Chan Architecture Have Designed A Couple Of Townhouses In Melbourne

Chan Architecture have recently completed the Hawthorn East Townhouses in Melbourne, Australia. Modern in their design and nearly identical, the townhouses are set at different heights making each home distinctive. The exterior of the townhouses have lightweight, black aluminium batten screening over the large windows, and metal cladding is used to provide a sleek look. Entering into one of the townhouses, you walk down a hallway before arriving in the living room.

Once in the living room, large folding glass doors can be opened to reveal an outdoor patio with dining area. Back inside, the couch in the living room sits in front of a set of large windows making this light room even brighter. Light wood cabinets and open shelving have been designed to surround the fireplace and provide ample storage.

In the kitchen, a large white island sits below two pendant lamps in the kitchen, and white rectangular tiles have been used as a backsplash. Light wood cabinets tie in with the cabinets in the living room and the counter stools.

Half-Sunk in the Dune House

Located on the island of Terschelling in the Netherlands, Dune House by Marc Koehler Architects rises over the harsh terrain, offering views of the North Sea. Its shape resembles a wooden diamond, which varies in angle and exposure as the visual perspective shifts. According to the architects, “the forces of nature prevalent in the environment.

This New Wood Filled Home Overlooks The Bushland Below

The home, designed by Shaun Lockyer Architects, has large swimming pool, with a sun deck for relaxing on hot days.

A 1960s House Is Given A Contemporary Update With More Space For Living*

Hidden behind the unassuming 1960’s facade of this house in Melbourne, Australia, is a large extension with a swimming pool and entertaining area, which is all part of the renovation of the home that was designed by Bower Architecture. The home has been designed in U-shaped arrangement around a central outdoor space with modern landscaping.

Dwell + Design Space Collaboration for Dwell on Design 2016*

Dwell on Design (DOD) has established an advertising trade with Design Space Magazine. This year, Dwell on Design has several new and exciting collaborations that are sure to give increased exposure to an international audience of architects, designers and enthusiasts alike. Dwell on Design LA 2016 – The 11th annual DODLA returns June 24-26 to the Los Angeles Convention Center.*

Spanish designer Jose A. Gandia-Blasco, has designed the Cristal Box for GANDIABLASCO. It is a glass-enclosed shelter that lets you seek refuge from the elements, but at the same time you get to admire the surrounding scenery.

Architecture and design firm TACT, have completed the Heathdale Residence, a home for family in Toronto, Canada.

T/A House is a private residence located in Tel Aviv, Israel.

The contemporary house was designed by Paritzki & Liani Architects in 2015.

Feldman Architecture have designed a house in San Francisco, California, for a couple with three children.

A small green roof adds some life to the top floor of the home, which also offers views of Twin Peaks and Mount Sutro.

Purchase Here: http://www.designspacemagazine.com

Moshe Safdie’s “Habitat 67”

       Moshe Safdie’s “Habitat 67” is an iconic landmark that has inspired architecture since its inception in 1967. This apartment building in Montreal, Canada, offers tenants the possibility of living in a village-like atmosphere within a high-rise context. The stacking of each apartment allows each tenant to have a one-of-a-kind unit layout while sharing a garden terrace with an adjoining tenant. The only commonality of these unique spaces is the panoramic view of the city skyline across the St-Lawrence river below.

7 Examples Of Windows Designed For Sitting*

       

Design Space FALL 2015 LUXE Issue™

Get copies of our “LUXE” Issue | Fall 2015 via our website:http://www.designspacemagazine.com.

A Mid-Century Modern Update In Marinwood

Building Lab designed a contemporary renovation of the Appleberry Drive Residence, an original Eichler house in Marinwood, California. As can be said of most Eichlers, this was a great house to begin with. By means of the subtle rather than the grand, we strove to re-invigorate the modesty, simplicity and clarity of the original design.

Visua Perspectives:  The Edge House in Kraków, Poland

While building the contemporary Edge House in Kraków, Poland, the developing team at Mobius Architecture managed to cleverly reinterpret the local law requiring a traditional shape: “The house owes its narration to a local anomaly: a slope plot with a view on the mountains surrounding Krakow is knifed through by an 8 meter lime rock. All houses in this location must have pitched roofs with eaves and 37 degree slopes. Tilted walls hence become the pitched roof required by law. The outcome is a quadric-prism form located in the upper part of the plot with an extension over the edge of the slope”, explained the architects.

