Tag: modern

Fine Pine Design: Modern Wooden Desk with a Charred Black Exterior

Posted on by Jeff Easterling

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Taking inspiration from the beautiful simplicity of pine and its ability to be adapted to modern aesthetics, Note Design Studio teamed up with cabinet maker Karolina Stenfelt to create a minimalist desk that meets the needs of today’s architects and designers. A slim pine box perched on a steel frame, the desk features layers of veneer laid out in a fish bone pattern and charred to a pitch black finish on the outside.

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This veneer is paired with pine lumber to create a work surface and storage system full of unexpected details. Flip open the top to access the smooth herringbone desktop, bordered on one side with a built-in brass ruler. On the other side, USB and power outlets make it easy to keep your laptop, phone and other gadgets charged while you work.

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Nesting drawers slide open to reveal subdivided storage space for pens and small objects, and when the desk is closed, a custom-made brass lock secures its contents. Charring the exterior was a bit of an experiment, the designers reveal; “Pine is a rather soft material and the charring was hopefully going to give the wood a hardened surface,” they say. “There is no approved technique for charring pine veneer and especially nothing proven to create and conform to the intricate intarsia pattern that covers the desk.”

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Looks like the experiment paid off – the way the blackened exterior contrasts with the golden pine interior really sets off the creaminess of the wood and the pattern of the veneer.

White Pine, Swiss Mountain Style: Modern Cliffside Home with a View

Posted on by Jeff Easterling

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White pine goes modern for a simple cliffside residence in the mountains of Weinfelden, Switzerland by the firm K_M_architektur. Situated on a sloped plot overlooking the town, with distant views of the Austrian Alps, the house consists of several stacked pine-clad boxes in an arrangement that almost seems to cascade down the hillside, creating a series of rooftop terraces. Facing south to open it to the stunning scenery, the home features lots of glass and indoor/outdoor space, with a private suite on the upper floor.

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The architects chose white pine for its minimalist appeal, set off by black and white furniture and interior wall finishes. Not only is it used for the exterior cladding, it’s carried into the home as the primary floor and ceiling material. The strong horizontal lines of the beams carry through from the terraces to the enclosed common spaces, making them feel like one big space. Sliding glass doors enhance the effect.

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Unusual for an alpine home, the stacked box design offsets each level to maximize space and take in as much sunlight as possible for natural heating. The white pine finish outside the house will be allowed to weather with time, fading to a silvery grey that mimics the shade of the mist-enshrouded mountain peaks.

Cozy Australian Beach House Features All Pine Plywood Interiors

Posted on by Jeff Easterling

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Continuing the trend of plywood as a minimalist finishing material for interior surfaces, this gorgeous beach house overlooking Bass Strait in Victoria, Australia has a modern rustic feel, with wood grain as its main visual focus. Set along the region’s famed Great Ocean Road, this single-story house by ITN Architects is made to stand up to the harsh coastal conditions while taking in the beautiful scenery from every room. Clad on the outside with silver top ash and rusted steel, the residence really shines once you step inside to take in all that lovely pine ply.

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A spine shelving wall runs the entire length of the house, not only providing lots of space for books and objects but also framing art and photography. Strategically placed doors on some areas of the shelving offer a way to hide clutter, so the residents can show off their most display-worthy belongings. The unfinished plywood continues as the sole wall finish through the hallways and into the bedrooms, creating a cohesive flow to the space.

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All that plywood is complemented by more and more wood in similar tones, including the wide-plank flooring, exposed ceiling beams and a simple farmhouse dining table. Other than the furniture, all there is to break up the expanses of wood surfaces are floor-to-ceiling glass walls taking in the dramatic scenery.

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Home to both a writer and a surfer as well as their three adult children, this home is both a casual beach house in an updated modern style and a refuge from the elements year-round, with the living room elevated on stilts to gaze out over the treetops.

Wooden Wonders: You’ve Never Seen a Staircase Quite Like This

Posted on by Jeff Easterling

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This shockingly beautiful staircase stands as a sculptural centerpiece within the Atrium office tower in Tel Aviv, Israel, with spiraling steps leading up to a tornado-shaped deck. Designed by architect Oded Halaf and built by Tomer Gelfand, the structure is not just a work of art in its unusual shape, it’s an example of how high-tech design and traditional woodworking can come together for modern usage.

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29,527 feet of raw poplar were cut using a CNC machine to form a series of arches, which were assembled on-site into the final shape. Navigating it isn’t meant to be as simple as taking a functional set of stairs to get from one level of a building to the next; it’s an experience in itself, taking in the whole structure from a new angle with every step.

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The firm Tomer Gelfland uses advanced design and simulation software to create digital models that calculate exactly how much wood is needed, and the precise angles at which it will need to be cut and assembled. This information is fed to the CNC machine to make the cuts, but the wood is finished by hand. You can view the construction and assembly process at the firm’s website. 

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This gorgeous project is just a peek into the future of wood as a sustainable, durable and incredibly versatile material that will be increasingly utilized in ultramodern settings.

Eagle Pond House: A Modern Green Cabin Lined with Eastern White Pine

Posted on by Jeff Easterling

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Two architectural designers have modernized the classic rural New Hampshire home, building their own residence from wood cut down on their own property and locally sourced Eastern White Pine. Working on a tight budget with sustainability and a chic industrial-rustic hybrid aesthetic as their goal, the couple built nearly everything from hand, including the kitchen cabinetry, and achieved Energy Star certification.

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The interior of the home is lined with Eastern White Pine finished with Monocoat white oil, from the wide-open living room with its wood stove focal point to the spa-like bathroom with all of its built-in storage. They call the kitchen ceiling an experiment, but the way the slats screen the lighting creates an unusual effect that highlights the beauty of the wood, creating dynamic lines that stretch across the space.

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Large sliding Eastern White Pine doors with hanging storage on their backs enclose lots of shelving in the master bedroom closet. Among the most visually interesting features is the slats that screen off the stairs in the living room, but don’t completely enclose them, helping the space feel larger and providing a place to hang a television.

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Eco-friendly features include a rooftop solar array, heat recovery ventilation system and a heat-pump hot water system. The couple has documented the entire building process on their blog, and note that “Every new home should be seeking Energy Star Certification. As long as your not cutting corners, meeting the requirements is easy and the amount of documentation needed is minimal as compared to other certifications such as LEED. And compared to other certification programs, Energy Star pays you and not the other way around.”

Images via Eagle Pond House and Dwell.

Wood Innovations: Beautiful Uses for Textile-Like Timber Skin

Posted on by Jeff Easterling

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What would you create with a flexible wooden material that can be wrapped around objects or manipulated into shape like a piece of fabric? The faceted panels of ‘wood skin,’ a composite material that’s redefining the possibilities of wood, enable it to bend and fold in extraordinary ways. Applied to a textile backing, the geometric pieces of wood in various shapes and sizes hinge at desired points for virtually limitless applications.

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Created by a design team in Milan using specially-created software, the revolutionary material creates a high-end modern aesthetic, whether it’s applied to surfaces or bunched up into sculptural ceiling installations or freestanding structures. The design enables vertical and horizontal 3D surfaces, volumes and panels.

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The multi-toned walls at Dubai’s Reign Restaurant are particularly stunning, showing the material in action as partition walls, curtains and cladding. There’s also an acoustic version called ‘sound-skin’, shown here at the On-House Home Theatre in Milan.

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Want to play around with it yourself? You can order sample packs at the Wood Skin website.