Munge Leung :: Interior Design

Wow. Absolutely gorgeous work from Canadian interior design studio Munge Leung. I love the "House on a Ravine" project the most, which is a 7300 square foot home (designed by Taylor Smyth Architects) set onto a spectacular conservation area in Toronto. It won the 2004 Design Exchange Gold Award and the 2004 Best of Canada Award for Residential Design.

Check out the rest of their portfolio here, including some great commercial spaces. Meanwhile, more pics of "House on a Ravine" below!


Way Back When: Netura VDL House

What's this? Two Richard Neutra video's in one month? Here is some great footage of Raymond, son of Richard Neutra talking about his father and the VDL house they grew up in. There is some old family video's of the home after the jump as well.


Way Back When: A necessary ruin

A Necessary Ruin is a Hand Crafted Films movie about Buckminster Fuller's Union Tank Car Dome

About:

Upon its completion in October 1958, the Union Tank Car Dome, located north of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, was the largest clear-span structure in the world. Based on the engineering principles of the visionary design scientist and philosopher Buckminster Fuller, this geodesic dome was, at 384 feet in diameter, the first large scale example of this building type. "A Necessary Ruin" relates the powerful, compelling narrative of the dome’s history via interviews with architects, engineers, preservationists, media, and artists; animated sequences demonstrating the operation of the facility; and hundreds of rare photographs and video segments taken during the dome’s construction, decline, and demolition.


House 2 has windows!

I've been eagerly waiting for the Strie Architecture designed House 2 to get windows, and this last week the day finally came. All the windows and sliding glass doors were manufactured by Kolbe, and are aluminum clad exteriors and VG Fir interiors. They look absolutely fantastic, especially the HUGE double sliding door off of the mater bedroom. With all the plumbing and electrical in place they should be starting on the drywall next week and it will really start to take shape.

More pictures after the jump.

Master Bedroom

View from the studio behind the house


Modern Landscaping in SLC?

I found these photos of some Jack Merlot Design yards while I was browsing modern landscape posts over at Plastolux, and it got me thinking. Are there any landscape architects or landscapers that specialize in "modern" landscapes in Utah? It's funny, I know great local architects, contractors, furniture and cabinetry builders etc but I have never come across anyone who does modern landscapes.

If you have any leads for modern landscape architects in Utah please share in the comments!


Zevon :: Passive modern in SLC

In our ever increasing desire to follow quality local modern projects, we are adding yet another construction project to our group. The Zevon house currently under construction is located in the Wasatch Range and was designed by Dave Brach of Brach Design. Dave has a great eye for design, and a passion for green building. The Zevon house is expected to meet 3 of the 4 criteria for a Certified Passive House (cooling demand, total energy demand and air tightness) which is amazing considering the location. The only criteria it will come up a little short on is heat demand. They will be seeking LEED Platinum on this home. Besides being an incredibly efficient home, it is great looking too. Construction will be handled by Benchmark Modern.

Brach Design

Benchmark Modern

More renderings after the jump.


House 2 Framing Done

IMG_1246.png The House 2 project is completely framed up now and they are starting to put the roof membrane on almost in time for all the wet weather we have been having. It's great to be able to get a sense of what the spaces are going to feel like. My favorite is the kitchen/living room area. The extra high ceilings really give the room a nice feel. They have also finished framing the small studio in the back yard since I was there last.

More photo's after the jump.

 

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This is the kitchen/living room looking toward the front of the house where there will be a large window seat.

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Kitchen/living room looking out into the courtyard with the studio in the back yard.

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This photo gives you a bit of an idea of the scale. The opening for the glass slider is way taller than your typical 6' 8" door.

More modern in SLC :: ul[1]

In July we introduced a new modern home project in downtown Salt Lake called House 2. This week we will start covering another modern project located in the Sugarhouse area of SLC. Dubbed ul[1] it is designed by Rich Assenberg of KT814 and will be built by Benchmark Modern. The house is is centered around a rear facing courtyard that includes a gorgeous reflection pond. Construction is well underway and slated to be completed this fall. It's exciting to see the modern scene flourishing in Utah!

More pictures as well as an introduction from the architect after the jump.

UL[1] House Stats:

- 1,750 Habitable Square Feet.

- 480 Square feet detached Garage.

- 2 bed, 2 1/2 bath, office.

- Lot size = 45 feet x 125 feet.

