http://www.homedsgn.com/2011/03/23/tangga-house-by-guz-architects/
Vertical Garden: Home Facade Covered in 25 Kinds of Plants Unlike its horizontal equivalent, pruning a vertical surface can be a tricky proposition at best, so species selection done from the outset is a crucial key to success. You need rugged and robust plants fit for the region, for starters. Rebelo de Andrade thought carefully about the plants picked for the outside faces of this stunning four-story structure, selecting varieties that would weather well and grow (but not too much!) in their environs in Lisbon, Portugal. The result is a green wrap that provides shade, fresh air and, critically, appealing aromas – smell is another critical consideration in living walls, particularly when you have a rooftop deck with a sunken swimming pool that runs along the outside edge of the greenery. Nearly five thousand total plants now thrive along the multiple vertical surfaces of the building, creating a dynamic, slowly-evolving facade as the species vie for water, sunlight and space.
Marlins Park in Miami, Baseball’s Newest Stadium Lumbering and dizzyingly white in the Florida sun, the new Marlins Park is an elliptical concrete, steel and glass boulder looming above the low-rise houses and empty lots of the Little Havana neighborhood. With retail on the outside and a public plaza in front, it’s designed partly to gin up some street life. Economic development is supposed to follow — that was the rationale for the public financing that covered most of the $634 million project ($515 million for the park itself) and contributed to the recall of Miami-Dade County’s mayor. Cities are always building new stadiums with the justification that they’ll catalyze the local economy.
Morrison Seifert Murphy - Berkshire Residence in Dallas, Texas This site is in a traditional single-family neighborhood with large mature trees in front and a busy thoroughfare in the rear. These opportunities and limitations became the genesis of the design of the house. The plan of the house is a U-shape that turns its back toward the noisy thoroughfare and opens to a courtyard that is shaded by the existing canopy of trees. The mass of the house shields and protects the courtyard from traffic noise beyond. The courtyard is the soul of the house with most of the rooms on the ground level opening directly onto it. Luxury Villa Amanzi, Thailand by Original Vision Studio Luxury Villa Amanzi, Thailand by Original Vision Studio The Villa Amanzi by Architect firm Original Vision Studio is a stunning modern vacation residence located in the exclusive Cape Sol on the West coast of Phuket, Thailand. Villa Amanzi is a stunning six bedroom residence with a 15m infinity pool and breathtaking views over the Andaman Sea. This luxury villa enjoys a spectacular headland location along Kamala’s exclusive Millionaires Mile and captures cool gentle breezes all year round with uninterrupted sea views from every vantage point, in one of the most breathtaking locations Phuket has to offer. The contemporary design features ultra modern architecture and interiors that combine to provide guests with the optimal environment to relax and unwind in unspoilt luxury.
Floating 'Slinky' Hotel Can Survive Rising Seas Rendering courtesy of Remistudio. Remember Biosphere 2? Well, fast forward to the Ark, designer Alexander Remizov's floating (or not) eco-friendly, energy-generating bubble hotel. Remizov came up with the Ark's plans as part of a program on architecture and disaster relief through the International Union of Architects (UIA). According to the Remizov's Remistudio web site, the Ark is designed as: "an integrated energy system with an uninterruptible power supply using alternative energy sources." And instead of glass and steel, the Ark is made of durable 'self-cleaning' and reportedly recyclable plastic panels.
INTERVIEW: Ed Mazria Founder of Architecture 2030 Introduces the 2030 Palette Ed Mazria is the influential environmental architect behind the 2030 Challenge, which aims to eliminate the use of fossil fuels in new construction, and to cut the use of fossil fuels in existing buildings by 50 percent before 2030. To help hit those targets, he has just publicly launched a unique new initiative called the 2030 Palette—a robust, visually oriented, online design tool that strives to help design low-impact, people friendly built environments from buildings to cities. We visited Mazria’s offices in Santa Fe, where we spoke with him in-depth about the new website, his work, and how sustainable development can save us from the worst climate change has to offer. INHABITAT: Can you tell us about your latest initiative the 2030 Palette?
