The Sanctuary

Cathy sent us an email the other day about a church conversion in her state of Seattle she thought we'd enjoy. She mentioned it has finally come on the market after a long and winding road including the first developer running out of money to finish the job. This former 'First Church of Christ, Scientist' is now 12 incredible modern condominiums. The website states: "Enjoy voluminous interiors boasting soaring ceilings up to 30 feet high and generously-scaled floor plans of 1,600 to more than 3,000 square feet of living space. Many homes include rooftop terraces... pricing from the low $500,000s to more than $1 million". Very cool! Below are 2 of these condos (a basic one and a not-so-basic one).

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Hardcore conversion

You've heard about rough luxe. How about tough luxe? Perhaps we should call it high end brutal. It's luxury meets spartan, minimalist meets money. It's bacchanalian elimination. This loft in Dusseldorf revels in the essential beauty of the building. Seemingly unadorned but oh so carefully curated. Restrained, refined, distilled. Warehouse conversion by Belgian studio Atelier d'Architecture Bruno Erpicum & Partners.

P.S. Just realised that Kim had featured part of this conversion before when she featured Bruno Erpicum here. Thought that somewhat misogynistic artwork looked familiar ;)

  

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Schwartz and Architecture

SaA - Schwartz and Architecture is based in San Francisco and I love them. Their work is modern but not too modern, they use lots of wood which keeps their designs feeling not too cold, they use lots of large windows to ensure the homeowners thoroughly enjoy their views. What's not to love about this?!

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Apartment in the Gothic Quarter of Barcelona

Simplicity is deceptive. What appears to be sleek and clean lined and refined is highly thought out and designed. Spanish-German architectural design firm YLAB arquitectos (Tobias Laarmann and Yolanda Yuste) have taken a 130m2 apartment in Barcelona's Gothic Quarter and created a space of warmth and elegance, public and private, luxury and practicality. It is as if light and shade, white and earthy, cool and warm, natural surfaces, layers of texture, stone and wood, history and the present have all been distilled into a beautiful home. Deceptively simple. Simply wonderful. Images by Jordi Canosa and Daniela Cavestany.

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Barcelona Modern

The Austin design duo Priscilla Glover and Ivan Spaller (of Spaller Glover Design Build) are at it once again. I have blogged 2 of their projects in the past: "church turned castle" and "extreme gingerbread". This couple has so much creativity between the two of them it's astounding. And this works very much in their favour as they specialize in one of a kind, or once in a lifetime, sorts of houses. This latest project, Barcelona Modern, is located in downtown Austin, Texas and is gorgeous and inspiring as always. Our current project has been something we drafted up years ago and then modified to fit the lot. It is a study in Early European modernism with the intrinsic classical touches of that period- some deco influences (lighting and doors), chevron floor pattern, push-button lighting, glass door knobs, factory style doors. And it has all the comforts of a modern energy efficient home. I love it all - from the round and multi-paned windows to the mirrored riser with tree trunk steps.
Stay tuned later for a peek at this couple's own home. :)

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