Douglas Lassance

Ryan Mankoski of Ninebark Design Build and Dyna Contracting collaborated to create a floating residence featuring cohesive design with an open layout. The result has two glass sides wide open to spectacular views of bay waters, the University of Washington and the mountains beyond.

Description by Dyna Contracting

Clean and simple define this 1200 square foot Portage Bay floating home. After living on the water for 10 years, the owner was familiar with the area’s history and concerned with environmental issues. With that in mind, she worked with Architect Ryan Mankoski of Ninebark Studios and Dyna to create a functional dwelling that honored its surroundings. The original 19th century log float was maintained as the foundation for the new home and some of the historic logs were salvaged and custom milled to create the distinctive interior wood paneling. The atrium space celebrates light and water with open and connected kitchen, living and dining areas. The bedroom, office and bathroom have a more intimate feel, like a waterside retreat. The rooftop and water-level decks extend and maximize the main living space. The materials for the home’s exterior include a mixture of structural steel and glass, and salvaged cedar blended with Cor ten steel panels. Locally milled reclaimed untreated cedar creates an environmentally sound rain and privacy screen.

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Bonjour !
J'ai réalise ce gif anime pour cet article dans l'édition de ce dimanche du New-York Times.

Hello ! 
I did this animated gif for this article of last Sunday's New-York Times. 

via http://devil-hs.livejournal.com/

L’artiste américain Brock Davis basé à Minneapolis joue avec de la nourriture dans la plupart de ses créations, permettant de mettre différents aliments dans des situations étonnantes. Une série et des clichés très réussis, à découvrir sur son portfolio et en images dans la suite de l’article.

Coup de cœur pour l’artiste polonais Michal Karcz qui utilise à merveille les retouches photographiques pour détourner, modifier et transformer ses clichés en captures de mondes imaginaires. D’une très grande qualité, une large sélection d’images est à retrouver sur son portfolio et dans la suite de l’article.

Paintings by Samantha Keely Smith Title: Dante Alighieri, The Inferno, Canto XII, line 87 Atley

At a glance, this urban townhouse located in the Hague, Netherlands doesn't discern itself from its like-looking neighbors. But behind its shell lies an alfresco paradise - a veritable retreat right here in the city center. Designed by Netherlands-based firm Personal Architecture, the redesign and renovation transforms a traditional townhouse with a new, fully glazed rear facade that opens its fresh modern interiors to the outdoors. From the architects, "The combination of ambitious design visions and a large measure of trust from the client have resulted in a rigorous and uncompromising redesign, in which voids and split levels accentuate the full height of Den Haag's typical row houses." Here's a sneak peek at this private house.

The multi-residential building features a street face lined with windows and classic brickwork. Walking by, you'd never guess at what's beyond the front door of this cool, contemporary house design.

Interiors open to the outdoors via a huge glass wall rising 11 meters up, stretching from floor to ceiling and flooding interiors with sunlight, fresh air and lush, leafy views of the private rear garden. The glass wall slides out of sight, creating a seamless transition from indoors out.

Interiors have an industrial aesthetic and casual comfort about them. They ooze fun and funk, thanks to a mix of materials that ranges from cool glass and earthy wood, to glossy cabinets and clean white walls. It's all sun-soaked, lending these indoors a warm look and feel that reminds us of a totally decked out garden shed.

The "industrial" and "garden shed" references really come to life with unconventional interior elements like the steel spiral staircase winding its way up through the house, to the upper level loft with a chain link fence enclosure, offering unobstructed views of the living areas below and nature on the outside of the glass wall. The result is an open living space with an uninterrupted dialogue between upstairs and downstairs, inside and out.

We love this loft design idea, finished in rough wood walls and shabby-chic fencing, with this striking steel spiral staircase rising through it like a piece of sculptural modern art. The barely-there glass facade overlooks the private courtyard outside, and the city beyond. The staircase continues up to the next level - just try to stop climbing, we dare you!

At the main level, a doorway at the back wall leads to a more private area of the home featuring a distressed white staircase leading up to the bedroom, in sharp contrast against the dark wood floor and dramatic black wall. The home's historic antique elements contrast its many new contemporary touches, showcases side by side in all their glory.

