Heatherwick’s Debut Thai Design Is Inspired by the Country’s Traditional Lanterns

Abraham Shapiro, AIA, Architect :: Mid-Century Modern. Tucked into a cul-de-sac at the very top of the Encino hills, a stone’s throw to Mulholland and a three-minute drive to the Skirball Cultural Center, this masterfully designed and recently renovated architectural home is close to everything the City has to offer. Next door to Bel Air, Brentwood and Beverly Hills, with easy access to the 405, and just up the street from Ventura Boulevard, the location couldn’t be more convenient. Designed as his own personal residence by influential architect Abe Shapiro, onetime partner of both Bill Krisel and Herb Nadel, this historic property has the clean lines and disciplined detailing consistent with the preeminent USC School of Architecture that dominated residential design in LA in the middle part of the last century. Rebuilt from top to bottom in 2016, the result is a brand new home respectful of the original design, yet upgraded to the standards of the new millennium. Floor-to-ceiling glass doors connect the interior to the landscape, flooding the interior with natural light, together with skylights and clerestory windows. An elegant cook’s kitchen with sleek custom cabinetry and high-end appliances opens directly to the living room and dining room, ideal for entertaining. Valley views, multiple fireplaces, sculptural wine display cabinet, wide plank white oak floors, Carrara marble, porcelain tile, European hardware, designer light fixtures, swimming pool with spa, fire pit, and outdoor kitchen complete the unparalleled package of amenities.

Discover the stunning Lake House on the shores of Lake Corumbá IV in Goiás, Brazil. This…

It is the year of blue and that makes our life a whole lot easier indeed! Blue as a color does not really need any special ‘lift’ and homeowners are inherently happy to use it in various rooms and across styles all year long. It is a color that is ‘perennially in trend’ and having […]

You’re reading Embracing Color of the Year: 20 Lovely Bathroom Vanities in Blue, originally posted on Decoist. If you enjoyed this post, be sure to follow Decoist on Twitter, Facebook and Pinterest.

Sited gently on the lower slope of a dramatic sixty foot high coastal bank and surrounded by miles of undeveloped Cape Cod National Seashore beaches and scrub pines is a warm, modern beach house that is more than just a place to enjoy uninterrupted ocean views and sea breezes. Our clients dreamed of a house that would work equally well as both a year-round family “camp” and also as a “thinking retreat” for collaborating with their colleagues. From the beginning of design it was critically important to us and to our clients – as well as the Town Conservation Commission and National Seashore representatives – that the house fit into its fragile site seamlessly. Our team responded with great care by designing the house to curve and shift softly with the natural topography and also by envisioning the new native and drought resistant landscaping growing back tight to the house as if both had always been there together. The main house is conceived of as a collage of overlapping, cantilevered planes and volumes that culminate in a large living / dining space defined by an asymmetrically arcing copper roof plane. Entry to the house is by way of a long ramp through what will in a few years be a thicket of native pines and bushes, then through curving cedar shingled planes. The inland side of the house is tucked into its shifting, sandy landscape and is comprised of cedar shingled planes that float above the ground and contain bedrooms, bathrooms, and the kitchen, and lower volumes of horizontal tongue and groove cedar boards that enclose bedrooms and a gathering space for teenage sons. On the Cape Cod Bay side, the house opens up through walls of glass to endless water views and heavenly sea breezes. In the middle of the house, just inside the front door, is an architectural “hole” that allows the house to breathe and cool itself naturally most of the year through its floor to ceiling awning windows, and which also provides views of the sky from a shady breezeway on the lower level. Along one wall of the hole is a trellis planted with evergreen and seasonally aromatic flowering vines. On the Cape Cod Bay side, the house opens up through walls of glass to endless water views and heavenly sea breezes. In the middle of the house, just inside the front door, is an architectural “hole” that allows the house to breathe and cool itself naturally most of the year through its floor to ceiling awning windows, and which also provides views of the sky from a shady breezeway on the lower level. Along one wall of the hole is a trellis planted with evergreen and seasonally aromatic flowering vines. Separated from the main house by a screen porch and contiguous deck, is a separate art / yoga / thinking studio that seemingly floats fourteen feet above the ground. Inside is a single large loft space as well as a full bath, and below is an open-air summer art studio and boat / beach toy storage, behind walls of wood slats and matching barn doors.

A single-story desert retreat built with rammed earth walls, nestled in the rugged landscape of Arizona’s…