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It is easy to fall in love with a beach house. It is even easier to dream about that picture-perfect retreat on the edge of an ocean that seems to invite the waves indoors. But what is harder is bringing his dream to life and doing so while getting past all the practical hurdles. Gusty […]

You’re reading Modern Beach Style Home in Santa Cruz Brings the Pacific Indoors, originally posted on Decoist. If you enjoyed this post, be sure to follow Decoist on Twitter, Facebook and Pinterest.

The kitchen is a place where you need an even layer of functional and aesthetic lighting that combines the best of both aspects. This becomes even more essential in the small kitchen where lighting can make or break the overall look of the space. In the tiny kitchen every inch of space matters. Saving space […]

You’re reading 30 Small Kitchen Lighting Ideas that Blend Form with functionality, originally posted on Decoist. If you enjoyed this post, be sure to follow Decoist on Twitter, Facebook and Pinterest.

Relaxing, fun-filled and full of sunshine that many other parts of the North American continent starve of in the long, cold winter months, the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico is a holiday that is not far away for many. And it is here that we find the incredibly resourceful, charming and relaxing Casa Picasso. Deriving its […]

You’re reading Casa Picasso: Cheerful Holiday Home in Yucatan Makes Most of Limited Space, originally posted on Decoist. If you enjoyed this post, be sure to follow Decoist on Twitter, Facebook and Pinterest.

This renovation project originates from the intervention of a pre-existent building located in the western area of Mexico City; reshaping it into a studio-house project, with clear conditions and an eye set into the pre-existing circumstances. Our design solution takes on a residential structure from the 20th century and recycles it into a project that integrates itself with its immediate natural environment, shattering the hegemony of the high walls behind which the neighboring houses hide, in order to establish a dialogue that transcends the physical limitations of the project. The variations in the depths of different planes, offer the environment a living façade, where the interior activities are guessed from the visual filters that concede intimacy to the interior spaces. The interior-exterior duality brakes its context’s routine, offering a canvas of textures where the concrete and granite give away to the mildness of the metal and the lightness of plastic fabrics. To the exterior, the housing peeks out without invading; whilst opening in the interior, subtlety exposing itself, balancing the volumes that are inserted in the site. An interplay of planes occurs inside allowing the versatility of spaces by the movement of long-distance sliding screens and wainscots formed by timber that contrast in warmth and complexity with the sobriety of the stone coatings and apparent concrete of the enclosures. A new stairway, based on steel strips, reactivates the space where the old one stood, which gave an opportunity to re-signify the ambiance of the circulations as an experience of sculptural character. The front yard of the house marks the limits of the construction and together with the water mirrors and vegetation orient the route beneath a suspended long cover. The architectural program revolves around the home in the ground floor, leaving the studio in a privileged condition towards the garden. The living spaces in the first level have terraces and views to the exterior between and through a green façade woven of plastic cables (recovering the Acapulco chair technique) that sieve and melt together the thick vegetation of the existing trees. The terraces and windows allows an optimal ventilation, illumination and contextualization between the outside and inside. In the top level, the project offers a view above itself and the wooden horizon from a roof garden that elevates to a higher plane the user’s introspection, belonging and pertinence of itself.