Tag Archives: Architecture

‘Not-So-Tiny’ Tiny Home Has A Central Porch That Splits The House In Two

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Called the Pisgah Park Model, this tiny home is unique, and a far cry from the typical tiny homes on the market. It offers an intriguing take on typical tiny house designs. The home is designed in such a manner, that the living and sleeping areas are placed on either side of a central porch, which creates a sense of distinction and separation between the two, allowing the home to have an indoor-outdoor style.

Designer: Wind River Tiny Homes

Designed by Wind River Tiny Homes, the Pisgah Park Model is designed for park living and isn’t intended for regular towing. It is founded on a quad-axle trailer and is finished in an engineered siding board and batten. It features a length of 45 feet and a width of 12 feet, which provides the home with a house-like interior, unlike most smaller tiny homes.

You can enter the tiny home via the porch. This space is intended to be a designated general hangout area and is an ingenious way to separate the two areas of the home. This home is not the best option for cold places but could be a great option for milder climates. The living room is located on one side of the porch, and it is quite free-flowing and open. The spacious porch has a high ceiling and generous glazing, while the interior is quite comfy and light-filled. The room includes a sofa, a kitchen with a fridge/freezer, a radiant electric cooktop, cabinetry, and a dishwasher.

The other side of the porch accommodates the master bedroom. The bedroom is located downstairs, so visitors and residents can stand upright in it. It also includes loads of storage and cabinetry, allowing it to function as a home office or an entertainment unit. The bathroom is located close by, and it contains a shower, vanity sink, and flushing toilet. The tiny home also includes a second bedroom upstairs, and it can be accessed via a ladder. It has a low ceiling and a double bed, much like most loft-style bedrooms in typical tiny homes.

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The Honeylion Tiny Home Has A Flexible Layout To Let You Host Dinner Parties

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The tiny house movement has taken over the arch world, however, there is one issue that hasn’t been addressed despite its monumental success. It is a pain and often awkward to host guests in a tiny home since there isn’t much space! But Modern Tiny Living has addressed this problem with their Honeylion home and its flexible layout, and space-saving furniture. Featuring a length of 36 feet, the Honeylion is founded on a quad-axle gooseneck trailer. It has a finish of engineered wood and features a bright red steel roof.

Designer: Modern Tiny Living

As visitors and guests enter the home, they are welcomed by the kitchen which holds an oven and electric cooktop, double sink, full-sized fridge/freezer, and loads of cabinetry. As they move further into the home, they’ll find the living room which has been described as a Swiss Army Knife by the designer. It has a U-shaped seating that can accommodate six people at a time. The living room is also equipped with under-seat storage, some cabinets, and underfloor storage. This can be turned into an extra bed, so your guests can crash at your place if they don’t want to drive back home at night.

The bathroom is quite luxurious for a tiny home. It contains a composting toilet, a sink, and a spacious bath/shower. It also features a washer/dryer nearby. The Honeylion is equipped with two bedrooms – the master bedroom is in the raised part of the trailer, and can be accessed via storage-integrated steps. The bedroom has plenty of headroom to stand upright, and it features a double bed, which can be easily and efficiently stowed into the wall, creating more floor space.

The Honeylion’s second bedroom is located in the loft and can be accessed by the storage-integrated staircase as well. This is a typical loft-style house bedroom with a low ceiling, and it has space for two single beds. Check out the video for a better glimpse into the Honeylion tiny home!

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Brutalist speaker concept is inspired by an equally brutalist church building

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Regardless of religious inclination or lack thereof, the word “church” would often conjure up images of lofty buildings designed to inspire awe or command respect. Of course, church architecture often reflects the trends and styles of their times, and there are indeed churches today that wouldn’t look out of place beside commercial buildings and structures. Of these, the former Church of Saint Agnes in Berlin, now home to the Konig gallery, is perhaps one of the most striking examples of the modern brutalist movement applied to such a structure, and its imposing character happens to be the almost literal inspiration for a desk speaker concept that similarly embraces that spirit of extreme austerity in a beautiful and memorable way.

Designer: Philipp Emrich

Designed by architect Werner Duttmann and finished in 1967, the former Church of St. Agnes, now the Gallery of Konig, stands almost in opposition to common church architectures of that period and the ages before it. Its unadorned, boxy shapes don’t stand out among the rows of concrete buildings that line up most cities, making it feel like just another part of the community. At the same time, however, its austere appearance still cuts an imposing figure that gives the impression of something that is meant to exist on a completely different and higher level.

