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The Longest House Ever Built. 150 M Weekend House With Swimming Pool in Thailand by Shinichi Ogawa & Associates.







This linear reinforced concrete home by Shinichi Ogawa & Associates measures 150 meters in length, presumably the longest house ever built.  The main house is simply composed of a white cube and 2 horizontal plates of 11m wide by 150m long.








Arch Daily reports the following description which seems to have some translation problems (so please don't blame me):
"Overlooking the rich natural environment, the world’s longest house tops a hill in the Khao yai forest complex of Thailand.



Through the waterfall as a entrance gate, the road leads you to the main house extending east and west on the left, and on the opposite side, a glass house in the forest as a guest house.



All rooms for owner family are put linearly between the plates, opening to both north corridor and south deck terrace. A glazed room for spa and fitness at the east end, 6 bedrooms with exclusive bathroom and living room, a family living/dining room, and storage or maid rooms at the west end.












This extremely long planning takes advantage of the beautiful landscape, gaining a panoramic view and a dynamic scale space as the very long deck terrace. At the same time, it regards a airy comfortable living environment.



The white cube as formal living/dining room has 6M high ceiling. The stairs from the hall below divides the large room into southern living space and northern dining space.









The 150m weekend house – the longest house in this century - was born by admiring the mountain scenery as a given condition and imagining a seascape as the contrastive view."







Above the private rooms, there is a roof top terrace covered with sand and the swimming pool of 40m long. It’s like a floating sky beach surrounded by mountains.






WEEKEND HOUSE / 2012
Location : Khao yai, Thailand
Program : weekend house
Structural system : reinforced concrete
Stories : 2 stories
Total area : 1592.41 m2
completion date : 2012.06



Shinichi Ogawa

All photos © Pirak Anurakawachon

What The Top Luxury Brands Did (Or Didn't Do) To Wish Customers A Happy Holiday.




What did the top Luxury brands do this year to connect with their fans, engage their consumers and wish them a happy holiday season?  Well, I'm going to show you.

Besides e-mail blasts to those on their mailing lists and in their databases, some of the world's most well-known luxury brands created special short holiday films or flash videos (Burberry, Cartier, CHANEL and Dior) they shared on their own websites, YouTube and Facebook.  Some built interactive apps (Moet & Chandon, Hennessey and Mercedes -Benz), some reinforced their brand by posting holiday branded images on Facebook's timeline cover and on their pages and Twitter channels (Tiffany & Co., Hermes, Gucci, Louis Vuitton) or engaged in some geurilla tactics (Tiffany & Co. in London) and some, sadly,  did nothing except push their own products (BMW, Rolex and Prada).



I compiled the following examples from the top luxury brands according to Millward Brown and Interbrand (as well as a few additional brands such as Dior, Porsche and Mercedes Benz). I checked their websites (some global, some US), Facebook pages and Twitter feeds to share with you what they created and shared via social media for the Holiday Season*.

BURBERRY



As always, Burberry knows how to take advantage of digital media. In addition posting the above imagery on Facebook with heartfelt greetings, they created a "Magical Burberry Festive Card" a flash greeting card you can view and share.




TIFFANY & CO



Kudos to Tiffany & Co. for not only posting Christmas wishes and imagery on Facebook but for wrapping 100 taxicabs in London and offering free Christmas music downloads at their website from She and Him (no longer available):




CHANEL


In addition to some lovely CHANEL imagery posted on their Facebook page like that shown above, they created this special holiday video:


Although not listed as one of the top luxury brands, Dior also created a Holiday Wishes video worth sharing:


CARTIER


Cartier has a 'Wintertale" section on their Facebook page which allows you to watch this short film or create and share a wishlist:


MOET & CHANDON


In addition to many festive holiday images featuring their products on their facebook page, Moet & Chandon has an interactive app on Facebook and their own site that let's you pop the cork for the holidays. And see how many have before you.




HENNESSEY


While it's not holiday music (and I wish it were), as a gift to their Facebook fans and Twitter followers, Hennessey compiled a spotify playlist with the following message: "The Hennessy #WildRabbit Spotify playlist is our gift to your ears. Listen now, listen for free. Happy listening, and Happy Holidays!" (For this you do need to add the spotify app to your Facebook page).

MERCEDES BENZ


Mercedes Benz featured a holiday image and greeting on facebook and created the custom Naughty or Nice card, a facebook app that let's you you customize a card to send to the friend of your choice.




HERMES


Hermes had this nice banner, shown above, on their Facebook page. And posted some of their illustrated greetings by Alice Charbin on Facebook, but that's all. More holiday illustrations by Charbin, who creates all the illustrations for Hermes' emails and website, can be found here on Pinterest:


GUCCI


Sadly, Gucci simply posted this lame greeting card on Facebook. But at least the theme of gold ribbons is echoed on their website for some branding consistency.

LOUIS VUITTON
LV posted this season's greetings image to their facebook fans:


I was disappointed that Louis Vuitton is pushing their Luck Collection under the guise of Holiday Inspirations. While their site allows you to 'share your luck' while exploring the collection by turning a wheel with Christmas music playing in the background and adding items to your wish list, it's merely a way to sell more product.

PORSCHE
At least Porsche had this cute holiday image posted on their Facebook page, but that was about it.



BMW, ROLEX & PRADA
The most disappointing were BMW, Rolex and Prada. None of these brands posted or shared festive holiday greetings or imagery on their respective Facebook pages, websites or pinterest boards. Wouldn't have taken much to do. FAIL.

*While some of these brands have Pinterest boards and some do not, I did not include images from these in this post.


Merry Christmas!




If It's Hip, It's Here wishes each and every one of you a very Merry Christmas and much health and happiness in the new year.


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