Erzsebet Nagy Saar est un talent curieux qui se livre à des expérimentations de matière et de composition. Ces quatre collages de la série Nautilus en sont un bon exemple. Les petites créatures lovées dans la nacre sont comme des petites sirènes dont la beauté mystérieuse nous captive… Les reflets et la lumière donnent une certaine nostalgie à ces petites créations. Vous pouvez découvrir d’autres oeuvres de l’artiste sur son site.
This angular house in Cork, Ireland, was designed by A2 Architects with a crank in its middle to give residents more sun exposure, and to create a route through to a garden courtyard.
Dublin-based A2 Architects designed the Folding House for retired couple who wanted a contemporary home situated within walking distance of the city centre.
The building is squeezed onto a plot between existing boundary walls. Its plan is cranked to provide a variety of spaces across the two floors, and to ensure the main spaces are oriented towards the sun’s path.
Preventing privacy from neighbouring properties was a key concern for the clients.
At street level, a concrete wall shields the lower storey from view. It also incorporates a black sliding garage door and entrance that open onto a gravel courtyard.
“Given the restricted nature of the mews site, it was important for the client that the privacy of neighbours was fully respected,” architect Peter Carroll told Dezeen.
“The opacity of the first-floor elevations towards the neighbours and the integration of a concealed first-floor terrace to the rear ensures that there is no direct overlooking.”
A walkway leads under the projecting corner of the upper floor to an entrance situated where the front and rear portions of the house meet at an obtuse angle.
The entrance opens onto a double-height atrium illuminated by a large skylight. Glazed walls lining this private space at the centre of the house provide views of the dense planting along the boundary wall.
Occupying the space at the extreme rear of the building is a kitchen and dining area, culminating in a sliding door that leads out towards a courtyard garden.
“The house’s volume is creased inwards at its core to allow a southeast-facing naturally lit double-height entrance hall,” added Carroll.
“Key openings such as the rear ground-floor kitchen patio and the first-floor balcony allow the volume of the house to fold inwards, thereby making incidental overhangs that offer shelter.”
A bedroom accommodated at the more private front end of the ground floor contains a walk-in closet, an en-suite bathroom and a sliding door onto the side garden.
A staircase ascends from the atrium to a first floor containing a living room at the front, with sliding doors that open onto a triangular balcony.
Towards the rear are a guest bedroom, bathroom and a small studio with a window overlooking the entrance path and a park beyond the perimeter wall. A small balcony facing the rear garden is also squeezed in alongside the bedroom.
The angled internal walls and ceilings create dramatic contrasts of light and shadow that are accentuated by the crisp lines and ubiquitous white surface treatment, which contrasts with the black exterior.
“The contrast between the black exterior and the white interior was chosen to both heighten the lush green planting of the perimeter garden, and to add another threshold along the promenade from the street entry to the elevated first-floor living room,” said Carroll.
A large volume of glazing is used throughout the house to ensure the interior receives plenty of natural light, despite its cramped site. Transparent windows provide views of the surroundings, while translucent panels ensure privacy where it is required.
Subtilement nommé Duo, ce produit dessiné par Blond design est conçu pour répondre à notre utilisation de la technologie mobile. Cet ensemble est minutieusement étudié pour s’insérer harmonieusement dans tout type d’intérieur. Cette facilité de chargement est aujourd’hui développée pour des systèmes exploitant Android et l’Apple Watch. L’enceinte recouverte d’aluminium promet d’être résistante et vous accompagner partout… et vous permettre de recharger votre portable si nécessaire.
Maison&Objet 2016: Danish design brand By Lassen is the latest company to reissue classic furniture, with a new edition of a chair designed by architect Flemming Lassen 80 years ago (+ slideshow).
First designed in 1938, Lassen’s My Own Chair features a separate winged back and seat that the brand says was “considered too progressive, even for the Modernists of the time, to be put into production”.
Only one of the chairs was made for the yearly Cabinetmakers Guild Exhibition in Copenhagen, and subsequently sat in the architect’s home. In 2014, the piece was auctioned in Denmark for €120,000 (£102,000).
By Lassen‘s new edition of the furniture is an “exact recreation”, featuring the same sculptural back and wooden framework. It is available in textile or leather.
“My Own Chair perfectly highlights Flemming Lassen’s love of rounded shapes, simple forms, precise detailing and functionality,” said By Lassen.
