Tag Archives: Cantilever

Meditative work space gives you a great view of the city landscape

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Sometimes when I’m dreaming about my ideal work and relaxation space, I think of full glass windows that’s overlooking something scenic like a beach or nature. But knowing that I’m really a city girl at heart, I know I wouldn’t survive living away from the concrete jungle. So the next best thing would be having a great view of the city, even if they’re just building landscapes and the occasional spots of green in between.

Designer: Luke Ogrydziak and Zoë Prillinger from OPA

This “retreat” designed on top of a four-story house may probably be close to the city space that I’ve been dreaming of. Aerie allows the users to have a work space that can be turned into a recreation space that is both meditative, minimalist, clean-looking, and “breathable””. They consider it both a physical and psychological space so you can work, read, relax, and rest with a view of San Francisco in front of you. Of course, you should not be afraid of heights if you have to enjoy it since it is cantilevering over the house.

The ceiling of this space is “open to the sky” so you can experience natural illumination during the day, which some consider as a better energy source than light bulbs, literally and figuratively. There are several diffusion layers that the sunlight will go through and is connected to the interior through the sun’s daily cycle. The entire space is evnveloped in a horizontal glass ribbon with just a few minimal breaks, giving you a feeling of immersion as you can see the city landscape at any angle.

There is a built-in desk for working and an upholstered chaise lounge both located on the “edge” while a living room set up and built in shelves are at the back part. Since I spend most of my day working and then relaxing by reading (or scrolling through my phone), this is the perfect set up. All is missing is an area for food and I’m all set. Well, if I could afford to have something like this and if I had a four story house where it can be built on. One could always dream.

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Cantilevered wooden chair experiment puts simplicity and efficiency on a pedestal

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The primary purpose of a chair is, of course, to provide something to sit on. The basic shape of a chair, from its legs to its back to its actual seat, has evolved over the centuries, resulting in a design that provides stability and comfort. That’s not to say that there’s only one way to design a chair, though, and there is plenty of wiggle room for tweaking forms and materials, depending on what the focus of the design is. This design experiment, for example, makes use of a rather unconventional design structure that gives it a unique silhouette and construction, though it may have admittedly reduced the comfort and stability of the overall design in the process.

Designers: Mirko Ihrig, Casey Lewis (LOTTO)

A good chair design would need to have stable legs to stand on, ample room to sit on, and a reliable back to lean on, though that last bit sometimes becomes optional when talking about stools and similar seating furniture. The combination of these three elements leads to a usable piece of furniture, but many designers try to change the formula a bit by using different forms, materials, or structures. Canti, for example, is an experiment that uses a common architectural structure to create a chair that highlights the use of wood as an industrialized material.

When used for construction, timber is often cut into planks because they are the most space-efficient form for production and transportation. The final product will, of course, look very different from this initial shape, but the Canti chair skips a few steps to reflect the original form of the plank. In short, it uses a simple plank of wood as the “spine” of the chair and uses another cantilevered plank as the seat.

This results in an interesting design that is almost brutalist in both its raw shape and material, though the wood is definitely finished to look and feel more approachable. It pays tribute to bare wooded planks used in construction and production. It also gives off a sense of imbalance and discomfort, which is ironic for something that is supposed to be designed for stability and comfort. The way the plank that serves as the main structure tilts backward might make you feel it will tip over, and the somewhat short protrusion that is the seat doesn’t inspire much confidence either.

Of course, the Canti chair does attempt to provide a bit of comfort by carving out an extremely subtle curve for the person’s body. That curve is indeed so minimal that you can even put things on the seat, turning the chair into a makeshift side table. It might not be the most comfortable chair to look at or even use, but Canti definitely sparks the imagination as a design experiment that could be close to being ready for production.

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This prefab home constructed from six modules features one floating shipping container

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The Amagansett Modular house is a 1,800-square-foot prefabricated home constructed from stacked shipping containers.

