This Jungle Treehouse Apes Trees
This amazing open-air bedroom could only be in the tropics. Full length windows slide all the way back to make sleeping completely open to the air.
The contemporary treehouse in Nigeria is audacious in its embrace of completely open air architecture throughout, with a roof that hovers above the structure itself. So, what does hold the roof up?
The amusing idea of the house is that the roof canopy is supported by the “tree trunks” like the top of a tree — and is entirely unsupported by walls.
In fact, some the interior spaces do have glass clerestory windows, but their generous proportions, and the fact that they continue around the entire house, gives the impression that the open balcony continues throughout.
You Just Snap Together the MIMA House
A revolutionary modular housing invention from Mima Architects could change the way we buy houses. The approachable appeal of clean universal design is just one aspect of the genius of their invention; the MIMA House.
Their beautiful prefab – inspired by the traditional Japanese house, the perfect paradigm for lightness, flexibility, comfort and pleasing lines – is very easily re arranged, in any way that you want, to change the layout.
The exterior window panels can be interspersed with solid panels, in any combination.
The restrained order of Japanese standardized building components appealed to MIMA architects. Based on the modular Japanese Tatami mat, Japanese construction is informed by a deeply rooted culture, confirmed over the centuries, that can easily adapt to new requirements.
Mima have come up with something revolutionary. Finally, a house you can practically put together yourself in an afternoon or two. Really. The MIMA House is modular (see the grooves in the floor?) Walls just snap in. Then the rest is about the details. You can paint the walls yourself. If you are looking for some painting tips check out the residential painting Vancouver guys.
White Cube Vacation Home Zips Closed When Not in Use
How to design a luxurious and large vacation home – that only gets use for a few months each year? It needs to be securely locked up when not in use.
The architect, Jose Kos, makes use of one of the most industrial of solutions to zip it up when not in use – the roll up industry-sized garage door. Several huge rollup doors completely seal up the home like a gigantic warehouse.
Sited near the city of Rio de Janeiro, the house sits on a hillside sculpted into flat lawns so the family’s children can play games.
It is a perfect white cube, at 10 meters by 10 meters by 10 meters, perfectly proportioned. Read the rest of this entry »
Design Dilemma: Understanding Undertones in Paint Colors
You’d think you couldn’t go wrong choosing a selection of beiges to coordinate throughout your home, right?
But then you get those beiges on the wall, and somehow they manage to clash horribly. Or they clash with your beige couch, or your beige carpet.
Why does this happen? In a word, undertones.
Every paint color, even neutrals like whites, beiges and grays have tones. These include mass tones and undertones. Mass tones are the predominant color you see when you look at a color. So the predominant color you see in a beige might be beige. The predominant color you see in a white might be white. But the undertone is the color that is the hint of another color you may see peeking through that first shade.
In a seafoam green, for example, a mass tone might be the green. The undertone is blue. In an olive green, a mass tone might be green, but the undertone would be yellow.
Can you see the undertones in the gray pictured below?
If we were to take a guess from the picture (undertones can look different depending on the time of day and surrounding colors) we’d say this was a warm gray with yellow/green undertones. That’s why it works so well with the accent colors of ivory and yellow in the room.
Most color schemes work best when the undertone is the same. And when you pair colors in the same family that seem to clash when combined together, what you’ve got is a clash of undertones. That explains why some pinkish beiges just don’t seem to work with yellowish beiges or greenish beiges. It also explains why some warm whites with a hint of yellow look odd when combined with cool whites with a hint of blue. It also explains how you can take a certain gray couch, pair it with a gray wall and feel that the color of each has completely changed. Because when you see different colors in the same family paired together, the undertones tend to come jumping out.
Here’s an example of a room with clashing undertones:
The comforter on the bed is yellow with yellow undertones. The taupe/beige walls have pink undertones. While you’re not likely to go screaming out of the room due to its decor, you may feel that something is “off” if you spend time in the room.
How can you learn to recognize undertones in paints before you make a big mistake?
1) Try spreading paint out very thin on a drop cloth. The undertone becomes more apparent as the color becomes more sheer.
2) Compare the color to other shades. Grab a color chart and compare different reds to each other and to a “true” red. You will quickly see that some reds have undertones of yellow and will appear closer to an orange red, while some reds have undertones of blue and will look more violet.
3) Compare your hue to complementary hues. Complementary hues intensify each other. So a great way to tell if a beige has pinkish, yellowish or greenish undertones is to compare it to other hues, like red, yellow or green. If your beige has pink in it, it will appear brighter next to a green than a red or yellow. If your gray has blue in it, you will see it more clearly when it is compared to an orange.
It may take a little practice, but once you’ve learned how to see undertones in paint you’ll find that you can coordinate fabrics, accents, rugs and paint combinations without fear! One other note about undertones: while maintaining consistent undertones is a great rule of thumb, remember that all rules can be broken at the right time and with the right intention.
Curved-Roof Guest House Avoids the Hobbit Look
Curved houses can be at risk of being just a little hokey. But here is one from Sarasota, Florida, that carries it off. There is nothing hobbit-like about this confidently executed structure.
From TOTeMS, this guest-house is sited overlooking a wide river and it offsets a bold, modern curved roof with squared-up structure at the ground level.
There is an element of the “rockabye cradle in the tree tops” here in this mezzanine bedroom, open to the living room behind the bed. What a superb bedroom!
Like an upended boat, the bed appears to be surrounded by water. But the sleeping room is high and dry, way up high in the treetops.
The view of the trees is intimate, up close. Read the rest of this entry »
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