Hasta La Ideas

This addition to a house in Kudamatsu, Japan, features an oversized pitched roof and a covered courtyard surrounded by arched openings (+ slideshow).

The two-storey building is positioned close to the client’s existing family home and was designed by architect Takanobu Kishimoto of Kobe-based Container Design to provide additional living spaces – including a kitchen, dining area, sitting room, traditional tatami room and a study.

The main entrance opens onto a double-height space described by the architect as an indoor courtyard, with a floor covered in pebbles and paving slabs that form paths across its surface.

The buildings sit on a plot separated from a busy road by a wall with an opening and no gate, so the architect was asked to create a structure that encourages the children to play in the area between the two buildings and away from the road.

“Their main hope is that they can pass between their family home and their children can run around inside and outside the house,” explained the architect.

A yard between the buildings is planted with trees and shrubs that create a clear route from the end of the new structure to the side of the existing building.  A window and porch in the addition are arranged facing the main house to create a visual connection between the two.

The opposite side of the new building presents a solid white facade to the street, partially blocking the view of the main house.

“The family home is seen from the prefectural road, therefore the new house was made near that road,” said the architect. “As a result, I thought that the house will be made like a gate and fence in the site.”

The relationship between the two parts of the property is emphasised by the elongated sloping roof of the addition, which echoes the tiled pitched roof of the house behind it. An opening in the roof creates an enclosed terrace on the road-side of the building.

Protrusions that angle in opposite directions to the main roof structure create extra space for rooms on the upper floor.

The long elevation facing the car parking area in front of the main house is interrupted by two arched doorways; a normal sized one covered by a curving canopy, and a smaller one for children.

The larger entrance opens onto the covered courtyard. A staircase positioned diagonally across this wood-lined space ascends to the upper floor, where two spare rooms, a study and a terrace are located.

The space is surrounded by wooden walls punctuated by arched openings that lead to other rooms, or frame windows that fill the space with natural light. It is covered by a gently arched ceiling.

This space and a study on the mezzanine level at the top of the stairs both feature exposed wooden walls. The rest of the interior walls are painted white to create neutral spaces that make the most of the available light.

The post Japanese house extension by Container Design
is arranged around a covered courtyard appeared first on Dezeen.

Voici Carbon3D, une nouvelle méthode d’impression 3D, une technologie de production d’interface liquide en continu. La machine exploite la lumière et de l’oxygène pour fabriquer rapidement et en continu des objets à partir d’un bassin de résine à une vitesse rapide qui est 25 à 100 fois plus rapide que les méthodes d’impression 3D conventionnelles.

Maker Peter Brown wanted a plastic mallet, but rather than buy one, decided to make one himself—using whatever he had lying around, no plastic-handling equipment in sight. Which means, maniac that Brown is, he used a toaster oven to melt down milk jugs to get that delicious, creamy HDPE into a nice and gooey state.

How did he then get the raw material into the shape he wanted, absent any molding equipment? Like this:

You’ve gotta admit it looks pretty decent!

 After last week’s head-spinning scene, where my lunch dates caused the most rubbernecking I’ve ever witnessed on a Wednesday at Michael’s, today I was more than happy to dine and dish with a trio of smart, savvy women whose accomplishments elicit applause, not raised eyebrows.

I was joined today by Katherine Nicholls, CEO of Niche Media and Mandi Norwood, the company’s SVP and editorial director. This afternoon’s confab was arranged by Cynthia Lewis, who, besides being the hardest working woman in publishing, happens to know just about everyone. A squadron of folks stopped by our table to say their hellos (Jack Kliger, Mickey Ateyeh and Jon Steinberg among them) before getting down to business at their usual perches, because lunch at Michael’s is never just about lunch. But you knew that already, didn’t you?

Katherine Nicholls, Diane Clehane and Mandi Norwood

Katherine and Mandi have transformed what has always been a stable of glossy, eye-catching lifestyle publications — Gotham, Hamptons and Ocean Drive among them — into a luxury brand that is equal parts substance and style. Niche Media is a subsidiary of Greengale Publishing, LLC and publishes city-specific publications which, in addition to the ones I’ve already mentioned, include: Aspen Peak, Boston Common, Capitol File, Los Angeles Confidential, Michigan Avenue, Philadelphia Style and Vegas magazines. The titles have a combined annual distribution of 4.6 million copies nationally. Katherine, who joined the company in 2007 as its chief marketing officer, has risen through the ranks as COO and president before assuming her current position last year. British-born Mandi, who edited her first magazine at the tender age of 25 and has topped the masthead of several publications at Hearst and Condé Nast, came on board in 2011. Working as a team, they’ve seemingly achieved the impossible in this era of rapidly shrinking (and vanishing) print titles. Not only have their books gotten thicker with ads over the past year (I needed two hands to pick up the latest issue of Ocean Drive), but they’ve added to their stable of regional titles with the very timely launch of Austin Way last fall. “There was a big gap in Texas,” said Katherine of the company’s decision to launch their first new title in five years. “There’s a huge benefit to being the first in this incredibly exciting market.”

