Category: Architecture

Stepping onto the grounds of this Bethesda, Maryland home, visitors are greeted by the majestic ginkgo trees that frame the entrance. This newly renovated 1920s center-hall colonial – dubbed the Ginko House – has undergone a major transformation, breathing new life into its historic bones while retaining some of its original charm. The 4,875-square-foot home had a large addition located at the rear, consisting of a kitchen, great room, and primary suite, that was flooded with natural light. Colleen Healey, of Colleen Healey Architecture, was tasked with bringing that same open, brightness to the original part of the house and to upgrade the finishes throughout to form a more cohesive aesthetic.

The six bedroom, seven bathroom house kept its stucco exterior, but Healey updated the dramatic entrance with new windows and wooden louvers for a modernized look. In addition to the front, the back was included in the scope with a new garden, pool, and patio. A small sunroom featuring sliding pocket doors and roll screens was added to connect the interior with the updated backyard for an indoor/outdoor lifestyle.

By opening up the center of the home, sight lines were formed to the pool and patio, while inviting natural light into the main living spaces. Two gray Bubble sofas from Roche Bobois add a playful touch to the living room, which is located adjacent to the wall of windows by the patio.

Dark textured finishes and blackened steel add depth and drama, lending a touch of modernity throughout

White surfaces surround the jewel toned Soriana sofas from Cassina, which form a seating area around the textured steel fireplace in the den.

The open white metal staircase becomes a focal point against a wall of horizontally arranged mahogany wood slats that complement the louvers at the front entrance.

Photography by Jennifer Hughes.

Caroline Williamson is Editor-in-Chief of Design Milk. She has a BFA in photography from SCAD and can usually be found searching for vintage wares, doing New York Times crossword puzzles in pen, or reworking playlists on Spotify.

Calcium, iron, sulfur, and magnesium. These minerals are just a small sample from the shared elemental composition that links humans to the earth, and yet the hubris of man has led many builders astray from regularly honoring earthen materials. An exception to this rule, however, is the kodō hotel whose concept and creation are quite literally anchored by raw boulders brought on site. The commercial project’s ability to serve as an architectural touchstone for patrons is derived from the synergy between collaborators M Royce Architecture and creative studio Gry Space who harnessed the inherent power of wabi-sabi – the Japanese art of impermanence.

Located in the Arts District of Los Angeles, California – and the greater cultural context where wellness has been commodified beyond comparison – kodō practices humility at the behest of a client who envisioned a hotel and dining space nuanced in Japanese traditions. Formerly a fire station from the 1920s, interior designers Jen Whitaker and Emi Kitawaki of Gry Space, along with architect Matt Royce of his eponymous practice, usher in a new era. Led by the spirit of omentanashi – reframing hospitality concepts to center around care rather than expectation – the structure is stripped of pomp and circumstance often associated with boutique hotels to focus on the power of intentional design decisions like indirect lighting, purposeful objects, and moments where negative space allows for pause.

Reconnecting with self is facilitated by unadulterated finishes: massive stones that bear records of natural history, tatami detailing layered atop ash wood furniture, soft-toned interiors that are melancholic rather than somber, and a selection of rare Japanese botanicals. “​​At the core, we are rooted in creating a mood, a feeling that offers calmness and beauty in darkness and solitude in quietness,” says the Gry Space duo. “Raw concrete furniture, giant boulders, kyoto-style gravel, raw steel plates, and countless other subtle touches conspire to create a high design.”

Guests are greeted on the main floor where an open check-in melds with an intimate cafe to initiate the first of many grounding rituals in the fully immersive experience. Coined the kodō cafe, the repurposed fire engine doors can activate the frontage for activities engaging the street. Tatami benches, custom coat racks, and low dining tables crafted by Japanese carpenters Kikka Works are juxtaposed in playful contrast to custom concrete furnishings by Wabi Products borne from this collaboration.

Adjacent to the hotel proper is the kodō restaurant, an outdoor eatery with a fire pit lounge, omakase sushi bar, and a secluded private dining room – all of which serve to extend the intimacy established upon entry. The rough finish found gracing the walls of this greenhouse-like space leans into the beauty of imperfection – another tenet of wabi-sabi – presenting itself as the fine art architecture it used to be. At its nucleus is a custom constructed, 16-foot, monolithic, live-edge pine table surrounded by six benches that seat up to 20 diners. When not in use, some of the seating can be positioned upright and repurposed as pedestals to display art, ceramics, and food in another nod to impermanence.

