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BLACK NEST presents the VANTA Living Room Collection: a descent into shadow, where red velvet meets gothic undertones.
We open the season with a darker turn: sculptural stone, occult frames, and a sofa carved from shadow itself.
✦ Curve Side Sofa w/HUD — 8Li
✦ Floor Lamp — 4Li
✦ Stone Table — 2Li
✦ Gothic Rug — 2Li
✦ Triangle Frames — 1Li/e
PBR + Legacy | Copy/Mod | No Transfer
Check it out at ANTHOLOGY: maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Anthology/129/129/1000
Hawk and Mesa Ranch
Pipes Canyon > Pioneertown > Mojave Desert > California
Photo credit: Lance Gerber
Hawk and Mesa Ranch
Pipes Canyon > Pioneertown > Mojave Desert > California
Photo credit: Lance Gerber
Artsand House MOC is a flirt with brutalism. A modern home with art gallery, spa and large bedroom with a garden view. Quadrangular concrete house bodies meet organic nature. A dog is waiting for the owner to come home.
In August 2019 I displayed some of my houses at the Kloss på Kloss exhibition in Hässleholm, Sweden. A visitor asked me if I didn´t have any brutalist houses. I said no and explained that it probably would be too boring. It would be hard to create the dynamics needed to make a modern house MOC interesting. After the exhibition I started thinking and decided to give brutalism a chance. Not purist brutalism, but rather contemporary architecture flirting with brutalism...
Lilium Eco House [WIP] is named after the lily flower. It is an eco-house with solar panels on the roof, large windows facing south and west, vegetables growing in the conservatory, high levels of insulation and daylight and material absorbing the warmth of the sun. Yet, it is a comfortable house with open social areas and modern design.
Artsand House MOC is a flirt with brutalism. A modern home with art gallery, spa and large bedroom with a garden view. Quadrangular concrete house bodies meet organic nature. A dog is waiting for the owner to come home.
In August 2019 I displayed some of my houses at the Kloss på Kloss exhibition in Hässleholm, Sweden. A visitor asked me if I didn´t have any brutalist houses. I said no and explained that it probably would be too boring. It would be hard to create the dynamics needed to make a modern house MOC interesting. After the exhibition I started thinking and decided to give brutalism a chance. Not purist brutalism, but rather contemporary architecture flirting with brutalism...
In a glade shadowed by pine trees lies this house. It has a large terrace (to some extent inspired by Frank Lloyd Wright's Fallingwater) and a cosy conservatory with garden view.
It might not be my most complex build so far, but it's still one of of my hardest to finish. In April, after years and years of hard work as a legal counsel with high speed approach and self-imposed performance requirements, I ran out of energy. My brain stopped co-operating and I lost my ability to focus. Since then, I have been struggling to recover and to find a balance both at work and in my creative process with LEGO. Thus, finishing Pineglade House MOC means a lot to me and I'm glad that I'm now on a more sustainable path ahead.
Lilium Eco House [WIP] is named after the lily flower. It is an eco-house with solar panels on the roof, large windows facing south and west, vegetables growing in the conservatory, high levels of insulation and daylight and material absorbing the warmth of the sun. Yet, it is a comfortable house with open social areas and modern design.
Checkered Tan House is a spacious summer residence with light colours. It's built on top of a creek and is surrounded by green, bright green and lime green foliage. A small patio is carved out in the rocks. Fully furnished of course.
This house has similarities both with one of my earliest builds Autumn Stream House and my box-shaped Coral House.
My aim was to keep the house simple, creating dynamics only with the combination of house bodies and windows. This makes a contrast to the green surroundings of the house.
Coral House MOC is a contemporary home with influences from both modernism and industrial style. It is located in tropical surroundings and has a colour scheme inspired by the snake that gave house its name.
The main house body is mainly built with reddish brown grille bricks, trans-clear panels and plated walls in tan, reddish brown, dark red and black. One of the plated walls "fold over" the house to form a roof. One vertical and two horizontal and white cuboids are built with SNOT technique and attached to the main house body to achieve contrast.