Overlooked Feminist Architect Gets Her Due It was a cold January day in 2011 when I had last seen the Hotel Lafayette, the grand French Renaissance Revival styled brick that sits on the corner of Washington and Clinton Streets in downtown Buffalo, New York’s Lafayette Square. Built between 1901 and 1904, it was originally designed by Louise Blanchard Bethune (1856-1913), lead architect on the project with her firm Bethune, Bethune & Fuchs, which included her husband Robert Bethune and former apprentice William L. Fuchs. Louise Bethune carries the mantle of being the first woman in the United States to be recognized as a professional architect, with her inclusion in the Western Association of Architects in 1885, and then in 1888, when she became the first woman member of the American Institute of Architects (AIA) and then the first to become a Fellow, (FAIA), in 1889. Since Spring, 2010, the seven story dark red brick building with its distinctive white glazed terra cotta decorative trim had been closed for business.
The Sifter's Top 10 Homes of 2010 If you’re a regular reader of the Sifter you’re familiar with my real estate fascination. I love posting all types of homes. From the unique and interesting to the grand and opulent. Architecture - StumbleUpon Imagine the renovation dilemmas. A huge penthouse of a converted 1930s office building in TriBeCa, New York, is to be turned into a functioning home for a family with three teenagers. In fact, we can not quite imagine the issues that faced Steven Harris Architects when the family showed up, literally, at the doorstep of the celebrated architect and asked if he’d like to work on their home. Harris said yes and proceeded to make his magic. The scale of the apartment is huge and the freedom from budget constraints allowed for some spectacular solutions.
Luxury Furniture, Property, Travel & Interior Design Contemporary House in the Forest Apollo 11, Chile Apollo 11 is a contemporary house amidst a grove of elm tress in the foothill of he Andes near Santiago. Designed by Parra + Edwards Architects. The inspiration for the design of the house comes from a spaceship that quietly descends into a forest leaving little impact. Tiny London Loft is a Light-Filled, Storage-Rich Dream Home Loft spaces in London – particularly in densely-populated Camden – are notoriously small. This Camden loft used to be an office space, but when it was to be converted into a flat, Craft Design Studio came up with some innovative ways to make this small space feel like a spacious, stylish home. Storage has been fit into every possible space in the apartment. Along every wall you’ll find shelves, cubbyholes and niches to hold the owner’s collection of books, art and objects. Built into the staircase along the back wall is a narrow staircase that leads upstairs to the mezzanine-level sleeping area.
Renzo Piano’s Nasher Museum in Dallas Has Sunburn Problem Brandon Thibodeaux for The New York Times At the Nasher museum in Dallas, Rodin’s “Age of Bronze” sits in dappled light as glare streams through a patterned screen. The results exceeded expectations. And Dallas has a mess on its hands. The center, designed by and Peter Walker, was considered so appealing that a 42-story condominium called Museum Tower sprouted across the street. Paraty House - Brazil Elegant, calm, minimalist, clean and beautiful are among the adjectives that can be used to describe almost all of Marcio Kogan’s much-publicized and much-awarded residential masterpieces. The magnificent, streamlined residences must serve as an antidote of some sort to the Brazilian architect who has been quoted as saying that he loves his home town of São Paulo and New York because they are similar in their chaotic ugliness, and because he likes “energy, chaos and a multi-cultural population in a city.” Out of this chaos-, humor- and cinema-loving creative mind, an astonishingly lovely, peaceful balance is projected onto residential projects. Reviewers of Kogan’s work often mention Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Frank Lloyd Wright or their contemporaries, but Kogan has said that he is more inspired by Ingmar Bergman, Federico Fellini and Andy Warhol. The Paraty House, pictured here, is located on one of the hundreds of islands near the colonial town of Paraty, close to Rio de Janeiro.