New Zealand Design: RK Residence In Wellington

The Local Project (January 31, 2023) – Inside a calm and minimal modern architectural home located in the seaside town of Eastbourne, Wellington, RK Residence by Seear-Budd Ross incorporates distilled detailing and minimal finishes.

Video timeline: 00:00 – Introduction to the Calm, Minimal and Modern Home 00:21 – The Idea Behind the Home 00:46 – The Location of the Home 01:08 – Natural Characteristics 01:39 – A Light-Filled Connection 01:57 – The Plan and Topography 02:11 – Utilising Timber 03:35 – Refinement and Detail 03:51 – Fisher & Paykel Integrated Appliances 04:16 – Favourite Aspects of the Home 04:40 – Simplicity, Craftsmanship and Atmosphere

Completing interior design and architecture, Seear-Budd Ross has created a family home that offers a calming atmosphere, as well as an interior space filled with distinct characteristics. Designed as two singular volumes, the front of the house is made to incorporate public entertainment and living quarters, whilst the second singular volume holds the private rooms.

Placed between the two volumes, the courtyard provides a moment of transition between each volume and an abundance of natural light. Still and meditative, the design of RK Residence was planned to include sweeping views from the back of the home to the harbour beyond. Whilst following the house tour inside a calm and minimal modern architectural home, the architects have used high-quality materials throughout – including bandsawn flooring and cladding, tumbled paving in the courtyard and honed stone in the kitchen.

With locally-sourced timber helping connect the home to its surrounding landscape, the architects have used New Zealand pine on the exterior cladding, whilst the interior employs macrocarpa timber, bringing a unique scent and texture to the home. Inside a calm and minimal modern architectural home, the architects have worked with Fisher & Paykel to fit the kitchen with appliances that have been refined down to their essence.

As such, integrated appliances have been employed inside a calm and minimal modern architectural home to impart a seamless look throughout – including the Fisher & Paykel ovens, integrated fridge and freezer and dishwasher drawers. Furthermore, the stove top and rangehood provides a unified look and supports the open plan entertaining space. Creating moments of simplicity through refined architectural and design choices, the architects have used the typology of Eastbourne to establish a natural characterisation throughout. Finished with neutral tones, both the exterior and interior reference the coastal surrounds.

The architects have imparted a meditative atmosphere for the owners to enjoy for years to come. Acting as a counterpoint holiday home to the clients’ rural home, RK Residence by Seear-Budd Ross is a journey of refinement that begins from the exterior and continues inside a calm and minimal modern architectural home.

West Africa Views: The Cliff Of Bandiagara, Mali

UNESCO – The Bandiagara site is an outstanding landscape of cliffs and sandy plateaux with some beautiful architecture (houses, granaries, altars, sanctuaries and Togu Na, or communal meeting-places).

Several age-old social traditions live on in the region (masks, feasts, rituals, and ceremonies involving ancestor worship). The geological, archaeological and ethnological interest, together with the landscape, make the Bandiagara plateau one of West Africa’s most impressive sites.

News: The Last Boeing 747, New Zealand Inflation Rate, Book Stores Future

January 31, 2023: Monocle’s US Editor, Christopher Lord, joins us from Seattle as Boeing delivers the last 747 that it will ever build. Plus: how did New Zealand set the inflation target rate for the world? And what can we learn from Barnes & Noble’s expansion plans?

Front Page: The New York Times – January 31, 2023

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Blinken Meets Netanyahu at Turbulent Moment for Israel

The secretary of state and the Israeli leader had a ‘candid’ conversation amid deepening rifts over the Palestinians, Ukraine and a rightward shift by Benjamin Netanyahu’s government.

Initial Police Report on Tyre Nichols Arrest Is Contradicted by Videos

The police report was the latest instance in which video evidence offered a starkly different account of police violence than what officers had reported themselves.

Wall St. Is Counting on a Debt Limit Trick That Could Entail Trouble

If the debt limit is breached, investors expect Treasury to put bond payments first. It’d be politically and practically fraught.

For Giffords, Progress on Gun Safety Is Like Her Recovery: ‘Inch by Inch’

A 2011 mass shooting left Gabrielle Giffords, then a Democratic congresswoman, partly paralyzed and unable to speak fluently. She has since built a powerful advocacy group.

