Like the nearby coast, Carmel’s allure has ebbed and flowed, though Wright’s assessment of it as a community full of upper-middle class residents has, for the most part, remained true.
Located on Carmel Point near Carmel-by-the-Sea—a celeb-favored California enclave—the one-of-a-kind home just sold for $22 million, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Country Life Magazine – February 22, 2023 issue:
Charlotte Mullins talks to Dutch Old Masters dealer Johnny van Haeften about Brexit, biscuits and the state of the art market
Michael Prodger explores the ugly face of art, complete with jutting jawlines, rubbery lips and potato-shaped noses
Traditionally a symbol of fertility and a fairy-tale prince, our frogs are facing an uncertain future, discovers Ian Morton
A trio of British growers offers advice to Tiffany Daneff on how to start a cutting garden
The multitalented John Piper should be celebrated as one of the great polymaths of the 20th century, argues Peyton Skipwith
Located in Hawthorn, Victoria, Hermon is a fun and playful house set on a tree-lined street dotted with Edwardian and Federation homes. Stitching together the project’s Edwardian structure and contemporary changes, WOWOWA has introduced unique materials, a vibrant colour palette and elements to install vivacity into the family home.
00:00 – Introduction to the Playful House 00:23 – The Location 00:38 – Key Ambitions 01:01 – A Love for Renovations 01:22 – A Walkthrough of the House 01:50 – The Fun and Dreamy Kitchen 02:28 – Embracing Age 02:50 – The Materials and Colour Palette 03:28 – Laminex Pairings 04:15 – Focusing on the Little Moments and the Big 04:34 – Fresh and Nostalgic
With a love for rejuvenation, WOWOWA has continued the residence’s charming heritage by using the original stone, bricks and gradient of the roof tiles for inspiration in the transformation of the fun and playful house. Beginning the house tour from the front gate, guests walk up a soft pebble walkway before entering into a traditional foyer with tall ornate walls and a spacious hallway. After passing through the threshold of the fun and playful house, WOWOWA’s contemporary renovations are revealed in the kitchen – the heart of the home.
Employing a colour story of reds, browns and terracotta to reference the surrounding landscape, the kitchen is full of moments of inspiration and reflection. Throughout the space, the architects have also installed wide windows and doors that reveal the vibrant and colourful gardens. Working with Laminex for the kitchen’s interior design, WOWOWA has used the bayleaf colour to partner with the warm hues throughout the home. Also implemented in the main bedroom, the bayleaf adds a cohesiveness to the interior design and brings the vibrancy of outside into the more intimate spaces.
With four bedrooms located upstairs, including a main bedroom with walk-in robe and ensuite, two children’s rooms and a guest room, the interior design throughout results in a fun and playful house for the owners. By embracing the traditional circles, geometry and patterns of Hermon, WOWOWA have used materials such as terrazzo, finger tiles, terracotta, steel and timber to add a contemporary twist. Furthermore, the modern elements reference the original stained-glass windows of the façade. Considering the Edwardian exterior architecture, WOWOWA have softened the harder architectural structure by adding planter boxes and new lush gardens around the house. With a focus on aligning the larger gestures with the smaller ones,
WOWOWA have made sure to inject the same amount of attention into each material choice and design element of the fun and playful house. Adding joyfulness and nostalgia to Hermon, WOWOWA have created a home that gives the owners opportunity to create new stories.
Video timeline: 00:00 – Introduction to the Iconic Monolithic Home 00:39 – The Inner-City Location 01:00 – Designing with Entertaining in Mind 01:35 – A Long Term Plan 01:52 – The Key to Planning 02:27 – A Walkthrough of the Home 02:53 – The Double Height Volume 04:00 – Spatial Contrast and Emotive Responses 04:44 – Blurring the Lines of Inside and Outside 05:32 – Materials for the Long Term 05:51 – Swaying from the City’s Nostalgia 06:08 – Building for a Hot Climate 06:33 – A Contrast to the Concrete 06:49 – The Project’s Biggest Success
Considering the life of the home and how it may look in 50 to 100 years, the architects have imagined a ruin-like appearance finished with raw materials and green life that blur the lines between liveable spaces. Designed as both a sanctuary for its owners and a place to entertain, the home’s layout unfolds from the ground up like a living work of art. Starting the home tour from the garage and lower ground, guests enter into a moody portico that offers privacy to the other levels upon arrival.