Atop the aforementioned programming is the upper floor, which hosts eight ryokan-style rooms reflective of a traditional Japanese inn. Each private space celebrates the building’s idiosyncrasies while offering respite from the din of the bustling metropolis. All suites come complete with living and dining areas, expansive bathing spaces with custom concrete sinks, open showers delineated by gravel, king-sized futon-style beds with hidden modern technologies to eliminate distraction, and continued styling that borrows from the lobby.

Notably still is the inherent tie between minimalism practiced here and a conscious intent to achieve sustainability. Beyond the buzzword or rituals of recycling, incorporating durable, raw materials naturally tailored to embrace the passage of time imbues the space with an electricity you cannot get from a homogenous, builder-grade palette. “The massive boulders right at the entrance to the lobby immediately infuse the space with an organic beauty and give a sense of vitality and natural energy as the guests walk in,” says Royce. “The minimalist design elegantly integrates with trees in the common indoor area, as well as the choice art and graphics, and together they cultivate a serene and almost spiritual ambiance throughout.”

For more information on the kodō kotel, visit kodo.la. To learn more about each creative practice, visit mroycearchitecture.com and thegry.space.

Photography by Gry Space.

With professional degrees in architecture and journalism, Joseph has a desire to make living beautifully accessible. His work seeks to enrich the lives of others with visual communication and storytelling through design. Previously a regular contributor to titles under the SANDOW Design Group, including Luxe and Metropolis, Joseph now serves the Design Milk team as their Managing Editor. When not practicing, he teaches visual communication, theory, and design. The New York-based writer has also contributed to exhibitions hosted by the AIA New York’s Center for Architecture and Architectural Digest, and recently published essays and collage illustrations with Proseterity, a literary publication.

At the heart of Larry Booth’s 50+ year architectural career is the belief that spirited, meaningful, and useful buildings can be realized through an organized and open creative process. As Design Principal at Booth Hansen, which he founded in 1980, he’s in charge of the conceptual development of every project, taking all of these aspects into consideration.

Originally from LaGrange, Illinois, Booth acquainted himself with Chicago’s architecture early on when accompanying his father, a patent attorney, to his office in The Rookery, a great building of the old Chicago School with an inspiring atrium and spiral staircase. Perhaps influenced by his father’s sketches, design was a natural fit for Booth, who had a knack for building things, typically wood furniture, but occasionally something more sculptural in nature. When it came time to choose a course of study, Booth wasn’t sure, eventually deciding upon Stanford University.

“Architecture students were in the College of Arts and Sciences, where I got a liberal education while I also learned about practical design,” says Booth. “My aesthetic sense was sharpened in studio classes where I drew imagined buildings and could also experiment with sculpture. In both architecture and art, I developed an interest in relationships of geometric form.”

The engineering courses Booth completed while in school, mainly to placate his father who championed technical skills, also made an impact. More specifically, John E. Arnold, a pioneer in “creative engineering.” The professor believed that those who excelled in technical skills could benefit further with the addition of inventive thinking, giving students the ability to confront a problem with a solution that had perhaps never been executed before. Students, as well as the companies Arnold consulted for, were taught to organize their thinking into a creative process: analysis, synthesis, and evaluation.

“Arnold’s influence included his conviction that design, architectural or otherwise, should address ‘human values and the needs of society.’ More modestly, architects should consider the preferences of the client in any project, which, bluntly speaking, were not high on the list of European-inspired modernists,” Booth shares. “But thinking of how people used buildings and how they would feel inside, this struck some California architects as a natural link between form and function.”

Chicago’s cultural landscape continues to include Booth’s presence, having served on the boards of over a dozen institutions, including the Auditorium Theatre Council, The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Goodman Theatre, and the Museum of Contemporary Art. He’s currently a Clinical Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering and the Richard C. Halpern/Rise International Distinguished Architect in Residence at Northwestern University. Booth has also had the opportunity to be a visiting professor at the Harvard Graduate School of Design, the University of California, Berkeley, and the University of Illinois, as well as a lecturer at numerous colleges and universities.

Today, Larry Booth joins us for Friday Five!