The home's second level is a private oasis housing the sleeping quarters. On this dedicated floor, the bedroom offers an escape from the outside world just on the other side of the expansive glazing.

At the back of the bedroom, a doorway leads to the wardrobe room which features a translucent back wall delivering privacy without compromising on natural light.

As you can see from the outside through the glass wall, this vertical house just keeps going and going and going... up four levels to the rooftop terrace area, complete with a hot tub and outdoor entertaining area. By night, the glass house glows like a lantern among the trees.

As you'll see from these floor plans, this vertical house plan boasts lots of living space - it's deceiving from the exterior.

Here is a diagram illustrating how the house was renovated, and the new layout incorporated into the existing structure. The architects added a void running from the main level right up to the top, creating an open views downward from every level of the house.

Personal Architecture
photo credit: Rene De Wit

The Fairhaven Beach House designed by Australian firm John Wardle Architects is warm, woody and organic, but it has a sharp contemporary edge that makes it unlike anything we've ever seen. From its contemporary geometric exterior to its earthy, organic interiors, there are many faces to this house. And while you're sure to be impressed looking in, the outward views are simply stunning, overlooking the sparkling shoreline of the southern ocean. The tree-dotted crest gives the house the best vantage point from which to take it all in. Go ahead, take a sneak peek and enjoy the view.

Set atop a ridge, the house boasts panoramic vistas through large windows, each framing a different "picture" of the outdoors. According to the architects, "Our design process is akin to scenography, cutting together sensory and spatial experiences to frame the theater of inhabitation within." Conversely, the expansive glazing reveals interiors to the outdoors, making the most of the warm climate and inviting panoramas.

The home's exterior features a green-grey zinc cladding which lends durability and a natural hue to the design, and blending with the tea-treed landscape.

The house wraps around an interior courtyard, sheltering this bit of the outdoors from the prevailing coastal winds. This private garden integrates nature into architecture, inviting the outdoors in through massive windows and sliding glass doors, weather permitting.

A massive picture window swings open to connect the patio with the kitchen, bringing a breath of fresh air and an alfresco feel to the indoors.

Interiors are finished in warm, natural wood from floor to ceiling, but for the glazed walls overlooking the deck on one side and the waterfront on the other. The closed-in feeling you get from the uniform interior material palette is broken by the barely there walls and open views. It's the perfect venue for hosting intimate family evenings or swinging parties with a hundred of your closest friends.

The minimalist design is accented by a few thoughtfully chosen pieces, like this charming wood burning fireplace at the heart of this living area.

From the architects, "The spatial journey through the house from arrival to view is choreographed to increase anticipation before reaching the main living space. As you step beneath a cantilevered study into a dramatic vertical entry space, you become acutely aware of a number of twists and folds along its length that make the transformation into horizontal living space. The main window aperture matches the cinematic proportions of the ocean view."

The kitchen is a uniform space of wood walls, floors and ceiling, with a wood-skirted central island and cabinetry that blends right into the background.

When we said it's all made of wood, we meant it - from finishes, built-ins and furniture, right down to the smallest details.

Floor-to-ceiling glass walls flood interiors with natural light and frame the spectacular view. Just pull up a chair next to the picture window and watch the outside world play out as it will.

Even the bedroom boasts a view that most would only dream of. A glass wall overlooks the lush, leafy trees, complemented by these woody interiors. Like the rest of the house, this sleepy space is warm and welcoming, yet contemporary in an earthy sort of way.

Here are some floor plans to view:

John Wardle Architects

The architectural dream team of Peter Thomas Hornung, Elsa Katharina Jacobi and Jan Escher came together to design this modern vacation home here in Rhodes, Greece. And if you're looking for a little luxury, then this is the place for you. Inspired by the weather- and wave-beaten rocky shoreline, the home's modern facade has a strong geometric presence, in sharp contrast to these natural, serene surroundings. Inspired by nature but executed in a contemporary way, the house flows from outdoors in, from upper to lower levels with ease, hinting at the general aura of the place. Check it out!

The crisp, white volume peeks out over a continuous natural stone wall which borders the coastal road. The architects continued this existing stone wall with the aim of connecting the house to its surroundings while piggybacking on this already-existing structure for privacy.

A gaping entrance invites you to the inner reaches of this den of luxury, to explore a world of opulence boasting stunning architecture, contemporary design, nature, and minimalist living at its best.

