Whidbey Island Barn

Seattle-based Shed Architects recently converted this Whidbey Island barn into a living space that supports a variety of activities and guests. The architects made use of salvaged cedar siding for the interior wall surfaces (note the drawer and cabinet fronts in the kitchen) and used salvaged wood beams for countertops and benches. “In a very real way, the barn was turned outside in, and then wrapped in a new cedar board-and-batten skin that will weather and show its age well.”



I love the barn's eclectic mix of modern and rustic. The old stairs and reclaimed wood balance out with the homes clean-lined kitchen and living space. The book storage created by the step overhang is a genius idea! I am impressed!

Marmol Radziner

You ever wonder where prefab got its start? Travel back a few years to when Marmol Radziner took the architecture world by storm when they designed and built The Desert House.

The Desert House is located on a five-acre site in Desert Hot Springs, California. The house is oriented to best capture views of San Jacinto peak and the surrounding mountains. The house extends through the landscape with additional, covered outdoor living areas, which double the 2000 square foot interior spaces. A detached prefab carport allows the owners to leave the car behind as they approach their home.

The Desert House was the prototype for Marmol Radziner Prefab. The house employs four house modules and six deck modules, a quantity chosen to suit the wide desert landscape. The climate inspired MR to create covered outdoor living areas, and they developed sunshade modules to provide solar protection. Sheltered living spaces blend indoors with outdoors, simultaneously extending and connecting the house to the north wing, which holds a guest house and studio space. By forming an “L,” the home also establishes a protected, exterior environment that includes a pool and fire pit.

The Desert House derives 100% of its power from solar panels, while sunshades on the south and west facades minimize the impact of the harsh summer sun. In colder months, concrete floors provide passive solar heat gain, helping us to make the home sustainable.

Word on the street is this beauty is for SALE. Go. Buy. Now.

Enter the Google World.

Meeting 'pods' in the style of Swiss chalets and igloos, fireman poles to allow easy access between floors and a slide to ensure that people can get to the cafeteria as quickly as possible are all part of a design of Google's new European engineering headquarters in Zurich, Switzerland. The building was designed for - and partly by - the 300 engineers who work there. The wacky office is both a showcase for Google's unconventional approach to business and a symbol to prove that Google is no longer a US-centric firm.

So how exactly does an office like this work? Engineers work in small teams of three or four, which is reflected at the Zurich HQ with small offices, each of which comes with the requisite 'bean bag' meeting room. Whiteboards are everywhere, allowing ideas to be written down wherever they are thought up and there is a heavy emphasis on the idea that work and play can co-exist.

Other areas include multiple games rooms, a library in the style of an English country house and an aquarium where over-worked Googlers can lie in a bath and stare at fish. (Okay that last one is a little creepy.)











How do they get anything done here?

Office in the Woods

Spanish architects Jose Selgas and Lucia Cano, owners of the firm Selgascano, have designed an office for their own practice, located in the woods near Madrid in Spain. This is probably one of the coolest office spaces I have ever seen. Could you imagine the inspiration you would have working so close to mother nature?




A 20mm thick, curved window made of transparent acrylic forms the north-facing wall of the tunnel-like space. The opaque, south-facing aspect is constructed from a 110mm thick, insulated, fiber-glass and polyester sandwich, offering shade from direct sunlight. A hinged opening attached to a weighted pulley mechanism at one end of the building allows varying degrees of natural ventilation.

I'm a Barbie Girl...

The first ever Barbie flagship store opened in Shanghai, making me wish I was 12 again.

Barbie Shanghai is an exclusive shopping destination with six floors of Barbie products and activities designed just for girls. Along with a real fashion runway, full-service day spa, doll design center, and more, there are over 1,600 Barbie products available, including apparel, jewelry, skin-care products, toys, electronic products, cosmetics, games, and other exciting goodies girls of all ages will love.

From the moment she debuted at New York’s Toy Fair in 1959, Barbie has taken the world by storm and has followed style trends as well as blazed her own fashion and career trails. Her good looks, charm, and charisma continue to captivate girls of all ages. Today, Barbie remains one of the most popular and most famous dolls in the world, representing 45 nationalities and is sold in more than 150 countries.

This store makes me want to paint my nails pink and douse myself in glitter. YES, glitter. And then perhaps I will run around screaming about nonsense, like the Jonas Brothers and Miley Cyrus.









Props to my cousin Dani (http://camelsandflannels.blogspot.com/) for showing me this!

ParaSITE

Artist Michael Rakowitz feels strongly about the issue of homelessness. So strongly that when he focused his creative attentions on the subject he began manifesting practical outcomes, specifically the ParaSITE. The parasite is a small, collapsible, double-membrane shelter made of vinly or plastic that uses the escaping warm air from a building’s HVAC system to inflate and warm the temporary home. Basically, homeless people can get these inflatable shelters and connect them to any house/store/building's dryer vent and instantly have a warm cozy place to sleep for the night. The "shelter" then folds up into the size of a blanket and stores easily until the next use. The ParaSITE now even comes in different shapes and sizes to accommodate families and couples.





This is one of the most amazing things I have ever seen!

Wanna Rent a Room?

I've decided to forgo my dreams of building a house out of shipping containers or boxcars and have instead decided to jump (quite literally!) on the jumpy-castle bandwagon. This baby looks to be about 3 bedrooms, so I need roommates! No one with motion sickness issues, please.

Time for BBQ's

New plastic outdoor furniture to intrigue and delight…this colorful collection by Karim Rashid is from furniture/lighting company Slide. A sense of fun pervades the collection of chunky plastic designs that both children and adults will treasure. Highly practical, lightweight and hard-wearing, this Karim Rashid furniture is easy to get excited about! Every piece comes in a rainbow of colors which makes this collection style versatile (I didnt mean to rhyme that). Pair the Konkord bar stools with your Eero high-top table or put a few of the Low Lita chairs near your kid's sandbox; there is something for everyone!

A Modular Bedroom

The ROOM by Office for Design & Architecture (ODA) is a modular dwelling system intended to be retrofitted into existing spaces. Designed as an adjustable yet custom solution for bedrooms, The ROOM consists of three elements: the Pod, the Media Station and the Satellite. "Made affordable by the use of simple materials and construction methods that can be dressed up or down according to budget. The appearance and arrangement can be adjusted to fit within rooms of all sizes and for users of all ages."



The product began as a custom project for a client who wanted a "room" for a teenager in a loft-like space. As ODA progressed they realized that The Room could be made of modular parts and could be adjusted (made compact or sprawling) for various space requirements which led to it being productized.


Talk about an upgrade to a bunk bed.

Valentin Apartment

Among the 7 wonders of the ancient world, the Hanging Gardens of the Babylon played as inspiration for the hanging bedroom in the Valentin Apartment. This may not qualify as an architectural wonder, but it sure makes you gape your mouth wide open in ‘wonder’ as you walk through the home’s door. French architects Emmanuel Combarel Dominique & Marrec (ECDM) came up with this unique design that maximizes the apartments space in the most creative possible way.


Really? A floating bedroom? Suspended right in the center of the apartment, leaving untouched the floor and the circulations around, the bedroom divides the space, reversing the perception of the atmosphere in the apartment by making private what is usually not : the living room. The suspended cube is made of a metallic structure covered with wooden panels and the entire home is covered in white to add to its modern look.