Category: Photography

Designed by local studio Malan Vorster, this contemporary retreat is located in Cape Town, South Africa, making you feel relegated back to your childhood when you used to play in your tiny tree house in the backyard.

The structure is composed of four cylindrical wooden towers elevated on stilts, each offering large windows that allow the residents wonderful views over the surrounded forest. The architects designed the residence for a client who wanted their hide-away in the Constantia suburb of the South African capital that resembles a tree house of their childhood. Inside, contemporary furnishings fill the spaces, creating a nostalgic escape and a comfortable home at the same time. The main living area occupies the first floor of the house, featuring a patio, a dining alcove and the main staircase. A master bedroom with a glass balustrade is located on the second floor, offering views to the level at the front. The architects left all the materials untreated with the intention that they will weather naturally over time.

When photographer Akasha Rabut moved to New Orleans from California in 2010, she didn’t exactly know what to expect. Second Line parades weren’t the only New Orleans tradition Rabut was fascinated by.

One day, while driving down an urban street, she spot a man on a horse with a cigarette in his hand, riding like the wind. Thus the idea emerged of capturing the vibrant lives of a group of urban cowboys in New Orleans called The Game Changers. Titled “Southern Riderz”, the series shows The Game Changers early on Sunday mornings and in a small community called Bridge City located across the Mississippi River from New Orleans. The images challenge our ingrained notion of cowboys in American culture, the idea cultivated from mainstream American westerns and novels where cowboys are predominantly white men. Rabut showcases that these riders are not the traditional cowboys with revolvers wearing the typical western apparel, but rather trade the revolver for a daiquiri and decorate their horses with harnesses and straps in vibrant colors.

In collaboration with Stockholm-based furniture designer Hem, Canadian-born Philippe Malouin has created a series of playful room dividers entitled ‘Study for Screens’, on show at the 2017 edition of NYCxDesign.

The unusual screens, photographed here alongside selected pieces of Hem’s contemporary furniture, offer an experimental take on the division of a shared working space. They appear in the neoclassical ballroom of WeWork’s Bryant Park coworking site, transforming the space into a showroom of practical installations. Through Malouin’s use of surprising materials and unconventional shapes, the screens provide assistance to a space that extends far beyond their functionality. He describes the project as a series of “three-dimensional sketches on what it means to separate spaces,” reiterating the value he places on working in an environment that both mirrors and enhances creative inspiration.

Located on the ground floor of restaurant Brassa de Mar in Valencia, Spain, is Rice Club: A minimal space designed in harmonious muted tones.

Conceived by Francesc Rifé Studio, the goal of the  interior project was to steer the restaurant’s mood towards a pared-back, balanced space based on essentialist design principles. Movable lattices made of stained poplar wood front the window and provide a partition within the space as well as ensuring subdued light, contributing to the a peaceful mood both day and night. Complementing color tones were a key factor in the project. Centred around a neutral palette, warm mauve hues contrast with chocolate brown and creamy beiges, proving a serene backdrop to the cubic concrete counter and wood details. Modernist furniture and low lighting provide poetic finishing touches to the warm and tranquil space.

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Rice Club
Brassa de Mar
Av. Mare Nostrum 50
46120 Alboraia
Valencia, Spain

A recently opened exhibition at ACME Los Angeles showcases recent works of American artist Heather Rasmussen. The show, entitled ‘Body Variations’, features photographs, sculptures, and video works. Rasmussen recreated imagery of artists such as Hans Breder, Ujj Zsuzsi and Rene Magritte in her studio, forming her own surreal artworks. The pieces explore the relationship between a woman – particularly a dancer – and her body. Rasmussen choreographed the scenes with her own body, using plaster cast copies of her legs and a series of objects with personal and historical meanings. Her still-life images with mirrors and prints of other photographs are both surreal and vibrant works of art.