Dornob | Design Ideas Daily

Concrete Cavern Home is a Modern Monolith in the City

Posted: 21 Mar 2012 09:00 AM PDT

[ Filed under Ultramodern & in the Architecture category ]

Among the traditional houses and run-of-the-mill apartment towers in Abiko, Japan sits a concrete monolith. Its angular facade is reminiscent of a massive sculpture, but this unusual object is actually a single-family home.

Designed by Fuse-Atelier, the Abiko House is a mere 80 square meters. The home sits on soft ground that necessitated the use of stakes to support its weight.

The residents of the impressive home wanted a distinctive building that was bathed in natural light on the inside. This is achieved partially with the massive window on the front protrusion.

This protrusion houses the living and dining rooms which are accessible via a floating staircase. Although this is the type of staircase you wouldn’t want small children to use, it reinforces the airy, open feeling of the home’s interior.

Soaring above the streets, the home somewhat resembles a gigantic concrete periscope. The large front window is at such a height and position that neighbors and passers-by are prevented from seeing in.

The heaviness of the concrete that comprises the home is perfectly offset by the home’s airy minimalist interior. But we have to imagine the echoes and dampness that would plague a cavernous concrete house might drive the residents to distraction.

Concrete Home Shows Design is in the (Absence of) Details

Skinny Little Mini-Home Has an Even-Smaller House Inside!

[ Filed under Ultramodern & in the Architecture category ]

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Deconstructing Greek Revival: Strange Mixed-Style Shelving

Posted: 20 Mar 2012 03:00 PM PDT

[ Filed under Storage & Shelves & in the Furniture category ]

Outside of some mass-produced exceptions at stores like Restoration Hardware, new designers are rarely bold enough these days to reprise styles associated with ancient Rome and Greece.

Postmodernism did so with reckless abandon, but Elizabeth Coffey tempers her own use Neo-Classical (as well as Arts and Crafts and other) sources with a kind of minimalist Deconstructivism – slicing columns in neat sections and separating them with sleek black shelves.