Lux Park - and website update

Lux Park is a joint design by atelier a+d, Tom Mulica, and Mark Stoner. Entered into the Holding Patterns competition, we were awarded an honorable mention by the City of Seattle's Design Council.

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The project's intent was to provide a place of summer refuge for Seattle's vitamin d deficient masses. Lux Park is perpetual summer in a bubble... a transportable design that can move from site to site, providing Seattle citizens with a much needed dose of sunshine and heat.

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I've just updated the website to include the project... check it out here.

Sushi or Park?

I love the imagery of this italian garden design by nabito architects.... it reminds me of a japanese dinner presentation.

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I can't wait to see the finished result...

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Via Design Boom

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Thinking about the backyard

Now that the house is nearly complete... I'm starting to think about the yard. I had some ideas originally, but I think budget (and energy!) are going to force me to rethink the original design! I really like all of these images - all via flikr. If anyone knows of any other nice images of small backyards, I'd love to see them!

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Imagine

I imagine that if my house were anything like Paola Novone's, that it would be pretty easy to be inspired to design!

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Via The Style Files

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Fire and Water

Right now I'm working on a project with both a pool and fire channel... I hope it comes out half as well as this!

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Via Architecture

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Glass Cobblestones

This modern intervention in an old Geneva square (or actually... a trapezoid) by Swiss firm 2b Architectes is quite beautiful. The design manages to be completely modern, yet still evoke images of the past. Using traditional sandstone, as well as glass blocks or cobblestones in a random pattern, the architects are letting you in on a secret - a lake used to occupy this land. The closer you get to the location of the medieval lake, the closer the glass blocks are spaced. Its a fun design, that actually allows for some interaction and understanding of the context. To top it off, it looks great at night! Now, I just wonder what it looks like during the day...

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Via Mimoa

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Seamless

These projects by Blasen Landscape Architecture are amazing examples of a seamless blend of architecture and landscape. I'm really in love with the clean lines, simple use of materials, and plant selection (I'm not really into flowery designs).

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A Killer Pool

I kind of feel like I'm done with infinity edge pools... everybody wants one and everybody has one... so they've lost a lot of the allure for me. But, in the right place, an infinity edge pool is really worth all the extra detailing. This pool (and house) by Corona y P. Amaral Arquitectos is phenomenal. You don't feel like you're perched on the cliff... you actually feel like you're floating in the sky.

Amazing.

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Via Materialicious

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Love These Planter

I really love both of these planters, although they are both out of my price range. Still, perhaps C and I can cast something similar for the backyard/deck area.... but first we'll have to build it!

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Both via Gaile Guevara

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Like a Car Wreck, I Can't Look Away

I find these headless cow benches by Julia Lohmann really disturbing and yet I can't stop looking at them. They'd be really interesting scattered in a large field or placed throughout city streets... kind of like the Chicago cows, but without heads (and yet somehow not as tacky).

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Cinco Jardines

I love these landscape designs by Spanish firm Alvaro de la Rosa. They manage to be quite modern and architectural, while still maintaining the organic nature of the plantings themselves. I particularly love the first image, which is inspiring me to make some plans for our backyard... Although I'd be very interested in knowing how long it took for these projects to grow to maturity. A big difference between architecture and landscape architecture is the end result... At the end of a project, the architecture is generally at its peak architecturally. The building has yet to be turned over to the public, the materials have yet to start showing their wear. Landscape architecture however, is just about the opposite... When the project is turned over to the owner, it is still yet to show its true colors. Often, it takes a few years for the landscaping to properly grow in and to be able to experience the design in its entirety. While these particular designs probably didn't take years to grow... more lush designs will certainly require more time.

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Walk On Water

When you first look at these images, its almost as if they've been photoshopped to show different people standing in the middle of the lake. And that's obviously the idea...

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I love this installation by Sung Jang and Shin Azumi. It was intended an alternative playground for the Vitra Workshop in Boisbuchet, France. Visitors could wander out to the middle of the lake and commune with nature without the burden of man-made interferences like boats or aircraft. While the clear underwater platform allows you to walk out on top of the water, granting you the illusion of walking on the surface of the water, its still just an illusion and you are obviously using a man-made device. Still, these photos create such marvelous imagery, that its hard not to believe in the concept. I can only imagine that visiting the lake was even more impressive.

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Linear Landscapes

Wong Residence, Hillsborough, CA

Gladstone Institutes, San Francisco, CA

Walden Road Studios, Geyserville, Ca

Ward Residence. Palo Alto, CA

Stone Edge Observatory and Spa, Sonoma, Ca

I think that these landscape designs by Andrea Cochran Landscape are fantastic. Not only do the landscapes have an architectural quality to the design, but they are seamlessly integrated into the architecture. Its difficult to imagine the buildings without the landscape, or the landscapes without structures. This in my opinion, is the mark of a great landscape design. Rather than compete with the architecture, it should enhance and communicate the overall design intent.

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Andrea Cochran's office has been published quite frequently... and its easy to see why. The designs by this California office are crisp and clean, while still providing the organic qualities desired in a landscape.

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I've been starting to plan the landscape design for our house... and I think I will be looking towards Andrea Cochran's office for inspiration.

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Makes You Want to Sit Outside

For a relatively young firm (founded by James Corner in 1998), Field Operations has worked all over the world with an impressive list of architects including Gehry, Holl, Ten Arquitectos, Eisenman, Foster, Diller & Scofidio, and more... not to mention all of the work they have done on their own.

Field Operations' work encompasses a wide variety of scales and typologies, from small city gardens to large urban plans.

Rio Manzanares Park, Madrid

Beachfront Housing Development and Dune Preserve, Arveme

Chuncheon G5 Urban Plan and Botanical Garden, Korea

French Embassy Garden, New York

US Mexico Border

Royal Canal Linear Park, Dublin

I haven't actually had the opportunity to visit any of their projects, but the images they create make me want to jump right in. In landscape design, even more than architecture, I think its extremely important to convey the intended experience. These digital collages are so impressive at telling exactly the right story, you can completely understand the proposed sensory qualities of the projects. [And as we all know, I'm a sucker for collage work.]

Many of the projects have such fabulous graphic and linear expressions on paper... I really wish that I could visit the sites and understand these large moves at the human scale. Maybe I'll have to visit New York when the High Line is completed!

Jardin Botanico Culiacan

I've always had a thing for screen printed surfaces, so I guess its no surprise that I'm drawn to this image of the Culiacan Botanical Garden by Mexican architectural firm Tatiana Bilbao. This nighttime view is so romantic and appealing, without being too feminine in form....

Via Mexican Architects

A Great Place for a Meeting

Slovenian architects Sadar Vuga Arhitekti have successfully integrated a new meeting area into one of their prior projects (see upper left corner of elevation) by transforming the existing garden terrace into a meeting space complete with a garden stripe that can be used year round. The garden winds around the new spaces creating intimate areas while still maintaining a sense of open air that extends all the way to the sweeping views of Ljubljana.

The greenery that winds its way throughout the space has also informed the structure... The skin is made up of a series of steel lamellas (a thin plate or scale of anything, as a thin scale growing from the petals of certain flowers) inspired by plant structure.

The images from this project are as incredible as the thinking behind it... can you imagine having your lunch meeting at one of these tables? This project is just the type that actually does improve daily life.... just imagine the quality of your work experience if you could hang out here for part of the day!