OakPast Guest by Walker Workshop

OakPast Guest by Walker Workshop

“The Oak Pass Road guesthouse uses its height and a small footprint to maximize panoramic canyon views and strengthen its connection to the surrounding tree-filled site. The lower level consists of a rehabbed and enlarged barn and newly constructed living spaces. The upper floor is clad in wood and has bedrooms at opposite corners of the floating volume.”

Barton Hills Residence by A Parallel Architecture

Nestled into the edge of a hilltop in South Austin, this new construction home sits on one of the highest points within the city limits, offering panoramic skyline and hill-country views. Due to the steep approach to the house, the building is partially sunken into the earth, allowing for vehicular access and parking below, as well as elevated living spaces above, including a deep shaded roof deck. The split-level design allows the building to comply with city development restrictions while maximizing views out and privacy from the street below. The building is vertically stratified across the split-level configuration, housing vehicles on the lowest level, public space and secondary sleeping rooms at the rear yard level above, storage and mechanical on the interstitial 3rd level, and a generous master suite with lounge and roof deck on the 4th. This stratification allows for a wide variety of spatial experiences and view opportunities as one ascends the central stair tower. The tectonic design reinforces this vertical procession, starting with a heavy concrete plinth that retains earth at the sunken garage and becomes the foundation, exposed steel wide-flange beams which support the heavy loads of the second story and roof deck, and cantilevered glulam beams at the high roof, that taper up to the sky and orient this level to its primary downtown view. Built-in rooftop planters screen undesirable neighboring views while offering privacy to the master suite. An exterior stair connects the roof deck with the private rear yard, where a generous covered porch shades the west-facing window wall and serves as an outdoor living room.

Madison Park House by First Lamp

Situated on an existing steep slope lot in the Madison Park neighborhood of Seattle the house grows out of the hillside and allows the main living space to float out amongst the trees. This 3,200 sf, 5 Bedroom house will be an energy star certified residence and is targeted to be 4-star built green.

Daunting and stubborn while also inspiring, the site was our true client . A handful of landslides had occurred here in past years, so this tucked-away location had been ignored or avoided until recently. After a series of site visits with our “ground team” (engineers, excavator, and foundation subcontractors), we came to understand two things: 1) That development here would actually increase the stability of the site and 2) It would therefore be an asset to the surrounding landscape and community.

Aroeira III House by ColectivArquitectura

Amchit Residence by BLANKPAGE

The Amchit Residence thrives in a landscape fruited with citrus, olive, and sea-salted palm trees. The building is cinematic in perspective, laid out with the same down-the-corridor viewpoint of a Stanley Kubrick film. It is a scene that leads the eye not to twin ghosts, or a mysterious door, but to sea, ever out to sea. Intersecting the expansive third-tier sun deck is a lap pool. It glows Tron-like, as little horizontal lights fluoresce and ripple against the blue. The residence seems destined for evening dinner parties, where diffused light illumines wood and concrete walkways, to then dissipate in the openness of the layout. Think of the metal rail-lined esplanade like a yacht deck, stretching out in parallel to the horizon. And though it’s no Titanic, it has the same rich freedom of space, an open connection to the landscape.

Man’s Choice 2 by at26

Architect George Brooke-Kothlow Leave his Footprint in Big Sur

Ocean Park House by Campos Leckie Studio

This project is conceived as a domestic landscape that blurs the boundary between interior and exterior space in a temperate coastal rainforest climate. It is essentially a ranch house typology with a guest house stacked upon it – for an physically active empty nest couple who enjoy the idea of welcoming family home for the holidays. The domestic program is spread across the entire site, and the vertical vertical circulation is deliberately understated.

The programmatic organization allows the primary residents to live entirely on the ground floor. The japanese-inspired courtyard ‘moss garden’ operates as a multi-faceted architectural device – it provides circulation along the primary project axis from the main entry through to the backyard pool and workout pavilion; it provides a visual extension of the living room into the garden; and the sliding glass doors in the kitchen (conceived as a glass box in the garden) open directly into the courtyard and the outdoor dining space beyond. The central living space is bracketed on the south side by a large concrete fireplace which provides privacy from the street, and it extends visually into the mossy minimalist courtyard to the north. The orientation, form, and positioning of the upper volume was designed to protect against direct solar gain during the summer months, while allowing light at lower sun angles to penetrate into the spaces during the winter months.

