Desig House: June 2015

AIA Names Winners of 2015 Small Projects Awards

As part of the annual Small Projects Program, the American Institute of Architects has selected a new batch of recipients for their 2015 Small Projects Awards, acknowledging design excellence in small-project practitioners and recognising the value of good design, regardless of the projects’ size and budget. The program, now in its 12th year, serves as a platform for raising awareness of talents in small project construction, object, work of environmental art or architectural element design.

“One of the challenges of working on small projects is that they may not have big budgets and high visibility,” says SPP Chair Marika Snider, AIA, “Much of the beauty of small projects comes in the details and connections—things which often go unnoticed in larger projects. The SPP Awards not only helps promote designers who work at a small scale but also promotes design at a smaller scale. Additionally, the SPP Awards are a way for emerging professionals to showcase their work and help develop their careers and for winners receive national attention for highly local work.”

The thorough jury selection each year upholds the rigorous standards of excellence amongst the SPP winners, with the jury chair in concert (this year, Marc Manack of SILO AR+D) and the SPP Advisory Group heading the jury member nomination process. “We look for articulate architects with a reputation for design who are working in small firms or on small projects,” elaborates Marika Snider about the jury member nominees, “We also look for diversity, not just in gender, race, and ethnicity, but also in geographical diversity, and architects who work on different kinds of projects. The nominations are then sent to the AIA who has final approval for all jury members.”

This year, the SPP Awards’ winning projects comprise a mix of residential and public spaces, including a biomimetric pavilion, an installation paying tribute to the history of an architecture school and a vision for a flexible civic space. The seven award recipients include architectural firms across the country, from California to Pennsylvania, and showcase innovation and high quality of work despite the projects’ limited budget and size.

Source : interiordesign[dot]net

Stephen Talasnik Creates Aquatic Architecture at Russel Wright Design Center

About an hour north of Manhattan, in the heart of New York State's Hudson Highlands, lies Manitoga, the house, studio, and 75-acre woodland garden of mid-century designer Russel Wright. In the nearly 40 years since Wright's death, Manitoga has become a place to celebrate good design for living in creative harmony with nature through tours, programs, and events. Last year, an Artist Residency program was initiated at the National Historic Landmark, once an abandoned quarry restored by Wright to a place of extraordinary beauty.

It is within that context that Stephen Talasnik, the 2015 Resident Artist, created Sanctuary, a large-scale installation of woven reed structures that float upon the site's Quarry Pool. "I had never been to Manitoga before, but I responded immediately to it," says Talasnik. "And the thing that cinched it for me was a walk through the house, which is joined at the hip with the natural environment."

The New York City-based Talasnik, known mainly for his intricate drawings of organic forms, only began doing sculpture in 2001. His three-dimensional work, however, is not based on drawings. "I don't anticipate what they will look like," he admits. "It is improvised. And even if it appears geometrical, there's no mathematics involved."

Inspired by the Japanese marionette art form known as Bunraku, Talasnik crafted several floating pieces, one as large as 24 feet in diameter, out of reed and bamboo with black footings made from the same type of buoyant foam used in rescue equipment. "That's the beauty of it," says Talasnik. "They look like light, leafy structures, but they can withstand hurricanes." As for the visitor experience, Talasnik hopes his work is a dialogue between the man-made and the natural, and has the capacity to slow people down—"to appreciate nature more."

Sanctuary is on view through November 9, 2015.

Source : interiordesign[dot]net

3 Examples of Modern Simplicity

While some homes certainly opt for the opulent, there is always something particularly intriguing about those luxurious designs that manage to keep things simple. The three homes featured in this post from visualizer Artem Trigubchak and not only are they ultimately elegant, they are simply luxury at its finest. By using clean lines, rich textures, and a few carefully chosen pieces, these homes are transformed from something everyday to something special. Let's have a look.

The first space is bright cheerful but not too busy. Colorful furnishings live in the same color family, giving a unified feeling to the living area, while a few contrasting elements add interest. A simple home office with extremely sleek furnishing options is truly a retreat for a creative – yet industrious – occupant while a bit of whimsy in the way of nautical elements and round, bubbly light fixtures keep the space warm and welcoming.

In this next home, the deep, rich colors are the ultimate in masculine elegance. A forest green sofa and lusciously dark wood paneling give an immediate sense of a private den, something much more sophisticated than a modern day “man cave.” The elegance of the living room carries throughout the home with sleek kitchen countertops and a breakfast bar that could easily double as a conference table. In the more intimate areas, a large platform bed is grounding and cozy while mostly monochrome bathroom styling is more than a bit indulgent.

