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“I was so excited when the client told me they bought a site in Flinders. All I could picture in my head was the amazing clifftop location with views to the ocean until I googled the address and the reality hit,” says Albert Mo, director of Melbourne practice Architects EAT.

Albert’s excitement bubble burst as he discovered the inland corner block, some 500 meters from the village shops, bounded by a local path to access the back beach.

“Opposite to my dream clifftop location, the site is really, really flat,” jokes Albert. Not the most riveting start to the project, but as you and I both know, from the biggest challenges come the greatest triumphs, and Bellows House is just that.

The fact that the clients were a family Albert and his team worked with previously was a significant advantage. Having designed their city home seven years prior meant the trust was already there, so the architect focused on bringing his A-game.

Albert wanted a permanent house anchored in the sand from the outset, unlike the predictable light-weight beach vernacular. “More like a bunker than a shack,” he says, setting out to design a building that spoke of its location and sat in dialogue with the street. “The idea of frustum pyramids was stuck from the beginning”, he says.

The formal entry sequence starts from the pedestrian gate. Dusty pink brick pavers are the conduit between the native garden by Jim Fogarty Design and the built structure. Through the gap between the long façade and the garage, an outdoor shower precedes the inner outdoor sanctum connected to the living spaces.

Once inside, the two largest frustum roofs reveal their internal structure. Boomshakalaka – what a moment! The gobsmacking reverse step concrete pyramids allow plenty of natural light to the living and dining areas via the central skylights.

Exposed blockwork walls and concrete floors dominate the interior – with concrete blocks used to create shelves and light fittings too. Accents of timber joinery and brick bring an element of warmth and visual contrast – but otherwise, this is one hard-edged interior. Yet the overall effect is incredibly welcoming, comfortable and more than a little cool.

Related: Fitzroy Loft by Architects EAT.

Apart from fantastic furniture and lighting choices by Architects EAT, Albert attributes a lot of the success of the interior to Swee Lim of Swee Design, who worked with the client on the art selection. Swee chose various ready-made artworks and sculptures directly from the artists and galleries, also commissioning several art pieces for the project.

“Perhaps because this is the second home we’ve done together, the client gave me more latitude to ‘experiment’,” says Albert, humbly. “I wanted a house that offered a sense of escape, where kids can remember their summer holidays as they grow up. A house that is memorable and describable.”

While this home wasn’t blessed with spectacular clifftop ocean views like the architect initially imagined, its inland location prompted a design response focused on placemaking. The locals now affectionately refer to it as the “Pyramids of Flinders”.

| The article Pyramids of Flinders: Bellows House by Architects EAT. appeared first on Yellowtrace. |

https://www.yellowtrace.com.au/architects-eat-bellows-beach-house-flinders-concrete-masonry-architecture/

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IJsseloog is an artificial island used as a depository to store polluted silt in the middle of the IJssel River in Flevoland, Netherlands. Silt is granular material, smaller than sand but larger than clay, and may occur as soil or as sediment mixed in suspension with water. IJsseloog can hold 20 million cubic metres (706 million cubic feet) of silt, which is roughly 8,000 Olympic-sized swimming pools worth.

See more here: https://bit.ly/3sD4AHB

52.600000°, 5.750000°

Source imagery: Maxar

https://dailyoverview.tumblr.com/post/660156593418207233

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Port Hercules, the only deep-water port in Monaco, provides anchorage for up to 700 vessels. The area of the port (2.02 square kilometres or 0.78 square miles) comprises approximately 8% of the entire country.

See more here: https://bit.ly/2W3AaSZ

43.735056°, 7.425139°

Source imagery: Maxar

https://dailyoverview.tumblr.com/post/660072387356901376

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South Boston — more popularly known as “Southie” — is a densely populated neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts. It was once a predominately working class Irish Catholic community, but has recently become a popular neighborhood for young professionals and families. At the top of this Overview is Fort Independence, one of the oldest continuously fortified sites of English origin in the United States.

See more here: https://bit.ly/3mhTTZO

42.336111°, -71.045833°

Source imagery: Nearmap

https://dailyoverview.tumblr.com/post/659973628736290816

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Calming and meditative minimalism flows inside the extension of Modl Office’s (yes you’ve read that correctly) Lyndhurst House project. Based in Richmond, the brief for this Miner’s Cottage entails a removal of the rear and replacing it with a newly expansive space. Featuring soothing palettes of timber and stone against white, and stone against stone, Lyndhurst House, though small on first impressions, is a comfy and cosy nook many would love to retreat to.

