Foliage is fashionable again in Medellin as eco-conscious architecture spreads its roots and the city returns to tropical modernism
In Washington D.C., the Stephenson House is a renovation project by Assembledge+ and Fowlkes Studio that involved a 1962 modernist house.
Step inside Marcos Acayaba's 1975 modernist house in São Paulo, bringing together concrete design, landscape architecture and tropical and Brazilian modernism.
Wooden shutters wrap around this Miami home, which looks onto the surrounding palm trees from a 100-ft long glass front
Aman Kyoto by Kerry Hill is a secret garden sanctuary, and the latest destination to join Aman’s portfolio of high-end resort hotels across the globe.
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Text by architect Bernardes Arquitetura Situated on a hilltop looking over stunning views in Brazil’s Rio de Janeiro, the Asa House exemplifies delicate modern architecture at its finest. With offices in Rio de Janeiro, São Paolo as well as Lisbon, Bernardes Arquitetura have established a name working in the areas of architecture, urbanism and interior
The 20 most extraordinary houses ever sold by [link url="https://www.themodernhouse.com/"]The Modern House[/link], the go-to estate agent for Britain's design cognoscenti
Bangkok-based architecture practice Ayutt and Associates Design (AAd), with projects across Southeast Asia, has completed a residential project called the Monsoon House in Trat, the easternmost province of Thailand, Trat. The 1,500m² project, built on a limited budget, is a private, peaceful residence located on the coastline of the Thai Gulf known for its smooth sandy ground, embedded amid the rubber plantation. The picturesque location, a mere steps away from the sea, the house reflects the firm’s modernist tropical approach. Here, the team of architects has attempted to address the issue of vanishing regional style. To minimise the monsoon’s impact on the building and landscape, the AAd team did extensive research on weathering protection, as well as coastal erosion and residential privacy. The language and logic of the house have been designed in response to the wind loads and storm protection as its location, Trat, is known to be one of the wettest provinces in the country. The architects demonstrate a true understanding of the topography of the locus and did not wish to disturb the coastal nature, which is why the house compositions are found on a horizontal plane in order to compensate for the strong wind. While the […]
Casa Caúcaso is the striking, well-poised family home of architect José Juan Rivera Río. Located in Mexico City, it was made using regionally-sourced concrete, wood, marble, and glass.
Taylor and Hinds Architects' addition to a 1950s modernist house starts a “conversation” with the original architecture, without compromising the originality and idiosyncrasy of the new.
Casa Baldo is an elegant modernist house nestled on a hilltop in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil designed in 1969 by famed architect Oscar Niemeyer
Wooden shutters wrap around this Miami home, which looks onto the surrounding palm trees from a 100-ft long glass front
Step inside Marcos Acayaba's 1975 modernist house in São Paulo, bringing together concrete design, landscape architecture and tropical and Brazilian modernism.
In Washington D.C., the Stephenson House is a renovation project by Assembledge+ and Fowlkes Studio that involved a 1962 modernist house.
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Strang Design blends vernaculars to conjure a Miami home with a tropical modernist style that's at one with its surroundings.
A Single storied residence with a Tropical modernist style bungalow design in Kaduthuruthy, Kottayam, Kerala including traditional concepts of courtyards and nature friendly design elements , with proper climatically responsive planning. The home is a perfect place for relaxation and retirement life for the family.
Wooden shutters wrap around this Miami home, which looks onto the surrounding palm trees from a 100-ft long glass front
Foliage is fashionable again in Medellin as eco-conscious architecture spreads its roots and the city returns to tropical modernism
A Single storied residence with a Tropical modernist style bungalow design in Kaduthuruthy, Kottayam, Kerala including traditional concepts of courtyards and nature friendly design elements , with proper climatically responsive planning. The home is a perfect place for relaxation and retirement life for the family.
Foliage is fashionable again in Medellin as eco-conscious architecture spreads its roots and the city returns to tropical modernism
Born in Kandy, Minnette de Silva was the first Asian female architect to be registered with RIBA
A Single storied residence with a Tropical modernist style bungalow design in Kaduthuruthy, Kottayam, Kerala including traditional concepts of courtyards and nature friendly design elements , with proper climatically responsive planning. The home is a perfect place for relaxation and retirement life for the family.
An incredible 1960s-1970s architectural home on the edge of the Dandenongs, complete with an indoor garden and pond!
