Contemporary Single-Floor Home Parading a Refreshing Transparency

Posted: 10 Oct 2014 05:09 AM PDT

Making a powerful first impression, this contemporary single-floor home in Phoenix, Arizona, helps the owners stay connected to the outdoors at all times. An infill house in Phoenix’s historic Pierson Place neighborhood, it received its name from the fact that this lot was the last vacant one in the neighborhood and architects of The Ranch Mine saw it as the “missing link”. This is how the story of a house that links a community started. Spreading on a single floor, the volumetric home boasts a clean modern shape with boldness and pride.

Commissioned by Evan Boxwell of Boxwell Southwest, the architectural team worked on visually integrating the new residence into the existing context. Large 24 foot stacking pocket doors line the two opposing walls of the living room, creating an inspiring transparency from the front yard to the private backyard. The option of opening all sliding doors at the same time creates an outdoor living and dining room, perfect for a contemporary single-floor home.

The 3 bedroom/2 bathroom modern home in Phoenix was carefully designed to embed the neighborhood in its structure by opening itself up to the surroundings. The contemporary single-floor home spreads over 2050 square feet, using every inch in the owner’s favor. “The house uses large overhangs to shade the large glass doors from April through October, and those doors provide unbelievable cross ventilation to cool the house on the cool desert nights. LED lighting and advanced framing construction also help to keep this house incredibly energy efficient. The house had to pass The City of Phoenix Historic Preservation committee, so the design focused on abstracting the common scale, form and massing of the existing houses in the historic district into a contemporary interpretation.” Can you imagine entertaining your friends in this open living space?

If you liked this home, you’ll surely want to see these 30 Modern Living Room Design Ideas to Upgrade Your Quality of Lifestyle next.

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14 Inspiring Custom-Built Modern Cat Houses Revealed at LA Fundraising Event

Posted: 09 Oct 2014 10:10 AM PDT

All cat lovers out there will be pleased to see sculptural, artistic modern cat houses that not only provide their furry little pets with shelter and climbing fun, but also decorate modern interiors. And when you add a social dimension, you get the best of both worlds. These 14 intricate modern cat houses were especially built by US architects for stray cats. Encouraging donations for FixNation, a Californian spay-neuter nonprofit organization, these modern cat houses inspire a new dimension in the design of shelters for one of the world’s favorite pet. Stray felines were given the chance to enjoy sculptural cat shelters created for Architects for Animals' “Giving Shelter” fundraiser held in Los Angeles this September.

Each custom built cat house was designed by a different architect for the Giving Shelter event held on held on September 10, 2014 in Los Angeles. Organized by the national organization Architects for Animals, the event ripples as well as inspiration for the future of cat house design. The adorable kittens can play in, on and around the geometric cat houses all day long. They’ll be like a dynamic, unpredictable part of the whole system, bringing it to life.

We’ve seen houses for cats to scratch and tables designed for feline exploration, even luxury beds for cats and dogs. We’ve even featured an interview with Kooldog to show you the promises and this growing field. They all pave the way to a more aesthetically appealing pet home design. If you’d like to know more details, DailyMail explores each design.

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