Tag Archives: Nature

This whimsical home designed by Arthur Dyson is an organic structure built to celebrate nature!

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Located in Sanger, California, The Creek House is a home residence built by Arthur Dyson who used the philosophy of organic architecture to guide the home’s design and construction.

Walking through California will introduce you to some whimsical architecture. Perhaps the most visually mythical and storybook-like, organic architecture is a philosophy of architecture that harmonizes human habitation with the natural world.

Widely considered an adamant proponent of organic architecture, award-winning architect Arthur Dyson designed and constructed The Creek House, one of his organic residential staples. Located on Collins Creek, a tributary of the Kings River in Sanger, California, The Creek House is a home residence built in the philosophy of organic architecture that seamlessly merges into its forested surroundings.

Settled on six acres of land, The Creek House nestles into forested thickets near the base of the Sierras and Sequoia National Park, an ideal location for an organic architectural residence. The Creek House was designed in celebration of nature and its visual connection to the natural world is abundantly apparent.

Looking at the house head-on, its rustic, undulating facade formed out of what appears to be wooden shingles follows the irregular, sinuous curve found in tree rings. Even the topmost wooden panel that keeps a yellowish hue embodies the outermost perimeter of a felled tree trunk.

From the side of the house, its facades resemble the shape of a halved tree trunk, with wooden shingles continuing from the front facade to the home’s roof. The rear deck maintains the home’s completely wooden profile, dissolving an outdoor leisure area into the surrounding brushwood, ​​honeysuckles, cottonwoods, and sycamores.

While the outside of The Creek House finds natural warmth with an entirely wooden frame, the interior burgeons with natural sunlight that pours in through the floor-to-ceiling glass windows. Mixing natural wooden art deco accents with ’90s interior design elements, The Creek House is the kind of cozy you have to experience for yourself.

Designer: Arthur Dyson

Elements of interior design from the 1990s fill out the inside of The Creek House.

An indoor vista terrace opens up the divide between an upstairs bedroom and the downstairs living room.

Amidst white walls and glass windows, wooden art deco accents give the home some personality. 

Geometric angles and lines bring some harmony to each room of The Creek House.

This Japanese-inspired residence features a multi-tiered, sloping roof that mimics the gentle curve of fallen leaves!

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Four Leaves Villa designed by Kentaro Ishida Architects Studio (KIAS) is a form of organic architecture with a gently twisted, multi-tiered roof that mimics the sloping curve of fallen leaves and a central garden courtyard, the home’s concealed centerpiece.

150 kilometers from the buzzing city streets of Tokyo, Japan, a forested plot of land in Karuizawa, Nagano prefecture of Japan, is home to a weekend retreat designed to mirror the fallen leaves that surround it. Dubbed Four Leaves Villa, the privately-owned residence is a form of organic architecture with a split-level roof designed by Kentaro Ishida Architects Studio (KIAS) that mimics the undulating, overlapping pattern of fallen leaves.

Organic architecture is a philosophy of architecture with a primary goal of harmonizing human habitation with nature. Following the philosophy of organic architecture, the varying orientations of Four Leaves Villa’s living and dining spaces were specifically chosen with consideration to the use of each space and the amount of natural sunlight that might benefit each room’s function.

The living and dining areas face southeast to collect pools of natural sunlight, brightening each room during the day for meals and social gatherings. Then, the bedrooms are posed west to catch views of the forest’s dense brushwood that provides a sense of privacy during the day and coziness at night.

The gently twisted roofs also provide plenty of overhangs to brace guests against the blaze of sun rays. The constructional combination of a concave and convex roof makes for a dynamic interior volume. Where the roof inclines outside, the interior ceiling, lined with exposed wooden beams, reaches lofty heights.

Describing the roof in their own words, KIAS notes, “Every roof has been designed as a Ruled Surface in which straight Laminated Veneer Lumber joists are arranged continuously to form an organic geometry. A series of wooden joists are exposed on the ceiling highlighting the dynamic spatial characters of each living space.”