As pandemic-related circumstances continue to change global industries, we are seeing the transformation of architecture take shape in real-time. While some architects and designers are working quickly to keep up with the shifting scope, others have been ahead of the curve for long before it became popular.

For the past ten years, the Manhattan-based MB Architecture firm has been research-prototyping their latest and most intricate prefabricated residential home yet. The Amagansett Modular home is a 1,800-square-foot home comprised of multiple shipping containers stacked together to form a unique, seemingly cantilevered structure.

Located in Amagansett’s East Hampton village, the Amagansett Modular is one of many modern homes that take disused shipping containers to construct modular houses with little waste. Considering the durable and inexpensive nature of shipping containers, they’re the ideal option for building prefabricated homes and MB Architecture is no stranger.

Modeled after their circa-2008 insta_house, the Amagansett Modular home is a custom design for a family of four. While the insta_house is a scalable, prefabricated structure formed from four stacked shipping containers, the Amagansett Modular house takes on two additional shipping containers to meet the couple’s requirements.

Amounting to a four-bedroom, three-bath family home, an additional module is connected to the rest of the structure via a glassed-in walkway that leads the home’s residents from the main living spaces to the family’s children’s bedrooms. Whereas the couple’s main bedroom is stationed inside the home’s halved, 10-foot module, the children’s bedrooms remain ground-level.

While the 10-foot, cubic module appears to be cantilevered, the top of it is drawn back with tension to ensure steady support, as the founder of MB Architecture Maziar Behrooz describes,

“The structural design of the 10′ pop-out on the second floor is unique. There are no beams under it—it looks afloat. Technically it is not a cantilever—but it is structured from the top (roof) and held back in tension, down to the foundation on the opposite side. It’s kind of a structural breakthrough—we used the inherent structural strength of the containers to our advantage.”

Throughout the home, floor-to-ceiling windows take up entire sides of the shipping containers. The expansive windows help to bring the home’s residents closer to the surrounding nature while also making the home feel more spacious.

Designer: MB Architecture

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This all-black cabin finds balance between escape and mystery with floor-to-ceiling mountainside windows!

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The Bali House from CASA Studio is a cantilevered multi-level mountain retreat with fully glazed glass windows for an almost-all-glass exterior, open-air terraces that offer unobstructed views, and sophisticated living areas with dark stone and warm wooden elements.

It’s hard not to fantasize about our future dream home. Open-air terrace walkways, somewhere with plenty of sunset views, a semi-outdoor dining room, skylights galore. Using 3dsmax, Corona Renderer, and Adobe Photoshop, interior photography and CGI studio, CASA creates 3D visualizations of architectural plans and their interiors for clients in advertising and PR. Designing the escapist homes of our dreams is their job at Casa, and their latest called Bali House features an almost entirely glass facade and a cantilevered frame.

The Bali House seems to be tucked away in the mountains, somewhere with a subtropical climate. Lodged into the mountainside, the Bali House keeps an obscure profile, with a jet black finish and unadorned exterior. On the property’s wood-slatted ground level, an infinity pool takes center stage beside a lounge and roofed dining area. The outside deck area is accessible by a set of stairs that connect to the home’s first floor. The first floor’s kitchen follows the same enigmatic design scheme as the home’s exterior.

Frosted dark stone countertops refine and cool down the kitchen’s rustic wooden panels, giving the kitchen a cozy yet elegant personality. The living area swaps out the home’s sturdy, rectangular elements for playful, circular touches. The standing, arched light fixture almost grazes the ceiling and the room’s circular floor rug showcases a round coffee table in its center. Exiting the living area, a set of stairs leads to the main bedroom and washing areas.

The stairs from the living room bring you to the home’s primary bedroom where a king-sized bed wrapped in ash grey sheets and fluffed with houndstooth pillows. Warm lighting emanates from a smoky grey glass light fixture to set the mood for the bedroom: suave, yet cozy. Walking from the bedroom to the bathroom, a walk-in closet divides the two, and residents are greeted with an open-air layout. The bathroom’s sink, tub, and shower are kept in the same room without doors or borders to separate them, giving the bathroom a subdued mature ambiance ideal for newlyweds and solo travelers.