It’s that same stunning characteristic that the Agnes desk speaker concept tries to convey on a smaller scale. Like the church it takes both its shape and name from, the design is made from two plain rectangular pieces, though the roles are switched. The vertical “bell tower” is actually the main speaker, with the top box providing 360-degree output, while the larger detachable box provides bass on demand.

Like any brutalist design, the speakers express rawness, expressed through metal instead of concrete and accentuated by the use of the simplest geometrical shape and sharp edges. In terms of functionality, however, there is nothing unrefined about the Agnes speaker concept, and it even imagines a feature not found in any 360-degree speaker today. While the lower knob controls the speaker volume, the one above it determines where sound is directed, whether it’s only from the front, from the front and the sides, or from all four sides.

Smart speakers today are trying their best to blend into their surroundings, namely your interior decor, and just like its inspiration, the Agnes desk speaker concept presents a duality in that regard. It definitely mixes well with minimalist designs, but its raw appearance and imposing stature also make it stand out easily, turning what would normally be just a functional appliance into a unique work of art that looks almost out of place and out of time.

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10 Iconic & Influential Women Designers Of The Last Century

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8th March is celebrated as International Women’s Day, and rightly so, although in all honesty, we deserve every day to be Women’s Day! Women’s Day is the result of the efforts of a lady called Clara Zetkin, the leader of the ‘Women’s Office’ for the Social Democratic Party in Germany. In 1910, she proposed that every country should have a celebration every year on the same day – a Women’s Day, a day when women could press for their demands. Cut to 2024, and Women’s Day is a 24-hour period where we widely celebrate the women all around us, and in every aspect of our lives. And we’re taking it upon ourselves to celebrate the iconic women in our design world! These women paved the path for women in the design and architecture industry, changing the perceived status of women in this arena, and making space for their successors to push boundaries liberally and without hindrances. Although even today there is a gender disparity in the design world, with women designers facing experiences of bias and prejudice, and with the product and industrial design world being primarily 78-95% male. But let’s take a moment to celebrate these iconic women designers, creators, and innovators and raise a toast to them!

1. Zaha Hadid

The late Zaha Hadid was the first woman to win the Pritzker Prize for Architecture in 2003, and also the first female star architect who managed to transform, and deeply influence the status of women in the design world. Known as the ‘Queen of the Curve’, her unique creative vision positively impacted and changed the design and architecture world, while also establishing that a woman can conquer these worlds in her unique way and style. Her feisty personality, intense determination, and desire to challenge the design status quo supported her in consistently pushing the limits of form and function. Her first major public building  – the Rosenthal Centre for Contemporary Art in Ohio opened in 2003 and marked an important turning point, where critics and the rest of the world accepted her as the force she truly was.

2. Ray Eames

Everyone’s heard of the Eames Lounge Chair. It was the centerpiece of any office in the 1960s and 1970s, and it has still maintained its relevance and value even today. You’ve probably heard of the mastermind behind it – Charles Eames, but you may not be aware of his wife Ray Eames, who played an equally important role in its birth and creation. The duo spent most of their time experimenting with plywood, which led to their first mass-manufactured product – a molded plywood leg splint that would be purchased in abundance by the US Navy. They played around with different materials, using fiberglass, aluminum, leather, and plywood to build furniture. Even after Charles died in 1978, Ray continued to spread their design philosophy and beliefs through her writing and numerous talks.

3. Hella Jongerious

The Dutch designer Hella Jongerious is considered a master of colors and texture in her profession of industrial design. The strong-headed and independent designer once said “Design is not about objects. Design is about relations”. She founded her studio called the Jongeriuslab studio in 1993, and since then has worked with major clients such as Maharam, Danskina, IKEA, and KLM. Through her work with textiles, ceramics, and furniture, she has highlighted the importance and magnitude of colors and surfaces in contemporary designs. She designed the Polder Sofa for the Swiss company Vitra, which is one of her most distinctive and popular pieces. It is inspired by her home country – the Netherlands and is a beautiful mixture of asymmetrical shapes and cushions in various colors and fabrics.

4. Neri Oxman

Israeli-American architect, designer, and professor Neri Oxman is the founder of the Mediated Matter Group at the MIT Media Lab. Her work is incredibly pioneering, and she had to coin the word “material ecosystem” to describe it. She combines technology, biology, and design to create astounding projects such as the Silk Pavilion and the Wanderers Wearable Skins, which pushed the boundaries of what fabrication and design could do. Her 3D-printed wearable skins are designed for interplanetary pilgrims, and they have been merged with synthetically engineered microorganisms to make the hostile habitable.

“Nature does not come together. “It expands,” she said at Design Indaba. “At this point, there is a collision between the worlds of civilization and nature.” It is a gradual process, but they are coming together.”

