Displaying posts from April, 2018

I wanted to share a couple of new projects by super creative Polish architecture firm mode: lina. I love how it’s completely obvious that these guys just like to have fun and think people should enjoy their environment, even if it is where you work. This first workspace is that of Brain Embassy – a co-working and creative space in Warsaw. Wow the energy of this space is amazing! Great colours and industrial vibe and lots of versatile spaces to grow that business into something totally awesome. Note the play on “synapses” throughout.

This next project is the new mode: lina offices located in a modernized townhouse in the trendy and fast developing Poznań neighbourhood. With a minimalist and monochromatic palette, this just goes to show how cool this team is. This is all they need.

I’m in my favourite Melbourne suburb of Fitzroy and I’m stalking one of my favourite house types, the warehouse conversion. Plenty of light, plenty of art, library on the landing and just a hop, skip and jump to all the inner-city cool that is Fitzroy. What more could I want?  Oh maybe the estimated $1 800 000 to $2 000 000 to buy it. Link here while it lasts.

Atlanta designer Nancy Braithwaite‘s key elements of design are as follows:

Architecture – Design at its best is often a collaborative venture. On successful projects, the architect and designer learn from one another, support one another, and enhance each other’s work. Architecture for me is always the important beginning of each project. It is the sculptural skeleton.

Composition – Composition is one of the many techniques a designer can use to achieve the unpredictable — that unexpected choice that so often makes a room memorable. Repetition establishes an interior rhythm, directing the eye around and through a room in an orderly, measured way.

Proportion and Scale – With proportion and scale, as with composition, I work from the grandest strokes to the most minute details. Increasing the scale of a design element to the anticipated proportions — and then pushing it beyond — carries with it the thrill of risk taking.

Color – Nothing in design is more mysterious, compelling, or personal than color. Combined with pattern, texture, and finish, it changes qualities yet again. So complex at all times, so ambiguous always — the potency and possibility of color is like nothing else in design.

Pattern – To avoid visual noise, patterns need to be chosen carefully, mixed purposefully, and artfully applied. Under no circumstance should a pattern overwhelm a room or its architecture, nor should it disguise the object to which it is applied. To do so negates the point.

Texture – Every object, material, and work of art reveals an essential part of its character through its surface. Texture is the dimensional aspect of that surface. It intrigues and draws the eye as it simultaneously invites the touch. As such, texture is also a form of pattern, and that is how frequently I use it.

Craftsmanship – Artisans of the highest caliber carry on the great decorative arts traditions and forge new paths. They are the keepers of custom and the enhancers of craft. They bring beauty, educate the eye, and create heroic singularity.

The exterior of this home blew me away, but how San Antonio-based architecture firm Poteet Architecture updated the interior left me speechless. A fantastic example of taking something old, preserving the elements that should be saved and updating the rest for a young family. This isn’t your granny’s house anymore!

The carriage + pool house is as awesome as the main house. LOVE!!!

(Find other projects by Poteet Architects here, here and here)

This timeless beach house in Alys Beach, Florida by Starr Sanford Design is the stuff of dreams. White on white, modern yet with a hint of Caribbean Colonial, relaxed and sophisticated. If you stop by to visit you’ll find me on the roof terrace drink in hand with not a care in the world. Beach side bliss.