Category Archives: Homes
Estate Tours: The Rare Musical Instruments Of Holdenby House, England
When you visit a stately home like Holdenby, you expect the pomp, the glamor, the sense of history. Less expected, perhaps, is a museum for some of the rarest musical instruments around.
Holdenby House is a historic country house in Northamptonshire, traditionally pronounced, and sometimes spelt, Holmby. The house is situated in the parish of Holdenby, six miles northwest of Northampton and close to Althorp. It is a Grade II* listed building.
From An American Aristocrat’s Guide to Great Estates: https://bit.ly/2YK7Yn4
Culture & Design: 15th C. Tuscan Villa, Siena, Italy
Even now, the approach to the 1,200-acre property is just as it must have been centuries ago: a long, winding ride through pale, undulating fields, leading to a dignified hilltop retreat. The three-story ivy-wrapped building is ringed by 20-foot obelisk-like cypress trees — a private citadel entered through a wrought-iron gate. Beyond the vista of olive groves, another fortresslike outcropping is visible in the distance: the mottled russet city of Siena, three miles away.
WHEN RENÉ CAOVILLA, the 82-year-old Venetian shoe designer, was first shown the Tuscan villa he bought in 1977, he fell in love with it instantly. He wasn’t only taken with the house, a 15th-century red brick monastery that had undergone a slow transformation into an austere 20-bedroom private home in the 17th century, but the Chianti landscape as well — the whole of classical history evoked in a flash.
HOME DESIGN: ‘LIVING IN – MODERN MASTERPIECES OF RESIDENTIAL ARCHITECTURE’
Openhouse has spent the last six years giving readers a closer look at some of the most extraordinary houses around the globe. In their first book, the editors open the doors to their highlights, including exclusive photography and rarely seen homes.
With a range of architectural styles from Brutalism to 20th-century mastery from the likes Walter Gropius and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, this book portrays the stories of architects and residents of the most remarkable and inspiring living spaces around the world. Enter the adobe house of Georgia O’Keefe in New Mexico, step into the Modernist Casa Pedregal designed by Luis Barragán in Mexico City, and discover the sensorial architecture of George Nakashima’s house, studio, and workshop in New Hope, Pennsylvania.
From case study houses to cutting edge contemporary architecture, Living In describes what it feels like to occupy these spaces from the perspective of their owners—who themselves have become stewards of architectural history.
Literary Travel: ‘Hill Top’ – Cumbria, England Home Of Beatrix Potter (Video)
Hill Top, the much-loved Cumbrian home of author Beatrix Potter, creator of the character Peter Rabbit™. Although the farm is closed at the moment you can still explore the writer’s paintings, drawings, treasured objects, as well as the surrounding countryside that inspired her. Look out for your favourite characters along the way.
Hill Top is a 17th-century house in Near Sawrey near Hawkshead, in the English county of Cumbria. It is an example of Lakeland vernacular architecture with random stone walls and slate roof. The house was once the home of children’s author and illustrator Beatrix Potter who left it to the National Trust.
Baronial Castle Tour: ‘Auchendennan House’ On Loch Lomond, Scotland
Auchendennan House is an impressive A-listed Baronial castle featuring two turrets, set centrally amidst its 55 acres of beautifully designed landscape of parkland and woods. Located close to the southwest bank of Loch Lomond, it enjoys remarkable views across the loch to the mountains of the national park beyond.
The four-storey sandstone castle is approached from the main road, along a private tarmac drive with speed bumps, lined with trees. Through secure gates fitted with a telephone entry system, the driveway incorporates a carriage turning circle, with an attractive water fountain carved with dolphins and shells.
On arrival, shelter is provided by a striking Porte Cochere with arched coach openings, turrets and a vast array of decorative details.
Entered on basement level, you are welcomed into a grand 20th century vestibule, with oak panelling and a large carved fireplace including cherub and female figurines and inscriptions. Hidden in the panelling one secret door leads to a WC, whilst another leads to an office, various storage rooms, and a two-bedroom staff apartment with bathroom, kitchen and living area. Also on this level is a large reception room with its own garden entrance, currently used as a gym.
Mobile Living: Modern Shed – ‘The DW’ (Dwelling On Wheels) – “An Amazing Off-Grid Tiny Home”
Having provided customers with small backyard spaces for over two decades, Modern Shed has taken the next step in small space innovation. One that can be taken with you wherever you go. Introducing the DW (dwelling on wheels). This is more than a mobile shed on wheels.
