Located just steps away from the ocean shore, The Ettley residence was inspied by its landscape and reinterprets the relationship between solid and voids, a concept you can find in the field of arts: “The Aluminum and wood umbrella over the blue glass, which appear to be blocks of frozen blue Pacific ocean, juxtapose against the solid wood boxes giving an appearance of a modern seaside sculpture“. The house was designed by Californian-based architects Studio 9one2 and is a modern addition to the array of beach houses in the LA area. [...]

"Zaha Hadid's design was the only one besides Foster's to touch on the building's actual function as an office. Hadid's write-up for her 669-foot, 40-story project mentions its "openness, flexible design and technological efficiency." As for the design itself, Hadid calls it "a structure of timeless elegance, yet with a strong identity that reflects the complex and sophisticated age in which it was created and mirrors the exceptional setting in which it is placed. Our approach has been to unite the four fundamental qualities for the project — Function, Design, Culture and Value — and fuse them into a single seamless design which incorporates these characteristics in a harmonious and unified architectural concept." We prefer to think of the design with the moniker given to some of the rendering filenames: WHOOSH." by [Curbed NY] [...]

Rectangular volumes, a simple design line and a glossy interior. A one-of-a-kind home. This is how would I describe The Summit House, a residential project designed by Habitat Studio & Workshop in Edmonton, Canada. The house accommodates fine pieces of artwork, a wide relaxing terrace and a “recharge-your-batteries” type of back courtyard. The best thing about this house are definitely the views and the tranquil atmosphere. There’s a green turf in front and a few trees, guiding you towards the house’s entrance. [...]

Portland artist Eric Franklin (previously) just completed three new works, a trio of neon glass skulls lit internally by ionized neon, krypton, and mercury. The structure of each human skull is deviously complex, made from a network of glass tubes that have to be perfectly sealed to create the vacuum necessary to light them, a process that leaves the figures somewhat misshapen and admittedly a bit creepy. A completely amazing sort of creepy. All three artworks are currently available for acquisition through Chris Forney over at Artworks Gallery. [...]

Lev House is a reflection of a detailed work of architectural project in which it was decided to use a sober language through basic geometries that broke the constructive logic of the materials used. [...]

Hundreds of British women – including a Reverend, a local Councillor and a transgender – have had photos of their boobs taken to form part of an elaborate wallpaper designed to raise money for a breast cancer charity. A prudish (and brave) Katy Rink spills the beans on what it was like to bare all. [...]

Undoubtedly, good design improves the quality of life. When it comes to the place where we intend to grow old, the dream home we all crave for, we are pretentious and very picky. [...]

If artists, musicians and furniture designers Simon and Nikolai Haas feel they don't have a sufficient number of adjectives before their collective name, they can surely pick up a few this week at Design Miami/Basel. The Haas brothers' latest range of furnishings - launched in Basel by New York contemporary-design gallery R 20th Century - comes with a list of descriptives a mile long, and when viewed at once it casts a whole new light on the craftsmen. The new collection of reptilian brass tables and feral fur seating has a brutish quality that both attracts and repels. The brass coffee tables and stools employ the designers' groundbreaking hexagon-tile surface to unusual amorphous effect, creating a shape that appears to physically skulk. Combined with Plexiglas to form the 'Unique' lamp and shade, the hexagonal tiles take on a phallic quality that will shock and delight in equal measure - even among the cosmopolitan crowds at Basel. [...]