void.” They “design to allow capacities for randomness and surprises in different aspects of a project, so involved parties are encouraged to participate in this controlled mayhem.”

The post Chinese Retreat Designed to Mimic Ancient Cave Dwellings first appeared on Dornob.

While the U.S. housing market has only gotten hotter as of late, in Japan negative population growth, combined with mass migration to urban areas, has created a housing vacuum, resulting in a rural vacancy rate of approximately 16 percent, according to a May 2021 report from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.

According to Japan’s most recent Housing and Land Survey from 2018, the result of this rural vacancy rate is about 8.49 million akiya — perfectly normal rural homes that exist in empty neighborhoods often referred to as “ghost villages.”

Local governments have been trying to incentivize buying these properties in order to boost rural populations. Officials believe that repopulation efforts (such as the low price tag) will ultimately help to revitalize these rural areas and eventually lead to a possible national economic boon. Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga began his term in office with an urgent mandate seeking to bridge the country’s urban-rural divide. Subsequently, many regional areas are responding by offering everything from subsidies for home renovations to tax breaks for those who purchase akiya.

Recently, another strategy has been applied to entice akiya buyers: “akiya banks.” These are real estate websites that exclusively offer these ghost village homes in specific communities for rock bottom prices. The project has proven hugely successful in places like the country’s Wakayama prefecture, where about a third of the region’s available homes have been sold since 2015. The listings on Wakayama’s akiya bank have ranged anywhere from $800 on up – a strong selling point for those looking to own a home that isn’t too far from a large city (Osaka).

Granted, many of these abandoned homes are what we in the U.S. would deem as “fixer-uppers,” a prospect that does’t necessarily appeal to many young Japanese people. Douglas Sutherland, the senior economist for Japan at the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, feels that the failure of the akiya program could be due to “generally less interest in DIY home renovations [here] than there are in the U.S.” This translates to these properties not being worth the time or money, making them a less than hot commodity for young professionals.

And this could be true, as renovation costs (outside of those subsidized by the government) could get expensive quick — especially since the houses would most likely have to be brought up to code. Additionally, the property rights in Japan make it extremely difficult to simply knock down the akiya and start from scratch, as the potential buyer would still need approval from the “technical homeowner.” Obstacles like these are just another reason why these homes are continuing to sit vacant, unable to be knocked down but impossible to renovate without an excess of funds.

In the future, the Japanese government may choose to amend some of these legal obstructions in an effort to make the akiya even more desirable to buyers. Until then, these abandoned homes will continue to sit vacant in their ghost villages – at least until the right buyer comes along and is swayed by the prospect of owning a too-good-to-be-true $500 home.

The post These Houses in Rural Japan are on Sale for Just $500 first appeared on Dornob.

In the Henan province of northeast China, local authorities initially wanted architecture firm Atelier XI to build a single large cultural facility in the area’s largest town, Xiuwu, but the architects had a better idea. In place of one 3,229-square-foot arts and culture center, they’d split the project into a series of miniature facilities in different rural locations. The province agreed, and “Peach Hut” is the first of those pavilions to be completed.

Set in the village of Jiaozuo, near the northern bank of the Yellow River, “Peach Hut” rises from an orchard of peach trees, with one glass-clad facade cantilevering over the greenery. The combination of the building’s unusual modern geometry and cheerful color contrast with the farmland surroundings, and make it look sort of like a sentient creature from an animated film that could suddenly stand up and start walking around at any moment. Needless to say, modern architecture is rarely seen in settings like this, much less structures this bold and playful.

The building’s curved silhouette was achieved with cast-in-place concrete, with the texture of the formwork still visible on the exterior walls. The shape of “Peach Hut” also takes inspiration from the twisting shapes of local trees, which all tend to lean to one side.

