Photos: Marcello Mariana.
Garden sheds are often wonderful places where people can tinker and work in a modicum of solitude without feeling disconnected from civilization. What ideas have been given form in these unlikely laboratories for the human mind and soul. Traditionally however, they have tended to be wooden sheds, informal, makeshift, leaky and strewn with gardening tools.
The Italian practice Act_Romegialli has converted an old car garage into a shed that they call Green Box. Externally it is difficult to see what, if anything, they have done as creepers and other plants have totally enveloped the structure. Of course this is no accident, but it charmingly appears as though the garage has been subsumed in nature. Read more
Photos: Hertha Hurnaus.
London’s Plasma Studio Architects have recently completed this small block of six luxury residences in the Dolomite mountains of northern Italy. The building is essentially conceived as a vernacular house of the region, with a double pitched roof. The entire volume looks as though it has been sliced, pushed and moulded to fit comfortably within the topography of the land.
Whilst unmistakably contemporary and unique, the building carries the spirit of the local vernacular without ever quoting from the elements that define it, save for the familiar building materials of larch and copper. Read more
Images: Estudibasic.
The idea of taking your hotel room with you as you travel is not new, it is usually called a caravan! But DROP an idea my In-Tenta is a concept that fits between the caravan and a permanent room in a traditional building. The idea is that a hotel room can be deposited in a beauty spot, but then easily moved without any ecological damage as a consequence of its presence on that site. Read more
It is 30 years since a devastating fire ripped through the 17th century Palazzo di Vigonovo near Venice, a building known affectionately by local people as “Campiello”.
From those miserable, choking ashes a new Campiello has now emerged. Totally renovated, and what little remained of its historical character restored, it has also assumed a new contemporary identity. Read more
Images: Frigero Design.
The Isle of Capri, a jewel in the Mediterranean, is synonymous with glamorous film stars as well as natural beauty of a rugged landscape variety. So when the need for a power station arose, it had to be something rather special to fit with its environment. To find the right architecture, an international competition was held, and that was won by Frigerio Design with its proposal shown here. Read more
