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When you can’t take a holiday, why not bring the resort to you? Nina Maya has done just that, orchestrating a much-needed retreat for a family of four in the heart of Sydney’s Balmain. Capturing a modern beach house feel, this home is luxe but pared back through a refined tonal material selection of travertine, timber, plastered walls and bronze highlights.

Generously proportioned, the three-level abode was designed as an escape from the city for a young family. To facilitate this request, the entire site was deeply excavated, allowing for a new lower ground level entirely dedicated to leisure and health. Below ground is all the luxury with a state of the art gym, steam room, home movie, theatre and bar.

Related: The Art House in Bellevue Hill by Nina Maya Interiors & Bevan Boss Design.

Refined and minimal, noble materials to do all the talking. Craftsmanship and architectural elements are given breadth and space to really shine. A fireplace, simple in design, was made by hand by a master stonemason and the three individual pieces of curved travertine were carefully installed over three days.

In the master ensuite, the soft tonal palette is a quiet accompaniment to the curved vanity, clad in microcement. The integrated basins were hand made out of soft white Elba marble, complimenting the textured Marmarino plastered walls.

While strikingly sombre, the thoughtful and considered material palette was quite extensive, including Italian travertine, French oak flooring, Arabescato marble, accents of bronze and silk carpets.

Each space was layered with meticulously curated furniture and art that celebrates both local and overseas talent. Australian architect and furniture designer Daniel Boddam’s notable organic forms played a crucial role within the interior, complementing the defined palette. His Wave Sofa, featured in the lounge room, was inspired by summer days in rolling waves. The intuitive, comfortable shape evokes a sense of lyricism and plays to the interior while adhering to the minimalistic and elegant nature of the house.

Unique vintage finds from around the world add dynamism and cosmopolitan glamour to the soft interiors. Layered with pieces custom-designed by Nina Maya — from the brass and leather bar stools in the kitchen to the travertine and velvet headboard and bedside tables in the bedroom —the interior flows.

Key artworks include an arresting piece in the stairwell by Zhauang Hong Yi sourced via the Pier Marq Gallery, and a light work by Como-based Draga & Aurel, seen in the living room above the fireplace.

Related: Daniel Boddam’s Virtual Apartment Concept Showcases His New Furniture Collection.

| The article Balmain Residence by Nina Maya Interiors. appeared first on Yellowtrace. |

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Erbil is the capital and most populated city in Iraq’s Kurdistan Region, with around 1.5 million inhabitants. At the city’s center is the Citadel of Erbil, a 102,000 square meter (1.1 million square foot) mound believed to be the oldest continuously inhabited town in the world. Surrounding the Citadel are a series of concentric ring roads.

See more here: https://bit.ly/3mA1UZS

36.191188°, 44.009189°

Source imagery: Planet

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For Brutal Burrito in Madrid, Burr Studio looked to street vendors and market stands for inspiration, emulating the temporary and sporadic space these classic eateries live in — referencing both their physical shape as well as their ambition to change and evolve.

The project treats the interior as a body to be clothed, therefore establishing a distinction between naked and dressed parts. The pre-existing space remains ‘undressed’, assuming a raw aesthetic based on rough plastered surfaces and floors that reflect the materiality of the surrounding sidewalks. The ‘dressed’ element plays out as a textile system that distributes the dining areas. A stretched fabric is used to separate zones, based on techniques used in street markets.

To create a contrast with this street-like reference, the project leans on rather classical influences using arcades to delimit the interior spaces. This kind of structure resembles inflatable castles for children; a kind of plastic-made tradition. This dismountable, almost disposable condition gives the interior a certain spontaneity; the feeling of being a place that does not really belong there. In line with this idea, the facade display consists of intentionally mismatched elements, making the arcades appear unrelated to the large street windows, so that it is understood as a series of layers that don’t fit each other.

Related: La Raffinerie Modernist Beer Bar in Lyon by Un Studio.

The kitchen elements, on the other hand, take a fixed position. They adopt a functional, technical aesthetic, using stainless steel as a sanitary surface on which to prepare or serve food. The ceiling extends out of the kitchen, invading the rest of the space with metallic reflections, blurring the difference between the two sides of the bar counter.

Among all the kitchen elements, two stand out above all others. The first one is the comal, an adaptation of the traditional pre-Columbian cookware mainly used in Mexico. It takes a central position, both physically and symbolically, representing all cooking operations developed by Brutal Burrito. It is a shiny stainless steel cylinder, split in two halves, a griddle and an exhaust hood, only connected by smoke and flames. The second element is the tortilladora, an appliance specifically developed to produce tortillas, rarely found outside of Latin America. The visitor encounters the tortilladora in action, producing the tortillas that will later be eaten, enclosed in a protective glass case.

