ALVARO SIZA: Iberian minimalism
August 3rd, 2011 § 2 Comments
Designer Feature vol. 5
Sports Center, Llobregat, Spain
I love the work of Siza. His projects arise as natural reactions to the physical, cultural, and, I could almost say, spiritual environment which they inhabit. He masterfully blends *vernacular architecture with minimalism to create poetic references to place while exploring issues of form and space. When I think of Siza’s work I always imagine these large spans of white-washed walls or these intricate plans where every turn and edge has been thought out. That’s part of his genius – being able to work from the largest scale of the site plan to the minute details of where the concrete meets the wood.
The following are some of my favorites of his many projects…
*vernacular architecture uses methods of construction which use locally available resources and traditions to address local needs.
Boa Nova Tea House, Matosinhos, Portugal
Boa Nova Tea House, Matosinhos, Portugal
Mimesis Museum
Mimesis Museum
Mimesis Museum
Mimesis Museum
Mimesis Museum
Mimesis Museum
Church of Marco Canaveses, Portugal
Church of Marco Canaveses, Portugal
Leca Swimming Pools, Leca da Palmeira, Portugal
Leca Swimming Pools, Leca de Palmeira, Portugal
Leca Swimming Pools, Leca da Palmeira, Portugal
Leca Swimming Pools, Leca de Palmeira, Portugal
Portugal Pavillion, Lisbon, Portugal
Serpentine Pavillion, London, UK
Anyang Pavillion, Korea
Anyang Pavillion, Korea
Ibere Camargo Foundation, Porto Alegre, Brasil
Ibere Camargo Foundation, Porto Alegre, Brasil
Ibere Camargo Foundation, Porto Alegre, Brasil
Ibere Camargo Foundation, Porto Alegre, Brasil
Ibere Camargo Foundation, Porto Alegre, Brasil
House in Mallorca, Spain
House in Mallorca, Spain
House in Mallorca, Spain
House in Mallorca, Spain
House in Mallorca, Spain
Serralves Museum, Oporto, Portugal
Serralves Museum
Serralves Museum
Tolo House
Tolo House
Tolo House
Tolo House
Tolo House
Insel Hombroich Architecture Museum, Germany 2008
ALEMANYS 5 by Anna Noguera
July 26th, 2011 § Leave a Comment
I’ve always been in love with new architecture that interjects with old architecture to create another being. In these buildings the charm and history of the past still remain while the appearances of modern design make the old relevant and fresh through it’s new interpretation.
Barcelona based architect, Anna Noguera converted this 16th century house in Girona into two holiday apartments. In the dining seen in the photo above the thin steel casing framing the opening and the contemporary furniture beyond is a perfect example of this harmonious marriage. Below, the beauty of the placid rectilinear pond next to the ancient stone wall is so simple but elegant. The project is an exercise of balance between time and materiality.
Photos from Article @ Dezeen Mag
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PROJECT FEATURE: Casa BOX
June 29th, 2011 § Leave a Comment
Project Feature vol. 1
This 387.5 squared ft getaway on the shores of Sao Paulo was designed by Brazilian architects Alan Chu and Cristiano Kato as a maid’s quarter . The petite treasure of a building was featured in the 8th Brazilian Architecture Biennale in 2009.
This often forgotten programmatic space was given a new importance in the Casa Box. The upper bedroom juts out from the large boulder adjacent to it as the kitchen grows organically below. The structure is at once modern and contextual with the use of linear forms and natural materials such as stone and wood. In this not-so-humble abode the simplicity of the design establishes its elegance and beauty. Oh, and did I mention the view?
(Photography by Djan Chu)
ARCHITECTURE: The Case Study Houses
June 25th, 2011 § Leave a Comment
In post-war Southern California the residential housing boom inspired a group of prominent architects sponsored by Arts and Architecture Magazine to tackle what they saw as the current issues in the typical American home. Each architect was to deal with one of these problems and resolve it in the best way they saw fit using materials and methods that would be readily available and easily duplicated. The program that was to be known as the Case Study Houses ran from 1945 up until 1966.
