Contemporist

The Urban Zen Collection by Donna Karan

Fashion designer Donna Karan has introduced the Urban Zen collection of furniture.

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Modern simplicity with an Indonesian soul. Entirely handmade in Bali, each piece is the essence of comfort, the contrast of strong lines and soft pillows. Generously scaled with an open structure, each piece invites you to curl up in alone or with the whole family. This is furniture designed to make itself
sensually at home in your world.

Visit the Urban Zen website – here.

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FAVN Sofa by Jaime Hayon for Fritz Hansen

Jaime Hayon has designed the FAVN sofa for the Danish furniture manufacturer Fritz Hansen.

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FAVN Sofa by Jaime Hayon for Fritz Hansen

FAVN; the Danish name for embrace, is a new sofa designed by Jaime Hayon for Fritz Hansen. The new sofa is the result of a creative dialogue and will be launched during the Salone Internazionale del Mobile 2011 at Republic of Fritz Hansen’s showroom in Milan.

“I wanted the sofa to be based on a shell. A shell being hard on the outside, soft and welcoming on the inside.” Says Jaime Hayón. “I wanted to create a form that embraces you, something really organic – that’s why we named it FAVN.” Hayón continues.

Recognized by his fresh, colourful and extrovert design style, the award winning artist-designer is the most recent addition to Fritz Hansen’s family tree of designers. Hayón carries forward Fritz Hansen’s long tradition of working with some of the world’s most talented architect and designers.

“FAVN is an evolution of Fritz Hansen’s design language that brings together the qualities of Spanish and Danish design”. Says Jaime Hayón. “FAVN is picking up from the long tradition of Arne Jacobsen in the sense that I wanted to create a form that was based on a shell, like the Egg™ and the Swan™ which looks equally beautiful from all angles.” Hayón continues.

FAVN is the result of an experimental dialogue and presents an honest interpretation of Fritz Hansen’s design values. It represents a true reflection of Fritz Hansen’s ambition to achieve sustainable quality in crafting timeless design.

The new sofa is presented in ten unique Designer Selections; light grey, sage green, clear beige, taupe, chocolate, moutarde, red, violet, dark blue and black. It includes a mix of three fabrics to express the form of its three main components; the shell, seat and back and decorative cushions. The combination of texture and tone is appealing to the visual and emotional senses.

FAVN will be launched at Republic of Fritz Hansen’s showroom in Milan on Corso Garibaldi, 77 during the Salone Internazionale del Mobile 2011. The new sofa will be available to purchase from Republic of Fritz Hansen stores and selected authorized Republic of Fritz Hansen dealers from around the world as of September 2011.

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Visit the Fritz Hansen website – here.

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Sea Ranch Residence by Turnbull Griffin Haesloop

Turnbull Griffin Haesloop designed the Sea Ranch residence in Sea Ranch, California.

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Description from the architects:

The site for this small Sea Ranch house is edged with mature evergreen trees and opens to a meadow with views out to the Pacific Ocean. The clients wanted an understated, flowing house that captured their love of Japanese simplicity. Our solution starts with a vernacular barn form and carves away to shape an exterior octagonal deck that opens to the meadow and the view. A continuous band of windows and doors follow the outline of the cutout to capture the panoramic views. Cedar ceilings and sheetrock walls create a clean minimalist interior, and the window wall features exposed wood framing and structural steel.

Visit the Turnbull Griffin Haesloop website – here.

Photography by David Wakely

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Casas del Sol Contemporary Tropical Villas

The proprietors of the Casas del Sol villas in in Koh Tao, Thailand, have sent us some images of their various contemporary tropical villas.

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Visit the Casas del Sol website – here.

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The Olnick Spanu House by Alberto Campo Baeza

Alberto Campo Baeza Architects designed the Olnick Spanu House in Garrison, New York.

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The Olnick Spanu House by Alberto Campo Baeza

The place is of profound tranquility where after a day of rain and fog an intense light reflects in the stilled mirror of the majestic Hudson River´s deep waters. A place where twilights are a thousand colors as the water breaks into a thousand reflections. A place where the air is clean and calm, and mild. One could say a place that is very close to heaven. In this impressive place, we establish a plane, a platform that underlines the landscape before us, seeking to enhance it.

A large long box is thus built, 122 feet long by 54 feet wide by 12 feet high, with sturdy concrete walls that accentuate its relationship to the land. The roof of this box is flat, paved in stone, travertine, so that we may use it.

And to protect ourselves from the sun and rain, over the stone plane we raise a light roof 100 feet long by 40 feet wide by 9 feet tall, held by 10 cylindrical steel pillars that are arranged according to a 20 x 20 foot grid. This roof cantilevers 10 feet along all of its sides. And to make this space habitable, we put a glass box under the roof, an enclosure measuring 94 feet long by 25 feet wide. This glass box contains the back row of columns within it and leaves the front columns  outside, in order to further accentuate its transparency.