“[We] envisioned that the building is cut from a series of invisible arcs derived from the earth and the clouds, forming a unique shape that rises to the sky,” explains the firm. “In the Peach Hut, all windows are of diverse shapes, responding to different views and light angles: the large floor-to-ceiling window on the second floor allows viewers to jump over the peach trees and overlook the panoramic view of the farm; the round window frame on the south side rotates along the central axis, and captures dynamic imageries of the orchard under the subtle variation of daylight; the vertical windows at the corners lengthen the depth of field from the orchard to the village at far; the shadow [created by] the skylight changes at every moment; and the entrance corner window is made as a quarter circle resembling the stooped peach trees, thus resonating with the picturesque land.”

Acting as a community center and beverage bar, the observatory hut gives local residents a place to gather and take in the views. The other six pavilions planned for the province will be built over two construction phases, including the “Periscope” (a vernacular theater) and “Bent House” (a communal library).

The architects add that “these cast-in-place concrete miniatures are interpreted into a series of tree-shaped spaces with tentacles reaching out for the sky, bathing in light and shadow. Their locations vary from fields to woods to mountaintops, and their forms differ as well: while one grows out from the ruined walls in an abandoned village, another embodies a floating theater on the water.”

The project aims to address inequalities between urban and rural areas that resonate far outside China’s borders. People living in remote areas tend to lack sufficient access to information and educational resources, let alone the type of cultural attractions that you’d find in more populated areas.

“Through these minimal architecture investments, the project aims to inspire sensibilities of local residents, to help them enjoy and rethink life quality, as well as to alleviate isolation and poverty.”

The post “Peach Hut” Brings Contemporary Architectural Geometries to Rural China first appeared on Dornob.

It seems too strange to be real – a home emerging from a set of giant stones, seemingly cut out of the rock itself. Yet there it stands in rural Portgual with the pictures and video to prove it. No, it is not an optical illusion nor a fancy photo-editing job … this is the real deal.

As the television interview illustrates, the home is truly bordered by two boulders that inform the interior spaces – but it is also filled in with smaller stones to finish the effect. Crooked windows complete the curious picture on the outside while rough-cut log furniture, stairs and railings add to the organic feel of the interior spaces. Of course, this design is naturally eco-friendly as it incorporates local materials and more natural elements requiring less energy to turn into structural supports, finishes or cladding.

Inspired by none other than the Flintstones, this is not a work of installation art nor a themed hotel – it is simply the private residence of one person who saw a unique design opportunity and creatively integrated the natural environment while constructing his custom home on hill with a view (images via Jsome).

The post Rock the House: Bizarre Rural Boulder and Stone Home Design first appeared on Dornob.

Much of this area’s artifacts from the Ming (1368 – 1644) and Qing (1644 to 1912) dynasties have already been lost due to neglect, and as China’s burgeoning economy encourages more rural residents to move to cities, hundreds of thousands of villages are being abandoned and put at risk of demolition. Dafang is just one of 102 abandoned villages in Jiangxi Province alone.

“Many of these have dozens of generations of social, cultural, and monumental value but are currently lacking major future significance,” explain the architects. These days, continued relevance requires a consistent flow of both visitors and cash. So NEXT teamed up with the IVEM Dutch Institute for Heritage and Marketing, Smartland landscape design, Total Design graphic design, and a team of artists to create a new masterplan that would attract both to Dafang.

Observers may wonder — and rightfully so — why the Jiangxi government would “wish for Dutchness to revitalize Dafang,” especially if interest in the area is primarily rooted in its cultural significance. After all, colonization and its damaging effects on cultures parasitized by outsiders should be well known at this point.

In this case, the two cultures have been bridged since the 17th century, when the Dutch East India Company sailed to China to obtain Chinese porcelain. Chinese arts and traditions ultimately had a huge influence on Delftware, the ceramics Holland is famous for producing (the Dutch East India Company, by the way, is remembered today for being a precursor to modern corporate monopolies, and for its affinity for exploitation, violence, and slavery).

Dutch and Chinese architects alike worked on Holland Dafang Creative Village, which has been transformed into an interactive environment for artists from both countries to work, mingle, and exhibit.

