Travel
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Shou Sugi Ban Stands Strong in the Seaside
Unexpected challenges changed one family’s plans twice. First, Simone Mansour, a marketing consultant and interior architect, her husband David Mansour, an IT consultant, and their son, Felix, planned to move to the countryside outside Brighton, about one hour from London by train. The family lost out to other buyers several times and then in 2016 stumbled on a charming 1930s villa by the sea with equal access to the South Downs countryside and Brighton’s city center. “There are lots of traditional homes in Sussex with orange-colored tiles, so we ran matching tiles from the roofline to the ground in the front of the house,” Simone said. “We also love Asia,…
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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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Slow Luxury has a New Destination
The modular hotel concept, called Hytte, allows landowners and hotel operators to implement a custom configuration of Japandi-style cabins. Hytte (Norwegian for Cabin) is a new modular hotel and retreat product brought to you and co-created by the award winning teams at Koto Design and Aylott + Van Tromp. This new partnership designs, furnishes and delivers design-led, sustainable cabins specifically for the hotel and leisure industry. Hytte delivers both off the shelf designs and bespoke co-branded cabins for hoteliers and leisure operators alike. Designed by the award-winning architects at Koto and in collaboration with hospitality experts and interior designers Aylott + Van Tromp, Hytte redefines prefabricated, modular hotels and retreats…
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Escape to a Tiny Cabin on an Icelandic Lava Field
The charred timber skin of this sustainable cabin blends it with the craggy 300-year-old lava field surrounding Lake Mývatn in northern Iceland – the first of a new campsite in the scenic area. Danish-Icelandic practice Studio Heima designed the 21 sq m tiny home, dubbed Aska (or Ash, in English), borrowing from Japanese and Nordic design elements. Light pine plywood lines the cabin’s interiors to contrast the burnt pine cladding, charred using the Japanese technique shou sugi ban to protect it from the harsh elements and add to its longevity. The interior is maximized via tall ceilings and bespoke furniture, including a double bedroom, bath and open plan kitchen with large picture windows looking on the Hverfjall Volcano and Lake…
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Contemporary Lakeside Getaway becomes Refuge
On the surface, the house doesn’t look terribly different than the many century-old farmsteads dotting the surrounding fields. The overall shape, conceived by Montreal architecture office RHA Works in collaboration with Toronto-and-Maine-based AAMP Studio, borrows from local barns, with pitched roofs over long, simple boxes. To the well-honed eye, the exterior siding provides the first clue that the house is unique. It’s clad in shou sugi ban – planks of cedar, charred using a Japanese technique that brings out the wood’s natural insect-and-rot resistance. The boards, sourced from a company called Blackwood Siding Co, are not only more durable than typical, unfinished cedar, they have a rich, distinct aesthetic. “From…
