Design Milk Architecture

The Brentwood Residence by Studio William Hefner combines modern architecture with outdoor living. To reduce the size of the proposed 8,000 square foot structure, they chose to take some of the entertainment areas outdoors – a large courtyard that continues the living and dining rooms spaces, a sunken seating area with a fireplace, and a patio on the back of the house that goes the length of the family room and kitchen.

Large sliding glass doors make it easy to open the space up in a matter of moments to create the ultimate area for indoor/outdoor living. The upstairs features plenty of balconies to continue the home’s outdoor spaces. The house also features 5 bedrooms and 7 bathrooms and best of all, a pool. The palette remains fairly neutral inside and out with the use of warm woods, stone, concrete, and stucco.

Photos by Laura Hull, Luke Wooden and Grey Crawford.

Located in Singapore, the Black & White House was designed by Formwerkz Architects. The 12,000 square foot house is divided into three varying size volumes that were built to make the most of the triangular lot it sits on, all while managing to fit in a long 50m swimming pool, jacuzzi, and koi pond.

The house consists of three floors with six bedrooms (plus a maid’s room), 12 bathrooms, a gym, steam room, theater room, lounge with a bar, and an area to park six cars. The exterior of the three volumes is covered in black granite that contrasts nicely with the mostly bright white interior. The three floors are connected via a high atrium that is open vertically and acts as the central focal point of the home. The house is visually stunning both inside and out with its black, white, and wood color palette, as well as the clean lines. We just want to know when we can move in.

Luccon is a material developed in the early 2000s by architect and designer Juergen Frei. It’s basically made up of lasagna-like layers of concrete and fiber optics through which light can pass. However, the material is sealed and just as strong as concrete.

Available in thicknesses from 10mm to 500mm, Luccon can also vary in pattern from straight lines to wavy, depending on the dramatic effect needed. From bathrooms to stairs to bar tops and nightclub walls, it has tons of commercial and residential applications.

Colorado-based architecture firm Arch11 designed this two-suite guesthouse that is surrounded by park-like greenery. With a nod to case study houses of the 20th century, the modern pavilion 2290 house is covered in slatted brown wood and stone making it fit perfectly with the surrounding landscape. The north side of the house remains private with solid walls while the south side opens up with floor-to-ceiling windows and a large covered patio leading to the garden. The white walls and light wood floors create a sense of openness that helps draw your eye to the beautiful green outdoors.

Designed by the architectural firm of Katon Redgen Mathieson, the four-story Bondi house is located on Sydney, Australia’s Bondi Beach. The house was designed to maximize the uninterrupted views of icebergs and the beach. The house can only be described as both elegant and classy with finishes in white terrazzo, Calacatta marble, American walnut timber, and dark bronze throughout.

The ground level houses two bedrooms with one that opens into a courtyard garden while the other opens to a courtyard with views of the beach. Connected by marble stairs, the next level up is the living room, dining room, and kitchen. The open concept floor plan features glass panels on each end that open up for light, views, and ventilation with one end being double in height offering beach views. The top floor houses the master bedroom suite that includes a dressing room. The floors are connected with an elevator that also reaches the 2-car garage, laundry, and wine cellar. If that isn’t enough, the automated lighting system is controlled via your iPad.

Photos by Romello Pereira.

Instead of being built for interior functionality, the Four Eyes House was designed to enhance the homeowner’s experience of the surrounding landscape and the phenomenal natural events that occur. Designed by the Los Angeles-based Edward Ogosta Architecture, the weekend family home is located in California’s Coachella Valley desert.

The unique design is based around four “sleeping towers,” each with a small bedroom on the top floor that you reach with either a ladder, spiral stair, switchback stair or shallow-riser stair. The bedrooms come with a window that frames a specific optimum view including: morning sunrise in the east, mountain range to the south, city lights to the west in the evening and overhead nighttime stars.