The home's signature statement comes in the form of a gigantic geometric volume hanging over the stone wall - an ultra modern, almost alien addition to this organic ocean-side landscape. This cantilevered wing reaches over a glazed living area and on the other side of the glass, its alfresco equivalent. The house has an almost "pavilion" look and feel, thanks to its disappearing walls.

The glass wall slides open to turn interiors into an outdoor sitting and lounging area. Poolside, this hotspot has surely hosted some epic parties. A pattern of triangular cutouts overhead echoes the angled posts supporting the roof. Aside from this pair of pillars, the volume appears to float.

Interiors are all white, simplifying the style and amplifying natural sunlight. Interiors boast a minimalist style with few adornments and furnishings kept to a bare minimum. The few pieces permitted are cool, clean and contemporary. The real star of the show here is the architecture itself. A staggering of levels, some two-storey, enjoy privacy within this open concept space while allowing natural light to flow freely.

A sculptural staircase leads up to a den area, encircling this open double storey living space and leading up toward a huge skylight. An open upper-level hallway offers unobstructed views through the windows and of the living areas below.

Up in the master bedroom retreat, you almost feel like you're waking up on a luxury yacht, with the ever present waterfront views through frameless floor-to-ceiling glass overlooking a private upper-level terrace. Step out and take in these breathtaking vistas. On the floor, triangular cutouts offer glimpses of the pool and patio below.

At dusk, this white house has a haunting glow, shimmering with the ripples from the pool and the water just beyond it. But beauty aside, this house was also built with brains. It smart design includes passive ventilation and cooling, and small volumes that cool down quickly. In addition, evaporation from the swimming pool also contributes a passive cooling effect. Roof-mounted photovoltaic panels provide power off the grid.

Here are some floor plans and elevations to illustrate how the living spaces are organized:

The sloping property ensures the front of the house - the water-side facade - enjoys the best views through maximum glazing.

Hornung And Jacobi Architecture
via DigsDigs

Architects Peter Thomas Hornung and Elsa Katharina Jacobi are the brains behind this ultra modern winding house here in Buschelhof, Germany. Known for a particular flair for futuristic design, the architecture firm follows suit with its signature style in this project as well. Situated next to a forest in southern Germany, by all accounts this is not your typical countryside home. The sculptural white structure takes shape as a contemporary, continuous twisting volume - a long linear wing extending across the hilltop, and zigzagging its way down to the lower level and parking pad tucked beneath the house. This winding design allows for intimacy without compromising the views. Here's a quick tour.

The home's unusual shape is about as far from "natural" as you can get, a nice contrast to the earthy forest nearby. But with massive windows and lots of openings integrated into the design, this house merges life and nature by design.

Visible from afar, this contemporary style house sits perched on a partial slope, cantilevered over a three-meter dip in the land. The rest of the house is buried into the hillside, peeking out with its white facade and walkout to the paved area below.

A set of stairs leads down into a sunken courtyard, where you find yourself wrapped in walls of lush greenery surrounding the parking pad. This functional spot is artfully concealed beneath the house and hill, camouflaged by its leafy enclosure, complete with a walkout.

It must be amazing to drive home along this vertical lawn, right to the entrance of the house.

Overhead, the upper level living areas are openly concealed behind walls of glass, letting in the natural light and the views.

The cool, clean interiors are finished in a crisp of white, with glass elements complementing the floor-to-ceiling glazed walls encircling this space. Echoing the exterior stairway leading to the below-grade garage area, an interior staircase takes you down to the lower living areas.

The minimalist interiors - white walls, floors and ceilings - are cool and simple, in sharp contrast to the verdant green surroundings. It's this contrast that allows for interiors to be so stark, warmed up only by the sunlight pouring in through the glass walls and skylights.

The kitchen can be exposed within this open concept living area, or sliding pocket doors allow you to close off this space, serving up privacy for the chef of the house.

These doors are a simple but ingenious little feature - pull them out when needed, tuck them away when not. And in terms of function, these are an essential element in this home.

When closed, the "wall" is totally unassuming.

The few thoughtful furnishings and adornments in the house deliver lively pops of color, luxurious materials and strong silhouettes with an almost sculptural result within this gallery-like space.

