Hasta La Ideas

A scalloped roofline defines this playful backyard studio that Los Angeles architects Byben & Skeens completed for a writer and filmmaker to have a “solitary space for creation”.

The compact project replaces a derelict shack in the steeply terraced back yard of a new homeowner’s property in LA’s Echo Park neighbourhood.

“The previous owner decorated the backyard in a lyrical antique style, with circuitous crumbling stairs winding up the hill and a hand-made shack on the brink of collapse,” explained architects Byben & Skeens.

“Inspired by the whimsical setting, the client wanted to replace it with a writing studio and guest house that evoked the past but was firmly contemporary.”

The 480-square-foot (45-square-metre) building is rendered in white stucco, with arched openings that recall the Art Deco style that can be found all over LA.

It contains a single room that the client uses as a writing studio or occasional guest house, with a toilet at the back.

“To the west a full-length skylight illuminates the room, the light modulated and diffused by a curved wall sweeping into the space below,” said Byben & Skeens.

Two separate entrances lead into the building: one from the back yard, where large double doors allow the interior to be open to the elements; the other from the street.

This allows the owner to invite clients or collaborators over without needing to go through the main house.

The project makes the most of its steep site, which offers it a degree of separation from the owner’s home below.

“The arched windows and doors avoid views into the house to focus on the surrounding trees and sky, creating a sense of escape and immersion in nature,” the architects explained

The slope also facilitated building in theatre-like seating outside the building’s double, doors, allowing the owner to put on small plays in the yard, or to sit and work with rehearsing actors.

Towards the back of the property, an exterior staircase leads to the roof, which overlooks the home below and enjoys views of the LA skyline beyond.

“A sun deck is bound by the peaks and arches of the crown-like parapet of the building,” said the architects. “Facing East, the deck has an intimate interior feeling produced by the dappled light of a closely overhanging tree canopy while to the South and West, it provides clear views of downtown LA.”

Small buildings like this, which are sometimes known as accessory dwelling units (ADUs) when they contain a bathroom and kitchenette, have long been prevalent in Los Angeles, where the relatively large land parcels and high cost of living have driven up demand for accommodation.

In recent years, the trend has accelerated, as the city has offered incentives to homeowners to build these structures in an effort to make more housing available.

Those working on replicable ADUs for LA include a startup called Cover, which uses proprietary software to create a design suited to a specific site, and architects SO-IL, which unveiled a prefabricated, flower-shaped design earlier this year.

The photography is by Taiyo Watanabe.

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In these pandemic-stricken times, we find ourselves spending more and more time at home. However, sitting in the same old four walls of our bedroom can become quite boring, and sometimes the only fresh air we really get is when we step out into our yards. Although we shouldn’t underestimate our backyards, they can be locations of major fun, recreation, and relaxation…depending on how we do them up! How about turning your backyard into an ideal date spot for you and your partner, or hosting a barbecue party with the best grill in the market? We’ve curated a collection of product designs to help you transform these exciting ideas into a reality! These products will turn your yard into the ultimate relaxation destination. We bet you won’t want to step out of your yard, once you introduce these products to it! From single-use shipping containers repurposed into swimming pools to a tiny backyard home/office – these designs will majorly transform your humble backyard!

Dubbing them “the world’s cardboard boxes,” Rathnam felt inspired to build the pools as a means of giving the discarded shipping containers new purpose and new life to backyards. The shipping containers are purchased by Rathnam after goods are shipped to North America from China since they would otherwise just be discarded and not reused for shipping purposes. Depending on your backyard and its building parameters, Modpools can be customized to fit.

You don’t have to be an architect to want to build a bamboo structure of your own thank to the ‘Zome building kit’ by Giant Grass! The studio has made a DIY kit that is basically a larger-than-life LEGO project which can live in your backyard or be scaled up to create a community space. The ‘zome’ is a flexible space that can be used by children to hang out in the backyard, like a gazebo for you to entertain guests in, a greenhouse for seedlings, a creative space in the office, a quiet space for yoga at home, or a glamping tent – it can be anything you want it to be. This DIY kit is perfect for those who want to live sustainability and enjoy working on projects which result in a productive reward.

Boasting an enameled steel construction, the Noori V02 AIRY is a multifunctional outdoor grill, pizza oven, rocket stove, and a fire pit – all in one! Not to mention, it’s probably one of the best-looking grills I’ve seen in a long time, it’ll be the perfect visual accessory to your backyard. The grill consists of six refractory concrete internal plates. These plates + an AIRY cylinder make up the grill’s innovative AIRY system (which also gives the product its name). This basically means that to set up an open fire, you simply need to remove a few refractory plates from within the AIRY cylinder, which instantly exposes the flames, creating the mesmerizing flame dance we all love to watch in an open fire!