Mill Valley Residence by CCS Architecture

This 5,000-square-foot house in Mill Valley was designed as a home for an empty-nester couple. The site was the inspiration and the guiding element for the architecture: vast views of Mt. Tamalpais, intimate connections to groves of redwood trees, and a steep incline. Given its location, stepping up the hillside and squeezed between redwoods, the home is stratified into three levels. The lower floor is built into the hillside, while the upper two are open to daylight and views. The first floor includes the garage, entry, painting studio, gallery, and guest quarters. The entry is a two-story space with a staircase leading up to the second floor—the main living level–which connects to the outside with views in many directions. This double-height space, the spatial core of the house, has a large bay of windows focused on a grove of redwood trees just 10 feet away. The top floor contains two bedrooms, a home office, and a ramped bridge that leads to an upper yard and pool. Natural copper is the primary exterior material, wrapping the second floor of the house to emphasize the location of the main living spaces. Walls below the second level are exposed concrete; those above are cement plaster. The interior evokes the feeling of a gallery in the country, with white walls, expanses of glass, and wide-plank oak floors.

 Cloud Street Residence by AWA

Cloud Street House began as a cramped 900 SF cottage on a 50’x100’ lot. Budget constraints required a single story solution, achieved by reusing the existing foundation while adding 500 SF of flexible indoor/outdoor space. The final design features abundant natural light, sustainable materials, and fully integrated indoor/outdoor rooms. The primary goals of the project require completely rethinking the existing ill-conceived spaces, improving the overall flow to enhance connections to the outdoors and bring in as much daylight as possible. With this degree of compactness, all living spaces need to “work hard”, with every element serving double duty. The new floor plan is organized along a vaulted central spine separating public and private zones. Large glazed bi-fold doors open the dining room to the patio, creating a courtyard. By maximizing the connection to the yards and creating accessible outdoor rooms, the entire site becomes integral to the everyday life of the homeowners and their young children. Although the finished house is a modest 1465 SF, it feels much larger because of its comfortable volume. The roofline is entirely reworked to vault the ceilings and allow for clerestory windows. The house is now maximally flooded with daylight for its orientation, passively warming the house in winter and contributing to natural ventilation in summer.

Russet Residence by Slyce Design

Russet Residence is a 4,600 square feet home located on a steep slope of land in West Vancover, Canada. This modern house was completed last year by Splyce Design, literally embracing nature. The house’s front was tucked into the hill while the rear of it opens to the ocean. The objective for this project was to create a relaxing home environment fully connected to the landscape. Floor-to-ceiling glass panels substitute regular walls allowing residents to enjoy the lush and uninterrupted vegetation. Cedar trees and and Douglas fir are so close that it feels like your living room and the woods are one.

Villa Chiberta – Atelier Delphine Carrere

The Villa Chiberta by Atelier Delphine Carrere finds its place in a big forest of pines near the beach. These great trees draw a vertical line which mirrors that of the wooden cladding of the house. From the road, the view of the architecture is very different from the feeling on property – the house isn’t very open in an effort to preserve the occupant’s privacy, leaving only very specific views of the landscape. From the swimming pool, large openings offer a great inside-outside connection. The living room, as a cabin, overhangs the swimming area and faces the wooded surroundings. The night space is situated on the garden level, with large sliding wooden panels, and the master bedroom is located in the highest point of the house offering a 360-degree view.

