Expressing Awe

For sure it is no April fools joke. It would be a well thought of advertising campaign or it would be indeed a fact that some NGO in South Africa , totally out of good causes left to thought about, is truly campaigning for long skirts for the Womens Restroom signboards … whatever it may be , it is quite funny … real or not!

And they have official looking website too … website

National Skirt Extension Project: Short skirts are a no no Via Cherryflava

A Kid friendly British architect built his family’s dream home, resulting in a subterranean fun house… a place to called home for parents and kids alike…

This is what the results are when kids have their say in Architecture …  Great Idea!

Roberto Delle Curti, an audio designer based in Italy has converted the basement of his home into a Gigantic Sub Woofer, consisting of two cavities that are three feet deep and 31 feet long. These tunnels function as horns, each driven by eight 18-inch woofers for a total of 16 woofers — along with thousands of watts of raw power.

Via http://dvice.com

Cutlery in your wallet and a cool Business card design too

via http://www.betterlivingthroughdesign.com/

Nice little 2 bedroom house near Port Townsend, Washington. The house is not out of the ordinary but Why did I included it here in the AWE list, was  only because of its Kitchen. I quite like the idea of the kitchen having a dining area with proper cushioned seating , like in some restaurants… very comfy!

Design Team: Thomas V. Lawrence,  AIA Willes D. Stauffer

Contractor: Tollefson Builders, Inc. P.O. Box 100, Chimacum, WA 98325

Photos by: Benjamin Benschneider and Tollefson Builders

The current Tate Modern building along the Thames looks like a shed…. These new designs for  Tate Modern Extension will probably bring to life the “Modern” in Tate Modern.

These revised plans for the new development of Tate Modern by Herzog & de Meuron have been granted planning permission by London’s Southwark Council.  … Looks Cool and MODERN!

Via World Architecture News

Burj Dubai is a skyscraper under construction in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, and is the tallest man-made structure on Earth, despite being incomplete. Construction began on September 21, 2004, and it is expected to be completed and ready for occupation in September 2009.
Via Modern Architecture & Design news

Awe!  I wish I lived in one of those … Kangaroo Valley house that is located two hours south of Sydney, Australia.

Alexander Michael ( The lucky Owner) : The house at Kangaroo Valley is our own weekend house, so we (my partner and I) were the clients. We were searching for a property on the coast of Tuscany. When we realised we couldn’t afford even a dump; we had to look closer to home. A client suggested we take a drive to Kangaroo Valley where they had a house. She gave me the number of the agent, so I phoned and said “I’d like one-hundred acres, privacy, water, rain forest, and lots of views”, thinking; what the hell, go for it! It literally took twenty minutes before we saw the property, and said, “Yes, we’ll take it”.

And why wouldn’t he!!!!!!

Via Contemporist.com

A69 Architects Says:

The purpose of the project was the construction of a self-contained dwelling unit in the garden of the recently reconstructed house. It was necessary to deal with the dominance of the opposite panel house facade, avoid confrontation with the architecture of the original house and find out a solution that would not parasite on the garden area. The already existing fragments of the reconstruction of the original house became the starting point of the project: the set-in concrete slab with an out-placed exterior staircase, the wall by the entrance gateway and the parking lanes limited by the gabions. The existing walls made up from cement bricks in the direction of the planes X and Y were completed in the project with the horizontal slab in the plane Z. This slab became the main space organizational element and carrier of the fundamental motive; hole in the form of an ovoid. The slab is a horizontal boundary-line and all the vertical relations are related to it. Its subtlety defines the new building against the compact façade rendering architecture of the existing house. It covers and unifies a number of functions; garages and storeroom of bicycles, access terrace with a storm lobby, main dwelling space, living terrace and the fencing. The ovoid in this slab defines a focus around which the new house unwinds. It defines ego of the house, the fundamental of which is not the architectural, but the natural space of the original garden with preserved full-grown trees. All the energy has been concentrated to this focus to create a psychological barrier against the dominance of the opposite prefabricated façade. The space and the light are escaping from the micro world of the garden through the distances and loopholes between the loosely composed slabs.

The house itself is, on the contrary strictly limited by the functional blocks. From the large entrance hall you will enter the autonomic study and the private zone. The private zone is strictly divided into intimate and social parts. Intimate spaces are oriented on the eastern facade with an own terrace, the social rooms into the atrium of the garden. The kitchen cabin in the form of a block is connected directly to the social spaces. The dining and living halls have character of a glassed pavilion – winter garden. The fragile space of it is enforced with a screen of the horizontal wall with a symbol of home – fireplace. It is connected directly to the covered living terrace.

As a compensation of the built-up area of the house originated a roof garden connected vertically to the apartment in the upper storey of the original reconstructed house.

Via Contemporist.com | Visit A69 Architects

Leeser Architecture from New York has won a competition for the design of the Helix Hotel that is to be built in Zayed Bay in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.
Dubbed “the Helix Hotel” for obvious reasons, it will stand on the bay, partially floating in the water and adjacent to the serpentine Sheik Zayed Bridge currently under construction by designer Zaha Hadid.

Via Contemporist.com