Style of Design

Designers Andrea Fino and Samanta Snidaro have a rather modern take on what today’s wine storage should look like. The “Opale” is a refrigerated wine storage cabinet that features an elliptical shape complimented by its smooth rounded base. The Opale from Sand & Birch holds 60 bottles of wine and is able to self manage temperature controls and specific humidity, and features a really cool LED lighting visible through its smoked glass door. See the rest of the cutting edge designs from Sand & Birch here.

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Did you know that when a phone charger is plugged into an outlet, it still uses power even if not hooked up to a phone? It may not seem like a lot of electricity, but factor in all Americans who engage in this lazy behavior, and the stats are truly shocking: All that wasted juice is enough to power 24,000 homes each year, or brew three-to-four million cups of coffee every day! Luckily, AT&T has a solution. This May, the company will start selling its ZERO charger, a mobile phone charger that eliminates vampire power consumption and charges phones more efficiently.

Read the rest of AT&T Unveils ZERO, a Charger that Eliminates Vampire Power

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Think that avoiding cheap, throwaway clothes and sticking with brand names means that your wardrobe is safe from dangerous toxins? Think again. Chinese inspectors randomly sampling department stores and boutiques in the southeast China province of Zhejiang found that a dizzying 60 percent of garments made outside of China suffered from poor colorfastness, high levels of acid or even contained formaldehyde. And you might recognize some of the offenders’ names – Dolce & Gabbana, Hugo Boss, Hermes, Trussardi, and Versace.

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© Gaelle Le Boulicault

Architects: tec Architecture
Interiors: Marcel Wanders Studio
Location: Palma de Mallorca, Spain
Project Area: 790 sqm
Project Year: 2009
Photographs: Gaelle Le Boulicault & Marcel Wanders Studio

While Mallorca has long been a top destination for tourists in search of sun, beach, and great parties, today the Spanish island is about to garner some attention of a different kind. Cosmopolitan Estates, Ltd. (Cosmopolitan), a new real estate development company that plans and develops ultra-luxurious, high-design, state-of-the-art, sustainable residences and resorts throughout Europe and Asia, is proud to announce the completion of Casa Son Vida 1, a world-class modern luxury villa located near Palma in the exclusive Son Vida community. The first of six planned villas on the island, Casa Son Vida 1 is a hint of what is to come from Cosmopolitan. Standing as an expression of a new standard of progressive design that skews more futuristic than nostalgic, Casa Son Vida will capture the attention of the international design world with its sophistication and vitality, making Mallorca a new destination for those in search of design exploration and inspiration.

© Gaelle Le Boulicault

“While Mallorca is undeniably gorgeous, we felt there was a gap in the market,” explains Cosmopoli- tan president Michael Rimbeck. “Most real estate on the island is predictable or inevitably Mediterra- nean. We wanted to offer the increasing number of young, progressive, and adventurous buyers who are attracted to the island a more daring and evocative alternative. That is our ultimate goal, to create spaces that inspire and evoke. Casa Son Vida 1 does precisely that, and our future projects will only take it to the next level.”

plan 01

As with all Cosmopolitan projects, a world-class network of architects and designers was assembled to complete the project. Los Angeles- and Switzerland-based tec architecture (tec), a global boutique design firm known for their own distinctive brand of architecture of the ‘third millenia,’ was commis- sioned to transform the villa from a run-of-the-mill quasi-Mediterranean structure into something all together different.

© Gaelle Le Boulicault

“Casa Son Vida 1 aims to redefine the notion of the luxury villa by moving most of the paradigms of luxury towards a more contemporary and forward-looking expression of architecture and technology,” explains Sebastian Knorr, tec co-founder and design director. “The project pushes the envelope in every direction and every sense; it is highly sustainable, basically off-the-grid, gives an unheard of sense of space and place, explores new construction technologies, and enters into a critical dialogue with the decorated box buildings in its vicinity. Casa Son Vida 1 is unavoidably exuberant and un- abashedly outrageous.”

© Gaelle Le Boulicault

Located approximately 15 minutes outside of Palma de Mallorca in an exclusive community called Son Vida, the eponymously named Casa is an example of design poetry in motion. The 8,500 square foot luxury residence transgresses the constraints of site and context, redefining luxury architecture as it is typified by the traditional and prolific Mediterranean and Tuscan styles otherwise found on the island. This act of defiance is accomplished by creating an entirely new structure that erupts unexpectedly from the walls of the existing Mediterranean home. The new structure evolves into a bold, curva- ceous shape that completely evades conventional definition. The idea is that the two pieces co-exist as separate entities, meeting abruptly and then quite literally turning away from each other. Their interaction suggests a chance encounter and speaks to the deliberate and bold juxtaposition of the two elements. The new structure could even be likened to a futuristic spacecraft that has quite literally landed on a typical Mallorcan villa.

