Piet Hein Eek

Dutch designer Piet Hein Eek is best known for his intricately composed scrap wood furniture—each piece a one-of-a-kind creation that merges artisan handcraft with skilled design processes. But while his use of reclaimed materials has been widely recognized in the recent wave of sustainable design fandom, Eek has been working with scrap since well before the green boom (think 1990).





Eek's designs are so unique and interesting - a true work of art.

Skate or Die!

Skateboards these days are amazing examples of graphic design, and some are practically art - what a shame that they should to go to a landfill after the boards have lost their pop! Thankfully, Pennsylvania-based Deckstools is here to keep art from the trash heap and to add style to your pad with their striking line of furniture made from reclaimed skateboards.

Inspired by the way that skateboards consistently break, designer and craftsman Jason Podlaski hand selects broken board parts, and builds every stool in his Pennsylvania factory. I LOVE LOVE LOVE that Jason uses the cast aluminum trucks from the boards as hardware for connecting legs and seats. What a great idea!

Lighting

Ugh. I am so #$&%ing tired of seeing recessed cans. This entire post is to teach you how cool/unique/useful/beautiful/unobtrusive/clean/efficient/artistic lighting can actually be. Enjoy!

The ONION LAMP - designed by DARIA BURLINSKA from Polish design studio DBWT:



ZIKA Wall and Ceiling Linear Tile - by Aqua Creations:



ZETTEL'Z CHANDELIER - by Y Lighting. An interesting take on a chandelier, where the Bohemian crystal drops are substituted by scribbled paper notes from some incurable romantic's desk. The light shines through the paper mobile to create some amazing shadows:



RABBIT LAMP - by Moooi. This is a great example of modern anthropomorphic furniture:



PHRENA PENDANT LIGHT - by Karl Zahn:



LED Staircase Handrail - Designed by Zoran Sunjic of Croatia:



TORCH LIGHT - by Sylvain Willenz for Established and Sons:



DANDELION FLOOR LAMP - Designed by Matti Klenell for Moooi:


The end.

Cottage in A Day.

I've been watching the prefab scene as close as anyone, and this is just cool. This new company, Cottage In A Day, provides factory-built, energy-efficient, green homes. They currently provide roughly four models, which, not counting the included decks, come in sizes of 375 square feet or more. The homes are made in Traverse City, Michigan and built with locally sourced materials (except the bamboo). Basically the idea is that they can be put up quite quickly, assuming the concrete pier foundation is ready to go. But in a day, really?


Some of the green materials used in the construction of a Cottage in a Day Home include Energy Star windows, passive heating and cooling systems, natural wood walls and finishes, SIP construction, etc. Perhaps, one of my favorite features, which can also be used for security, is the movable shutter doors. They cover the windows and doors, and probably provide a bit of relief from the sun if the rays are hitting just right.





These homes are all built to Energy Star and LEED qualifications. Sweet!

Northbridge House

A modern home requires an equal weight of inspiration as there is wood, glass and concrete. That’s exactly what architects from Johannsen & Associates designed for this cool and laid back home in Northbridge, Australia. The lavish and spacious five-bedroom house looks gorgeous on the inside with its modern furniture and amazing furnishings, but expect to be charmed by the unabated view of the city or the black and white exterior, too. Outside there’s a rainwater filled pool that is heated using solar energy and the tennis court in the lawn that gives this home an active appeal. Just beautiful!




With a protected central courtyard, shady terraces and a sunny pool loggia, the outdoor spaces open to different parts of the site and garden. Passive heating and cooling and natural ventilation help minimize use of A/C, and solar pool heating and 24,000L rainwater tanks have been integrated into this spacious family home for even more energy efficiency.




Thanks to my friend David B/@sogld for sending me a link to this fabulous house!

The Cordell House

Oh man. I CANNOT wait for the day I can build a house out of shipping containers (an idea I have had for YEARS). Until then, however, I will continue to share my inspiration and findings with you fine people. Check this shit.