In relaunching the brand, explained Katherine, it was important to develop and refine a collective mission statement for the titles. After canvasing the editors that helm each book, she came up with the three C’s. “We’re connectors, we captivate and celebrate with a conscience” is now the guiding principle. Lest you think the books aren’t focusing on the visual aspect of capturing an audience, Mandi told me that Niche Media’s Ann Song, vice president of fashion and creative, has “taken our content to the next level, made it sing and look super-stylish.” All the better to appeal to that “incredibly important” fashion crowd.

Each book is edited, said Mandi, with editorial covering “national trends seen through the local lens.” To wit: the upcoming ‘Women of Influence’ issues for each title, which will feature an impressive array of accomplished women, all with a connection to that respective area. NBC’s Tamron Hall is Philadelphia Style’s headliner, Arianna Huffington will be featured on the covers of Capitol File and Austin Way and Renee Fleming will grace Gotham‘s cover. (Full disclosure: I profiled the rest of the influential women for Gotham.)

Last summer’s special Arts issue featured original works by Peter Max across 10 covers, which were later auctioned off by charitybuzz.com and raised $100,000 for the Humane Society of the United States. It was a huge success, and Katherine told me the concept has been given a more local point of view this year. In July, the Art of the City summer issues will feature works of emerging artists from all 11 region on the books’ covers, with in-depth profiles inside. Each book will contribute to a local 501C3 organization benefiting the arts. “A lot of magazines do these big events selling themselves,” said Mandi. “We’re not about that. We have to have a reason for doing things. We want to make a difference.”

Katherine told me Niche Media gets forty percent of its audience through a significant investment in verified data from Nielsen Claritas and reaches the “aspirational reader,” its strategic distribution model in haute hotels, restaurants and resorts. With a “core target” of affluent readers aged 35-55, I asked Katherine where millennials fit into the brand’s overall strategy. Clearly, the magazines’ sleek, lively websites attracts younger readers who will find exclusive and constantly refreshed content there. But both Katherine and Mandi believe that it’s the magazine’s informed point of view and expertly curated content that lures younger readers from their mobile devices to actually picking up a magazine. “There’s a level of insider knowledge and expertise [in the magazines] that they can’t get from social media,” said Mandi. To that end, virtually all of Niche Media’s editors live and work in the cities they cover year in and year out. “We’re in the Hamptons all year,” said Katherine. “We don’t just come drop in for the season. Over the winter we held small business seminars for the locals there. We’re very engaged with the community.”

When dessert arrived (Fern Mallis’ red velvet birthday cake served up by Michael’s GM Steve Millington), Mandi and Katherine offered an intriguing assessment of the future of magazines. While other executives might bemoan the decline of print, Mandi and Katherine beg to differ. “If I had a crystal ball, I’d say bookstores will come back — not in a big way — but they will come back,” predicted Mandi. “In the not-so-distant future, there is going to be a new cachet about publishing, books and bookstores.” Katherine offered what would seem to be the best case for Mandi’s prognostication: “Any time we have a job opening, a hundred millennials apply trying to get out of working for digital companies. It’s their dream fulfilled to work for a magazine.”

Here’s the rundown on today’s crowd:

1. Fashionista Fern Mallis celebrating her birthday (thanks for sharing your cake!) with three pals including Mickey Ateyeh. Fern is going to be plenty busy in the next few weeks with her upcoming interview with Tim Gunn for the 92nd Street Y and her new book, Fashion Lives: Fashion Icons. Saks Fifth Avenue is throwing her a chic soirée next month. See you there!

2. Peter Brown

3. Cheri Kaufman

4. Jack Kliger and Greg Osberg

5. Allen & Co.’s Stan Shuman

6. Katherine Nicholls, Mandi Norwood, Cynthia Lewis and yours truly

8. New York Social Diary’s David Patrick Columbia and a well-heeled blonde gal we didn’t get to meet

9. Sara Beth Shrager

11. Uber agent Boaty Boatwright

12. David Poltrack of CBS

14. Simon & Schuster’s Alice Mayhew

16. United Stations Radio’s Nick Verbitsky

17. Playbill’s Bruce Hallett

18. Attorney Bob Barnett

20. NBC’s David Corvo

21. Daily Mail North America’s CEO Jon Steinberg

23.  Mark Makepeace

24. Philip Tedeschi

26. Peter Feld

27. The New York Post’s Richard Johnson, Chuck Pfeifer and Michael Mailer

29. The Wall Street Journal’s David Sanford and Lewis Stein

Faces in the crowd: The dashing Theo Spilka, who we learned bikes to and from his office at Firmenich every day. I asked him how he fared during this snowy season and he admitted that “the snow did get in the way.” I finally met one person that just might be a tad happier than I am that this endless winter is finally coming to a close.

Diane Clehane is a FishbowlNY contributor. Follow her on Twitter @DianeClehane. Send comments and corrections on this column to LUNCH at MEDIABISTRO dot COM.

Sweden consistently ranks near the top in coffee consumption per capita and that’s largely thanks to (along with long hours of darkness in the winter) the fika: a once or twice-daily coffee break with a snack that’s something of a cultural institution……

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