5. Kazuyo Sejima

Kazuyo Sejima is a Japanese architect, and also the second woman to win the Pritzker Architecture Prize in 2010, following Zaha Hadid’s lead a few years later. Sejima claims, “Being an architect. I am just interested in making architecture.”, and this comes through in her clean, minimalist, and yet innovative design style. Her works are highlighted by a subtle and minimal character, and they often playfully blur the boundaries between interior and exterior spaces. One such project is the Laview commuter train, which features massive windows, and a curved edge glass nose. The commuter train was designed to make the passengers feel like they’re at home, instead of on a train moving between Tokyo and Saitama. The carriages were created to make the passengers feel comfortable and at ease, mimicking the experience of sitting in your own house.

6. Florence Knoll Bassett

Florence Knoll Bassett was an American architect and furniture designer who completely revolutionized and transformed the design of workplaces, in turn shaping the mid-century modern design movement. She was trained by the three giants of European Modernism – Marcel Breuer, Walter Gropius, and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, which helped her immensely as she began working for her husband’s furniture company, which was later named Knoll Associates. She created the concept of the modern open-plan office, truly reimagining workplace spaces. Her open-plan ‘Knoll look’ interior completely rejuvenated the office landscape of corporate America, and the impact still lingers on how offices are designed today. She took over Knoll Associates after her husband died in 1955, and the company continued to grow and flourish under her leadership.

7. Greta Magnusson-Grossman

Greta Magnusson Grossman, a Swedish designer, seamlessly merged Scandinavian sensibilities with the midcentury design movement in California in the 1940s. Grossman was not only renowned for her furniture designs but also for her architectural projects, particularly homes in the Los Angeles area, which embraced open floor plans and integrated with the surrounding landscape. Despite her success in architecture, Grossman is best known today for her lamp designs, notably the Grasshopper floor lamp and the Cobra table lamp, both of which have gained iconic status in the midcentury-modern design canon. Towards the end of her career, Grossman also taught furniture design at UCLA from 1957 to 1963.

8. Suzanne Vanderbilt

Suzanne Vanderbilt, a trailblazing auto designer at GM, began her career as one of the original Damsels of Design. Vanderbilt joined GM after graduating from Pratt Institute in 1955 and worked on automotive interior design for Chevrolet and Cadillac. Her innovative work included patents for ergonomic automobile seats and safety switches, although these were never produced. Despite facing setbacks and sexism, she persevered, rising to become chief designer of Chevrolet’s Interior Studio by 1972. Vanderbilt’s career was marked by a pursuit of perfection and creativity, reflected in her dedication to automotive design. Her pursuits in the male-dominated automotive industry helped pave the way for other women designers like Diane Allen and Michelle Christensen.

9. Diane Allen

Diane Allen is a senior designer manager at Nissan Design America in San Diego, and she also manages the design programs for the Nissan brand assigned to NDA by the Nissan Global Design Center in Japan. She designed the 2016 Nissan Titan, which is a heavy-duty pick-up truck made from pure gearhead muscle, and capable of hauling everything from boats to horse trailers! She manages the design process of the TITAN family of trucks – overseeing the design concept and sketch development to the production sheet metal, and designing and prototyping of all the different parts, accessories, and wheels! She also managed the Nissan 350Z and 370Z sports coupes, the Rogue crossover SUV, and the Infinity QX56 SUV.

10. Michelle Christensen

Michelle Christensen made history by becoming the auto industry’s first female to lead the development of a supercar when she headed the 2017 remodel of the iconic Acura NSX. It is a second-gen hybrid supercar that was named “Performance Car of the Year” by Road & Track. The launch of the automotive was highly awaited, as it was being re-released 25 years after its original debut. She graduated in transport design from the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California, and went on to work for Honda, General Motors, and then Acura – the luxury division of Honda.

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This Tiny Home Is The Modern Flexible Office Space You Need

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Designed by Baluchon, the Bois Perdus tiny home is a flexible, free-flowing, and light-filled space that serves as a towable dwelling. One of the focal points of the home is its flexibility, allowing it to function as a tranquil office that can support the owner’s crafting hobby, and letting it eventually function as a full-time home as well. Bois Perdus is French for Lost Woods, and it is founded on a double-axle trailer, with a length of 20 feet.

Designer: Baluchon

The tiny house is finished in a red cedar, adorned with an aluminum roof and accenting, and accentuated with loads of glazing, which fills the home with natural light. As you enter the home, you are welcomed by the living room which holds a sofa, a tiny loft for storage, and a small wood-burning stove, that can heat the entire home. The kitchen is located next to the living room, or it will be in the future, as currently the home only functions as a home office. The intended space for the kitchen is occupied by a desk for the owner.

