Rubih Hage is a qualified architect and interior designer, graduating in 1991 from the Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris. Between 1989 and 1991 Rabih worked on hi-tech commercial projects assisting renowed French architects and engineers. During this time Rabih was involved in landmark works such as the TGV train stations of Paris Montparnasse and Nantes, and the 1992 French Pavilion at the Seville Expo. Rabih has won a string of awards and competitions including the Brithish Interior Design Association’s (BIDA) Interior Designer of the year in 2004. This is Portland Place, Rubih Hage’s portfolio.

Source : Robih Hage

NathanEgan Interiors, launched by designers Wayne Nathan and Carol Egan in 2000 has been busy since opening day. By inspiring, “uptown clients with downtown ideas” (according to W Magazine), the Soho pair quickly established an enviable reputation as skilled purveyors of a refined, eclectic mix of contemporary and classic furnishings. This modern, forward-thinking vision has taken them a long way! Currently, the two have projects in Manhattan, Connecticut, Long Island, Westchester, as well as in Palm Beach, FL.

With a head-turning client list that includes the Thom Lounge at the Thompson Hotel and the New York Mets corporate offices at Shea Stadium, NathanEgan Interiors stands apart, delivering a fresh point of view to their clients and a thoughtful, deliberate approach to their work.

Source : NathanEgan Interiors

Barry Rice Design creates modern, comfortable interiors with clean lines, natural woods and an emphasis on vintage furnishings. The Brooklyn-based firm provides clients with a high level of professional service and projects with an impeccable attention to detail. The results are expressive, individual, functional and beautiful.

Source : Barry Rice Design

Christopher Coleman Interior Design based in Brooklyn’s historic waterfront district, DUMBO, combines substantial practical experience with abundant imagination and energy. Coleman guides clients carefully throughout the design process to create and execute a space that is unmistakably their own. This is some his project.

Children’s bathroom 1

Children’s bathroom 2

Living room lounge

Los Angeles home gym

Sitting room

Penthouse dressing room

Kid’s guest room

Country cottage

House beautiful

House beautiful

Redondo residence kitchen

Source : Christopher Coleman Interior Design

Willard Dining Room

Willard Living Room

Living Room Vignette

Kitchen Banquette

Kitchen Casework

Willard Bedroom

A Bath with a View

Source : Steven Miller Design Studio

This is the largest project completed to date by the practice with an overall construction budget of $3 million, with a complete interior rebuild behind the existing façade. The building had a typical layout for a London Victorian town house. Their remodelling emphasised the division between the front of the house (the public side) and the back of the house (the private side) with the garden at the back of the house acting as a focal point for the private rooms. This involved changing the layout and location of the principal staircase and the subsequent spaces that lead off it. This change resulted in wider well proportioned spaces that are lit by the windows along the full width of the house. Space, light and the use of beautiful and luxurious materials were the tools to create the sequence of interesting and liveable spaces.

The house was totally demolished internally and now comprises: a family room within a new extension in the basement, as well as a kitchen and formal dining room; a drawing room and study on the ground floor; a master bedroom suite on the first floor; the second floor with three additional bedrooms; the top floor containing a guest suite and the plant room. The five floors are all linked by a central staircase that is lit overhead by a skylight.

This is the third project that the practice has completed for this client, an interior designer and art collector. The client’s aim was to create a theme of restrained luxury and eclecticism. Although the scale of the project was large for the practice, the understanding of detailing and use of materials that comes from a multidisciplinary approach was very beneficial. The client along with the architect and designer were keen to explore new materials as well as rediscover traditional ones. Voon Wong and Benson Saw have an excellent network of contacts from their product design experience to draw upon.

Venetian plaster was used extensively for the accent walls to provide a beautiful surface sheen. Custom balustrades and light fittings were cast in bronze. Acrylic panels, shelving and handrails concealed LED light fittings. This combination of new materials alongside the traditional was the key to creating a sense of understated luxury in a contemporary but enduring set of spaces.

The client chose fabrics and furniture and art pieces to emphasise this theme: rugs in silk, cashmere curtains, Swarovski crystal chandeliers and upholstery fabrics in silk velvets. Furniture ranges from Mies van der Rohe day beds, Jean Michel Frank sofas, Yves Klein coffee tables alongside many custom designed pieces by the client herself and the architect.

The practice worked closely with the landscape architects del Buono Gazerwitz to create the rear garden. The south facing garden is the focal point of the rear of the house and is created so that the architectural elements of the basement extension and the external spaces are perceived as a unity. In fine weather the doors of the Family Room can be completely pushed back so that the boundary between the inside and outside is completely removed. The patio seating, water feature, planting and central lawn all contribute to the creation of an outdoor room that is a harmonious extension of the extended basement.

Voon Wong and Benson Saw are a pair of London based designers that have been working together since 2001. Their work has been featured in exhibitions in London, Milan and Singapore. The Loop lamp from 2003 was nominated for the Compasso D’Oro and is now manufactured by Fontana Arte. The ELma vases from the EL light series won the OXO Peugeot Design award. They have completed architecture and interior design projects in Shanghai, London, Hong Kong and Singapore. As well as numerous projects in London and Singapore, their current major project is the master plan of a new factory for a high quality bone china manufacturer outside Beijing. They are also cooperating with this manufacturer to design a new collection of bone china table ware to be launched later this year at an exhibition in London.

