Intriguing Three Garden Home in Belgium Revealing a Serene Life Balance

Intriguing Three Garden Home in Belgium Revealing a Serene Life Balance
Glittery Estate in California Revealing a Questionable Neoclassical Identity
Style and Functionality Shape Cross Stitch Wood Extension Inspired by an Inheritance

Posted: 02 Oct 2014 06:48 AM PDT

Positioned right on the edge of a residential area in De Pinte, Belgium, this intriguing home neighbors an enchanting small forest gathering all the benefits and pouring them inside. Villa Moerkensheide showcases a symmetric spatial configuration: three cubes around an equilateral triangle. Breaking the monotony, an asymmetric articulation at the carport connects the intriguing home to the street.

Architects Dieter De Vos Architecten placed the 306 square meter home in the center of the plot, linking it to the neighborhood via three modern gardens: “An explicit orientation to the sun shapes the tripartite composition of the house. Three gardens formally complement the composition, each garden intended for a specific time of day: morning, afternoon, evening.” The home was imagined as having a concrete and blockwork loadbearing structure to support an adventurous architectural style.

Covered in a skin of brickwork – hand-selected peat-fired bricks in Flemish bond -the bold and beautiful geometric castle is a modern day fairytale home. Boasting eye-caching arched windows on the ground floor, beautiful hardwood carpentry and rectangular windows on the upper floor, the intriguing home feels bright and elegant. Photographs by Filip Dujardin expose Villa Moerkensheide’s architecture from different angles, shaping an idea of its composition in our minds. Imagine these three large arched windows leading each to a garden, to a state of mind, to a moment in time.

Inside, the spaces are functional, bright and cozy. As we know, people love modern architecture and its unique way of expression. Three blind end walls within the open space flaunt integrated cabinets that allow the eating area, seating area and work area to become separate functions. Intriguing in its many details beautifully put into play, the elegant home is enlivened by natural materials and colors.

A sculptural spiral staircase thrones in the middle of the first floor, leading to the upstairs private suite. Here, three freestanding cabinets separate three rooms from the hallway, creating a powerful contrast to the downstairs through the use of white and light coming from perforations on the end walls and flat roof. Now that’s how you make an entrance in a new neighborhood!

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Glittery Estate in California Revealing a Questionable Neoclassical Identity

Posted: 02 Oct 2014 12:33 AM PDT

Excessive luxury seems to be even more appreciated when joined by a theme. In the case of this glittery estate in Glendale’s College Hills neighborhood, California, USA, the owners opted for a “custom neoclassical style”, with columns and statues spread throughout. The massive white bastion comes with six bedrooms, 4.5 bathrooms, an art gallery, sauna, pool and a striking interior design. 950 Avonoak Terrace (this is the official name of the project) was listed several times in the last decade (with the first asking price as high as $9 millions), but today anyone with a thirst for eccentricity can buy it at $2 million.

While some of the interiors in this audacious residence may offer a sense of “home”, others are right on the edge of kitsch. The entrance hallway is a shiny marble foyer displaying a series of columns, crystal chandeliers and what seems to be a fountain in the middle, centered around a Greek god. Bedrooms with flashy 70-ish patterns and four glittery-disco bathrooms complete the image of a luxurious retreat that screams “too much”. We invite you to have a look at the photos below and let us know what you think about this particular home !

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Style and Functionality Shape Cross Stitch Wood Extension Inspired by an Inheritance

Posted: 01 Oct 2014 09:35 AM PDT

Adding a wood extension to your crowded existing home might turn it into something out of a dream. Imagine your dream home – I bet you saw its front facade with your mind’s eye. But did you ever think that your home’s backside competes for your attention also? Additional spaces for your home can come in different shapes and sizes, according to the functions they must meet. And when creative teams like Studio FMD Architects bring their expertise and vision to the table, dreams come true. Do you know that feeling of seeing something built better than the plan, better than expected?

This is the feeling that must have rushed over the owners of the newly extended Cross Stitch House in Melbourne, Australia. Once a Victorian residence, the recently re-imagined home was slightly altered to encourage air and light movement. Three tapestries of houses made by the client’s mother were placed in the heart of the home. “They served as the inspiration to work on the project, and the new extension like embroidered cross in the continuation of the main part and is decorated with wooden beams and glass.”

By adding a new living room and dining room, Studio FMD Architects extended the functional spaces as well as added a stylish modern dimension to the historic character. Architects explain how the brief turned into the Cross Stitch House: “The site is a single storey terrace on a small 5m wide block in the inner city of Melbourne. The brief was to create new living and dining spaces, relocate the existing kitchen and bathrooms and improve access to natural light in the main living and main bedroom areas. The existing Victorian eastern end of the house containing 2 bedrooms was to remain and be refurbished. (…) Our design strategy is always to celebrate the particularities of the project, so while exploring the tradition of tapestry and stitching techniques, the concept of stitching the new house form to the old established the design approach.” Thanks to photos by Peter Bennetts, the interior and details of this creative solution for a larger space inspire us to look into our own yards and extension possibilities.

The architects used the only request owners made – to keep and display the three tapestries – to create a whole concept of the space: “The timber beams form the thread which stitches the new living room to the existing house, then beyond to the western courtyard. The timber beams at the northern point converge into a large timber column, reminiscent of a bobbin thread. Within the courtyard a mirror is positioned strategically at the end of the threads to extend the space and create a sense of unraveling (while concealing the services of the building). The timber threads twist over the western façade to provide added shading to the Living area which will soon be overgrown over by greenery.”

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