The Modern Closet – Organization at Home

Once you decide­ to get organized, the hardest step to take is committing yourself to the first organizing project. After that, the rest is easy; it’s simply a matter of learning the principles of organizing, following a sensible sequence in organizing, and visualizing and defining a precise objective. In this article we will reveal some valuable tips when it comes to organizing your closet.  You have two options for organizing: You can either do it yourself or call in a professional organizer. Most professional organizing companies are limited to dealing w­ith closets or garages, leaving the rest of the house to your own devices. Some companies may help with custom cabinetry for dens, kitchens, or bathrooms, and their professional designers can help with pricing and selection of materials. But this type of help has little or nothing to do with the principles of organizing. Evaluate each of the areas you plan to organize and determine which one causes the most distress; start by organizing that. If you are using outside help, formulate a list of specific requirements you consider vital to the good use of the space, the protection of your possessions, and your own peace of mind. It’s a good idea to consult with two or three different organizing firms before choosing one. And do some research on your own to gain as much knowledge on the subject as possible. Don’t be hesitant about discussing and listening to suggestions; the more information and strategies you digest, the better the outcome will be. Remember, you have the final word on every decision. Don’t automatically accede to every recommendation the representative makes unless you understand and agree with the reason for its inclusion. (Do the same for your own personal design.) You will regret it later if you simply turn the matter over to a consultant. You must be involved, since only you know your needs and preferences.

Modern Family Retreat in Mexico: Fatima House

Fatima House by Jorge Hernández de la Garza  is a modern family retreat located in Del Valle, one of the most traditional neighborhoods in Mexico City. The project started by studying the site conditions and designing a rational square floor plan in which every space was used the best way possible. Especially designed for a young couple, the architectonic program consists of a main level where the social areas are located, with an inviting living room, dining room, bar, wine cellar, kitchen and family room. The second floor accommodates the bedrooms and a studio. According to the house plans below, there is also a third level, where the service ares are located.

Winsomere Crescent House by Dorrington Architects & Associates

A contemporary home incorporates the charming but time-worn house, and capitalizes on the stunning views on offer.  The original house on this waterfront site was a double-skin brick bungalow with warren-like rooms and little connection with the foreshore. The clients liked the traditional detailing of the existing house but wanted to maximize the aspect and views.  Philosophically, a renovation was preferred to a new build and as a result, the focus of the design was on an amalgam of the old and new structures.  Formally the house comprises two existing and two new blocks, linked by the hallway, foyer and stairs. The existing blocks contain two brick-clad and lined bedrooms, an office and an original art deco bathroom. The new blocks contain the living spaces in a zinc-clad apexed void, and the master suite in a cedar-screened block. These sit on a lower level plinth, which houses a guest bedroom, bathroom, laundry and media room.  The original brickwork has been stripped back and painted white as part of the re-presentation of the old house, and is further enhanced by the refinished interior doors, double-glazed existing lead-light windows and timber details.  The house is directed to the view and is arranged so that, on entry from the street, there is a natural progression from the original house through to the new. From the foyer, stairs lead down to the living areas, and the asymmetrically framed view is revealed.

Lady Peel House by Atelier Reza Aliabadi

   The Birthplace of Beatrice Lillie known as Lady Peel, over a century old, is now rejuvenated and playing a new role. With respect for the actress who once lived there, the house inherits a talent: playing a new role while living in the same skin. The reformation of the house takes a responsible approach towards the neighborhood and the adjacent buildings by focusing the transformation on the interior spaces and minimizing it on the exterior façade. The exterior alterations are limited to the careful enlargement of the windows and the exposure of the brick structure underneath the previous cladding. The 60’ x 15’ house gives the architect an opportunity to emphasize on linearity of spaces. By eliminating the unnecessary elements in the floor plans, the house is transformed into continuous open-concept spaces in which natural light makes a soft voyage and exaggerates the length of the rooms.

The Dixon House by Designgroup Stapleton Elliott

Our client’s brief required the creation of a weekend retreat as a place to relax, enjoy the rural landscape and share with family and friends. The site is located in an established residential estate adjacent to the local golf course. This large 5,000sqm north facing green-field site gently slopes up from the road. The southern boundary is marked by an elevated mound, which then drops sharply to the perimeter boundary. This area is densely planted. Creation of a flat platform cut into the middle of the site offered the best aspect for the proposed dwelling. This area is elevated by approximately two metres above the access road with views to the north east towards the golf course and east and south west to the distant Wairarapa mountain ranges.