© Marcel Wanders Studio

© Marcel Wanders Studio

Amsterdam-based Marcel Wanders Studio was tapped for the interior design, marking the first full residential project for the international design phenom. With his trademark wit and style, Wanders appoints the interiors with signature furnisthings and refined finishes.

© Marcel Wanders Studio

With a second villa just completed, two more about to break ground, and two more in development, Cosmopolitan is inspiring a design revolution on the island. Poised on the brink of a design renais- sance, Son Vida is on the way to establishing itself as an architecturally progressive community, put- ting Mallorca on the global design map for years to come.

© Cristián Barahona

Nestlé Social Block (featured earlier in ArchDaily), designed by chilean architects GH+A / Guillermo Hevia won Hunter Douglas‘ Project of the Year.

Hunter Douglas also chose the best projects from each region:
- Kargoexpress / PROIN / Europe, Africa, Middle East
- Chanhassen High School / Perkins + Will Architects / United States
- Dalian Shell Museum / The Design Institute of Civil Engineering & Architecture of DUT / Asia
- James Cook University / Conrad Gargett Architecture / Australia

© Cristián Barahona

Nestlé Social Block (featured earlier in ArchDaily), designed by chilean architects GH+A / Guillermo Hevia won Hunter Douglas‘ Project of the Year.

Hunter Douglas also chose the best projects from each region:
- Kargoexpress / PROIN / Europe, Africa, Middle East
- Chanhassen High School / Perkins + Will Architects / United States
- Dalian Shell Museum / The Design Institute of Civil Engineering & Architecture of DUT / Asia
- James Cook University / Conrad Gargett Architecture / Australia

This past Thursday evening, I met up with friend and fellow blogger Christian May of Maison21 for an event at TableArt on Melrose Avenue featuring Kelly Wearstler and her line of dinnerware for Pickard.  It was an intimate event and Kelly was on hand to sign copies of her latest book, Hue, among chatting with many of the guests.

The highlight of my evening (aside from M21’s ability to silence a room) was seeing Kelly inspired by the fashion of other guests.  With M21 & I standing beside Kelly, she picked up her iPhone to snap a picture of a girl in slim fitting camel colored coat with over size, unique textural buttons (I think it was the buttons that intrigued Kelly). I overhead someone say something to the effect would it be inspiring the next project.  Like many of us designers, being able to capture a photo of something (whether it’s architecture, a textile, nature, or in this instance, fashion); these are the things that lead us to be inspired and create.  I can’t help but wonder what is on Kelly’s iPhone camera and would love to see the images she captures and how that translates to what she designs.  So Kelly – if  you are ever so inclined to share with us what you photograph on a daily basis, I am sure many would love to see what captives and inspires you!

On the subject of inspiration, here is the line of china for Pickard designed by Kelly:

Table setting and guests at the TableArt event.

{For more on the event and to see a picture I took of Kelly & Christian, read M21’s post here.}

© Daici Ano

Architects: Shun Hirayama Architecture
Location: Kanagawa, Japan
Total Floor Area: 166.77 sqm
1st Floor Area: 81.57 sqm
2nd Floor Area: 85.20 sqm
Design Period: 2007-2008
Construction Period: 2008-2009
Photographs: Daici Ano, Katsuhisa Kida-FOTOTECA & Shun Hirayama

The site is located in Kanagawa Prefecture on a mountainside that overviews a sea and a city. The client couple, who are friends of mine, and I visited there, when the project was initiated. Walking around in the pre-project site, where too many tall trees stand on, views changed variously, because of the slanted land’s height differences. The experience was comparable to a pleasure of wandering in a forest. Taking a walk on a hillside or feel like so even inside the house had become a concept and we went on to continue the project, taking the slope positively.

first floor plan

© Daici Ano

Firstly, we started to define what kind of places should be there on the hill and then images of four living places were formed: a kitchen and a dining space near a road that becomes an approach, a living space at a good view point, bedrooms at positions to look out the hill, a bathroom at an airy location, and so on. After that, we put these places to individual volumes, converted them to wooden masses and shaped them, conforming to each site shape and condition, as if carving sculpture. The lateral of the road and the north surface are positioned parallel to the site boundaries, and the east surface, where the kitchen is, is slanted toward the south in order to let light in. The face of the living space is slightly inclined toward the north, so as to avoid seeing the neighborhood’s building. As a result, gradually overlapping each other, the four masses were formed into one shape.