Developers Katie Nichols and John Walker have focused their careers on creating affordable, sustainable, design-intensive homes for creative, urban people in Houston, Texas. Nichols and Walker created the Cordell House shipping container home a few miles north of the city.

The Cordell House is built upon a framework of four individual shipping containers– three 40′ units and one 20′ unit. The large units house the bedrooms and living rooms of the home, while the 20′ unit is dedicated as a kitchen. These pieces were fused on a 5,000 square foot lot, taking up 1,858 square feet for the living space itself.

This complex also features a guest house separated by an 800 square foot breezeway patio (shown below). Altogether, the Cordell House is sustainable in material, progressive in design and vibrant as a habitat. I cannot wait to see more from this amazing up-and-coming design duo.

Talk About Green Roof.

This here is a small development in Switzerland, created by Peter Vetsch. It is called the 'Earth House Estates' and it is located in Dietikon, Switzerland. I'd say the name is pretty F-ing literal, being as you don’t get more down to earth than these – nine houses on a 4,000 square meter plot all partially underground. Mr. Vetsch certainly has some interesting ideas on biomorphism and uses innovative building materials.

After last nights post I figured I should look into Zecc Architects and see what else they had done. Well, I was BLOWN AWAY!

This house comes in the form of a water tower that has been converted into a chic tribute to minimalist living. The outcome is a surprisingly roomy abode that hasn't been compromised by its limited space availability.

Before and After of Exterior:



The steel floor of the water tank divides the tower in two. In the bottom part is the traditional part of the house, with the kitchen, the living room and the kids bedroom. Above, in the water tank, is the master suite with a bedroom, a sauna and a study.

To reinforce the relation to the garden and to bring in more daylight inside, the tower has had glass added to much of the exterior. The water tower keeps the industrial character thanks to the material choices of concrete, glass and steel.

Chapel < House

I havent seen a reuse project as amazing as ZECC Architects' conversion of a Dutch chapel into a house in a long time. In today's society it is far too often a building such as this would just get torn down and replaced with a Mc Mansion. It makes me smile to know that some people see the beauty and character in these old buildings and actually reuse them to create something so unique.

The original chapel was part of a large housing complex of the Friars of Utrecht, which at its height, around the mid-20th century, housed 217 residents. The remaining 13 elderly friars, however, moved to a nursing home in 2005, and the complex was divided up and converted into about 40 apartments. Take a look at the before photo of the chapel:



ZECC took this space and created a very modern and minimalist home. I appreciate that the design team chose to keep many of the original features like the high gothic stained glass windows and the original choir organ.










holy @#*& check out those stairs!!

Andrea Air Purifier

Andrea is the first award-winning designed air filter capable of absorbing toxic gases, such as formaldehyde, from home and office environments through the natural absorptive and metabolic properties of living plants.

Andrea elevates the science of pure air into an art form by bringing fresh air and stylish design into the home and office.

Any kind of household plant (sold separately) can be used as the filtration agent, offering freedom to select the foliage that best suits the motif of any part of your home.

Can you say AMAZING?

Oh, the views!

Welcome to the Bar House By Peter L. Gluck & Partners.

This house, located in Aspen, Colorado, is all about the views. This home was created with as much southern exposure as possible perpendicular to the valley, as the sun comes only from the south.


Gluck designed the 5,750-square-foot house in two parts: An elongated, two-story volume with kitchen, living, and dining areas on the first floor and bedrooms and bathrooms on the second floor, and a discrete guest suite separated from the house by a driveway. The second-floor spaces are positioned in a single-loaded corridor on the south side of the second floor, allowing for clear views of the valley and admitting sunlight into every room. A VIEW AND SUNLIGHT IN EVERY ROOM. CAN YOU IMAGINE?

Simple forms and simple, durable materials complete the design, as do efficient heating and cooling systems. The house is completely clad in Ipe wood, and interior finishings include concrete floors, wenge-wood, built-in cabinetry downstairs and English sycamore upstairs, and rolling fabric panels that act as shades for the mostly glass southern exposures.

I’m pretty sure I’d spend as much time as possible on the roof just checking out the spectacular 360-degree view.