House Boz by Nico van der Meulen Architects

House Boz situated on a hill within a secluded nature estate in Pretoria East was originally destined for a very different location on a hillside in Mafikeng. The client requested a spacious and luxurious four bedroom house with an emphasis placed on the design of the living rooms. Ensuring that the magnificent views were optimized was of utmost importance and the design of this 770 m ² house responds well not only to the client’s requirements but also to the context of the site. The concept of a bush lodge arose from the vastness of the site and the natural setting of the stand within the estate. Werner van der Meulen of Nico van der Meulen Architects was inspired to design a house that resembled a bush lodge in the way it responds to nature and its immediate surroundings. Translating this concept into a contemporary home was almost effortless thanks to the location, orientation and natural beauty of the site.

Kessel-Lo House by NU Architectuuratelier

Squam Residence on Nantucket Island

Malcolm Brooks from Malcom Designs revamped J. Brown Builders website a few days ago and he was kind enough to send us hires photos of the Squam Residence that was recently completed by the builder. This custom family home is located on Nantucket, an island 30 miles (48 km) south of Cape Cod, Massachusetts, USA. Nantucket has a rigid building code that preserves the historical characters of buildings: all new houses must have pitched roofs, not flat ones, and their external walls must be covered with unpainted shingles.

Original Roof Car Park Defining Contemporary Residence in LA

When approached with the challenge of designing a contemporary house with a parking lot for two cars, Anonymous Architects came up with a daring architecture concept. Car Park House in Los Angeles, California switches between the position of the open-air “garage” and the living spaces, located below: “In addition to being a dramatic shift of expectations, it is also a logical response to the building code which requires parking for two vehicles“, the architects explained. When it came to presenting this project, what caught our attention was the crazy idea of literally driving your car on the roof of your house.

Limantos Residence by Fernanda Marques

   Architect Fernanda Marques has designed the Limantos Residence located in São Paulo, Brazil.

Modern Design for Two-Level House Extension in Australia

The unconventional two-level house extension features an original angular roof contributing to the aerodynamic shape of the bungalow-inspired building. Excavated into the ground, the garage area was left open, while the upper volume was enclosed by glass. It is here that the extra bedrooms and bathrooms are located. “The new extension is not meant to be sympathetic to an older style but rather has been shaped by the clients’ brief, solar access and one of Melbourne’s best views back onto the city,” explained the architects.

Zero Energy House by BLAF Architecten

“Belgium is one of the most dense, yet endlessly dispersed areas in Europe, and has come to a point where the existing models for spatial development, often based on private ownership of land, are no longer justifiable. The ambition of this project in Asse was not to criticize this situation, but to explore an alternative and positive approach, and cause a shift in the behavior that created this problem, reflecting the architects’ research into the generating capacity of architecture on a spatial, social and ecological level. The site of the house is in a leftover lot in a 1960s housing development. By designing the front yard of the house as a semi-public playground, and by using the front facade of the house as a drawing board, this house becomes a more social and hospitable element in the neighborhood  The unexpected introduction of the semi-public space dislocates the allotment’s rigid concepts of privacy and territory. The topography and orientation of the site, and the passive house principals have lead to an efficient skin design that embodies the transparency, flexibility and interaction of the house.”

Albizia House by Metropole Architects

We were commissioned to design a contemporary family home on a one acre site, situated at the end of a spur, in Simbithi Eco-Estate. The client’s brief called for a home with an overriding sense of simplicity but with a high degree of sophistication. All the living areas and bedroom suites face onto a panoramic vista, which includes a dense forest down-slope from the house. The palette of natural materials including timber screens, decking and cladding, off-shutter concrete and stone cladding juxtapose with the aggressive architectural form making, creating a home that is not only visually and spatially exciting, but also comfortable and intimate. The extensive use of water in the design of the home includes a 25 metre lap pool with a glass panel between the water and the basement cinema room, and a shallow but expansive reflective pond on the approach side, which mirrors the building day and night, and evokes a sense of tranquility. The architectural style of the home is heavily influenced by the ‘Googie’ architecture of the American architect John Lautner. The origin of the name ‘Googie’ dates to 1949, when architect John Lautner designed the West Hollywood coffee shop, ‘Googies’, which had distinct architectural characteristics. ‘Googie’ architecture is a form of modern architecture and a subdivision of futurist architecture with stylistic conventions influenced by, and representing 50’s American society’s fascination and marketing emphasis on futuristic design, car culture, jets, the Space Age, and the Atomic Age. ‘Googie’ was also characterized by design forms symbolic of motion, including upswept roofs, curvaceous geometric shapes, and the bold use of glass, steel and neon, the spirit of which is embodied in Albizia House.