Designer: CASA

These wildlife-inspired futuristic cabins suspend off the cliffs like StarWars jets ready for takeoff!

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Thilina Liyanage is a Sri Lankan 3D visualizer who conceptualized architectural fortresses that resemble wildlife, including villas that bend over mountainsides or a yacht club whose roof flexes into the curve of a manta ray’s backside. Developed to be constructed entirely from sustainable building material like bamboo and responsibly harvested wooden chutes, some of Thilina Liyanage’s 3D visualizations take a different approach. For example, one of his recent designs finds futuristic glass and metallic cabins inspired by the shape of dolphins puncturing a cliffside overlooking the ocean.

Similar to his Cliff Cabin 3D visualization, Liyanage’s Futuristic Ocean Cabins are lodged into a tropical mountainside, piercing the cliff to suspend in midair with a cantilever structure. Resembling the shape of a dolphin’s body, the Futuristic Ocean Cabins doubly mimic the rugged science fiction aesthetic of Star Wars, stationed on the cliffside like resistance X-Wing fighter jets ready for battle. Liyanage envisioned each structure bored into the cliffside with angled steel beams wrapped in concrete and yanked tight on their horizontal planes with four high-tensile suspension cables to create enough support for each cabin’s foundation. Accessible from an adjacent steel staircase, the interiors of Liyanage’s Futuristic Ocean Cabins come complete with enough space for a bathroom, sleeping area, kitchen, as well as a small living area.

Coated with glass facades reinforced with a concrete framework, Liyanage envisioned a future getaway that hinges on a transparent, exposed external structure and linear, open-air internal space. Jutting out from their cliffside foundation with the same tension of Star Wars III, the true thrill of Liyanage’s Futuristic Ocean Cabins rests in their support methods (four high-tensile suspension cables and one main support beam bored into the cliffside) to keep its cantilever structure horizontal over the bustling ocean below.

Designer: Thilina Liyanage

The wildlife of the mountainside merges with the futuristic structure of Futuristic Ocean Cabins to create a rugged, sci-fi escapist hideaway.

Bored into the mountainside, Thilina Liyanage’s Futuristic Ocean Cabins remain suspended over the sea.

The cabin’s glass facade framed with concrete give it a rugged look fit for the set of Star Wars.

Inside, the linear layout of each cabin allows space for a living and sleeping area, as well as a kitchen and bathroom.





In addition to the cabins’ beam foundation support, four high-tensile suspension cables sling the cabins horizontally over the ocean.

A vertical steel staircase grants access to each cabin’s interior space.

The cabin’s cantilever design gives it the thrilling edge that Thilina Liyanage is quickly becoming known for.

Equipped with all the amenities and utilities that one might need, the thrill of living above the ocean is balanced with human comforts like AC and septic tanks.

This A-frame, cantilever cabin comes wrapped in a mesh that makes it glows in the dark come nighttime

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Like a lantern in the night, La Invernada glows underneath the canopies of a forest in Curicó, Chile. The small, cantilever cabin, built for weekend getaways, rests atop a distant river and displays intimate views of the sky from any one of the three floors inside. La Invernada, designed by Guillermo Acuña Arquitectos Asociados (GAAA), comes alive at night with warm, white light and glitters with tree branch shadows during the day, thanks to the structure’s clever textile combination of thermoplastic, pinewood, and mesh building material. Despite the show it gives, La Invernada wasn’t built to stand out, but blend into the forest it now calls home.