Just beyond the floor-to-ceiling glass walls, a wood patio offers an alfresco spot to sunning, sipping, snoozing. The jagged wood planks take this deck from ordinary to extraordinary. The floor-to-ceiling glass walls are lined with a curtain, offering privacy when you want it with the simple swipe of the gauzy white fabric.

By night, the house glows like illuminated artwork.

Here are the floor plans illustrating how the ground floor and first floor are organized:

The roof diagram shows a sizable photovoltaic panel mounted to the roof.

This smart design maximizes living space while minimizing the structure's footprint. To keep a smaller scale and to maximize privacy, the home winds its way below grade, with a carved-out parking pad below. The first floor is dedicated to living areas.

Hornung And Jacobi Architecture

I’m a sucker for clever uses of technology as much as I am crazy/complex code. And while I’m as tired as anyone of long scrolling web sites, this latest one is fun to play over and over. The 100 meter scroll by Mom! Look What I Made and I Like To Play is a simple racing mechanic built on top of scrolling. Hit start, scroll to 100 meters as fast as you can and then share. Simple and bright.

Bonus points because it is especially fun to play on mobile devices.

Paintings (oil on linen) by Karen Gunderson Title: Aleister Crowley Folkert

Photography by Joel James Devlin Title: Marcus Manilius Atley

Paintings by Minoru Nomata Title: Heraclitus Heraclitus translated by Guy Davenport via Invisible Stories Previously: The Architect of Ruins Will 50 Watts

Photography by Camille Seaman Title: Malcolm Muggeridge More clouds Atley

Fabergé Fractals by Tom Beddard, Rendered with the artist’s WebGL 3D fractal creator Title: Terence McKenna Folkert

Drawings by Moebius (Jean Giraud) Previously on Moebius Folkert

Illustrations by Atelier Olschinsky Title: Cocteau Previous posts on this artist: one, two Will 50 Watts

Découverte de Snöbär : un meuble inspiré par la plante Symphoricarpos, aussi appelée Snowberry en anglais. Réalisé par Yonder Magnetik, ce fauteuil en chêne propose à la fois un design élégant et sympathique mais aussi un maximum de confort. A découvrir en images dans la suite de l’article.

via http://fuckyeahdementia.com/

Thanks to a brief comment recently made by a friend, it spurred me into coining the phrase 'Creative Near-Sightedness' to describe something I've battled with and continue to battle with, throughout my journey. I hope that this might make some sense to others out there and shed some similar light on your situation like it has mine.

I have achieved some of the big goals I've set myself in life, but have always had trouble with achieving some of the more creative goals, due to the fact that, they are often rather ambiguous to begin with, for example:

How do you quantify / visualize a goal like 'I want to be a good artist' when being good is completely relative?

So firstly I want to break it down into a couple of things that might seem simple commonsense, but in my case something I need to constantly remind myself of:

The first thing is: Keep the major goal clear and simple!

Something you can understand and describe to someone simply when they ask you 'but what actually is it?'
Using the example above 'being good' is not acceptable, because it's just so damned nebulous.

But saying 'I want to produce artwork like this *insert example*' is perfect, because its tangible, it's clear, it's something you can see, or feel or touch, it's a clear set of 'goal posts' to plonk into the ground, see from a distance and attempt to kick your ball toward.

The second thing is: Don't move the goalposts until you've kicked the goal!

Now, this is me with many of my creative goals: Before I've really given myself a chance to kick the goal, I've made a new set of goalposts.
Because during taking aim for my kick, I realize I have no idea how far away I am, how hard to kick, what way the wind is blowing, I'm trying to gauge distance, and before I know it, I've made a new set of goalposts. Hopefully this new one isn't so unclear! Rinse and repeat this process, and before long, I'm standing on a green grassy playing field, soccer ball at my feet, a tonne of goalposts in every direction around me. On top of this mess, my chaotic artist brain starts thinking about crap like 'what are the consequences of shooting for one before the other?' 'Which should I shoot for first?' …..ARGH!!!

Now, most of the non-creative goals I've set, like owning a specific car, getting hired as a video game artist, working overseas as a video game artist, shipping my first game, shipping an mmo, I've nailed. So long-range goals? No problem. But personal artistic / creative goals? They seem to constantly elude me and I never knew why until fairly recently.

