For their Orcas Island retreat in Washington, a young couple asked DeForest Architects to create "a place to share with friends, a place for adventure and exploring, being a kid again, cooking together, experiencing nature, and being part of something bigger." A slide tucked into a closet leads to a ball pit below.
The island bar in the kitchen features white Arcilla Field tiles by Ann Sacks that match the turquoise tiles used in the guest bathroom. The lights above the bench are classic VL45 Radiohus pendants, which were originally designed in the 1940s by Danish architect Vilhelm Lauritzen for Louis Poulsen for the construction of the Radiohuset building in Copenhagen.
A series of long stairs leads to Maison Amtrak, which is set below street level. The entranceway demonstrates Cohen’s love of Japanese design with a geometric simplicity matched only by the formal elegance of the stained Douglas fir two-by-fours.
Omer Arbel, the creative director at industrial design firm Bocci, was given three parameters when he began designing a home for his colleague Randy Bishop: Create a “profound” connection between the internal and external spaces; build only one level; and, most crucially, utilize a wealth of 100-year-old beams salvaged from a series of warehouses owned by Bishop’s ancestors.
Surrounded on all sides by a sweeping Canadian hayfield, the 23.2 House is an angular ode to rural life.
“The house is a piece of origami made out of triangular shapes, which we then draped over the landscape,” says Arbel.
