Category Archives: Home Design

New Photography Books: “Summer To Summer” – New England Coast Homes

Summer to Summer Houses by the Sea  By Jennifer Ash Rudick CoverFrom the rocky coast of Maine to the sandy beaches of the Hamptons, from Nantucket to Newport, from Fire Island to Fishers Island, from Martha’s Vineyard to Provincetown, summer hours are as varied in style as the people who hightail it to the beach as soon as the temperature climbs. In this lushly illustrated book, author Jennifer Ash Rudick has sought out some thirty of the best.

She invites us to a minimally decorated, Isamu Noguchi–designed home in Northeast Harbor, Maine, and Sister Parrish’s cozily decorated house in Dark Harbor, Maine. We imagine relaxing in comfortably cushioned rattan chair on the sun porch of a Nantucket house designed by Tom Scheerer, taking in the view of Long Island Sound through the glass curtain wall of a sleek house on Fishers Island, and feeling snugly cosseted in a tiny Provincetown cottage.

Summer to Summer Houses by the Sea  By Jennifer Ash Rudick

All we need to do is settle back, kick off our shoes, and let the sun-kissed pages of Summer to Summer wash over us.

AUTHORS

Jennifer Ash Rudick is the author of Palm Beach ChicOut East: Houses and Gardens of the Hamptons, and City of Angels: Houses and Gardens of Los Angeles. A contributing editor to Galerie magazine, she has written for national publications, including the Washington PostW, and Town & Country. With Maysles Films, she produced the Emmy-nominated documentary Iris, and she directed and produced the documentary Diner en Blanc. She lives in New York City and Southampton, NY.

Tria Giovan specializes in photographing interiors, still life, food, and portraiture. The photographer of Out East: House and Gardens of the Hamptons, her work has appeared in Costal Living, EsquireHouse BeautifulTravel & Leisure, and Veranda. Two volumes of her work have been published: Sand Sea Sky: The Beaches of Sagaponaack and Cuba: The Elusive Island. She lives in Sag Harbor, NY, and New York City.

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Housing: “Container Atlas – A Practical Guide To Container Architecture”

Container Atlas seeks out luxurious remote hideaways, urban dwellings, community centers, and more, all showing how the humble container can put the fab into pre-fab.

Container architecture has become an essential part of our twenty-first century surroundings, with it being used to create modular structures for pavilions, brand showrooms, retail premises, and even residential homes. Ten years after the first publication of Container Atlas, this eagerly anticipated follow-up charts how this movement has evolved into an essential part of today’s architectural vocabulary. Container Atlas serves as a practical and inspirational reference not only for architects and engineers, but also for all creatives eager to learn about the rich and diverse language of container architecture and modular building.

Architect and Professor Han Slawik and his team have established themselves as international experts in the field of container architecture. He is the author of the first edition of Container Atlas and has returned to the subject with refreshed insights into this burgeoning movement.

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Future Of Urban Housing: Stackable “OPod Tube Houses”, Hong Kong 2020 (Cybertecture Architects)

OPod Housing No.1 James Law Cybertecture Hong Kong 2020 Urban HousingComprised of 21 units of OPod Tube Houses, stack on 2 levels, the project is deployed on an unused urban plot in To Kwa Wan District of Hong Kong. Being a modular and flexible architecture, OPod Housing No.1 is able to be set up in less than 3 months, providing accommodation to 20 sets of residents with shared common kitchen and a co-living courtyard.

OPod Housing No.1 is social housing project providing accommodation to citizens of Hong Kong struggling to afford housing.

OPod Housing No.1 James Law Cybertecture Hong Kong 2020 Urban Housing

Each OPod Tube House is 140 sq.ft in size with private toilet and shower, food preparation area and living room with sofa bed. To facilitate a modern sustainable  lifestyle, the OPod Tube Houses are equiped with wifi and home automation for better management of resources. The project is scheduled to complete construction and open in 2020.

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Art & Design: “Surrealist Home Interiors” Of Italian Designer Cristina Lello

From Visual Pleasure Magazine (April 19, 2020):

I often find myself observing classic paintings that can inspire compositions, or fashion that can inspire the choice of a color palette. At a certain point everything Cristina Lello Sunset Skene 2019is united in a very natural way in a creative concept. My artistic research is a constant blend between the worlds of architecture, painting, photography, graphic design, and fashion. At the base of my work, then, there is an artistic background very much linked to the Gestalt principles of visual perception. I try to avoid looking for inspiration only within the confines of my sector: I find that this often leads to a flattening of the creative result.

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Having always been fascinated with sensational spaces, Cristina Lello now visualizes the most striking scenes that tell a clear story. As she describes herself, her studio “creates high-impact images from the intersection of interior styling, set design and 3D art.” After graduating with honors in Set Design at the Academy of Fine Arts of Venice, she also started a Master’s degree in Interactive Media for Interior Design while working for Elisa Ossino Studio.

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Upcoming Magazines: “Why Home Matters” – (Monocle May 2020)

Monocle’s home-focused May issue goes beyond the dramatic headlines to look at how to create spaces that are apt to linger in. 

We launch a manifesto for building better, look at the firms eyeing up the domestic market and profile a few elegant residences. Elsewhere, we examine the importance of keeping manufacturing onshore, decode the US political advertising industry and recommend the best media to hunker down with.

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Post-Coronavirus Life: Bathroom Design And Hygiene Will Improve, While Bidet Sales Increase

From a CityLab online article (April 10, 2020):

The Bidet bookWhat might that mean for the bathrooms of the post-coronavirus world? Americans have already demonstrated a keen fixation with this household feature: In the last 50 years, the number of home bathrooms per person has doubled. One could easily see the lavatory-building boom accelerate further as future homeowners keep the needs of the self-quarantined in mind. And many have speculated that sales of bidet attachments will surge as toilet-paper shortages encourage Americans to embrace this more sustainable alternative.

