Roof Terrace

What a stunning roof terrace in this small apartment located in Sweden. Perfect for some cocktails in starlight night with friends!

Sustainable Building Design by Studio27 Architecture

The Rincon Bates House has been renovated by Studio27 Architecture and is end row house unit in Capitol Hill, Washington DC. The project furthers a continuing exploration in sustainable urban residential design. This project has a bio-based insulation, solar water heaters, plumbing fixtures and low flow of zero VOC finish. Ample daylight is supplied to the 1200 square foot home organized around a central atrium with skylight monitors.

Design Star - Episode 6 - Trump Luxury Model Suits

This weeks challenge was to design a model apartment for the brand new Trump property, The Trump Plaza Residences in Jersey City, bringing a bit of New York feel into space through tourist souvenirs.

Donald Trump, Jr. was showing the spaces to designers and helped judges pick the winner this week.

I have been somewhat harsh regarding the designers during this season, but now I am turning to the judges and saying....WHAT AN EARTH WENT THROUGH YOUR MINDS AS YOU WERE HANDING THEM THE GOD AWFUL TACKY SOUVENIR PACKAGES?!.....how are they suppose to incorporate them into the luxury brand that Trump represents?! Seriously, it's like handing a beltpack to Vera Wang and tell her incorporate that into her fabulous designs.

And the result is just as horrific as you can expect:

Alex's pillow that got raving reviews from the judges and landed him as a top designers this week.....what??!!...well, compared to the other "objects"...I guess.... that pillow collage btw, made me gag...



Stacey:




...I guess her "taxi drapes" didn't make it to the HGTV gallery ;-)

Tom:



Courtland:



Michael:



And the space by Red team:

On The coffee table, there are those $1 glass toothbrush holders that you find in hotel room bathrooms.



and then we have a narrow hallway rug placed in the living area:



and the blue bathroom....that Tom spent the entire time painting



and the odd matresless bed with scattered pillows that are way too small....seriously...did they have budget?




yeah...totally screams Trump Luxury :-O (what was their budget?!...was there any)

And the space by Blue team:




...this was the space that the judges & Trump Jr. were complementing.....:-O...to me, it looks like a slightly upgraded Motel 6 room....

the bathroom...



The bedroom....



Without even watching Stacey's hosting, judges sent her home, and after hosting video's also Tom was sent home....because "Donald Trump Jr. was so appalled"...

The challenges have the most part been ridiculous and last night's episode was like a SNL skit. I think I might be done with this season.

10 Rooms: Beach Week Continues.. Modern Beach House: The Gold Coast

Check out this post from 10 Rooms. The last 2 images took my breath away!
10 Rooms: Beach Week Continues.. Modern Beach House: The Gold Coast

A Concept Design for a Small Art Gallery

One of my conceptual Designs for an Art Gallery Space and a concept for a custom reception desk. This space or building does not exist.

(click on the images to enlarge them)

Design Star - Episode 5 - Designing for Heroes

I absolutely loved this weeks challenge. What would be more exciting and rewarding than designing for NY Firemen, To be able to design the room where they get to relax after a long hard day of serving all of us is a design dream come true.

The Design Star candidates were divided in two groups; Red and Blue.

Blue Group: Alex, Michael, Emily, Casey



This space was stunning. Floorplan was well designed. It was both functional and beautiful. Designers had divided the space into various zones and added lots of details paying homage to the great city of New York and its heroes.

Alex did a wonderful job creating a NY city skyline on the main wall. Casey painted a figure of a fireman on a canvas, that was very impressive. Another great detail by Emily was the customized coffee table featuring the letters "FDNY"

Michael again challenged himself with a large task of creating a workstation with tv, laptop, desk and display space. It was both well built and visually pleasing.

All this combined resulted in the Blue team winning the challenge.






Red Team: Nina, Courtland, Tom & Stacey




....ouch!........what happened? All this talent in the team, and the result was...."this".... The effort was there, but the outcome was not successful.

First of all, the space planning was a mess. The furniture placement was claustrophobic, furniture pieces were too big and massive for the space, the exercise equipment are definitely something that the fireman will use, but looks like they were just randomly thrown in the space. Looking at the space, it seemed to me like a designer had never come near this space...ugh...

Nina yet again wanted to create a customized art work, result: odd scribble on the wall that no one understood....

Tom wanted to expose the original architectural detailing on the ceiling and bring more height to the space. Wonderful concept, but then he decided to paint it in black....... The colors in this space were just gloomy.

Courtland focused on creating a wood-paneled wall and entertainment center. Idea was great, put there were so many other materials to choose from, and he picked this ugly wooden panel. I just don't get it.

