Back To Stockholm

Swedish, they sure have style in designing their homes. I don’t understand why we always go back to Sweden when we talk about architecture or interior design. Stockholm is definitely not the same with New York, but it can be the NYC of pretty apartments, buildings, and lofts. I just found this home (I think it’s an apartment, but no further information in this case) in Skeppsholmen, Stockholm, Sweden. No, I have never been to Sweden. I found it on the internet.

Quite miserable.

Anyway, the ‘home’ combines both traditional industrial era style with classic modern white. White has taken over Sweden’s homes in such calm ways. Everyone there seems to have a white colored home with bold decorations. Well, at least every Swedish on the internet….uh, more like every Swedish in my favorite home design websites.

The ‘home’ has three bedrooms, large clean modern kitchen (I knowwww… take-away lovers are rolling their eyes at this point), and of course a cozy playful living room with big big windows absorbing the sunlight (means you can sleep around all day without having to worry about not getting enough sunlight). There, I just blasted my own record of using-too-many-different-adjectives-to-describe-one-thing. I feel goooddd…

If you are interested (I know you are), I think you should head over to the nearest travel agent, buy a ticket to Stockholm (Skeppsholmen!), and go find the owner. Maybe you should learn Swedish a little, just to get more sympathy. Well, don’t blame my lack-of-information. I can’t find anything related to this home. But I know it’s there, waiting for the right owner to come and enjoy the bright colorful cozy beautiful inspiring magnificent awesome calming ‘home’.

(Am I a retarded internet person now?)(He he.. retarded)

Images taken from Fresh Home. Edited by Gimme Good Style.

Stack Me In

When I was in Japan two years ago, I was standing in the middle of downtown Tokyo and thought to myself; How can they live like this? Those Japanese are so hardworking and strong and live in such a small space called apartment. Honestly, I can’t stand the thought of living in such a small stacked building. I’m sure, I am going to have at least one nervous breakdown or a lot of homesick moments.

Time to look for  a real solution, which I can’t really find (real estate world? Not good), but there is this one thing that looks like a viable answer. Okay, actually I think I have heard about this one before in one of many articles I have been gathering from the internet like a total freak, but again just to be save, I am going to give it to you.

A stacked house.

Please don’t imagine a dirty, grimy stack house with mafias waiting around the front door, bringing marijuana and hiding their guns. Ah, no (even though I would love to make a movie about that). What I mean by stacked house is the one designed by Tetsuo Kondo Architects and located in Chayagaska, a growing urban area in Japan, where mafias never really understand where to head out for drinks (or kills).

The house looks pretty much like a clean concept of the future. Three metal boxes piled carefully, shaping a modern yet warm space. Sliding glass doors, gigantic windows, minimalist walls, and clean floors give the house a stylish edge, while the owners can lay their heads in ease, enjoying patches of sun lights and fresh airs. Such a healthy way to live!

For those of you who are really concern about what others will think when they see you living in a stacked house… well, don’t worry. Even though it is indeed built by three giant metal boxes, it looks more like a new, solid home for small family. The boxes shapes add even more artistic sides. Instead making people talk endlessly about the-ones-who-live-in-boxes, you are going to make people turn green with envy and contact the nearest architect office.

I haven’t heard anything about the price. And, yeah, I know it is expensive (it’s more like a prototype I guess), but you know.. it’s better than nothing at all.

Images taken from Decoist

World Building of the Year

Architecture is always become a part of art world. Therefore, I can say that it’s really hard to impress people. Not just for architects, but also for commoners. Okay, have you ever experienced the feeling when you show someone (mostly family-tourist) your favorite building and they’re just nod then say that it is not really beautiful?

Well, yeah, if you haven’t, you will.

That’s why when people were talking about World Building of the Year award which took place in Singapore a few weeks ago, I was sceptical. I thought it was like one of those contests when you feel definitely smarter than those assholes in the jury box and that finalist should’ve won.

Fortunately, it wasn’t. All the contestants are good. Who am I kidding? They’re like bunch of super talented architects (and indeed they are) stuck into one huge internet page. It is just too big to look at. And all those personal opinions were gone. Okay, maybe not really gone because when those jurors said The Auckland Art Gallery, by Australian studio Frances-Jones Morehen Thorp won, I was a bit mortified. Damn, I thought Emporia Mall was the winner.

