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Contemporary Tschingel Complex Design by Rykart Architekten

If you are looking a veritable inspiration for a modern architecture, then I recommend you to pay attention to the work of Rykart Architekten. The Tschingel architecture consists of complex houses, which are located in a lovely place offering a splendid view. By overlooking to the attractively lake, you can see not only the lake beauty that you can admire, but also the extraordinary architectural design of this complex, situated in Brienz.

The Rykart Architekten choose to develop a contemporary design by ensembling five buildings in a fragmented nature, which succeeded to transform the traditional chalet into a modern design one.

The 34 small apartments, which are unobstructed from 1 ½ to 3 ½ rooms, form together the Tschingel complex. These apartments have large balconies, which are embellishing the facade of the building and maintain the horizontal banding of the house volume.

Photos © Rycart Architekten

SPECIALISTS

Minder & Partner GmbH, construction management, Brienz

Mätzener & Wyss AG, civil engineers, Meiringen

Schmidiger Peter AG, electrical engineers, Interlaken

Flück Building Services Ltd, HVAC planned, Brienz

Office B, Physics, Matten b. Interlaken

August 6, 2013
Intriguing 3D Printed Lightbulb Revealing the Modern Cityscape

A lightbulb that glows brightly enough to symbolize a metropolis isn’t something you see everyday and it’s peculiar, yet interesting design draws attention right away. As you probably figured out, this unusual lamp, called “Huddle”, is an ode to the new technologies in an era of rapidly developing scientific and technological progress. One of the modern innovations is 3D printing, which soon will define a new way of making things through digital data, becoming a standard characteristic of modern city infrastructure.

Product designer David Graas took the most common form of LED light bulbs and thanks to this technology, realized a 3D printed bulbshade showcasing imposing buildings huddling close together, representing the modern cityscape. The buildings suggest that people cannot live alone and design cities as a strategy to survive, just like penguins in Antarctica that huddle to survive the extreme cold during the winter time.

The project Huddle lightbulb highlights the fact that the mega city with its concentration of technology and information seems to be our intented habitat that holds the key to a sustainable future, despite its many problems. A truly unique approach of a lamp design we must say, don’t you agree?

Huddle is available in two versions: as floor lamp version and as pendant lamp too, with a quality 5 Watt LED bulb included.

Photos © Tim Stet

August 5, 2013
A Contemporary Interpretation of Camping Bungalows by Matteo Thun & Partners

Holiday homes that offers both constant, fresh contact to the nature and comfort are among our favourite vacation destinations. And fortunately, there are many such places in the world that makes you forget, even for a week or two, about the daily hectic life of the big cities where we live. Located in Cavallino Treporti, near Venice, Italy, the 6,400 sq. m Marina di Venezia Camping is one such beautiful place, where guests can enjoy a great summer escape. It is designed by Italian architecture practice Matteo Thun & Partners and consists of a group of small and appealing patio houses, called ‘Garden Villas’, which reveals a modern interpretation of camping bungalows, where comfort and close contact to the nature goes hand in hand.

Focusing on sustainable architecture and always looking for a genuine dialogue with the cultural landscape of the edifice, Matteo Thun & Partners envisioned a “botanical” architectural project, which respect the surrounding nature and tries to save as much as possible the presence of a significant number of pine trees. Therefore, both the floor plan and the overall layout of the holiday retreats were designed in order to preserve them. Displaying a modest, yet stylish and modern interior design, the 24 wooden villas are made for comfort seeking touris.

Each one is composed by two opposing volumes, an inner courtyard with a terrace, a lawn and the original pine trees. Every space reveals a discreet charm and a lovely fnctional design making you feel relaxed and enjoy the time spent there. Two bedrooms and a bathroom are situated on the one side of the garden and the living area includes the dining and kitchen, a TV corner and a bathroom. The two volumes are perfectly connected by the roof of the terrace made to offer protection in case of rain and to make shade on sunny days. Double-glazed windows and the natural stone floor used both indoors and outdoors create a fluidity between the two of them. While larch wood cladding makes their appearance to change gradually during daytime, giving them a more personal look, the beautiful ‘Garden Villas’ have also a good acoustic and thermal insulation thanks to the eco-friendly material they are made of: wood-cement blocks. Check out some pictures below!

