Today AD brings you to Vail, Colorado to tour 165 Forest Avenue, a massive ultra-modern 
mansion nestled in the Rocky Mountains. From the linear fireplace in the living room, to Italian marble surfaces in the kitchen, each space in the home is an invigorating expression of timeless luxury. The interior elegance is only surpassed by the natural beauty seen through the home’s glass walls, which slide apart granting access to over 6,500 sq. ft. of heated exterior space.
A linear red-brick wall obscures the textured interiors and art-filled courtyard hidden inside McLean Quinlan’s low-rise Passivhaus home in Devon, UK. The energy-efficient dwelling, aptly named Devon Passivhaus, nestles into a sloped walled garden that was once owned by an old English country house that fell into a state of disrepair.
The overall design is simple and clean. An elegant brick front complements the brickwork of the old garden wall and a discrete front door opening references the gate in the garden wall. Further down, an oriel window breaks through, hinting at what is behind. Elsewhere, external surfaces are dark render, designed to recede visually in deference to the surrounding garden.
Tucked within, the house has a glass roofed courtyard at its centre, a winter garden flooding light into the interior. Spaces are arranged around this central core so the building functions both as a home and a gallery for our clients, great collectors of pottery and art, with spaces to display and curate.
Comfortable and serene interior spaces are punctuated with tactile and textured materials: reclaimed terracotta, rough sawn oak and clay plaster, to ensure that internally the building feels connected to the garden that inspired it.
On this episode of Art Institute Essentials Tour, take a closer look at Bathers by a River, started by Henri Matisse in 1909 and completed in 1917. Henri Matisse originally painted this work as a pastoral scene, but over the next decade he transformed it into the cubist-inflected composition seen today. When the painting was acquired by the Art Institute in 1953, Matisse told the museum’s director that he viewed the painting as one of his five most pivotal works.
Henri Émile Benoît Matisse (1869 -1954) was a French artist, known for both his use of colour and his fluid and original draughtsmanship. He was a draughtsman, printmaker, and sculptor, but is known primarily as a painter.
Dating to the 1630’s this magnificent, historic property, ennobled by King Louis XIII in 1634, was discovered in 2006, entirely hidden beneath brambles and woodlands, by an intrepid local couple wanting to restore an important building of historical significance to the Béarn region.
Produced and Directed by: Michael Biondo, Dallas Bennett, and Michael Robison
Edited by: Dallas Bennett
Cinematography by: Michael Biondo
Architectural photographer and filmmaker Michael Biondo and creative reality capture duo Michael Robison and Dallas Bennett (aka MYND Workshop) have collaborated to create an episodic series of short visual tours of the Glass House, a site of the National Trust for Historic Preservation.
This video series seeks to create an ambient and intimate tour of Philip Johnson’s Glass House property in New Canaan, CT. These films are unique in the sense that they combine film and the use of point cloud technology to allow for a tectonic and artistic examination of the buildings in order to better understand the architecture and site design.
“Point clouds are an exceptional visual tool for understanding a space in ways which the human eye doesn’t typically allow,” said Michael Robison, co-founder and CEO of MYND Workshop. “The Glass House site could not be a more perfect subject to be experienced as a point cloud, providing insight into the complex relationships between the various structures and their careful placement throughout the dramatic landscape which defines the Glass House property.”
These films focus on a dialogue between Biondo’s carefully composed videography and MYND’s spectral point cloud visuals. Each video presents one of the different structures which comprise the Glass House property.
Biondo’s breathtaking video manages to capture those visceral experiences which one may come across when visiting the 49-acre property. These scenes offer the textures and light which define the sensual and emotional nature of Johnson’s work. In contrast, MYND Workshop’s animations speak to the layers and transparencies which Johnson often referred to when speaking about the design of the various buildings on the site, allowing for a design perspective that has never been seen before.
MYND Workshop’s medium of choice, the Point Cloud, may be best described as a 3D photograph which adds a spatial dimension to an otherwise 2D scene. The Brooklyn-based studio recognized early on the inherent beauty of the point clouds, exploring their creative potential by using them to create ethereal animations like those in the series.
This project was made possible by the generosity of Joanne and Stanley Marder.
About MYND Workshop
MYND Workshop is a Brooklyn based reality capture studio founded by Michael Robison and Dallas Bennett. Since 2015, they continue to implement a combination of 3D laser scanning and photogrammetry processes to document architecture, historic sites, film sets and artwork. MYND pushes the boundaries of these technologies by merging utility and creativity. Past projects have included Waldorf Astoria Hotel New York, Trinity Church Wall Street, World Trade Center Plaza, 9/11 Museum & Memorial, New York Stock Exchange, The Ford Foundation, The Brooklyn Navy Yard among many others.
About Michael Biondo
Michael Biondo is a New York and Connecticut-based photographer / filmmaker specializing in architecture and design. He studied Photography, Graphic Design, and Art History at the Pratt Institute where he earned a BFA. Recently Biondo contributed photographs to Rizzoli’s 2014 monograph, Allan Greenberg: Classical Architect; Design Book’s 50 U.S. Architects, published in 2015; and Inventive Minimalism, Monacelli Press, 2017. He co-authored and photographed Mid-Century Houses Today, Monacelli, 2015. His photographs have appeared in Architectural Digest, the Wall Street Journal, Architizer, Dwell, a+u Magazine and other publications.
On this episode of Art Institute Essentials Tour, take a closer look at American Windows, created by Marc Chagall in 1977. Later in his life, the artist Marc Chagall turned to the medium of stained glass to explore intense color on a monumental scale. This six-panel work, created for the museum to commemorate America’s bicentennial, merges symbols of American history, the Chicago skyline, and the arts.
Located in the Balkans, Croatia has become one of Europa’s top tourist destination again since its War of Independence in the late 1990s. Like much of Europe, Croatia boasts its share of medieval cities and historic ruins, but what makes this country exceptional is its wealth of stunning natural attractions such as the Plitvice Lakes, the spectacular Adriatic coastlines and gorgeous islands. An overview of the best places to visit in Croatia.
Places Visited – Touropia Website
Visit the most scenic spots in Grand Canyon National Park with Google Earth! Travel from the Abyss to the “Black Bridge” over the Colorado River to Hopi Point to watch the sunrise.
Boomers Daily 