By Lassen is also issuing a second piece created by the architect in 1943. Based on an original drawing created for an interiors project, the Anoon drinks trolley features a removable chrome tray and wheels, with two levels of storage.
“When we first discovered this wonderful drawing from Flemming Lassen, we immediately felt that it matched many of the elements we find interesting when we begin to develop a product,” said company director Nadia Lassen.
“I’m thinking here in particular about properties such as multifunctionality and flexibility.”
The pieces will launch at Maison&Objet in Paris, alongside the brand’s new Autumn/Winter 2016 collection, which includes patterned wallpapers based on original sketches by the architect, and a table with a reversible top.
A cookbook by El Bulli chef Ferran Adrià played a key role in determining architecture firm Woods Bagot‘s design for its new Melbourne studio (+ slideshow).
Located on Little Collins Street in the city’s central business district, the timber-dominated, two-storey office has been organised to promote collaboration and socialising.
While the design team had these objectives in mind from the start, Adrià’s cookbook The Family Meal helped to refine their ideas. It shows how the El Bulli staff unite once a day to share ideas over a three-course meal.
“The simple notion of coming together to share an experience drove our design concept to develop a central heart for the studio,” said Woods Bagot principal and project leader Bruno Mendes.
“We wanted to celebrate and foster the studio’s collective, collegiate spirit.”
This resulted in a large area of tiered timber seating being installed in the middle of the floor plan. Running alongside the stairs, the amphitheatre-like area provides an informal assembly space.
Woods Bagot describes the area as connecting the office’s two floors, while also serving as “a platform for invited speakers, movie nights and dancing on Friday nights”. It flows on to the main staff lunch area, as well as open-plan workspaces.
Some meeting rooms are separated loosely from the open-plan office by a curtain, while others are screened behind closed doors.
The design team – which also included Brett Simmonds, Richard Galloway and Sarah Ball – used timber, concrete and steel finished in black throughout the 2000-square-metre office.
Some of the large tables in the space were custom made using the same timber that features on walls and in the assembly area.
To incorporate the opinions of the wider company, Woods Bagot used a consultative workplace strategy, collating feedback from all staff.
The Melbourne office is part of Woods Bagot’s global architecture practice, which includes studios across Asia, Europe and North America.
American architect Robert Gurney has created a house in Virginia topped with a geometric roof, which folds over the building to protect it from harsh winds (+ slideshow).
Sited on a small peninsula in central Virginia’s Lake Anna, Buisson Residence is exposed to inclement weather on its northern facade.
The large roof that covers the building allows residents to preserve south and west-facing views of the lake, while shielding the home from the elements.
Copper cladding covers the roof, which will weather to a verdigris patina over time. “The sloping roof and canted front wall are designed to deflect fierce north wind and shed water from intense storms,” said Gurney.
Entrance to the three-storey residence is from the northern side, into the middle floor.
On this level, an open-plan living room, dining room and kitchen occupies the western portion of the residence and is afforded sweeping views of the lake through floor-to-ceiling windows.
“The entry, living, and sleeping spaces are arranged linearly to maximise lake views and to take advantage of the southern exposure,” said the architect.
“Large overhangs and sensor-equipped motorised shades combine to limit heat gain during the summer while allowing the sun to penetrate deep into the interior during the winter,” he added.
On the eastern side of the central staircase is the master suite, which includes a large bedroom and private bathroom.
This level opens out onto a wooden deck that spans the entire southern and western walls of the house.
The upper floor houses a home office as well as two children’s bedrooms. These are located on the western end of the structure, facing the lake.
The bottom level is mostly below grade, and contains a games room and storage space. Because of a decline in terrain, it opens out onto the property’s yard, allowing residents to access the lake more directly.
The distinctive pitch of the roof gives the house a different appearance depending on which side it is seen from. While the building is entirely open and glazed on its southern facade, it presents a more solid appearance to the north.
The geometry of the roof is also apparent inside, where slanted walls along the second-floor corridor belie its form.
Throughout the residence, muted tones were chosen. A majority of surfaces were rendered in white, which stand out against the site’s natural surroundings.
“It is the contrast between an ordered human dimension and an unstructured natural condition that elevates our understanding and appreciation of both,” explained the architect.
