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Boston architecture studio OverUnder has renovated a heritage-listed Victorian home, extending the property to the rear and updating the interiors with a contemporary and minimalist palette. More
Curved oak kitchen cabinetry is among the new additions to a 25-year-old, half-dome dwelling in the Catskills partially renovated by American studio DAAM. More
New York studio GRT Architects has transformed a turn-of-the-century Brooklyn townhouse into a home and studios for an artist couple, featuring a mix of functioning studios and eclectic interiors. More
American studio The Brooklyn Home Company has designed a Brooklyn townhouse using Passivhaus principles in New York’s Carroll Gardens neighbourhood.The Sackett Street townhouse comprises four storeys as well as a rooftop with views of the Manhattan skyline, along with a basement and a drive-in garage.
The four-storey townhouse has views of the Manhattan skyline
Stairs from an outside decking area lead to a back garden, and a private terrace is accessed from the main bedroom.
Passivhaus is a recognised European energy standard for homes that require minimal energy to heat or cool and promote high indoor air quality.
The Sackett Street townhouse’s back garden
For the townhouse project, The Brooklyn Home Company used an energy recovery ventilation (ERV) filtration system.
“The air quality brings health and cognitive benefits that the developer believes will become the new standard for home building in New York City,” co-founder of The Brooklyn Home Company William Caleo told Dezeen.
“The homes also maintain humidity levels to prevent virus spread, which is common in both dry and cold weather. In short, our opinion is it’s the best way to build new homes,” he said.
A living room leads to the back garden
Adopting Passivhaus principles addresses two of society’s greatest threats, argued William Caleo.
“As society grapples with not only the current public-health crisis but the reality of climate change, builders and home designers are using Passivhaus design as an alternative technique in the wake of Covid-19.”
The house’s walls are painted in white Farrow and Ball paint
William Caleo and his sister Lyndsay Caleo Karol worked closely with his sister’s husband, Fitzhugh Karol, the studio’s in-house artist, to design the interiors.
Madera white oak hardwood floors and walls painted with white Farrow and Ball paint were chosen to create a “bright and airy” home.
A hand-crafted bed by Fitzhugh Karol in the main bedroom
Hand-crafted pieces of furniture designed by Fitzhugh Karol include the wooden four-poster bed in the main bedroom.
VonDalwig Architecture brightens Brooklyn townhouse House 22
Other one-of-a-kind pieces include a bespoke dining table and a dresser, and the elegant twin beds in the children’s room were also made bespoke for the property.
The twin beds in the children’s bedroom were made especially for the house
The townhouse’s open-plan kitchen is a mixture of exposed beams and custom built-in wood, also designed by Fitzhugh Karol. A reclaimed ceiling by The Brooklyn Home Company hangs overhead.
These rustic features are offset with sleek Pietra Cardosa countertops and a range cooker by La Cornue. Hardware fixtures by Waterworks and Restoration Hardware tie the space together.
The property’s kitchen is a mix of rustic and polished features
Selected artwork is also integral to the townhouse’s interior atmosphere. A notable piece is Tyler Hays of BDDW’s painting of a woman, made of puzzle pieces, which hangs in the dining room.
Artistworks by Jen Wink Hays, Paule Morrot and Caleb Marcus Cain also decorate townhouse’s light and open rooms.
Artist Tyler Hays’ puzzle painting adds depth to the dining room’s white walls
The Brooklyn Home Company has recently launched 25 new homes also built according to Passivhaus principles across two Brooklyn developments in South Slope and Greenwood Heights.
More Passivhaus projects outside of Europe include the upcoming 1075 Nelson Street skyscraper in Vancouver, designed by UK studio WKK Architects. When completed, it will be the world’s tallest Passivhaus building to date.
Photography is by Matthew Williams and Travis Mark.
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US studio S3 Architecture worked with luxury carmaker Aston Martin’s architectural design service to create Sylvan Rock, an angular black-cedar home in Hudson Valley, New York.With building works set to start in early 2021, Sylvan Rock by S3 Architecture will be the first property to be fully realised under Aston Martin’s Automotive Galleries and Lairs service, which launched last year.
The form of Sylvan Rock house will mimic jagged rock formations nearby
The service sees the carmaker team up with architecture practices across the world to design bespoke spaces where its clients can show off their most cherished motors.
Sylvan Rock will be situated two hours away from Manhattan, hidden amongst a 55-acre plot of forested land in Hudson Valley that will allow inhabitants to “reconnect with nature”.
Luxury cars will be displayed in a glass gallery-style room
A sweeping driveway that spans 2,000 feet (609 metres) will lead up to the front door of the house. The facade will be composed of expansive panels of glazing and blackened cedar.
Its dark metal roof will be faceted to emulate the jagged shape of surrounding rock formations, at one point dramatically dipping downwards to form a covered entryway.
The house will also include a subterranean office
“When designing, we always let the land speak first and respond to it,” said Christopher Dierig, partner at S3 Architecture.
“It’s as if the home is born of and launching from the landscape. The resulting design blends our modernist aesthetic with the privacy and context of the rural location to create a unique luxury experience.”
Parquet flooring and dark-wood joinery will feature throughout living spaces on the ground floor
Cars will be displayed in a subterranean gallery-style room that’s completely enclosed by panels of glass.
It will look through to a wine lounge where bottles are kept in floor-to-ceiling latticed shelves that subtly nod to the intersecting lines seen in Aston Martin’s logo.
Lounge areas will overlook the green landscape
At this level there will also be an office where the inhabitants can escape to do work without interruption. It will feature a huge window that offers an up-close glimpse of the craggy rocks outdoors.
