I’ll start this in the old way I used to start most of my older blog posts… just because it’s true, so here goes.

Once in a while an item comes along and makes you stand up and pay attention. Here is one of them. This is an attractive looking hen house which is quite extraordinary, if only for it’s external beauty!

The wooden, multi-level hen house is designed to be a place to roost and rest for the (possibly more pampered) chicken(s) in your life. Using principles of architecture in the design of a simple hen house is a stroke of genius and we wonder how long it is before someone starts a study on whether chicken lay more in this than a standard koop.

The designer is Frederik Roijé, who is from the east of the Netherlands. After a prodigious period at the reknowned Eindhoven institute and a couple of internships at famous designers’ in both the Netherlands and Italy, he opened the door on his own design practice in Amsterdam during 2003, specialising in product design. His early flair for “interior items” has been continued through his work for companies such as Droog design and many of his own collections.

We thoroughly recommend a good look around his website to ensure you see all his work, it is very inspirational. Click the image above and you will go to his site to see his works and learn about him and his company.

Everybody thinks this is great work and inspiration to everyone indeed!

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It’s been a long time coming and the Stuttgart car makers’ museum to themselves has been slightly delayed again. The Viennese architect-designer, Delugan Meissl, designed this masterpiece to showcase the history of one of Germany’s most iconic brands.

The whole building is intended to look as if it is floating above the ground when you are inside and houses some of the best examples of German sportscar design from the last 100 years of so. Everybody would love to give you more details about the museum, but it is a little hard to decipher the language used on the site. It’s probably best that you just look at the pictures and pop in to the actual museum next time you are in or near Stuttgart. As ever click the picture to see the site and the building works on it.

One of our favourite cities is Antwerp. Dunno why but the place rocks. The atmosphere there is a great one and there is a real sense of style it feels French but isn’t that far away.

Architecturally there is a great deal going on too, old and new mix with ease and shops pop up in old bank buildings and the such like. The shops exude a great deal of style too with upper class boutiques and (my favourite shop) the grungy, down-to-earth-skater-hang-out, ‘Fish ‘n’ Chips’, which is well worth a look if you are trying desperately to be down with the kids… I still am, I just like the place.

Anyway, this recently caught my eye and you are bound to see why. Nestled in between the standard buildings is a glass fronted piece which has multiple usages – shop, office, apartment and storage space. It’s designed by the Import/Export Architectural practice and we like it lots of plenty. The building is in the trendy part of town and deserves to be. It’s full of angles which are not quite 90º and seems to be very fragile (hence the name) but is just as strong and sturdy as any of the buildings around it.

It’s not hard to see why this building works in Antwerp, it has a great feeling which could only be bettered if it overlooked the river. I’d think about relocating the business to this building if I could live there too. As usual, click the picture above to get more images from the ‘OWI // Office for Word and Image’ website. Nice.

Images © Dujardin Filip

Ever wonder where artists and designers get all their inspiration from? Sometimes when you’re watching a movie you wonder if people making these things are on a non-prescribed medicine. Sometimes you see logo or poster designs that evoke the same feeling.

Although some designers just design these kind of things out of their heads, a lot of us get our inspiration from the most usual (and unusual) places. Take this picture for example; looks like it came straight out of a movie doesn’t it? In this case, it was a place at the beach in Estonia, right after a storm followed by a cold winter night. What happens next is a sight that is just as unbelievable as it is beautiful and provides people with a huge amount of inspiration. Imagine loving chocolate, and walking into a bonbonshop in Belgium (home of one of the best bonbon makers). It’s a walhalla come to life, which is exactly what happens to designers when seeing inspirational places like this.

Scenes like this happen all around you though; you don’t necessarily have to go all the way to Estonia to see this. You’d be suprised how many fantasy-like places exist, sometimes even right around the corner.

Pretty much one of the most revered designers in the UK at the moment is Thomas Heatherwick. His work takes normal and accepted ideas, screws them up and throws them away before designing something simply wonderful.

Many of his works are based on simple fluid shapes which create an organic and flowing feel, but this one is a simple idea which looks like a giant rolled up, orange Hedgehog. This particular piece is a 2.4 metre cube which is machined from 15mm aluminium. It features 5000 thin spikes which serve as windows capped with orange acrylic. The entire structure stands on these self same spikes, each of which radiates from the exact centre of the structure. This means one single light source can be used to emit light from each of the spikes. It simply looks stunning, lit up or not.

Everybody loves Heatherwick studio. Their works for the Harvey Nichols window, over 10 years ago, was award winning for a reason and most every project since is worthy of our awe. The best advice is not to take our word for it, but to go to the Heatherwick studio website, by clicking the picture above. Have a look at the “sitooterie” then browse around the rest of the work, making sure you have a look at the rolling bridge in the Paddington Basin. Simply stunning.

One of the most iconic items on the London landscape for years as been the Battersea Power Station. Since it was decommissioned in 1983 it has fallen into ruin and has been owned by three different people.

The third and current owners have taken it upon themselves to develop the plant and the area around it transforming it to a stunning and eco-friendly housing/shopping/working/hotelling (?) complex with a huge 1000 foot tall eco dome to work as a natural air con unit, out with the bad, and in with the good – as they say.

The huge tower would be the tallest thing in the city by far and the ability to haul solar power in gives it a great green potential.

The architect responsible in designing this beautiful building is the Uruguayan, Rafael Vinoly. Primarily known for his work in every corner of the United States, his creations can be found as far afield as Tokyo and London.

Everybody really admires the lengths this designer goes to, to make things look great. A real case of innovation becoming reality in every project. Click the picture above to see the work of a another brilliant architect first hand.

Suddenly every other office looks a bit stale. Here is a project the architects, James Law Cybertecture International, for a new office complex in Mumbai, India. The whole concept considers the world as an ecosystem and let it evolve. Hence its egg shape. The building takes care of its inhabitants, helping track blood pressure and weight automatically with data being sent to their doctor if needed. The roof garden dissipates heat from the building itself, while its egg shape makes the most of reaping the abundant solar energy of the area.

Great looking building and a good concept but what do you think about having your health monitored on a day to day basis every time you enter the building? I can see it causing a few human rights and intrusion issues in Europe.

image © James Law Cybertecture Intenational