max&min

The Japanese have a refined talent for reducing architecture to its barest essentials.  The KA-2 House in Tokyo by Takao Akiyama  is a perfect example of how to craft the typical “White box” typology.  Delicate details such as the shift in timber floor colour help to orientate the occupant and prevent them getting lost amongst the expanse of white.  The spiral stair in this project effortlessly cuts through the levels like a piece of folded paper, dissolving where the walls end and the floors begin. Beautiful.

Lampada is the latest offer from French designers Ronan & Erwan Bouroullec. The rudimentary form of the lamp is appealing due to its simplistic, almost innocent composition of parts.  The use of ceramic also lends a sense of quality and craft to an otherwise basic design.

In terms of creative ceiling designs this takes the cake.  Formwerkz concept for the latest Furama Spa was aimed at being a “seamless experience of rooms without sharp corners and no straight, dingy corridors” and by the looks of the ceiling treatment they seem to have achieved this nicely.

Mini Mini by Habits Studio for Elementi de Luceplan is stunningly simple yet creates a sense of mystery through its asymmetrical form.  Although one would expect such a form to hang crooked this piece supposedly will always hang straight despite its sideways bias.  

The wireframe table by Ismail Ozalbayrak appears quite minimal at first glance but the form of the black wire base adds a level of visual complexity to the piece.  For me, it would be quite fun to play up a heavier material such as stone for the top as a way of offsetting the weightlessness of the base.

This beautiful residence in Buenos Aires is by Martin Fernandez de Lema and Nicolás F. Moreno Deutsch.  The play on light and the intimate connections to the landscape are of particular interest to me.  Coupled with an earthy, yet minimal material pallette this house would be my choice for a weekend away in the woods.

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How crispy fresh is this house by Alberto Campa Baeza Architects in Spain?  The space is so pristinely white both inside and out that it seems to become one amongst the clouds.  I’m a big fan of spiral staircases too and this one is reduced to its bare minimum so precisely that it seems to slice it’s way through the floor.

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I love the sense of weightlessness that this new house in Porto by Grau.Zero achieves.  Although anchored at all other points this end seems to float above the grass, further aided by the illumination of the undercroft.

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This new adjustable lamp by Swedish designers TAF would look great popping off the walls at home or work.  The oversized pivot point and fluid lines make this piece a real stand out in terms of creating a feature wall light that wont compete too much with your base layer.

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Keep it clean, keep it simple and make it pop.  Rules to live by, exemplified by a nice cottage extension in Ireland by ODOS Architects.

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