House 0605 Nicosia

Designed by Simpraxis Architects, this private property is to die for.This house was designed for a young trendy couple and their daughter. As a half plot site, allowing two distinct residences that are constructed in the same plot and share a wall, allowing a 10 foot set back on the plot's periphery.

Sitting between 1000-3000 sqrft, this house allows the ground floor to have a living kitchen and circulation areas that surrounds the outside courtyard on three sides. This allows the visual contact and movement between the different spaces, the kitchen protrudes into the yard, thus creating a communal center. The courtyard is also closed by the upper floor, which contains the main bedrooms. These overhang bedrooms allow a peripheral shading around the kitchen, creating a more effective relationship between indoor and outdoor spaces.

Upcoming building in Cape Town

Last night I and a few friends decided to go to the First Thursday event. This event happens every first Thursday of the month, where Cape Towns central city comes alive. Dozens of art galleries stay open till late, with cultural events that go on into the night. Its an incredible way to experience the cultural wealth of our city that allows you to explore the streets on foot.

To my surprise i didn't expect so many people to attend this even but we do live in the design capital and i met a lot of interesting people. From people from Germany and America that has fallen in love with our city. We started the evening  in Church street and worked our way up. Every gallery was amazing displaying such interesting art pieces. From wooden carved canvas to oiled painted paintings with spray painted graphics over it. Also at one gallery there was an artist doing a live painting while everyone walked through the gallery looking at the other art pieces being displayed.

The Cape Town institute of  Architecture that had upcoming buildings of Cape Town. The two projects that really caught my eye was the Desmond Tutu Peace Centre and the Media 24 buildings.

The Desmond Tutu building i knew about from 2010 however I didn't hear about it again as it stated it should be done with construction in 2014. However to my surprise it has been constructed quietly and should be done in 2015. Designed and Planned by award winning architect firms. VVMMA and Luyanda Mpahwa's DesignSpaceAfrica. The site is one of Cape Towns prime land opposite the CTICC and adjacent to the Cullinan Hotel. The architects introduced the concept of "Pathway to Peace" as that is what Desmond Tutu always stood for. Within the peace center, they created a public meeting square and urban park with multiple access points in front of the building.The upper levels of the building will contain the center's program and administrative offices and the personal offices of Archbishop Tutu. It is also being rewarded for being one of  South Africa's sustainable building project!

The Media 24 building is getting a face lift also, positioned on Capes Towns prime land. This building does look really dull next to all the new glass facade buildings surrounding it. So Media 24 ran a computation with the best design concept for their "facelift". These are the three final winner designs, as apparently all three didn't meet the all requirements. I was really impressed by the designs. The first design on the left reminds me of the famous building in New York City, Times Square. Designed by Tsai Design Studio. The well known MLB Architect firm designed the middle design, allowed the mess and green planting to create an entirely new silhouette for the building and the last design was by DBM Architects, who tilted their design the roots. As they imagined tangled roots reaching up the full height of the building in reference to Media's 24 100-year history in Cape Town. Which i thought was really clever!

So the Thursday Late is the sister event for the First Thursday, this cool event will be looking at the east side of the City. Im really keen to see what beautiful things this city has in store for me next....

The Marble House

Lassus Residence is one of the most striking house iv seen, with clean marble cuts that allows the eye to praise the simplicity of the house. This sophisticated touch of the marble allows the interior design allows the space to look bigger. By using clever design tricks. Schlesigner Associates Architects, created this illusion of  space by using as much natural light as possible, allowing the light to jump off the white walls. Another clever way to create the illusion of space was the emphasis placed on towering volumes seen by the massive black marble columns.

The fun part of this residence, is the fact that marble was used as one of the main materials acting in the interior. With only 1800sqr meters, the first floor has the fire place that is a long plane whose plinth cantilevers along the length of the living space. The kitchen is defined by a drop in ceiling height, with a swath of light above that gives the illusion of height and visually connects it to the dining room. Dark marble columns hide the necessary pipes, stacks and ducts, while contrasting with while walls around them.

The second floor has a central glass spine that separates public space from the private functions of bath and bedrooms without requiring doorways. This spine contains closets, lit from within, whose frosted glass allows hints if the shape and colour of the clothing to peek through.

This house is not only sophisticated, it gives a whole new look to how to use marble. However with marble being an expensive material not alot of people can afford it. Also the disadvantage of using marble like this is, you will need extra thermal insulation as marble can get really cold.

However this house just looks amazing!!!!