Hasta La Ideas

New York designer Anna Karlin has blended organic shapes with machine-cut forms to create a collection of furniture and objects.

Karlin‘s Subverting Domestic Familiarity collection, which was presented last month at Milan design week, includes a chaise lounge, a coffee table, a table lamp, a floor lamp, stools and chairs.

The ongoing collection –which is updated regularly – aims to subvert the conventional idea of a domestic furniture object by contrasting sculptural handmade forms with slick machine-cut components.

The designer describes the pieces as “useable sculptures”.

“We have a fundamental need for familiarity, or to be surrounded by natural forms,” said Karlin. “Where there is fragility, there is strength; where there is disequilibrium, there is balance; where there is vulnerability, there is support.”

“If you take something that at first glance seems familiar, something that resonates with you, or you feel comfortable with, then you can take it and mess with it,” she explained.

The Form floor lamp has a tall, totemic structure that is designed to be secured between the floor and ceiling.

It features two glass lighting elements – a cylinder and a sphere – and decorative elements made of cast bronze and marble.

Another piece is the Curved chaise lounge that has a geometric, rounded steel frame that rests against a spun-steel sphere. The seat padding consists of a series of cream, upholstered bouclé cylinders.

Made using handblown glass, the Dimple lamp has an egg-shaped light diffuser with a subtle indent that supports a reddish, cast marble sphere that sits on a smooth, antique brass cube.

The Chess stools are handmade from steel with a decorative patina. Intended to resemble geometric chess pieces, each stool has a totem-like form made of a series of curved steel shapes of assorted sizes stacked on top of one another.

The Puddle coffee table set consists of two parts: a large, amorphously shaped table with cylindrical legs, and a smaller, circular table. Both pieces are made of maple burl wood.

“This piece actually started off as a piece of jewellery but has instead turned into what is now my dream coffee table,” said Karlin.

Finally, the W chair is a set of handmade seats that are subtly different in design, meaning that each piece is unique. The chairs features a delicately hand-carved backrest with a curved, wooden back support and knobbly, irregular legs.

The seat is circular and is cut using a CNC-machine, a decision made by Karlin to highlight the contrast between the natural and manmade.

“They look incredibly delicate but they are incredibly sturdy. There’s a lot of them in the studio because they get a lot of use and are bashed about,” she said.

Anna Karlin works across the design spectrum. Previous projects range from a renovation of a print shop in New York to collaborating with fellow designer Fernando Mastrangelo on a series of tables that blend their two styles.

Milan design week took place between 9 and 14 April 2019. Other pieces on show included a series of rattan furniture and a set of cylindrical golden drawers and geometric tables made from etched and oxidised metals.

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Concrete-like surfaces help Australian design studio Killing Matt Woods foster a dark and brooding atmosphere inside this Sydney apartment.

The Perfect Storm apartment, named in reference to its bunker-like appearance, is designed by local studio Killing Matt Woods to be an “intimate yet utilitarian environment”.

Located in the suburb of Camperdown, the 73 square-metre apartment is shared by a young couple who wanted their living quarters to boast a more minimal aesthetic.

“The clients work in design-related disciplines and sought to shed their home of unimportant accumulation, creating a space free of clutter and visual pollution,” explained the studio.

With this in mind, the studio looked to brutalist architecture and local industrial warehouses to see how they could achieve a pared-back and brooding look within the home.

This muted colour and material scheme also comes as part of Woods’ desire to avoid the “ubiquitous Sydney design approach”, which he thinks typically lends itself to bright, seaside-style interiors.

Almost every surface in the apartment – which comprises just one open-plan room – has been hand-rendered in dark grey paint to leave a mottled finish akin to that of concrete.

The paint covers the peripheral walls, sloping ceiling, staircase balustrade, and balcony of the mezzanine level which accommodates the bedroom.

In the kitchen below, similarly grey-toned marble forms a splashback and scallop-edged breakfast island, while storage cupboards have been completed in black.

Sheer, slate-coloured curtains have also been used to diffuse natural light seeping in from the full-height glazed wall that fronts the living area.

Touches of warmth are provided by the apartment’s plywood stairs and grooved American oakwood cabinetry that has been installed in the upper half of the kitchen and at the rear of the bedroom.