Wool has a pretty good reputation as an insulating material, but you don’t instantly think of wool being used to keep something cool. Sure, woolen sweaters, mitts, socks, caps, they’re all used to trap your body heat and keep you warm, but with insulation, the inverse is true too! Meet the Wooly Eco-Friendly Cooler, an outdoor cooler that uses eco-friendly wool (as opposed to chemical insulants) to keep your cool drinks cool… and as an added bonus, it comes with a lid that doubles up as a charcuterie board so you can pair your wine with a few cold cuts of meat and some eclectic cheeses, or your beers with some chips and dip and a couple of cocktail nuts too!

The main appeal of a tiny home remains privacy and mobility, both of which are answered by the DROP office. While most tiny homes focus on setting up the place for a single owner, DROP provides two comfortable and fully equipped home offices. The dimensions of the cabin match that of a shipping container, the design is built and ‘dropped’ onto the site of your choice, reducing the environmental impact of construction! Need a break from work? The outdoor deck and fully openable windows allow you to immerse in your surroundings. With one fair-sized panoramic bedroom, three-piece bathroom, and fully-equipped kitchen – the cabin is yours for rest as well as work.

Adam Cornish’s Wooden Hammock challenges the notion that Hammocks need to be built from flexible materials like cloth or rope. It instead, comes with a series of wooden strips, suspended together by rope, with rubber members between the wooden pieces to spread them out and prevent them from rubbing against one another. Ultimately, designed to be a rest for your spine, the Wooden Hammock takes inspiration from it, using a series of wooden vertebrae to achieve flexibility! The hammock comes manufactured from plantation-grown Accoya plywood, letting it have the same strength as regular wood but with lesser ecological impact.

As things are beginning to ease down a bit and everyone is seeking a way to detox in the greenery all around, UENOA architects have designed GREEN BASE, a minimal structure ideal for socializing, work remotely, and other exciting activities. The design of see-through structure was headed by architects Yoshinori Hasegawa and Fumei Horikoshi who on request of the farmer wanted to design on the green land something that reciprocates with the pandemic lifestyle and lets people enjoy farmland activities. The likes of cooking the harvested vegetables from the farmland itself or having a warm evening gathering after a day’s hard work. The farmer had one strict requirement for the building structure, for it to be “technically reproducible and inexpensive to make’. Thus the architects used vinyl cladding material which also doubled as a way to keep the building transparent for people sitting inside to have a clear view of nature outside.

QubeStove’s new rotating pizza oven dons a heavy gauge stainless steel coat that shines with all the possibilities of different pizza pies. The heavy gauge stainless steel looks clean and packs a punch, but it also establishes the oven’s long-lasting durability and ability to retain a lot of heat (that’s upwards of 1,000℉). A high-temperature, ceramic glass door both allows users to check on their food without opening the oven and covers the woodfire, inner mechanics. Once the oven’s hot enough and after you’ve decided on your pizza toppings, garlic marinara, cheddar cheese, seared pineapple (maybe), some fresh basil, you can slide it right onto the oven’s rotating pizza stone and watch the magic happen.

I want this Hanging Lounger by KODAMA in my own backyard ASAP. It’s a comfy nook to snuggle in with your favorite book or to simply take a power nap in the afternoon. You can also spend some quality time with your friends, family, and pets in the lounger.

Parsonson Architects created the Herald Garden Studio – a functional, flexible, freestanding 183-square-foot structure that sits in your backyard to accommodate all those growing pains! The studio includes office space, a bathroom, storage space at the rear, a play area , and a guest bed in the loft up the ladder. The loft is a cozy private corner and has a net panel in front for safety for children/pets. The studio has a number of windows on the upper level to let in natural light. Wooden beams set in a triangular arrangement make the structural framework and to keep the costs low the walls are clad with zero-formaldehyde oriented strand board (OSB).

Walnut columns and blackened timber screens nod to the architecture of China‘s golden age in this atmospheric restaurant in Shantou by local interiors studio JG Phoenix.

Founded by three friends, the eatery is named Sui Han San You or Three Friends of Winter after a Chinese phrase, which refers to pine, bamboo and plum blossom.

The dimly lit, 1,200-square-metre restaurant was designed around this motif, often used in traditional art to signify resilience based on the plants’ ability to thrive even in the colder months.

Wood features liberally throughout the space, forming slatted walls, screens and furniture reminiscent of Tang dynasty architecture – a period at the end of the first millennium that is considered a golden era for Chinese art and culture.

“Architecture in the Tang dynasty was characterised by the perfect integration of strength and beauty, as well as a balance between rigour and magnificence,” JG Phoenix explained.

“Such features were incorporated into the design of passages, where walnut columns were orderly arranged at the sides and linked to the ceiling.”

The dark timber is paired with “austere materials” such as light grey stone bricks and brass to create a sense of balance within the space.

Diners enter the restaurant through a sloping corridor with a pool of water running along its length, which leads to the reception.