A description of the project on Archello explains that “interventions are designed on three levels. Firstly, urban space, architecture, and landscape are restored where possible, with new materials creating a dialogue between old and new elements. For example: glass roof tiles are used to restore the roofs of the old houses, and the ancient irrigation system has been restored [by] adding elements such as a natural helophyte filter to clean the water. Secondly, a watchtower and public hall have been added: new building structures that take cues from on-site precedents.”

“Ancient villages in this area all had watchtowers for defense purposes. With the original tower long gone, a new watchtower has been designed in which two intertwining routes embrace each-other, loosely resembling a giant Chinese ‘dragon column.’ The watchtower provides alternating views over old and new in the village, as well as views as far as over the rural landscape towards the mountains at the horizon. Locally, the watchtower is embraced as the ‘Wandering Tower,’ reminiscing a poem of the famous Chinese poet Li Bai about people waiting for loved ones to return to their hometowns.”

“In the center of the village, a new public hall is realized. The hall is built on the former site of a courtyard building that was destroyed during the cultural revolution. The inspiration and shape for the unique roof comes from a century-old camphor tree outside the village, whose lofty canopy for decades provided a gathering space for the villagers. The camphor hall dissolves in the fabric of the village and provides a shaded collective space. The terracotta tiled facade provides places for birds to build nests.”

A new village museum, artist studios, and a library round out the attractions built around the existing town, and visiting artists are highly encouraged to participate in the ongoing transformation. Cultural ties are illustrated by features like the floor of the public hall, which was painted in a Mondrian-like pattern by a Chinese artist.

The result is undeniably beautiful, with the new additions augmenting and highlighting the older structures instead of dominating them. In particular, the spiral watchtower looking over the ancient village lends a futuristic effect to the overall scene, contributing to a narrative about the village’s continuing growth and history.

The post Dafang Creative Village Brings a Futuristic Look to this Rural Chinese Town first appeared on Dornob.

Some critics say they contribute to a gulf between client expectations and what architects are able to deliver, and frankly, it’s hard to argue with that. Over the last decade, we’ve seen some pretty outrageous visions of vertical greenery that skyscrapers probably can’t actually support, ultramodern residences spliced into remote cliffs, and other concepts that are unlikely to ever be built as they’re pictured in initial renderings.

But in the process of making such ideas workable, there’s often middle ground to be found. When there’s plenty of money available for the project, things that seem improbable sometimes manage to materialize, and smaller details can always be easily modified. Other times, even renderings that look so spectacular they can’t possibly become reality defy all expectations. But perhaps the best creative architectural renderings of all break out of contemporary constraints to hurtle us into a more interesting future.

Polish architect and designer Bartosz Domiczek has built an impressive portfolio brimming with these kinds of buildings, some more futuristic than others. While those straddling massive waterfalls (or designed for other planets altogether) are more conceptual, some are fully ready to go, despite being very different from most architecture seen in cities today.

“Henge Hill” is one of those creations. It takes the footprint of an old farm storage building set upon picturesque olive slopes in an unnamed Mediterranean region and crafts the remaining “ruins” into a protective shell, which is itself “restored and anchors the new suites of rooms deep in genius loci.”

These types of adaptive reuse projects can be pretty striking in rural areas, and they’re only growing more common. Real-life examples like renovated stone ruins in Portugal by N2X Aarquitectos and on the Azores island of Pico by SAMI Architects keep some of the original dilapidated structures intact, nestling modern architectural elements within them to retain a contrast between old and new. But “Henge Hill” takes this idea a few steps further in a few different ways.

First, there’s the rounded shape. Within the original ruins, rooms are arranged around a central courtyard that opens to the sky. The outermost ring of the home is left open to the outdoors, as well, creating a semicircle of indoor-outdoor space looking out across the landscape.

Then there’s the way this circle merges with a second one that’s built just slightly higher up on the terraced landscape. Impressively, this swimming pool is as large as the entire home. Inside, the decor is bright, livable, and accented by all sorts of interesting textures, like the brick floors set into hexagonal shapes seen throughout.

This dwelling has plenty of futuristic flair to it without feeling like an impossibility — and it makes us wonder why there aren’t a whole lot more round homes out there.