Fixtures like taps, wall sconces, and door handles have been crafted from gold-hued brass. A statement light comprised of two concentric glowing circles has also been installed on the ceiling.

The only space in the home where concrete has actually been applied is the bathroom, which has been finished with a graphic black-framed shower cubicle.

Killing Matt Woods joins several other studios that have opted to create restrained residential interiors.

MWAI applied grey tones to an apartment in London’s Little Venice neighbourhood, while Wei Yi International Design Associates decked out a Taipei flat with cement surfaces.

Photography is by Katherine Lu.

Project credits:

Design: Killing Matt Woods
Builder: Green Anvil Co
Styling: Madeline Mcfarlane

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Mexican firm PPAA Arquitectos has used board-marked concrete to frame a patio on the rooftop of this house in Mexico City, where residents can lounge in a hammock. 

The residence called Casa Sierra Fría is located in the capital’s residential neighbourhood Lomas de Chapultepec.

The property rises at the centre of the plot as three stacked volumes that gradually decrease in size. Gardens surround the property on the ground level to offer privacy from activity in the surrounding area.

“As the majority of the sites in this neighbourhood have regular constructions on three of their four sides, the architectural concept began to explore the idea of the site as a contained void with a structural open grid on top of it,” said PPAA Arquitectos in a project description.

Additional privacy is provided by a continuous black wall that almost completes hides the residence from the street.

Dry landscaping with gravel, a large boulder front the property, with a pathway leading to the main entrance. This area also includes a parking space hidden behind another black wall.

PPAA Arquitectos chose a simple construction comprising board-marked concrete – which is imprinted with the texture of wooden planks – and large expanses of glazing.

At the top level, the concrete envelopes a glazed volume that brings natural light into the floors below and the patio. The rest of the rooftop is open-air and covered in gravel.

Inside, the architects chose a simple palette to complement the aesthetic of the exterior.

Warm beige tones complement the wooden floors found throughout the home. Slate blue accent walls provide contrast to these hues, while some of the ground floor walls are entirely black to pick up on the front wall.

The 350-square-metre house is arranged so that the main living areas are on the ground floor, with access to the gardens.

This includes a lounge, just off the hallway, which features large sliding doors allow this space to open onto the gardens. A second lounge and a dining room are placed at the rear of the property, with access to the backyard.

A wooden staircase with a slim metal guardrail leads up to the floor above. The master bedroom and private study are placed towards the front of the home, while the two children’s bedrooms are at the rear, overlooking the back yard.

While the lower level is predominantly glazed, this floor has few openings to offer privacy to these areas.

“On top of this light wall-based structure is a solid block that contains the private rooms of the house; these spaces have more restricted openings to outside views,” said PPAA Arquitectos.

PPAA Arquitectos recently completed another home outside the city, which serves as a getaway for two brothers that enjoy outdoor adventures.

Other projects in the residential area of Lomas de Chapultepec include the conversion of an abandoned concrete building into a split-level home by Taller Paralelo, and a home inspired by modernism with a double-height accent wall built with local volcanic stones.

Photography is by Rafael Gamo.

Project credits:
Pablo Pérez Palacios + Alfonso de la Concha Rojas, Miguel Vargas, Ignacio Rodríguez, Alejandra Pavón, José Hadad, Carla Celis, Johnathan Calderón

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If you remember 3-dimensional chess from the TV sitcom The Big Bang Theory, Gridopolis is a lot like that. Rather than relying on a boring, flat gaming surface, it allows you to build your own 3D board, bringing depth, creativity, and adventure to board games!

Gridopolis was designed by Dave Schultze, an award-winning designer who believed board games had a tendency to become restrictive and repetitive. With a dynamic gaming surface that exists in 3 dimensions, Gridopolis embraces adventure, prompting you to exercise your creativity to build a multi-level gaming surface. Depending on the game-length and complexity, you can build a board that’s either conforming or completely haphazard… and rather than be restricted to the board you’ve built, Gridopolis even lets you expand your board’s design as you go, adding multiple twists to the game.

Gridopolis, in every way, is the antithesis of board games. A combination of building, playing, and overall strategy, Gridopolis even has flexible rules. The box set comes with a set of gaming guidelines, but Schultze encourages people to develop their own rules and strategies. Whether you want to play variations of chess, draughts, ludo, or backgammon, with two, three, even four players, Gridopolis provides you with the framework and ability to build your own board, and design your own game. In the box, you can find the board construction kit, consisting of posts, links, and landing pads, as well as player pieces (along with some special pieces that help unlock powers).