Photos © Matteo Thun & Partners

August 4, 2013
Make Your Home Less Ordinary with Vitamin’s Unique Pendant Lamp Designs

People in general like to be original and unique in everything they do, and when it comes to decorate their homes it’s unlikely to want something else. Their interior design should express their personality and be something authentic, with one-of-a kind designs that really make the difference.

We recently find out the London-based company Vitamin, who’s mission is to manufacture these kind of products we’re talking about, in order to make your “life less ordinary” as their motto says. From furniture and lighting to ceramics and homewares, all Vitamin’s products are a beautiful combination of fun, originality, refinement and quality. Their keen eye for details make their creative designs to stand out in the crowd. This year the company expanded their lighting collection and included three brand new pendant lamps, that you will surely love them. In this post we refer to two of them –“Tied up Pendant Lamp” and “Cloak Pendant Lamp”, two eye-catching hanging lights with industrial appeal.

Tied Up Pendant Lamp

With a simple design, yet attractive design, Tied up is a self-assembled pendant light that goes very well in a variety of environments, commercial or public, as well as in residential ones, in individual lighting arrangements. The main functions of an industrial cable-tie are smartly. A spun metal collar and hand turner wooden dolly carefully pinch the top of 26 cable ties, while a laser cut steel cog connects them all at the base. The difference in diameter at the two ends of the pendant gives the cables a lovely, natural curve, designed to accentuate the radiant large bulb nestled inside. The flowing frame with bold lines create a striking contrast with any backdrop, hanging beautifully over a dining table or kitchen countertop.

Cloak Pendant Lamp

Highly original and with a minimalist design, this lighting piece fuses industrial aesthetics with eye-catching detailing, and is easy to integrate in a variety of contemporary interios, adding that much needed lighting twist. A handsomely crafted wooden sphere having a LED spotlight is encased into a thick premium glass dome, which enhance the natural beauty of the sphere. Cloak Pendant Lamp is stylish and incredibly effective due to the LED spotlight which emanate an elegantly powerful yet dissipated glow. The wooden sphere is available in two versions: walnut and oak.

Photos © Vitamin

August 3, 2013
A New Facet to the Meaning of Comfort- Ease Chair from Arco

With such a wide range of chair designs on the market nowadays, it’s sometimes hard to choose one model that suits you best. Most of the time, there are furniture pieces like chairs that, which looks extremely beautiful and are amazing in terms of design, but lacks in terms of comfort and functionality; and of course, the contrary, they don’t look very well, an ordinary design that even doesn’t draw your attention, but is very functional and highly comfortable. We have to recognize that most of us look for items that incorporates all these things and fortunately we can find such products.

An example of this type is this good-looking chair we’re showing you today, which we recently discovered via @archiproducts.com. Designed by Vogtherr and Prestwich, the “Ease” is a new design concept for chairs launched by Arco, a Dutch brand that produce in the Netherlands high quality furniture for both offices and homes, for more than a century. Their genuine passion for what they do, expertise and the innovative technology is confirmed by their great furniture products.

The “Ease” has a modern, minimalist design, sophistication and pure forms to highlight its functionality. As high quality craftsmanship and comfort are the most important aspects when buying a seat, “Ease” have both these things, plus a unique feature such as that of the back rest, which consists of flexible ‘fingers’ that mould to fit your body. Moreover, you can order to be designed according to your height, so in this way you’ll have a fantastic comfort and you can lean back whenever you want for endless enjoyment. “Ease” is available in both two toned upholstery and choices of either wooden or sled base.

Photos © Arco

August 1, 2013
Beautiful and Flexible Interior Solution – Modular Shelving from Movisi

Motionless and boring furniture? Make your life a little bit better and fun with these creative modular shelving system we’re presenting you in today’s post. Designed by British designers Jack Godfrey Wood and Tom Ballhatchet for eco-friendly home furnishings brand Movisi, “Build” shelving draws attention through unique design, versatility, multifunctionality and safety of materials. With an intriguing honeycomb-like appearance, “Build” is the perfect alternative to nowadays toxic furniture items, being 100% recyclable and adapting to your ever-changing needs.