The main floor houses the common areas and connects the four towers and it also features floor-to-ceiling frameless windows that offer their own amazing landscape views.

The bedrooms are equal in size and remain unassigned for family members to rotate throughout based on their desired viewing experience.

Photos © Edward Ogosta Architecture.

Located between the Rocky Mountain foothills and the Great Plains, the Colorado-based Syncline House was built with landscape views in mind. Arch11 built a unique modern house where there weren’t only site limitations with building in a fold, or in geological terms, a syncline, but height restrictions from the city.

The exterior of the house blends with the surrounding landscape with the use of stone, wood, and concrete materials, as well as rooftop gardens. While the house was built for the surrounding views, the interior does not disappoint. The stone is carried over into the house on the cantilevered stair wall and wood panels cover the ceilings. Large panes of glass throughout allow for lots of natural light and mountain views from all sides. On the lower level, one corner of the house completely opens up with retractable glass doors.

Combining modern design with renewable energy systems, the house was able to achieve LEED gold certification.

Madison, WI-based artist and woodworker Ted Lott created this series of small house frames out of wood while in residency at the Anderson Ranch Art Center in Colorado. A nice comment on the role of traditional craft in the modern world.

He says, “Craft practices are at once defined and restrained by their connections to tradition. Viewing woodworking in the context of objects made with wood; housing, particularly stick frame construction, emerges as possibly the most widespread use of the material throughout the modern world. Utilizing these techniques in a studio based practice, it is my hope to further the conversation on how notions of craft fit into the modern world.”

We’re constantly running across photos of truly jaw dropping staircases. So much of the time, stairs look as if they were ignored until the last minute of the design process, but not in these cases. Check out some of our favorite staircasess that we’ve come across:

Let’s start out with a staircase we’ve talked about before: Ribbon Stairs. Designed by HŠH Architects to mimic a delicate rippling ribbon, these stairs are beautiful but maybe a little scary to run up and down when you’re in a hurry.

Italian company 14 Ora Italiana has a collection of wood grain porcelain tiles that were inspired by the works of Andy Warhol. The Uonuon line comes in fourteen colors that are featured on this colorful and fun staircase.

Photo by Filip Dujardin

These stairs belong in House G by Maxwan Architects + Urbanists, in which a barn received a complete makeover. The planes of the stairs become a part of the wall shelves in a unique setup for book storage as well as kitchen storage.

The Grove Park project from Bell Phillips Architects features a staircase that is “created from a complex geometry of folded triangular facets which appear to float effortlessly within the space.” [via Plastolux]

Photo by Christopher Duff

These stairs that lead to a loft bedroom are by nC2 architecture in Brooklyn, NY. They incorporate extra shelving with the use of alternate treads and are the ultimate in being spatially efficient.

Photo by Kristina Hrabetová

Architecture firm Atelier SAD created another amazing alternate tread staircase that doubles as a bookshelf.

Yet another amazing staircase/bookshelf combo. This one is from Kathryn Tyler of Linea Studio’s own Scandinavian-inspired home. The Corkellis House does away with upper level kitchen cabinets and instead uses open shelving, as well as the staircase shelves, to house all of the kitchen-related items.

Photo by Hertha Hurnaus

The eco-friendly Blue House, designed by architect Pieter Weijnen of Faro Architecten, features modern nautical touches throughout. The architect built the house for his family on Steigereiland, one of Amsterdam’s artificial islands, and the stairs appear to float in the air without support. Steel cables are placed on the sides for safety.

Photo by Daici Ano

The warm wood and metal of the 2-story winding staircase in House S, by Keiji Ashizawa, allows light to flow through the airy house and creates massive amounts of visual interest. [via designboom]

How could I do a post about stairs and not include the rainbow spiral staircase designed by Ab Rogers Design that we featured last year from The Rainbow House?

Photo by X. Lucas

These steel floating stairs in Flat #1 by Ecole are simply amazing and a true statement of minimalism.