A winner of two gold awards in the 2018 International Design Awards, Gridopolis is board gaming turned on its head. You can do much more with it rather than just moving forwards, backwards, and sideways. With Gridopolis, you can also jump up, down, and even teleport… all while playing the game of your choice, or a new game every time! Trust me, you’re not going back to playing boring old 2D chess again!

Designer: Dave Schultze of SchultzeWORKS designstudio

Click Here to Sign Up and a chance to WIN The Gridopolis Game. Hurry, Giveaway Closes on Monday, May 6th, 2019.

Gridopolis Games is an innovative game-design laboratory founded by Dave Schultze to break the mold of traditional board games by challenging gamers to think creatively and strategically in three dimensions.

Gridopolis is the world’s first ‘construction set meets strategy game.’ It’s a set of simple parts that can be endlessly rearranged, an innovative 3D game, and an expandable system with practical educational applications for STEM learning.

Gridopolis Games received Gold honors at the The International Design Awards (IDA) in two toy design categories: (1) Educational Toy and (2) Board Game.

Featuring three-dimensional game play and an infinitely expandable system that can be endlessly rearranged, the Gridopolis game set is an inspiring new take on classic board games.

Now, you can play the games you know and love without any of the previous limits and constraints.

Click Here to Sign Up and a chance to WIN The Gridopolis Game. Hurry, Giveaway Closes on Monday, May 6th, 2019.

A geometric pattern of square-shaped rooms connected by rhombus-shaped circulation areas forms House in Hokusetsu, Osaka, by Japanese firm Tato Architects.

Tato Archiects, led by architect Yo Shimada, designed the house for a family who wanted an interesting and dynamic home that makes it easier to spend time together.

Rather than sticking to a regular orthogonal floor plan, Shimada developed a pattern featuring 12 squares connected by rhombuses composed of two equilateral triangles.

“The house is filled with autonomous spaces that can accommodate changes in lifestyle,” said Shimada. “It is a crystalline labyrinth where the spaces are repeatedly reflected into a prismatic figure.”

Twelve rooms on the ground floor are joined by six more on the upper storey, with the angular spaces in between designated as multipurpose communal areas that also incorporate circulation.

Shimada developed the concept based on a belief that the arrangement of rooms in traditional properties enforces a certain lifestyle on the owners. With House in Hokusetsu, he wanted to explore the potential of more varied and flexible spaces.

“Since we are familiar with spaces designed with right angles, it is easy to measure their spatial volumes and relationships,” Shimada added.

“However, by slightly turning the corners where the walls intersect, our spatial awareness suddenly becomes complicated, and we feel as if the limited space has expanded.”

House in Hokusetsu is situated within a dense residential neighbourhood and its exterior is largely closed to ensure privacy and prevent overlooking by surrounding houses.

Three internal gardens are incorporated into the geometric pattern, which extends onto the external landscaping. A canopy lining one of these garden zones creates a sheltered entrance porch.

Inside the house, one of the square spaces accommodates a decked terrace adjoining an angular concrete courtyard. Another rhombus-shaped void is split into a triangular terrace and a compact garden.

These secluded open-air spaces allow daylight to penetrate into the central areas of the floor plan and provide a connection with the outdoors within the otherwise enclosed design.

A skylight and large first-floor windows also ensure plenty of natural light reaches the double-height circulation spaces with wooden stairs leading to the upper storey.

The sequence of interconnected rooms offers several different routes through the building and a more varied use of space than is typical in conventional homes.

The building has a timber frame, with supporting pillars positioned at the corners of each of the square rooms. The result is a calm and muted interior that has a coherent feel, despite the unusual spatial arrangement.

Tato Architects regularly experiments with new ways of using space in domestic architecture.

Previous projects include a house built around a sunroom that can be opened up to the elements, and a home with an interior designed as a single room split into numerous functional platforms.

Photography is by Shinkenchiku-sha.

Project credits:

Design: 
Tato Architects
Team: Yo Shimada, Nobuhiko Sato
Structure: Takashi Manda Structural Design

Structural team: Takashi Manda, Taijiro Kato
Construction: Hirota

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