If you’d like to see more home concepts in a similar vein, check out Domiczek’s “Northern Wisps” cabin, “Hoodoo House,” which was built among natural rock formations, and “The Outpost,” a tropical home that looks primed to survive whatever challenge climate change might throw at it.

The post Henge Hill: Circular Home Contained Within a Shell of Ruins first appeared on Dornob.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The post Modern Accents Meet Historic Stone in Dublin’s Bolton Coach House first appeared on Dornob.

Together with the International Olympic Committee, Beijing has set out to make things right by taking a more sustainable approach to hosting the winter games in 2022. As the first city in the world to host both the Summer and Winter Olympics, Beijing will integrate its venues from 2008 and other urban structures into a spectacular new setting for cold weather sports. This complex will host curling, ice hockey, skating, snowboarding, and freestyle skiing, while the nearby towns of Chongli and Yangqing will host alpine skiing, sliding, and all other snow events.

Architecture firm Maison h won a competition to design a stunning Winter Olympic Museum in Chongli — the first museum of its kind anywhere in the world. With solar panels mounted to the roof and a self-shading design that protects its interiors from the harsh local climate, it will run entirely on renewable energy.

The coolest part of the museum is definitely a new ski slope that will pass under an existing highway, terminating adjacent to the building itself. It’ll also have a dedicated Olympic Academy with libraries and research facilities focused on the Winter Olympics, a virtual reality experience center, and a cable car station.

“A new highway and high-speed train will connect the Chongli region to Beijing in 46 minutes,” says Maison h. “For Chongli, this is a critical opportunity to become the center of development of winter sports in China, utilizing its natural mountainous resources and giving back long-term opportunities for the rural region.”

“It is in this spirit that the Chongli local government conceived a plan to revitalize the town center with the addition of the world’s first Winter Sports Museum and Academy to best convey the Olympic spirit to future generations. Following an open public bidding process, maison h was selected for a competition with two other teams for both the building design and town center redevelopment.”

The building’s design takes inspiration from the surrounding landscape, with each level sloping to ground level to provide direct access. Maison h weaves different programmatic elements together to create layers of light, airy spaces with plenty of opportunities for exploration and interaction. The firm adds that the complex will showcase “a twofold strategy of reuse and rejuvenation for urban venues and sustainable development for regional venues providing infrastructure and long-term benefits to rural regions.”

Of course, the sustainability of the new complex hinges on whether or not it’s actually successful in drawing in millions of urbanites to ski each winter, long after the 2022 games are over. And while it’s great that many of the 2008 structures will finally be cleaned up and/or reused, one can only hope that they’ll have a better plan for reusing many of the other elements that go into the games this time around.

The post A Ski Slope Passes Beneath a Highway at the Beijing Winter Olympic Museum first appeared on Dornob.

Planted rooftops can also help lessen heat exposure, reducing the need for air conditioning outside. But one of the biggest benefits of a usable rooftop is its ability to expand access to the outdoors. Many existing houses could be modified to support retrofits, but building new ones specifically with this feature in mind allows for even more creative possibilities.

With “The Red Roof,” a house in the Vietnamese province of Quang Ngai, TAA Design shows how to take full advantage of a small plot of land without sacrificing access to nature or the ability to grow food. The total area of the property is just 80 square meters (861 square feet), which could have easily led to an unsatisfying compromise between indoor and outdoor space in a more conventional house/yard arrangement. Set on the main road of a rural village that has seen rapid urbanization in recent years, the house was designed to meet the needs of a married couple in their 50s who wanted access to garden space and room to dry rice paddy after harvesting.

The architects immediately knew that maintaining this kind of traditional lifestyle would be hard in a community where big, modern houses were increasingly infringing upon the remaining green space. They decided to go with a stepped roof design full of built-in planters to make gardening tasks as easy as possible on the aging couple. The house itself stretches to the full boundaries of the property, maximizing space inside as well as creating room for numerous courtyards outside, complete with a bicycle repair space, traditional outdoor wood stove, paddy drying yards, a rice warehouse, chicken yards, and more.