Pour relancer son modèle iconique des Gazelle, adidas n’en finit plus d’inspirer et de s’inspirer de l’esthétique 90’s sauce psychédélique. Pour sa campagne d’affichage, l’entreprise a fait appel à Maison Vignaux qui a réalisé cette série de collages aigres-doux aux découpages extravagants.
Rusted iron panels screen the most private rooms of this house in the Argentinian city of Córdoba, but are perforated with an intricate pattern that evokes the dappled shadows cast by trees (+ slideshow).
Mooe House was designed by local studio FCP Arquitectura for a family of four who wanted a space for entertaining that centres around a swimming pool and garden.
The plot is located within a gated neighbourhood near the centre of Córdoba, but is flanked on two sides by a road, so maintaining privacy for the sort of outdoor living requested by the client was a key concern.
The elevations facing the road are predominantly opaque, while the interior surfaces incorporate glazing, offering views out into the garden and a pool hidden from the road by a long hedge.
Simple white volumes contain the house’s main living areas, but doors and windows are shielded behind the perforated iron screens. The rusted surfaces provide a tonal and textural contrast to the pristine rendered walls.
“As a subtle counterpoint to the white walls, rusty sheets of iron act as a filter,” said the architects.
“[These] mobile panels regulate access, lighting and privacy, from the full opacity to the transparency of the perforated surfaces.”
Some of the panels can be pulled aside to provide access to spaces including the car port, where a tree extends through an opening in the roof.
Bedrooms on the ground floor feature sliding glass doors concealed by screens that can be opened to connect them with the garden.
Around the periphery of the plot, the landscaped gardens slope up to provide a further buffer between the house and the street. Shrubs and trees planted along the top of the ridge help to screen the central poolside area.
The main part of the house follows the line of the boundary on one side and contains the communal spaces at one end, with the bedrooms at the other.
A set of steps leads from the street to an entrance sheltered beneath a projecting porch. This opens directly into the living and dining area, which is lined on the opposite side with full-height glass doors that look onto the pool.
The pool is positioned at an angle to the main property and follows the other boundary of the plot. A decked area along its edge extends towards a separate pool house with a barbecue.
A two-storey block at the centre of the house contains the kitchen on the ground floor, with an additional bedroom above.
“The challenge and exploration of the work aimed to amalgamate the light of the land with the programmatic needs of housing – the forest, [with] its shadow, its intimacy, and the plain, [with] its light,” added the architects.
Northern Ireland studio McGarry-Moon Architects has renovated a historic house in west London, and added a contemporary timber and concrete extension connected by a glass-lined corridor (+ slideshow).
Warren Cottage is a Victorian property situated within the Coombe Wood conservation area in Kingston upon Thames.
The house is heritage-listed due to its former role as a gatehouse to Richmond Park, the largest of London’s Royal Parks.
But they employed a material palette that complements the tones of the existing facades.
“The local planning department acknowledged the importance of retaining the existing cottage, and that a new addition could have a contemporary aesthetic but with a delicate and clear separation between the old and new,” architect Adam Currie told Dezeen.
The new additions comprise a two-storey extension with glazed walls, connected to a more compact lounge contained in a board-marked concrete volume.
A separate concrete structure houses a garden room looking out onto a small pool.
“The form of the extension seeks to contrast the ornate and traditional nature of the cottage whilst acknowledging that it is from a different time,” added Currie.
“This is also echoed through the contrasting use of materials”
The extension accommodates a kitchen and dining area on the ground floor, which creates a new communal space at the centre of the reconfigured house.
Glass walls lining the space incorporate sliding doors that open onto east and west-facing terraces.
The glazing also wraps around the side of the room looking onto the entrance courtyard, where wooden louvres are added to provide an element of privacy.
A void above the dining area provides a visual connection with a bedroom situated on the first floor, which is fully lined with glass to ensure it retains views of the garden and overlooks the ground floor.
The kitchen and dining room extends into a more intimate lounge area that also opens onto the west-facing evening terrace and looks out on the other side towards the pool and mature trees in the garden.
A path leading towards the garden room is sheltered beneath a canopy supported by chunky glue-laminated timber beams. The tone and grain of the iroko wood offers a warm, natural contrast to the garden room’s concrete floors and walls.
Iroko flooring used throughout the ground floor of the cottage and the extension provides a unifying element between the old and new spaces.
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