Photo: Courtesy of United States National Parks Service

1. Two Week Raft Trip Through the Grand Canyon

I was entranced by the subtly shifting colors of the towering canyon walls as we alternately drifted through quiet pools or thundered through rapids. These natural compositions of water and stone fired my imagination and influenced my recent designs.

Photo: Courtesy of Visit California

2. Chez Panisse Restaurant, Berkeley, California

Sitting down to a meal at Chez Panisse is a favored pilgrimage for me and my wife. The warm, wooded Arts & Crafts inspired interior makes you feel thoroughly at home. Then Alice Waters’ culinary team shakes up your senses with tantalizingly fresh, locally sourced dishes.

Photo: Courtesy of the French Department of Culture

3. Original Cave Paintings, Lascaux, France

Visiting Lascaux in France’s Dordogne to see the 17,000-year-old cave paintings was unexpectedly moving. When we visited, we were able to see the actual paintings (not reproductions) of aurochs, horses, and deer bristle with life. The people who created these beautiful images had an urge to create art as urgently as modern man.

Photo: Courtesy of Villa di Maser

4. Villa Barbaro Maser, Italy

Palladio’s work has been a design touchstone for me since I first visited Italy with my wife and son after fulfilling my post-degree ROTC service. A highlight was Villa Barbaro with its harmonic ratios and its succession of spaces that gently filtered the natural light outside Venice, Italy.

Photos: Courtesy of Sand Hills Golf Course

5. Sand Hills Golf Club, Mullen, Nebraska

Many golf courses, however superbly designed, have an air of artificiality. Necessarily so, since they seek to challenge the golfer with sand and rough. Sand Hills Golf Club is unique in that the sand hills provide a perfect set of natural challenges that were fashioned with minimal impact into fairways, hazards, and greens.

Work by Larry Booth and Booth Hansen:

Glassberg House Photo: Bruce Van Inwegen

The Glassberg House occupies a sand dune on the edge of Lake Michigan with architecture designed to highlight the site. Its most notable feature is a plethora of windows, which permits views in all directions around the perimeter and of the lake below. The craftsmanship and construction, including the undulating roof mimicking the windswept area, unstained wood, and rough cut limestone inside and out are all high points. A pool and garden were designed to appear as links between the house and the landscape. A raw concrete flooring extends around the outside perimeter and into the living spaces. providing durability and a nice finish. The concrete required an innovative solution to cure, digging into the contractors’ and architects’ creativity.

Glassberg House Photo: Bruce Van Inwegen

Glassberg House Photo: Bruce Van Inwegen

Photo: Courtesy of Booth Hansen

Modern Beyond Style and the Pursuit of Beauty tracks the evolution of Booth’s work, which favors humanistic designs with modern and traditional elements. In particular, Modern Beyond Style provides a window into the creative process Booth took to free his contemporary practice from modernism’s rigidity. Upon this foundation his innovative designs create beauty through harmony between form and function.

Photo: Courtesy of Booth Hansen

Photo: Courtesy of Booth Hansen

Photo: Courtesy of Booth Hansen

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Kelly Beall is Director of Branded Content at Design Milk. The Pittsburgh-based writer and designer has had a deep love of art and design for as long as she can remember, from Fashion Plates to MoMA and far beyond. When not searching out the visual arts, she's likely sharing her favorite finds with others. Kelly can also be found tracking down new music, teaching herself to play the ukulele, or on the couch with her three pets – Bebe, Rainey, and Remy. Find her @designcrush on social.

Just like video games, office design is a high stakes adventure where collaboration and creativity gets you across the finish line. For Kinzo Architekten, this end goal is the successful completion of an office space for game developer and publisher KRAFTON and its PUBG Studios – the team responsible for the popular online game Battlegrounds. By translating their fictional game layout into a functional workplace in Seoul, Kinzo has not only captured the essence of PUBG Studios’ design and aesthetic, but also created an immersive environment that fosters teamwork and innovation among its occupants.

Partnering with interior design firm Dawon & Company to implement the planning and manage the construction, Kinzo mirrors the gameplay of PUBG by turning office floors into maps, complete with iconic monuments and interconnected pathways. This spatial layout encourages exploration and interaction among employees reminiscent of how players maneuver through play. The main staircase, inspired by the game’s “battle royale” mechanics, serves as a striking focal point and leads employees to areas for relaxation, like the tea kitchens and recreation rooms. Adjacent to the staircase are lounge spaces, casual standing areas, and meeting rooms that support chance encounters and impromptu exchanges.

