Project Name: Island House Website: www.2by4.nl/lan...

In the Belgian city of Knokke-Heist, is a school designed by Amsterdam studio NL Architects, which has a turfed pyramidal roof with curving sides atop one of the administrative offices.

Here's a detail shot of the stool. The leather comes in four options—black, chocolate, tobacco, and saddle—and the brightly hued backing fabric comes in ten—sky, radish, egg yolk, cream, camel, charchol, sand, mocha, chocolate, and black.

Sticker Shock Though colorful dashes here and there certainly enliven the sober interior, little adds a dose of whimsy like the wall decals found in the kids‘ rooms. The owl over Jonne‘s shoulder is available from Raumgerecht and the branch leaves are from the Dutch company Inke. raumgerecht.de, inke.nl

Slow Car (prototype car/office) by Studio Makkink & Bey.

Gradient Candles production in Roermond/NL

Gradient Candles production in Roermond/NL

Gradient Candles production in Roermond/NL

Inspirational spaces

ICN is Seoul's airport code, even if the airport is in Incheon. Here Publique Living lionized the Loop House by NL Archiects and YO2.

I tabbed Kleikollektief in the Amsterdam Made by Hand book, but just happened to stumble upon it while wandering.

This year's New Material Award prize goes to Olivier van Herpt, who designed and built a 3D printer that can deposit layers of undiluted clay with fine detail. newmaterialaward.nl

The NL-6: Inspired by vintage mountaineering glasses. Outfitted with genuine leather sides originally designed to block glare while mountain climbing or traveling on glaciers. This style is a modern interpretation of the classic circular look.

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

Roerende Zaken Rariteiten was one of my favorite vintage shops in town and boasted a great selection of cool finds.

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.

Architect Ulrich Hamann's rendering of the new addition to the Lenbachhaus Museum and Gallery; the Stadtische Galerie Im Lenbachhaus. Image courtesy of Lenbachhaus Gallery and Museum.

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.

You don't have to have go over the top with a plastic cauldron and dry ice to serve beverages at your Halloween party. Here is a clever way to use a real pumpkin in a classy way for either a punch bowl or ice-cold drinks. Pinned by Koen Van der Haegen "Pumpkin Cooler" via Visit culy.nl

Curated by Rietveld Landscape, 'Vacant NL—Where Architecture Meets Ideas' throws the potential of temporarily unoccupied buildings all over the Netherlands into the spotlight. Diverse building typologies, conditions of use, and their geographic locations were all catalogued and proposed for new spaces to push forward Netherlands' creative economy.

Because their loft is a rental, David and Im Schafer built everything to be removable.

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."

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.

It's clean teeth or bust at de Witte TandenWinkel, a shop dedicated to oral care. This display at the front door shows they mean brushing business.

Galérie Kréo, the design 'research laboratory' in the 6th arrondissment run by Didier and Clémence Krzentowski, is a must-see when in Paris (in fact, we've covered it before, here and ). On this visit, I spotted the oversized T2 shelf system by Martin Szekely paired with the PC2 carpet by Pierre Charpin (left) and a rather incredible mechanized lamp that knits by Atelier NL (right).

Welcome to the Frozen Fountain! Situated in a sweet spot on the Prinsengracht ('Prince's Canal), this shop is absolutely a must-visit. It's a wall-to-wall wonderland of design, from the super-high-end to small takeaways, with pretty much anything and everything you could imagine in between.

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.

The couple asked Bryan Richards of Real Natives Landscape Design to incorporate drought-tolerant plants into the landscaping. Surrounding a table from CB2 are chairs from Design Within Reach.

The interior is furnished with Lubi Daybeds from CB2, which Howell and Porter designed to include hidden cubbies behind and beneath the cushions.

About 90 percent of the world’s largest cities are located along waterfronts. Koen Olthuis, Dutch architectural form Waterstudio.NL believes that with climate change leading to drastic rises in sea levels, we will need to rethink how we live with water in the built environment. His team has designed sophisticated floating homes like Watervilla De Hoef and Watervilla IJburgin The Netherlands, and is working on masterplans for floating apartments, social housing developments and even cities.

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.

For privacy and quiet, the home's three bedrooms are situated the furthest from the street. Each faces its own courtyard.

I.M. Pei, Luce Memorial Chapel (1963) When architect I.M. Pei designed this chapel for Tunghai University in Taiwan, he had to take local conditions, like typhoons and earthquakes, into account. His plan, which, included a curved roof of glazed, diamond-shaped tiles and interior ribs of reinforced concrete that run like ribbons towards the cross mounted on the roof, was an elegant solution to the challenges of the local environment. Photo courtesy Valter Wei, Creative Commons