modern Archives - Page 4 of 6

Stackable Pine Blocks Make Modular Furniture Designs Fun

Posted on January 29, 2016 by Jeff Easterling

Like a toy specifically made for adults, this interactive set of modular pine blocks lets you create display compositions specifically tailored to your space. The ROOM Collection by Erik Olovsson & Kyuhyung Cho consists of a series of square and rectangular wooden components with cut-outs in a variety of shapes. You simply stack them however you like, filling the niches with anything from books to bottles of wine.

This unique approach to shelving eliminates the fixed nature of bookshelves, not only making it easy to create a storage system that fits whatever available space you might have in a room, but also turning you into a designer yourself. You become a curator of your own objects, finding ways to perfectly frame everything you want to show off.

Even ordinary things like tea cups, writing implements, shoes and cameras become art when they’re placed within one of these oval, hexagonal or house-shaped niches. The set is a cool, modern twist on more conventional pine furniture.

“When it comes to furniture, people are used to placing an object within a square space,” say the designers. “While it is common to use a square form to arrange an object, Erik and Kyuhyung were interested in diversifying the relationship between object and space to create furniture as rooms for objects. The focus was to explore the mix-and-match quality of the ensemble in our spaces from a graphical approach.”

Stunning Pine Chapel Inspired by the Curving Ribs of Ships

Posted on January 7, 2016 by Jeff Easterling

Pine provides the ideal contemplative interior for a striking copper-clad chapel in Finland by Helsinki-based Sanaksenaho Architects. St. Henry’s Ecumenical Art Chapel is a prayer and meditation space for patients and visitors of an adjacent cancer care center with an incredible triple-height ceiling that takes its inspiration from the curving ribs of boats.

These pine beams stretch up toward the pinnacle of the space, the horizontal pine cladding between them emphasizing their majestic scale. On either end, skylights enable the sun to pierce into the structure, causing the triangular walls to glow. The use of just one material throughout the entire interior puts the focus on the geometry of the architecture.

“The chapel grows from its site, which is a hillock surrounded by pines. It rises from the landscape as a traditional sacral building. It has the appearance of an upturned ship – or a form of the fish. The design speaks with contrasts of shadow and light, copper and wood. The copper cladding will be weathered green with time, so it will blend with the surrounding trees and nature.”

“The most important material besides wood and copper is natural light. The idea is to walk through shadowy spaces toward altar and the light, the source of which is hidden.”

Sustainable Pine Rooftop Addition Turns Ordinary Residence into a Tree House

Posted on July 30, 2015 by Jeff Easterling

A squat brick house built as a getaway in the 1950s felt too dark and small for its modern-day owners, who envisioned something bright and open that preserves the existing structure. In making these renovation dreams come true, part of the challenge for Dutch firm Bloot Architecture was hewing to local laws restricting residential building heights and requiring a certain slope in the roof.

The result is essentially a modular pod placed right on top of the original home’s roof, with a huge window angled toward the sky and the canopies of the trees in the surrounding forest. The addition sits low enough to follow the law, but the clever angles make it seem higher than it really is. Climb the stairs to the lofted bed that sits on a platform just beneath that window, and you’ll feel like you’re in a tree house.

This sustainable addition makes extensive use of pine throughout the interior, with flax insulation and an untreated larch cladding exterior. It adds two bedrooms to the home, as well as a storage landing, a new laundry room and access to the roof. All storage and bed bases are built-in.

Renovations also made this forest home entirely self-sufficient, with a new solar power system, wood stove for heat, and wastewater filtering system. Check out another cool modern wood addition.

Pine for the Urban Apartment: Clever Space-Saving Built-In

Posted on June 10, 2015 by Jeff Easterling

How do you pack a kitchen, bathroom, bedroom, living space, office and storage into a single room that measures a measly 226 square feet? German architecture firm Spamroom breathed new life into an urban Berlin micro apartment with a clever pine structure that functions like a room within a room, sectioning off different spaces and adding a lot more function.

Located within a historic apartment block dating back to the early 20th century, the apartment was originally divided into two separate rooms, and subsequent renovations had it feeling a bit unbalanced in the distribution of the space. Internal walls only served to block off natural light and make the space feel small.

The pine addition houses the bathroom, serves as a platform for the lofted bedroom, and is lined on the exterior with a kitchenette and lots of cabinets. A narrow staircase leads to the loft from a second built-in piece, a floor-to-ceiling wardrobe. Elevating the bedroom takes advantage of the available vertical space, freeing up valuable floor space for other uses.

The white-washed pine was not only an affordable choice, it has a beautifully minimalist and modern appearance that perfectly complements the historic features in the space. Maintaining a limited color palette and keeping clutter behind cupboard doors makes the apartment feel much larger.

Wood House of the Future: Geometric Beach Cottage

Posted on April 23, 2015 by Jeff Easterling

The idea of what a wooden home looks like is shifting as contemporary architects use this natural, sustainable material in surprising new ways, contrasting its warmth with angular modern silhouettes. This incredible beach cottage by Marc Koehler Architects is a stellar example, using timber inside and out for a look that fits the sandy setting, yet is firmly rooted in the 21st century.

Wood continues to come into its own as a building material of the future, remaining one of the most environmentally friendly choices as well as the most beautiful. ‘Dune House,’ located on a northern Dutch island, shows off the capabilities of timber cladding across a faceted facade.

The shape of the house was designed to make the most of the plot’s views of the sea and landscape, with large windows along one of the angular surfaces capturing sunlight in the winter for passive heating.

Inside, split levels are arranged around a spiraling staircase, with large wooden beams, wide planks and unfinished plywood taking center stage.

This Week in Wood: Modern Timber Addition to a Victorian Home

Posted on March 26, 2015 by Jeff Easterling

Looking at the front of this home in Balaclava, Australia, what you’ll see is a traditional Victorian characteristic of the neighborhood, with a modest white facade, twin chimneys and a picket fence. But walk around the side and the personality of the residence swiftly shifts to a striking modern volume clad in timber slats.

Coy Yiontis Architects created an addition for the two-story home that makes no attempt to blend into the vernacular architecture, choosing instead to make a strong visual statement with wood as the primary material.

“The renovation and addition to this partly 2-story home was designed to accommodate an extended family of eight on a relatively modest site within a dense urban context,” the architects explain. “A bedroom for each of the four children, one for the parents and another possibly for grandparents, generous living spaces and a swimming pool were key to the brief.”

The old and new volumes of the home are separated by a courtyard housing the pool, each of the wings surrounding it opening to this outdoor space with expansive glazed walls. The warmth and character of the wood is brought inside as well, contrasting with smooth white surfaces.