Shubin + Donaldson Architects - Luxury Home Urban Spa

Designed by Shubin + Donaldson Architects, this modern luxury home makes outdoor living part of its innovative interior through direct backdoor access to the beach, an integrated courtyard, sun-drenched decks and an outdoor sleeping veranda. With an idea for a spa-like retreat and a spectacular beachfront property along Malibu’s Pacific Coast Highway, the Urban Spa House was born.






















The home ’s geometric architecture is cool and calm. It makes way for the bright, spacious and soothing interior boasting white walls, frosted glass, plenty of windows a pedestrian-friendly plan of 2,900 sq. ft.






















The initial task was to renovate the original 1976 dwelling into a contemporary urban retreat, whilst adding some structural reinforcement. Bought in 2001 for it's location, the owners, together with the architects, went on to extensively remodel the house into an urban oasis. Concious efforts to negate the road behind and emphasise the beach in front are evident throughout.



























Architect: Shubin + Donaldson Architects - Robin Donaldson, AIA, Principal and Russell Shubin, AIA, Principal
Interiors: Audrey Alberts, interior design consultant
Commenced: 2001

Miller Hull Modern Contemporary House Design in Mercer Island

This architectural artwork designed by Miller Hull Partnership knows no bounds. Set in a ravine on Seattle’s Mercer Island, this is where nature meets architecture; where outside comes in; where cozy comforts have a cool, modern edge. This contemporary and award-winning single-family residence boasts a facade of steel and concrete. This industrial flavor is offset by warm woods and large expanses of glass, and the home’s lush, hillside setting.


A bridge-like deck measuring nine by 10 ft. leads residents and guests to a wood-and-glass “vertical lift” door, which opens to the main living area and transforms the deck into an outdoor room. Inside, four bedrooms, three baths and three spacious storeys are finished with woods, from floor to ceiling. Where you won’t find wood, you’ll find yourself peering through the glass walls and into surrounding nature. This beautiful modern house is for sale for $1,150,000.


Built in 1998 , this Contemporary House Design in Mercer Island by Miller Hull is compact, low maintenance, open house, defies the boundaries of inside and out. Nestled in a ravine on Mercer Island, the three-story residence balances the edginess of steel and concrete with the warmth of wood, floating in the green hillside.

Awards:
1999 Citation Award, Sunset Magazine
1999 Honor Award, AIA Washington Chapter
1998 AIA Honor Award

The V-House at Verana / Heinz Legler

The V-House. An amazing jungle retreat near the fishing village of Yelapa in tropical Mexico. This rustic-modern aesthetic hotel was designed by Heinz Legler, who use to own a film set construction company and Veronique Lievre, previously a set decorator, from Paris. They started this project as their personal hideaway, but it ended up construction an hotel in a 5 acre area, with infinity pool, spa, restaurants, yoga hut and 8 guest rooms.













This year they expanded their hotel with V-Houses, 5 units with 3 units for hotel staff, 2 for guests, a kitchen and a shared bathroom. This three tower-houses have a particular structure, raising from a small concrete foundation as you can see on the construction pictures. The V Houses are made out of steel, plywood and red corrugated iron roofs.














The idea to build those ‘outlooks’ came from Jo Scheer who had build his ‘hoochs’ in Puerto Rico and Oregon. He use mainly Bamboo or Douglas fir poles; we decided to use metal instead. With basically no environmental impact or foot print, those structures can be built on any type of surface condition. Flat ground, steep hills, lots of vegetation, trees, water, sand or whatever else might be in the way for any other design or construction.



















With 16’ off the ground they also created an instant spectacular view where there normally wouldn’t be one. Each room has a floor size of 16’x16’ but since all walls tilt outwards the actual space when standing is increased to 18’x18’ and by the time you look at the ceiling we are at 21’x21’.














The houses are self contained. Solar panels on top, compost toilets and all grey water is treated in our gardens. Since it was an experiment there is room for improvements and definitely a learning curve. Disadvantage, this type of design and construction would have never been approved by any building department in US.














Architect: Heinz Legler
Location: Yelapa, Mexico
Client: Verana, Hotel&Spa
Construction year: 2007
Constructed Area: 5 x 1 sqm
Interior Area: 92 sqm
Budget: USD$79,000
Photographs: Martin Kunz

Thom Faulders Architects on "Deform House"

Deform House build by Thom Faulders Architect was brought on to consult on an efficient method for production and to then process and fabricate the individually pieced ceiling patterns.

The variegated ceiling and rear wall lining is composed of a series of milled patterns that modulates throughout the space, wrapping, bulging and aligning in continuously unique ways depending on the viewers position.

When Bay Area architect Thom Faulders was hired to renovate and enlarge a faux French house in San Francisco’s Potrero Hill neighborhood in 2004, he received only one directive. “He said he needed walls, walls, walls for the artwork,” Faulders says of client Jeff Dauber, a Silicon Valley technologist with a sizable art collection. “Given that, I thought I’d take over the ceiling.”

Deform House is a third level addition and extensive renovation to an existing two level single-family residence in San Francisco. The function of the top floor is for a Private Art Gallery, with a new Master Suite considered as an integrated extension of this space. The addition is approximately 1,200 sq. ft., and is constrained by existing structural walls and neighboring structures.

With the need to maximize vertical wall surfaces for art, the design emphasizes the ceiling plane with a pattern of optically shifting grooves. Sheathing the entire top floor ceiling and rear wall, this lining unifies the spaces and is in contrast with the architectural neutrality of the smooth walls. An entry gate is perforated with a security warning written in binary code text.

The project is a third level addition and extensive renovation to an existing two level single-family residence in San Francisco. The function of the top floor is for a Private Art Gallery, with a new Master Suite considered as an integrated extension of this space.

The addition is approximately 1,200 sq. ft., and is constrained by existing structural walls and neighboring structures. With the need to maximize vertical wall surfaces for art, the design emphasizes the ceiling plane with a pattern of optically shifting grooves. Sheathing the entire top floor ceiling and rear wall, this lining unifies the spaces and is in contrast with the architectural neutrality of the smooth walls. An entry gate is perforated with a security warning written in binary code text.

Mathias Klotz | Casa 11 Mujeres

Casa 11 Mujeres by Mathias Klotz is build on a cliff-top near Santiago de Chile.

The brief was to provide a second home laid out on three levels for a couple with eleven daughters, whose ages range from four to twenty, and to provide all services, a master bedroom and spaces for entertaining and guests.



Designed as a holiday home to accommodate a family with eleven daughters, the house is built on a 45 degree slope. “ELEVEN WOMAN” house is a vacation home at Beranda. It stands on a site sloping down to Cachagua beach on the Pacific, 140 kilometers north of Santiago, Chile.
Divided in three floors, the house was built with bare concrete with wood floors, glass, and steel on a 45 degree slope looking down the beach. The bottom floor contains shared spaces, while the second level has the daughters bedrooms, and the top floor has the master bedroom, kitchen, living room, and dining room.

The site is on terrain with a steep slope (about 45 degrees), which offers a splendid view of the beach. The three stories are laid out as follows: the plinth is use for the shared spaced and includes a games room and TV room; the intermediate level contains the bedrooms of the eleven daughters, as well as two living rooms for different age groups; the upper level contains the services, the master bedroom, living room, and the family dining room.

The terraces are spacious and protect the user from the strong southern winds, while a system of hinged shutters solves the problem of the glare on the west side.

Planned in bare concrete with travertine floors, “ELEVEN WOMAN” house adapts to the contours of its site by its extremely compact layout so as to offer splendid views from every room.