This space-efficient box by German designer Till Könneker creates a separate sleeping area and compact storage solutions for studio apartments (+ slideshow).
Originally conceived for the designer’s own one-bed flat, Till Könneker‘s structure combines many pieces of furniture into one freestanding cube, creating two new “rooms” in the process.
The Living Cube includes a platform that accommodates a queen-size bed and an internal space for storage or a workspace underneath.
The walls can hold a 42-inch flat-screen TV, shelving, a fold-down desk, storage for clothes and shoes, and even a minibar in a series of compartments.
“My own living space had no storage space, but really high ceilings,” Könneker told Dezeen. “I wanted an all-in-one solution and one sleepless night, the picture of this living cube came into my head – I made a simple sketch there and then in the dark.”
“I never had any intention to build more cubes than mine, and certainly not to build a business out of it,” he added.
Realising that people’s needs and spaces would differ, Könneker has designed the Living Cubes to be modular.
Elements such as the bookshelf, drop-down desk and drawers can be configured to suit individual requirements.
The sleeping platform is accessed via a solid steel ladder, though a narrower variation without a bed can be installed against one wall.
The modules are built in Switzerland and North Carolina from three-layer spruce, stained black and finished with bio-oil. Off-the shelf Clamex-P connectors are used to join the elements together.
The Living Cube is available in multiple and custom sizes, and Könneker is exploring options for use in boarding schools, hotels and the military.
Le photographe de mode français Matthieu Belin est basé à Shanghai. Sollicité par de nombreux clients & revues, ce dernier a récemment réalisé pour le magazine China LIFE une série de clichés magnifiques mettant en avant l’année du cheval. Des images d’une grande élégance à découvrir dans la suite.
Climbing plants grow across a steel trellis that fronts this renovated house in Hanoi by Vietnamese architects Vo Trong Nghia (+ slideshow).
Photograph by Vo Trong Nghia
Concerned about Vietnam’s rapid urban development, Vo Trong Nghia Architects wanted to create an example of how greenery could be incorporated back into the city.
A dark, damp, 15-year-old house in Hanoi city centre in need of renovation provided a canvas for the studio to demonstrate how similar properties across the metropolis could be revived with foliage and light.
Photograph by Vo Trong Nghia
“Greenfall Renovation was designed against this backdrop, returning greenery to the city and encouraging a comfortable living environment to both the resident and the neighbours,” said the architects.
Photograph by Vo Trong Nghia
Situated on a rectangular corner plot, the shorter side of the building fronts a main street and the longer edge runs along an alleyway.
A galvanised steel screen was wrapped around these perpendicular facades, covering the middle two storeys in a trellis for climbing plants to grow up and across.
“The house is characterised by a green facade named Greenfall, a pleasant green waterfall which is attractive both from the interior and exterior,” the architects said.
The flora conceals balconies and windows behind, shading the rooms while still allowing light to filter through.
“The unused balconies are transformed into space for plants, keeping the privacy and security of the residents,” explained the architects. “From the interior, every room can enjoy the green view and get fresh air through it.”
On the ground floor, a metal garage shutter and matching gate provide access to an enclosed roofless parking area in front of the house.
Doors from outside lead into the open-plan living and dining area, from which the kitchen and a washroom at the back of the property are accessed.
“The ground floor was raised to install air ventilation layer beneath, to prevent rising damp and condensation, a frequent problem in Hanoian houses at the turn of seasons,” the architects said.
The ceiling is covered with wooden slats that run the length of the room, which is naturally lit through glass blocks and down from two triangular light wells.
These atriums make use of the awkward spaces created by the angled walls of adjacent buildings and are planted with more greenery.
The original chunky concrete staircase has been replaced with a slender steel structure that ascends beside the larger light well, lined with textured marble.
A double-height space above the dining area allows residents to look down from a study on the floor above.
The first storey also contains two bedrooms, one on either side of the balcony, and a bathroom.
Photography is by Hiroyuki Oki, unless otherwise stated.
Project credits: Architects Firm: Vo Trong Nghia Architects Principal architects: Vo Trong Nghia, Takashi Niwa, Tran Thi Hang Project Architects: Ngo Thuy Duong, An Viet Dung Contractor: Wind and Water House JSC.
Traditional black and white colonial houses influenced the monochrome palette of this private gallery and showroom in Singapore by London office CarverHaggard.
The Black and White Gallery was designed by CarverHaggard for a housing developer to provide a showroom, a cafe and a meeting area for visitors to a nearby development, as well as a multipurpose events and exhibition space.
The monochrome treatment of the building elements is based on the style of colonial properties found throughout Singapore and Malaysia.
These were predominantly built between the late nineteenth century and the Second World War and featured white facades with black framing details and stripy sunshades.
“The detailing draws from our analysis of the Singapore ‘black and white’ houses; a particular hybrid of Malay vernacular typologies and British half-timbered decoration,” said the architects.
Black-painted steel columns line the edges of the garden spaces and contrast with the white outer walls, while opposing walls are painted black and flanked by white columns.
Located on the edge of the island’s West Coast Park, the facility comprises a series of internal and external spaces connected by a sheltered corridor that spans the long and narrow site.
As well as the walls and columns, the resin-coated concrete floors, windows and plinth are also treated in contrasting black and white finishes.