The ground floor hosts an open plan living room and kitchen, a calm corner with sea view, a bedroom and a spacious bathroom. Upstairs you find a room with sofa and chess corner, a small bathroom and a roof terrace.
Checkered Tan House is a spacious summer residence with light colours. It's built on top of a creek and is surrounded by green, bright green and lime green foliage. A small patio is carved out in the rocks. Fully furnished of course.
This house has similarities both with one of my earliest builds Autumn Stream House and my box-shaped Coral House.
My aim was to keep the house simple, creating dynamics only with the combination of house bodies and windows. This makes a contrast to the green surroundings of the house.
Cherry Loft House MOC (still work in progress) is a contemporary summer house with a large sloping roof and sleeping loft.
Coral House MOC is a contemporary home with influences from both modernism and industrial style. It is located in tropical surroundings and has a colour scheme inspired by the snake that gave house its name.
The main house body is mainly built with reddish brown grille bricks, trans-clear panels and plated walls in tan, reddish brown, dark red and black. One of the plated walls "fold over" the house to form a roof. One vertical and two horizontal and white cuboids are built with SNOT technique and attached to the main house body to achieve contrast.
The ground floor hosts an open plan living room and kitchen, a calm corner with sea view, a bedroom and a spacious bathroom. Upstairs you find a room with sofa and chess corner, a small bathroom and a roof terrace.
Three Trees House
Passive daylighting, recycled lumber, recycled fly ash concrete, and grey water recycling
jeremylevine.com
Photography by Tom Bonner
Set well back from the road across a manicured lawn, the facade of this villa in the Melbourne suburb of East St Kilda is Spanish Mission in style and would have been built in the 1930s.
The stucco wall finish and barley twist columns of the front portico loggia pay homage to the Spanish Mission style, as does the sunburst pattern over the front room window and the hacienda style air vent at the top of the gables. The hacienda look, was very much the aim of the Spanish Mission style.
The Spanish Mission style was typically a style that emerged in California during the interwar years and spread across the world.
As in London, there was a huge expansion in Melbourne after the Great War in 1918, with ribbon development estates with names like "Oakhill" and "Golf Links" popping up seemingly overnight along rail lines and tram lines. These quickly became suburbs where the newly created and newly moneyed middle classes chose to settle, away from the crowded inner city with its dark Victorian houses and slums. These suburbs gained the mocking title of "Metroland".
Representing modernity the inspiration of these "Metroland" houses were derived from the Reformist and Arts and Crafts movement in England as well as the more modern lines of the Art Deco, Streamline Moderne and Inter-War Mediterranean architectural styles that were in vogue in the 1920s and 1930s.
Checkered Tan House is a spacious summer residence with light colours. It's built on top of a creek and is surrounded by green, bright green and lime green foliage. A small patio is carved out in the rocks. Fully furnished of course.
This house has similarities both with one of my earliest builds Autumn Stream House and my box-shaped Coral House.
My aim was to keep the house simple, creating dynamics only with the combination of house bodies and windows. This makes a contrast to the green surroundings of the house.
Before I disassembled this house I had to take some better photos of the interior. Here is my original description of this MOC:
"House of Three is a contemporary Scandinavian family home. I've tried to catch contemporary Scandinavian architecture in colours, floor plan and roof design. The interior and furniture in inspired by IKEA and other Scandinavian designs. Comfortable living suitable for a small family."
Boxes (or cases) stacked asymmetrically on top of each other form this modern house. At the same time it´s an angle case study.
Coral House MOC is a contemporary home with influences from both modernism and industrial style. It is located in tropical surroundings and has a colour scheme inspired by the snake that gave house its name.
The main house body is mainly built with reddish brown grille bricks, trans-clear panels and plated walls in tan, reddish brown, dark red and black. One of the plated walls "fold over" the house to form a roof. One vertical and two horizontal and white cuboids are built with SNOT technique and attached to the main house body to achieve contrast.
The ground floor hosts an open plan living room and kitchen, a calm corner with sea view, a bedroom and a spacious bathroom. Upstairs you find a room with sofa and chess corner, a small bathroom and a roof terrace.
