Hasta La Ideas

In Disney’s latest animated Mickey Mouse short, Mickey struggles to get back to sleep so he can finish his perfect dream…(Read…)

Le photographe turc Cuma Cevik a fait de la photographie brute et aventureuse sa spécialité. Son but n’est autre que de transporter le spectateur et de l’inviter à participer à ce voyage authentique au sein de contrées sauvages. Cela tombe bien, il organise des « safaris photographiques » où il accompagne les curieux dans des zones photogéniques pour y capturer des souvenirs impérissables.

A painted-brick fireplace separates areas for living and dining at this summer house designed by London-based architect Tina Bergman for a plot facing out towards the sea on Sweden’s east coast.

Hus Nilsson is located on the Norrfjärden bay in the northern Swedish archipelago, and occupies a sloping site between the forest and the Baltic Sea.

Bergman designed the building to replace a 1950s cabin with basic amenities that had been used predominantly for brief visits as a place to warm up after fishing or skating on the frozen sea.

The owners wanted to install a larger property on the site that can be used year round and provides spaces suited to social gatherings, as well as more private areas for various members of the family to escape to.

A key objective for the design was achieving a strong connection with the surrounding scenery, through the inclusion of both indoor and outdoor spaces that face the bay and the forest.

“The new house, a singular long and narrow building volume with a steep pitched roof and closed gables, spans across the site and aims to be the connection between the forest and the water,” said Bergman.

“By its form and its placement on the site, it allows many of its rooms a view of the sea,” the architect added. “The placement also affords privacy and prevents the house from feeling overlooked by its neighbours.”

The internal layout features a central open-plan living space interrupted only by a freestanding fireplace, which provides a focal point that also helps to divide the lounge and dining areas.

Bedrooms positioned at either end of the house can be closed off or opened up depending on the amount of privacy required. The central space therefore becomes the only circulation area, which helps to minimise unused space.

Glazed internal doors maintain sightlines along the length of the house, while the sliding glass doors on opposite sides of the central space can be opened to create an semi-external passage through the building.

“The one commonly featured outdoor room in Nordic private houses is here integrated in the main volume,” said Bergman.

“By making it an external passage through the house, it not only creates a visual and physical connection between the forest and the sea, it also lifts it from its normal peripheral position to be the nave of the building.”

The house sits on top of an existing stone retaining wall that forms a plinth for a terrace overlooking the sea. The living areas open onto this outdoor space, from which a set of steps descends to a small jetty.

Materials and forms employed throughout the project reflect the severe weather that can affect the region. The house’s steeply pitched roof prevents excessive snow from building up and its low eaves offer protection from the salty sea winds.

Facades are clad in pine treated with a silicone-based protective coating, which is complemented on the forest side by a rustic stone surface.

The house’s timber framework supports a glue-laminated wooden roof structure topped with panels of aluminium-zinc coated sheet steel. The simple construction method enabled the building to be erected in just seven months.

Photography is by Peter Guthrie.

The post Hus Nilsson is a Swedish summer house with living spaces connected to a sea-facing terrace appeared first on Dezeen.

Dubai-based designer Aljoud Lootah paid homage to the tradition of palm-leaf architecture in the United Arab Emirates with her latest furniture collection.

The collection takes its design cues from traditional areesh structures, in which vertical and horizontal poles of dried palm fronds are stacked together.

These were commonly used in the UAE as summer houses and majlises – the Arabic term for “places for sitting” – as they provided shelter from extreme weather, while the gaps in the walls allowed for ventilation.

Lootah reimagined these in copper-covered stainless steel for the room divider, with vertical and horizontal striated planes that intersect to create a freestanding structure. In the reflective material, the design creates a different interplay of light and shadow to its historic counterpart.

“Traditionally Areesh structures created walls protecting their interiors from the surrounding area,” Lootah told Dezeen. “To juxtapose this, the copper used for the collection brings a new dimension in which the pieces reflect their surroundings.”

The table light Lootah designed for the collection is formed of a cluster of hollow, vertical glass forms that sit above LED lights, which are embedded in a rose-gold electroplated metal base.

“The light structure was designed to reflect how, in the past, families lived together as a community, with areesh structures placed side by side,” said Lootah. “I wanted to depict that concept of unity and wholeness by designing a base that holds multiple glass segments that represent the areesh.”

The coffee table is formed of a horizontal copper cross, which is textured with raised lines on one side and is smooth on the other.

The latter is polished to reflect the adjacent lined surface, creating an interplay of surfaces and emphasising the geometry of its form.

“The lines placed on one side are designed to mimic the poles of the dried palm-leaf fronds where they would be placed vertically, side by side to create the walls,” said Lootah. “The table interprets areesh through the play of pattern and reflections.”

The glass tabletop was designed to reflect the original purpose of areesh structures of providing shelter, and extends to cover the sides of the table.

The sturdy stool is made of wood covered with a copper sheet. It centres around a square base, to which copper panels of various widths attach at 90-degree angles – reflecting the shapes of the extended sections of areesh structures.

Dubai’s design scene has been fast-growing since the city launched its own design week in 2015.

This year’s festival took place from 13 to 18 November 2017, with the aim to strengthen Dubai’s position as a global hub for the design and creative industries. Now in its third edition, the week involved over 550 designers who exhibited work at 200 events across the city.

The Dubai Design District, which acts as the hub venue, is a creative quarter being built from scratch in the United Arab Emirates city.

With phase one of three now complete, the second phase – a creative community of studios, galleries and a school designed by Foster + Partners – is expected to open in 2019.

The post Aljoub Lootah’s furniture collection takes cues from traditional areesh structures appeared first on Dezeen.

Depuis quelques années, le réalisateur Cedric Ih aime photographier les inconnus qu’il croise dans la rue et les espaces publics. Ayant pris conscience du potentiel esthétique de ces photos volées, ce dernier a décidé de nommer cette série «Silhouettes» et y travaille à présent régulièrement. Ce qui l’intéresse avant tout, c’est le lien poétique et presque imperceptible qui existe entre la spontanéité des modèles et son intrusion dans leur monde et leur intimité.

Il confie que c’est également plus difficile techniquement puisqu’il doit utiliser un objectif afin de pouvoir photographier de loin, et indique qu’il est rare de trouver un bon éclairage dans la rue.

«Capturer le moment parfait où une personne va passer sous une source de lumière esthétique, offrir un arrière-plan exploitable, c’est pour ça que j’ai toujours mon appareil sur moi, on ne sait jamais!», dit-il.

Pour suivre son travail, abonnez-vous à son compte Instagram.