Maximum Minimalism

Kanye West's New York loft adds about a million points to his cool factor (Personally, I am a big Kanye fan and I think the fact his house is unbelievably cool just makes me like him even more). The loft was designed by Claudio Silverstrin Architects, and that means the entire loft, the architecture, interior, lighting, one off furnishings and fixtures were all designed by Claudio Silverstrin Architects.
The loft has no 'rooms' as such. The 200 square meter home is one continuous space, loosely divided with large solid objects. It features two gigantic stone structures, one, the kitchen/bar unit, the other an enormous bath/basin unit. All finishes are in warm, neutral tones which make the home more welcoming. The main finishes used are French limestone and Pear wood.
I think this home is so incredibly elegant and beautiful, kudos to Kanye for his excellent taste.

Winning Windows

The Black Pearl House in Rotterdam South was designed by Studio Rolf.fr and Zecc Architects.
The over 100 year old house was totally gutted and redesigned internally, whilst the facade was painted entirely black and new box windows were inserted.
The new windows placed randomly on the facade, overlapping the blacked out existing windows create an amazing illusion of missing puzzle pieces, as though holes have been cut into your view.
So clever.

Pile of Houses

Vitra Haus.
The new home to Vitra's furniture collection is literally a pile of houses. The building reaches five stories high and contains twelve separate houses.
Vitra Haus is designed by Herzog and de Meuron, best known for designing the Beijing Olympics 'Bird's Nest'.
The Vitra Campus in Weil am Rhein, Germany, comprises of many stunning pieces of architecture designed by some of the world's best designers.

I love how the Vita Haus building plays with scale, it's hard to imagine how big or small it is from the outside images. I also like how each individual 'house' looks so conventional, even pre-fab, and yet the overall building looks anything but. The gray exterior makes the all white interiors and beautiful interior light really pop through the large windows.

Grown Up Tree House

Treehotel is like a set of tree houses for grown ups. Sweden's Boreal Forrest is home to the new eco friendly hotel, inspired by director Jonas Selberg Augustsén’s 2008 documentary Trädälskaren (the Tree Lover). Treehotel, the brainchild of husband and wife team Britta Jonsson-Lindvall and Kent Lindvall, comprises of 7 small, separate buildings.
The small buildings are powered by sustainable electricity and are attached to the trees with a metal clamp (adjustable to fit the tree as it continues to grow) as opposed to screws and nails
The buildings have been designed by some of Sweden's best and most innovative architects including Bertil Harström (winner of the Excellent Swedish Design Award) and Tham & Videgård (the firm behind the Kalmar Museum of Art, another amazing piece of architecture).
The 'Mirror Box Room' is my favorite.

which would damage the trees.

Norman Foster.

While flipping through an architecture book I stumbled across this fellow, Norman Foster. And he basically blew my mind. Just check out this bridge he designed with a little help from engineer Michel Virlogeux. The Viaduc de Millau spans the valley of the river Tarn in the south of France. It is the tallest bridge in the world with one pylon being 343 mt tall. The bridge is just short of 2.5km long. Holy moley.


He also built this
And this, to live in

Lust worthy jewels.

Tom Binns necklaces.
He has an amazing take on over the top costume jewelry.




Philippe Tournaire 'dream house rings'
Rings which are able to be custom made to replicate your favourite piece of architecture, or you can choose from the existing selection.