Blue Striped House is a U-shaped house inspired by contemporary Scandinavian architecture. Blue, tan and grey stripes. Small windows form irregular patterns and let the sun light create life in the living room, guest bedroom and dining area. All rooms have clean and modern furnishings. The house has three entrances through the living room, kitchen and laundry room. A windling staircase lead to the master bedroom upstairs.
Outside you may notice signs of late summer or early autumn. Brown, green, orange and red colours.
Lilium Eco House [WIP] is named after the lily flower. It is an eco-house with solar panels on the roof, large windows facing south and west, vegetables growing in the conservatory, high levels of insulation and daylight and material absorbing the warmth of the sun. Yet, it is a comfortable house with open social areas and modern design.
Checkered Tan House is a spacious summer residence with light colours. It's built on top of a creek and is surrounded by green, bright green and lime green foliage. A small patio is carved out in the rocks. Fully furnished of course.
This house has similarities both with one of my earliest builds Autumn Stream House and my box-shaped Coral House.
My aim was to keep the house simple, creating dynamics only with the combination of house bodies and windows. This makes a contrast to the green surroundings of the house.
in the Eagle Rock neighborhood of Los Angeles, California
Passive daylighting, recycled lumber, recycled fly ash concrete, solar energy, grey water recycling, rain water capture, mobile shade panels.
jeremylevine.com
Photography by Tom Bonner
Northcote, Victoria
I had just got my 5D back after getting it repaired so I fitted the 50mm lens and went for an afternoon walk in the neighbourhood. There are a lot of old and in recent years a lot more new houses in Northcote. This is an example of the new. Many of the newer homes are rather cold, grey and sterile in my view but this one is more interesting and certainly benefits from having surrounding vegetation.
Interior overview.
Calmwater Cliff House is located on a cliff by the beach. Two floors with a terrace on each floor. Downstairs you find a spacious kitchen and dining area, a bathroom and home office. Upstairs you find a music corner with sea view, a bedroom and the main entrance.
As you see it´s a LEGO house and I´ve mainly used the colours black, dark tan, tan and reddish brown.
I wanted to make a modern home - in some way inspired by Frank Lloyd Wright and the colours of the 20th century - updated to 21st century lifestyle.
Against a canvas of blue sky and wispy clouds, this striking modern apartment building in Berkeley, California showcases a bold interplay of concrete, glass, and rhythm. Its distinctive zigzag façade creates a sculptural tension between solidity and motion—a dynamic interpretation of urban housing that reflects Berkeley’s evolving architectural landscape.
At first glance, the building’s monolithic concrete surface appears austere, but closer inspection reveals deliberate precision. Each vertical bay shifts slightly, giving the façade a sense of depth and shadow that changes throughout the day. The alternating angles capture light differently, animating the structure as morning turns to afternoon. It’s a contemporary evolution of brutalist design, softened through human-scale detailing and sustainable sensibility.
The building sits along University Avenue, one of Berkeley’s most storied corridors, where decades of architectural experimentation coexist—craftsman homes, mid-century commercial blocks, and new urban infill projects. This structure represents the city’s forward-looking approach to density and sustainability, using concrete not as a symbol of heaviness but as a medium for clarity and permanence. Its rhythmic windows echo the pulse of city life, while the clean street frontage offers a respectful nod to the pedestrian experience.
Architecturally, it embodies the Bay Area’s shift toward minimalist urban housing—simple in palette but rich in geometry. The structure’s sharp angles create deep shadows that lend drama to an otherwise restrained composition. There’s poetry in its pragmatism: vertical repetition balanced by asymmetrical nuance, form driven by function, yet never without aesthetic ambition.
As the photograph captures it, the building feels both monumental and intimate. The warm evening light softens the gray façade, emphasizing texture over mass. Nearby, the red structure provides a counterpoint of color and contrast, revealing how contemporary architecture can harmonize with its surroundings through thoughtful restraint.
In a city known for its architectural experimentation, this building stands as a quiet yet confident expression of modern Berkeley—rooted in function, shaped by design, and alive with urban rhythm. It’s not a landmark by name, but it reflects the evolving identity of a city constantly redefining what home and density mean in a 21st-century context.