Similar to how cooperation is the key to success in multi-player games, the collaborative workspaces, strategically placed meeting rooms, and shared workstations foster this sense of camaraderie and synergy within the office environment.

Mood and aesthetic were carefully considered to accurately capture the essence of the game, as well as ensure a comfortable and conducive work environment for the game’s programmers who prefer darker spaces to focus. From this underground level, the staircase eventually leads to the roof terrace, which boasts panoramic views of Gangnam, the heart of Seoul.

With the completion of this project, Kinzo effectively translates PUBG Studios’ fantastical narratives into a working office design for an immersive environment that fully reflects the virtual worlds the employees build.

To see more of the firm’s work visit kinzo-berlin.de.

Images courtesy of KRAFTON.

As the Senior Contributing Editor, Vy Yang is obsessed with discovering ways to live well + with intention through design. She's probably sharing what she finds over on Instagram stories. You can also find her at vytranyang.com.

In the city center of Madrid, Spain, Casa Flix is an attic renovation near Calleo square that turned a dark compact space into a flexible, light-filled home for urban life. The 42-square-meter apartment (approximately 452 square feet), overhauled by gon architects, offers a unique vantage point hovering above the city on the sixth floor in a historic building dating back to 1900. With its sloped roof and unconventional layout, it presented both challenges and opportunities for transformation. The overall vision was to maximize space while enhancing functionality and aesthetic appeal. The original layout, consisting of two rooms, was reimagined to create four distinct spacial areas that are visually connected: the bedroom/dressing area, entrance, workspace/bathroom, and the kitchen/living/dining room.

The entrance, reminiscent of a ship’s interior, sets the tone for the rest of the attic. A blue tunnel leads into the apartment, flanked by a metal shelf and circular window, creating a sense of transition and a taste of what’s to come. The bathroom, nestled in the center of the home, separates the sink and toilet from the shower. Mirrored panels, which conceal the sink and toilet part, cleverly expand the perception of space by offering reflections that change depending on if the door is open, half open, or closed. A glass block wall in the shower allows natural light to filter through, balancing privacy with luminosity.

A partial wall painted green is the backdrop for a triangular desk that juts out from the wall and paired with an orange chair from Moustache.

The pale yellow kitchen cabinets run along the higher end of the sloped ceiling with the vibrant blue dining table placed under the lower side. In addition to storing various kitchen accessories, cleaning products, and appliances, the cabinets also hold the owner’s clothes.

To counteract the inherent challenges of attic living, gon architects introduces ways to maximize natural light and ventilation. Additional skylights are installed in the bedroom and living room, flooding the interior with sunlight and creating an airy ambiance. A transparent glass door at the entrance further enhances the sense of openness, allowing light to permeate throughout the apartment.

When night falls, the glass-blocked shower becomes illuminated like a lantern, casting a glow throughout the entire space.

While bold colors mix with mostly white surfaces in the rest of the apartment, the bedroom is void of all hues for resulting in a serene, minimalist space.

Before photos

Photography by Imagen Subliminal (Miguel de Guzmán + Rocío Romero).

Caroline Williamson is Editor-in-Chief of Design Milk. She has a BFA in photography from SCAD and can usually be found searching for vintage wares, doing New York Times crossword puzzles in pen, or reworking playlists on Spotify.

Sarah Jefferys leads her namesake design firm, Sarah Jefferys Architecture + Interiors, through a path of inspiration gathered from international design and cultures with respect for personal desires, constraints, environment, and budget. She has been acting principal since the studio’s establishment in 2001 completing numerous residential, commercial, and small institutional designs from new construction, additions, and renovations throughout New England and the United States. A passionate advocate for sustainable design and the environment, Jefferys is an expert in passive house design and strives to reach net zero on all projects within the next decade.

Over the past 20 years, Jefferys and her firm have made themselves known in New York City and Brooklyn for townhouse architecture and design, country home construction, and bespoke structures. Personally touching every project, she provides clients with a custom space that’s a joy to live in and experience every day.

Jefferys identifies the importance of functional design in daily life, distilling her work through a contemporary aesthetic with a touch of elegance that brings pieces of the past and present together. The firm is known for perfecting modern design that features unique, minimalist, and warm spaces, each with an element of surprise celebrating small details. Every project is sure to reflect innovation with rich materials and technical sophistication, designed by the woman herself.