Moving on to the lower ground bedroom, the unique design showcases the owners’ desire to create an iconic residence that takes advantage of the homes location on the side of a hill. In the main bedroom, the architects employ reeded glass at the bottom of the double-height windows to add a playful reflection of light that turns the modern bedroom into a living work of art. Up on the middle floor, a guest bedroom and bathroom have been installed along with a spare bathroom for parties. However, in addition to the rooms, the middle level also holds a unique hallway with low height ceilings that terminates in a dark timber enclosure, suggesting a cave-like experience.
Lit only by a window that looks down into the lower bedroom, the enclosed hallway focuses upon spatial variety and the sequence of contrast throughout the home’s architecture. Comparing high and low, light and dark, rough and smooth, the architects have introduced materials and design choices that evoke an emotive response. Past the middle floor, the large room that holds the entertaining spaces, as well as the central courtyard, is filled with natural light and introduces plant life into the home, turning it into a living work of art. Filled with lush greenery, the middle courtyard is designed to let the plants grow without constraint. Ivy grows inside and out and blurs the lines between spaces, while the Zoysia grass has been chosen for its self-undulation.
With large single pours of concrete, the home appears as a living work of art that has been carved out of a single piece of material. Contrasting against the concrete and stone is brass and timber, which help to heighten the experience within and turns the masterpiece home into a living work of art. Holding and manipulating light, La Scala offers different experiences throughout the day, while the shared spaces bring a new level of social living for its owners and their guests.
The long curving shoreline is punctuated by a large, weathered rock to its centre. This informed the architectural composition with a low, long, horizontal form complemented by a taller, denser, two-level element to the centre. It is a confident design with a direct relationship to site and context.
This metaphorical design response flowed through to the materials, with textured, “sandy” plaster and light-coloured timber for the interior walls, textured bronze fixtures (cast in sand) and vertical cedar cladding, mimicking the bullrush reeds in the adjacent wetland.
Biomorphic architecture is a style of architectural design that emphasizes natural shapes and patterns. As such, biomorphic architecture is inspired by organic forms like plants, animals, or the natural elements.
Just like white, black is not in the strict sense of the term a color, however it is associated with it from a psychological point of view, black conveying just like a color a symbolism. Scientifically, black refers to black holes and nothingness. In optics, black absorbs all wavelengths and is therefore characterized by its apparent absence of color, unlike white which is obtained by returning all the wavelengths it absorbs in equal parts. In the West, black is associated with mourning, sadness and despair, fear and death.
Labradorite is a mineral synonymous with security and regeneration. Discover its unique reflections that will remind you of the beauty of the polar skies and equip yourself with this strong energy shield to protect yourself from external negative energies.
Design Artist: Julius Roy
Video timeline: 00:00 – Introduction to the Modern Farm House 00:36 – A Mountain Location 01:04 – An All Seasons Site 01:32 – The Layout of the Pavilions 01:58 – The Integration of Farm and Terrace 02:32 – A Unique Brief 03:07 – Designed for Multiple Styles of Occupation 03:47 – The Materials 04:43 – Balancing the Materials 05:13 – Combining Old and New 06:23 – The House from a Distance 06:47 – Getting Better with Age
Following the Australian and New Zealand idea of farmhouse layouts, Patterson Associates has designed Pouaka Waikura as a set of pavilions that faces the Shotover River. Built as small and simple pavilions, the house tour of the modern farmhouse begins from the stone driveway that leads up to the mechanical shed and into the porte cochère. Beyond this are the two main pavilions, the guest house and main house, which have been separated by a wide outdoor space that allows the owners to entertain and connect with the surrounds.