A floating home by the sea. Modern and comfortable. The house is surrounded by a wooden deck and shallow water. A bridge connects the deck to the guay. Fully interiored as always. Kitchen, toilet and living room downstairs. Bathroom, bedroom and storage space upstairs. You find more photos of the interiors in my photostream.
Inspiration comes from childhood summers and sailing with my parents. It was a challenge to catch the maritime feeling with details such as railings and stays and at the same time keep the design clean and modern.
I used dark blue bricks to create the water surface. The more common technique with transparent tiles or plates wasn't really on option because it didn't fit in the colour scheme.
This modern post and beam house was recently built in the Ten Mile Point/Wedgewood Estates neighbourhood of Victoria, BC, Canada.
To see more Pacific Northwest Regional Architecture like this, go to www.pnwra.com
Modern Architecture
A floating home by the sea. Modern and comfortable. The house is surrounded by a wooden deck and shallow water. A bridge connects the deck to the guay. Fully interiored as always. Kitchen, toilet and living room downstairs. Bathroom, bedroom and storage space upstairs. You find photos of the interiors in my photostream.
Inspiration comes from childhood summers and sailing with my parents. It was a challenge to catch the maritime feeling with details such as railings and stays and at the same time keep the design clean and modern.
I used dark blue bricks to create the water surface. The more common technique with transparent tiles or plates wasn't really on option because it didn't fit in the colour scheme.
Concealed Storage - harvesting unused space
Photo Inside of home office 2 under the floating Mondrian desk are concealed trap doors in the floor are open by a food pedal revealing a hidden storage room. The doors opens up in sections using the same pneumatic arms that hold open car hoods. The doors swing clear under the desk which hangs from the ceiling n threaded rods. Stairs descend 5 feet below to the storage area, wich doubles as a nucear fall out shelter. Okay, now I'm just making things up.
01_V_2
Jeremy Levine Design
Located at the end of a sleepy little cul-de-sac in the leafy north east Melburnian suburb of Fairy Hills is a beautiful pebbledash Arts and Crafts style bungalow. Quiet and unassuming amid its well kept gardens, this bungalow is quite significant historically as it is the creation and home of nationally renowned husband and wife artists Christian and Napier Waller, and is known as the Waller House. Together they designed the house and much of its interior decoration and furnishings. Napier Waller lived in their purpose designed home for some fifty years. What is especially significant about the house is that both it and its contents are quite intact. Napier Waller's studios, examples of his art, that of his two wives and his niece, famous studio potter Klytie Pate, and items connected with his work remain exactly as he left them. Architecturally the house design is innovative in its internal use of space, specifically in the organisation of the studio cum living room and displays a high degree of artistic creativity in the interior decoration.
The Waller House in Fairy Hills is so named because it was the residence of Mervyn Napier Waller, the acclaimed artist who gained National fame from his water colours, stained glass, mosaic works and murals and his wife Christian, who was a distinguished artist and designer of stained glass in her own right. In particular Napier Waller's works adorn the Melbourne Town Hall, the Myer Emporium Mural Hall, the Victorian State Library and the Australian War Memorial. The Waller House is a split level house designed by Napier and his first wife Christian who intended the house to be both a home and a workplace. For this the design was conceived to accommodate the tall studies and pieces of the artist's work.
The Waller house was built by Phillip Millsom in 1922 and the architectural style of the house is a mixture of Interwar Arts and Crafts, Interwar Old English and Interwar California Bungalow. The house is constructed from reinforced concrete walls with a rough cast pebbledash finish. The roof is steeply pitched with a prominent half timbered gable over the front entrance and has Marseilles pattern terracotta tiles. There are small paned casement windows. There have been several additions to the original design over the years but these have all been sympathetic to the original design.
