Stumble Upon Coffee Table and Stumble Upon Sofa by Alessandro Isola
“If you look down you may see a crease, a fold or a wrinkle in the carpet for instance. Signifying a movement or activity that happened on the surface of that very floor space. Highlighted as a small furrow, ridge, or crease on a normally smooth surface, caused by crumpling, folding, or shrinking. This usually causes a slight annoyance and is firmly pulled straight.” Instead, in 2014 the Italian-bord architect Alessandro Isola introduced the Stumble Upon Coffee Table and Stumble Upon Sofa, magnifying the imperfection until folds are large enough to offer a functional surface with a playful visual twist.
Peillon is one of several “perched villages”, just a few kilometers north of Nice and Monaco but at almost 400 meters altitude. It is a quaint pedestrian only village with narrow cobbled streets winding up and down through low vaulted passageways, offering a dramatic contrast to the busy Riviera coast to the south. A visit to this magnificent fortified village is a true trip back in time, with its unchanged stone houses being a beautiful example of medieval french architecture and Old World charm.
This New “Fancy Fence” System Retracts Gate Directly Into Ground
The historic village of Monsanto in Eastern Portugal is another example of thoughtful architecture that adapts to its natural surroundings rather than attempting to transform them. The village developed around enormous granite boulders, utilized for walls, floors, and even roofs.The homes, sandwiched between mossy boulders, and the narrow cobbled streets have hardly changed in hundreds of years, making Monsanto a living museum that has retained its medieval village charm.
Icelandic turf houses were the product of a harsh environment. They offered superior insulation compared to stone and wood houses, and Iceland did have large amounts of turf that was suitable for construction, while other building material were difficult to obtain. The end result is an example of vernacular architecture based on local needs and construction materials, that blends beautifully into its natural environment.
Designer Jae Omar blends function and art in the RIVER sink by SonoBath that features a meditative passage from Herman Hesse’s Siddhartha cut into the stone surface.
Remembering Zaha Hadid. She was, and will continue to be, a true inspiration for generations of architects.
Black Stainless is a new finish recently introduced by KitchenAid, Samsung and LG . Besides offering better smudge resistance, it is an interesting alternative if the rugged industrial look of conventional stainless steel doesn’t appeal. Black Stainless complements nicely more modern and sleek kitchen designs, particularly if the cabinetry is a medium or dark tone.
The serene Shirakawa-go and Gokayama regions, nestled in a remote mountain area of Japan, are famous for their traditional gassho-zukuri farmhouses, some of which are more than 200 years old. Gassho-zukuri means “constructed like hands in prayer”, as the farmhouses’ steep thatched roofs resemble the hands of praying Buddhist monks. The roofs, made without nails, were designed to withstand the large amounts of heavy snow that falls in the region during winter, and provided a large attic space for cultivating silkworms.