Offgrid In Normandy: How He Built This Modern A-Frame On A Budget

Mar 11, 2015

When you think of living off the grid, various images come to mind, and no doubt some of you envision grizzled people huddled together for warmth, living in some remote forest.

A Little Caesars commercial recently illustrated this in a funny way:

However, that’s not the most accurate portrayal of life off the grid. As Jean-Baptiste Barache demonstrated, building an offgrid house for cheap doesn’t mean you need to compromise living conditions. His A-frame barn, stationed in the middle of a field in Normandy, France, is a perfect example.

He paid a local barn builder to construct the rough frame, and then collected various salvaged materials from all over the place – lumber from theater sets, veneer and particleboard, and red cedar shingles for the exterior cladding. All said and done after 18 months of working on the build, he estimates it cost around $105k.

Going without electricity doesn’t mean forgoing power, but it does cast daily life in a much simpler mold. A gas canister fuels the simple stovetop in the kitchen; a homemade wood-burning stove diffuses heat through the house in a slow, steady burn.

The front of the barn looks decidedly antique…

While inside, the rough, unfinished walls and ceiling keep costs down. Upstairs you’ll find three “pods” for sleeping.

At night he and his wife light candles and oil lamps, and Jean-Baptiste refers to Junichiro Tanizaki’s “In Praise of Shadows” as a source of inspiration for living comfortably without electricity, noting the appreciation he has for the shadows cast by the flickering flames.

Images: Céline Clanet

An Old Barn Receives A Modern Facelift

Mar 30, 2015

An old barn in upstate New York proved an abundant source of modern inspiration for architect Kimberly Peck. On the exterior, little was done as far as architectural expression in order to preserve the traditional gabled roof form of the existing barn. The simple addition of three large sliding doors on one side open up the interior, which was the main focus of the renovation.

The old columns and beams have been left alone and remain the primary conceptual, providing a rustic framework for the secondary additions to adhere to. The result is a harmonious mixture of old and new, paying homage to the history of the barn while providing the comfort and functionality of a modern facelift.

Jaw-Dropping Views Await In This Stunning Copper-Clad Beach House

Mar 29, 2015

A breathtaking and vertigo-inducing 250 foot drop to the Pacific Ocean provides a daunting, yet beautiful backdrop for this modern beach house. The Buck Creek House, designed by California-based firm Fougeron Architecture, marries the sea with the surf through strategic openings that frame only the most jaw-dropping views.

The unique aesthetic of the home’s exterior make a fleeting attempt to steal your attention from the crystal blue water, but do so in vein. The back end of the home is largely opaque for purposes of privacy, and clad in shimmering copper panels that change throughout the day depending on the light. However, there is no containing the sea-side facade, which opens completely to pier over the looming shear cliff.

The interiors are clean, sleek, and do just what only what’s necessary to supplement the ocean views. High vaulted ceilings expand the spaces vertically, allowing light and air to flow through the home with elegant determination. This spectacular beach house has three bedrooms, a cantilevered master suite and a living room that opens to an adjacent exterior courtyard.

The Amazing “Ridge House” Glows Like A Lighthouse

May 13, 2015

Cape Cod is home to this two-story vacation home that breathes contemporary architectural life into age-old formal expressions. Massachusetts based Hammer Architects designed a house – aptly named the “Ridge House,” – that uses a towering gabled roof form to echo the traditional craftsman look, while juxtaposing a see-through interior that screams modernity. The entire second floor, which contains the main living spaces, is transparent, making the exposed roof appear as if it’s floating above almost completely unsupported. This effect is especially noticeable at night, when the interior glows like a Chinese lantern.

Originally, the client wished for a single-story floor plan, but the architects convinced them to stack the spaces to increase the dramatic effect of the roof. I’d say it worked. Traditional materials such as wood shingles are applied in new and interesting ways, again paying homage to historic building commonalities. Bedroom and service spaces occupy the lower floor, allowing the living, kitchen and dining spaces to sit above and enjoy sprawling views of the lush countryside.

The home is, arguably, best seen at night, when the massive glazed openings glow like a distant lighthouse. Many of which pepper the coast of Cape Cod.

An exterior deck hangs off the main living floor, allowing the interior spaces to spill out over the adjacent hill and providing an even more spectacular view of the surrounding countryside.

Everything on the interior is exposed. Here is a look at the open kitchen that looks directly at the dining and living areas. The floor plan is narrow, but efficient and plentiful.

Another look at the second floor. The interior partition wall is a post-modern play on traditional architecture style.

You Won’t Believe What One Woman Turned This Old Garage Into

Jun 11, 2015

Take a good look at this garage and think about what you see. Pretty ordinary, run-of-the-mill, single door car hole, right?

Wrong.

Contained within that beat up, outdated, poorly painted relic of a structure lives one woman’s inspiration, and the potential to become her dream home. What she transformed that garage into is nothing short of incredible. Take a look.
Meet Michelle de la Vega of Seattle, Washington. Artist, designer, welder and visionary. Michelle put her creative inclinations to extraordinary use when designing and building this 250 square foot sanctuary. Many home-grown renovations have a tendency to look…well…amateur. Not this abode. The details and finishes were planned with meticulous and professional method, resulting in a clean, well-organized space. It may not look like your traditional kitchen, but it’s full of character and charm. The tiny home boasts a full bathroom, living/dining space, and lofted bed area in addition to this modest kitchen. Not bad for 250 SF. The fireplace is a central feature and adds a touch of rustic flair, accompanied by Michelle’s own art work! The bathroom is highlighted by a large soaking tub and an abundance of natural light thanks to the appropriately placed skylight above. Michelle certainly has a knack for finding beauty in discarded items. After transforming a decrepit shell of an old garage into this incredible home, she filled it with up-cycled furniture like this weathered storage locker.