Photo by Nils Clauss

Located in what is known as the Godzilla House  by Chae-Pereira Architects in Seoul, Korea, these suspended stairs float along a curved wall and are lit by the hidden windows above.

This loft duplex designed by architect Charlie Diaz in downtown Madrid, Spain, features an unusual staircase that is the ultimate example of space saving.

These unusually deep stairs, and the 4-stories of house surrounding them, come with the rather large price tag of $38 million. The iconic NYC property, designed by Paul Rudolph, has seen many a famous person inside including Halston and Gunter Sachs, who were both previous owners.

Italian architecture firm Studioata designed this small space with an office/studio loft above that is connected by simple floating white stairs. [via Freshome]

This small, uniquely shaped house calls for a small, uniquely shaped staircase and that’s just what Kyoto-based Alphaville Architects designed.

Designed by Castroferro Arquitectos, these extra-wide stone stairs with wood treads on top match the floating wood stairs above, all with enough room to store books on the sides.

From MO Architekten, concrete stairs with cord crisscrossing to form the sides of the railing — yes please! Just think of all the fun colors you could string when you get bored with this one. [via Plastolux]

While not walkable, this piece of fabric architecture by artist Do Ho Suh is a 1:1 replica of the staircase that connects his apartment to his landlord’s. The piece is entitled Staircase III and it is displayed at the Tate Modern in London.

Talk about maximizing every inch of space! These bookshelf stairs are some of the coolest we’ve seen.

You can’t write a post about stairs and not include the Trippy Stairs that we featured last year. They are certainly some of the most unique stairs we’ve ever seen and most definitely, well, trippy.

And last, but certainly not least, are these spiral wood stairs that are just as sculptural as they are functional. Definitely one of our favorites.

Do you have any to add?

Cube Court House is a recent creation by Japan-based architecture firm Shinichi Ogawa and Associates. Located in Tokyo, Japan, the residence is constructed of reinforced concrete and steel. There are two contrasting sides to this home; one face of the home is quietly contained and tucked away, while the other face opens into a glasshouse above.

There is acourtyard that surreptitiously separates the master bedroom, children’s rooms, and bathroom. On a macro scale, the ostensible separation actually bonds the rooms together to form an expansive living area filled with sunlight and comfort.

I love the incomparable geometry of Cube Court’s architecture. I’m also a fan of frosted glass due to its ability to absorb light, yet create privacy. The huge windows beautifully display the courtyard’s serene landscape. I also love the fact that there is a rooftop terrace in which the residents can visit to view the city skyline.

Located in central Florida, Lake House is set on a sloping, lakefront lot and is the first LEED-certified residence in the city of Winter Haven. Designed by Max Strang Architecture, the 5,500-square-foot, 4-bedroom, 4.5-bath house was built with the idea that the interior living spaces were lodged within an outer “shell” made of stucco. The shell features eight-foot overhangs that provide the house with much needed protection from the sun.

Underneath the stucco shell, the exterior walls are clad in a wood-like sustainable material called Resysta. The warm color of the material is a nice contrast to the light-colored stucco. Besides the use of Resysta, the house incorporates other environmental design features like a solar photovoltaic system, solar hot-water heaters, geothermal HVAC, and LED lighting. The large windows offer ample daylight as well as provide cross-ventilation throughout.

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Photos by Paul Warchol and Calder Wilson.

I’m geeking out over the Modern Architecture Game created by NEXT Architects. Test your knowledge of modern architecture with almost 1000 questions about the world’s most famous architects, buildings and trends of the Western architecture.

The goal is similar to that of Trivial Pursuit – reach the heart of the board before anyone else. There are six different categories of questions: Visuals, Architect, Project, Style, Influence and Quote, and once you’ve moved through them all, and beat your opponents to the center of the board, you can declare yourself king of all nerds things architecture.

