Design
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Rising from the Hawaiian Volcanic Ashes
Just because a tiny house is petite in stature doesn’t mean it lacks amenities. In fact, some of our favorite diminutive dwellings pack a bigger design punch than houses three times their size. That’s because the owners are intent on maximizing their square footage, dreaming up clever ways to squeeze in all the comforts of home without sacrificing environmental sustainability or dashing good looks. Taken on pedigree alone, the Phoenix House in Pāhoa, Hawaii is impressive: It was designed by Will Beilharz, founder of sustainable architecture firm ArtisTree Home, and exists completely off-the-grid. But where it exists—in the middle of a hardened lava field on Hawaii’s Big Island—is even more flooring. Plunked at the…
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IKEA Inspires a Tiny House
IKEA has built a tiny home that’s living large. Refreshingly the house doesn’t skimp on style or amenities, and it has been designed with sustainability at its core. The tiny house movement — typically dwellings smaller than 500 square-feet — has been surging in popularity for more than a decade, and increasingly so in the past year as travelers seek safe, remote and compact havens during the pandemic. Now IKEA is getting on board by designing and decorating a tiny house through the IKEA Tiny Home Project. IKEA is no stranger to clever design for small spaces—but the furniture giant recently took on a tiny living challenge unlike any other it’s…
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Maximizing a Bright Black Box in Echo Park
Built from the ground up in the neighborhood of Echo Park, in Los Angeles, the 1,560-square-foot home of consultant Melanie Ryan and architect Todd Sussman, cofounders of design studio Open for Humans, is a work of love and dedication. Though it felt like a big challenge, building a house from a design to its full form, the final product has become both their personal refuge and workspace. “Once we began our search for land, we decided on two must-haves,” Todd says: anti-isolation and views. “As the home is situated on an active corner lot, the goal from there was to privatize the street-facing sides of the living spaces and open up…
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Shou Sugi Ban Atelier in an Orchard
The architects of Dutch studio XVW architectuur designed the Atelier in an Orchard, a small building combining contemporary form with the Japanese Shou Sugi Ban technique to create a simple, cosy volume that fits perfectly into the orchard where it stands. Xander Vermeulen Windsant, founder of the Dutch studio XVW architectuur and winner of the 2017 Mies van der Rohe award, loves the element of craftsmanship in his work. This love of craftsmanship in the process of architecture is evident in the Atelier in an Orchard, set among the apple trees of an old orchard. The little building built in 2018 is located behind the Waaldijk, the dam on the Waal River, in…
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Luminous Shou Sugi Ban Facade opens upon the Forest
In Mohican Hills, Maryland, Robert Gurney Architect realizes a dwelling along a steeply sloping, wooded site. distant views of the Potomac River are afforded in the late fall, winter and early spring. A simple rectangular volume, the house is revealed as a two-story structure seen from the street. This extends an additional two stories on the opposite elevation to take advantage of the steep grade, resulting in a four-story volume facing the Potomac River. The house is anchored into the earth with two concrete end walls, extending all four stories. wood framed walls clad in shou sugi ban with minimal fenestration connect the two concrete walls at the front of the house. On the…
