Wild Guest House With Stunning Pedestrian Bridge Are Nature Friendly.

Miró Rivera Architects, whose latest project is the Circuit of The Americas, the first purpose-built Formula 1 Grand Prix™ facility in the United States, is no stranger to fabulous residential design as well.

Gorgeous Green Modern Beverly Hills Home With A Bowling Alley That Has An Underground View of The Pool.

Designed by Marc Whipple of Whipple Russell Architects, this spectacular home on Summit Drive in Beverly Hills uses extensive solar power, a gray-water reclamation system, and sound passive-solar design elements, making it the first house permitted under the city of Beverly Hills green building ordinance. I have almost 40 photos of this amazing house for you, so get ready to drool.

Marvelous Modern Mountain Home In Truckee, California is a Prefab Hybrid.

This magnificent and inviting modern mountain home, Martis Camp #246, by Sagemodern is located in Truckee, California. Part of this home was actually prefabricated offsite in a Utah factory and the dining room/ great room were built onsite, making it what the architect, Paul Warner, calls a hybrid prefab.



Designed for family and guests, the home, which is set amongst the woods adjacent to the Dick Bailey designed putting park, has five bedrooms, including two master suites, a junior master, a guest room and a bunk room. The 3,250 square foot structure is designed as a family retreat with a large kitchen and great room for friends and family to gather after a day of skiing or hiking through the forest.



The great room features a local quarried stone fireplace, radiant heated Brazilian slate floors and walnut cabinetry:




The dining area:


The kitchen features a gourmet Thermador professional series, Hansgrohe faucets, walnut kitchen cabinets and casework, limestone countertops, slate flooring with radiant heating and a quartz backsplash:





Bedrooms (two master suites, one junior master, a guest room and a bunk room):




One of the Master Bathrooms:


the mud room:


The custom windows and doors framed by exposed timber and steel bring in natural light to merge the indoor and outdoor living areas.

Architectural details:







The outdoor area will feature a spa area protected by a large boulder outcropping, a fire pit for roasting marshmallows and an outdoor BBQ area.

A heavy timber roof assembly and hot-rolled steel framing reduce the possibility of ice damming in the winter; they also reduce the cooling load in the summer. The exterior materials were picked to protect the home from the harsh climate.



The house is in a fire zone, so the exteriors are fire resistant, with heavy timber and steel overhangs, tempered glass in all the windows and vents that keep sparks and embers from entering the home.

An observation deck off the loft facing south provides a 270-degree view of the mountains and is a great place to watch the stars from, says Paul Warner.

The home being built in Utah and then delivered to the location:



Specifications

• Living Area 3,250 sf
• Exterior Deck Space 1,000 sf including spa
• Bedrooms 5
• Bathrooms 4.5

Materials and Systems

• HVAC Rheem 95% efficient variable speed furnace with Rheem's electronic air cleaner
• Water Heater 100 gal indirect water storage
• Windows Custom dual glazed low-e aluminum windows
• Appliances Thermador Professional Series, 42" refrigerator and 48" gas range
• Tile Limestone, slate and ceramic
• Flooring hand oiled white oak and Brazilian slate
• Exterior clear cedar siding, hot rolled steel, falls creek ledge stone, board formed concrete
• Decking Brazilian slate and cedar wood decking

Plans:



According to Trulia, the house sold for $2,337,000 on Dec 19, 2011.


Each Sagemodern home is created using prefabricated modules in a quality controlled factory environment and then delivered virtually complete to your home site. To learn more about the prefab process go to their process page by clicking here.

all images and info courtesy of Sagemodern

Jolly Green Giants: Metropolitan Reforestation Project In Milan Begins Construction.

After its initial design in 2007 by Italian Steffano Boeri's architecture firm Boeri Studio, Treehugger, Inhabit and Gizmag recently reported that construction of the Bosco Verticale (Vertical Forest) in Milan has finally begun. That intrigued me to do a little more research and bring you images of the original renderings , models and diagrams as well as some new construction photos.


above left: computer rendering of Bosco Verticale; above right: construction begins in Milan

With 24 floors (Torre E) and 17 floors (Torre D) respectively, the two residential towers will contain a total of 900 shrubs between 3 and 6 meters tall to help to absorb dust, smog and produce oxygen. The apartment buildings, examples of utilizing ecology in architecture, are expected to be completed next year and will include a restaurant, fitness center, parking garage, and rooftop garden.




CGI renderings and the architectural models of the towers:



Architectural models by One Off Protoyping

The construction has begun at Via De Castilla & Via Confalonieri, Puorta Nova I-20100 in Milan, Italy:




description of the project from the architect's site:
Bosco Verticale (Vertical Forest) is a project for metropolitan reforestation that contributes to the regeneration of the environment and urban biodiversity without the implication of expanding the city upon the territory. Bosco Verticale is a model of vertical densification of nature within the city. It is a model that operates correlated to the policies for reforestation and naturalization of the large urban and metropolitan borders (Metrosbosco). Metrobosco and Bosco Verticale are devices for the environmental survival of contemporary European cities. Together they create two modes of building links between nature and city within the territory and within the cities of contemporary Europe.

The first example of a Bosco Verticale composed of two residential towers of 110 and 76 meters height, will be realized in the centre of Milan, on the edge of the Isola neighbourhood, and will host 900 trees (each measuring 3, 6 or 9 m tall) apart from a wide range of shrubs and floral plants.




On flat land, each Bosco Verticale equals, in amount of trees, an area equal to 10.000 sqm of forest. In terms of urban densification the equivalent of an area of single family dwellings of nearly 50.000 sqm.



The Bosco Verticale is a system that optimizes, recuperates and produces energy. The Bosco Verticale aids in the creation of a microclimate and in filtering the dust particles contained in the urban environment. The diversity of the plants and their characteristics produce humidity, absorb CO2 and dust particles, producing oxygen and protect from radiation and acoustic pollution, improving the quality of living spaces and saving energy.





Plant irrigation will be produced to great extent through the filtering and reuse of the grey waters produced by the building. Additionally Aeolian and photovoltaic energy systems will contribute, together with the aforementioned microclimate to increase the degree of energetic self sufficiency of the two towers. The management and maintenance of the Bosco Verticale’s vegetation will be centralised and entrusted to an agency with an office counter open to the public.

Project information:
location: Milano, Italy
year: 2007 (on going)
client: Hines Italia
built area: 40.000 sqm
budget: 65.000.000,00€

Architectural Design:
BOERISTUDIO (Stefano Boeri, Gianandrea Barreca, Giovanni La Varra)

Team:
Phase 1 – Urban plan and preliminary design
Frederic de Smet (coordinator), Daniele Barillari, Julien Boitard, Matilde Cassani, Andrea Casetto, Francesca Cesa Bianchi, Inge Lengwenus, Corrado Longa, Eleanna Kotsikou, Matteo Marzi, Emanuela Messina, Andrea Sellanes.

Phase 2 – Final design and working plan
Gianni Bertoldi (coordinator), Alessandro Agosti, Andrea Casetto, Matteo Colognese, Angela Parrozzani, Stefano Onnis.

Consultant for the vegetation project: Emanuela Borio, Laura Gatti

images in this post courtesy of ©Boeri Studio, some diagrams by Salottobuono and architectural models by OneOff Protoyping