But the questions aren’t the only architect-themed items here. The is made out of a construction drawing and the game pins are miniatures of six famous buildings. Wearing Le Corbusier’s’ glasses isn’t only for the spectacle but also keeps the player at turn from reading the answers on the game card.

So do you think you have what it takes to be the Modern Architecture Game champion?

The Modern Architecture Game is available in exclusive bookshops worldwide. Contact NEXT Architects or the distributor IdeaBooks.

On our press trip to Copenhagen, we were treated to a tour of the new Bella Sky Comwell Hotel on the outskirts of the city center. As you can see, it’s a striking piece of architecture. Designed by the Copenhagen-based architecture firm 3XN, Bella Sky is the largest hotel in Scandinavia, with 23 floors, 812 rooms and 30 meeting spaces and conference rooms. It’s comprised of two towers, with angled facades, joined by a walkway. The hotel just won the “Best Architecture in Europe”  award at the International Hotel Awards in London. We were definitely wowed by the architecture and interiors when we visited.

Grass wall in the lobby

Sweeping view of the lobby

Florescent light chandelier in the lobby

Finn Juhl furniture is everywhere in the hotel

Lime green Wishbone chairs in The Balcony Restaurant

Rope and wood divider in one of the hotel’s three restaurants

A restaurant dining room

Interesting deconstructed, decorative wood wall

Guest room bed with Hay pillows and Louis Poulsen sconces designed by Arne Jacobsen

The other side of room – love that Finn Juhl loveseat in gray and black

Even the conference rooms are chic

A light filled corner in which to linger, with furniture that resembles the hotel’s facade

Sky Bar

Banquette detail

Piano at Sky Bar

Architect model of Bella Sky

Photos 1, 3, 11, 12, and 13 courtesy of Bella Sky.

Design Milk’s trip to Copenhagen was hosted by Visit Denmark.

Located on the Balonne River in St. George, Queensland, Australia, this five-bedroom home by Fulton Trotter Architects is a modern masterpiece that truly feels like a home.

The three wings of the Balonne River house each perform a separate function. The master wing, closest to the river, contains the main bedroom, en suite, robe and the study come nursery. Then there’s the living wing, which has the kitchen, a formal space and a family space. The final wing houses the bedrooms and baths including an en suite guest room. A fantastic covered deck provides gorgeous views and cool, summer breezes.

Due to the homes rural location, it needed to be self-sufficient — harvesting all of its own water and processing of waste. This was achieved through the inclusion of four 20,000ltr rainwater tanks complete with filter system and its own on-site waste water treatment system, which reticulates into the property’s garden.

I love these photographs because they make the space feel more lived in. We post tons of bare and sparse houses, but this one feels like people actually spend time here. I love the refrigerator full of magnets and the TV on in the background.

Photos by Steven Douglas.

This project by Park+Associates is located in Alnwick Road, Singapore. Located on 23 Alnwick Road, the home is a direct reflection of the clients’ characteristics and preferences. The main elements within the home are black and white, with tiny touches of color to add a bit of personality.

Strong materials are used throughout to home to produce an edgy, bold aesthetic, such as black powder-coated aluminum and black mild-steel casting. Linear placement of the furniture was used to maximize lighting exposure and cross-ventilation. The interior and exterior are congruently designed, and actually compliment each other.

The beauty of minimalism couldn’t be portrayed any better than within this home. I constantly use the phrase, “clean lines,” but everything about this space is both clean and linear. My favorite part of the residence is definitely the kitchen; I dream to cook and eat inside a white kitchen that looks like this.

Photos by Edward Hendricks.

The Monastery is the name of this project by Arild Eriksen, Joakim Skajaa of Eriksen Skajaa Architects for Netlife Research. Netlife wanted their new spaces to feel creative, yet offer spaces for privacy, reflection and silence. Inspired by a monastery garden, the architects designed a brick and wood building partition in the center of a wide open office space that features niches for plants and privacy, and windows for air circulation. One of the niches outside contains a bench to sit and read or relax.