From here guests can head upstairs to the ground floor where there will be a kitchen, cosy den, dining room, formal sitting area and an array of other shared living spaces that look out across the home’s decked pool area and verdant landscape.
Other rooms will have views of the home’s pool
Aston Martin – which will be responsible for the home’s interiors – imagines each room to be finished with parquet flooring and rich chocolate-brown storage cabinetry.
Marble-topped tables and plush, leather-trimmed soft furnishings will further enhance the opulent feel of the home.
The first-floor master bedroom will cantilever towards the Catskill mountains
Elevated views across the treetops and towards the nearby Catskill Mountains will be available up in the first-floor master bedroom, which will cantilever over the house’s ground floor.
Aston Martin launches architectural service to design homes focused around your car
“Our architecture and design team was immediately in sync with the Aston Martin design team, both emphasizing clean lines and the luxury of natural materials and textures,” the studio’s partner, Doug Maxwell, told Dezeen.
“Working with them we evolved our creative process to view the residence in a similar way as designing an Aston Martin car – by designing in 360 degrees, where no specific angle or facade took precedence or dominates.”
Sylvan Rock will also include three pods where guests can stay
The grounds of Sylvan Rock will additionally accommodate three gabled guest pods that will stagger down a grassy embankment towards a pond.
They will enable visiting friends and family to have a sense of privacy when they come to stay but, when not in use, can alternatively serve as a health and fitness space or a quiet area for homeschooling.
There will also be a small produce garden where fruit and vegetables can be grown, as well as a pitched-roof treehouse where inhabitants or guests can choose to spend a night under the stars, closer to the site’s wildlife.
There will also be a treehouse on site
Aston Martin’s Automotive Galleries and Lairs service is not the brand’s first venture outside of carmaking. Last year it unveiled its inaugural motorcycle model, AMB 001, which features a 180-horsepower turbocharged engine and a carbon-fibre body.
Images are by S3 Architecture, courtesy of Corcoran Country Living.
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Los Angeles design firm Working Holiday Studio has transformed a property in the California desert into a shoppable holiday home that “stands out” against its desolate landscape Casa Mami is located in Pioneertown, California, an unincorporated community outside of Joshua Tree National Park in Southern California.
After visiting the area Carlos Naude and Whitney Brown of Working Holiday Studio wanted to purchase a house of their own to spend holidays in and to rent out to overnight guests.
The 92-square-metre stucco house has an adobe-style construction and is situated on five acres (1.6 hectares) overlooking the barren desert landscape.
To make the tiny building “stand out” against its surroundings a black portico contrasts the updated white exterior and light-coloured gravel around the property juxtaposes the sandy ground.
“Most houses around the desert in that area try to blend in with the environment through earthy and brown tones, we wanted the opposite, we wanted our house to stand out which is why we chose to surround the house with white gravel to create a separation between the desert ground and house and painted it white and black, which not only made it really stand out but also brought a Mediterranean feel to it which is a good contrast to the dry hot desert,” Naude told Dezeen.
For the interiors, the designers took cues from Scandinavian and Japanese design styles. This was coupled with bright colours found in work by Mexican architect Luis Barragán and a mix of pattern and shape used by French interior designer Jacques Granges and British designer Terence Conran.
“I would say that we borrowed Luis Barragán’s use of colour – like the monochromatic yellow hallway, Jacques Grange’s ability to mix styles – between Scandinavian and Japanese, and Terence Conran’s incorporation of playful shapes and silhouettes,” he added.
An Aesthetic Pursuit designs shoppable Airbnb in Maine
Beige walls are paired with white moulding and painted grey floors throughout the house. In the kitchen the cabinets and drawers are punctured with a tiny hole to form a handle instead of with a traditional metal knob.
A set of translucent glass doors with black trim is situated between the open-plan kitchen and living space frames the desert landscape, which is speckled with vegetation. Another pair is located in the master bedroom furnished with two semicircular nightstands and black light fixtures.
In the living there is blue couch with rounded cushions and a circular coffee table topped with a terrazzo surface. The furnishings face a white, sphere-shaped fireplace installed to heat the tiny home.
Photograph is by Candida Wohlgemuth
The studio worked with over 30 brands to decorate the space with furniture, appliances and houseware items that guests can purchase online, forming part a new trend to design “shoppable stays”.
Others include a holiday house in Maine designed by An Aesthetic Pursuit to showcase its new furniture collection and a rental property in Long Island Studio Robert McKinley has decorated to double as a showroom.
Other details of Casa Mami are a hallway with bright yellow walls, decorative potted plants and an outdoor patio nestled into a corner of the structure.
It is also powered by solar panels and a hauled water system, so the homeowners and guests are more conscious about their energy and water usage.
Casa Mami has been longlisted in the hotel and short stay interior project category of Dezeen Awards 2020, with shortlists set to be announced at the start of September.
Working Holiday Studio is a Los Angeles design studio led by husband and wife duo Carlos Naude and Whitney Brown. It worked with Francesca de la Fuente on the renovation of The Ruby Street co-working space in Los Angeles.
Photography is by Carlos Naude, unless noted otherwise.
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Los Angeles practice Stayner Architects has restored a 1950s house in Palm Desert, California, which was designed by modernist architect Walter S White to feature a wave-shaped roof. The dwelling was completed in 1955 for artist Miles C Bates and is named Wave House after its roofline. White, who patented the design of the structure, […] More
An early 1950s dwelling in the Pacific Northwest that was originally built for cartoonist Irwin Caplan has received a sensitive refurbishment by American firm SHED. The house sits on a sloped site in Seattle’s Laurelhurst neighbourhood, with quick access to public transportation and the Burke-Gilman Trail. Dating to 1951, the home was possibly designed by […] More