It's because I suffer from Creative Near-Sightedness. I just can't focus on something I know is miles away in a creative sense, because my experience tells me the pathway toward it will be chaotic.

When the goalposts for a large personal artistic / creative goal are too far away, my vision is blurry, the path toward them is uncertain, and subsequently it becomes much easier for me to lose my way. The temptation to change / move / create new sets of goalposts is strong, and without conscious effort to keep things structured and inline, well, it's easy to end up in a place of total chaos - goalposts everywhere. If that sounds familiar to you, then maybe you can try this, because it's working for me so far.

Take your large creative goal, ensure its something very clear. Set those goal posts up, it doesn't matter how far away they are (ie how crazy your goal is), because focusing on it, is not important AT ALL.
Now make a massive list of tiny goals that lead straight towards it, not deviate away from it. Break down your big creative goal into mini goals, and set those goalposts only as far away as you're able to keep focus. The idea here is to setup a string of success that keeps you moving toward the big one. This will play right into your creative near-sightedness. Keeping the major goal in the back of your mind and the smaller mini goals at the forefront, instead of the other way around, will keep things in better perspective, and destroy the urge to keep shifting, or creating a whole bunch of new goalposts. Providing you take the time to plan these mini goals out to begin with, if you keep hitting them, you'll have a clear and visible path of winning behind you, which will in turn build up your confidence & drive to keep going toward the big one.

Something critical to remember, the distance from you right now, to the goalpost of your big goal, doesn't ever need to be measured, or even be worried about, just set it and leave it, no matter how far away it seems, that distance is irrelevant. If you're creatively near-sighted like I am, the tiny mini goals between you and the big goal that you set up? The ones you can keep in focus? Kick those one at a time! And before long, you'll be making progress narrowing that distance. Effectively you will have turned what was a 1 in a million super goal from miles away, into a 100% gauranteed simple kick.

Luck is for loosers. Progress is for winners.

What will we never get enough of in Southern California? Sunglasses. We love us some sunglasses. In such a sunny, warm climate, sunglasses are our refuge from the sometimes too bright brightness. We have l.a.Eyeworks, we have Freeway Sunglasses, we have Matsuda Sunglasses, and lots and lots more. It’s remarkable! The last maker–Matsuda–seems particularly special considering there is a new (“new”) sunglasses brand from Los Angeles that functions in a similar way: Masunaga, a Woodland Hills based optical maker founded in Fukui, Japan in 1905. The brand is recently relaunching itself and has a lot of sexy options for sun shading and more.

Masunaga glasses are known for their details. They are made with the finest materials including silver accents and “polished Japanese acetate” bases. They have a modern and classic feel to them as their frames are simple: their nuances come in their coloring and in the details. A lot of them have a sexy, discrete two-tone, shifting from one color to another or out of one pattern and into another. While we’ve seen glasses in this fashion that ended up looking a bit silly. These are in no way silly: they are very much elevated to a sophisticated and desirable level likely because their frame bases are so simple.

These glasses have a lot of (good) baggage. Fukui–where they came from–is apparently where 97% of optical frames in Japan were once made, according to them. The brand was founded by Gozaemon Masunaga who took it upon himself to add more craft into the glasses to separate his from the rest of the makers in the country. Each piece is made manually, which sounds like a tedious task but they’ve been making it work for over a century. We’re not exactly sure which Angeleno took over the brand (that part is left out of their story) but whoever it is has a clear hand in how everything looks. Poke around the website and look at their current campaign: totally born out of LA. I even worked with one of those models on a show a few weeks ago!

The brand has a lot going on and they’ve also launched their first LA-focused campaign that has them and Dan Deutsch Optical Outlook–another historic LA eyewear maker–sharing various makers at work in their glasses. They’ve featured artist Matt Jones and jewelry maker Melody Ehsani and, recently, actor Crash McCreery. The campaign is called #WhatsYourCraft and–if you share your craft on Twitter and Instagram–you could win some sunglasses. The contest runs from May 20 through June 14 and they’ll be giving a pair of glasses away once a week: what a great opportunity! You can check out the glasses in person at Dan Deutsch and you can always drool over them here.

dead

i promise this won’t be a run cycle blog!