Copenhagen home on the water, frames incredible views

Lisbeth Juul and Laust Nørgaard are both the dwellers and designers of this dreamy little home, floating on the canals of Copenhagen, a mere 15 minutes from the city centre. Their story is really quite humble and inspiring. After having lived on the canals of the city for 25 years, they had moved back to living in an apartment on land. They survived this on-land move for a short space of 3 years, before the calling of their beloved life by the water had them yearning to be back by the shore.

To fulfill this hunger, Lisbeth Juul and Laust Nørgaard secured a small 80 square-metre floating block on which to build their abode. Being just the two of them, with their daughter having moved out of the family home, they prioritised smart space design, and only living with the essentials required for a healthy balance of comfort and sustainability.

The result is a home that is fabulously simple yet inspiring, composed of clean lines and magnificent views, and thus ultimately, one which allows the mind to de-clutter and the soul to breathe. The location, to begin with, is not one that we typically associate with living in a major developed city, so it instantly makes us want to see and find out more. Furthermore, while Copenhagen is far from the warmest city in the world, the fact that the couple have created a house design that allows so much light in, and frames so many beautiful views of the water, gives this home a breezy, summery feel. 

Source - dwell.com

Images - dwell.com

Related Nest of Pearls post - Could this be the smallest house in the world?

Softly interweaving spaces characterise this home in Vietnam

Designed by 23°5 Studio, an architectural studio based in Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam, BQ17 house is a wonderfully refreshing look into the design and build of a project from scratch. Located within a peaceful and uncrowded neighbourhood of Binh Chanh, BQ17 is the dream home of a couple who spent ten years working and saving hard, in order to be able to realise their dream.

With urban planning laws requiring houses to have a certain unoccupied area around them, the architects were faced with the challenge of needing to provide enough comfortably livable space for a large family, including four separate bedrooms, on what was quite a tight block of land.

The solution that 23°5 Studio came up with was to treat the design as interlocking and interweaving spaces, all built around one central vertical space. This solution created tall voids and interesting, multi-level connections between the rooms, in turn creating unique visual snapshots from different vantage points within the house.

From the outside, the house serves viewers with distinct sharp and simple lines, and creates curiosity through its jutting cubes and misaligned facade features. Furthermore, in the evening, it offers the neighbourhood a beautiful lantern-like sculpture, along with subtle views of the sleek and minimalist interior.

Source - contemporist

Images - 23°5 Studio

Related Nest of Pearls post - The fun of function, Stacked House by Naturehumaine

An Ancient Spanish Stable Becomes A Magnificent Country Home, by Abaton

Located in the province of Cáceres, in Spain, the key objective of this renovation, undertaken by Abaton Architecture Studio, was to transform an abandoned stable into a family home, by completely rethinking and redesigning the space in a way that would, nevertheless, still be consistent with and respectful to the surrounding environment.

High on a hill and far from city water or an electrical grid, Abaton quickly implemented the addition of photovoltaic and hydro power to the house, and worked to ensure the home wouldn't use much energy. The building's original orientation also helped with this sustainable approach, as southern exposure allowed for the sun to be the main source of heat during the winter. In terms of the design, a generous eave prevents much sun from entering the home during summer, thus keeping it cool. Large wooden shutters that slide closed, like a second skin, cover the large windows at night to trap in most of the home's daily solar heat gain.

As the building is located far from city water but perfectly located below two streams that flow all year round, the water is pure and can be used for both drinking and bathing, and the swimming pool acts as a holding tank for use in irrigation. Within the interior of the refurbished home, Abaton has worked to capture nature in just about every room in the house; bathrooms sport views of the interior patio with its stone water fountain, and bedrooms with huge picture windows welcome breathtaking views of the countryside...

The façade is composed of a mix of cement and local stone, renewed yet still capturing the essence of what was once the crumbling envelope of the stable. Inside the home, supporting walls have been replaced by light metal pillars, the haylofts in the upper area converted into bedrooms, and the enormous central lounge is a flexible space that can serve different purposes. In short, a mix of modern cement and iron beams coexist with well-worn stone, weather-beaten wood and local stone, to create a warm home that is completely enriched with nature.