Previews: The Atlantic Magazine – March 2023

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The Atlantic Magazine – March 2023 issue:

We’ve Lost the Plot

Illustration: small abstract human figure stands in between rows of huge glowing smartphone screens
SHIRA INBAR

Our constant need for entertainment has blurred the line between fiction and reality—on television, in American politics, and in our everyday lives.

Sam Bankman-Fried’s Alleged Crimes Have Real Victims

What FTX customers lost may not impoverish them, but they were still cheated.

THE NARCISSISM OF THE ANGRY YOUNG MEN

What to do about the deadly misfits among us? First, recognize the problem.

History: Mahatma Gandhi Assassination At 75 Years

DW News – 75 years ago today, Mahatma Gandhi, who led the campaign for India’s independence, was assassinated in Delhi. The former lawyer is often called the “Father of the Nation” and credited with leading a non-violent struggle for independence from British rule.

Gandhi wanted an independent, peaceful India that protected religious freedom. But that was challenged by growing Muslim and Hindu nationalism. In 1947, India gained independence from the British, but at the cost of Partition – Muslim majority Pakistan and Hindu majority but secular India, came into being. Religous riots followed and Gandhi went on hunger strike to oppose the violence.

On January 30th, 1948, he was assassinated by a Hindu nationalist who believed Gandhi had been too accommodating to Muslims during the Partition. Around a million people turned out for his funeral. That was in 1948. But the India of 2023 is rather different. Hindu nationalism has been emboldened by Prime Minister Narendra Modi – leaving Gandhi’s legacy in tatters, as DW Correspondent Manira Chaudhary finds out.

Previews: The New Yorker Magazine- February 6, 2023

An illustration by Malika Favre. It shows the back of a couple walking on the Brooklyn Bridge.
Art by Malika Favre

The New Yorker – February 6, 2023:

When Law Enforcement Alone Can’t Stop the Violence

Corey Winfield leans through the window of a car, photographed by Rahim Fortune.

Amid a murder crisis in America, community-based solutions have received a flood of funding. How effective are they?

Hildegard of Bingen Composes the Cosmos

How a visionary medieval nun became a towering figure in early musical history.

The Hunt for Russian Collaborators in Ukraine

As occupied territories are liberated, some residents face accusations that they sided with the enemy.

Malika Favre’s “Connected”

The artist discusses seeking inspiration from her surroundings and experiencing new ways of living.

International Art: Apollo Magazine – February 2023

Apollo Magazine – February 2023:

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  • How Christopher Wren built his reputation
  • The changing face of Silicon Valley
  • An interview with Zineb Sedira
  • The tiger who smoked a pipe
  • Plus: the uncertain market for Old Masters, the Cambridge colleges that have turned to wood, the artists who have taken young women seriously, and reviews of Guido Reni, Edward Hopper and the new museum at the Bibliothèque nationale

News: China Satellite Firm Sanctions, Russia Military, NATO In South Korea-Japan

US slaps sanctions on a Chinese company for allegedly supplying satellite images to the Wagner Group. Plus: Russia’s shifting focus after Western powers promise tanks for Ukraine, and Nato chief Jens Stoltenberg visits South Korea and Japan.

Front Page: The New York Times – January 30, 2023

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‘Very Dangerous People’: Russia’s Convict Fighters Are Heading Home

Tens of thousands of inmates have joined a mercenary group fighting with the Kremlin’s decimated forces in Ukraine. Some of them are returning to civilian life with military training and, in many cases, battlefield traumas.

Scorpion Unit Emerged as Memphis Pursued Get-Tough Strategy

City leaders had praised the new group as a key strategy for fighting crime. Now they are trying to assess whether it was flawed from the start.

Hamlin’s Injury Highlights Precarious Position of Many Young N.F.L. Players

The injury to Damar Hamlin of the Buffalo Bills, who collapsed on the field in cardiac arrest, has drawn attention to players who have been hurt early in their careers and now struggle to get help.

California Has More Than 100 Gun Laws. Why Don’t They Stop More Mass Shootings?

The state is still reeling from back-to-back attacks that left at least 19 people dead. The killings have spurred lawmakers to call for more regulations.