The final home definitely shares some of the simple, elegant characteristics of the previous entry but does so in a lighter, brighter, and at the risk of assigning gender roles to furniture, a more feminine way. In this space, sunshine is paramount and streams in from every angle, reflecting of clean white surfaces and illuminating a plush purple sofa that even Prince would envy. The natural wood elements throughout lend a bit of natural charm to this otherwise urban oasis.

Source : home-designing[dot]com

6 Firms Troubleshoot LA Office Life for DesignHive Project

DesignHive by Brookfield Property Partners L.P. presents the latest generation of conceptual workspaces that aim to set a new standard in urban commercial environments. The project called upon six architecture firms in downtown Los Angeles—all of which work in prominent high-rise office towers—to create office suites for creative, tech, media, financial, legal, and consulting clients. Designed by Gensler, Rottet Studio, IA Interior Architects, Shlemmer Algaze Associates, Wolcott and Unispace, the suites encapsulate the advantages of operating in progressive workspaces in the downtown core.

“The recognition that high-rise office buildings can meet the demands of creative workers occurred a number of years ago in cities like San Francisco, Seattle and New York," says Bert Dezzutti, executive vice president, western region, Brookfield Property Partners. "What we are doing with DesignHive in downtown Los Angeles is demonstrating that high-rise buildings—with great architecture and design, amenities, common areas, infrastructure, connectivity, parking and access to public transit—can be the preferred option for many creative uses as well as for traditional service firms,” says Dezzutti.

The DesignHive spaces provide more flexible and collaboration-centered workspace alternatives to their more traditional predecessors. “We liked the idea that the selected design firms would bring their unique vision and experience to each of the spaces based on the intended use they were instructed to design around,” says Dezzutti, “As a result, we ended up with six great examples of what the modern office can be.”

Source : interiordesign[dot]net

Design Miami Teams With Pierre Frey on Chromatropic Fabric

To celebrate a decade since its first edition, the organizers of the Design Miami collectors’ fair have collaborated with Paris furnishings and textiles brand Pierre Frey to create a colorful pattern intended to “evoke Miami’s energy.” Details from the 80-year-old firm’s collections and archives combine in the on-trend tropically inspired Chromatropic, which launched at the fair’s Basel edition earlier this week.

The project was initiated by Design Miami’s executive director and textiles fan Rodman Primack, who grew up in a home adorned with fabrics from labels now owned by Pierre Frey. At his request, the company provided a selection of hand-drawn patterns from the past five decades with tropical themes that Primack and his team used as the basis for a dazzling camouflage design.

“Tropical designs and palm trees are a big trend at the moment in both interior design and fashion,” says Pierre Frey Jr., the company’s communication director. “Rodman used this as the basis for the pattern but also introduced fluorescent colors to make it stronger and to reflect the fair’s bold identity.”

The design was originally intended to be used solely to supplement the event’s branded communication materials, but was deemed such a success that Primack approached friends at fashion labels J. Crew and Hentsch Man to develop a range of items featuring the pattern that includes pocket squares, anoraks, hats and shoes.

Pierre Frey is delighted with the outcome and is in the process of translating the design into fabric and a wallpaper to be launched later this year. “We love the pattern and now we’re working on adding it to our collection,” adds Frey. “It really turned out to be a great collaboration for us.”

Source : interiordesign[dot]net

Views of Mountains and the Sea Make This South African Home Truly Stunning

If you are lucky enough to have a house that overlooks the sea in any area, you are living your best life and that is rare and magical enough. However, even more rare is that dream home overlooking the sea - and may an island or two - that offers 360-degree views of water and mountains, and also borders a majestic national park. It might sound like a unicorn, but this stunning house exists and it's in South Africa. The home, by the architects at SAOTA, is truly an architectural feat to behold, from the inside out. Let's look inside.

The house was built on a mountain ridge below Cape Town’s Lion’s Head peak. The area offers views of Robben Island, Camps Bay, and the Twelve Apostles. The setting is steep and the southern boundary of the land actually shares a border with a National Park, which meant the team had to be sensitive not only to the needs of their clients, but also to the needs of the land and its natural beauty.

In order to deal with the steep pitch of the land, the home was created in a layered design, with guests entering through a central level of the home and private spaces being hidden below, nestled in the side of the mountain itself.

In a space this beautiful, any architect would strive to maximize the experience of outdoor spaces. A sparkling pool and expansive outdoor terrace is inviting during warmer months, while a winter lounge off the kitchen offers a relaxing space for entertaining when temperatures drop.

Even the bedrooms manage to maximize the views, making it impossible not to get a good night’s sleep, safe from nature but also deeply entrenched in its splendor.