The Forest House by EMA

The house is located in the mountains of Mazamitla, 120 kilometres away from Guadalajara (Mexico), in a steeply sloping terrain surrounded by a thick pine forest. Rocks, soil, rain, pines, fog … the beauty of the landscape and the natural elements in the site are the premise and constant inspiration for the project. The house comes out from the stones found in the site, which shape the containing walls and the basement of the house. The intersection of two volumes at different heights generates a path in the landscape, which makes the most of the natural slope and emphasizes the panoramic views. The entrance to the house is sandwiched between the stones of the mountain and a wall with a direct view from inside the house to the same stonewall. This access corridor hidden and closed between artificial and natural elements provides some drama upon entering the house. From this corner you enter the closed space generated by the union of the two main volumes. This is a double-height space corresponding to a cube of 7 meters side, which provides wide views to the landscape. So the contrast is emphasized: the threshold turns into limit and, at the same time, connection between these so dramatically different scenarios. All the other areas of the house are accessible from this double-height space. On the same floor, there are three of the five bedrooms connected by a corridor characterized by a large elongated window that frames the stones of the site, thus strengthening the dialogue with the landscape. On the upper floor, connected by a bridge-walkway, are the other two rooms: the grandparents’ (homeowners) and their grandchildren’s. On the lower level, the volume that contains the living area hides below the main entrance and comes out from the ground in a protagonist way meeting the foliage of the pines. This rectangular wooden “box” reminiscent of the “tree house” frames from above the wooded landscape that surrounds it.

Haptic Chair by Trine Kjaer Design Studio

Trine Kjaer Design Studio have designed the Haptic Chair.

Westbury Crescent Residence by David Barr Architect

“A 65 square meter alterations and addition to the rear of an existing Federation brick and tile house which aims to extend the perceptual space of the project. Daylight is funneled deep from the north, morning light reflected in from the east, filtered zenithal light washed down from above and ambient light scooped inwards from the south. These same apertures capture visual moments from both the adjacent and surrounding site through a large northern glazed and screen sliding wall, a considered eastern slither and a southern clerestory window projected beyond the buildings edge. The project is formally manipulated to sculpt atmospheric and functional light into designed spaces thus turning an originally introverted residence inside-out. The project is located near the Swan River in the southern suburb of Bicton. It is a small alterations and additions, that replaced a derelict, lean-to at the rear of an existing Federation brick and tile house. In the east by an attached neighboring dwelling with an irregular eastern boundary, a 6m high boundary parapet wall to the north and shared access right of way to the south. The project therefore sought to extend perceptual space through the considered placement of apertures capturing visual moments far beyond the prescribed site boundary. The external and internal form of the new work was manipulated to sculpt atmospheric and functional light into crafted spaces, thus turning the originally introverted residence inside-out. One enters, through a small light filled aperture located at the end of the generously volumed hallway of the existing residence.”

Winsomere Crescent by Dorrington Architects

“The original house on this waterfront site was a double-skin brick bungalow with warren-like rooms and little connection with the amazing views on offer. Time-worn but sturdy, the clients liked the traditional detailing of the existing house but wanted to maximize the sun and views. Philosophically, a renovation was preferred to a new build and the brief required a contemporary home incorporating the existing. As a result, the focus of the design was on an amalgam of the old and new structures. Formally the house comprises two existing and two new blocks, linked by the hallway, foyer and stairs. The existing blocks contain two brick-clad and lined bedrooms, an office and an original art deco bathroom. The new blocks contain the living spaces in a zinc-clad apexed void, and the master suite in a cedar-screened block. These sit on a lower level plinth, which houses a guest bedroom, bathroom, laundry and media room. The original brickwork has been stripped back and painted white as part of the re-presentation of the old house, and is further enhanced by the refinished interior doors, double-glazed existing lead-light windows and timber details. The house is directed to the view and is arranged so that, on entry from the street, there is a natural progression from the original house through to the new. From the foyer, stairs lead down as the asymmetrically framed view is revealed.”

(ST: blankmodeblog.com)