Stacey brought a little light of hope into this room by the vintage-inspired engine number plaque, but it was not enough to save the space.

Both spaces could have used more storage space to make it easy for the firemen to keep it organized.

There was again some drama, when Michael shot himself in the finger with nail gun and was taken to the ER. He spend a good amount of time bashing Alex in front of the camera in the beginning of the episode, so I particularly enjoyed the successful work that Alex did this week with the beautiful skyline painting.....and not only that...he also finished Michael s project while he was in ER ;-)))

Nina & Courtland, the two meanest designers, ended up in bottom three. Justice was served and Karma kicked in ;-)

Wooden Design hotel in the heart of my native Helsinki

The WISA Wooden Design hotel is an architectural gem of wood situated in the maritime heart of Helsinki. The work was designed by interior architect Pieta-Linda Auttila. She hopes to spark interest in wood and highlight its role in building and design. The purpose of the intensive design session was to inspire competitors to boldly look for experimental shapes. The objective of the competition was to produce an iconic creation that expresses strong vision and the flight of a free spirit. This sculptural landmark would be Helsinki’s equivalent of the Little Mermaid – a sight that attracts architects, designers and the general public alike. Only Finnish wood in its various forms could be used in the competition proposal.

Stunning!!!







Source: Modern Architecture & Design news

Design Star – Flower Inspiration for Studio Space

Episode 4 was about finding inspiration in flowers to transform an empty studio apartment, producing cohesive design while still incorporating individual floral element and ideas.
Overall, both teams did a good job with their space, and judges could not pick their favorite team, and decided to judge individual designers, which makes more sense anyway.

While I agree that this was a very close call, I did prefer Men's Studio Space. It just appealed to me more aesthetically.How surprising it was that men did better job translating their floral choice into space!

Women's Space:



Nina picked purple Cymbidium orchid, a bold and elegant flower, which she interpreted into space through faux molding, her signature artwork, and a fun swing. I really liked the swing. Very fun idea and it worked in the space, but we have all seen that molding and artwork before, so it was overall quite disappointing, and this is what landed her in the bottom three. I can only assume how frustrating and confusing it has to be for her to win every other week and land in the bottom three every other week.

In this space I really liked the strong patterns and the colors, and the mix of modern and traditional.
I also liked the fact that the small studio was so multifunctional with defined areas for dining, working, sleeping and entertaining, and did I say I LOVED that swing!

I did not like the fact that the sleeping area was so visible to the rest of the space. The accessories were too many and too random. I did not like the artwork or the odd and meaningless wall of scattered frames, which landed Dan in the bottom three, and eventually sent him home, plus the fact that he has been taking more of a role of carpenter instead of designer.





Men’s Studio Space:



I loved this space.The layout was very well done. There is that wonderful book shelving that separates the sleeping area from the living area without blocking the natural light traveling through the space nor the view of the Manhattan skyline. I loved how the book shelving was also used as a headboard, which allowed the bed to be oriented to the view. All the furniture and accessories were thoughtfully picked. They were minimalistic, yet elegant, and worked well together..... compared to Women's space maybe a bit too minimalistic and the colors were more subtle, but it worked for me.

Tom selected tulip which I think, represented well the timeless elegance of the space.



Michael picked Ranunculus which complexity is translated perfectly in the multi-functional bookcase.



Alex selected snapdragon for inspiration and translated it into a few stacked canvases serving as art and a lamp. He was quite charming in his hosting though, which gave him an advance against the wooden presentation by Dan.

Get Creative With Your Doors

Only your imagination is the limit. Here are some ideas:

1. What a way to make something as boring as closet doors into a focal-point by painting an art work on them. If you don't want to paint, you can also use decals. You can just peel them out if you want something different later on.

(click on the images to enlarge them)


2. Sliding glass door creates a modern and minimalistic closure that still lets light travel through spaces.
Note: What a wonderful idea to build a book shelving that echos the beautiful wooden staircase behind the wall!



3. Where is the door?
This Italian Adielle's Filomuro Zero-door melts into the wall. You just need to memorize where it is ;-)



4. Take a picture of your favorite dress and print it on the closet door



These days, you can print almost anything on almost anything.

5. Optical Illusion



6. Door that leads nowhere. Door that does not exist.



photo wall by Mr.Perswall

7. Make a space look bigger with floor-to-ceiling door



9. Renew a dull door with wall paper



10. Install or paint chalk board on your door



11. Always out of the way.
No more having to take into consideration if there is enough room for door swing, or which way it should swing. You just push the door into a wall.



Source: Avotakka.fi