Nguyen Qui Duc’s Mountain Home in Vietnam

Nguyen Qui Duc’s Mountain Home in Vietnam

Vietnamese American writer Nguyen Qui Duc returned to his native Vietnam in 2006. A year later, he bought land in the mountains of Tam Dao, 52 miles from Hanoi. When planning the house, Duc decided to work mostly with glass and stone, easily available materials that local workers were familiar with. Yet rather than following his neighbors’ lead by building several stories high to squeeze more living space onto the narrow plot, he anchored the single-story modernist structure into the cliff. From town, all that is visible is a stone wall on the edge of the mountain.

H&M Store in Barcelona – Estudio Mariscal

Edtudio Mariscal did a complete work for H&M in Barcelona: Architecture, lighting, furniture, graphics… even the shopping bags.The new H&M shop is found in the most commercial street of Barcelona, Portal de l’Àngel, in the building which was, until recently, the head office of the company Catalana de Gas.The original building, which is listed, is a vestige of the bourgeois architecture from the end of the 19th century, and is the work of Domènech Estapà, an architect who was opposed to the Modernista movement and more inclined towards a neo-classical style.

Herzog & de Meuron’s Lush Green BBVA Headquarters

      Their newest design for the Spanish banking group BBVA will be built on the outskirts of Madrid as early as 2013. The verdant green headquarters will feature luscious gardens and will create it’s own microclimate by using natural ventilation, evaporation, and the shade of the gardens and buildings to create a cool artificial oasis on a desert-like site. The project is meant to function as a small city, encouraging people to walk and meet within the outdoor spaces.