Modern-Shed was born from builders and dreamers—idealists and pragmatic problem-solvers. The Modern Shed team was inspired to embark on a creative project in 2020–creating their first-ever portable dwelling. Drawing on their design/build expertise, the team created a beautiful, self-contained space big enough to call home, yet small enough to take anywhere: The Dwelling on Wheels –the DW– was born. A classic gable form creates a recognizable home, with wall-to-ceiling window placements maximizing landscape views and sunlight.
The Details
The resilient, low-maintenance envelope is contrasted by a bright and spacious wood interior and sustainable linoleum flooring. The DW offers room for three with a large bed–just a few inches short of a queen–tucked below a twin in the sleeping area. Thoughtfully designed, built-in storage accommodates small living while the glass wall orients the structure to capture the horizon in the living room.
With a solar array on the roof equipped with batteries, and a wood stove to provide warmth, the DW is equipped to be used off-grid. The dwelling comes with two electric wall heaters as a backup, and is ready to accommodate water tanks or a composting unit.
The DW exemplifies Modern-Shed’s values: creating beautiful dwellings efficiently, sustainably, and cleverly.
Video Profiles: French Architect & Designer Charlotte Perriand
In 1938 architect and designer Charlotte Perriand (1903-1999) designed a mountain shelter able to withstand the harsh elements of any mountaintop yet still light enough to be carried by hand.
The “Refuge Tonneau” (“barrel shelter”), her piece of nomadic architecture designed with Pierre Jeanneret, consists of just 12 main prefabricated panels light enough to be manually transported. Once on location, the panels lock together to resist wind, snow, and cold. The tiny barrel-shaped structure sleeps up to 10 people and while it was never constructed in Perriand’s lifetime it was just one of her many designs created for the masses.
In 1934, after 7 years working with Le Corbusier, Perriand began a five-year study of minimal shelters, like the prefab aluminum Bivouac refuge and the affordable, elegant prefab “House at the Water’s Edge”. Hoping to improve upon her easily-transportable, aluminum Bivouac shelter she found inspiration in the merry-go-round. Counting on the dodecagon shape’s ability to withstand strong centrifugal loads (and high winds), she made it the basis for her Refuge Tonneau.
All her tiny shelters were works of studied elimination. “Her mission was to eliminate anything unnecessary,” explains her daughter Pernette Perriand-Barsac, “but always to concentrate on the flow of light and air. Then you can live in the smallest of spaces.” Sébastien Cherruet gave us a tour of Perriand’s minimal structures and apartment design at the Louis Vuitton Foundation’s exhibit he curated: “Charlotte Perriand: Inventing a New World”.
Renaissance Villa Tour: Pistoia In Tuscany, Italy
Magnificent and elegant luxury villa in Tuscany built in 1893 in the late Tuscan Renaissance style that dominates the plain of Pistoia and offers a spectacular panoramic view towards Florence. The exclusive villa near Florence is a testimony of the aesthetic culture of the end of the century and of the taste of high society of that time, with the creation of unique and exclusive artifacts and locals for the most important persons of the nobility and of the rich international community that, at that time, was attending Florence.
The most famous artist-decorators then active in Tuscany, such as Peter Baldoncoli Francesco Morini, Mariano Coppedè and Giuseppe Michelucci, participated in the realization of this residence, which is typical of Sixteenth-century style and it was celebrated as a dwelling worthy of the Renaissance. The interiors feature rich finishes, beautiful antique furnishings and wonderful wall-paintings.
Top Architectural Tours: ‘Shelter Island, New York’
91 Ram Island Drive is the culmination of twenty years of work by internationally renowned architect William Pedersen. A triumph of contemporary design and expertly crafted by Wright and Company Construction, the house sits on almost 3 acres of rolling native meadow that gently slopes onto over 220 feet of pristine beach, with Gardiners Bay beyond.
Based on a multi-axis linear framework and emphasizing the contrasting textures of the primary building materials of concrete, wood, copper and bluestone, the structure is at once both awe-inspiring and effortlessly comfortable. Set at the convergence of three distinct landmarks – the lighthouse in Gardiners Bay, Gardiners Island and the entrance to Coecles Harbor – an unparalleled 360-degree panoramic view unfolds in front of the property.
The house itself seems to rise like an island from the water, as was the conceptual inspiration for the design. Clad in stone and sheets of standing seam copper, the 3-bedroom residence offers an open flow between the public spaces at the heart of the home, the expansive outdoor entertaining areas that define the summer lifestyle and the long passageway of the private bedroom wing. Singular in design and function, 91 Ram Island Drive is, in every sense, a habitable work of art.
Boomers Daily 