Guess what this is?

I bet no one guessed a bank! Right?

Emmanuelle Moureaux Architecture has pulled off (I reckon) a unique and fun take on what they call a 'rainbow mille-feuille' design for the exterior of the Shimura Branch of the Sugamo Shinkin Bank in Tokyo, Japan.

How cool is it?

They describe it as: 'A rainbow-like stack of colored layers, peeking out from the façade to welcome visitors. Reflected onto the white surface, these colors leave a faint trace over it, creating a warm, gentle feeling. At night, the colored layers are faintly illuminated. The illumination varies according to the season and time of day, conjuring up myriad landscapes'.

Even the inside is different with the ceiling adorned in dandelion puff motifs made to look like they float and drift through the air.

I think I'd bank here if I lived in Tokyo!

Images via The Contemporist

A Dutch Kitchen

I can't decide if I like this kitchen or not.

I've always loved the idea of a clutter-free, minimalist, all-white kitchen (although how one can maintain this with kids, I don't know??) but this one -  a newly renovated apartment in Amsterdam by Hofman Dujardin Architects - seems a little too stark for my liking.

Yet I love that the large central island is the kitchen, plus the amazing floor-to-ceiling windows, the comfy looking dining chairs, colourful table centrepiece and the timber floors.

Images via The Contemporist

But I'm not sure about the light. It's as if some weird spider-like alien is about to land.

What do you think?

Spanish Time

Okay, I know it's only just October but already people are talking about Christmas - agh! But if you ask me, where is one place I wouldn't mind staying, then this hotel would be on my list.

The Spanish Hotel Viura, designed by Designhouses, is in the wine region of Rioja Alavesa and is named after the most widely planted white grape variety in Rioja. Its modern, quirky architecture, based on a series of concrete cubes, sits next to a 17th century church in the middle of a traditional village. It has plush seating, a wine-barrel ceilinged restaurant and stunning views.

Images: The Contemporist

When can we go?

Is this House for Real?

Check out this house ....

Aside from the amazing photography (by a guy called Wm MacCollum), the too-perfect-to-be-real grass, the delicious blue sky, the gorgeous all-white stepping slabs and all-round symmetry of the piece, it's hard to believe this is someone's home.

A stunning piece of modernist architecture, sure, but could you live in it?

Located in Montecito, it was designed by Californian-based designer and developer Steve Hermann and is now for sale. While I wouldn't want to buy it, I wouldn't mind having a nosey around!

What a bathroom (let's hope there are blinds!)

While our new house will definitely be channelling white, it will be timber and there will be open plan living but not pavilion-style. Hopefully we, too, will have a stunning lawn (so long as Ruby doesn't dig any holes) and some scrumptious blue sky that Sydney does so well (most of the time).

La Purificadora Hotel

I don't normally peruse hotels online but I just happened to be having a nosey around Architecture Daily's website for work and stumbled upon this amazing looking hotel in Mexico, called La Purificadora Hotel. The modern purple sofa pops against the historic stone building.

The boutique hotel is in the city of Puebla and used to be an ice factory where the water was bottled and purified - hence the hotel's name - and was transformed by architects Legorreta + Legorreta.

Anyone care to join me in a reccy to Mexico?

Drawing of The Brick House

Artist David Oberdorf has finished the pen and ink sketch of The Brick House and I'm pleased to be able to show it to you. The detail is amazing and it will be a lovely reminder of the history of the property and the house once it is no longer. I think it will be even better framed and on our future hall table against the planned sandstone wall. What do you think?

Maldive Magic

Summer's over and it's raining here today. Boo hoo.

So I'd much rather imagine I was here, in the Maldives

in a beautiful timber villa right on the beach with a private pool

and gorgeous, sumptuous outdoor living area,

a to-die-for-bath - or should I say view from the bath

and elegant bathroom.

I think Alila Villas Hadahaa, the first luxury resort in the Gaafu Alifu (North Huvadhoo) Atoll in the Maldives’ new southern frontier, is the ultimate in beautiful design and has all the elements for a beautiful holiday. It was created by SCDA architects.

Poring over Architectural Plans

I can't believe it was over a year ago that we first began discussing our house plans with our architects and we're still going! I have sometimes wondered whether it is all just fun and games on paper and if it will really happen. But now, I think I can say that we are getting closer to it really happening. Once we got council approval just before Christmas, the process has been full speed ahead and hopefully, yes, hopefully in two months time we will be ready to start. Yipee!

