WHAT WE DO IS SECRET

Guggenheim-Hermitage Museum in Vilnius

Evidently, the era of starchitects is not going to be over anytime soon…

Zaha Hadid’s recent winning design for a museum in Vilnius, Lithuania, which may partly serve as an exhibition space for The Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation and The State Hermitage Museum looks like the big mother of Chanel Mobile Art.

David Adjaye

It’s good to see a BROTHER in a world dominated by whites. Born in Tanzania, David Adjaye based in London is one of the most talked about young architects today. Museum of Contemporary Art in Denver, his first building in the US, opened last fall, and he has opened an office in New York City besides his offices in London and Berlin. Architect David Adjaye is clearly on the move.

I am looking forward to his future projects in Japan where a foreign architect is usually given the most freedom and the best engineers and contractors in the world. Unlike New York City where we find many mediocre architectures by star architects these days (it’s not really their fault, I have to say), Japan is an amazing showcase of architectural gems. One thing for sure - it is going to be a real test for David Adjaye to build something there. MORE »

Gwenael Nicolas’s Curiosity

Philippe Starck seems to have been consumed by his own profession, but designer Gwenael Nicolas may have found something almost spiritual in being a designer. MORE »

HILL HOUSE

“Some of the best wine is made from vines that have to struggle for a foothold on steep slopes, and the same is true for residential architecture in Los Angeles.”
(Michael Webb, British architect and author) MORE »

Two Dudes from Echo Park

These guys are awesome. This is Americans at their best. They are not trying to be sophisticated or stylish. Like Pollock, Serra and Gehry, they are cowboys with amazingly creative minds. Look at their… office? shop? studio? It’s even more glorious than the shack that Frank Gehry had some 20 years ago. It’s the kind of place where starving artists smoke some weed together (and work, of course). By the way, these two guys, Benjamin Ball and Gaston Nogues, are architects.

Ball-Nogues Studio

Creating a Cozy Nook

This unconventional house designed by Hiroshi Nakamura, a young architect based in Tokyo, has a wall in the living room which has been pushed outside creating a big ‘bump’ in the facade of the house. MORE »

resort under water

The world’s first 40 feet underwater hotel is set to open early 2009. The 24 suites and luxury apartments will be set up on Fiji.

Poseidon Undersea Resort

Chanel Mobile Art Opens in Hong Kong

Photo © Hong Kong Hustle

The much anticipated exhibition organized by Chanel in an unusual museum designed by Zaha Hadid opens in Hong Kong today. Visit the website, it’s simply awesome.

Related Links: Hong Kong Hustle | Chanel Mobile Art

63.02° - A tiny house by Sschemata

This is an amazingly tiny house in Tokyo designed by Sschemata, an architecture firm based in Tokyo. The footprint of this house is only 265 square feet. MORE »

Mobile Art/ Chanel Contemporary Art Container

This is not new… the previous post just reminded me of it.
And there are three good reasons for this to be a post:
1. Rendering - mesmerizingly beautiful !
2. Zaha Hadid - I’m not a big fan of her architecture but have a deep respect for a woman who thrive in a field dominated by men.
3. “Je veux être de ce qui arrive” - I love this quote by Coco Chanel.

A rendering of the mobile pavilion for Chanel designed by Zaha Hadid

The world tour starts on 02/27/08 from Hong Kong and travels to Tokyo, New York, London, Moscow and Paris.

Chanel Mobile Art
Zaha Hadid Architects
Related article at Wallpaper*

Manned Cloud

100% LOVE

How about a vacation above the Amazon rainforest in this flying hotel?
(a flying eco-hotel designed by Jean-Marie Massaud)

Frank Gehry

100% LOVE

Tadao Ando

100% LOVE

New Museum Of Contemporary Art

100% LOVE

Norman Foster goes 360°

This is fun - and it’s done beautifully.

Photography by Will Pearson

Tokyo Underground

The images below look almost unreal. These are the images of Tokyo’s sewer system. It’s funny to think that this eye popping architecture was never meant to be seen by the external world.

Here is a simple formula:
Advanced Engineering × Japanese Precision = Awesome Beauty
(no aesthetic required)

John Lautner houses

John Lautner, a Frank Lloyd Wright disciple, is probably best know for Chemosphere House, the flying saucer like house that he designed in 1960. It has been a landmark architecture in Los Angeles for nearly half a century. When the decaying house was purchased and restored by well-known German publisher Benedikt Taschen in 2000, I remember Brad Pitt, an architecture buff, visited the house a few times during the restoration. I’m sure Brad Pitt would have wanted to do the same thing that Benedikt Taschen did if he had had the time to focus on such things.

The Goldstein House, another house by Lautner which was originally designed in 1963 for the first owners was later purchased by a billionaire “NBA superfan” James Goldstein in 1989. In keeping with the original design philosophy, Goldstein closely worked with Lautner till the architect’s death in 1994 to renovate and expand the original structure using new technologies which were not available when the original part had been built.

This weekend I discovered that Segel House (1983), a more recent house by John Lautner on the beach of Malibu, was for sale - an astounding thirty three and a half million dollars!