The rest of the office is simple black and white with a green-themed lounge area, a hallway filled with private niches for phone conversations, and offices with uplighting. The entire project at first seems bizarrely disconnected, but there’s something very appealing about each space.

Project Team: Arild Eriksen, Joakim Skajaa
CNC: Partikkel
Client: Netlife Research / Thon Eiendom
Location: Oslo, Norway
Photos: Ivan Brodey

bureau^proberts designed this three-story modern family home in Newmarket, Queensland, Australia. The Patane Residence is concrete construction with an open and airy floor plan that features cantilevered balconies offering views of the Brisbane skyline and Mount Coot-tha.

The indoor/outdoor feel is achieved with each floor having various types of floor to ceiling windows and doors that open up to the outdoor pool, terraces, patio and yard space. The smooth, finished white floors are a sleek continuation of the white walls inside and out. The white throughout balances well with the warm wood ceilings and trim work, as well as the fence, shutters and other outdoor features. It definitely has a tropical, almost Brazilian feel.

Photography by Jon Linkins.

If you’re an HGTV or DIY Network fanatic, you must understand that the channel didn’t blossom out of nowhere. Long ago, Bob Vila and This Old House laid the groundwork for DIY as entertainment. Vila, who has spent his career helping people upgrade their homes (and lives), went on to present similar offshoot series, Bob Vila’s Home Again, Bob Vila, and Restore America with Bob Vila. His latest efforts include tackling the online world with his webisode pilot series Building Green. We’re lucky to say he’s the star of this week’s Friday Five.

1. Florida Gardens
I grew up with a small front and back yard in Miami that my father tended. I helped and eventually as a teenager, I did most of the work. I’ve always loved the tropical landscape.

2. Cars
I’ve been lucky with cars. My first was an MGA, and I’ve owned a classic E-type. The Mercedes in the picture was bought new in ’68 by my in-laws.

3. Great Wine
I learned a little about wines when I lived in Europe in the early ’70s. I learned even more from my late father-in-law, Joe King, who was generous with his excellent cellar.

4. Italian Design
Italian-made clothing lasts a long time, and the tailoring is comfortable and elegant. I remember the wardrobe mistress at the Today show handing me back my Brioni jacket after she’d pressed it, saying, “Bob, that blazer don’t owe you nothin’.”

5. The Sea
Growing up in Miami and Havana, the sea was always within sight. The two years I lived in Germany deprived me of that closeness. Since then, I’ve never lived too far from the shore.

Japanese architect Kazuhiko Kishimoto, of architecture firm acaa, designed the Wind-Dyed House overlooking the ocean on a cliff in Yokosuka, Kanagawa, Japan. The structure becomes almost embedded in the terrain because of the low-lying nature of the house, which also allows for the least amount of impact on the environment.

Each floor is composed of different materials to allow the residents a different view to the outside. Stone floors and plaster-coated concrete walls on the first floor are juxtaposed with the soft shadows created by the outside landscape through the paper screens. The open concept living space of the second floor is vastly different with its ability to open up completely to the outdoors with sliding glass doors. To maximize the ocean views, glass and slotted screens along the perimeter of the top floor of the house give a sense of transparency.

Photos by Hiroshi Ueda.

The Private House is located in the hills of Cambeses, Barcelos, Portugal and was designed by Rui Grazina. The modern design is minimal both inside and out and molds into the steep topography of the green protection area in which it’s located.

The house’s footprint was designed to accommodate both foot and car traffic from the access road. To make the most of the interesting viewpoints, the living spaces of the house were turned to ensure that the rooms had the best privacy and sun exposure. Floor-to-ceiling windows give beautiful views of the surrounding landscape.

The house has two stories on the eastern side and only one on the western side because of the steep topography of the land; part of the structure is buried. The frame of the house is made from load-bearing concrete, which allows for the house’s support, as well as an underground parking area.

Photos by Nelson Garrido.