A narrow site and of only 113 square metres, Lyndhurst House’s single storey layout is simple linear sequence from the front to the rear. The entrance begins with two bedrooms purposely retained due to the heritage restrictions, followed by a central core bathroom, before concluding with an open space with kitchen, with a European-like laundry bordering the left side. In such a narrow plot and working on just one level – the bathroom simultaneously doubles as an ensuite, with a pocket transitioning lightwell in the back to provide an extra layer of privacy between the master bedroom and the wet area.

Lyndhurst House shines in the extension that once held an old and dated layout. Existing bricks carefully removed one by one were thoroughly restored before being recycled to be reused for the extension shell. Whispers of Wabi-Sabi reveal themselves through the interior pairing of timber and stone textures. Timber joinery and cabinetry stretch the spaces of the bedrooms, otherwise adding a touch of warmth to the stone patterned wall and granite flooring of the extension space.

Continual patchworks of stone find themselves decorating the enlarged bathroom. Paired with linear textures from the tiles and corrugated panels from the lightwell, the gesture elongates the illusion of tall spaces Modl Office has meticulously created. Adding final embellishments are touches of silver in the door frame of the lightwell pocket- softening harsh boundaries within the rectilinear space.

It’s hard to imagine this house as being a small one disguised by carved choreography of light. The trio of skylights punctures dramatically along the corridor line, softly designating directional lighting towards the patio at the back. The newly enclosed wall features a framed window with sheer curtains to diffuse daylight into the living environment, further softening the heavy volumes from the stone bench and kitchen counter sculpted to balance the volumes extracted for the skylight.

Modl’s eye for detail and tactile simplicity makes the space possible. Not too tight, and not too big, this project offers just the right balance, making the overall space a breathtaking one.

Related: Packington Street House in Prahran by Kennon.

| The article Lyndhurst House in Richmond, Melbourne by Modl Office. appeared first on Yellowtrace. |

https://www.yellowtrace.com.au/modl-office-lyndhursat-house-richmond-melbourne-house-renovation/

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Clear blue water fills the Pingyuan Reservoir, located just outside of Zhaodong City in northeastern China. Water stored here serves the more than 100,000 inhabitants of Zhaodong and surrounding farms of Heilongjiang Province, which grow soybeans, maize, wheat, potatoes, beets and flax. For a sense of scale, the Pingyuan Reservoir covers about 1.32 square miles (3.4 square kilometers) — roughly the same area as Central Park in Manhattan.

See more here: https://bit.ly/3iYtwWP

45.995097°,125.985003°

Source imagery: Maxar

https://dailyoverview.tumblr.com/post/659902804919566336

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Clouds float over the Kikori River Delta in southern Papua New Guinea. Part of the Gulf of Papua, this coastal mangrove forest is considered one of the most important wetland regions in the Asia-Pacific due to its cultural and biodiversity value. It is a habitat for Indo-Pacific humpback and Australian snubfin dolphins, both listed as “vulnerable” on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.

See more here: https://bit.ly/2W0Jy9B

-7.428366°, 144.428927°

Source imagery: Airbus Space

© CNES 2020, Distribution Airbus DS

https://dailyoverview.tumblr.com/post/659794163722862592

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Start your morning by waking up to a view of light slithering down into the kitchen, softening the bespoke furniture to create an ethereal glow while silhouette of the dancing smoke as it billows and weaves out of your timely brewed tea inside the welcoming terrazzo kitchen. This is a scene I’d like to imagine myself inside DGN Studio’s Concrete Plinth House, an extension and renovation of a young couple’s home in Hackney, East London. An appearance of a glasshouse, but not really a glasshouse – this home sports a classy aesthetic that tastefully and smartly swerves the former claustrophobic and disjointed atmosphere into a minimalist brutalist-inspired home with a touch of attitude.

The project is named after the concrete addition introduced to the client’s existing Victorian House. The two-storey 157-square-metre home formerly held a northern facing kitchen that was rather discouraging for its bleak and oppressive character.

Desiring a space to be refreshed to be optimal for entertainment and gathering (and for occasional arts evenings), the architects created a new threshold by sinking the two steps lower with a concrete basin. Such a large act allowed them to return a comfortable height for the hearth, in which the previous one was rather tight and low. The concrete basin – inspired by the clients’ love for concrete served as a boundary and multipurpose joinery of a seat, low bench, stage, or step stool used when opening the bordering oak sash windows – an homage to the Victorian terrace architecture. The language of concrete love is certainly evident throughout the space, with concrete columns and staircases melting nicely into the flooring. The coolness is warmed by the timber cabinetry doors sleekly flushed to the walls, which smartly conceals a door towards a hidden cellar.

Related: Untitled House in London by Szczepaniak Astridge.

