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    Hanna Karits uses wood to create “airy and spacious” interior for Estonian holiday home

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    Interior architect Hanna Karits used natural materials throughout this holiday home in Estonia’s Moonsund archipelago to create a soothing environment that references the surrounding forest.

    Drawing influences from the work of one of her favourite architects, Frank Lloyd Wright, Tallinn-based Karits created an interior that combines clean lines with warm wooden surfaces and carefully crafted cabinetry.
    Hanna Karits has designed the interior for a holiday home in Estonia”I decided to use wood in many different ways but give extra care to the details and connections between different materials,” the designer told Dezeen.
    Karits’ design was guided by a basic brief given by the client, in which she was asked to create an interior for the home by architect Linda Veski and make wood the dominant material.
    It is located in a forest in the Moonsund archipelagoWhile referencing the work of Wright, her design is also informed by mid-century modernist summer houses, which feature bright and minimal wood-lined living spaces.

    “I have always felt comfort in these buildings,” added Karits. “So my idea was to blend these emotions together and create something airy and spacious but at the same time really human-friendly, safe and relaxing.”
    The home is intended as a relaxing getawayThe house is situated on an island in the archipelago off Estonia’s west coast, where the local landscape consists of limestone cliffs, beaches and dense forests.
    It is intended as a relaxing getaway where its owners can enjoy peace and fresh air in natural surroundings. The interior design aims to immerse them in the woodland setting, creating a place that feels warm and comforting during the long, cold winters.
    Karits designed an “airy and spacious” interior for the homeThe building is constructed from a wooden frame and cross-laminated timber panels, with thermally-treated ash wood chosen to line the internal surfaces.
    Complementing the wooden elements, the other main material used inside the house is Estonian limestone, which is applied on the floors of the kitchen, dining area and circulation spaces.

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    The single-storey building is entered via a central porch that connects with a corridor spanning the full width of the house. This hallway provides access to a row of bedrooms at the front and the living spaces towards the rear.
    A courtyard between the corridor and the lounge area is lined with full-height glazing that allows plenty of daylight to enter the interior.
    Wooden finishes are used throughoutThe open-plan living, dining and kitchen area incorporates large windows that look out onto the forest, with sliding doors providing access to a generous decked terrace.
    A wood-clad ceiling in the living room creates a cosy and intimate feel despite its large volume. Wooden ceilings can also be found in the bedrooms.
    Carpets from the 1930s have been used to add colour and textureBespoke cabinetry developed in collaboration with local craftspeople is integrated throughout the home.
    Careful attention was paid to elements such as the wooden door handles to ensure they are ergonomic and pleasing to touch, while maintaining a simple and minimal aesthetic.
    Carpets originally created in the 1930s by Estonian designers including Adamson Erik, Kaarin Luts and Viida Pääbo are placed throughout to add colour and texture while celebrating the country’s lesser-known design heritage.
    The design aims to connect the interior with the surrounding landscapeKarits has been working as an interior architect in Estonia for more than a decade.
    Her previous projects include a summer retreat on Estonia’s Matsi Beach comprising a pair of gabled black cabins surrounded by old fishing sheds.
    The photography is by Tõnu Tunnel.

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      Lost House by David Adjaye features black interiors and bedroom with a pool

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      Black walls, built-in raw concrete furniture and a fish pond in a lightwell define Lost House, a residential project designed by David Adjaye in London’s King’s Cross, which has recently come on the market.Royal Gold Medal-winner Adjaye, the founder of Adjaye Associates, designed Lost House in 2004.

      Top: the swimming pool. Above: a central lightwell holds a fish pond
      The house has come back on the market recently, granting an opportunity to see the interiors of one of the architect’s early residential works in detail.

      Original features have been preserved, including an all-green sunken cinema room and a water gardens in planted courtyards that double as lightwells.

      A courtyard garden in a lightwell
      Hidden behind an unassuming brick facade in an alleyway, Lost House was formerly a delivery yard complete with a loading platform.
      Adjaye Associates turned the concrete loading platform into a plinth for an upper-level swimming pool with black-painted sides next to the pink-walled main bedroom.

      The ground floor is an open plan living space
      On the ground floor, there is a large open plan living, dining and kitchen area with a double-height ceiling.
      The sunken conversation pit with a cinema room-style projector, complete with zesty lime walls, built-in bookshelves and wide sofas, is off to one side.

      Raw concrete countertops are part of the kitchen
      Three tall, glass-walled lightwells stretch up to the black-painted timber eaves of the roof, bringing natural daylight down into the room instead of windows.
      In the centre of the living area is a lightwell filled with a fishpond.

      A sunken conversation pit is entirely bright green
      The square courtyards in the lightwells are planted with tropical greenery. At the back, next to the kitchen, the courtyard features wooden decking around clusters of circular concrete benches inset with the same grey pebbles that surround them.
      The black chipboard walls, ceiling and exposed timber beams are reflected in the shiny black resin floor.

      Concrete benches in the courtyard garden
      Adding to the industrial look are the thick concrete elements of the built-in kitchen, which forms a continuous countertop and splashback.

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      A concrete element continues from the kitchen to the living area, were it forms a low bench upholstered in black leather cushions.

      Black walls and floors around the pool and bathroom
      Steps lead to the raised ground floor, where the old loading bay plinth supports the lap pool. Black stone tiles surround the pool, which is part of the master bathroom for the main bedroom.
      Two stone sinks sit on a concrete shelf below mirrored cabinets. A wet-room style shower allows the residents to wash before and after swimming.

      The master bedroom is entirely pink
      This bathroom connects directly to the back of the master suite, which has a separate toilet and a long corridor connecting to the stairs. The bedroom is decorated all pink to contrast with the ink-black interiors
      A second bedroom is located on this floor, with a third bedroom located up on the first floor that is currently being used as a home office.

      An upstairs room is a work from home office
      David Adjaye founded Adjaye Associates in 2000 and began his career designing high-end residential projects in north London such as Lost House. Other notable all-black houses by the studio include Dirty House and Sunken House.
      Photography is courtesy of United Kingdom Sotheby’s International Realty.

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      Aston Martin collaborates with S3 Architecture to design first residential project

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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.

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      “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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      Winter Architecture contrasts black facade of Melbourne townhouse with minimal white interiors

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      Beyond the black facade of this 1990s townhouse in Melbourne’s South Yarra neighbourhood are a series of simple, white-painted living spaces designed by Winter Architecture. The owners of the South Yarra Townhouse had come to dislike its visually busy interiors and instead wanted a minimalist home “where they wouldn’t see the operations of domestic family
      The post Winter Architecture contrasts black facade of Melbourne townhouse with minimal white interiors appeared first on Dezeen. More