The group of architects included many of the big names of Mid-Century Modern architecture and design. These included Richard Neutra, Pierre Koenig, Charles Eames, Eero Saarinen, Rodney Walker, and JR Davidson. Many of the Houses (such as #22 on the left) were shot for the magazine by the now infamous architectural photographer, Julias Shulman.
The Case Study Homes changed the way Americans lived and built their homes. These West Coast models were soon transported throughout the country. The Stahl residence (#22), probably the most well-known of the Case Study homes, became an icon of American architecture and the new optimistic “Modern” way of life.
The homes generally sought to blur the lines between inside and outside by using innovative curtain wall building technologies that would allow for wide spans of glass. By placing load-bearing steel columns on a grid on the interior of the home, the facades would be free of structural responsibilities. The floor plan of the American home was Modernized by opening up walls and blending functions into large spaces; thus the marriage of the living, dining and kitchen to create the Great Room. The architects also extended the living space to the exterior by incorporating elements such as pools, large overhangs and paved decks that would further encourage the use of the outdoor room.
House #22 by Pierre Koenig
House #22 by Pierre Koenig
House #22 by Pierre Koenig
House #22 by Pierre Koenig
House #22 by Pierre Koenig
House #21 by Pierre Koenig
House #21 by Pierre Koenig
House #21 by Pierre Koenig
House #20 by Pierre Koenig
House #20 by Pierre Koenig
House #16 by Rodney Walker
House #16 by Rodney Walker
House #16 by Rodney Walker
House #9 by Eames and Saarineen
House #9 by Eames & Saarinen
House #9 by Eames & Saarinen
House #9 Eames & Saarinen
House #8 by Charles and Ray Eames
House #8 by Charles and Ray Eames
House #8 by Charles and Ray Eames
House #7 by Thornton Abell
House #7 by Thornton Abell
House #6 by Richard Neutra
House #6 by Richard Neutra
House #5 by Whitney R. Smith
House #4 by Ralph Rapson
House #3 by Wurster & Bernardi
House #2 by Spaulding & Rex
House #1 by J.R. Davidson
THE SHOP: Matter Matters
April 13th, 2011 § Leave a Comment
December 2010 I went to Design Miami and met some of the very nice people behind an awesome showroom from NYC called Matter Matters. They carry truly unique and well-constructed pieces by some of the most influential and innovative designers around.
Check out some of my favorites of their many treasures below:
Ball Light Large by Michael Anastassiades $800
Tall Tank by Alexander Taylor in pea green $1,800
Superordinate Antler Sconce by Jason Miller $360
Crochet Table by Marcel Wanders $1,563
Periodic Table by One and Co. (pure silver over reclaimed timber) $42,000
Aqua Table by Zaha Hadid $40,000
Crate Series No. 8 Chair by Jasper Morrison for Established & Sons $1,440
Quilt Armchair by the Bouroullec Brothers $6,060
Tank Chair by Alvar Aalto (1937) $5,528
Circus 3 Shelves by Steven Burkes for Matter Made
Blue Faceted Vase by Thaddeus Wolfe $600
GIO PONTI: The 20th Century’s Renaissance Man
March 16th, 2011 § Leave a Comment
Designer Feature, vol. 4
When you think renaissance man in the world of design Gio Ponti is your guy. This man was a painter, an industrial and furniture designer, an architect and the editor and founder of the quintessential Domus (1928) and Stile magazines.Born and raised in Milan, Ponti was an advent propagandist for the love of architecture and design which he wrote of in his 1957 collection of essays Amate l’Architettura (published in english as In Praise of Architecture).
Ponti utilized Domus to openly explore diverse topics of his concern and express his personal views all the while maintaining a clever openness that established the magazine as Europe’s most influential architecture and design magazine.
Gio Ponti was in Milan around the same time as the avant garde Futurists and Group 7 were exploring their ideas for radical change. Though he was around the key figures of these movements Ponti remained focused on finding the “finite form” in design rather than revolutionizing existing dogmas. He had his own ideals of design that bloomed from Modernism but were more particularly concerned with context, comfort, function, lightness and elegance. He was an admirer of Le Corbusier and the Bauhaus but was certainly not one of those “glass box boys”, as Frank Lloyd Wright once clarified.
