apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

Heh.. I guess the elk from image 3 ended up in image 5, along with a woodland friend. Is this the retirement home of Sarah Palin or something?

I really like these designs. Particularly the hexagonal beach house. There's a nice lightness and transparency to them. I think the architect is male, though (Andrea in Italy = male).

The stuffed animal heads are cleraly a playful send-up of the traditional hunting cabin. I'm sure "No animals were harmed during the making of these renderings".

I wonder if kellylc would be horrified by the presidential taste of Teddy Roosevelt’s home in Springwood in Hudson Valley, New York:

http://harmonyandhome.blogspot.com/2008/10/presidential-homes.html

“I wished a big piazza, very broad at the n.w. corner where we could in rocking chairs, look at the sunset; a library with a shallow bay window opening south, the parlor or drawing room occupying all the western end of the lower floor; as broad a hall as our space would permit; big fireplaces for logs; on the top floor the gun room occupying the western end so that north and west it looked over the Sound and Bay.”

- Theodore Roosevelt, 1883

History aside... I like the cartoonish edge of these projects. Taking advantage of new technologies to our disposal, our American landscapes -- forest or coastal -- need a colorful approach to design and shapes. I also like the aspect of these architectures telling a story. The story of reinterpreting familiar -- to most of us -- and vernacular spaces -- and atmospheres -- in a modern way of living. Very interesting projects. I hope they will provoke thought.

jwayne, my dear. I was making a joke, though admittedly not a very funny one. I am well aware the designers did not hunt and subsequently perform taxidermy on various animals for their virtual photo renderings. And I also realize this "deer head & bear skin rug" is a traditional hunting lodge aesthetic (being a designer myself).

I do find your Roosevelt citation amusing, though. Um, I stand corrected? Why would the decor tastes of a early 20th century president do anything to sway my early 21st century dead animal decorating preferences? This was a man who went to Africa and killed almost 12,000 animals including an elephant and a hippo! So "horrified" might just be an appropriate descriptor (although good on him about the national wilderness protection business).

These renderings are in desperate need of a landscape architect's design assistance. The whole "connecting with the surrounding environment" concept is completely lost when you surround your modernist behemoth with flat planes of turf.