Design

This is celebrity wow rather than architecturally wow, but with John Lennon‘s former home on the market, we had to mention Kenwood Mansion on the St George’s Hill Estate, Weybridge, Surrey.

According to the BBC, Lennon lived in the 1920s house from the mid to late 1960s, penning a number of songs from the Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band album whilst living here. The house also features in home movies that formed part of the 1988 documentary Imagine: John Lennon. But if you are a fan of the man or the band, you probably already know that.

Well, if you want to live out your Lennon obsession, you will need to find somewhere around £15,000,000 — via WowHaus

This house is located on Sydney South and enjoys of great western views to the Georges River and eastern views to Oyster Bay, two beautiful natural reserves. The owners wanted a house which will offer to them a luxurious life style and provide them with some of the services of a club at home. As a result of their brief it was designed [DMJ Design Studio] and built a 550m2 house which includes 3 Car spaces, 4 Bedrooms, home office, bar, home theatre, 2 living areas with entertaining balconies, swimming pool, gym, spa, BBQ area and boat facilities — via ArchDaily

Not content with launching the new Limited Edition Christopher Ward C900 Single Pusher Chronograph just a couple of weeks ago, Christopher Ward has now released the new Limited Edition C7 MK II Rapide in British Racing Green.

The watch combines the style of 1950s motor racing watches with the colour that’s so often associated with many of Britain’s most glorious victories in the sport — via Watchuseek

Good design removes the unnecessary. It’s a principle understood well by Michael Mundy of Steel Bent Customs in Tampa, Florida — as his latest build shows. Called The Brushed, it’s a minimalist take on the classic Honda CB750 cafe racer — via Bike EXIF

Shown here is either straight-to-hell blasphemy on two wheels or a pretty cool piece, depending upon your sensibilities. It began life as a 1930 Indian 4, Springfield’s first-gen four-cylinder, which had design roots back to Ace and before that Henderson. Today a showroom-stock Indian 4 can bring upwards of $65,000, making it a genuine blue-chip collectible. What we have here is most assuredly not a showroom-stocker. It was built from a rusty basketcase in the 1990s by New York City carpenter and skilled part-time customizer William Wild Bill Eggers — via Bike EXIF

Rethinking the notion of an urban garden, this project [Joel Sanders] introduces a dynamic ground plane, composed of a planted carpet surmounted by wood flooring, that vertically links a penthouse loft with a roof terrace that affords panoramic views of downtown Manhattan. This eco-friendly palette of synthetic (carpet, Richlite, recycled glass) and natural (recycled walnut, IPÊ decking, plants) materials crosses the border of the roof, eliding and at the same time confounding traditional distinctions between inside and outside, natural and artificial — via ArchDaily

This is a stunning renovation of a 1934 build, designed by Blenkinsopp and Scratchard for a Dr Innes Pragnell and going by the name of Chatelaine. It was used as both a home and a surgery until the 1950s.

I’m guessing property is pretty reasonably-priced in the town in light of the asking price here — £249,000 — via WowHaus

This established family residence in Power Street Hawthorn had previously undergone renovation with rear additions providing family living, dining and kitchen spaces. These regrettably fell short of providing an agreeable layout and flow for the family, being awkward in configuration, somewhat confined in height and lacking in good natural light. A complete rethink [Steve Domoney Architecture] of this space and its relationship to its garden setting was called for. It was agreed the best remedy would be to start afresh whilst generally keeping to the existing envelope so as not to diminish the available garden area and in so doing, provide a more liberating space and focal point for family activity — via ArchDaily

Somewhere, on the glorious roads of rural Scotland, this beautiful Yamaha XS750 custom is carving corners and blasting down the straights, at the command of its new owner. But it was built hundreds of miles away by Spirit of the Seventies, the English workshop that wears its influences on its sleeve — via Bike EXIF

Nestled in the suburbs of Albuquerque, New Mexico are the otherworldly forms of Bart Prince’s Personal Residence and Studio. As home and work place for the architect the structure truly reflects Prince’s main design principle that form so closely follows function. This ideal leads to the relatively uncommon architecture produced by Bart Prince — via ArchDaily

Classified Moto‘s KT600 is named after its donor bike and owner. The starting point was a 1987 Honda XL600R enduro, and it was commissioned by Battlestar Galactica actress (and avid motorcyclist) Katee Sackhoff — via Bike EXIF

On a heavily wooded site adjacent to a lake in Milwaukee’s western fringe, Robert Oshatz was asked to design a home for a growing family. The site originally contained a house that was unsuitable for the family’s needs and was demolished. The owners recognized the site’s natural beauty, however, and stressed the importance of retaining all of the trees that existed on the site. The clients wanted a building, constructed from natural materials, which acted as one with its environment and provided unobstructed views and connections to the surrounding landscape — via ArchDaily

Cologne-based JvB-moto has remodelled the Rumbler for small-scale production, priced it at 15,000 euros (around $18,500) and called it Dirty Deeds. And they’ve done good — via Bike EXIF

Before leaving London last week, I learned that the Whitechapel Bell Foundry was offering walk-in tours for the duration of the Olympics — via BLDGBLOG

Kenneth Hobgood Architects have sent us images of the GK House in Chapel Hill, North Carolina — via CONTEMPORIST

The Timex Expedition Military Field T498759Jhas a 42mm stainless steel case (only 11mm thick) with a mineral crystal, solid caseback, date display, and 100 metre water resistance rating — via Wrist Watch Review