Interior designer Greg Natale brings colorful modernist energy to the three-story concrete house
The Soi Watt Umong House is a ‘Miesien’ composition of concrete and glass pavilions grouped around a courtyard and set in secondary tropical forest. The site is located close to Chiangmai University in Thailand’s second largest city. The owners of the house are Rirkrit Tiravanija, an internationally acclaimed Thai artist, born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in 1961, who spent his childhood years in Ethiopia and Thailand, and his Japanese/American wife Antoinette Aurell, a photographer who worked in Paris and New York before moving to Chiangmai. The couple live with Antoinette’s two children from a previous marriage, a boy who is studying at an international school in Chiangmai and a daughter who attends college in the US. The design of the house originated from a physical model constructed by Rirkrit in 2005. Photographs of the model were sent to Neil Logan (of Fernland + Logan Architects in New York), an American architect and friend, who made modifications to the structure and designed built-in closets, kitchen shelves and stainless steel work surfaces. The drawings were later passed to Aroon Puritat, a graduate of the Faculty of Architecture at Silpakorn University, who resides in Chiangmai. The two had met while Aroon was researching his graduate thesis on contemporary art museums. In the process, he had examined works such as Pad Thai (Untitled 1990) by Rirkrit. He also worked with Rirkrit on The Land, a community of artists close to Chiangmai (1998). The house was to be built without destroying any trees on the site so at the outset all the trees were marked. The other requirements included a workroom for Rirkrit and a photography studio for his wife. The owners consulted fengshui master Kochakorn Promchai to finalize certain details, such as the auspicious positioning of the entrance door. She recommended that ‘the house entrance be from east to west, that the kitchen should face north the person cooking should face north and that there must not be any water in the middle of the home’. Aroon adjusted the drawings to fit the site, the available materials and the capabilities of the construction industry in Chiangmai and then finalized the architectural drawings for submission to the authorities. The design process included Paponsak Laor, who contributed jade green tiles for the bedroom and inner courtyard wall; Professor Kamin Lertchaiprasert, who produced large drawings of a dragon, intending it to be applied to the ceiling of the library and a phoenix for the ceiling of the carport; Sethatwut Pinyorit, who was responsible for various structural features, and Taneeya Yuktadatta, who advised on lighting design. The collaborative relationship was by all accounts challenging as Aroon strove to reconcile his architectural training and the requirements for a coherent end product with Rirkrit’s desire for ‘incompleteness’ for the house. For an architect, a commission that invites experimentation at each step is rare. The result, as one writer has noted, is that the dwelling is, in a sense, a ‘new work’ by the artist arrived at through the medium of architecture. In an interview with Calvin Tomkins of the New Yorker on 17 October 2005, Rirkrit stated that many of the concepts behind his work borrow from Buddhism, where Doing Less is the same as not trying to embellish or make something more than what it is. ‘I am fascinated by architecture,’ explains Rirkrit, who in 1996 produced a 1:2 scale reconstruction of Philip Johnson’s Glass House at New York MoMA. ‘In particular, I am interested in modernism and the idea of self-criticism it contains [and] the conceptual problems relating to it.’ Towards the end of 2005, Rirkrit and Antoinette moved from the USA to Chiangmai to supervise the construction of the house although Rirkrit insists that the house was really ‘designed’ by the workers on the site and that it was a hand-made process, ‘closer to sculpture than architecture’.6 The collaboration between the owners and the architects continued with frequent emails from Neil Logan that were translated and implemented by Aroon Puritat. Essentially, the house has an orthogonal U-shaped plan around a central courtyard. Soft dappled light penetrates into the heavily planted central court and a gentle breeze rustles the leaves. The house is remarkable for its silence. The structure is basically a concrete frame with concrete block and glass infill. The ground floor is lift ed one meter above the terrain typical of traditional Thai houses in order to avoid mud and floodwater aft er heavy rain and also vermin. In addition, it permits under-floor ventilation. A shaded timber deck runs around the perimeter of the central garden giving access to the various functions. An ever-present character in the remarkable house is Harry the friendly offspring of a French bulldog and a Boston terrier that appears whenever a photograph is about to be taken, along with another less ebullient old dachshund named Torru. The focus of family life is the open-plan kitchen and dining area adjoining the living area, which has a large square kitchen table, a smaller kopi tiam table and a sunken pit in the living space for gatherings of family and friends. There is a distinct Japanese influence in the interior design, specifically in the master bedroom, which is based on the dimensions of a tatami mat, with futons spread on the floor. Sliding timber wall panels and the proportions of the fenestration also attest to a Japanese sensibility. Th e master bathroom was designed by Antoinette based on a traditional Japanese tub. The circular staircase up to the studio office was a direct copy from Charles Eames, while the office shelving was a modified copy of a Charlotte Perriand wall unit. Antoinette and Rirkrit selected all the interior and exterior finishes, including terrazzo, tiles and wood. Guided by the expertise of a horticulturist friend, Stuart Rodgers, Antoinette was initiated into planting and gardening and has developed an obsession with tropical plants. In the northern corner of the site she has created what she describes jokingly as a petit trainon, an enclosed tropical garden that alludes to a space in the Palace of Versailles where her namesake Maria Antoinette and invited guests ‘could take light meals away from the strict étiquette of the Court’. Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Share on Google Plus RELATED POSTS
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On our agendas: an upcoming book signing, a guided plant hike, and a UK plant swap. Read on. Catch us next Sunday, August 12 in New York City, at Shoppe Ob
