A Modern Glass Farmhouse?! What's Old is New Again.

Modern, glass and farm house.  Three words you probably weren't expecting to see next to each other today.

From afar, this building may look like a traditional Dutch farmhouse, but up close you’ll notice it’s actually a building made of glass.  Glass farm is a new mixed-use retail and office building in the heart of Schijndel in The Netherlands designed by Dutch Architect Winy Maas.It’s a redevelopment of Schijndel’s market square, which was heavily damaged during WWII.  Using the concept of a traditional farmhouse, the architects of MVRDV worked with artist Frank van der Salm to photograph the remaining farms and average them together to create a stereotypical farmhouse.  How did he do this?  The morphed image was then printed onto glass using fritting technology to create the building. At 1.6 times the size of the average farmhouse, Glass Farm is a scaled up version that reflects how the town has grown up over the years.

Glass Farm illuminated at night

The glass allows day lighting into the interior, which minimizes heat gain while at night the interior lights shine out through the form and show off the building’s printed farmhouse façade.

View from inside Cafe looking outAnother view from the inside out of Glass Farm

I can see how Glass Farm was designed to evoke a sense of nostalgia, and may remind adults of their childhood and how things were bigger when they were smaller.  This inspirational building may have to be added to my bucket list of things to see!

Modern Architecture and Contemporary Design Fuse at The Isabella Gardener Modern Museum of Architecture

Modern architecture and contemporary design join forces at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, a 70,000 square foot, $115 million structure in Boston.The museum is an open, airy, light-filled box that stands respectfully behind the Venetian-style palazzo, erected in 1902 by Gardner as a repository for her extensive collection of fine and decorative art. Italian architect Renzo Piano’s new building for Boston’s beloved Gardner, commonly referred to as “The Palace,” contains more than 2,500 paintings, furniture, rare books, tapestries, and decorative art with works that range from Titian and Rembrandt to Degas and John Singer Sargent.     

Contemporary Design: Thai Bistro in Kuwait

Charred timber lines Ubon, a Thai bistro at the center of Kuwait City by architect Rashed Alfoudari. Pendant lamps with copper insides hang from the ceiling of the Ubon restaurant above rows of black and white furniture. A kitchen at the rear of the restaurant is concealed behind a mirrored wall. The space of this bistro requires an efficient, contemporary design for all of the kitchen, storage, and toilet areas, allowing for a spacious dining area.

This contemporary design juxtaposes the warmth of muted, darkened wood and other textured walls with immaculate, white eating surfaces. The way the light plays off the walls guarantees that there will always be something interesting to draw the eye while dining -- but nothing too glaring or distracting.

                           Photography is by AOK.

Workplace Interiors: Futuristic Adidas

 KINZO, known for some of the edgiest and most futuristic workplace interiors and furniture pieces, are chosen by colossal activewear and footwear company Adidas to outfit their interiors. Located in Herzogenaurach, Germany, the new working environment houses Adidas’ corporate headquarters.The offices are custom-designed with furniture pieces and interiors that emulate the form and function of the Adidas brand. The furniture systems were produced by German-based specialist, Planmöbel, with utilization of novel materials and surface structures. The powder-coated finishes are refined to be environmentally friendly.The precision and level of detail of the execution does great honor to quality German engineering. The layouts are simple, the pieces are functional, and everything is exactly where it should be. The work-spaces are immaculate – the clean surfaces combined with the white floors and ceilings provide an ambient environment in this fine example of workplace interiors.

Urquiola Hotel Design

Urquiola is a big name in hotel interiors. This set of pics is from her work on a Barcelona, Spain hotel from the luxury hotel chain Mandarin Oriental. Architecture is by Carlos Ferrater and Juan Trias de Bes.There are Oriental-inspired patterns and textures, and long, sleek lines. The greys, greens, browns, and creams are good, practical choices for a hotel because they inspire calm. Used correctly, they can look expensive, as well.

Lotus Luxury Villa in Bali

It's wonderful to fill our sights with aesthetics and techniques from exotic locales around the world. The island of Bali, famous for its extraordinary beauty and unique culture, is one such place that never fails to excite the artists and explorers in all of us.

The Lotus Luxury Villa was designed and built by a Balinese architect on 12000 square meters of land with a distinctively Balinese flavor. The design used an alang-alang thatched roof, Balinese entrance gate Angkul constructed of brick, natural white paras stone work, timber and traditional structure. The natural atmosphere blends with modern interior design in harmony. Great spaces lend themselves to meditation, such as the tranquil garden and idyllic lotus pond.

Multi-Sensual Inspiration: Butchart Gardens

The beauty of a well-landscaped garden is a very important aesthetic in "interior" design.  One of the most famous gardens in the world which is Butchart Gardens located in British Colombia. Spread over an area of 50 acres, the Butchart Gardens is located near  Vancouver Island. There's never a dull season at Butchart Gardens, which keeps itself vibrant all throughout the year, from the summers to the chilly winters.It is one of the oldest gardens tracing its history back to 1904. It has kept in touch with its past and adopted all the latest of this era to give the visitors a magnificent view. The juxtaposition of colors and intermingling of scents are all part of a multi-sensual experience.How's that for a little inspiration for your own garden?    

Bahia House / Marcio Kogan

The Bahia House is an ecological house. This isn't  in the technological sense of the word, and not in the contemporary sense of “sustainability.” It doesn't have the latest state-of-the-art gadgets that make it possible to optimize electric expenditure. Instead, the floor plan and the use of natural materials come close to those of traditional architecture. The design makes stunning use of natural light and openness.A landscape with lush trees complement this already dreamy landscape. The architects and designers utilize the direction of the rising and setting sun to produce a lighting effect which is nothing less than magical. Architects: Marcio Kogan

Contemporary Loft in Tribeca, The Big Apple

The designers’ objective was to create a space where “West Coast lifestyle meets East Coast sophistication” for their clients who moved from L.A. to New York. This goal required an artful balance between sophistication and informality in the 4,000-square-foot Tribeca loft. The use of different types of spaces within one house keeps the interest, and the ash-grey palette feels refreshing. The architects chose to raise the floors—not only to conceal duct work but also to lower the windows, providing a better view. Fabric panel ceilings reduce exterior and interior noise. 

Gary Lee Partners

360 House in Madrid, Spain

This stunning architectural piece called the 360 House in Madrid, Spain eschews standard conformity by looping in on itself. Much of the challenge in designing both architectures and interiors is in conceiving of a purely original concept. Well, this is certainly close to that mark. The roof is at once protective and accessible as a walkway. Of course this means that almost no wall inside is flat, but that's just another interesting challenge. Congratulations to Andrés Silanes, Fernando Valderrama, and Carlos Bañón for their vision.