Category Archives: Homes

American Architecture: Evolution Of Indiana Houses In Photographs

September 21, 2020 She Seeks Serene Leave a comment

In the early nineteenth century, Indiana was at the intersection of ideas from the East and the frontier – resulting in a unique opportunity to express creative adaptions of residential architectural styles in America.

Industrialization later in the century created a new wealth to build extraordinary houses outside of cities; by the early twentieth century, Americans had created their own distinctive residential architecture with the Prairie Style.

This 288 page compendium includes over ninety houses in Indiana which are representative of the finest American residential architecture, from the Federal and Classical Revival style to Modern. The fascinating story of the evolution of residential architecture elaborates on the character defining features of each period, including the exterior form, massing, details as well as interiors – all beautifully illustrated in large format black and white photographs.

Authors: Craig Kuhner and Alan Ward

American Residential Architecture
Oscar Riera Ojeda Publications
Photographs of the Evolution of Indiana Houses

Architecture, Home Design, Homes, Travel, Videos

Italian Estate Video Tours: “Castello Torrito”, Umbria

Video September 15, 2020 She Seeks Serene Leave a comment

In a very panoramic position in the municipality of Foligno, in the heart of Umbria, we find this beautiful medieval castle. The property, spanning over 500 sqm, currently offers a total of 5 bedrooms and 6 bathrooms. A beautiful garden enclosed by the original walls is ideal for events and weddings and also features a finely restored private chapel. All around, 4.0 hectares of land complete the property.

Homes, Travel, Videos

New Design Books: “The Most Beautiful Rooms In The World” (AD/Rizzoli)

September 13, 2020 She Seeks Serene Leave a comment

An unrivaled survey of the most exciting contemporary interior design across the globe, curated by the editors of ten international editions of Architectural Digest.

Since 1920, Architectural Digest has celebrated design talents, innovative homes, and products–providing endless decoration, lifestyle, and travel inspiration. With ten global editions, the magazine is an authority renowned all over the world for publishing only the very best of today’s interior design.

In this new volume–spearheaded by AD France‘s editor in chief, Marie Kalt–the editors of Architectural Digest‘s international editions have teamed up to thoughtfully curate a collection of today’s most exceptional interiors around the globe. These diverse residential spaces span from the United States and China, to France, Italy, Germany, Russia, Spain, India, Mexico, and the Middle East, presenting each country’s unique “AD style manifesto” and the work of design luminaries such as Peter Marino, Martyn Lawrence Bullard, Jacques Grange, Joseph Dirand, and Bijoy Jain, to name a few. The featured projects range from Marc Jacobs’s New York townhouse to Tommy Hilfiger’s Connecticut abode and Seth Meyers’s Manhattan duplex; a sumptuous eighteenth-century Italian villa and a Moroccan palace; Pierre Bergé’s apartment and a hôtel particulier in Paris; a Majorca summer home; and a country house in Russia. Brimming with stunning images and rich international inspirations, this unparalleled compendium of global interiors is a must for every library of interior design.

Home Design, Homes, Travel

Cotswolds Home Tours: “Manor House At Chipping Norton”, Oxfordshire, UK

September 12, 2020 She Seeks Serene Leave a comment

SEPTEMBER 2020

For the past 10 years or more, the manor’s globe-trotting owner and ‘serial collector’, Tony Hill, has painstakingly restored and modernized the quirky, 3,700 sq ft house set in three-quarters of an acre of totally private gardens in the heart of the town, with guidance and advice from Cheshire-based Nigel Daly Architectural Design.

In the rolling countryside of north Oxfordshire, Grade II-listed The Manor House at Chipping Norton has ‘the wonderful homely feel of a house your parents might have lived in for 30 years,’ says David Henderson of Savills in Stow-on-the-Wold.

Stone steps from the hall lead to the light-filled main drawing room with its oriel window and window seat, where bespoke bookcases made from reclaimed elm boards surround the open fireplace. Another flight of stone stairs leads from the inner hall to the dining room with its vaulted ceiling and impressive carved stone fireplace. A large games/media room is used as a home cinema, office and party room.

Architecture, Home Design, Homes, Videos

Innovative Home Design: “K Valley House” In New Zealand (Video Tour)

Video September 10, 2020 She Seeks Serene Leave a comment

K VALLEY HOUSE

A retreat for film makers.

The clients are a couple, a director and director of photography in the film industry, their jobs involve them filming on location for stretches of time. This house is the space to which they retreat between filming.

The site is 20 hectares of farmland on the Kauaeranga river in the valley of the same name, it stretches from high on the hillside to the river banks and includes a ridgeline which commands a panoramic view of the farmland below and the native bush on the opposite slopes of the valley.

The clients brief called for a response which engaged with the site in both a filmic as well as practical way, they live a life of self-sufficiency while on the land, including growing, animal husbandry and butchery. The clients spoke of materials that have a patina of age, of sustainability, of recycling and adaptive re-use, of provenance of materials.

Our response was to concentrate the small mass of building that the brief determined into a singular geometric form that could hold its own in the big landscape. We positioned the form straddling the ridgeline, engaged with the slope at the high end and floating above the land as it falls away. Drawing from the vernacular of rusty corrugated iron sheds prevalent in the district, we clad the form in a rainscreen of rusted corrugated iron sheets, a rural camouflage of sorts.

The building is made largely of recycled materials and fittings, which the clients procured over the duration of the build.

Website

Homes, Travel, Videos

Italian Estate Video Tour: “Villa Orseola” In Positano

Video September 9, 2020 She Seeks Serene Leave a comment

In the oldest part of Positano, slightly above the historical centre, near an antique church, ancient villa enjoying a beautiful panoramic view of the Amalfi coast and Capri. This aristocratic property (12 bedrooms in total, many with direct sea view) was originally built in 1741 on the ruins of Roman construction and has been recently carefully restored to a high standard and keeping its original magnificent distinctive features.

Architecture, Home Design, Homes

Top Architectural Design: “Hedonistic House” On Aegina Island, Greece

September 7, 2020 She Seeks Serene Leave a comment

The holiday home located in the area of Agioi Apostoloi in Aegina is organized around a central patio. The dialogue with the natural terrain of the plot as well as the unobstructed visual views of the land were elements crucial to the design.

The visitor enters from the highest point of the patio from where the movements are distributed around the three living areas of the house – the master bedroom, the guest rooms and the lounge area – and the swimming pool. The morphology of the patio follows the outer sloping terrain and as it gradually descends through a path of terraces and outdoor seating areas leads the visitor to the view.

Its final level, in combination with the airy living room, constitutes an expanded covered balcony to the sea. Its transparent roof bears the pool-observatory. The patio functions as a vital living space of the residence and so does the rooftop swimming pool.

The bedrooms maintain their privacy while at the same time referring to the heart of the whole – the patio and the sea view. The section of the house levels creates an internal microcosm of spaces and movements, constituting a path that can bypass the enclosed spaces and end up outside the plot around the side of the daily activities volume.

The morphology of the complex expresses the function of each individual space housed under it while the selected rough materials set up a direct dialogue with the island’s topos. The individual volumes are embraced by a dynamic curved, unifying outer skin that holds the whole together and forms a characteristically acute, yet silent gesture of a human intervention on the natural landscape.