The reorganisation of the kitchen eventually led to lighter adjustments to the other spaces within the house. The ground floor, where rooms are rather separate from each other, are rearranged to have long sightlines towards the kitchen and eventually the backyard. Above, light touches of new joinery are added into the bedrooms. The former bathroom that once had a window that looked over next door is moved to the ceiling, letting light glitter upon the soot-peppered terrazzo wall tiles.

Colour palette wise, there’s something nice and daring of the selection of muted cool olives and navy tones communicating a sense of certainty and timelessness. Paired with rectilinear and sharp edges of the furniture – rather fitting to match the concrete slab, each room has a colour-blocked palette pulled from the ash grey brick façade.

A bit of history, a zest of contemporary flair and a balance and love for self-assurance, Concrete Plinth House is a concoction that I truly envy, and one I wouldn’t mind living in as well.

Related: White Rabbit House Extension in London by Gundry & Ducker.

| The article Concrete Plinth House East London by DGN Studio. appeared first on Yellowtrace. |

https://www.yellowtrace.com.au/dgn-studio-concrete-plinth-house-east-london-residential-architecture/

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Chaos unfolded earlier today at Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul, Afghanistan, where thousands of people rushed to the airport in hopes they would be evacuated on departing jets. As shown in these images, hundreds crowded onto the tarmac and runways, desperately clinging to outgoing planes, while traffic jams formed on surrounding roadways. After quickly sweeping through other areas of Afghanistan, the Taliban has now taken control of Kabul, the capital city and home of 4.6 million people.

See more here: https://bit.ly/37KBz30

34.565833°,69.213056°

Source imagery: Maxar

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Our third Sofa Session, from a video interview series produced in partnership with the Australian furniture brand King, welcomes one of the most respected design duos in the contemporary Australian design scene. Jonathan Richards and Kirsten Stanisich are founders of Sydney-based interior design and architecture studio Richards Stanisich.

Both Jon and Kirst are admired in the design circles because, not only are they talented and generally know what’s up, they are both straight-up legends for whom I have all the time in the world (you know — normally, I’m very busy, but not for these guys).

Related: Yellowtrace Presents, Sofa Session with William Smart.

What I really love about Richard Stanisich is that aesthetically, they always maintain their edge and seem to stay one step ahead. Their creative output is timeless but never predictable. In fact, it’s quite complex and exciting but at the same time, it feels measured with just the right level of restrain.

Kirsten and Jonathan’s genuine, unguarded nature made my job too easy on the day — they shared countless pearls of wisdom around how they approach their work and critically analyse what good design means to them, with plenty of other insight into one of Australia’s best-known design practices — warts and all. (OMG, playing music to the client as inspiration is a proper LOL moment, hahahahaha! You’ll know what I mean when you see it.)

Related: Yellowtrace Presents, Sofa Session with Adriana Hanna.

“Flexibility as a designer is a sign of experience. When you can roll with the punches and if someone says ‘I don’t like that’ – you can see a different outcome. But there are some times when you don’t want to budge – and if you have that sense of flexibility – I find the clients listen to those times when you put your foot down.” – Jonathan Richards

I mean — look. I absolutely adore these two and I think that’s pretty bloody obvious. So, why don’t you go and listen to what they have to say now? There’s so much to learn from this talented duo, whether you’re an architect, an interior designer or otherwise. Pinky promise.

This Sofa Session was made possible through the generous support of King, an Australian furniture design brand with a 40+ year history. For more information and to explore King collections, visit their website here. To apply for King Trade & Commercial Account, a tailored division for registered Architects, Interior Architects, Interior Designers and Design Professionals, visit this page. 

 

Details from the set: Zaza Modular Sofa by Sydney-based designer Charles Wilson for King. Oceania hand-loomed pure New Zealand wool rug from King, colour Terra Firma. Issho asymmetric pebble-shaped coffee table from King. Monument porcelain ceramic side table from King (not in frame). All sculptures in metal and stone by an independent Sydney-based artist, Clementine Maconachie of The Visuals.

This Yellowtrace Promotion is proudly supported by KING. Like everything we do, our partner content is carefully produced to maintain the utmost relevance to our readers. Thank you for supporting the brands that support Yellowtrace.

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[Photography by Nick Hughes/ Yellowtrace. Video by Tommy Devy. Furniture and accessories by King. Artwork by Clementine Maconachie of The Visuals.]

| The article Yellowtrace Presents: Sofa Session with Jonathan Richards & Kirsten Stanisich. appeared first on Yellowtrace. |

https://www.yellowtrace.com.au/sofa-session-jonathan-richards-kirsten-stanisich-video-interview-with-dana-tomic-hughes/