© Daici Ano

After the outline of the building emerged, we proceeded to create the interior spaces. First of all, we produced a path that possesses comfortable straight eyesight, analogous to walking between trees. The path connects the inside and the outside, and again backs to the inside without a dead-end. A bridge becomes a part of the journey. On the finishes of the floors, various kinds of wooden floor that were chosen to match the assorted atmosphere are laid like carpets. In the center of a concrete floor that meets the ground, thin trees are arranged so as to look like a path between rice paddies.

© Katsuhisa Kida-FOTOTECA

We forwarded the design, piling up stories little by little, as if animals create their nest steadily. The traces of the thoughts and processes appear remarkably. In the interior of the building that was shaped to fit the landform, walls set in diverse angles, various ceiling heights and ten different floor levels exist and in the each space dissimilar shades live. The wind that enters inside the one-room interior space feels like they came between trees, and it feels like sitting on a natural stump, when sitting on a slight level difference.

© Daici Ano

Architects: Shun Hirayama Architecture
Location: Kanagawa, Japan
Total Floor Area: 166.77 sqm
1st Floor Area: 81.57 sqm
2nd Floor Area: 85.20 sqm
Design Period: 2007-2008
Construction Period: 2008-2009
Photographs: Daici Ano, Katsuhisa Kida-FOTOTECA & Shun Hirayama

The site is located in Kanagawa Prefecture on a mountainside that overviews a sea and a city. The client couple, who are friends of mine, and I visited there, when the project was initiated. Walking around in the pre-project site, where too many tall trees stand on, views changed variously, because of the slanted land’s height differences. The experience was comparable to a pleasure of wandering in a forest. Taking a walk on a hillside or feel like so even inside the house had become a concept and we went on to continue the project, taking the slope positively.

first floor plan

© Daici Ano

Firstly, we started to define what kind of places should be there on the hill and then images of four living places were formed: a kitchen and a dining space near a road that becomes an approach, a living space at a good view point, bedrooms at positions to look out the hill, a bathroom at an airy location, and so on. After that, we put these places to individual volumes, converted them to wooden masses and shaped them, conforming to each site shape and condition, as if carving sculpture. The lateral of the road and the north surface are positioned parallel to the site boundaries, and the east surface, where the kitchen is, is slanted toward the south in order to let light in. The face of the living space is slightly inclined toward the north, so as to avoid seeing the neighborhood’s building. As a result, gradually overlapping each other, the four masses were formed into one shape.

© Daici Ano

After the outline of the building emerged, we proceeded to create the interior spaces. First of all, we produced a path that possesses comfortable straight eyesight, analogous to walking between trees. The path connects the inside and the outside, and again backs to the inside without a dead-end. A bridge becomes a part of the journey. On the finishes of the floors, various kinds of wooden floor that were chosen to match the assorted atmosphere are laid like carpets. In the center of a concrete floor that meets the ground, thin trees are arranged so as to look like a path between rice paddies.

© Katsuhisa Kida-FOTOTECA

We forwarded the design, piling up stories little by little, as if animals create their nest steadily. The traces of the thoughts and processes appear remarkably. In the interior of the building that was shaped to fit the landform, walls set in diverse angles, various ceiling heights and ten different floor levels exist and in the each space dissimilar shades live. The wind that enters inside the one-room interior space feels like they came between trees, and it feels like sitting on a natural stump, when sitting on a slight level difference.

The residence in the images below is a restoration of a Edwardian building in Australia developed by Architects Eat. The project team stated that their intention was “to create an Inside is outside is inside environment, where inside and outside spaces were interchangeable elements”. The construction took 18 months to finish, but is was worth the wait. The property also features a beautiful courtyard enclosed by the “U”-shaped building. We really like the natural feel of this place as well as its amazing location. Surprisingly enough, a part of the house was suspended not to damage in any way the roots of the near-by trees. The architects not only redesigned an existing home, but also added an extension. The interior also applies to the “outside is inside” rule, featuring materials and elements that are not usually found indoors. -via MOOD