Interior Design Ideas

Sustainable Home Designs for Katrina Victims

viv — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 09:11:16 +0000

Actor Brad Pitt has partnered with real-estate developer and philanthropist Steve Bing to create low-price, sustainable homes as part of the “Make it Right” project. A set of duplex designs were proposed by 13 of the world’s top architects to visualize and design green, sustainable houses for hurricane Katrina victims.The designs had to be flexible, with “interchangeable floor plans that allow the families to change the size and configuration of the two homes as their family size, needs or economic situation changes.”

The big name architects include Bild design, Billes Architecture, Buidlingstudio , BNIM and so on.The selected designs are under construction. More images follow…

If you are reading this through e-mail, please consider forwarding this mail to a few of your friends who are into interior design. Come on, you know who they are!
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Red Kitchens

viv — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 08:15:57 +0000

Another round of kitchens sorted by color! The color that we will feature today is red and it is associated with passion, lust and generally used to signify intense feelings and emotions. Red is also said to induce hunger and want and it is a well known fact that most fast food companies use this color for their logo and branding to get more business. Modern decor and designs in shades of red are increasingly gaining popularity and this is no exception when it comes to designing stylish kitchens. Here we take a peek into few such trendy red kitchen designs by European makers Snaidero, Mobalpa, Errebie Spa, Nolte Kutchen & Pedini.

Modular red kitchens with well furnished cabinets, trendy exhaust chimneys, and sleek designs of kitchen sinks can look very attractive indeed.

Red not your colour? We also have featured sets on Brown Kitchens and Black & White Kitchens before.

Living Room TV Setups

viv — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 06:06:21 +0000

For many homes, the living rooms also double up as entertainment centers. The overall entertainement experience you get from these depend a whole lot on the placement of your TV and speakers. We feature in this post a few excellent tv room setups we found in this rather interesting Swedish forum.

It is not uncommon to use wallpapers for the wall owhere you mount your flat screen TV. Modern day TVs are capable of producing interesting lighting patterns.

Displays of art and crafts, the right drapes or even chandeliers can add a great touch to the room. Sometimes, curios in the living room can be excellent conversation starters. (Can’t say the Darth Vader one is too subtle though! ).

Here is an arrangement that show a TV setup for a kids’ room.

World’s Largest Barbie Store

viv — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 17:24:00 +0000

Barbies and young girls. We will probably never understand the connection between them but that doesn’t make us not appreciate the creativity involved in this structure that is devoted to the world’s most famous and loved doll. Mattel, the parent company that own some of the world’s top toy brands, (including Barbie, Hot Wheels, Fischer Price & American Girl) has gifted this amazing toy store called ‘House of Barbie’ to Shanghai city in China.

This six-story flagship is the very first store devoted to the world’s favorite doll.The project was conceived by the branding and advertising agency Ogilvy & Mather and designed by Slade Architecture to celebrate Barbies of every variety.The front of the building shimmers pink, purple, and white at night as light passes through floral patterns in panels of polycarbonate and fritted glass.

The 35,000-square-foot interior behind the facade is a wonderment.It is like an inspirational boutique with a playhouse feeling that could make the shoppers wonder who is on display there. The dolls or themselves?

The store also includes a lovely cafe designed to give a Barbie feel as with the rest of the store.With a Barbie of every kind, in every possible outfit with tons of accessories to go along with it, this is one fun(and dangerous, if you know what we mean!) place to bring your young Barbie fan to!

Dream Paper Castle!

viv — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 17:28:27 +0000

Architecture and design intrigue us - whatever the scale, whatever the medium. And Wataru Itou, an art student from Tokyo just wins us over with this wonderful paper craft art installation he showed off at an exhibition in Japan.

The installation is hand made, complete with electrical lights and a moving train, all made of cut and folded paper and 4 years of long hard work! It was exhibited at Umihotaru, a service area in the middle of the ocean, right between Tokyo City and Chiba Prefecture. The castle is delicately crafted with attention given to every minute detail. The beauty and elegance have not been compromised with in the least bit. From the towers to the aisle, every single feature just pops out and gives you the impression of a castle from a fairy tale!

Via [Tokyo Bling] [Gizmodo]

Beautiful Cliffside Villa

viv — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 10:36:12 +0000

There may have been times when we have drove past luxurious bungalows and beautiful villas and wished our dream homes to be similar or close to it. Here we take you through a tour of one such beautiful, modernist cliff side villa designed by Oscar Shamamian and Michael S.Smith(remember, the Whitehouse interior decorator?).The villa is situated on a steep site overlooking the Mediterranean Sea.

The principle areas encompass five levels, with related living, dining and library spaces.A glass elevator connects these levels to the bedrooms below and to the roof and pool terrace.

The living room has been set with an 18-ton retractable glass to allow the inside and outside to dissolve into one.The decor inside is kept simple yet elegant leaving room for ample space to showcase some striking displays.

The dining level is elevated above the living level and main terrace for clear, uninterrupted views out to sea.

The street-level access opens to the pool terrace on the roof of the house.A glass staircase, at left, leads to the studio entrance below.

At the studio entrance is a reception place with a prototype table designed by the architect that explores residential diversity.

To complete it all, a pool terrace with steel arches that swoop above and down the hillside are gridded with the network of cables that support sails for shade and privacy as well as encourage the growth of greenery.Now this is what you call an engineering marvel!

[via]

Amazing 3D Immersion Technology!