During the day, the 580-square-foot home is concealed by rows of dozens of trees that create shadows between the three-tiered cabin’s polycarbonate walls. Then, come sundown, La Invernada turns into a nest full of warmth. Acting almost like a blanket for the home, a mesh curtain wraps all of La Invernada, except for the top floor’s view of the sky, and harbors its warm light in one place, amidst the otherwise dark forest. With cool, rainy winters and long, sunny summers, the design and structure of La Invernada are ideal for Chile’s forest. Polycarbonate, a sustainable and transparent thermoplastic building material, protects La Invernada from Chile’s infrequent, but gusty winds and heavy rainfall. Polycarbonate is known for its ability to withstand large amounts of force, as it’s sometimes preferred over glass materials for constructing long-lasting roofs and shatterproof windows. La Invernada’s laminated Chilean pinewood structure provides the cabin’s rounded ceiling and A-frame final look. The cabin’s skeletal frame allows for it to camouflage into the surrounding clusters of trees, making it hard to believe that three floors make up the interior of La Invernada.

The main floor of La Invernada comprises the dining and living spaces for solo reading time, family gatherings, or even dinner parties in the middle of a dark, wooded forest – that’s one dinner party I’d be sure to RSVP. Guillermo Acuña designed the main living area with a tree’s roots in mind as inspiration – the living room seamlessly merges with the forest. Inside, La Invernada offers even more warmth with a wood-burning fireplace, whose uncovered chimney extends from the living room, past two floors, to the arched ceiling. The kitchen and first-floor bedroom are separated by a bathroom. Then, by climbing a ladder, guests can find accommodations on both the second and third mezzanines, the latter providing unfettered views of the canopied sky above. Opting for a fully-exposed, cantilever deck, La Invernada brings residents from the sky into the forest once more with an outdoor hot tub and timber walkway that leads to the gentle, but running river below.

Designer: Guillermo Acuña Arquitectos Asociados

Inspired by the iconic Eames Lounge chair, this cantilevered chair was built to lift you up!

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Innovative chair designs might feel hard to come by, but when one does come along, it’s not so much a thought, but a feeling that there’s something special about it. Whether it’s in the design, construction, or marketing processes, chairs can tell a story and inform us of a designer’s willingness to revolutionize preexisting modes of design, like Marcel Breuer’s Wassily Chair, break the mold during periods of construction, as is the case with the Panton chair, or publicly broadcast a design’s potential for overnight success, like Charles and Ray Eames’ Eames Lounge Chair. Pulling inspiration from the last design mentioned above, Danny Cheung brought to life his own vision of the elusive ‘great chair design’ with the Clipspringer Lounge Chair.

Similar to the Eames Office Chair, Clipspringer is constructed using spring steel, which, much like great chair designs, is a durable, long-lasting building material all thanks to its molding process. Spring steel is the product of a low alloy, medium carbon steel that is heat-tempered to bend and harden the steel into the designer’s desired figure. By partly using spring steel to create the structure of Clipspringer, the chair’s overall elastic modulus is benefitted to maintain an object’s stress on the chair’s cushion and backrest without it concaving inwards – this is what allows Danny Cheung to stand on the edge of his cantilevered chair frame without the chair losing grip on the floor beneath it. A metal frame sits just above the bent spring steel and absorbs much of the tensile stress applied to the Clipspringer chair so that you can comfortably position yourself and lean all the way back without fear that the chair’s cantilevered structure will collapse under compression.

Aesthetically speaking, Clipspringer is certainly reminiscent of great, influential chair designs of yesterday like Wassily’s iconic black cushion and sterling steel combination or Eames Lounge Chair’s reclined backrest and accompanying footrest. However, the cantilevered chair design’s experimental and methodical design process is akin to that of the Panton Chair. The Panton Chair found its audience and overnight success in Basle, Switzerland thanks to Verner Panton’s steadfast commitment to designing and molding a chair out of material that still belongs distinctly to the 60s: plastic. Through consistent experimentation and efficient changes during construction, Verner Panton created an unprecedented lounge chair that still turns heads several years later. Danny Cheung took to planning his own interpretation of the designer’s ever-changing vision for the ideal lounge chair and certainly rose to the occasion.

Designer: Danny Cheung