Because our current house, while cute and quaint and all that, is beginning to drive me nuts. The only decent work space in the kitchen - the island bench -is only 125 x 90 cm and acts not only as a meal preparation area but a desk on which to do leave homework, do homework, leave stuff, do 'stuff''. The cupboards are crammed with ....well, stuff. The study/my office is piled with more stuff, including five boxes of wine hubby decided to purchase en masse. The bedroom the girls share is crammed with other stuff and toys and junk that no matter how many times we tidy and clean out, never seems to diminish.

If you think I'm starting to sound a little ruffled, you'd be right.

Rock on the new house.

Which brings me back to where we're now at - scrutinising endless pages of detailed architectural drawings and plans. For while the overall design and layout of the house hasn't changed much, we are now at the nuts and bolts stage where every little detail - from power switches to speaker zones, window openings and dimensions, uplights, downlights, pendant lights, ceiling fans, drawer and door openings and closings etc etc - is to be itemised and specified.

Take a look at the electrical 'legend' for the laundry for instance ...

And that's just a laundry!

Here's what some of the symbols for an electrical legend look like ...

Bored yet? Well, here's more ...

Then there are pages and pages on every window and door for which you have to look back at the drawings of the whole house to figure out which window or door each picture is referring to.

Wow, it's complicated and oh so detailed and requires a lot of pretending to walk in the rooms, use them, live in them to realise what's missing or what's wrong, if anything at all.

I have to take mini bites at it, otherwise my eyes glaze over and I loose interest - and this is coming from someone who thought she liked a bit of detail! Needless to say, hubby, while deeply interested of course, is demonstrating all the traits of a typical male preferring to look at the overall picture and leaving the detail to me. Sigh.

So, for the umpteenth time I'm going to peruse, study, scrutinise and ruminate over every itsy bitsy, teensy weensy thing in this house in the hope of getting it right. Wish me luck!

Valentine's Design

It's Valentine's Day this weekend and while I don't exactly subscribe to it, there's nothing wrong with a little love and a weekend away with one's loved one any time of the year. The Robert Restaurant has recently opened atop the Museum of Arts and Design in New York City and has a distinctly Valentine's day feel to it, don't you think?

The name belies what lies beneath with its funky decor and hot pink colour - I think you could have a fun night here!

Then you could follow it with a night or two at the Luna2 Private Hotel where the decor is interesting and certainly doesn't look like a hotel room.

... which in a way it isn't as it's a private five-bedroom house on a beachfront in Bali, Indonesia designed by American architect David Wahl, with interiors by owner and interior designer Melanie Hall.

But as I can neither whisk away to New York or Bali this weekend, I'll have to put them down on my wish list of overseas destinations I'd love to visit one day with my Valentine!

Tricks of Light

Lighting effects don't always have to come from lights themselves. Following on from my earlier post on lamps and standing lights, I have since found some beautiful images from different houses around the world that show different ways to play with light. See what you think ...

www.e-architect.co.uk

What a wonderful play of light with this decorative biscuit-shaped, untreated Iroko Tree wood curtain wall over glass in 'The Biscuit House' in Lyon, France by architect Pierre Minassian.

www.e-architect.co.uk

Another view of The Biscuit House -this time from the outside where, from a distance, the wood curtain looks rather like a lace doily screen.

www.e-architect.co.uk

A potentially bland black outdoor screen is jazzed up and reformed with the cut-out outline of a tree to provide filtered light and snippets of the view on the other side. Called the Barrow House it was designed by architect, Andrew Maynard, and is in Melbourne. Photo Peter Bennetts.

www.contemporist.com

Indian design firm, Morphogenesis, have used white string curtains to effect in this residence where light is tempered and the view diffused. Design for Use have curtains like these in red, orange, lime green, black and white. They may not offer much privacy or thermal properties but I think they look cool!

http://www.e-architect.co.uk/

A window design that mirrors the timber ceiling and follows the form of the stairs on one wall provides for dramatic plays of light in this Chilean house by architect Enrique Browne. The grand tree inside offers dappled light and mirrors the established trees in the garden outside. Photo Luis Poirot.

For similar outdoor screens to the one at the Barrow House, Urban Balcony in Sydney have some stunning ones like this Flower Tower, as well as decorative screens, sculptures and pots.