External Brain

Armin Strom is for the second year in a row one of the main sponsors of the Menuhin Festival, an annual classical music event based in Gstaad, Switzlerand. Armin Strom has designed this limited edition Armin Strom Manual Fire Limited Menuhin Edition with a specially decorated bridge to celebrate the event whose theme of Fire and Sun is in tune with the Armin Strom elements concept (Earth/Fire/Water/Air). Aside from the special decoration, this piece is very similar to the Armin Strom One Week Fire watch (and also Water) that I wrote about in May 2010, just without the power reserve function — via Perpetuelle.com Watch Blog

In order to retain the character [Caramel Architekten] of the original meadow, the ground-floor living and dining area are tied to the garden in a generous sweeping gesture. This gives the feeling of a 500-sqm living room composed of outdoor and indoor spaces. The tail end of the swoosh tapers to human scale forming smooth shallow depressions for sitting, curvilinear furniture, a pool and terrace with rounded corners — via ArchDaily

The bothy is a refurbishment and extension [Reiach and Hall Architects] of a remote cottage carried out for two artists, Roger Ackling and Martin Cook, and their families. The extension, clad in black charred timber slats, lies as a shadow behind the main house, whose accommodation has been opened up in section and plan to provide a bright, modern living space. The stone cottage is of the landscape, and rests in the landscape, with no conscious boundary or garden — via ArchDaily

Sometimes it’s the relatively simple custom jobs that are the most effective. And this street tracker from London-based Spirit of The Seventies illustrates the point. Spirit III is based on a 1978 Yamaha XS650, and once again, SOTS have got the paintjob exactly right, with a high-impact retro look — via Yamaha XS650 Street Tracker

Situated on a cliff side overlooking the Atlantic Ocean, Villa Sow in Dakar was completed in 2011, with SAOTA (Stefan Antoni Olmesdahl Truen Architects) as the Architects and ANTONI ASSOCIATES doing the Interior Decor. The house was designed for a Senegalese businessman and his young family — via ArchDaily