Design

eHouse, design by Axelrod Architects, is a single family house that borrows from two traditions in architecture – a Mediterranean aesthetic of sun and light and a minimalist discipline of line and plane.

The design exhibits a masterful use of that most modern of materials, concrete. The core of the house, both conceptually and structurally, is several vertical and horizontal planes. Conceptually, the vertical planes define the axes of the house and the horizontal planes the spatial volume. Structurally, the concrete elements support every other architectural surface, predominantly glass and drywall — via ArchDaily

Crisp and clean, ‘House R’ by architecture studio Bembé Dellinger looks right at home in the snowy winter landscape of Schondorf, Germany. Perched on the edge of Lake Ammersee, the multi-story cantilevered home provides elevated views of the surrounding land through floor-to-ceiling windows — via WebUrbanist

12 years ago Mechanical Engineer and watch collector Nicolaus Spinner had a vision to create his own watch. Having access to the latest CNC machines in Munich, Germany helped make the dream a reality. The UTS Commander was born, a unique watch case that featured a 45mm case with front and back sapphire crystals. Fast forward and UTS Watches is proud to present the Adventure GMT — via WatchTime

Located in Bainbridge Island, Washington much of the Dorsey Residence is hidden behind a two-story concrete face, however its interior spaces reflect a different experience of warmth, light, and openness. Architects Coates Design created an 18-inch concrete wall that forms two sides of the home’s exterior. These walls provide a poignant counterpoint to the warm wooden and copper box that rests at a slight angle to take full advantage of the site’s water and mountain views. The concrete exterior wall and exposed concrete within the home reduce energy costs by serving as a thermal mass that naturally cools the home in the summer and holds warmth in the winter — via ArchDaily

Hughes Umbanhowar Architects have designed the River Road house in Sewall’s Point, Florida.

When morning breaks in the small residential community of Sewall’s Point, the house is cloaked in light that is reflected and refracted from the faceted Mahogany framed windows of this regal residence. Home for a young family, the structure is reverent in its embrace of the outdoors, both the two-acre waterfront lot it occupies and the landscape beyond. Ensconced in the hillside which overlooks the water, the structure is a series of expansive and intimate courtyards and cantilevered decks, which architectonically echo the diaphanous volumes of the interior, spaces which seem to defy gravity, even while embracing the solidity of Italian limestone and stucco facades. Views to the southwest encompass the dynamic activity of the marina in an inland waterway and track the movements of sun, wind and water — via CONTEMPORIST

If kids could design and build whole homes, what would they look like? This so-called Rainbow House is filled with secret doors, slides that bridge between floors and multi-colored spiral staircases to wind you back up. Chutes and ladders, anyone?

Dubbed a “magical oasis’ by its creators (AB Rogers and DA Studio, the busy and noisy road next to the building is matched by equally rambunctious and interactive interior decor. Stepping in off the street is a lot like walking into a fantasy looking glass or wardrobe portal — via Dornob

Wall art meets weighted wind-up clock in this clever wooden fan design that requires no electrical power to run. Of course, winding it up every few minutes is not ideal for full-room cooling, but does add a bit of a breeze when one enters the room (and works as decor when not in use).

Luc von Hoeckel is a dutch designer who enjoys simple objects executed with elemental craft techniques. An elegant system of visible weights, pulleys and gears makes this a great example of what-you-see-is-what-you-get woodworking — via Dornob

The contribution of the skylight was privileged to bring natural light to the ground floor, despite the large width of the house (15 meters).

Sunlight enters the house through several roof windows. The transparent surface of slab of glass allows light penetration to the ground floor and helps animating the central space through the day — via ArchDaily

The modern Longines Twenty-Four Hours is fitted with caliber L704.2, a self-winding movement with hands that make one full circle of the dial in 24 hours. The stainless steel case has a diameter of 47.5mm; the dial is matte black with 24 white Arabic numerals coated with Super-Luminova and has a railway-track minute circle. The hands coated with Super-Luminova, and the watch has a center seconds hand, like the original model — via WatchTime

This week marked the grand opening for the Salvador Dali Museum in St Petersburg, Florida. The new building‘s 68,000 sqf doubles the size of the original one storey warehouse Dali Museum built in 1982.

