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A Dutch Home Gets a Straw Cover for Peace and Tranquility

Architect Arjen Reas designed this straw roofed dwelling at the edge of the city in the Netherlands.

The client, an entrepreneur in the city, gave the architects a brief – he wanted “peace”.

While the interiors are as modern and solid as any commercial infrastructure, much of the exterior is traditional haystack.

Huge, thick straw envelops the house in its utter silence.

A Dutch tradition of simplicity, durability and expression informs the interiors.

The natural white plaster interior successfully combines natural materials creating a certain tranquility in each room.

The thick and compact haystack roof covering also gives the ultimate in thermal protection against the elements.

Deep within the house, on a cold Scandinavian night, the blazing hot bath and shower room is an inviting retreat.

High in the hayloft attic roof, a bedroom is well insulated against cold and noise.

The house is very modern and traditional at the same time.

In earlier times people here used to work with shapes for houses that were pure and plain.

The architect has successfully fused the pure and plain traditions of Dutch architecture with a clean-lined and modern home.

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A Sweet Eco-Friendly Barn-Style Home in Lush Petaluma

Hupomone Ranch is set in the bucolic dairy farm land near the town of Petaluma in Marin, California.

Designed by Turnbull Griffin Haesloop Architects the generous home reflects both the hip post-modern sensibility of Marin – and the traditional farmhouses and barns of the region.

Central to the barn-style home is a huge double height wall of glazing.

To one side, a brisk white farmhouse kitchen – love the lineup of industrial-chic lamps!

A pool house echoes half of the gable shape of the home.

The pool is a pleasant walk through the rolling countryside.

The ranch had not been cultivated for 30 years and the young family wanted to create a sustainable lifestyle for themselves and their 3 children.

The farmhouse uses the oldest ventilation trick in the books. Warm air rises.

The client’s brief was for a eco-friendly barn style home with the same sweet sense of serenity as found in the surrounding landscape.

The bathroom with its white panelled walls is a nod to the Petaluma farmhouses of yesteryear.

Wide open barn doors welcome the family home to the generous gathering space in its center, with compact bedrooms and bathrooms to the sides.

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A New York Boutique Hotel Blends Art and Design

The William extended stay boutique hotel in New York City is far from the usual boring beige hotel experience.

In Situ Design together with Lilian B Interiors have designed collaboratively for an unusual coordination of art and design.

The process of interior design started with a shared studio space where vibrant coloured paints shared layout space with fabric swatches.

Huge paintings were commissioned for the corridors on each of five floors in distinct color fields – blue, teal, pink, green and orange.

Then the rooms off each floor coordinate the interiors with the huge wall paintings in that hallway.

The result is a series of vibrant rooms that connect to and enlarge upon the paintings around the hotel.

As the paintings materialized so did the rooms and as the rooms evolved so did the paintings.

The intention was to merge the boundaries of art and interior design.

These hallways certainly wake up the weary traveler with these jolts of vibrant colors on white.

Certainly a different hotel experience!