Project Nova

Curating an archive of perspective design language and contemporary form.

12/22/2022

The Trousdale Residence is located within a preexisting development, where regulations forbid building beyond the existing flat pad and set a ceiling height of 14 feet or less above grade. Anodized aluminum slats covering the exterior of the home are fastened in place by a strong adhesive created by "3M", where the client served as a scientist, manager, and vice president, and used in the manufacture of aircraft. The single-story house has two courts that provide a passage of light, water, and space in the middle of the building, and is rationally laid out with equal bays for private and public uses on either side. The galleries and auxiliary spaces are lit from the south and north by an east-west clerestory, and the southern patio and pool are shielded from neighbors above by a 25-foot cantilevered trellis, which also frames expansive, unbroken views of the Los Angeles Basin to the south. 📸 by Roland Halbe

12/20/2022

The concept of wall panels as a defining element serves as the foundation for this augmentation of the living area with flowing rooms. Eight walls make a supporting framework as well as continuing within to construct rooms. Different spatial scenarios can be produced in a limited area using straightforward methods. There are three clearly defined spaces that are in an open relationship with one another and the garden. 📸 by Simon Menges

10/05/2022

The client called for the creation of unique experiences in daily life while maximizing the potential of the setting. The architects created a courtyard home that looks out toward the town and surrounding mountains. A wall enclosing the courtyard and a horizontally accentuated voluminous form make up the structure. The wall's height has been chosen so that the rooms can see the spectacular mountain ranges. It was planned to blend in with the structure, which produced a stunning skyline. By doing this, it becomes a natural part of the new landscape and increases the area's scenic value. By Kouichi Kimora Architects 📸 by Norihito Yamauchi

09/14/2022

Miguel Angel and Rafael Aragones created this work of modernist art, which is situated in the center of the Trousdale Estates - surrounded by greenery, rolling hills, and blue skies above. The idea was to incorporate natural elements inside the home and make use of the favorable environmental conditions that Los Angeles offers.

To welcome these elements, this intimate haven is as open as possible. Every possible volume of the house was diligently and cohesively planned as a single unit. “A sum of elements that generate space. A sum of spaces that narrate a story.” 📸by Inessa Binenbaum

09/08/2022

As the longest serving monarch in British history, her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II (1926-2022) offers a legacy of opportunity and advancement to the people of the United Kingdom, Europe, and the world as a whole. Her departure marks the end of an era, and serves as a symbol that time passes. Her Majesty dedicated the bulk of her life to her service, representing her country, commonwealth, and people for 70 years. She will be united with her late husband and parents, as her present responsibilities have long been finished.

08/11/2022

“GALLERY is one of the earliest major art intuitions in China dedicated to advancing the research and development of abstract art. After more than a decade of operation, the owner of the gallery invited ARCHSTUDIO to renovate the space, improve its functions and adapt to future development demands. Art Zone 798, where PIFO GALLERY is situated, houses a cluster of modern art spaces repurposed from electronics factories built in the 1950s.

Distinct from those iconic buildings featuring concrete arched windows in the art zone, PIFO GALLERY is set in an ordinary industrial building — a regular closed concrete "box" with high ceilings and poor natural daylighting. For renovating the gallery, ARCHSTUDIO's primary consideration was to satisfy its functional demands while endowing the space with a captivating ambiance and a unique visual identity, so as to improve the brand image of the gallery”. By ARCHSTUDIO 📸 by Weiqi Jin

06/09/2022

“House L, a single-family home with an office wing and an au pair apartment, is shaped as a gigantic concrete monolith. It is exactly what it appears to be: concrete on the inside and exterior, with no additional insulation or cladding”. 📸 by Brigida González

02/05/2022

The perfect Parisian interior, a clean palette adorned by vibrant art and statement furniture. By .abou.jaoude 📸 by Sebastian Erras

02/01/2022

“Mid Century meets Modern, the impeccable design by Woods + Dangaran. This architectural statement blends art and architecture like no other, representing the true essence and lifestyle of Trousdale Estates.” By 📸 by Joe Fletcher Photography

01/31/2022

House BRAS stands on an idyllic, tree-lined plot of land next to an old allotment in Antwerp's outskirts. As a result, it is designed to fit in with the natural surroundings. Meandering plans allow for unimpeded vistas of the garden in all seasons and at all times of the day.

