Hasta La Ideas

A Picasso painting inspired this cliff-top house near Sydney by architects Durbach Block Jaggers.

Above photo is by Brett Boardman

The curved forms of the kitchen and living room, which project over the sea supported by four angled stilts, are derived from the torso of Picasso’s The Bather.

Above photo is by Anthony Browell

The two-storey Holman House was completed atop the 70 metre-high cliff at Dover Heights back in 2004.

Above photo is by Brett Boardman

Stone walls surround bedrooms on the ground floor, which nestle against the rock face.

Above photo is by Brett Boardman

Terraces surrounding the house at different levels provide two patios, a top floor garden and a lower level swimming pool.

This project is the third Australian house published on Dezeen in the last week, following one residence with an oversailing glass roof and another that incorporates cantilevering concrete slabs – see all our stories about projects in Australia here.

Photography is by Peter Bennetts, apart from where otherwise stated.

Here’s some more information from the architects:

Holman House
Dover Heights, Sydney

Sited on the edge of a 70-metre high cliff, the plan of Holman House refers to Picasso’s painting The Bather.

It contains a complex series of fluid living spaces set within a meandering perimeter that arcs, folds and stretches in response to sun, landscape and views.

Above photo is by Reiner Blunck

Living and dining areas cantilever out over the ocean, allowing dramatic views up and down the coast.

Above photo is by Reiner Blunck

The lower floor forms a base that is built from rough stone walls like an extension of the cliff below.

These walls continue along the cliff edge to form a series of eccentric terraced gardens and a vase-shaped rock pool.

Above photo is by Brett Boardman

Architects: Durbach Block Architects

Above photo is by Brett Boardman

Project team: Neil Durbach, Camilla Block, David Jaggers, Lisa Le Van, Joseph Grech, Adrian Gessner

Completion: February 2004

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See also:

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Casa 11 Mujeres by Mathias Klotz	Urezkoenea House by Peña Ganchegui	D House by Panorama

Most classic sewing tables have a central and glaring ergonomic flaw that few have attempted to tackle with design. The flaw arises from an unskillful negotiation between what the user needs and what the physical dimensions of the table provide.

The central problem is that a sewing machine operator should be centered on the needle of the machine, which is off to the left side. They must be able to clearly see what the needle is doing and use both hands to guide the fabric. But most sewing tables are trying to fit a 15-inch wide machine in an unobtrusive footprint, so the designers would center the machine in a table scarcely wider than the machine itself. Thus, when the operator sits at the table and places their legs in the space allotted, they are centered on the machine itself and must lean to the left to get their noses in line with the needle. If you shift your seat over to be centered on the needle, you hit your left leg on the left table leg. I wonder that there’s not a generation of 20th-century women with S-shaped spines.

One table that actually addressed this problem, tackled it with creative design, and even added some Mid-Century Modern flair is Singer’s No. 74 “Spinet” Cabinet, which is shaped like a trapezoid.

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Competition: we’ve teamed up with publishers Laurence King to give Dezeen readers the chance to win one of five copies of Folding Techniques for Designers. 

The 224-page paperback book gives step-by-step instructions for creating 3D paper forms through photographs, diagrams and drawings.

These movies show demonstrations by the book’s author Paul Jackson – watch more movies in this series on the Laurence King website and check out their Facebook page.

To enter this competition email your name, age, gender, occupation, and delivery address and telephone number to competitions@dezeen.com with “Folding Techniques for Designers” in the subject line. We won’t pass your information on to anyone else; we just want to know a little about our readers.

Read our privacy policy here.

Competition closes 9 August 2011. Five winners will be selected at random and notified by email. Winners’ names will be published in a future edition of our Dezeenmail newsletter and at the bottom of this page. Dezeen competitions are international and entries are accepted from readers in any country.

Subscribe to our newsletter, get our RSS feed or follow us on Twitter for details of future competitions.

Here’s some more information from Laurence King:

Folding Techniques for Designers From Sheet to Form by Paul Jackson

Folding Techniques for Designers by Paul Jackson and published by Laurence King in May 2011 is an elegant, practical handbook, covering more than 70 folding techniques explained through clear step-by- step drawings, crease-pattern drawings and specially commissioned photography.

All designers fold, that is, all designers crease, pleat, bend, hem, gather, knot, hinge, corrugate, drape, twist, furl, crumple, collapse, wrinkle, facet, curve or wrap two-dimensional sheets of material, and through these processes of folding, create three-dimensional objects.

Despite being so ubiquitous, folding as a design topic is rarely studied, however in recent years more and more designers of all disciplines have turned to folding to create a wide range of handmade and manufactured objects, both functional and decorative.

Folding Techniques for Designers is the first book to present this essential topic specifically for designers.

Drawing on 30 years of experience, the author aims to establish folding as a primary design tool and, by doing so, to reintroduce it as an essential topic in design education and practice.

Paul Jackson has been a professional paper folder and paper artist since 1982 and is the author of 30 books on paper arts and crafts. He has taught the techniques of folding on more than 150 university-level design courses in the UK, Germany, Belgium, the US, Canada and Israel.

These include courses in Architecture, Graphic Design, Fashion Design, Textile Design, Jewellery, Product Design, Packaging, Ceramics, Industrial Design, Fine Art, Basic Design and Interior Design. He has also taught many workshops in museums, arts centres and festivals and has worked as ‘folding consultant’ for companies such as Nike and Siemens.

575 illustrations
220 x 220 mm 224 pages
Paperback
ISBN – 978 1 85669 721 7
£19.95

Buy this book and others at the Dezeenbooks store
(in association with amazon.co.uk)

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Recent ID grad Current ID student Jake Frey earns the nominal honor of designing the best ‘combination-light-switch-plate-and-keyholder’ with his simple magnetic switch cover, ousting a couple of hook-based contenders that we’ve recently come across (after the jump; three’s a trend?).

It is a standard size switch cover plate with a high power magnet incorporated in the back, so the user can drop their keys when they turn the lights on and come into a room.

If there’s not much to describe, suffice it to say that the design speaks for itself… though I wonder if a “high-power magnet” might affect (or be affected by) the electric current controlled by the switch. In fact, I’m curious if it would be possible to make a magnetic keyholder that activates the lights only when the keys are present (as in some hotel rooms).

Incidentally, it was designed for the Urban Outfitters (they’re based in Philly, where Jake will complete his degree next year)… but the simple two-tone design—a subtle nod to the classic horseshoe magnet—says “hipster” more in a whisper than a shout.

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Blue Ant Studio’s awesome design posters, designed by founder Joel Pirela, go for US $39 and honor the works of Rams, Eames, Saarinen, Nelson and others. The wording on their current promotional (accessible at the first link above) is a little vague, but it sounds like if you buy one you get a second random one for free.

We’re digging the eye-chart one, even though we realize that’s a literacy test the Average Joe is going to fail.

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