Employing natural materials for the modern farmhouse, Patterson Associates has used Corten steel panels on the exterior, which are left to rust naturally, while waxed black steel, naturally oiled timber and in situ concrete are used on the inside. The materials come together naturally with minimalist detailing. Moreover, the blending of the materials immerses the home into the site with colours of rust, browns, golds and greys, all while the in situ concrete anchors the home into the land.
Patterson Associates uses materials that will patina over time and offer a sense of growth and permanency. Further allowing the owners to connect with their surroundings, the modern farmhouse opens up through bi-folding doors and adds flexible living spaces throughout. Aside from architecture, Patterson Associates contributed interior design, and seamlessly blended personal items from the clients’ existing cottage home with newer colourful and eclectic pieces. In the kitchen the use of waxed black steel panels references the exterior Corten panelling, while Belgium bluestone is used for the benchtops and wall splashbacks, which reference the fingerprinting and natural patina of the black steel.
Additionally, the dark tones frame the large awning windows and offer a view straight down to Shotover River and invite a wealth of light inside the home. The architects have designed Pouaka Waikura with lighting design that helps to open the home up and allow for a greater appreciation of the southern alps and winding rivers. Furthermore, embracing indoor-outdoor living also ensures that the owners can feel a deeper connection to their settings from either inside the modern farmhouse, or by the courtyard and fire space that sits between the pavilions. Encompassing everything that its owners need and more, New Zealand’s best kept secret is a modern farmhouse that uses materials, colours, objects and landscape that will only get better as the years pass by.
Mecanoo Architects, The Netherlands – The façade’s colour and appearance plays a part in the transition from dune to polder landscape.
The monolithic presence of the building volume is accentuated through the sloping roof surfaces and exterior walls. These are covered with tiles of the same continuous material – multicoloured glazed ceramic tiles. The hue of these tiles forms a coherent whole, making a connection and blending the building into the transformative landscape.
The naturally sloping landscape embraces Villa BW, with a building volume characterised by a double-curved roof coupled with an unmistakable expression of the facade. The twisting roof is created as a result of two overlapping shapes. A gable roof is designed on the dune-side, also characteristic of the street scene on the Oorsprongweg. In contrast, a horizontal roofline is designed for the polder-side.
The villa is constructed over three floors, with an additional level within the hood of the roof. Due to the natural course of the terrain and the replenishment of an embankment as a continuation of the dune landscape, the ground floor and basement level at -1 have a direct relationship with the surroundings. Facing southeast the connection with the landscape alongside the sloped garden is enhanced by enclosing two voids with a curtain wall system.
The strong connection between the landscape and the house translates into the expression of the facade and roof cladding with the application of a single natural material, expressed through a custom ceramic tile covering that wraps the entire building. This customised multicoloured glazed tile cladding represents the transitions in the landscape, from dune landscape to polder, and the soil layers, from light to dark.
Video timeline: 00:00 – Boudoir: “The walls were covered with a green hessian” 02:30 – Saloon: “This is where we have our best parties” 05:29 – State Bedroom: “It’s really funny to have a state bedroom when your friends come and stay…” 06:17 – State Bathroom: “It’s not conventional to have a bath of this size” 07:30 – Kitchen: “You shouldn’t hide away beautiful things” 08:49 – Living Room: “This was the Walpole’s library” 09:57 – Picture Room: “A 20th-century collection of paintings”
Watch the full episode of Design Notes as we tour Wolterton Hall and Peter & Keith explain how they live in the Palladian rooms of the piano nobile, from the State Bathroom with its alabaster-panelled bath to the Saloon that looks out on 500 acres of parkland. #HouseTour #ManorHouse #CountryHouse #England #HomeDesign
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