This is intended to evoke a traditional Chinese garden and create “a sense of ritual and mystery”.

A walnut column rises out of the water, stretching up through a geometric reception desk to the ceiling. Large wooden screens wrap the space, separating the entrance, lobby and stairwell.

A Tang-style writing desk and bookcase furnish the lobby while a dropped wooden ceiling helps to create a more intimate space.

The VIP rooms feature walnut columns with brass trims and walls finished in walnut panelling, light grey stone bricks and floor-to-ceiling murals.

“Such designs produce a tranquil, peaceful and superior dining atmosphere, which exactly interprets the essence of Tang style,” JG Phoenix explained.

Founded in 2008, the studio has completed various other projects in Shantou including a paint showroom informed by the ancient concept of yin and yang and a fish bladder museum featuring glossy floors, rough-sawn wood and diffused natural light.

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Instead of choosing from preset audio tracks/apps to relax yourself, SOUL lets you “compose” your own relaxing music. The speaker, or ambient sound generator, comes with 8 sliders on top that control 8 different sound effects – from alpha waves, to raindrops, the sound of a crackling fireplace, bells, birds, and more. Just turn up the sliders to choose the sounds you want, and the SOUL blends them together into a relaxing soundscape that’s unique to you.

Designer: Masato Tsuda

Click Here to Buy Now: $99 $199 (50% off). Hurry, only 10/235 left!

Designed with a specific goal in mind – of bringing you to your place of Zen – the SOUL ambient sound generator boasts of a pure all-white minimalist form factor, with 8 tactile sliders on the top and ambient lighting at the base of the speaker. It doesn’t need connecting to your Wi-Fi, doesn’t come with an app, doesn’t have Bluetooth… Its one job is to help calm you down and not inundate you with features, trackers, paid subscriptions. The sliders on the top are shaped like tactile spherical sliders that let you build out your soundscape, letting you choose between sounds you want and how loud you want them.

8 sets of nature sounds.

Potentially, you could just play with the sliders and transport yourself (through sound) to a quiet forest with birds, or a beach, or even a mountainside with a babbling brook, or in the wilderness during a rainstorm. The 8 sliders let you customize your sound, helping you focus, destress, meditate, or even fall asleep. You can additionally set a timer to turn off your SOUL after 30/60/90 minutes, and an ambient blue light (calibrated at a relaxing 450nm) helps you easily drift off into a gentle sleep at night.

Working quite like a white noise machine (or even your sleeping/relaxing app), the SOUL sits perfectly on your bedside table. Both the speaker’s design and its interface are created to be as simplistic and Zen-like as possible, and its control panel is merely limited to an on/off button, volume controls, the timer, the light switch, and the 8 sliders. The SOUL comes with two high-quality audio drivers and a passive radiator, giving you clear, full-range audio. If you want to hook headphones in, it even comes with a 3.5mm audio input on the back, right near the USB-C port that powers the Zen speaker. The SOUL costs $99, comes with a 2-year warranty, and unlike your sleep-app, doesn’t require any monthly/annual subscriptions.

Click Here to Buy Now: $99 $199 (50% off). Hurry, only 10/235 left!

Pisqal is a small, bilevel concept residence envisioned on the beach and inspired by the traditional A-frame cabin, hosting a myriad of classic and contemporary design elements that give Pisqal its distinct, alternative look.

Usually with A-frame cabins, what you see is what you get. From the outside, an A-frame cabin’s general floor plan can be figured out with few surprises. There’s a cozy appeal found in the familiarity and simplicity of A-frame cabins. Borrowing the A-frame cabin’s traditional shape and charming feel, architects Yaser Rashid Shomali and Yasin Rashid Shomali from Shomali Design Studio conceptualized an inventive A-frame cabin called Pisqal that incorporates abstract structural elements, giving the traditional cabin a contemporary twist.

Split evenly between two floors, Pisqal comprises around 70-square-meters in area, forming a cubic frame that backdrops the cabin’s A-frame style eaves. The designers behind Pisqal chose a cubic frame to border the cabin’s A-frame style eaves to create more interior space. Inside the cabin, the Shomali designers gave the home an open-floor layout, with the living areas contained to the first floor and the main bedroom occupying the entire top floor. With such an open-air layout, quirky design elements were incorporated like a ladder that replaced a traditional staircase, bringing residents from the cabin’s ground floor to its loft bedroom.

Envisioned on a beach, even the location of Pisqal challenges the A-frame cabin and brings it into a new light. Following the open feel throughout the house, Shomali Design Studio squared each room off with floor-to-ceiling glass windows that bring guests up close and personal to the outdoor seaside views. Interior design elements like white linen curtains and unfinished wooden walls also help to brighten up each room, collecting pools of natural sunlight that pour in through the glazed windows.

Designer: Shomali Design Studio