The TAA team adds: “In the search of a new appropriate typology for the context, we [were] convinced that adapting the new architecture based on the traditional cultural lifestyle of the couple [was] the most important task. Vegetable gardens and multi-purpose playgrounds become the soul of houses in this village. We proposed small courtyards in the front, middle, and back of the house to connect indoor spaces with nature. Instead of having a large yard like other houses in the village, we create[d] many courtyards with different heights suitable for the height of the house structure. On the mezzanine floor, there is a small yard connected to the yard in the middle of the house.”

“The rooftop garden is adjacent to the courtyard of the mezzanine floor, creating a playground and vegetable garden that connects from the roof to the ground floor. The products from the garden go directly to everyday meals, fresh and always available. The couple has happy hours together growing their own food, and a lot of times, sharing their products with the neighbor[ing] families. The architecture has [unexpectedly] been generating community social interactions as its by-product. The rooftop garden also has the role of insulating the house. The internal temperature is significantly reduced compared to [that of houses employing] corrugated steel [rooftops].”

The post Stepped Rooftop Creates Space for Urban Farming in Vietnam first appeared on Dornob.

The defense is often that there’s no money for an elevator and no room for a ramp. And in crowded urban spaces, building a ramp with the gentle grade required to make it usable can, indeed, take up quite a bit of space — but that certainly doesn’t mean it’s impossible. A recent project called “Song House” by AZL Architects demonstrates a smart approach to exactly that problem.

In China, many rural villages have high populations of elderly people living in places that aren’t well-equipped to meet their needs as they age. Meanwhile, younger generations flock to bigger cities to find work and raise their families. AZL explains that the past 40 years of rapid urbanization in China have caused a “hollowing-out” of millions of old, culturally significant villages. But these rural places still have something to offer all generations of families.

The architects state: “The natural humanistic values of rural settlements need to be reactivated through new production cycles and lifestyles. Shanghai, having the highest GDP in China and being a world-famous metropolis, is also facing difficulties and conflicts between its urban and suburban [populations]. Those living in the city are constantly under the pressure of high living costs, [while] the declining of rural communities and human settlements in suburbs is happening at the same time.”

The answer might lie in redeveloping these suburban and rural communities in a way that makes them appealing and accessible to people of all ages, says AZL. Their client for “Song House,” retired electrician Lao Song, needed to take in his elderly mother, but his apartment in Shanghai just wasn’t designed for it. He and his wife dreamed of moving back to their hometown of Nanson Village to demolish their dilapidated family home and build something new “suitable for both the elderly and the young.”

“In order to help relieve the living pressure of their daughter and son-in-law, Lao Song and his wife thought about inviting the parents of their son-in-law, who are in bad health conditions, to return to the Fengxian countryside together with them and take care of each other in their old ages. For this to happen, the families almost spent all of their savings as normal working-class [people]. This house also embodies the beautiful imagination and anticipation of a relaxed rural life for these families of eight.”

The architects’ solution was a multi-story concrete home arranged around an atrium —an update to the traditional Chinese courtyard house that’s fallen out of favor in recent decades. An external ramp visibly wraps around the outside of the house, reaching each of the three stories so the oldest generation of both families can get around while maintaining a sense of privacy and independence for everyone.

The atrium offers “a center of space and daily activities,” and off of it five bedrooms are splayed, each facing a different direction. Wheelchair accessible restrooms are located next to some of the bedrooms, though all parts of the house have their own small sitting areas. The interiors are designed to promote intergenerational contact and assistance while offering the refuge of private spaces when they’re desired.

This home may be located in a rural area, where there tends to be more space for such constructions, but it’s a beautiful example of thinking outside the box to be more inclusive of anyone who might want to enter. More than that, it turns an accessibility feature into an integral part of the design, and it looks fantastic to boot.

The post Accessibility Gets Graphic with a Cool Wraparound Wheelchair Ramp first appeared on Dornob.