A small crafting area has also been fitted underneath the storage-integrated staircase, and it holds a sewing machine and some shelving. The bathroom is located on the opposite side of the living room, and it is equipped with a shower, sink, and toilet, as well as a window to allow natural light inside. The home only accommodates one bedroom, which you can access via the storage-integrated staircase. The bedroom is a conventional loft-style space, with not much headroom. It does have a double bed and a pair of nightstands.

In the future, there are plans to move the Bois Perdus full-time, letting it function as a well-equipped home that will meet the owner’s needs and requirements. But at the moment, it is a work-focused tiny house that serves as a peaceful oasis where the owner can wrap up his workload.

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Unique Tiny Home Provides All The Amenities & Luxuries You Would Find In A Full-Sized Home

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Designed by MitchCraft Tiny Homes, Casey’s 32′ x 10′ Tiny Home is equipped with all the luxurious features you would expect from a full-sized home. The interior is filled to the brim with storage, and it also showcases a light-filled and flexible living space, with excellent elements like underfloor heating, a netted loft space, a dishwasher, and a large bedroom with loads of headroom to stand straight.

Designer: MitchCraft Tiny Homes

Casey’s 32′ x 10′ Tiny Home is founded on a triple-axle gooseneck trailer, and it features an extra-wide frame. It has a spacious and house-like layout inside, hence it will need a permit to tow on the road. The interior of the home measures 390 square feet, and as you enter the home, you are welcomed by a large kitchen in the center of the house. The kitchen is equipped with a dishwasher, sink, electric stovetop, a dining table for two, and loads of storage space. It also includes a large cat tree, a cat flap, and an exterior door providing access for the owner’s pets.

The living room is located close to the kitchen, and it includes a sofa, and storage unit with a TV, that can be stowed away when not in use. The home is equipped with ladder-style steps that can be integrated into the wall to provide access to the netted loft area, which increases the living space, without cutting off the natural light streaming in from the skylight above.

On the other end of the kitchen is the bathroom equipped with underfloor heating to keep your toes warm as you step out of the shower. There is also a sink, and a flushing toilet, as well as some storage space. A storage-integrated staircase leads you to the master bedroom nestled in the gooseneck part of the trailer. This space has loads of headroom allowing visitors to stand upright, which isn’t always seen in tiny homes. It also includes a double bed and more storage space, as well as a separate washing machine and dryer. The second loft area is utilized for storage.

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Concept for a hotel in space reimagines outer space living

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When you think about living in space, the Jetsons’ house is probably the first thing that comes to mind (well, that is if you’re of the generation that regularly watched the animated series). We’re basically imagining how we live on earth but transported to space so there may be some advanced technology things floating around. But the reality is that housing in outer space will probably be very different from how we live on our planet.

Designer: Acromnia Studio

The Acromnia Orbital Hotel is a speculative concept design for how we may actually live in space and it is vastly different from what we’re probably imagining. Instead of just transporting a futuristic looking regular hotel room to space, this is actually a “room” that doesn’t have any furniture or any of the other trappings that we expect from it. Inside the shell (we can barely call it a room), you have a sort of shape-shifting, responsive material that will adapt to what the occupant needs at a certain time.

For example, when it’s sleeping time, the walls will envelop you, which is not so good news if you’re not a fan of closed spaces. In fact, the entire space has a bit of a claustrophobic look to it so it’s not something I’m looking forward to. There are also various buttons and navigation devices that you can use to control what elements and furniture will come out when you need them. The shell also has micropores that will let things like sound, light, scent, and air flow freely through your space.

The hotel room can exist independently as a hexahedron-shaped structure or it can also be put together to form a network of capsules. Living in space outside of space shuttles is still such a conceptual idea that things like this seem light years away for now. But for design companies and for those that are looking into space travel, it’s never too early to plan how we’re going to live and survive outside of Earth.

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This Shipping Container-Based Tiny Home Features An Interesting Space Saving Layout

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Shipping containers are widely used in the world of architecture, and they are used to build tiny homes, offices, or even soccer stadiums. However, they are predominantly used for tiny homes, and this debut model by UnContained Dreams is another great space-saving tiny home design. Called the Rising Sun, this high-cube shipping container provides a refreshing take on space-saving interior design, and it measures 40 feet.