Shelving or partition, freestanding or mounted on the wall, “Build” inspires creativity. Flexible and multifunctional, it allow you to create an endless variety of configurations and forms in minutes, very easily, without tools and auxiliary instructions and help you discover new ways of design your space. It’s built from a series of identical units that can be assembled in various orientations, at different height. In fact, the essence of it is only a single modular element which can be multiplied by adding new other units as you redecorate your rooms, move into a bigger house, buy more books, transport box, storage box or seating.

Mix and match with its two versions available (black and white) and that’s all. Besides that, what we like at “Build” is that, unlike the majority of furniture pieces that are made from pressed wood like plywood, MDF or Fiberboard (which contains Folmaldehyde, a highly toxic substance that evaporates over years and causes cancer), this stylish shelving is made from expanded polypropylene, which Movisi claim is completely non-toxic, lightweight, waterproof and resistant against chemicals. So, no trees are cut to build it!

The units are so light, it even floats on water, which makes very easy for you to lift and move it around on your own. “Build” comes with a textured, silky surface and is ideal for offices and pop-up stores as well. Room dividers and free-standing partitions for different interior settings can be also configured. For inspiring interios check out these lovely pictures or come up yourself with new, original ideas!

Photos © Movisi

July 31, 2013
Improve Your Bathroom Design with EGO, Corian Sinks from antoniolupi

Innovation and the continous research and identification of new ideas make the Tuscan company, antoniolupi, to get noticed in the design and manufacturing of bathroom furniture and accessories for the past fifty years in Italy and abroad as well. One of their latest product is “EGO”, a corian sink defined by colour and minimalism. Why colour? Because nowadays colour, in its variety of tones, became an essential element in designing any room and creating the right balance between body and mind.

In fact, it’s not a secret anymore that studies shows that colours have also psychological effects on us, being able to create a certain state of mind and induce a positive feeling or on the contrary, a negative one. “EGO”, like other other beautiful bathroom collections from antoniolupi with a color chart amazingly large, underlines the antoniolupi’s research which put great emphasis on studies on colours and their combinations.

With sleek cylindrical form, this corian sink is unabashedly contemporary and available in a new extensive range of colors and with matt finishes allowing for individual expression to unfold. There are twenty nuances available for it from neutral/ natural tones and grey tones, to bright ones. With “EGO” you add personality to your bathroom space, enhancing its design, and creating, with the help of bold and bright hues, a fresh and positive atmosphere too. See here some examples of the beautiful corian sink. Our preferred is the one in blue prussia!

Photos © Antonio Lupi Design S.p.A.

July 30, 2013
Get Noticed at Night with Cool Hi-Reflective Umbrella

A simple and ordinary item during the day, but a smart fashion accessory at night- this is the super cool hi-reflective umbrella designed by Yee-Ling Wan. The awesome design concept starts from the simple idea that nightime can be hazardous to pedestrians, especially when it rains, and, if during the day we can manage all our activities in a certain comfort and protection of a vehicle, when it’s dark the situation changes and the visibility for drivers reduces, and we are subject to many risks.

The answer to avoid these kind of situations could be this hi-reflective umbrella, which can be your trusty object in your handbag. Designed to withstand even strong winds, this umbrella looks like a regular one during daytime use; it features a classic dark grey shade, being made of an aluminum hardware and a plastic handle. In this way, it’s super tough and lighweight as well.

But what makes it special compared to other umbrellas is its canopy made from brightly reflective material that activates by night, increasing your visibility and safety in the same time. You’ll be spotted more easily by the drivers thanks to this interesting technology. The common umbrella design can protect you from the rain, but it cannot protect you from running vehicles. In this case, this hi-reflective umbrella keeps you dry, while enhances your safety when you must walk outdoors at night. It folds down and its small size fits perfectly in your bag, so you can have it always with you in case you need it. What do you think about?

Photos @suck.uk.com

July 29, 2013