5 Reasons The Legoland Hotel Is The best Vacation Option For Families

May 28, 2015

Have you ever wondered which hotel would be best for a family vacation with your two young children? The search is over. Just recently the much anticipated Legoland Hotel opened. The structure sits in Winter Haven, Florida and is styled to look like legos.

Let’s step inside, shall we?

“From the minute you walk into Legoland Hotel, you can see it’s totally designed and built for kids,” said Legoland spokesperson Julie Estrada.

The hotel includes 2000 hand built Lego items, like a massive grunt guarding the moat, waiting about to smash you.

You can eat at Bricks Family Restaurant, where everyone can enjoy a healthy and fresh meal.

Enroll the kids in a “Master Brick Building” and head to the pool to sip a cocktail.

Vibrant scenes like this won’t leave your kid wanting for imagination or claiming they’re “bored”.

Just check out the bed! The kiddos won’t have any trouble hopping in there around bedtime.

They have boys and girls options so there’s no arguing over who gets which.

Did we mention cocktails under the sun?

Can’t you summon your inner child and go floating on a lego block?

5 Incredible Buildings That Can’t Seem To Sit Still

Mar 16, 2015

1Sliding House by DRMM

Photos © Alex de Rijke / GIF by Gasoline Station

In a stroke of architectural imagination and mechanical ingenuity, this seemingly ordinary home pulls itself apart revealing a secondary structure and creating a covered indoor/outdoor space. The 20-ton outer wood shell moves along two tracks via electric motors and can be stopped at different locations to configure varying degrees of opacity.

2Shapeshifting Sharifi-Ha House by Nextoffice

Each of the three floors of this home in Tehran, Iran have rotating volumes that open the spaces to views and light. With the simple push of a button, the spaces swing out and cantilever over the street below. The concept balances the desire for natural light and the regional necessity of protection and privacy.

3M-Velope Transformer House

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This tiny temporary structure made of hinged wood-slatted walls has the ability to completely open itself up creating a much larger covered footprint. While not technically a home, the structure presents a conceptual prototype that can be applied to adaptive facades in larger scale applications.

4Eskenazi Hospital, Indianapolis by Urbana Architecture

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Las Angeles based firm Urbana Architecture has designed an adaptive facade that transforms user experience based on proximity, position and pace of movement, pointing to a much larger shift in urban transformation. The facade is fixed with thousands of tiny bi-chromatic metal fins that rotate on vertical rods, resulting in a dynamic skin that is constantly changing

5Cafe-Restaurant OPEN, by de Architekten Cie

Each of the glazed vertical sections of this sea-side restaurant in Amsterdam hinges in accordion-like fashion, creating an undulating facade that appears to be flowing with the ocean breeze.

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Images © Rob Hoekstra

63.02° House Takes A Turn On Japanese Modernism

Mar 19, 2015

This stark, utilitarian home in Nakana, Tokyo gets its geometric namesake from the angle it takes to the adjacent street: 63.02°. All windows and doors, including the main entry, are concentrated outward from the angled facade that is prominently exposed as if sliced clean like a hot samurai sword through miso.

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The abundance of exposed concrete – both interior and exterior – is common in contemporary Japanese architecture and gives the structure a juxtaposing visual heaviness that is offset by the delicately revealed curtain wall. Interiors are minimal and subdued, drawing further attention to the primary focal point that is the angled facade. The home was designed by Schemata Architecture Office.

Incredible Hobbit Home Sculpted By A 1960’s Hurricane

Mar 27, 2015

If Bilbo Baggins lived in the 21st century and had an architectural inclination for clean lines and subdued interiors, he would be right at home in this modern subterranean dwelling. The unique duplex was built upon a foundation that was caused by high off-shore hurricane winds back in the 1960’s. Rather than build up upon the dune, the property owner (who happened to also be architect William Morgan) decided the best course of action was to carve into the mound, exploiting the space below the earth.

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Large circular openings bring in natural light and expose spectacular ocean views. The organic forms and curvilinear nature of the structure is consciously juxtaposed to the strict, rigid treatment of the interior build-out. It’s an interesting and obvious statement about man vs. nature, and how we symbiotically shape each others environments.

This Triangular Summer Escape Was Built From Salvaged Material

Mar 10, 2015

Swedish architect Leo Qvarsebo has built a geometrically inspired home out of mostly salvaged materials that was initially envisioned as a “tree house for adults.” The triangular shape results in a sloping facade that opens out to Sweden’s county side and even doubles as a recreational climbing wall! On the inside, a series of overlapping spaces create interesting nooks and an abundance of modern charm. Large south-facing openings bring in plenty of light and exploit the sprawling views offered by the landscape.

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The interior boasts finished birch plywood panels that were salvaged from an old puzzle factory, adding to the story of the summer home’s conception and construction. The application of material reinforces the playful character of the form and function of the spaces themselves.