Home design ideas

the resulting form emerges as a singular gesture, carved into the landscape and uniting the diverse functions of the visitor center under one elongated roof.

The post VAARO + gabriel fain’s barilla visitor center in parma features a wheat fields on the roof appeared first on designboom | architecture & design magazine.

Wandering around many years ago in the 12th century temple of the dancing god Nataraja at Chidambaram, I wondered aloud as to how its builders managed to lift those huge blocks of stone to such heights to create such a magnificent structure… An old man, seemingly as ancient as the temple, his forehead split with the vertical streak of his ancestral faith, mumbled in Tamil “when the stone is sleeping, you can lift it with one finger”

In pursuit of purity in lifestyle, the ancient Chinese poet and literati Yuan Ming Tao had written a fable known as The Peach Blossom Spring to describe his ideal world of Utopia. The mountains surrounded and protected the hidden path leading to the dreamland of Utopia in the story and kept it from being discovered.

Located in a courtyard (siheyuan) of hutong in Beijing, this is a rental housing renovation plan designed for a couple and two cats. Known as zayuan, the previous courtyard was subdivided in order to accommodate several different families. Modifications and extensions to the original buildings gradually occupied the once public space, leaving only a passage now. Entering from the northwest corner of the zayuan, one finds the project at the southeast corner after passing through that narrow passage (Figure 1).

Perched above Lake Michigan and surrounded by the Indiana Dunes, the house at 4 Beach captures the essence of a modern lake home. Early discussion with the clients, both architecture enthusiasts, focused on highly functional spaces, natural materials that would age well, and a reference to one of the clients’ favorite houses, the Norman Fisher house by Louis Kahn. The home of approximately 5,000 square feet is separated into three functional boxes which rotate toward each other facing the lake to accentuate views of trees and water while maintaining privacy from neighboring homes. Every room has windows that draw one’s eye outside towards specific views. The owners requested adequate wall space with museum quality lighting control for their art collection compiled over the years. They also asked to incorporate several antiques: a large rolling door, antique bath house tile used in the bathrooms and a large tansu cabinet which figures prominently between their kitchen and living room.