Displaying posts labeled "Black"

Montreal architecture firm _naturehumaine is at it again. These guys are unstoppable, and my favourite Canadian architects right now. Here is the brief on this latest project of theirs: The client wants to transform the last two levels of a building to create living spaces for her two athletically inclined children, who are now grown adults. The primary goal is to create a shared living space in which all utilitarian functions are shared but which still allows each person to have privacy. The architectural concept consists in removing the floor currently separating the two levels to create a wide-open space in which two large boxes appear to float in mid-air. These suspended boxes, adorned with unfinished plywood panels, each contain a bedroom and a bathroom. This configuration creates three gaps, each being two floors high; the centre gap becomes a physical exercise room with a pair of gymnastics rings. The whole structure is connected lengthwise by a block that is painted black; the block accommodates different services, including stairways, a shower room and part of the kitchen. A large island with unfinished wood painted white delineates the kitchen space, with sliding lacquered bookshelves underneath the wooden boxes. I love everything about this…the spaciousness (2000 sq ft too!), the massive black wall of storage, the shelving with more storage, and yes even the raw plywood. This sounds like the perfect solution given what the client was looking for. SCORE for client’s kids!

Has half the year flown by already? Is June just a day or two away? It must be because I found an email in my inbox from Inside Out magazine’s Managing Editor Lee Tran Lam with a sneak peek at the June issue. June! The blow of somehow having frittered away six months of the year was soothed by the pictures of the amazing home she shared.

So it’s that time again and given the drop in temperature, I’ve got a home from the new June issue of Inside Out (out Thursday) that I think you might warm to. It belongs to photographer Harold David and it shows that the waiting game can really pay off. He first spotted this Blue Mountains home back in 2005 – it was not too far away from his weekender – and fell quite dramatically for it. He would look into the windows and say, “I want this house”. Then – years later, in 2013 – he happened to be stumbling across real estate sites and saw that it was up for sale. And even though he had no plans at all to move at that point (in fact, he had settled into a Sydney home that he’d extensively renovated only two years prior), this Blue Mountains cabin just had such a hold on him that he couldn’t resist. And now it’s his. (Ceri David’s story about this in the mag is great – she asks Harold David why he was looking at houses online if he had no intention to relocating, and he replies: “I just love property porn! I bawl my eyes out when I watch Grand Designs.”)

Wow! What a house! The styling in the story is by Lara Hutton, photography by Harold David. Can’t wait to see more when the June issue of Inside Out hits the stands tomorrow. Don’t fret if you aren’t in Australia though. You don’t have to miss out. You can read along on  Zinio, Google Play, the Apple Newsstand and Nook.

Black and white and lacquer. Sexy. By interior design doyenne Alessandra Branca.

I will never be a minimalist, but after clearing out 2 rooms of crap to make room for the feral cats (and now it’s piled around the house), I wish I could be. Instead I will stare dreamily at photos such as these and wonder what it would be like. Via Belgium architecture and design firm Oscar V.

Live, work, play in a warehouse conversion by Brisbane based architectural firm Surroundings. Human centric, holistic. Enveloping, encompassing, cocooning. Retreat and self expression. Building relating to people and people to the building. Meaning and moment. I’m struggling for words to describe the visceral tug this series of spaces is having on me. As brilliant as the sunshine must be when you leave its cool, dark interiors. Dock St Warehouse by Surroundings with interiors in collaboration with Jacks Corner Design. Photography by Camera Obscura.