Located in King George, Virginia, is this house designed by McInturff Architects.

From the architects:

Deep in Virginia tobacco country, our clients came across an extraordinary 1930s moderne villa overlooking the Rappahannock River. While the house served their family quite well, it provided no space for their frequent weekend guests. This addition is essentialy, then, a guest house-just one joined to the main house by new shared social spaces, including kitchen and informal eating and sitting areas.

The existing white brick exterior is brought inside in a series of parallel walls that frame the new spaces. A terrace toward the river takes in the view and supports a steel framed tower of screened porch and guest rooms.

Visit the website of McInturff Architects - here.

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Here’s something a little different than what we normally feature, Mobideep is a company in Thailand that makes swimming pools that are designed to float in a lake or other still waters.

Visit the MobiDeep website - here.

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French designer Matali Crasset created this interior for Café Yelo, located in a shopping centre in the suburbs of Paris.

Visit Matali Crasset’s website - here.

Photography by Patrick Gries

The Zurich, Switzerland based design studio of Greutmann Bolzern worked with Austrian furniture manufacturer Wiesner Hager to create a new barstool called Fizz.

Fizz is a modern counter height seating range that reflects much of today’s demands and needs for sitting in a more relaxed, social and informal way. Extrapolated from much of today’s interior and exterior architecture fizz has a distinctive asymmetrical overhanging aesthetic. Not only does this make the range unique it also has the practical benefit of providing easy access and comfort as well as providing a very modern twist on the bar-stool genre.

Equally at home in café and bar environments or corporate breakout and communications areas fizz is available in a huge diversity of contemporary finishes which ensures its harmonisation with a plethora of interior design schemes.

Visit the Wiesner Hager website - here.  Visit the Greutmann Bolzern website - here.

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The architects at the Paris, France based firm of Odile Decq Benoit Cornette have designed an information centre for an exhibition hall in Shanghai, China.

Its shape is unique, looking like an opened flower as it welcomes visitors. The large opened petals allow the heart of the building, a black glass pyramid, to be visible from outside. Shining in the day, it becomes translucent at night when the interior lighting makes it sparkling from the inside.

Visit the website of Odile Decq Benoit Cornette - here.

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Thanks to Constantin Wortmann from the German design studio Büro für Form for sending us these photos of Alien, their new lighting collection.

From the designers:

It seems as if a strange creature is sliding down a rope.  Gently and almost weightlessly, radiating a warm and graceful light.  Alien.  Available in two different sizes and four variations, as pendant, table, floor lights, and outdoor.

The lights are being manufactured and sold by Next, and will be available to purchase in September 2008.

Visit the Büro für Form website - here.  Visit the Next website - here.

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Wallpaper Magazine has a great photo slideshow of a new oceanfront house in Montauk, New York that was designed by James Biber from Pentagram Architects.

See all 26 of the photos - here.  Read more about the house - here.

Thanks to Oona from PINCH Design for sending us these photos of their new furniture and lighting.  The new collection will be launched during the upcoming London Design Festival.

From PINCH:

This year’s offering includes several high quality artistic cabinetry pieces for which PINCH have become synonymous, a classically proportioned, neat and stylish upholstery range, and two lamp shades, organic and original both in their form and material.

Husband and wife team, Russell and Oona, work from their studio/showroom in London creating graceful and iconic pieces that work for both elegant domestic spaces and stylish contract environments.

Visit the PINCH Design website - here.

The Alba Console:

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Thanks to Pinar Yar from GAEAforms for sending us these photos of seating and shelving pieces they’ve designed and produce.  Pinar Yar and Tugrul Gövsa are the designers behind GAEAforms, and production is handled by GOVSA Composites, a Turkish company founded by Tugrul Gövsa in 2003, which specializes in manufacturing with advanced composite materials.

Visit the GAEAforms website - here.  Visit the GOVSA Composites website - here.

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It’s always interesting to see the homes that architects design for themselves, and yesterday the New York Times posted an article + photo slideshow of the house that architect Clive Wilkinson designed for himself.  The house, located in West Hollywood, California, is the first house that Wilkinson has designed, as he normally works on commercial projects.

Read the article - here.   See the photo slideshow - here.

Visit the Clive WIlkinson Architect’s website - here.

Often when we make a post about something, we end up getting emails from people to let us know about other companies doing similar work.  Earlier today, we posted about Meyer Wells and their work with salvaged wood, and since then we’ve received not just one, but two emails from Contemporist readers who are fans of the New York based Hudson Furniture, and their work made from salvaged wood.

Hudson says:

None of the woods we use are harvested from old growth forests. Our wood slabs are domestically sourced from either salvaged trees or wind/storm damaged trees.

Visit the Hudson Furniture website - here.

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Concrete is not a material known for being light and mobile, so when we learned about the work of the Brooklyn, New York based Oso Industries, it certainly got our attention.  Oso have created a collection of concrete furniture, much of which defies the usual physics of concrete, and is unexpectedly lightweight.  Featured below are the Roller Bench and the Rollerstation.  Both pieces are set on wheels and are highly mobile.

Visit the Oso Industries website - here.

The Roller Bench - watch a (quicktime) video of it in action - here.

The Rollerstation - watch a (quicktime) video of it in action - here.

Chris from Seattle’s Pb Elemental Architecture has sent us photos of another one of their projects, this time it’s the The Tantalus Residences.

From Pb Elemtal:

The Tantalus Residences consist of four 3-level homes connected by a centered bridge leading to each homes entrance. Due to the topography of the site these homes enter on the middle or top floor of the home.

The homes rage from 1,650 to 1,586 sq.ft. and  have three bedrooms and 2.5 baths.  Inside details include low VOC sealed concrete, FSC certified bamboo floors, Caesar stone counter tops, in-wall radiant heating and stainless steel hardware.  All four units also share exterior elements; gray hardi-panel, cedar, fir, and custom windows.

Visit the Pb Elemental Architecture website - here.

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Thanks to John from Meyer Wells for sending us these photos of a feature wall they created for the lobby of F5 Networks in Seattle, Washington. Meyer Wells has a unique source of material for their work, they salvage wood from fallen trees in the neighborhoods of Seattle through their sister company City Tree Salvage.  So, not only do they produce some great contemporary designs, but their pieces have a real story behind them as well.

Visit the Meyer Wells website - here.

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Thanks to Katherine, a contemporist reader from Auckland, New Zealand, for letting us know about this house she’s in love with.  The 5 bedroom/5 bathroom house, which is currently for sale, was designed by Hillery Priest Architecture, and is located in the Auckland suburb of Remuera.

Visit the home’s real estate listing - here.  Visit the Hillery Priest website - here.

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