This construction on the platform resembles a large table with ten legs. Three areas are created within it, divided by two white boxes that do not reach the ceiling, containing the stairs and service spaces. The central space is the living area, and the dining room has a large white table. On one side, closer to the swimming pool, is the kitchen, and on the other side, in the manner of a pensatorio, the area around the hearth.

And below, inside the cement box, the bedrooms and baths are housed. In its central vestibule, connecting the main entrance and the access to the garden, a gallery has been created where pieces of Arte Povera and other pieces of contemporary Italian art are displayed, in addition to other areas around the house. In all, once again, the cabin over the cave. The tectonic piece on top of the stereotomic piece.

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Visit the website of Alberto Campo Baeza Architects – here.

Photography by Miguel Quismondo and Javier Callejas

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P.C. Hooftstraat Apartment by Hofman Dujardin Architects

Hofman Dujardin Architects designed the interior of this apartment in Amsterdam.

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Description from Hofman Dujardin Architects:

This majestic apartment on P.C.Hoofstraat in Amsterdam was radically renovated. An impression of extra space is given by the open-plan layout of the high ceiling living room, the former kitchen, and the side room. In these two adjacent rooms, cabinets in white gloss are placed high up. The cooking area, made from solid Corian® in Cameo White, is located near the centre of the living room. Because the extractor fan has been integrated in the cooking island, it was possible to place the wonderful ‘Dear Ingo’ lamp from Ron Gilad above. On the next floor up are two bedrooms and a bathroom. The bathroom has three powerful elements: a 2.4 x 2.6m glass plate, a freestanding bath, and a Corian® sink unit. To top it all off, an elegant staircase links the master bedroom with the roof terrace.

Visit the Hofman Dujardin Architects website – here.

Photography by Matthijs van Roon

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Villa Geldrop by Hofman Dujardin Architects

Hofman Dujardin Architects have designed the Villa Geldrop in The Netherlands.

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Description from the architects:

The villa is located at the end of the site next to the existing barn. Through a long cut in the landscape the house is anchored on large surrounding. Under the ground level the bedrooms are located at this long sectional patio. The large living with dining area, kitchen, study area and playing area are located at the ground level and the 1st floor. Through voids, roof lights and high passages a tremendous spaciousness is created. The spaces which are located in the axe of the landscape are used for the sublime experience of the landscape.

Visit the Hofman Dujardin Architects website – here.

Photography by Matthijs van Roon

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Riverdale Loft by Beauparlant Design

Beauparlant Design have completed the remodel of a loft in a former printing press factory in Toronto, Canada.

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Project description:

Originally a printing press factory, this Toronto building was converted into lofts many years ago. Since then, the units are in dire need of an update, and require a reconsideration for the interaction between original features with comfortable living. The project was an exploration of increasing efficiency and flexibility within an already open-space, as well as introducing elements that will offer a sense of spatial division. The design intent was to accentuate original features, and give attention to the quality of living in a loft.

Visit the Beauparlant Design website – here.

Photography by John Heineman

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Capital Kitchen by Mim Design

Mim Design have sent us photos of the Capital Kitchen café they designed in Sydney, Australia.

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Description from the designers:

Capital Kitchen is an external facing food emporium also comprising of a dining café and bar, as well as providing a kitchen and food-based home wares component.

The clean and modern interior blends a minimal look with a rustic wooden country kitchen feel; a stark contrast from the monotony of shopping centre food outlets.

Described as the 2010 trend “Rurban Revolution”, Capital Kitchen provides shoppers with an escape from the urban environment of the Chadstone Shopping Centre by delivering a space reminiscent of a modern ‘home-style’ country farmhouse.

Timber floors and joinery with a strong use of Carrara marble add a lofty natural feel, paired with the surrounding textural brick walls. Attention to detail through furniture and display echo an old style and natural feel.

Visit the Mim Design website – here.

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Capital Kitchen by Mim Design

Mim Design have sent us photos of the Capital Kitchen café they designed in Sydney, Australia.

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Description from the designers:

Capital Kitchen is an external facing food emporium also comprising of a dining café and bar, as well as providing a kitchen and food-based home wares component.

The clean and modern interior blends a minimal look with a rustic wooden country kitchen feel; a stark contrast from the monotony of shopping centre food outlets.

Described as the 2010 trend “Rurban Revolution”, Capital Kitchen provides shoppers with an escape from the urban environment of the Chadstone Shopping Centre by delivering a space reminiscent of a modern ‘home-style’ country farmhouse.

Timber floors and joinery with a strong use of Carrara marble add a lofty natural feel, paired with the surrounding textural brick walls. Attention to detail through furniture and display echo an old style and natural feel.

Visit the Mim Design website – here.

