via contemporist
this house is alright -- picture below. i like it. i don't love it on the whole. but that being said, i do love that they incorporated graffiti into the exterior design. understandably, they're trying to make an artistic statement. even the name of the house is the "open air sculpture house" by marek rytych architekt in poland. it's a pretty luxurious modern space, chock full -- i'm sure -- of a pretty extensive art collection. but this doesn't matter.
what does matter is the graffiti, which is the only reason i thought this house was really worth posting about. i love that there's a "framed" section for graffiti on the outside, complete with lights. so it doesn't look like some kid with a spraycan came and just did whatever the hell he felt like -- it has a place, and it's lit like a framed piece of art in any other display -- except this is the back yard or something. i would totally love a designated place for graffiti on my house -- something that works with the design, looks like an outdoor artwork. because it is. it's great! smart thinking.
via the daily mail
a few weeks ago i happened to be totally enamored with ben eine's store shutter alphabet paintings in london (see them at art of the state), and it turns out that a ben eine painting has been gifted to the obamas from england's new prime minister, david cameron. supposedly his wife has experience in luxury goods, and ben eine -- a street artist! who has been arrested a few times! -- was the creator of the chosen work, entitled 'twenty-first century city". eine himself declared that he wouldn't have allowed the painting to have been given to bush, though. ;) very cool. not something one would expect, but i love it.
and then of course, i'm starting to feel as though no little red fish blog entry would be complete with some new residential architecture that i find fascinating for one reason or another, so here it is:
via contemporist
i found a renovation that just thrills me, too! i love renovations and makeovers -- who doesn't? but this one is intense, and super, super awesome. the finished product is above -- more pictures at the contemporist link. the iowa city home renovation was done by substance architecture, which i think boasts a pretty serious portfolio... the original house was built in the 1940s and though quaint, definitely was bettered tenfold by the redo. i have to say i was actually quite shocked to see what it looked like before -- i half expected it to have been a remodeled barn, but i was obviously wrong. the covered walkway/quasi-wrap-around porch they added is GENIUS! i love it. the house wouldn't be complete without it. it's so much larger; it looks as though they did add some on, but even then, the covered walkway adds a new dimension, giving it the illusion of even larger size without seeming bulky or overdone. the lighting is spectacular inside and out of the house. it looks like such a fun place -- mysterious and yet bright, modern and yet rustic. i want to see it in person. i want to stand under those skylights. :)
via inhabitat and anderson anderson architecture
my primary architectural interest lies in residential architecture. i love historical residences, but what really excites me is new, contemporary design. further than that, i love small houses. the bigger they are, the more ostentatious they feel -- and less like a home than a show piece. i don't like show pieces, i like houses. furthermore, prefabricated houses are basically the coolest idea ever. from shipping containers to jay shafer at tumbleweed tiny house company (which i first heard about when my dad met up with him in california and talked with him about these houses -- i suppose maybe some of my enthusiasm for this sort of architecture came from my dad) ...prefab is absolutely the way to go. if it's not the way i end up building my own house, the only other way i'll do it is from salvaged material and from scratch.
when one thinks of prefabricated homes, it's easy for the mind to fall straight into "trailer territory," which is exactly what i thought when i first considered the idea. who actually WANTS one of those trailers? you know, the oblong, weirdly-shaped, always 1970s-looking kind that they place around curving drives in what might otherwise be a campground off of a highway? no offense to anyone who actually lives in a trailer park, but aesthetically speaking... let's just not go there.
i'm speaking absolutely of aesthetics. prefab has come a long, long way. inhabitat is a site i follow regularly in their quest to share green and sustainable design. the house pictured below, in new mexico, popped up and i fell in love with it. it's site-specific, resident-specific (they built it with special animal sections so their pets could inhabit the house safely without danger of predators in the desert), and it's absolutely awesome. i love a metal house. i know that might sound strange -- i was raised in a wood-sided, wood-interior old victorian that's about 125 years old. but it might be that very difference that draws me to the variety of materials that are used in today's modern-style construction.
anderson anderson architecture is based out of san francisco -- no real surprise there. it's a hub of prefabulousness. both of the houses i've pictured here are by them. the one below, like i mentioned, is in new mexico. the one at the top of this post is in washington, about fifty miles from seattle.
i'm in love with them both. i love the modular style, the clean metal exterior, the large windows that take in the views, but also the natural daylight. and the one in washington, that hangs over the cliff? yes, please!
via contemporist.
(better late than never.)
it's been a while since i've seen a recent house that's really ignited any sort of genuine interest. one thing worth noting is that i've got a clear lean in the direction of australian and european (mostly british and irish) contemporary architecture. i'm not sure what it is exactly -- it's really hard to put my finger on, except for the fact that their traditional architecture is based in the same place -- the british isles, and therefore become branches from the same tree trunk, if you will. this house seems to sort of fit that category. it has a very crisp, clean look with the off-white tones, the concrete, and metal roof. the shape of half the house (not the opening-box part) is reminiscent of old cottages.
i love everything about this home. the more i look at the photos, the more i appreciate it. it's simple, yet there are elements that give it detail so it isn't too minimal. the juxtaposition of the wood with the concrete is awesome -- it's got both an industrial and a rustic feel to it, especially in its location on a bay.
i think a major reason i love this house is because it actually could be a home. so many houses i've seen lately have been gigantic millionaire estate sort of contemporary properties -- not something i can relate to, or necessarily even want to relate to. they get so big that they become monsters, piling all of this state-of-the-art crap together to make something that just looks like crap. this is pared-down, simple, just absolutely beautiful residential architecture. i love it.
heffernan button voss. (i wish there was a portfolio, but there's not. not yet, at least.)
via contemporist