There are three main areas on the ground floor: a living space with an open kitchen, a fitness area with a pool and a sauna, and a music room with a view of the pond as a backdrop. The auxiliary areas, such as stairs, the pantry, entryway, and bedrooms, are all connected by glass tunnels that run the length of four closed blocks clad in dark larch veneer. 📸 by Lenzer .be

01/17/2022

“The site is a moss-covered hilly area with views over a quiet bend in the glacial river in the spring; the river floats icebergs from the glacier through the nearby bend in the river, toward the sea some 100 kilometers away. One approaches the house from the top of a hill The building is organized as a sequence of events, from parking through walking between the garage and bedroom spaces, into the living space and out into the country-side The intention of the plan was to grab the mossy hill of the surrounding countryside and bring it into the living space, creating a continuous one-room experience. This enables panoramic views of the river and the distant mountains to the west.” By 📸 by Rafael Pinho

01/06/2022

The Musée Yves Saint Laurent opened its doors in 2017 as a tribute to French designer Yves Saint Laurent and his remarkable work. The museum itself showcases striking selections from the Foundation Pierre Bergé - Yves Saint Laurent collection. Their collection houses rare selections of apparel, accessories, and thousands of sketches, which all play to preserve the monumental history of Yves Saint Laurent. 📸 by Dan Glasser

01/04/2022

“It will come as no surprise that the L.A. home of gallery owner Nino Mier and Barbara Gladstone Gallery partner Caroline Luce is chock-full of art from both of their collections— along with natural light, and more art. Blessed with staggering views and set in the buzzy Los Feliz neighborhood, the homebody couple may be art world bigwigs, but their favorite hang-out partner is actually their adorable dog, Kipp.” By 📸 by Sam Frost

12/07/2021

“He wanted a great yard, she wanted a great room. They both desired a home with a strong beating heart for themselves and their two teen-age children. This modern family practices togetherness, not hanging out in separate rooms. The architects’ assignment was to design an appealing centralized habitat for all members of the household to use and enjoy.” By 📸 by Darren Bradley

12/05/2021

Villa Bonh proves that good architectures does not have to be too elaborate. Principled design, that adheres to the logic of placement and orientation is basic, but this simple home demonstrates that honest design without unnecessary intricacies results in stunning designs. 📸 by Tim Van de Velde

12/04/2021

A place created to fosters calm and tranquility, designed by Japanese architect Kouichi Kimura in Shiga, Japan. The three-bedroom house, located amidst a field between a concrete factory and expressway, was designed with few views out to minimize the noise level emitted from the outside. These factors directed the residence’s layout and impenetrable appearance. By Kouichi Kimura Architects 📸 by Norihito Yamauchi & Yoshihiro Asada

11/30/2021

This penthouse, located in the highly coveted 432 Park Avenue, is encircled on all four sides by breathtaking views of Manhattan and beyond. The apartment is enclosed by large square windows set throughout the façade, the seemingly rigorous order of the building itself contrasts exquisitely with the interior's lightness and exceptional elegance of Japanese art and architecture. 📸 by Anthony Cotsifas

11/23/2021

The Silver House, designed by Belgian architect Olivier Dwek, is a stunning property on the Greek island of Zakynthos. Set on a rocky slope, the structure responds to its stunning surroundings by providing unbroken views of the neighboring island of Kefalonia, and the Ionian sea beyond. Inspired by the monochromatic works of late French artist Yves Klein, Olivier Dwek made limitless blue the most crucial contextual element determining the house's direction, volume, and spaces. 📸 by Serge Anton

11/17/2021

“The site for a start-up REMISE (a tenement-block outhouse, historically a workshop-cum-carriage house) at Immanuelkirchstraße is situated in the Prenzlauer Berg district. It in turn rests, geologically, entirely on the ground moraines of the Barnim Plateau. Eighty percent of the existing building was erected over a hundred years ago (ca. 1890–1905).