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Haines House by Christopher Polly Architect

Australian architect Christopher Polly has completed the Haines House in Sydney, Australia.

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Haines House by Christopher Polly Architect

Haines House is located in the inner city Sydney suburb of Newtown, in an area that is steadily displaying evidence of gentrification in the general upgrade of the surrounding urban fabric. The immediate context is comprised of predominantly single storey attached and semi-detached residences with intermittent 2 storey dwellings and 3 to 4 storey apartment blocks.

The proposal involved the complete refurbishment of an existing single storey semi-detached dwelling with the addition of an open plan volume beyond the original rear existing roof plane, to improve the physical and visual relationships to the new rear garden, while harnessing improved access to sunlight, natural ventilation and views to borrowed landscapes and sky beyond.

The generation of the design entailed two formal strategies:

1. A clear response to place in three acts involved extrapolating the line of the rear roof pitch of the immediate adjoined dwelling to generate the form of the singular roof and ceiling plane, extruding this to the extent of the rear setback alignment of this adjoined dwelling in plan, followed by the extension of an existing low roof level along the unadjoined eastern edge to the new rear footprint – under which a long ‘working wall’ spine accommodates a kitchen, storage and varying configurations of joinery, extending outside to accommodate a second toilet with basin.

2. The retention of the original front dwelling and centrally located bathroom enabled old and new fabric to stitch and enmesh an alternating sequence of compression and expansion, enfolding a series of expressed rooms from the narrow hall and front cellular 3-room layout, to open release in a newly accommodated Living room, followed by a compressed scale shift and downward change in level via an almost secreted passage into the new heightened rear openness of a Dining, Kitchen, second Living space.

The height of the low roof served to establish a datum that scribed the alignment of all elements wrapped around the interior of the rear volume, setting the heights of the rear steel door head and sliding doors, timber board wall linings, timber board lined laundry units and new wall heights of the retained bathroom.

Fixed highlight glazing finely connects these newly established bathroom wall heights with the singular ceiling plane, enclosing it from surrounding spaces while borrowing light from three directions. An arrangement of fine steel plate supports and banks of highlight louvred and fixed windows march along and above the entire eastern low roofed working wall, bridging the high and low roofs and wrapping to the rear southern orientation, while a series of pocket concealed timber  framed sliding doors extend the living spaces onto a roofed terrace that directly connects to the enclosed private garden and surrounding borrowed landscape beyond.

Architects: Christopher Polly Architect
Location: Newtown, Sydney, Australia
Project Team: Christopher Polly
Structural Engineer: Simpson Design Associates
Builder: Paul King Pty Ltd
Project Area: 115 sqm
Landscaped Area: 58 sqm
Project Year: 2010
Photographs: Brett Boardman

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Hybrid Desk and Conference Table by Jovo Bozhinovski

Bulgarian designer Jovo Bozhinovski has created a hybrid desk and conference table for a construction company in Bulgaria.

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Description from Jovo Bozhinovski:

The project is created as per order of a construction company from Bulgaria. The assignment was to design an office, which to be different and remembered. Constructing the functions, which are necessary for one such space we found out the idea to make a hybrid between the desk of the manager of the company and a conference table, which he needs in order to organize meetings with clients, as well as the working meetings with its personnel. This piece of furniture  turned into an accent of this office and gave it a unique appearance.

Lead by the fact that the main activity of the company is construction, we have decided that we have to design a product, which to be clearly constructively built with a visible construction, a modern vision and innovation in the organizing of the working space. We have tried to embody the main principles of this construction company in a unique piece of furniture, which occupies a central place in this office and giving it unique appearance. This way we have created  this “working station”. Having in mind the hierarchy in a company we have decided to put it on a platform in order to obtain differentiation in the levels between the desk and the conference table, this way the manager of the company took a proper place in the centre and on idea higher than the others. We have used metal profiles of incorrosive steel in order to construct the frame and glasses with which to cover it. We have created one product, which besides with its appearance it impresses and with its construction.

We have designed it in such way, so it can allow us to carry 2/3 of this furniture in air, or said in other words 2,30m. stick out consolely in the air. We used adhesives for the main part in the platform – this way we obtained the necessary stability. Besides the huge sizes and the heavy construction the consolely pending part and the profile gilling have given a light appearance of this piece of furniture, obtaining a sensation that as if it is floating in the air.

Visit Jovo Bozhinovski’s website – here.

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Freefolded Paper Pendant Lamps by Andrew Ooi

At the 2011 Interior Design Show in Toronto, Canadian designer Andrew Ooi exhibited his freefolded paper pendant lamps.

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Visit Andrew Ooi’s website – here.

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North Bay Residence by Prentiss Architects

Prentiss Architects have sent us photos of the North Bay residence in Washington State.

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Visit the Prentiss Architects website – here.

Photography © Jay Goodrich

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