The new Oz Residence by Swatt Miers Architects is located in Silicon Valley, California. This beautiful modern home captures the essence of casual California living with open planning, rich natural materials, and strong visual connection to beautiful gardens designed by landscape architect Ron Herman.
The owners, a young couple with two young children, wanted their home to have a casual, barefoot feel, like a vacation destination. Their 2.8 acre site, with gentle slopes to the south and mature landscaping on all sides was the perfect setting to create a home that would fully engage the beautiful landscape. The home is organized into a ‘L’ shaped plan with 2 wings joined at a two-story great room. Sheathed in mahogany boards and fully glazed on two sides, this beautiful volume, pierced by a floating glass bridge, both connects and separates the family and sleeping wings on either side.
Posted by Keren Fathi-Poor at 1 February, 2012
With 600 square meters, the Dusseldorf Loft in Germany is the physical representation of the owners’ passion for architectural design. Bruno Epricum of AABE Architects was commissioned to design the warehouse conversion. This dream home is finished with “brick” all throughout. It has a large cavernous space that caters the furniture and art owned by the clients. The reconversion of the warehouse was closely based on the heritage of the building. The reconversion has preserved the history of the building as it was one of the few that miraculously avoided damage from the bombings of World War II.
Today, it is a modern home that provides warmth and comfort to the couple who were keen to make the most out of Dusseldorf’s rare ruins. Across from the coachman’s passageway, the garages were firmly built fronting the entrance court. This is part of the exterior living area where the court is dotted with screens flanking the entrance and secluding the day patio. The history of the city as well as that of the building is reflected through the glass panels.
Posted by JackieAzuela at 1 February, 2012
Recharge your iPad in an elegant media rack that unites the old and the new. The dock’s form and walnut wood detailing references the traditional Dutch type of magazine rack. The white aluminum base is firmly rooted in the present. Designer Dick Van Hoff’s sly message here is that “antique” forms of communication like newspapers and magazines can peacefully co-exist with the iPad, the portable, personal news kiosk of the modern era. More information on Functionals.
Posted by Michelle Lesser at 1 February, 2012
Bell is a series of shiny porcelain pendant lights. The pure beauty of archetype forms was the inspiration for these creations by designer Mark Braun. To celebrate porcelain as a substance and the possibilities of its shiny glazed surfaces, the coloured surfaces of Bell lights are on the outside, contrasting with the pure white porcelain on the inside.
The light is available in a range of colours inspired by Scandinavian rocks and plants. Bell creates a warm and comfortable atmosphere, and is perfect to use as a pendant above table, bar or lounge areas. It also emits a beautiful sound if knocked upon – but be careful… you don’t want to break it.
Posted by Michelle Lesser at 1 February, 2012
A series of dining tables uses the same leg design in layered wood veneer.
The focus in the design was to create a table with a refined connection between legs and top.
Similar to a tree branch or arms that victoriously holds a trophy over head, the legs split before attaching the top surface creating a strong but elegant look for this table that comes in various sizes and colours.
Posted by Michelle Lesser at 1 February, 2012
Indian architecture firm Dipen Gada & Associates has completed the contemporary home, Amin’s Residence project in 2011.
Project description from the architects: Mrs. and Mr. Amin approached us with an idea about their land which was to create a three bedroom weekend house for leisure activities. For some reason the work got delayed because of some land clearance issues and when they came forth again they had a different plan about their land. This time they wanted to build a residence for permanent living. Situated at the outskirts, this 65000 sf land is surrounded with a lot of greenery. The brief of Amin’s was to create an open plan which could communicate well with all areas and left the rest on us wherein we had good amount of freedom to design.
We brainstormed on a few ideas for the house and finalized the one in which the plan was most interactive and the formation was skewed. With the result we came up with a structure which consisted of only the ground level. Later on the requirement of the client increased and they wanted to go for a five bedroom place, therefore we added on one room on the first floor.
Posted by Keren Fathi-Poor at 31 January, 2012
Like to travel? Interested in learning about Chic Destinations, or simply planning your dream vacation? Then our ChicTraveler site is for
you. Combining content collected from years of exploring Chic hotels and hot destinations, ChicTraveler is where vacation enthusiasts can
find a wide variety of information about cool, contemporary and avant garde hotels, popular city destinations, as well as must visit places
and events all over the world. So, go ahead and take a look at this wonderful site.
Posted by Michelle Lesser at 31 January, 2012
Inspired by the most basic schemes often found in simple line children toys, the triangle, blended in different sizes and dimensions, turns
into a dynamic asset, offering a unique touch to usable living furniture. More information here.
Posted by Michelle Lesser at 31 January, 2012
Blackbody just presented their latest OLED chandeliers at Maison & Object 2012 in Paris – including some classics like the Big Bang, and some new ones like the I.Rain by Thierry Gaugain, shown below.
“We have already installed several chandeliers at different places. For example the “Wishing Tree” by Aldo Cibic is installed in the opera Ristori in Verona, Italy, while the Mini Bang is installed in Hotel particulier XVIIIe siècle in Paris”.
Blackbody also published their 2012 catalog, with dozens of OLED lamp designs.(via)
Posted by Michelle Lesser at 31 January, 2012