This House was designed for a longtime friend. We had been looking for a lot in the up and coming neighborhood of the Salt Lake 9th and 9th area for a period of 3 years. This area is extremely competitive for vacant land and building small modern homes is beginning to be the trend. This has been going on in other metropolitan areas for years but we are seeing an increasing demand for this type of product in SLC for which there is few to choose from. I believe we are raising the standard for this building type in the area and am very excited to see it being constructed.

The lot is on a very busy street and is close to shopping, train tracks, the University, etc. The owner wanted to live in an area where he can minimize time spent in a car and can easily ride his bike or walk to the surrounding amenities. He lives a very simple life with few material belongings, The floor plan reflects this minimal lifestyle and is very progressive in its spacial planning. The lot has an unattractive apartment building to either side and the starting point of planning became how to give the house a strong relationship to the exterior with maximum privacy from the neighbors. The solution was to use a site wall extending from the house out into the lot, the same strategy was used for the garage.

The result became a private courtyard at the rear yard with full glazing from the kitchen, living dining area out to the private deck and reflecting pool.

Another Strong planning strategy was to have a double height space in the middle of the house. This allowed the (2) bedrooms to be separated by a void, each bedroom has a private bath so essentially we created (2) private suites. The house is not necessarily intended to be used by a family, but rather a single couple or a bachelor scenario. The double height space also acts as a chimney to remove all the hot air from the house with a 4' x 4' electric venting skylight. This in combination with high insulation values, cantilevers over large glazing areas and intelligent window placement we expect to see very few days where we have to use air conditioning. The house achieved Gold LEED standards but the owner opted for spending the additional 5-6 thousand in other areas instead of the LEED testing and registration fees. You will find a strong modern vocabulary in this house which is appropriate for the urban setting, the materials and construction methods are a result of the budget and the clients aesthetic taste.

First Floor

Second Floor


House 2 :: Framing

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Last week I introduced a new project going up near downtown Salt Lake dubbed House 2 (as it is the second house the architect designed for this lot). Today I'm happy to announce that there is some great progress on the project. We are stepping into it a couple weeks in, and to date the footing foundation has been poured complete with radiant tubing in place. All the concrete will be exposed in the finished home and it has already been sealed and saw cut. There are some imperfections in the finish (aren't there always) but to me that is some of the charm of exposed concrete. Framing has started and will likely be finished in the next week or so. It's exciting to see the home taking shape, and I can already tell there are going to be some great spaces. In the photo above you can see the Architect looking out on the courtyard that is accessed from the kitchen and bedrooms. I can't wait to see that the huge open space in the foreground get filled up with a nice sliding glass door.

More pics after the jump.

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View from the kitchen area looking through the future slider into the courtyard. Hard to tell from the photo, but the slider will 8'+ tall.

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Another view from the livingroom/kitchen area. This time looking down the hallway towards the bedrooms. You can see all the radiant tubing poking out of the concrete on the left.

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This gives you a little perspective of how the house sits relative to the neighbors. It's a typical skinny downtown lot but the design should still afford a lot of privacy.

Way Back When: Gunter Behnisch

It's always sad when a good architect passes on, and this week Germany mourns the passing of a great one.

Gunter Behnisch, a former U-boat commander who became West Germany's top architect, died on Monday aged 88. His radical modern designs, including the Munich Olympic Stadium, marked a departure from the bombastic architecture of the Nazi era and shaped the face of the new German democracy.

Pictures of some of his work after the jump.
Photo's and quote via Spiegel.de


MCM Preservation

It's hard to be a fan of mid century modern architecture without becoming a preservationist. There is so much good design out there that is currently at risk of being ruined. The two that hit my inbox this week were the Neutra designed Strathmore apartments (1937 picture shown above) that may be overshadowed by a 6 story apartment complex across the street, and the Paolo Soleri Amphitheater (shown below) that is slated for demolition.

For information about how you can help in either of these causes, please see the links below.

Save our Soleri

Neutra Lives


Charley Harper for Ford

I didn't know this ever happened, but now that I do, I can say that my life is complete.

...though I still don't like Ford.

About:
Charley Harper painted homes designed by Rudy Hermes as photo montage backdrops to introduce the 1960 Fords in November 1959's Ford Times magazine, with the tag line "Wonderful New World of Fords".

You can see the whole set here.