Related: Asadero Restaurant Buenos Aires by Chamber with IT-MET and Giusto Van Campenhout.

The furniture designed for Brutal Burrito is based on the aluminium tube bending technique, essentially used for the production of outdoor furniture for small bars and restaurants in Spain. For the tabletops and seats, the designers chose a high-density cutting board, commonly used in the kitchen for chopping and slicing food. The repetition of these elements resulted in two large shared-use tables.

Named after the rough edges, imperfections and remnants that appear in a process of alteration, Burr is a Madrid-based experimental architecture practice that looks at design asymmetrically, led by Elena Fuertes, Ramón Martínez, Álvaro Molins and Jorge Sobejano.

Related: PNY Burger Bretonnerie, Paris by Bernard Dubois.

| The article Street Appeal Meets Classicism: Brutal Burrito Madrid by Burr. appeared first on Yellowtrace. |

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Nothing says Halloween like pumpkin patches and corn mazes! Here are a few mazes from various years at the Denver Botanic Gardens Chatfield Farms in Littleton, Colorado. Do you think you could navigate through these seven acre (28,000-square-meter) mazes?

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

39.552208°, -105.100049°

Source imagery: Nearmap

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Within this apartment in Barcelona, Szymon Keller has executed a tactile vision of a lost summer on the Mediterranean. A refuge for a foreign couple who have made a home in the city, this intimate space plays out like a hazy dreamscape where Keller applied a figurative design language to the interior.

Located in a historic 19th-century building in the Eixample district, the petite 60 square metre interior was in need of complete resurrection. Sloped floors, crooked walls and deteriorated ceilings were a challenge, made worse by a claustrophobic layout and a lack of natural light.

Following an enfilade configuration, space was demarcated much like that of a hotel suite. An open plan living, dining and kitchen area sit at the front of the home with views overlooking the street while the bedroom is secluded, nestled within the inner facade. These private and shared spaces flow from one another thanks to a transitional bathroom connecting the two. With its sliding doors made of textured glass, natural light filters throughout the whole apartment. Circulation was reduced as the unique volume seems to ripple in all directions.

Related: Bold & Intuitive: Compact Apartment in Katowice by Mistovia Studio.

“Do you remember that summer night, at the sea,
under the moon?

The soft touch of the sand under our bodies at the beach…

I still dream of the rocks, sculpted by the sea.”

Drawing on poetic language, and his background in visual arts, Keller articulated sun-drenched vignette’s through a painterly approach. “This project was born as a dream’s vision, an ephemeral memory transformed into a timeless experience. The portrait-apartment is a concept that represents iconic elements of summer through an elastic conceptual interpretation,” elaborates the designer.

Organic shapes and curved silhouettes are pervasive — from arched doorways, a wavy headboard, curved corners and soft vaulted ceilings leaving an impression of rock formations shaped by the waves. The bathroom is contained between two arches that mark its symmetry, the curved corners embracing the bathtub at its centre, augmenting the sensation of private intimacy.

Walls clad in sandy stucco, light terrazzo flooring made of small stones and off-white oak parquet carpeting recall a nostalgic tapestry of sand, sunkissed skin and twilight evenings. In the leisure areas, satin copper kitchen finishes, terracotta door frames, tobacco coloured cotton chairs and white marble countertops with earth-coloured veins draw closer resemblance to the shades of the sunset.

The bathroom takes a different tact inspired by the cool shades of the sea. The walls and ceiling glimmer with a bluish-green ceramic, while a free-standing copper bathtub glows in the mysterious darkness, like a golden fish. Intimately spa-like the dark interior marks a notable transition into the private areas. A wall sconce, designed by Keller in collaboration with Crea-Re Studio and fashioned from papier-mâché, symbolises the prominence of the moon, deformed as it is seen from the depths of the sea.

By custom designing many of the apartments unique pieces himself, Keller was able to truly execute his beach-inspired vision. In the bedroom where earth tones contrast with warm stucco tonality a resin and neon lamp called Sunburst completes the room — its reddish tones evoking a sunset. In the living room, Ruins is sculpted in white cement and resin, dripping in the history and decadence of the Mediterranean. While Lung with translucent amber hues made out of resin appears almost as a living being, responding to the existing organic shapes.

Contemporary objects and artworks offset the considered finishes and noble materials. Amongst them, highlights include a bright painting by artist Albert Madaula in the living room, sweetly on theme shell-shaped ceramic pieces by local artist Vito Montolio and a minimalist relief by Paul Bik in the bedroom. Both contrasting and complementing these objects add an element of joy to the polished interior.

