Feed aggregator

• architects: Takeshi Hirobe Architects
• Location: Karuizawa, Japan
• Project Year: 2022
• Photographs: Koichi Torimura
• Area: 205.0 m2

Read more »

• architects: DAFdf arquitectura Y urbanismo
• Ubicación: Valle de Bravo, México
• Año Proyecto: 2025
• Fotografías: César Belio
• Área: 425.0 m2

Read more »

The stone houses of Westchester’s early 20th-century neighborhoods carry a particular material candor – their masonry is pulled from the same geological bed as the landscape around them, their permanence a direct expression of the region’s character. Ravi Raj’s renovation of a Mount Airy house in Croton-on-Hudson treats that original fabric as the project’s main thesis, organizing every intervention around it while carefully reconciling past and present into a cohesive whole.

Local flagstone sourced to match the existing masonry extends and reinforces the base of the house, preserving its historic texture while subtly expanding its footprint. In contrast, white lap siding wraps the upper floors, introducing a lighter, more contemporary expression that distinguishes new from old without disrupting their dialogue. A 1980s addition that had previously fragmented the roofline was reworked entirely—its massing clarified through a new upper level, steeply pitched roof, and dormers that restore a sense of formal continuity while nodding to the region’s vernacular traditions.

Entry at the below-grade level establishes the interior palette immediately. A foyer and adjacent mudroom unfold in textured limestone flooring and wood-paneled walls, grounding the experience in materials that echo the surrounding terrain. From here, circulation rises toward the main level, where a sculptural staircase—Raj’s reinterpretation of a former spiral—acts as both connective tissue and spatial anchor. Its presence is less about movement alone and more about orientation, framing calibrated views of the stone boulders behind the house and reinforcing a continuous dialogue between interior and landscape.

Curved thresholds carry this spatial logic through the plan, softening transitions and introducing a measured rhythm between rooms. The main level unfolds from the stair into a sequence of living spaces—a galley kitchen, great room, and primary suite—each tied together through this language of subtle curvature. In the great room, a gently sloped fireplace and an arched portal over built-in seating extend the motif, balancing formal restraint with moments of permeability that open outward to the wooded site beyond.

The primary suite holds the residence’s temporal layering within two adjacent rooms. In the bedroom, exposed original rafters—painted a deep green—retain the weight and memory of the earliest structure, paired with a restored fireplace clad in dark soapstone. The material’s matte density reinforces a sense of historical grounding. This is set in deliberate contrast to the adjoining bathroom, where marble hex tile and white lacquered wood wainscoting introduce brightness and refinement, articulating a quieter, more contemporary sensibility.

Beyond the interior, the project extends its architectural language into the landscape through a series of outdoor interventions. An elevated deck off the great room, anchored by a burnished metal firepit, and a bluestone patio off the kitchen with a built-in barbecue create multiple points of occupation, allowing the house to engage the site across seasons.

Throughout, a restrained palette of natural finishes—lacquered wood, honed marble, soft textiles, and custom built-ins—contributes to an atmosphere that feels both timeless and deliberate. A once-disparate structure becomes unified through material continuity, calibrated interventions, and a clear architectural narrative that bridges inheritance and inhabitation.

To see this and other projects by the studio, visit ravirajarchitect.com.

Photography courtesy of Sarah Elliott.

The most infinitesimal elements of our interiors are getting noticed these days. With nothing being left to chance in the outfit of our homes, workspaces, restaurants, stores, and shared civic environments, hardware is finally gaining the attention it deserves. These small—heavily used—components are central to our everyday lives; essential to the function of our kitchens, wardrobes, and the doors that separate these spaces but are ultimately taken for granted. Why shouldn’t our handles, knobs, and pulls be celebrated as a vital home design typology; treated with the same formal and aesthetic rigor as a chair.

A growing crop of boutique producers and design practices foraying into product development have begun to take hold of the application and push the limits of what can be considered functional; the extent of which the human hand can grab, lift, and tug a sculptural form. The possibilities seem endless and experimenting in this small format is less risky. But as with any fresh proposition, a degree of recognition remains critical for viability and wide-spread adoption. A handful of intrepid brands, a number of which hail from Australia, have picked up the mantle.

Take Lo & Co Interiors’ recent collaboration with celebrated Melbourne-based interiors practice Studio Tali Roth: a cleverly conceptualized collection harnessing the surprisingly conducive formal qualities of myriad traditional Italian pasta forms.

Hand-forged in pewter, oil-rubbed bronze, polished nickel, and polished brass, the aptly named Al Dente Collection turns star-shaped pastina into a knob; lasagna into a lateral handle; orecchiette into a thumb-print pull; and the olive—a complementary ingredient central to pasta—into yet another knob.

This ingenious yet playful, whimsical yet sophisticated offering stems from an unexpected adjacency—when too unlikely ideas or things are thrown together. What would happen if an inherently sculptural food like pasta were turned into a furnishing. It’s been done before but often with a gimmicky, far less resolute, outcome.

It makes particular sense in the context of the kitchen, where this collection could take on a semiotic quality, indicating where the foodstuff is stored. Move over Michael Graves and your whistling bird-topped 9093 Tea Kettle.

“For me, the kitchen has always been the most intimate space—where life happens, and memories simmer…and pasta is shared with family,” says studio principal Tali Roth. “I wanted to create whimsical accessories—sophisticated but not too serious. Sculptural pieces that echo the folds of handmade pasta, each offering its own personality.”

To stay in the know regarding Al Dente’s launch, visit loandcointeriors.com.

Photography courtesy of Liam West.

How do you improve upon an icon? When it came to update the 931 handbag, German accessories brand TSATSAS didn’t change a thing—the rigorous, compact design is as enduring as any mid-century classic by Dieter Rams. Instead, TSATSAS introduced a new color for the calfskin bag: burgundy. This latest tone joins the black, concrete gray, and khaki green versions released in 2018.

The piece is based on a Rams design from 1963. At the time, Rams was working at Braun, creating some of his most legendary designs, including the Phonosuper SK 4—a stereo system nicknamed “Snow White’s coffin.” Along with these industrial design breakthroughs during his tenure as chief designer from 1961 to 1995, Rams was also crafting leather shaver cases in collaboration with leather workshops in Offenbach am Main. Today, the 931 bag is made by TSATSAS artisans in that same city, with leather produced in Sweden by a tannery that meets the highest standards for traceability, environmental management, and social compliance.

It was also at Braun that Rams met Ingeborg Kracht, the photographer who would become his wife, and the muse for the 931 handbag. “I designed this bag in the same way I designed everything else, so largely based on right angles, but perhaps a little more emotionally, more personally,” Rams said upon the original release of 931, some 55 years after he first sketched it. “Designing a handbag is undoubtedly different to designing a Braun stereo system, but I applied the same principles. It had to be functional, visually durable, and very aesthetic. Less, but better.”

The design is both a love letter to Ingeborg and an apt illustration of his “Ten Principles for Good Design”—especially its praise for products that are innovative, honest, long-lasting. In its latest, burgundy, iteration, the 931 keeps the design fresh and relevant.

To shop the 931 handbag, visit tsatsas.com.

Photography courtesy of TSATSAS.

• architects: Ana María Flor
• architects: Héctor Navarro + ARKHITEKTON
• architects: Rodia Valladares
• Location: Golbardo, Spain
• Project Year: 2026
• Photographs: William Mulvihill
• Area: 200.0 m2

Read more »