The structure was always the same: a front building, a back building, and then a Remise, the outhouse. The occupancy mix was vibrant. While the front and back buildings were used for living, artisans plied their trades in the REMISE: carpenters, saddlers, locksmiths, printers, bakers.” Provided by .berlin 📷 by Simon Menges

11/16/2021

Lead architect Salvador Tarradas, with the Athelia Arquitectos group, designed this earthy abode on the premise of privacy and interconnection with the outside environment. Located amid the hills and valleys of Northern Catalonia, the “Límit House” uses overlapping walls, which help establish visual linkages between its two gardens on opposite sides of a hill and a valley that divides them. These walls fold into the service areas to form a wall parallel with the neighboring residences, providing privacy from the street. These walls, however, are intended to be an organic part of the landscape, tucked beneath the canopy of pine trees. This structure's foundation is made of earthy-colored concrete and has vertically linked formwork that speaks to the surrounding trees. 📷 by Andrés Arias .studio

11/10/2021

Tadao Ando, a self-taught Japanese architect, composed a dreamlike experience via the basic motions of the structures conveyed by smooth concrete paneling and simple geometric volumes that allude to Ando's prior works and styles. This historic home, refurbished to become a creative research center, is built on 51,000 square meters and underwent a careful study of traditional building processes and material evaluation that were utilized to begin the redesign.

Ando planned the majority of the new installation ten meters below natural ground level to retain the contrast between the history of the seventeenth-century mansion and the necessity of contemporary labs and offices. The geometric structure interacts with the geometry of the ellipse to establish paths for the series of free-standing columns leading to the barchessa, resulting in a visual dance. The sunken piazza's floor-to-ceiling windows, which are warmly lit from above, emphasize these views. By Tadao Ando 📷 by Karina Castro

11/07/2021

“With a holistic approach, the studio imagines projects that are refined, playful, studied, and unexpected – working with passionate clients to create indelible experiences. In 2019, Giancarlo made his debut into Architectural Digest’s prestigious AD100 list, celebrating the industry’s top global talents.” 📷 by Stephen Johnson

11/05/2021

Zuisen-ji is a historic Buddhist temple located on a peninsula in Lake Tsutenko, a picturesque site located about two hours from Kyoto's downtown core. Now, a new religious pavilion has been erected within the complex to honor female forefathers, which is unique in a culture that values male ancestry above all else. The temple is therefore an act of acknowledgement of woman as a source of life, a vessel that conjures the return to the mother's womb using its interior with an opaque enclosure that embraces the visitor, encouraging him to remember his relationship with the mother and to offer gratitude for being born. A concrete cage coated in white to signify purity provides the essential seclusion from what happens outside. The planned building's prismatic aspect and lack of joints turn it into an abstract prism that appears to hover on the carpet of anthracite chips that delimits the property. The entry is marked by a massive block of white marble, a type of deep threshold that metaphorically stretches the passage between inside and outdoor. Takashi Yamaguchi & Associates 📷 by Takashi Yamaguchi

11/03/2021

The design of the Brick House emerged from the relationship between two brick houses and the surrounding terrain, drawing inspiration from local courtyard dwellings. Local clay was used to make terracotta bricks, which were used to build the structure and the façades. Village construction workers who were well-versed in the technique were able to help bring together old-fashioned craftsmanship with cutting-edge design. The façade is made up of three distinct types of brick skins; bricks projecting from the wall cast shadows because of the interlocking design. It is the brickwork on the borders of these windows that further creates abstract geometric relations while maintaining faithful to the structural logic of the building. AZL Atelier Zhang Lei 📷 by Iwan Baan

10/26/2021

The Bernardes + Jacobsen group designed this large, H-shaped residence near the coast; however, it remains virtually invisible from the beach below - and to mitigate the building's otherwise imposing size, the home is raised 50cm above the ground to create a floating appearance, thereby contracting the structure's presumed massive volume. The H-shaped residence's wings help to divide the house's many components; one wing includes the bedrooms, which are connected to the delicate wood-clad principal living area. Another section of the residence is designated as a leisure area, this segment includes the pool, and other amenities.