The interior living, dining, and sleeping spaces are split between three interconnected structural volumes placed on site amongst a preexisting lot of trees. From above, the open-air garden courtyard functions as the home’s centerpiece and the point where the three structural volumes meet, offering an outdoor leisure area where the home’s guests can come together and spend time in nature.

Designer: Kentaro Ishida Architects Studio (KIAS)

Four Leaves Villa’s floor plan reveals the three structural volumes without their roofs and the garden courtyard that functions as their centerpiece. 

What if nature co-designed furniture with humans?

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The inspiration behind the form of the Wild Chair is pretty unique. Imagine leaving a chair out in a forest and having nature take over it, with moss, vines, and trellises. Its solid form, being covered by interweaving branches and stems. Now remove the chair from the equation and what are you left with?

The Wild Chair is the answer to that question. Designed with an organic form that highlights the intricate stylings of cane furniture, Eugeni Quitllet’s Wild Chair feels like a wild material domesticated. The chair, which was created during the lockdown, came from Quitllet often pondering what would happen if he left his chair in the wild and let nature absolutely take over. “I’m seeing at this moment how nature is taking its place back everywhere, in the sea, in the air, in the ground, in the city… and now in design! And why not… We will grow chairs like vegetables and modify seeds genetically to grow new designs”, said the Catalan designer.

Designer: Eugeni Quitllet

These 3D-Printed lamps were designed using algorithms that copy coral growth patterns

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John Mauriello, the designer behind the Coral Lighting Collection, has a very beautiful way of describing his creation. You’re not looking at a lamp, or a coral… you’re looking at a moment frozen in time. These lamps are the work of complex algorithms simulating natural growth, but they’re also just as equally the moment that John decided to press pause on the simulation.

Say hello to Timor, Sargasso, and Celebes, three members of John’s Coral Lighting Collection. Inspired by different styles of corals, the lamps come with varying aesthetics that reflect the visual characteristics of each coral-type. The way John went about creating these unique lights was to first develop the computational design algorithms that mimic growth patterns found in nature. “The lighting collection is my way of paying tribute to the beauty of the ocean. As a veteran surfer, I’ve experienced the power and beauty of the ocean while enjoying each wave as its own unique moment in time. One of many magical living structures in our great oceans is coral. With a diverse range of color, shape, and scale, coral is an entire ecosystem of thriving life. My lighting celebrates this life”, says Mauriello.

Designed to look just as pretty even when switched off, the lamps are part installation, part lighting design. As pretty as any ornate vase, each lamp comes with a stable design that allows it to stand on its base without tipping over. Printed in a white cloudy material (almost resembling ceramic), the lamps come with LED lights built-in, which shine through the lamp’s uneven cross-section to create brighter and duller regions based on the form. It’s captivating to look at when switched off… but switch it on and it looks hauntingly beautiful! In an effort to reduce waste and curb carbon emissions, all lamps are 3D printed in the USA, using processes that allow for recycling of any waste material in the manufacturing process. The lamps will be up for presale soon, you can head down to John Mauriello’s website to leave your email and get notified when the collection goes on sale.

Designer: John Mauriello

How to livestream the majesty of nature from your couch

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Happy Earth Day, everybody! Today we celebrate the Pale Blue Marble herself, the only home in this solar system we’ve got (so far). And even though the COVID-19 quarantine has shrunken our individual worlds to roughly the size of our apartments, we c...

Google AI tool helps conservationists (and the public) track wildlife

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Google is quickly putting its wildlife-spotting AI to good use. The internet giant has launched a Wildlife Insights tool that helps conservationists track wildlife by not only parsing their photos, but sharing them in a searchable public website. T...

Google says it’s achieved quantum supremacy

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Google is standing by its claim that it's achieved quantum supremacy -- marking a major milestone in computing research. The company first made the claim back in September, and while disputed by competitors, Google's research paper has now been publi...

How conservationists are controlling invasive species in the 21st century

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When humans colonized islands throughout the Pacific some 2,000 years ago, rats came along for the ride. The introduction of those rodents proved disastrous for the local island exosystem, a pattern than unfortunately continues to this day with no si...