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Surreal French Public Building Evokes Magritte

A gigantic yellow foyer five stories high dwarfs the small human by the doorway of “La Cite Des Affaires” in Saint-Etienne by Manuelle Gautrand Architecture, yet with its childlike and cheery color and goofy windows, the entry is not forbidding or grand.

These simultaneously imposing and yet almost comic spaces that all frame various sky views in surrealistic ways are created as ways into a government office building complex.

Look at how the sliver of sky from this angle perfectly frames, echoes and reverses the shape of the building seen through the canopy.

Here, another void space as real as the volume it contains, creates a gigantic frame for the sky.

Does this remind you of the surreality of Magritte’s art – which is about – ahem – about dealing with faceless bureaucracies? Read the rest of this entry »

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Ugly Office Building is Renovated into an Airy Japanese Live/Work

What a unique idea: climbing on a centrally placed boxy piece of furniture to get up to the bright day light of the upper floor.

Making the furniture/staircase a beautiful piece of furniture in its own right makes the strange idea feel legitimate.

This box shape in the middle of the open space seems almost as if it was cut from the floor above.

The storage box-stair accessing the top floor is the central conceit in the renovation of an old Tokyo office building, by Torafu Architects.

Before conversion, the 40 year old spaces were poky and dark, with tiny partitions cutting off the daylight all around the building.

Now the morning sun streams right in to the library/work area in a flexible loft-type space that also hosts the dressing room and sleeping.

In traditional Japanese style, for sleeping: a tatami mat is rolled out on the floor at night and is just completely packed away in the morning. Read the rest of this entry »

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A Gorgeous, Sophisticated yet Family-Friendly Glass House

This elegant and simple glass house from Govaert & Vanhoutte is set in a clearing, but surrounded by trees whose high canopy of leaves bathe this swimming child in dappled sunlight.

The house is a long, narrow glass box. In front is what seems to be a narrow lap pool.

It is wider than it looks as it extends an equal distance underground, beneath the concrete walkway, which acts as a pool cover, keeping warmth in.

Because half the width of the pool is under the walkway, the pool doubles as part of the front lawn too.

Bedrooms on the semi-below ground floor overlook the pool which spatially appears to extend the bedrooms viewed from this level.

The rigorously simple design makes a lovely glass house that both encourages a healthy childhood and is uncompromisingly elegant and minimal.

This kitchen cabinetry – which is simply floor to ceiling – is the most complete storage imaginable.

It makes for the most uncluttered kitchen ever! And the floor to roof-sized exit to the front lawn is simply a huge glass wall. Read the rest of this entry »

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Design Dilemma: Modern Cabin, in the Woods

Summertime is when many of us head to our cabin in the woods or on the beach.  A retreat from the frenetic chaos of daily life, our simple rustic cabins represent an opportunity to relax and smell the pine needles or the salty sea air. But the cabin retreat has come quite a long way from Thoreau’s rustic shack on Walden Pond. Today, the cabin, while still simple, has gone starkly modern.

For example, the cabin retreat above and below, located in Vermont, has all the simple character of any humble cabin in the woods. But what makes the space feel modern are the soaring ceilings and bright open spaces.

eclectic family room design by burlington photographer Susan Teare, Professional Photographer

Here’s another view:

modern dining room design by burlington architect Joan Heaton Architects

And if you prefer a modern cabin at the seashore, check out the modern space below, located outside Seattle, WA:

• Open Space. Modern requires one big open living space rather than a warren of small rooms.
• Lots of Light. In all three of our examples, natural light plays a starring role.  All of our cabins feature large picture windows that connect the indoors to the outdoors.
• Open Kitchen. In a modern and more informal life, most people prefer to keep the kitchen open to the living room for easy entertaining.
• Lighter or white-washed wood finishes. Wood will always be a big feature of cabin life but our modern renditions choose lighter varieties and finishes of wood with a breezier feeling.
• No clutter and no “country” tchotchkes. Modern cabin owners feel no need to decorate with wagon wheels, fishing nets, or any of the stereotypical country fare of bygone years. The only star in this show is simplicity, clean lines, and a direct connection to nature. Even Thoreau would approve.

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A Transparent Jungle Treehouse in Brazil

Nitsche Arquitetos Associados designed this house located in Iporanga on Sao Paulo’s coast in Brazil.

The client wanted to experience the surrounding natural jungle, in a protected area of the original Atlantic Rainforest.

While disturbing the surrounding rainforest as little as possible, the client needed five bedrooms.

So the house has a tall footprint – making a tree house.

The upper floor accommodates five bedrooms, one for the couple, one each for three children and a guest bedroom.

The volume of the upper floor creates a shadow on the slab, and the architect used that shadow for the social area underneath. Read the rest of this entry »