Waves house is full of identity and intrigue, layering an intimate portrait of unexpected perspectives. “A home for lovers of summer, the sea and sunsets” the volume has been embedded with the changing tide of summer on the Mediterranean coast.

Related: Form-Meets-Function: 20 Bond New York City Apartment by Home Studios.

| The article Waves House in Barcelona by Szymon Keller. appeared first on Yellowtrace. |

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Lake of the Ozarks is a reservoir in central Missouri that was created by the damming the Osage River. It has a surface area of more than 54,000 acres (220 square km) and at least 1,150 miles (1,850 km) of shoreline. The Village of the Four Seasons, shown here at center, is home to about 2,200 residents and a popular tourist destination.

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

38.201111°, -92.715556°

Source imagery: Maxar

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Centuripe is a town of about 5,400 people on the island of Sicily, in southern Italy. It is located in hill country, between the Dittaino and Salso rivers, at roughly 2,400 feet (730 m) above sea level. When viewed from this aerial angle, the human-like shape of Centuripe comes into view!

See more here: https://bit.ly/g2ZC1WY

37.616667°, 14.733333°

Source imagery: Pio Andrea Peri

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Apple Park, in Cupertino, California, is the corporate headquarters of Apple Inc. Opened to employees in April 2017, the facility replaced the original Apple Campus, which opened in 1993. The building is one of the most environmentally friendly in the world, with power coming from the world’s largest rooftop solar installation as well as from the California Flats solar project. Air flows freely between the inside and outside of the building, providing natural ventilation and alleviating the need for HVAC systems during nine months of the year. The central campus also contains many drought-tolerant plants, and reusable water is used throughout the building.

37.334185°, -122.009930°

Source imagery: Nearmap

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Sea ice breaks apart in various block sizes roughly 40 miles (64 kilometers) off the coast of Antarctica. Antarctic sea ice extends far north in the winter and retreats almost to the coastline every summer. In the 1980s, Antarctica lost 40 billion tons (36.3 billion metric tons) of ice every year. In the last decade, that figure was estimated at a staggering 252 billion tons (229 billion metric tons) per year.

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

-65.539300°, 101.884100°

Source imagery: Maxar

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Imagine studying in the heart of Europe while living a rich social life, feeling connected to the environment and local history: This is what the newly opened buildings of Bard College Berlin offers. Located in the leafy Pankow neighbourhood of the German city, adjacent to Intelligenzberg Park, the German-American liberal arts college has collaborated with development and project management firm DBI Projects and New-York-based architecture and interiors firm Civilian for its student residences.

The 39 apartments situated on the upper floors — home to 120 students — and the café, lounge and study areas on the ground floor are nestled in two twin buildings aesthetically influenced by the Berlin design scene.

Set perpendicularly on a corner lot, the arrangement of buildings creates a courtyard that becomes an informal social hub while incorporating all rainwater runoff into a series of gardens with drought-hardy indigenous perennial plants.

Related: Student Housing Apartment Renovation in Madrid by Plutarco.

The objective of this project was to design “a dynamic new gathering place that facilitates the exchange of ideas on campus”, says Civilian’s principal and co-founder Nicko Elliott. “Our goal was to create a range of convivial public lounges across both buildings for individual study and collaboration while designing flexible private living spaces for maximum comfort and personalization.”

The Civilian team was inspired by Berlin’s legacy of developing the progressive housing estate during the Weimar era (1919-1933), as well as German architect and urban planner Bruno Taut and the Metropolis-era masonry expressionist architecture of the 1920s. The 1970s Neo Bauhaus architecture of the surrounding neighbourhood was also one of the influences for this project.

From there, the designers reinvented contemporary communal living and introduced bright colours in the interior spaces. Made with minimally processed and sustainably harvested materials, the refinished, vintage and custom furniture — which references the pared-down utility of 1920s pieces by Dutch designers Gerrit Rietveld and Ko Verzuu, as well as artists Donald Judd and Andrea Zittel — perfectly combine.

Comprised of several study nooks, the public areas foster student learning and social exchange while the multifunctional private spaces optimise comfort and storage.

“The project shows that functional student housing can tackle sustainability concerns, be aesthetically advanced and act as a community and social hub all at once”, says Taun Toay, managing director of Bard College Berlin. “Designed with a nod to both Bauhaus and the ‘Kreuzberg brick’ in their modern facades, these highly energy-efficient units aim to honour the past while fully incorporating today’s environmental requirements.”

Related: Hatch Student Accommodation in Cork, Ireland by Kingston Lafferty Design.

| The article Bard College Student Housing in Berlin by Civilian. appeared first on Yellowtrace. |