Villa Planchart, Caracas 1955
Villa Planchart, Caracas 1955
Villa Planchart, Caracas - This classic Modernist house was designed in 1955. Here Ponti created almost every aspect of the project from the architecture and interiors to most of the furniture and objects as well.
Villa Planchart, Caracas 1955
Villa Planchart, Caracas 1955
Villa Planchart, Caracas 1955
Villa Planchart, Caracas - The garden from this house was designed by infamous Brazilian landscape architect who often worked with Niemeyer and was responsible for the original plans of Miami Beach's Lincoln Road and the cobblestone boardwalks of Rio de Janeiro, Burle Marx.
Model for Villa Planchart in Domus 1955
His daughter summarized Ponti’s career with the following remarks, “Sixty years of work, buildings in thirteen countries, lectures in twenty-four, twenty-five years of teaching, fifty years of editing, articles in every one of the five hundred and sixty issues of his magazines, two thousand five hundred letters dictated, two thousand letters drawn, designs for a hundred and twenty enterprises, one thousand architectural sketches. It was a great deal, and all from one man”.
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INTERIOR DESIGN:
Villa Arreaza, Caracas 1956
Villa Arreaza, Caracas 1956
Villa Arreaza, Caracas 1956
Gio Ponti Hotel in Sorrento, IT
Gio Ponti Hotel in Sorrento, IT
Gio Ponti Hotel in Sorrento, IT
Gio Ponti Hotel in Sorrento, IT
1970 Il Manifesto della Casa Adatta by Gio Ponti
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FURNITURE & INDUSTRIAL DESIGN:
Bilia Table Lamp designed 1931 by Ponti is currently under production by Fontana Arte
0024 Lighting Pendant designed in 1931 by Ponti is also currently in production by Fontana Arte
Diamond Lounge Chairs by Gio Ponti
Designed in 1953 by Gio Ponti and made in Italy for Singer & Sons this table is available on 1st Dibs for $9,750
Flatware set designed in 1960 available for purchase on 1st Dibs
Superleggera Chairs in black and white from 1957 available on 1st Dibs
Italian walnut chest by Gio Ponti from 1950's on 1st Dibs
Rocker from the 1950's designed by Ponti produced by Cassina
Gio Ponti in Caracas, 1954
DESIGN TRENDS: Bets for 2011
March 3rd, 2011 § 2 Comments
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1. Decorations that reflect personal history.
Designer: Juliana Llussa
This collection of vintage mirrors and keep-sakes makes a beautiful installation
2. Notice the beauty in simple pieces.
Designer: Heloisa Crocco
Recycled Spanish Glass Vases from West Elm $12
3. Flexible and dynamic interiors.
Architect: Guto Requena
24-Room Transformer House
24-Room Transformer House: Bedroom
24- Room Transformer House: Living Room
4. Nature takes over.
Architect: Claudia Haguiara
House in Nagoya, Japan by Suppose Design Office
An Indoor Garden inside a Spanish Office Building
5. Tidbits of color and humor in daily life.
Designers: Caio de Medeiros & Daniela Scorza
Home of Danish artist, Sarah Hvass featured on Design Sponge
Home of Anna & Gerard from Design Sponge
6. Return to our roots.
Architect: Regina Adorno
Cottages at Fallingwater by Patkau Architects - exterior
7. Equilibrium of man with nature.
Designers: Luciana Martins & Gerson de Oliveira
Diller Scofidio + Renfro's Grass Roofed Hypar Pavillion at Lincoln Center, NYC
People sit on grassy roof of Hypar Pavillion at Lincoln Center, NYC
Interior view of restaurant within the Hypar Pavillion
*** What do YOU predict will be the guiding trends for 2011?
UH… THE “BLUE” ROOM GOES WHITE
August 23rd, 2010 § 1 Comment
The White "Blue" Room
Ok, ok so the entire past week I was going back and forth between paint samples of the Marie Antoinette blues. The night before painting this room I had this VISION.