I learn a thing or two though. Now, I can conclude what it takes to be a famous architect (or interior designer), it’s not about the concept of the building or how to use advanced technologies. Nah, those are old ideas. One thing that can make you a winner in this super-personal world is the ability to charm people and make them think as one single absolute voice.

And that voice should say: beautiful.

Images taken from Azure Magazine. Edited by Gimme Good Style

The headquarters for Statoil in Norway by a-lab

The central courtyard at the Concrete-designed CitizenM hotel in London

The gaping gold Emporia shopping mall in Sweden by Wingardh Arkitektkontor

Mecanoo’s structure for Fontys Sports College in Eindhoven

Emre Arolat Architects’ subterranean Sancaklar mosque outside of Istanbul

Wilkinson Eyre’s undulating canopy for the University of Exeter in the U.K

The Blue Planet aquarium in Denmark by 3XN

Perkins + Will’s hospital tower for Rush University Medical Center in Chicago

Sharon Davis Design’s Women’s Opportunity Center in Kigali, Rwanda. Photo by Elizabeth Felicella

auckland art gallery

A Vibrant Apartment

We’ve talked about Stockholm (many many many many many times), we’ve gone far far away to Malaysia (not too far for me though! Ha!) and we’ve definitely gone to New York several times (are you crazy, not to talk about New York?!) But we have never EVER came across Budapest for a little while. I don’t know why actually. Maybe it’s just me or it’s the internet (nope, it’s me!), but, for me, Budapest never really had any interesting apartment or building to talk about… until recently. To make things clearer, let’s head to Csorba Anita’s latest project. A home for a young couple. Duh, I miss the word ‘couple’!

Csorba is an interior designer who lives in Budapest and she just succeed making a mere 100 square meters area into a wonderful, vibrant, colorful apartment which I instantly love. One thing I really like about her work is the custom made TV wall, which makes the whole apartment looks chic yet still unique. Plus, you can always give a touch of pride when people ask you where do you get that ‘amazing’ TV wall (CUSTOM MADE, DAH-LING!)

It’s refreshing to see some real colors being used in apartment, lately everything seems to be too Sweden-style. A lot of white and touches of bold colors. Pleaseeee…. time to get up and just fall right into whirlpools of colors (and ended up like one of Csorba Anita’s projects, if you are lucky. Or have a good interior designer).

Taken from Fresh Home

Let’s Play Inside The House!

Having the idea of owning our own slides inside our homes is like having the idea of owning an elephant. It’s not really impossible (Harrods once bought an elephant for a guy in less than 24 hours. I really think the guy is either crazy or super rich… or both), but it’s somehow seems extremely abstract and out of the world. Hell, even out of the space. Slides are usually identical with kids, playground, huge empty grassland and not what you really want inside the house. But let’s stop for awhile and think outside the box. Slide is not only used for child’s play (ugh, child’s play… I sound like Chucky now), it is also possible to be used as an easy transport device from one level to another.

Remember that childhood movie when the main actor (possibly Peter Pan) just slides from the highest level of some random tree houses straight to the bottom? The concept is similar with no use of songs and random, awkward dancing between each level (seriously, I can’t believe I used to DANCE TOGETHER awkwardly like that too. No no no…)(That’s one of Disney’s powers actually.)

Anyway, with this concept, there are already several famous houses and buildings that have real slides inside their buildings, either as a really cute-and-easy transport device from one floor to another (check out Red Bull HQ office in London, UK by Jump-Studios) or just as a mini (okay, gigantic) toy for the kids (Rainbow House by Ab Rogers Design (featured image above.)) Imagine when rain comes and there is nothing to do in the house except… oh, we can play with our private gigantic slides!

I envy those lucky bastards… A LOT.

Well, like usual, I praise the creativity, popping craziness and somehow childish (but cool) ideas of those architects and home decorators. I don’t know why, but this bizarre idea just never came up from my head! So do you, right? Huh, this reminds me of how competitive and creative the world out there is (or how uncreative I am….)(okay, that’s a depressing thought.) Oh, forget it! Let’s drop our paperworks and go play the slide… inside the house this time!!

Images taken from Architizer (click the image to see who built and what is the name of the amazing house/buildings.) 

To The Happy Living Room

There are a lot of things to make you feel happy and decorating your living room (messy living room) is one of those ways. I am not an interior designer and don’t really know how to set the lightning/chairs/sofas/tables/coffee table/kitchen set/tea set to form a beautiful Elle Decor-like living room, but you can say that I know a thing or two about beautiful home. Maybe because I am dying to have one (this is also the reason why I like to blog about cool houses so much!).