The house is entered from a two sided verandah into an entrance hall, panelled in Tasmanian wood. This has stairs leading to the different levels of the house interior. In one direction the hall leads to a main living hall which was Napier Waller's original studio and later used as the main living room in the house. This room has a high ceiling with casement windows, a musicians’ gallery and a broad brick fireplace flanked by fire-dogs and bellows made by the sculptress Ola Cohn (1892 – 1964). Like many of the other rooms in the house the studio is panelled and floored with Tasmanian hardwood and contains some of the studies for Napier Waller's murals: “The Five Lamps of Learning; the Wise and Foolish Virgins” a mosaic for the University of Western Australia and, “Peace After Victory” a study painting for the State Library of Victoria. Above the panelling the plaster walls are painted in muted colours in wood grain effect. The raftered plaster ceiling has been painted in marble effect with gold leaf. Book shelves, still containing the Wallers’ beautiful books, are built into the panelled walls. Furniture in the room includes a settee with a painted back panel featuring jousting knights, painted by Christian Waller, a leather suite and black bean sideboards and cupboards. This furniture was designed in the nineteen thirties by Napier Waller and by Percy Meldrum and a noted cabinet maker called Goulman. The studio cum hall also contains many ceramic works created by studio potter Klytie Pate who was Christian Waller’s niece and protégée. The entrance hall leads in the other direction to a guest room, known as the “Blue Room”. This was the idea of Napier's wife Christian and has simple built-in glass topped furniture and Napier's murals of the “Labours of Hercules” which include a self portrait of the artist. An alcove section of the room was constructed out of an extension to the verandah. Stairs lead from the entrance hall to the musicians’ gallery which has a window and overlooks the studio cum living room. The kitchen near the studio/hall is panelled and raftered with built-in cupboards conforming to the panelling. The ceiling is stencilled in a fleur-de-lys design by Napier. The dining room lies to the right of the studio cum hall and contains shoulder high panelling and raftered ceilings. It has an angled brick corner fireplace and the walls and ceiling have the same painted treatment as the studio cum living room. The oak dining furniture was designed by Napier. A small den with high window, furnished with leather chairs, opens off the dining room. Opening off the hall to the left is a long rectangular room known as the glass studio. This was added to the house by builder C. Trinck of Hampton in about 1931 and contains Napier Waller's kiln, paintbrushes and stained-glass tools on the benches, and stained glass designs and racks which are still stacked with radiant streaked glass from his work with stained glass windows. A bedroom and bathroom with attic pitched rafter ceiling and casement windows is situated on the upper level of the house. Another bedroom in ship's cabin style with flared wall light fittings and built in bunks opens off this first bedroom.
The house backs onto a courtyard enclosed by a long bluestone garden wall. The house is set in a three and a half acre site with cypress hedges and gravelled paths. The garden drops away to a hillside slope with manna gum trees. Set on the slope is a flat roofed studio built in 1937. It has an undercroft beneath a studio room and this contains a lithographic press and a printing press of 1849 for woodcuts and linocuts. This was used by Napier and his first wife Christian to produce prints in the 1930s. Napier was widowed and married his stained glass studio assistant Lorna Reyburn in 1958.
The Waller House has recently become famous for yet another reason. The exterior has been used as a backdrop in the ABC/ITV co-production television series, “The Doctor Blake Mysteries” (2013). The house serves as the residence of the program’s lead character, Doctor Lucien Blake (played by Australian actor Craig McLachlan), and the doctor’s 1930s tourer is often seen driving up to or away from the Waller House throughout the series. The Waller House is the only regular backdrop not filmed in the provincial Victorian gold rush city of Ballarat, in which the series is based.
The Waller House is still a private residence, even though it was bequeathed to the people of Victoria by Napier Waller under the proviso that it would not revert to state ownership until after the death of his second wife, Lorna. The current leasee of the Waller House is a well known Melbourne antique dealer, who was friends with Lorna Reyburn, and who acts as a loving informal caretaker. He was approached by the Napier Waller Committee of Management and keeps the house neat and tidy, and maintains the garden beautifully. I am very grateful to him for his willingness to open the Waller House, and for allowing me the opportunity to comprehensively photograph this rarely seen gem of Melbourne art, architecture and history.
