Dornob | Design Ideas Daily

Super Modern Passive Solar House With Bright Glass Walls

Posted: 18 Jul 2012 10:00 AM PDT

[ Filed under Green Homes & in the Architecture category ]

Passive solar design might sound like a complicated architectural technique, but it only takes common sense and a willingness to let nature guide a building’s design. The Otake House, designed by Japanese firm Suppose Design Office, is a perfect example of a home built with passive solar design principles.

The home embraces both indoors and outdoors, allowing for plenty of natural light and natural ventilation via its ideal positioning. The East and West facades were designed to capture the optimal amount of sunlight each and every day.

On the first floor, the kitchen and dining area occupy most of one side, while a giant bank of floor to ceiling windows take up the opposite side. The home’s green building principles allow for a reduced need for active heating and cooling systems.

The home’s second floor includes a massive outdoor terrace along with an overhanging eave that shelters occupants from the elements. Additional huge windows carry on the passive solar design by allowing plenty of natural sunlight into the second story.

With an exceptionally contemporary exterior and an Earth-friendly philosophy, the Otake House splits the difference between modern and traditional. The home sits on a hill overlooking mountains and industrial areas, emphasizing its existence in two worlds at once.

Keep Going - Check out this Great Related Dornob Article:

Spinning Solar-Powered Round House Rotates with the Sun

Modern ‘Garden House’: Living Green Walls Gone Wild

[ Filed under Green Homes & in the Architecture category ]

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Hacked IKEA Leaning Seat Idea Imitates Life, Art, Cartoons

Posted: 17 Jul 2012 04:00 PM PDT

[ Filed under Furniture & in the Chairs category ]

Ideas are iterative, as any designer knows. This one traces its roots back to (and perhaps beyond) an episode of The Simpsons and perhaps beyond, solving the timeless problem of people wanting to lean back in chairs, heedless of their own safety.

The Attitude Chair is a simple red chair from IKEA, adapted via an H-shaped swing-out support that provides a backstop before you tumble over backward while leaning on it.

This particular variant is by New Yorker Deger Cengiz, who states: “Attitude Chair is developed for teens with attitude; prevents falling when the chair is tipped back. The flip-support mechanism works with gravitational reflex principles.”