Given the programmatic needs of the space (ART STUDIO) I had been playing with the idea of white. However, I desperately wanted some color since I’ve been so blinded by minimalism for the past 5 years. In the end though, needs must prevail and aesthetic choices must follow.
F O R M < F U N C T I O N
EYES ON: Serpentine Pavillion
August 5th, 2010 § Leave a Comment
JEAN NOUVEL ROUGE
Jean Nouvel 2010, Photo by John Offenbach (c)
This year the Serpentine Gallery commissioned French celebrity architect Jean Nouvel to design the pavilion across from the Gallery at Kensington Gardens in London. In 2000 the Gallery began the program commissioning temporary structures to be designed and implemented by well-known international architects who do not have any previous projects in England at the time of the commission.
Nouvel’s pavilion is a simple architectural feat composed of several rectilinear layers covered in a red mirrored surface. The structural component is simplified and instead, the pavilion relies heavily on the use of the intense repetition of color and the glossy reflections of the natural surroundings to achieve it’s desired effect.
How does 2010′s Nouvel design compare against previous pavilions?
SANAA 2009, Serpentine Pavilion
Last year SANAA’s reflective design was Barcelona Pavillion meets Casa de Canoas and they go on a weekend trip to Tokyo.
Being that I’m not a major Gehry fan, the 2008 Pavillion, to me, looks like an exploding wooden instrument – But hey, it’s Gehry. That’s probably just what he was going for!
2007 saw better times when Olafur Eliasson and Kjetil Thorsen took a shot at the commission and came up with an oval space resembling the exterior of a flying saucer and the interiors of a volcano. Covered in triangular panels of dark wood the pavilion featured stepped multilayered seating with a peaking oculus and a long horizontal opening guarded by millions of thin ropes that twist and turn.
KOOLHAAS 2006, Serpentine Pavilion
Perhaps it was Rem Koolhaas’s 2006 Serpentine Pavillion that inspired his outlandish 2009 Prada Transfomer implemented in Seoul, Korea immediately adjacent to the conservative Gyeonghui Palace.
Koolhaas designed a circular plexiglass exterior shell and suspended 4 art-covered panels inside through attaching them to the likes of a hot air balloon above. In 2009 his mind was still rolling as he nonchalantly proposed the project to Prada.
2009 SANAA
2008 Frank Gehry
2007 Eliasson & Thorsen
2006 Koolhas
2005 Siza & Soto de Moura
2003 Niemeyer
2002 Toyo Ito
2001 Libeskind
2000 Zaha Hadid
MORE OF NOUVEL’S 2010 ROUGE DESIGN
CARLO SCARPA (Venice 1906 – 1978 Japan)
August 3rd, 2010 § 2 Comments
Designer Feature vol. 3
Olivetti Showroom, Carlo Scarpa
This Italian architect based out of Venice, Italy drew me in with his use of materials and his meticulate attention to detail. In his work every corner, every connection is resolved with the utmost sensibility. This of course means Scarpa did not leave behind an encyclopedia of works. However, the ones he did complete were true jewels.
the architect
In his works he would blend brass with limestone and stucco and brick. He would play with precedents of geometry such as circular Chinese openings in garden walls and corbeled pyramids in a sanctuary’s ceiling. He was doing innovative conservation of historical buildings way before Herzog and de Meuron’s Caixa Forum in Madrid.
He would play with the historical through a sophisticated and poetic understanding of materials.
It was love at first sight.
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OLIVETTI SHOWROOM, VENICE
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FONDAZIONE QUIRINI-STAMPALIA, VENICE
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MUSEO DI CASTELVECCHIO, VERONA
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MUSEO CANOVIANO, POSSAGNO
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BANCO POPOLARE DI VERONA
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LA TOMBA BRION, SAN VITO
Carlo Scarpa
Carlo Scarpa
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DETAILS
Carlo Scarpa
Carlo Scarpa
Carlo Scarpa
Carlo Scarpa