Mervyn Napier Waller (1893 – 1972) was an Australian artist. Born in Penshurst, Victoria, Napier was the son of William Waller, contractor, and his wife Sarah, née Napier. Educated locally until aged 14, he then worked on his father's farm. In 1913 he began studies at the National Gallery schools, Melbourne, and first exhibited water-colours and drawings at the Victorian Artists' Society in 1915. On 31 August of that year he enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force, and on 21 October at the manse of St Andrew's Presbyterian Church, Carlton, married Christian Yandell, a fellow student and artist from Castlemaine. Serving in France from the end of 1916, Waller was seriously wounded in action, and his right arm had to be amputated at the shoulder. Whilst convalescing in France and England Napier learned to write and draw with his left hand. After coming home to Australia he exhibited a series of war sketches in Melbourne, Sydney, Adelaide and Hobart between 1918 and 1919 which helped to establish his reputation as a talented artist. Napier continued to paint in water-colour, taking his subjects from mythology and classical legend, but exhibited a group of linocuts in 1923. In 1927 Napier completed his first major mural for the Menzies Hotel, Melbourne. Next year his mural 'Peace after Victory' was installed in the State Library of Victoria. Visiting England and Europe in 1929 to study stained glass, the Wallers travelled in Italy where Napier was deeply impressed by the mosaics in Ravenna and studied mosaic in Venice. He returned to Melbourne in March 1930 and began to work almost exclusively in stained glass and mosaic. In 1931 he completed a great monumental mosaic for the University of Western Australia; two important commissions in Melbourne followed: the mosaic façade for Newspaper House (completed 1933) and murals for the dining hall in the Myer Emporium (completed 1935). During this time he also worked on a number of stained-glass commissions, some in collaboration with his wife, Christian. Between 1939 and 1945 he worked as an illustrator and undertook no major commissions. In 1946 he finished a three-lancet window commemorating the New Guinea martyrs for St Peter's Church, Eastern Hill. In 1952-58 he designed and completed the mosaics and stained glass for the Hall of Memory at the Australian War Memorial, Canberra. On 25 January 1958 in a civil ceremony in Melbourne Waller had married Lorna Marion Reyburn, a New Zealand-born artist who had long been his assistant in stained glass.
Christian Waller (1894 – 1954) was an Australian artist. Born in Castlemaine, Victoria, Christian was the fifth daughter and youngest of seven children of William Edward Yandell a Victorian-born plasterer, and his wife Emily, née James, who came from England. Christian began her art studies in 1905 under Carl Steiner at the Castlemaine School of Mines. The family moved in 1910 to Melbourne where Christian attended the National Gallery schools. She studied under Frederick McCubbin and Bernard Hall, won several student prizes, exhibited (1913-22) with the Victorian Artists Society and illustrated publications. On 21 October 1915 at the manse of St Andrew's Presbyterian Church, Carlton, she married her former fellow-student Mervyn Napier Waller; they were childless, but adopted Christian’s niece Klytie Pate, in all but a legal sense. During the 1920s Christian Waller became a leading book illustrator, winning acclaim as the first Australian artist to illustrate Alice in Wonderland (1924). Her work reflected Classical, Medieval, Pre-Raphaelite and Art Nouveau influences. She also produced woodcuts and linocuts, including fine bookplates. From about 1928 she designed stained-glass windows. The Wallers travelled to London in 1929 to investigate the manufacture of stained glass at Whall & Whall Ltd's premises. Returning to Australia via Italy, they studied the mosaics at Ravenna and Venice. Christian signed and exhibited her work under her maiden name until 1930, but thereafter used her married name. In the 1930s Waller produced her finest prints, book designs and stained glass, her work being more Art Deco in style and showing her interest in theosophy. She created stained-glass windows for a number of churches—especially for those designed by Louis Williams—in Melbourne, Geelong, and rural centres in New South Wales. Sometimes she collaborated with her husband, both being recognized as among Australia's leading stained-glass artists. Estranged from Napier, Christian went to New York in 1939. In 1940 she returned to the home she shared with her husband in Fairy Hills where she immersed herself in her work and became increasingly reclusive. In 1942 she painted a large mural for Christ Church, Geelong; by 1948 she had completed more than fifty stained-glass windows.