Designer: UnContained Dreams

The tiny home has a height of 9.6 feet, with a width of 8 feet, making it a few inches smaller than most trailer-based tiny homes. It is difficult to fit a comfortable interior layout into such a home, but UnContained Dreams managed to do a great job. Large metal boxes also tend to have poor thermal performance, hence this is something UnContained Dreams had to deal with. To deal with this issue, they used closed-cell spray foam on the ceiling, floor, and walls. The home is also equipped with multiple windows and has doors cut into it, featuring wooden trim which creates a utilitarian look.

The home also features a mini-split air-conditioning unit which keeps the interior cool and comfy. As you enter the home, you are welcomed by a spacious living room. This is the focal point of the home, and it includes a custom walnut futon that can be transformed into a double bed. The living room also contains a handy table made from walnut. There is an entertainment center as well, with double glass doors that fill the space with light.

The kitchen is located next to the living room, and it contains quartz countertops, stainless steel appliances, a fridge/freezer, an oven with a propane-powered stove, a microwave, a sink, shelving, and cabinetry. It also includes a dining table for five adults. Since the home lacks some space, the studio installed a separate WC, shower, and a nearby vanity sink. This suits smaller homes quite well! The bedroom has a double bed with integrated storage space for clothes, shoes, and more. It also has two built-in nightstands and lighting, as well as a small wall-mounted standing desk area that can be used as a home office.

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The Timber Craftsmanship On This Off-Grid Tiny Home Is Its Aesthetic USP

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Portugal-based Madeiguincho is created by a family of carpenters and the firm’s home truly showcases their expertise in wood and timber craftsmanship. The Vigia perfectly demonstrates their exceptional skills, and functions as a light-filled home that can run off-grid. Meaning Lookout in Portuguese, the Vigia is founded on a double-axle trailer and has a length of 23 feet. It is finished in wood, both inside and out, and is equipped with loads of glazing, which allows natural light to stream inside. Wood shutters have been installed as well, to control and regulate the amount of light that permeates within.

Designer: Madeiguincho

The center of the home leads to the outside through glass doors. This central space is occupied by the kitchen which contains a sink, an electric cooktop, custom cabinetry, and space for a fridge/freezer. The living room is adjacent to the kitchen, and it seems quite comfy with an L-shaped sofa, a wood-burning stove, a decorative window, and some storage space.

The bathroom is located opposite the living room and includes a composting toilet, a sink, and a shower. This bathroom also includes a secondary entrance, and this can be accessed from the outside. The Vigia is equipped with only one bedroom, which is essentially a loft space that can be accessed through a fixed ladder. It is similar to the bedrooms you typically find in tiny homes, with a double bed and a low ceiling,

The Vigia has the ability to run off-grid, as it is equipped with a solar panel array on the roof, that can be angled towards to sun, to maximize the amount of energy produced. This panel is also connected to a battery system. Tanks have also been installed for water. The home is adorned with specialized and stunning timber craftsmanship from Madeiguincho, which truly sets the home apart from typical tiny homes on the market. The woodwork is the home’s USP, and places it high on the aesthetics and looks scale.

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Idyllic Little Home With A Porch Reading Area Looks Straight Out Of A Classic Novel

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Most tiny homes nowadays tend to be contemporary-style dwellings outfitted with modern amenities. They may not be luxurious, but they are comfortable in a functional way, and they meet all your basic requirements. Baluchon is known for its quaint contemporary-style homes, however, it designed a traditional tiny house design that takes us right back to the nascent days of the micro-living movement. Called the Miss Twain Tiny House, this home measures 20 feet and is adorned with an idyllic little porch reading area.

Designer: Baluchon

Named after famous author Mark Twain (the owner is an avid reader and a long-time fan) the Miss Twin Tiny Home is founded on a double-axle trailer, and accentuated with a red cedar finish, and an aluminum roof. The tiny home is on the smaller, more compact size, and is almost half the size of typical North American models. The porch is quite compact but has adequate space for a chair. The porch also leads to the living room, which is fitted with a sofa bed for guests, a coffee table, a wood-burning stove, and an operable table.

The kitchen is adjacent to the living room, and it features a sink, fridge, drop-down table for two, two-burner propane-powered stove, microwave, and some cabinetry. The kitchen is also equipped with a large storage unit. From the kitchen we move on to a small bathroom which is quite basic, containing only a shower and a toilet. The bathroom doesn’t have a wash basin, which is quite inconvenient, and users will need to wash their hands in the kitchen sink, which doesn’t rate it high on the hygiene factor.

The Miss Twin Tiny Home features two loft spaces, with the larger loft room functioning as a bedroom, and is accessible via a ladder. It has a low ceiling and double bed, much like most loft-style rooms in tiny homes. The second loft room is intended for storage and is placed over the living room. You can access it via a removable ladder as well.

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