She’s received a number of awards and accolades throughout her career, including the Interior Design Best of Year Award, the Van Allen Fellowship, the Rethinking the Future Private Residence Award, and a NYCxDESIGN finalist nomination, among others. Prior to founding her firm, Jefferys earned a BA in Architectural Studies and History of Art from Tufts University, and a Masters of Architecture from the University of Pennsylvania.

Today Sarah Jefferys joins us for Friday Five!

Photo: Morten Smidt

1. The Heart of the Home, the Kitchen

I love to design kitchens. The kitchen is typically the center of the household and the heart of the home, serving as a place for people to gather, cook fabulous meals, entertain, and more often now than ever, work or do homework. I love to cook for people, whether for my three boys and their friends or our family friends; a typical dinner in our house is for 10-16 people! The kitchen needs to flow, allowing for many people to gather and cook.

Photo: Galyna Andrushko via Adobe Stock

2. Trips to India

India is the most incredible country, filled with gorgeous architecture, bright colors, extreme heat, enticing smells, and warm people – an overload and stimulation of all the senses. I adore everything about India and never tire of visiting. Each trip is a unique experience and has had a great influence on my work.

Photo: Matthieu Aubry

3. Bold “Happy” Colors

Inspired by these travels, orange, yellow, red, and pink have become my favorite color scheme. They make me feel happy and create a warm and cheerful space. Just a pop of one of these colors can transform a space from cold minimal to joyous.

Photo: Kevin Scott

4. Natural Light

Natural light. I love large windows and doors with a lot of natural light flooding my space. The connection with nature and the world beyond is relaxing and centering. The infusion of natural light in a home makes all the difference to one’s mood. I am so much happier and grounded in airy, light-infused spaces compared to darker interiors.

Rendering: @syntheticarchitecture

5. Sustainable Design

I am thrilled to see that passive house design, which is a means to make a home highly sustainable and energy efficient, is in higher demand. When designing a gut renovation or new build, passive house design is a no brainer! The principles are very basic: high levels of insulation, airtight construction, no thermal bridging, high-performance triple pane windows and doors, and a fresh air exchange system. Passive homes are quieter, healthier spaces with cleaner air that require approximately 70% less energy. I am excited to see that more people are turning to passive home design.

Work by Sarah Jefferys Architecture + Interiors:

Park Slope Passive Townhouse Gut Renovation by Sarah Jefferys Architecture + Interiors Photo: Morten Smidt

Jefferys was tasked with building an entirely energy-efficient home, known as a passive house, through the gut renovation of a 3,000-square-foot brick townhouse in Park Slope. Designed to read as an interactive sculpture, the entry to the kitchen is outlined by an LED light cove, visually delineating the space from the living and dining room. The kitchen is defined by full-height cabinets made with handcrafted, slatted oak detailing that wrap up the ceiling and back down around to an opposite wall of drawers. Crafted as an artful tunnel leading to the outdoor garden, the precisely cut, custom wooden slats embed unexpected textural intrigue into each surface of the kitchen.

Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn, Modern Rooftop Addition to Carriage House project by Sarah Jefferys Architecture + Interiors Photo: Morten Smidt

Jefferys designed a unique modern rooftop addition on top of an existing two-story, 1,300-square-foot brick carriage house in Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn. Set out with the intention of creating additional living and outdoor space for the couple and their three children, the design seamlessly fused the existing carriage house, built in 1899, with a striking sky house addition.

Red Hook, Brooklyn, Light Beacon Addition project by Sarah Jefferys Architecture + Interiors Photo: Morten Smidt

Through the construction of this Red Hook gut renovation project, Jefferys created a bright, open-concept living room clad with rich blues and oranges, flowing patterns, and a warm and cozy yet open allure. Tying the levels together, the cabled staircase, which creates continuity throughout each floor of the home, leads to a custom designed bulkhead skylight. Expansive glass windows capture and flood light through three floors of the home.

Kelly Beall is Director of Branded Content at Design Milk. The Pittsburgh-based writer and designer has had a deep love of art and design for as long as she can remember, from Fashion Plates to MoMA and far beyond. When not searching out the visual arts, she's likely sharing her favorite finds with others. Kelly can also be found tracking down new music, teaching herself to play the ukulele, or on the couch with her three pets – Bebe, Rainey, and Remy. Find her @designcrush on social.