via yatzer
Archives for category: exteriors
All I want for Christmas is a few days in this place… French industrial designer Matali Crasset‘s first forray into architecture – and, I think, her best work to date – the mood of the Dar HI eco retreat is perfection. I love the colours – both natural ones (especially the pink of the Tunisian earth) and the super strong ones (very much the Parisienne’s leitmotif).
In Italian it’s called ‘bellezza aqua e sapone’. The sort of natural glow that comes from feeling good inside your own skin. For me, this house by Rotterdam architects Pasel Kuenzel is that kind of beauty.
I love black window frames in white buildings.
The stunning new ‘destination’ calendar by Milan photographer Gianni Pezzani rewrites the rules.
Layout takes precedence over fancy finishes at the new Bouroullec designed open kitchen spectacular Dos Palillos in Berlin. In what has to be the high water mark in gastronomic voyeurism (or should that be narcissism?), the massive street exposure means it won’t be just the kitchen crew enjoying all the attention. Food for thought too about the way the whole celebrity chef/cult restaurant phenomenon (ex-elBulli star Albert Raurich heads up the kitchen) is changing the way we dine in public.
via designboom
I caught myself watching one of those lifestyle outdoor transformation shows last night. It was a local production, and while admirable for its championing of landscaping for a dry climate, I couldn’t help wishing the team had just taken a step back and looked at how those inventors of the urban condition, the Romans, are still doing their inner city courtyards today. They might make good television, but slatted timber cabanas and funky retro-floral print wallpaper just aren’t quite the answer our gardens are looking for.
This is Puglia on Italy’s southern coast where, a little ironically perhaps, big, honest, hard-working old farmhouses, masserie, are being converted into some of the most beautiful sanctuaries from the stress of modern living on the planet… Just don’t expect a holiday from design.
This new office in the woods outside Madrid is remarkable not least because it doesn’t need to be pristine and people-free to look fantastic… The most soulful and seductive workplace I’ve ever seen is the studio of Spanish architects Selgascano. The highly descriptive photography of Iwan Baan is an added delight.
via dezeen
In an effort to kickstart the building sector, the Italian government is relaxing planning laws and encouraging its mainly apartment-dwelling populus to add a new room or two. Not the worst idea in the world granted, but with Prime Minister Berlusconi content to trust matters of design and aesthetics to the ‘good taste of the Italian people’, it did not take long for Piano Casa to raise the ire of architects and planners all over, including that of the venerable Massimiliano Fuksas.
So with all this in mind, the roof top ‘residential containers’ concept by Czech architects HSH seems like it might be a step in the right direction. The outside of the containers is left in the original rough steel finish – a deliberate ploy designed to neutralise the contrast with the architecture of the host building below. Interiors of course need suffer no such identity crisis. And, best of all, windows are simply cut in as required to frame the view.