To counteract the surrounding environment's humidity and heat, the house was constructed using untreated eucalyptus wood planks - the architects stated: “The wood panel concept was created to work as a protection from the sun and was adopted as the aesthetically concept of the house. It also works very well with the tropical weather of the region. These panels differentiate the external circulation areas, but also the private ones, since they protect the private area accesses.” 📷 by Leonardo Finotti

10/25/2021

This Stone villa built by Los Angeles based architect Marwan Al-Sayed lays on a four-hectare desert site and relies on a base of large walls and a “snake-like and calligraphic” design that blurs the distinction between inside and outside. The entire structure is based around a central courtyard, lined by Veracruz saw cut lime-stone walls that “move in and out of the living spaces,” therefore “serving to alternate between carved mass and open space.” Al-Sayed described the importance of incorporating the surrounding environment of the Sonoran Desert in the aesthetic of the residence, "The materials are monolithic and reduced to a few elements so that the emphasis remains on the desert beyond, and the nuances of light and shade within and around the walls," he added. Hundreds of small capillary tubes are installed in the plaster ceilings, and when filled with chilled water, the closed-loop system creates a cold plane that draws in heat, resulting in a bioclimatic cooling system rather than traditional air conditioning. 📷 by Marwan Al-Sayed Inc.

10/23/2021

After over 20 years in the making, Candalepas Associates completed the “Punchbowl Mosque”. The spectacular concrete wonders sits surrounded by the quiet suburbs of Southwest Sydney, the liner interior contains the immaculate prayer space, which sits as the focus of the mosque itself. The minimalist space is decorated by skylights, and timber lined ornaments, thus lightening up the inside and breaking up the otherwise unadorned interior. The domes are a modern take on muqarnas, a historic Islamic form of ornate vaulting. The mosque's architecture is notable for its 99 concrete-cast concave domes. The 99 names of God will be engraved in gold calligraphy on the domes, as is customary. "The women are right at the center of the dome, so they're, in a way, placed in a more powerful position than the men who are below them," Candalepas said in an interview. Naturally the mosque's unique architecture has been compared to Brutalism, as its design cues are reminiscent of classic brutalist form. 📷 by Rori Gardiner

10/21/2021

When fashion designer Yohji Yamamoto was designing his Tokyo house with Japanese architect Toshiki Matsui, he specifically requested for the abode to be forged like a prison. The brutalist aesthetic was appealing to Yamamoto, these designed cues are often seen in his clothing design, thus he was keen to convey this aesthetic to his residence. “It’s a very easy way to live. It’s a very small, limited space in the sense of having everything you need within reach” - said Yamamoto when describing the composition of his residence.

When traversing his residence one will notice the absence of artwork, Yamamoto said that those distracting pieces “hurt his eyes”. Then when the photographer came to photograph his house, Yamamoto specifically requested to be photographed “like a dead man” in bed.

10/18/2021

“Facing the cathedral and following the outline of the former convent’s kitchen garden, we erect a strong stone wall box open to the sky. Its walls and floors entirely made of stone. The very same stone as the Cathedral. A real Hortus Conclusus. In the corner facing the cathedral, a massive stone measuring 250x150x50, a veritable Cornerstone. And chiselled on that stone:

HIC LAPIS ANGULARIS MAIO MMXII POSITO

Within the stone box, a glass box, only glass. Like a greenhouse. With a double facade similar to a Trombe wall. The external skin of the facade is made of glass, each single sheet measuring 600x300x12 and all joined together simply with structural silicone and hardly anything else. As if entirely made of air.

The trihedral upper angles of the box are made completely with glass, thus even further accentuating the effect of transparency. Precisely what Mies was looking for in his Friedrichstrasse tower. The trihedron built with air, a true Glass Corner. And engraved in acid on the glass:

HOC VITRUM ANGULARIS MAIO MMXII POSITO

The stone box made from Memory. With its Cornerstone deeply rooted in the soil.
The glass box made for the Future. With its Glass Corner blending into the sky.

To build with air, the abiding dream of every architect.” Written by Alberto Campo Baeza 📷 by

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