Magneto — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 09:26:03 +0000

It seems like some of the futuristic movie environments, that we showed you yesterday might become reality sooner than we thought. Check out EON Reality’s immersive 3D visualization technology(video shown below) that is used by architecture firm WATG to provide clients a walkthrough experience like no other.

Stereoscopic images are projected onto 3 white walls within a 10 ft x 10 ft room and the viewer uses polarized 3D glasses for the experience. IR sensitive cameras track the position of markers fixed onto this 3D glasses to determine the exact location of each eye within the room and the feedback given is used to shift the perpsective of the images projected. We will never really know how it feels as it is a kind of ‘BE there’ experience. Going by the looks, I would say it appears very realistic. The viewer even appears a bit disoriented when you have him standing on the wall’s edge!

(BTW, the bummer here is that the projection equipment costs more than half a million dollars.)

[Via]

Design of Techno Environments in Movies

Magneto — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 19:25:05 +0000

Okay, this post is going to be a bit different from what we usually cover at Home-Designing. But have you ever wondered who designs those futuristic looking techno environments that you see in sci-fi flicks like Minority Report, Star Trek and the like? Answer: Companies like OOOii.

This Hollywood based company focuses on creating interactive custom environments for directors like Steven Spielberg, JJ Abrams & Michael Bay. So what would a design brief from Spielberg sound like? Something like this:

Imagine a world where technology permeates all aspect of our lives in a way that both celebrates the feats of human innovation while at the same time incorporates the flaws of real world imperfection.

This was the brief given to them for the movie Minority Report. As a response, OOOii introduced a world where computers and humans interact in meaningful ways each taking on tasks best suited to their abilities; gesture based interaction, massive live dataset visualizations, head tracking for immersive perception, environment initiated / controlled content, remotely served media onto non-traditional surfaces, computer assisted expert systems.

MINORITY REPORT / Live Environment

Alex McDowell and the team from Three Ring Circus designed this memorable immersive environment in which an individual’s identity is scanned and the surrounding content responds by personalizing its message.

One can just imagine the pressure on these guys when they start out to design such environments. As OOOii puts it, the goal is usually this: “The spectacle must be epic, the inspiration must be unrivaled, the technology must be solid and the experience must be enlightening.” From the gesture based interfaces in Minority Report to the immersive technologies in The Island, from the power walls of Déjà Vu to the 360 projections in the much anticipated Star Trek, they bring custom large-scale immersive environments to life. These people get paid for the ‘wows’ they bring.

More of their projects follow:

STAR TREK / 360º Environment

Production Designer Scott Chambliss wanted us to design the technology into an environment where all surfaces were prospective interaction points and the technology was truly ubiquitous across the entire bridge.

THE ISLAND / Tangible Interface

Michael Bay gave us the challenge of designing the technology for a world where your every need is catered and your every move monitored. A futuristic colony and laboratory incubator coexisting as a self sustaining biosphere.

Seeing all this, makes one wonder, when will all this would be possible in the real world? Going by this video that previews a technology that was displayed at TED this year, we may not be as far as we might think.

(The video might be a bit long, but I promise, it’s worth it!)

Kids bedroom designs by Mariani

Magneto — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 20:12:53 +0000

Designs can be many, but it’s always challenging to save space without having to compromise with the beauty and aesthetics while furnishing and decorating a room. Here we have compiled pics of some innovative yet contemporary designs for kids’ rooms from Italian maker Mariani which is based in Milan.

Apart from making kids rooms bright, ventilated and colorful, the focus is on using sleek furniture giving way for space. This can be achieved through corner wardrobes or wardrobes with sliding and conventional doors, long sleek shelves, low cots and so forth. The trick is also to use the right blend of colors and contrasts between the walls and the décor to make the room appear spacious. Kids’ rooms should be organized to create free space which would provide them with the play area within their rooms while they are indoors.

Light, smooth, sleek and compact make can be used for the desks, tables and chairs comprising the study area. Corner stands will be ideal for table lamps or for placing little works of art. Cots with storage space under, low floor beds or bunk beds would to a great extent save space. The idea of using tables with multiple drawers or wardrobes with enough number of shelves or as the case may be is a smart approach towards saving space without having to opt for more means of storage.

Last but not the least the designs need to be implemented considering kids’ likes and comforts which would add to their satisfaction paving way for some constructive development…

For more, ideas visit our post: Kids Room Designs

Brown Kitchen Designs

Magneto — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 16:22:37 +0000

It seems that each of us is partial to a particular color. Our color preferences do affect our decision making and this is particularly significant in a niche like interior design. It is not uncommon to find people who even fix their color choices beforehand and then hunt for ideas and inspiration that use only that particular color scheme. I am not sure if this is a right approach because color is something that you can change around easily if you have a good eye for design and you have a solid concept for the space you are designing for. But so many people find this a bit hard to do and I thought I would start off a series of color based posts.

Kitchen is one space that people are very picky about when it comes to color and I thought I would concentrate on this. And this post would be the first of the color specific kitchen series and we start off with ‘Brown Colored Kitchens‘. The following (brown themed) kitchens are from 3 European kitchen makers - Nolte Küchen, Snaidero and Mobalpa. They are from three different countries Germany, Italy and France respectively so it should be a good mix.

First up, designs from Nolte Küchen

The next four are from Snaidero

And lastly Mobalpa

We wil be featuring a new set of inspirational kitchens based on another colour on our site tomorrow. Be sure to check back! As always feel free to comment/share.