Source - abaton.es/en via pinterest.com

Images - abaton.es/en

The fun of function, Stacked House by Naturehumaine

Completed in 2013, this sophisticated and sleek house design is located in a back alley of Montréal’s Plateau neighbourhood. Appropriately named Stacked House, this single family home is the creation of the award winning architectural practice Naturehumaine. Based in Canada, Naturehumaine design to a simple yet strong philosophy 'Not just pretty pictures in a magazine. Real spaces for real people'. And Stacked House is definitely true to this claim. 

While jumping out at me from these sharp, clean, light-filled photos, the house design is nevertheless so much more than just sheer beauty in a series of dazzlingly photographed moments. Faced with the challenge of needing to build upwards rather than outwards, the architects have created a stack of four boxes, each clad in a different material. From street view, each stack has its own character and visual personality. The facade sports tight horizontal patterns meeting with wide vertical ones, which in turn are broken by the relief of wooden louvres and modern window frames. There is a true play on juxtaposition, all while a visual rhythm is seamlessly achieved.   

Behind the facade, rooms and spaces are drenched with light, thanks to a void curved out of the centre of the house. Not only does this provide daylight but also ventilation and the opportunity of a private outdoor space. My favourite aspect I think would have to be the numerous 'viewing' moments created as a result of this void. When occupying any one space, the void let's the user view across to spaces on the other side of the house, as well as above, behind, and even directly below. Essentially, with very limited space and light Naturehumaine have very creatively solved for quite a tricky problem in urban dwelling.   

Source - naturehumaine.com
Images courtesy of - Source - naturehumaine.com

Architectural study of movement, by Richards & Spence

This Brisbane house by Richards & Spence is such an amazing study of spaces. It is comprised of interiors that refuse to flow conventionally from one room to the other in a linear fashion, rather,  they interact with each other in such a way that the inhabitant always has a teasing taste of what's to come, a slither of another space, a shard of light illuminating a mystical nook.

Built around a central courtyard, this house works to maximise every square metre, as well as bring rich light into all the interiors. I absolutely love the way the interior is orchestrated. There is a plethora of well thought-out and functional surprises around every corner; the small step-up into the living room, the louvres welcoming light into the hidden resting nook, and the tantalising peek onto the second floor as one approaches the dining room.

In fact, it is this relationship between the spaces that I absolutely love to search for in these photos, and furthermore, to imagine myself at the intersection of these interlocking interiors. Not too dissimilar to Le Corbusier's Villa Savoy the strength of this house is its power to invite the user to turn-back on the space that they just came from and experience it from a totally new point of view, all while having a clear vision of where they're going to next. The concept of this pivotal moment of triple existence fascinates me; the 'now', 'the immediate past', and the 'immediate future'. It is refreshing to see when architecture is more than a roof over one's head, but rather a canvas for a user experience that invites one to genuinely feel and embody a space. 

Source - architectureau.com

Images courtesy of - architectureau.com

Paris Mon Amour 2 - Calling Montmartre home

A few months ago I posted the very first edition of a selection of stories I like to call 'Paris Mon Amour'. The first of these accounts, Paris Mon Amour 1 - A stroll around the Eiffel Tower, was posted earlier this year in January and explored an enchanting little area in the hidden streets around the Eiffel Tower. It was an area where I spent 18 months of my life and which will always make my heart pound with speckles of joy. 

This, then, brings us to the second installment of 'Paris Mon Amour', and this touches even closer to heart, because it really was home. A magical and mesmerising village hidden within Paris, Montmartre is a dream come to life, to say the very least. Having lived there for three years, and having explored every café, every street cobble, and every artist's corner to my heart's content, I'm still hungry to go back and devour more on our next trip. I think a lifetime is not quite enough to encompass all the beauty.

Strolling from Lamarck up to the Sacre Coeur, this selection of photos captures Montmartre on a mysteriously overcast November day. Despite the clouds, the playful colours of the village huts dance to life under the soft fog, and the Sacre Coeur stands proud and gleaming under the low glare. The open theatre, where often colour, dance and dialogue come to life, now stands still for a moment while the actors step away from the cold.       

Photography by - Bisera Gondevska

Image rights - Bisera Gondevska