First, light-y white is the new babe. I once read somewhere in a magazine that white makes people become more creative. Somehow, the color stimulates the brain to create something from the abyss. Sounds cool. Why don’t we put some white walls to enlighten our guests’ brains -and us?

Second, time to add colors. Only highly experienced decorator can pull off an all-white-clean look, and let’s be bold here: I am not a decorator. Just take it easy with touches of brave colors (or maybe even a color blocking!) to cheer the atmosphere. Read sofa sounds like fun!

Third, there goes the accessories. Mirror. Remember when we go mirror shopping? Now is the right time for you to go and buy one for yourself. One or two accessories for your living room is not a bad thing. Just don’t limit your imagination, mirror is not the only home-accessory. Pillows? Fake flowers (try to get some fresh-flower-lessons from Park and Cube’s blog. She likes to buy fresh flowers from her home and she does it amazingly)(E.N.V.Y)? Black and white photos of old New York (it doesn’t have to be New York though, just some popular cities that we all know)?

Fourth, we need real lamps. Yellowish lamp is not my thing. My idea of lightning is bright, white, elegant and not-romantic-shitty-thing. Your guests like to be entertained in bright living room, not a romantic-look-like-a-private-room kinda thing. Don’t make them think we are something that we’re not. But you can go all romantic for bedrooms and other uh…private spaces. It will be better, if you have giant windows with forest/garden views which invite natural lights to come in and give that fresh energy. Classy!

Fifth, homemade cookies. This can be the most important step. Delicious homemade cookies can change a dirty, gloomy, no color, scary living room into a small heaven for me-and-you. Martha Stewart? Anna Olson? We need your helps-and-easy-steps now!

P.S: Extra steps: hire a cleaner (or you can take back-pain-risk by cleaning your own home), don’t be lazy to look for new home-accessories (vintage store can be a cheap alternative yet still gives cool items to dig for), and smile smile smile , when your friends decided to give some room-to-room inspections, no matter how shitty they are (ups!).

Taken from House Beautiful

No Air Conditioning Needed!

Hello summer, I really hate you and I wish I can have winter all year and sun is just a strange concept that we all unfamiliar with. But you are right here, blazing with intense heat and beauty that I won’t talk about. My defense from you is sitting in an air conditioning room and forget the world out there. Well, life’s in my ice box.

Though some people are lucky enough to have a great home that requires no air conditioner. Wow, the concept of living through the summer without having a single air conditioner inside the house is really strange for me. Even stranger than no-summer-in-a-year concept. I guess these people have the right environment and natural resources to do this thing.

There is this house made with the cave concept, which enables natural humidity to cool down the temperature inside the house (Chair House by Igor Sirotov Architect), and there is this one house made with such precision you can literally put trees inside the house (Hayes Residence by Travis Price). And don’t make me talk about BCHO Earth House by BCHO Architects, which is built inside the earth. Yeah, how cool is that?

Sadly, these kind of houses aren’t available in Jakarta, the city where summer rules 365 days in year and electricity bill is sky-rocketing every month. Hmm, forget about building an underground bunker or tree-inside-a-house thing. The only things I need are new (more powerful!) air conditioners, lightning and ice creams. Lots of ice creams.

Taken from Architizer

55 Blair Road by Silver+Ong

Hayes Residence by Travis Price Architects

OutsideIN Hose by Fernanda Vuilleumier Arquitectura

Sagburg by contexture studio

BCHO Earth House by BCHO Architects Associates

Passivhaus Vogel by Diethelm & Spillmann Architects

Tower House by Andersson Wise Architects

House in Yoro by Airhouse Design Office

Axis Administration by Krishna Chaitanya Dommu

Croft House

I would die, if there is a house cooler than this one. I would die in vain, knowing how slight my chance is to step on one of these houses. Damn it. Damn me. I am trying to stop the jealousy here everyone. Croft House is located in South Coast of Victoria near Inverloch, Australia is an embodiment of house-and-elements concept. The point is to make a house that is able to represent the nature elements and becomes one with them.

Ehm, this house looks more like an Alien spaceship than nature to me. But anything looks like Alien these days. I am not good at math, but I can tell you that this Croft House is based on one of those geometrical shapes. The curve is perfect, the glossiness of the walls (roofs? outer parts?) is killing me and don’t even get me started on the lightning.

