Inspirational spaces

British artist Hannah Sawtell and technologist Avi Flombaum created sawbaum.com, where users can create visual collages using multiple vine streams. "We wanted it to look like a visual comic book, with overlapping panels," said Flombaum. "And we wanted it to be fun!" Photo courtesy Rhizome.

In need of more room for their growing brood, Eric and Emma Gimon, with Luc, Paul, baby Louise, and their dog, Nefi, asked for a private space to accompany the house designed for Eric’s great-aunt.

Project Name: Orinda Connect 8 & Connect 2 Website: connect-homes.com/dev...

This remodeled and extended ranch house in Del Mar is a modern farmhouse-meets-beach shack. The 2,800-square-foot ranch house from the 1950s was renovated by San Francisco-based architect Nick Noyes, with interiors designed by Raili Clasen, founder of Newport Beach studio railiCAdesign. Sited on an oversized lot, the Southern California house has an intimately scaled exterior structure that follows a clean farmhouse aesthetic.

A collaboration with Charlotte Perriand, this space-saving lighting solution suspends an incandescent bulb above a room via a nearly seven-foot metal rod. Considering it was created for the Maison Tropicale, a prefab housing unit meant to be manufactured in France and assembled in Africa, the small profile makes sense. The lamp can be adjusted and aimed via a wooden handle.

A late-1950s set of sofa and chairs inherited from Gaffney’s granny warm up the living room, as do the stove from Charnwood and the coffee table the couple bought from Habitat for their first flat.

Illustration via drawastickman.com.

The original kitchen in the 1950 home was cramped and dingy, forcing architect Janet Bloomberg to reimagine the space and open it up to the rest of the living area.

"I wanted the bones of the house to be bold, strong and simple,

The architects incorporated sustainably sourced parota wood into the living room’s sunken seating area. The Turn Tall side table is from Blu Dot, and the pillows are from West Elm.

A young Finnish designer bypasses building permits by creating an affordable tiny home under 100 square feet.

The journey through the dark tunnel to the new, light-filled addition is both a texturally interesting and atmospheric experience, where the contrast between old and new, dark and light, can be felt.

Photo from blackandwtf.tumblr.com

One of the witticisms found on livethesheendream.com.

“A building can have far greater impact than the space it stands in.”—William Carpenter, architect and resident

The Jorgensen's Menlo Park home is a model of green design with features that are smart for everyone to consider. "Every project is different, but there are some universal things that will apply from project to project," says Feldman about designing a green home. "The first—and most obvious thing—is to always try to build less, to have a smaller house and be smart about how the rooms are designed and oriented so that you can get by with less space. Smart design will lead to a smaller building, but it won't feel smaller."

New zoning allowed for a zero-lot-line structure, but required a public storefront, which Carpenter uses as an art gallery.

Rian and Melissa Jorgensen's 2 Bar House in Menlo Park boasts all the usual green design suspects: energy-efficient lighting, good insulation, renewable material finishes, radiant heat, and the roof is pre-wired for future PV panels. Executed by Feldman Architecture, the house requires only natural lighting during the day which keeps energy costs way down. Still, the most stunning aspect of the green design is the living roof planted with succulents, aloe, viviums, and ice plants. "I'm absolutely glad that we did it," says Melissa. "It turned out so well and I really enjoy sitting up there and taking advantage of it as much as I can. It's very peaceful." Read more about this total remodel here.

1950 Kartell debuts its first product: the K101 Ski Rack by Carlo Barassi and Roberto Menghi.

Ulysses word cloud poster from beautifulwordsbeautifulart.com.

Rodrigues and colleagues at his first architecture office in 1950. Photo courtesy Espasso.

The living room, dining room and kitchen are in one open space. The flooring is bamboo. The cabinetry is a mix of bamboo, walnut, and maple, and was fabricated by City Cabinetmakers out of San Francisco.

The countertops in the kitchen are a mix of quartz surfaces and custom and salvaged stainless steel. "We use the kitchen all of the time, it turned out really nice," says Melissa. "It's very open, certainly one of the central focuses of the house, and is fun for entertaining."

Elfa by the Container Store / containerstore.com

On one side of the house, a white central staircase leads to a split-level landing the Robertsons call "the reading room." "We needed a place to hang out and for the kids to read," explains owner Vivi Nguyen-Robertson. Awaiting the birth of the couple's son, she relaxes in a built-in reading nook in the library.

Mobile sustainability: The sliding doors were made in Syracuse by CabFab with a formaldehyde-free plant-and-soy-based composite board manufactured by e2e of Ithaca, New York. The mobile partitions were fashioned from TimberStrand, an engineered lumber made from younger trees rather than old-growth timber. cabfab.com e2ematerials.com ilevel.com An unconventional exterior: The solar screen is made from medium-density overlay plywood, a widely available and relatively affordable material whose traditional use for highway signs testifies to its durability.

Full Nelson The bed in the master bedroom is actually two single 1950s George Nelson Thin Edge beds--made from birch, enameled metal, and cane--that Neely bought at auction at the John Toomey Gallery in Oak Park, Illinois. "I love the contrast of the white wall with the wood and woven material," says Neely, who likes to keep the beding simple--often a paisley from Ralph Lauren--so as not to detract from the bed's strong lines.

The outdoor atrium of Family House Litvínovice is a completely private space that's well-suited for the installation of a hammock, outdoor bath, or shower. A11 designed the home to be an exploration of minimalism and privacy from the outside world.

"It’s a true luxury to have a house with a garden in the middle of the city. That surely played a part in pushing for the conversion of the gas station into a home," he says.

Rear Facade

The house for Kundan's mother, dubbed Chameli, is constructed of two 40 x 8 containers located next to the family's garden.

Configur8 tiles provide distinctive cladding for the exterior of this modern home.

Shelter No. 2, Broisson Architects, 2008 This prefab made mostly of recycled materials is modest, but not too modest for a spiral staircase. Three levels culminate in a large skylight, which filters natural light all the way down to the ground floor's hydroponic garden.

It Will Get Loud: A Small Speaker That's Big on Sound Home audio companies are managing to make speakers smaller, more portable, and more wallet-friendly while keeping sound quality as robust as their larger (and pricier) brethren. Soundfreaq's co-founder and creative director Matthew Paprocki will demo and deconstruct the award-winning Sound Stack and demo Sound Platform 2 to let you in on the technology behind making big sound come from a tiny package. See this Saturday, June 22, at 12:30 p.m. on the Demonstration Stage.