Utilizing free-form geodesic geometry, the triangulated glass organically flows around and attaches to the rigid unfinished concrete box, a play of hard and soft, protecting Dali’s paintings and simultaneously providing natural daylight and openness to the adjacent bay. This is the first use of this type of free-form geodesic geometry in the United States — via ArchDaily

As always, the new De Bethune DB28 automatic watch comes equipped with their trademark three dimensional moon-phase indicator made of platinum and blued steel.

The watch is equipped with the Calibre DB 2115 hand-wound movement with its hand-decorated mainplate serving as the timepiece’s dial
— via World Watch Review

It’s a house that looks better on the inside than out, at least, according to the images we’ve seen – but this 1960s midcentury four-bedroomed house in Bishop’s Stortford, Herts is certainly architecturally important and of course, on the market right now.

It’s lack of striking exterior is actually down to the design. The work of Cambridge-based practice Lyster, Grillet & Harding in the late 1960s, this single-storey house is situated on an elevated site, with a large garage / storage space at street level and a designer set of stairs with an overhead canopy, taking you to the terrace, the gardens and the main house — via Retro To Go

This very green home is for a couple now in their nineties, who had long ago bought land near Sausalito on the Marin side of the Golden Gate Bridge. They are only just now finally getting to live here, in a hillside next to the Golden Gate National Recreation Area – one of the Bay Areas more stunning conservation sites – that the two had campaigned to protect beginning in the ’60s.

The wry nomenclature – the Final(ly) House – indicates that it is to be their final home. And that they finally built here. The airy, simple 2,150-square-foot house is set in a 14,000 square foot parcel of land they bought so many decades ago, in the 1960s.

San Francisco architecture firm Rothschild Schwartz Architects nestled the house in the steep hillside overlooking the headlands towards San Francisco — via Home Design Find

Carter Williamson Architects have designed the Balmain House in Sydney, Australia.

The brief was to bring light into our clients’ home and their lives. Their old home was Victorian, dark and periodically tight and depressing.

The original house on the site is an 1860s timber cottage sourced, sawn and constructed from local timber. It was little changed when we got it. A L+EC ruling had virtually made it a heritage item, which came with court-defined planning concessions — via CONTEMPORIST

The home grows out from the rock; the bedroom element rests between it and the wing that strikes the perpendicular, rising vertically from the slope. This composition defines the open living and dining space that is simply a transition between two garden areas. It is intimate but open and the uninterrupted clear span creates a bridge under which the conventions defining indoor space disappear.

Cantilevered over a massage sala, the swimming pool completes the composition. It is the focal point that draws the eye to the view and instills a calmness that provides balance with the energy of the architecture — via ArchDaily

As mountain guides, Scott Schell and Margaret Wheeler are used to the upper reaches of the Cascades. Their site in the foothills above Snoqualmie is not far from work. The 2,100 sqf house, designed by Johnston Architects and built by Tall Tree Construction, accommodates both professional and practical demands, but it also fulfills a deep desire to do what is right — via ArchDaily

Coming up from Swiss Ladoire – featuring the youthful punkish talents of Lionel Ladoire – is Mr Green — via A Blog to Read

A tree hotel in the far north of Sweden, near the small village of Harads, close to the polar circle.

A shelter up in the trees; a lightweight aluminium structure hung around a tree trunk, a 4x4x4 meters box clad in mirrored glass. The exterior reflects the surroundings and the sky, creating a camouflaged refuge. The interior is all made of plywood and the windows give a 360 degree view of the surroundings.

The construction also alludes to how man relates to nature, how we use high tech materials and products when exploring remote places in harsh climates (Gore-tex, Kevlar, composite materials, light weight tents etc) — via ArchDaily