Two rooms with different functions are flanked by gardens that create a connection to the natural surroundings of the park.
At the front of the site, the first room next to a car park contains the cafe and meeting space. The room is glazed on three sides to allow views straight through towards the rear of the building.
A showroom space at the far end of the corridor has a more enclosed feel, with glazed walls on two sides looking out onto gardens on either side.
The open-sided corridor is treated as an additional room, with low tables and seating providing resting places that look out towards the gardens and are protected from the tropical weather.
L’artiste autrichien Stefan Zsaitsits nous invite dans son univers étrange, composé de représentations surréalistes d’enfants et autre personnages sortis de son imagination débordante. Des créations très réussies en noir & blanc dont une sélection est à découvrir dans la suite.
Israeli designer Roee Magdassi has abstracted the shapes of different animals and combined them to influence the forms of three furniture pieces (+ slideshow).
Roee Magdassi explored the morphology of animals to form his Tre collection, which includes an armchair, a side table and a lamp that can be used as separate pieces or together as a “reading environment”.
“I applied a process of abstraction and reduction of animal figures, until they almost vanished, leaving only the being, expressed by a few strokes or a single colour stain,” Magdassi told Dezeen. “I worked simultaneously on tall and thin, large and fat, and skinny animals.”
The armchair features an oversized backrest, influenced by the bulky upper bodies of bears and gorillas.
Its solid oak frame is upholstered and decorated with two laser-cut, sand-blasted and spray-painted stainless steel buttons.
The reading lamp references the slender limbs of giraffes, flamingos and ostriches. An aluminium stem was chosen for its conductive properties, which enable touch dimming and provide an effective heat sink for the small LED bulb.
The aluminium bars are cut and welded together, while the tilting base is made from solid oak to provide a visual link with the chair and table.
Apart from the small pink tray, the surface of the side table is made from one piece of solid oak cut using computer numerically controlled (CNC) milling.
The uneven underside of the table and a small tray integrated into the top are painted pink, while three delicate angled legs supporting the table are shaped to resemble insects.
“I tried to abstract different animal profiles in order to make the three pieces different from each other,” said Madgassi.
Roee Magdassi’s abstracted animal diagrams
“I wanted all three pieces to stand out separately, but more than that, to make an harmonious space,” the designer continued. “A reading environment is a quiet, intimate space, where the user can escape the real world and to dive in the imaginary world.”
Following the recent publication of a number of studios, we’ve created a new Pinterest board full of unique office spaces, artists’ ateliers and designers’ workspaces.
A cantilevered glass-walled room lights up at night to create a beacon on top of this kindergarten in the Tuscan town of Sinalunga by Siena firm Studio di Architettura Andrea Milani (+ slideshow).
The nursery building was developed by Studio di Architettura Andrea Milani to supplement an existing primary school on the same site and provides additional facilities for the local community, including an auditorium perched on its roof.
Semi-opaque glass walls surrounding the steel structure filter light from within the multipurpose auditorium so it glows at night.
“It’s sort of like a lighthouse, visible from the valley,” explained Monciatti. “When the lights are on it announces that something is happening inside.”
The auditorium is accessed through the nursery but can be used independently for public meetings, exhibitions and performances.
The architects were asked to connect the nursery with the existing school while enabling them to operate separately, so they created a new square in front of the main entrance to link the buildings.
A staircase leads from the square to a public space on the nursery’s roof, offering views of the town below.
“The idea of a public square on the roof at the same level of the top of the site allowed us to develop the building at an intermediate height on the site and play with cantilevered volumes on the valley side,” architect Davide Monciatti told Dezeen.
Located on a hillside that slopes 18 metres from the bottom to the top of the plot, the building required extensive excavations to provide level foundations that match the height of the adjacent primary school.
“Because the children cannot use stairs due to their age, the main challenge was to design all the building at the same level,” said Monciatti.
Internal spaces are arranged around a central garden surrounded by glazed walls, which provides a safe and sheltered outdoor play area.
The corridors that extend along the edges of the garden reach to the periphery of the building, and are flanked on the other side by the various classrooms and activity rooms.
One of the corridors crossing the building culminates in a window that projects from the facade to frame a view of the surrounding landscape.
White-painted walls and glossy flooring enhance the natural light entering through full-height glazing. Doors in the glass walls of activity rooms facing the town open onto narrow balconies.
The architects called the project the Whale School because a 35 million-year-old whale fossil was unearthed during the excavations, which has now been placed in the collection of an archaeological museum in Florence.
A stretched glass bubble sits on the base and doubles the height of the light, designed to rest on the floor.
“The original brief was to create a unique lamp with noble materials, up-to-date design, a timeless style and my design signature,” Yeffet told Dezeen.
“Both marble and hand-blown glass are noble and timeless, classic yet exciting, and integrate beautifully into any style of interior.”
The lamp is available with a white Carrara marble base and a transparent glass top, and a black Marquina marble base and a grey smoked-glass top.
The marble is shaped using computer numerically controlled (CNC) technology and finished by hand, and the glass is hand-blown.
Additional floor lamps, shelf lights, small tabletop lights and bowls also made from marble and glass will follow to form a collection of similar products.
“When I started to build the idea in my head, creating initial sketches, I instinctively thought about what it could be and what other objects might create a dialogue with it, so a collection stared to grow and take shape almost immediately,” said Yeffet.
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