If you’d like to know more about Michelle and her artwork, follow this link: Michelle de la Vega.

Sleek Forest Home Where The Forest Is Actually In The Home

Jun 19, 2015

Building a home often means flattening the plot of land set to be developed, effectively destroying what made the site interesting in the first place. However, when trying to design something truly beautiful we find that architecture can only be as good as the land it embraces.

Meet the Casa Corallo by Guatemalan based architecture firm Paz Arquitectura. Rather than uprooting the trees that natively inhabited the building site, they literally designed the home around the natural vegetation. Towering trees flank, loom, and even pierce through the home in a way that blends existing and new in elegant symbiosis.
Two trees frame the entry of the mostly concrete home. The harsh material was used to provide ironic contrast between natural and man-made. The home spill down the natural slope of the hillside as a stone path melts together with low brush. The interiors are highlighted by tree trunks that climb up through the floors. In many cases, the location of the trees dictated the spatial organization.

While the home is large and imposing, the choice to involve the trees so prominently in the design speaks to the sensitivity the architect had towards the land.

This Cabin Is Missing Something All Buildings Have, And It Rocks Because Of It

Jun 6, 2015

Who needs doors, right? That’s exactly what Nat Cheshire of Cheshire Architects said when he designed this pair of isolated structures off the coast of New Zealand. The cabins are completely open air and can be entered via a large square opening that steps you down into the main living area. The interiors are simple and clean, utilizing the warmth of native wood to tie the spaces to the adjacent landscape.

There is modesty and serenity in the way the buildings are anchored to the hillside. A quick glance would make them seem as if they were dark boulders jutting up and out of the grassy plains that carpet the surrounding countryside. They become a part of the iconic terrain rather than fight to visually overpower it. This harmony is echoed by the openness that results from having no doors. Protection might be limited, but the visceral experience is not.

A Subterranean Home For The Modern Hobbit

Apr 6, 2015

Many buildings attempt to establish a sense of place, a sort of integration with surroundings, but this home by Santiago Viale literally becomes the place; an extended appendage of Mother Nature herself. Worn stone walls and a series of green roofs help reinforce the connection to the site. They also act as natural insulators along with the surrounding earth.

The House in Q2 is a subterranean dream home that takes advantage of a sloping site to create interior space that is sustainably protected and emotionally visceral. The home emerges as a flat plane that appears sliced into the landscape and becoming a part of the natural aesthetic.

The home opens up at the bottom of the hill as large sliding doors extend the interiors to the sprawling valley beyond. The kitchen and living areas join the master bedroom at the open end of the home and are given the most generous space, views, and cross-ventilation for passive cooling.

Insanely Smart 309sf Apartment Transforms Into Gym, Theater, & Much More!

Apr 23, 2016

Hong Kong couple Andy and Michelle had a decision to make: should they purchase a larger apartment, or renovate the 309 square foot apartment they already had in a location they both loved? They had a long list of things they wanted that seemed unrealistic in the beginning: a full kitchen and bathroom, home theater, gym, storage, and it had to be cat-friendly (the couple owns three cats: Banoffee, Dumpling, and Tuxedo). – In a stroke of luck, Andy and Michelle stumbled upon design house LAAB, who, after 40 design attempts, came up with a way to make those seemingly-unrealistic requirements a feasible and chic reality.

A few dreary photos of Andy and Michelle's apartment pre-renovation. — A few dreary photos of Andy and Michelle’s apartment pre-renovation.

The team at LAAB ultimately came up with the idea to design the apartment around the “Form Follows Time” philosophy. This philosophy means that various spaces of the apartment, such as the bathtub in the full bathroom, can be opened or closed depending on what space you need whenever you need it. The bathtub can be covered up and used as a couch for the home movie theater, and later on it can be used as a guest bed in the guest bedroom!

The floor plans for LAAB's design for Andy and Michelle using the "Form Follows Time" philosophy. — The floor plans for LAAB’s design for Andy and Michelle using the “Form Follows Time” philosophy.

Special design elements for Andy and Michelle’s cats include a “cat walk” around the ceiling, a hidden litter box beneath the bathroom sink, cat food trays that can slide into the kitchen cabinets, and even a special den just for them. The materials, details, and mechanical systems were all designed with keeping the apartment dry, cleanable, free of undesirable smells, and all-around cat-friendly. The video below showcases Andy and Michelle, their revitalized apartment, and, of course, their cats.

Photos LAAB Design

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Diamond Shaped Dune House Appears Sunken Into The Earth

May 1, 2015

The Dune house looks half-buried in the earth, a striking sight on the island of Terschelling in the Netherlands. The unusual design comes courtesy of Marc Koehler Architects, and its diamond shape delivers a most unsual perspective of the surrounding plains and the distant North Sea.

Inside the home you’ll find a layout that mimicks the name, creating a sense of wandering a dune as you traverse the various levels. Regardless of where you are, plenty of windows illuminate the shapes and angles inside with a dazzling light. A variety of sustainable elements went into the build, including prefab wood, solar panels, and a biomass fireplace.

Photography: Marc Koehler Architects