Source : Voon Wong and Benson Saw

Devid Report presented Archipelago House from Tham & Videgård Hansson website. It’s a nice house. This is “Summer house in Stockholm archipelago” by Devid Report.Stockholm architects Tham & Videgård Hansson has developed a nice light-weight building in wood and glass as a summer house in the Stockholm archipelago. The layout of the plan is generated by the specifics of the site, the house being placed on the flat surface between two mountain rocks and turning simultaneously towards the sun the south and frontally towards the sea in the west. With the small rooms located in the back the rest of the house stand out as an open platform crisscrossed by sliding glass. The house is organised in layers. The big rooms expand in open relationshp to the wooden deck outside of the house. The zig-zagged layout also offers several outside places sheltered from the strong wind.

A light-weight building in wood and glass, a summerhouse in the Stockholm archipelago.

A continuous dissolution of space in three steps. The house is organised in layers, the big rooms expand in open relationship to the wooden deck. A horizontal wooden trellis diffuses daylight and enhances the character of one continuous space, where the distinction of interior/exterior becomes subordinated.

For the interior, the starting point has been the direct relation to the dramatic archipelago landscape, with the objective to offer within a simple frame – a platform – several diverse readings of the relation space – nature.

Multiplicity of readings. As a result of the large glass panes and the prevailing conditions of ligh, reflexions and mirror like effects come up and add aquality where nature, space and horizon interacts.

Tham & Videgård Hansson architects was founded by Bolle Tham and Martin Videgård Hansson back in 1999. The practice works in the wide field of contemporary architecture, planning and interior design, in projects for private, corporate and public clients.

Source : Davide Report, Tham & Videgård Hansson

UNStudio, The presentation of the new award ‘Architect of the Year 2007’ took place during an animated gathering in the Dutch architecture institute in Rotterdam last Saturday 07.07.07. They won three of the five categories, and was named the overall winner of the award. Theatre Agora is one of their project that present high architectonic qualities, the professionalism and innovative qualities.

The new Agora Theatre is part of the Master plan for the city center of Lelystad and will play an important role both daytime and nightime in this area of the city. The clustering of cultural and social activities in this new quarter will give Lelystad an outspoken cultural face.

The overall design of the Agora Theatre is inspired by kaleidescopic forms, while the colours used in the building originate from photographs of the sky above Lelystad. The exterior colour was distilled from photographs taken during sunset, whilst the blue found in the interior originates from a cloudless sky. Due to the kaleidescopic, diamond structure of the building, light falling on the various surfaces conveys the impression of constantly changing colours and forms. In daytime the shape of the theatre has a sculptural effect.

The grand café, also open during the day, connects to the evening square. From the different lobbies of the entrance of the theatre a beautiful view of the Green Care is presented. The vertical foyer, which swings through the entire building, connects different theatre and congress halls on the different floors.

Source : UNStudio, Architectenweb.nl, Interior Design

“The WIRED Home is where green plugs in. LEED® certified and designed by Ray Kappe, FAIA, the house is prefab to reduce cost and waste. Installation takes only one day. Fully automated to allow for simplicity and control, it is filled with the latest in gadgets, gear and appliances, yet still keeps kilowatt usage low. Even the car is environmentally friendly. Emitting essentially nothing but water vapor, the BMW Hydrogen 7 is the first hydrogen-powered luxury performance sedan for everyday use.”

The project is sponsored by BMW Clean Energy, and will open its doors later this year for public tours, sustainable programming, and charity-driven events. Once tickets for the showhouse go on sale, don’t pass them up- not only do you get a first-hand view of some of the best and greenest prefab out there, but a portion of all ticket sale proceeds will go to Global Green USA.

Also check out the website for some very cool videos.

+ WIRED Living Home + Living Homes

Source : Inhabitat, Interior Design

The Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Slovenia in Ljubljana, completed in 1999, was a very important project for the Slovenian architects Jurij Sadar and Bostjan Vuga, who started Sadar Vuga Arhitekti after winning the design competition for the office building in 1996. The project was a finalist for the 2001 Mies van der Rohe Awards.

In 2003 the client asked the architects to modify their design, to add a VIP room for receptions, award ceremonies, and special meetings of the managment board. The renovated roof space is apparent in the building’s upper-left corner in the bottom (after) image above.

The architects noticed that since completion employees had brought in plants for their desks, eventually the green finding its way to the corridors and the front of the building. Coupled with the total lack of green in their initial design, the architects used the new-found lushness as an inspiration for the renovation, deciding on a Panoramic Garden as a concept for the space.

The glazing of the VIP room juts above the existing frame, and draws inspiration from the cross section of a plant leaf, rather than the architects’ previous building design. A further break from the existing building is achieved via a continuous ribbon which “wraps and leaps through the space to define different microatmospheres related to the different activities taking place,” according to the architects. Pots sit inside the ribbon, their overgrowth eventually obscuring the ribbon and making a “green belt” running through the space.

While the term “green” is thrown around a lot these days, usually referring to a concern for sustainability, here the architects see it as a vehicle for the permanent change of the space, in terms of how the plants grow, what types are added or subtracted over time, their maintenance, and so on. They responded to the employees reaction to the space and provided the upper echelon with a uniquely-designed space that might just lead to another level of employee customization down the road.

Source :A Daily Dose of Architecture, Interior Design