The room looks quite small for me though, maybe because I am a giant. Whatever. Maybe because the owner asked a home that is able to merge with the natural environment, not just stand there stiffly and looks uglier from year to year. Well, in that case, James Stockwell (the architect) really succeed in fulfilling his client needs. I am thinking about hiring this guy one day to build my home, I want a cool, glossy, alien-like (don’t judge me) house with minimal budgets and no price that would kill me or makes me sell my kidneys, arms, or legs.

Pfft, money money money.

Taken from Contemporist

Creative Office From Old Flat

I always find this kind of article in architecture magazines, about people who brag about turning old something into a brand new something, but actually the only thing they do is buy new accessories from IKEA and hire a decorator. And the result is always not that amazing for me. It’s like staring into a lost-and-found box, nothing is new and everything is mixed up together like trying to cover up the fact that they’re all lost items. Oh, I am such a mood-killer (and article-killer), I should have said that not all of those articles are written in that silly step-by-step way. Some of them are actually really good and quite inspirational for people who like architecture or just trying to magically changed their homes for good (no such luck, it’s better to hire a good decorator as soon as possible) (I know what you are capable of….). Anyway, I am trying to say that makeover can be cool sometimes, especially when you do it in your office.

And we are talking about total makeover, just like what plusminusarchitects did for this office in Bratislava (where the hell is Bratislava?). The budget for this renovation is said to be around 7500 Euros, I am no expert at counting how much a building cost (in country like Indonesia, a small house can trickly cost around 1 to 2 million rupiahs, yet the price can change out of the blue according to your relations, nationalities, families and other ‘extra’ factors), but I am sure 7500 euros is not a really huge budget to build a decent office.

The flat was built in 1928 by Otakar Nekvasil as a ‘housing block’ (I guess that’s the old way to say ‘trendy apartment’) before it was transformed into a creative design studio.  The concept was to minimize the furnitures, you can see that they keep the original wood ceiling and brick walls and only added huge blackboard to do sketches, doodles and only God-and-designers know what kind of things.  I like the fact that the office is so open and spacey with a little bit touch of vintage without having to be all old and creepy. And I usually hate wooden floors and chipboards because they can look cheap and dirty. But I guess my furniture taste is also getting a little bit makeover.

Taken from Fresh Home

RE Cafe And Dining Bar

RE seems to be not a really good name in my opinion. It’s simple, but sounds unfinished. I keep imagining this conversation in my head: Let’s meet at re…./ What?/ Re!/ Huh, re-what?/ Just Re! That bar a block from here!/ Oh, that re..! Anyway, it’s not my business to comment on bar’s names (isn’t it rude?) (okay, according to my friend, Wikipedia, RE is usually used in Greek to end many expressions like surprises etc etc), but it is my business to comment on how it looks and what kind of things you can find there, at RE….

Designed by Minas Kosmidis, first thing I notice from the picture is the size of the bar, it’s not the biggest bar I’ve ever seen. In fact, it looks so small you can almost miss it, if you don’t pay enough attention. The interior looks much more interesting though, the moment you enter the door, you are greeted by dozens of old album covers, hanging on the ceilings, world map on the back of the bar decorated with tiny little airplanes and cars, cute photos in different frame sizes with different things to tell, and other little accessories that all mixed and blurred into one, solid cozy atmosphere.

The bar is divided onto two floors. First floor for the main bar, you know the place for all travelers to hang out and drink good beers or whatever drink you can afford (I can only afford cold water and ice creams. I am such a drinkers’ shame). Second floor is for more private part. No, don’t be a pervert and think about ‘dirty’ activities. Maybe it’s for private parties etc etc.

One thing that I find really interesting is decorated windows with words that begin with RE…. Just like what I’ve said before, even in English (which has a lot of not-really-beautiful-sound words) Re seems to be unfinished name for a bar…or for anything. I can spot words like REBOOT, REANALYZED, REFLECT, RECIPIENT and much more along with their descriptions. I guess the owner is either a big fan of Thesaurus or trying to explain the versatility of the bar’s name. I guess both of purposes are futile because when you are drunk….Re seems to be just a good word to go. The bar is located at the pedestrian of Iktinou in Thessaloniki, Greece. Wow, with that name as address, I guess it’s a really good reason to have a simple name for your bar.

Taken from Contemporist