Alter predicted that disease-avoidance would rise to the fore of bathroom design a few years ago, when he observed the traumatizing effects of the 2003 SARS outbreak on Toronto, which killed 44 people. But home design in general — and bathroom design in particular — has long been influenced by infectious disease.

The modern bathroom developed alongside outbreaks of tuberculosis, cholera and influenza; its standard fixtures, wallcoverings, floorings, and finishes were implemented, in part, to promote health and hygiene in the home at a time of widespread public health concerns.

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Top Prefab Housing: “Le Petit Maison” By French Firm 2m26 – “Wood Design Fit To The Landscape”

Le Petit Maison by 2m26 Architects Interior April 2020From reception pavilion to proper house, 2m26’s houses are unique pieces. They are produced made to measure, on demand. They absolutely fit to the landscape. The houses are made of pine planks, rough cuted. The structure is protected with linseed oil to resist to weather conditions and walnut stain can be added to obtain a dark color.

The Small House by 2m26 Architects April 2020The building process / prefab gives the opportunity to prepare all the pieces at the Atelier. Moreover, it reduces on site time of construction, damages on plants and minimizes noise pollution. On site construction can be scheduled from a week to a month.

Techniques used are mostly cutting, drilling, screwing, so that the assembly work can be done together with the customer, reducing costs for him.

About 2m26: Born in 2015, 2m26 summarizes ten years of researches and experiments about inhabiting.

Proceeding between design and architecture, 2m26 offers tools for living / handmade, thrifty and luxury / unique pieces designed and produced on demand / raw materials, natural processings and mastered development / simple, handsome and functional.

The crew :
mélanie heresbach / artist / architect.
sébastien renauld / artist / architect.

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Style: A Look At NYC Home Of The Late Lee Radziwill – “Muse To Warhol And Capote” In 1960’s & 70’s

Fluent in French and Italian, Lee Bouvier Radziwill was able to navigate New York and European high society, and support her sister Jackie, who became the First At Home With Lee Radziwill Christies video April 5 2020Lady when her husband John F. Kennedy was elected President.

Fashion writer Hamish Bowles said Radziwill ‘defined dynamic American style for decades’. In fact it was Lee’s innate style that helped shape Jackie Kennedy’s wardrobe and transformed her into a fashion icon. Lee had a taste for the exotic and unexpected, and understood how clothes could be used to make a statement in the political arena.

She was one of Truman Capote’s ‘Swans’ — the beautiful socialites he doted on — and when he threw his spectacular Black and White masked ball at The Plaza in 1966, she was a guest of honor.

Lee was just as comfortable at the Factory, mingling with Gerard Malanga and Andy Warhol, or on the Rolling Stones’ tour bus with Mick Jagger and his wife Bianca, who holidayed with her in the Hamptons.

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The Art Of Home Design: “Stairway House” In Japan – “Fusion Of Household And Environs” (Nendo, 2020)

Stairway House - Nendo Japan 2020…a stairway and greenery gently connected the upper and lower floors along a diagonal line, creating a space where all three generations could take comfort in each other’s subtle presence. Not only does the stairway connect the interior to the yard, or bond one household to another, this structure aims to expand further out to join the environs and the city —connecting the road that extends southward on the ground level, and out into skylight through the toplight.

Stairway House - Nendo Japan 2020A two-family home in a quiet residential area of Tokyo. With other houses and apartment buildings pressing around the site, the architectural volume was pushed to the north to take in daylight, ventilation, and greenery of the yard into the living environment by a large glass front southern façade. The layout plan made it possible to preserve the existing persimmon tree beloved by the previous generations. Considering the potential difficulties of going up and down the stairs, the rooms for the older couple were arranged on the 1st floor. The eight cats living with the older couple roam in and outdoors more freely, and encourages the mother to enjoy her hobby of gardening more freely. The younger couple and their child reside on the 2nd and 3rd floors. To avoid the two households being completely separated at the top and bottom, a “stairway-like” structure was designed in the south yard, continuing upward into the building and penetrating the 1st through 3rd floors. Enclosed inside the “stairway” are functional elements, such as bathrooms and a staircase for actual use, with the upper part taking on the look of a semi-outdoor greenhouse with abundant greenery as well as a sun-soaked perch for the cats to enjoy climbing.

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Interviews: “Courtyard Living” Author Charmaine Chan – “Domestic Solitude Solution” (Podcast)

Monocle on Design PodcastCharmaine Chan, design editor for ‘South China Morning Post’ believes that courtyards offer an excellent urban solution to domestic solitude. She explains how they can be hubs of community and calm.

Courtyard Living Charmaine ChanCourtyards have long played an important function in residential design, regulating light, shade, and the use of space. With thousands of years of tradition as inspiration, contemporary architects are now realizing courtyard living afresh. This lavish survey of twenty-five residences across the Asia-Pacific region features homes from Australia, Taiwan, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, the Philippines, Singapore, India, Vietnam, and Sri Lanka.

Structured by courtyard function, the book’s five chapters—on privacy; multigenerational living; sightlines; light and ventilation; and living with nature—are richly illustrated with photography and architectural illustrations showing courtyard positions within floor plans.

Showcasing the unique lifestyle opportunities afforded by contemporary courtyard design, this is an inspirational resource for anyone interested in indoor-outdoor living.

Charmaine Chan is Design Editor at the South China Morning Post. She began her journalism career in Sydney, pursued it in Tokyo and moved to Hong Kong in 1997 to join the Post. Her writing focuses on design and architecture in Asia.

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