What can you do with a 45 sqm apartment? Bet you’re thinking not much, but you can think again. If you give it to a company like INT2 Architecture you come out with a little gem that will have you feeling like a king. This sweet little place is not only functional, but awesome too, it’s bright and playful and full of little details that will probably make you forget you’re living in such small quarters, unless you have 4 kids or 7 dogs, then it’s probably a different story.
Look at this beautiful wood clad mountain lodge designed by Reiulf Ramstad Arkitekter. Wood, glass, open spaces, views for days and all beautifully designed into something that would catch your eye a mile away. Imagine driving to this little getaway whenever the fancy took you, I think I would drive there and never drive back.
Shane and I have always spoken about one day owning a holiday home somewhere beautiful, so when I saw this portable home by Architectural firm ÁBATON, I nearly did a backflip (just by the way, the chances of me ever being able to accomplish one of those is impossible). These guys have come up with a cabin that you can transport from one location to another, which they have called the ÁPH80 series. So if you had a bit of cash and knew how to drive a flatbed truck, you could manoeuvre all over the place with one of the raddest looking cabins I’ve ever seen.
Stumbled upon this amazing book by photograher Frédéric Chaubin, in it he documents 90 buildings in 14 former-USSR republics belonging to what he calls the ‘fourth age’ of Soviet architecture.
– They reveal an unexpected rebirth of imagination, a burgeoning that took place from 1970 until 1990 and in which, contrary to the 20s and 30s, no ‘school’ or main trend emerges. These buildings represent a chaotic impulse brought about by a decaying system. Their diversity announces the end of the Soviet Union.
I think this building could be in in this book. It’s a 650sqm house located in Roodepoort, of all places. Apparently it was completed in 1992 and it’s on the market for R14 million. Shane and I drove past it the other day, I was fascinated by it, apparently a lot of people are. No one is allowed to view the property unless they have 6 months worth of bank statements in their hands. Hmmm….. Hey photoshop want to help me out with some ‘documents’?
Have any of you, by any chance seen inside this house?
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Yesterday I found these amazing houses called ‘Twins’ designed by William O’Brien Junior. These are two vacation homes on one plot of land constructed in five parts for two brothers and their families. Interesting fact: The height of the plantation, the colour of the landscape and the thickness or bareness of the trees, everything has been planted, created and designed in order to enforce the communication (direct or none) between the residences according to the particular time of the month. Nature takes a prime role in deciding how much you see of your loving neighbour and when.
Damn, if I owned one of the above places, my neighbour would want it to snow ALL the time to obscure the view of me constantly happy dancing while I drank chilled champagne and ate red jelly with both hands in celebration of owning something so spectacular. One day I shall, yes I will. I think Howard Roark would have been proud of this piece
This house was built by the same architect (this guy is totally some sort of mad house genius). I also think this one is absolutely beautiful! The Wicked Witch of the East’s fancy cousin would totally live in this establishment, that’s if she could get me out of it. Ok, ok so now I want both houses and all I can say to that is – this is my blog and I can want if I want to. Exactly.
Today Shane and I went to an exhibition space called Caixa forum (thanks Brent). They had a bunch of different exhibitions on. We saw a very interesting one on Andrea Palladio who was a famous architect from the 1500’s. They had some of his technical drawings up on display and his books and then they had these super detailed beautiful wooden models of some of the famous buildings that he designed. I managed to snap a few pictures before the security guard told me that I wasn’t allowed to take photos. Yay me.
Then we went to the gallery’s book/souvenier shop and that’s where we saw these awesome plates and cups that were designed by an Italian company called Seletti – go have a look at their stuff, some of it is really cool. They have a range made up of everyday things, like plastic cups, milk cartons, sandwhich container etc. so what they’ve done is taken everyday plastic and paper objects and turned them into ceramic ones. When I went to Sweden last year I bought a few of their crumpled ceramic drinking cups (below left) the shop today had the ceramic foil plates and the glass ‘plastic drinking cups’. We got 6 of each. So I guess now it’s time to have a dinner party.
Here are a few of the other things that they have designed that are part of the same range, I love the fabric softner bottles.