Klytie Pate (1912 – 2010) was an Australian Studio Potter who emerged as an innovator in the use of unusual glazes and the extensive incising, piercing and ornamentation of earthenware pottery. She was one of a small group of Melbourne art potters which included Marguerite Mahood and Reg Preston who were pioneers in the 1930‘s of ceramic art nationwide. Her early work was strongly influenced by her aunt, the artist and printmaker, Christian Waller. Klytie’s father remarried when she was 13, so Klytie went to live with her aunt, Christian Waller. Christian and her husband Napier Waller encouraged her interest in art and printmaking. She spent time at their studio in Fairy Hills, and thus her work reflected Art Deco, Art Nouveau, the Pre Raphaelites, Egyptian art, Greek mythology, and Theosophy. Klytie made several plaster masks that were displayed by the Wallers in their home and experimented with linocut, a medium used by Christian in her printmaking. Her aunt further encouraged Klytie by arranging for her to study modelling under Ola Cohn, the Melbourne sculptor. Klytie became renowned for her high quality, geometric Art Deco designed pottery which is eagerly sought after today by museums, art galleries, collectors and auction houses.
Fairy Hills is a small north eastern suburb of Melbourne. Leafy, with streets lined with banks of agapanthus, it is an area well known for its exclusivity, affluence and artistic connections. It was designed along the lines of London’s garden suburbs, such as Hampstead and Highgate, where houses and gardens blended together to create an informal, village like feel. Many of Fairy Hills’ houses have been designed by well known architects of the early Twentieth Century such as Walter Burley Griffin (1876 – 1937) and have gardens landscaped by designers like Edna Walling (1895 – 1973). Fairy Hills is the result of a subdivision of an 1840s farm called “Fairy Hills” which was commenced in the years just before the First World War (1914 – 1918). “Lucerne Farm”, a late 1830s farm associated with Governor La Trobe, was also nearby.
That moment when the sun is setting and the interior lights turn on is magic.
This is the Manna house perched on a hillside ridge.
Have a look at our Drone Tour @ www.youtube.com/watch?v=18r94QQ10qc
Sustainable Systems and Green Materials
1) Photovoltaic solar energy system
2) Grey water recycling system - takes water from the -bathroom sinks and showers, and the washing machine, filtering it and pumping it to the fruit trees in the garden
3) Rain water collection system
4) Passive Cooling - uses low windows on the windward side and high windows on the leeward side of the house. Cross ventilation is maximized by eliminating most of the interior walls and aligning windows and sliding glass doors. Ceiling fans are distributed across the ceiling to move the warm air out when there is no natural breeze.
5) In order to reduce the size of the house, we used efficient efficient custom storage system of movable shelves and cabinets runs through the length of the house. This allows for a smaller, but smarter building.
6) Natural Daylighting - uses interior clerestory windows and transoms to allow all of the rooms to borrow light from each other.
Materials
1) recycled flooring for the first structure, patched together and left roughly finished.
2) plywood floors for the second structure
3) Ceilings of both structures are plywood, cut into horizontal boards.
4) Composite decking made of recycled content.
5) All of the Interior doors are made of recycled flooring from the existing house
6) Poured in place concrete countertops in the kitchen and bathrooms, use recycled fly ash
8) Non VOC Paints and Stains
9) All plumbing fixtures are low-flow energy efficient
10) All electrical appliances are energy star rated
-LED and fluorescent lighting fixtures
11) Ductless Mini-Split HVAC system zoned for maximum efficiency
Credits:
Jeremy Levine Design
Designer: Jeremy Levine, Assoc. AIA, Principal
Associate Designer: Jonathon Pickup
Structural Engineer: Micheal Ciortea
General Contractor: Juan Macias Construction
Photography by Tom Bonner
Hidden Home Park is an underground modern, sustainable home hidden in a green park. Trees, bushes and flowers. A roof and an atrium garden. Kitchen garden with herbs. Three patios with lots of windows. Two ponds and a bench where you can meditate. Two bee hives symbolize the symbiosis of animals, plants and humans.
The build was my entry to the Swebrick contest Master Builder of the Year 2017 ending on March 1st 2018. It ended up on third place.
Vanilla House is a modern home with two floors. The ground floor house body is tan coloured and shaped like an "L". This is cut through by an inverted "L" consisting of many small plates in tan, dark tan, DBG, LBG and black.
Downstairs you find a kitchen, TV-lounge and bathroom. A black, floating staircase leads to the bedroom upstairs. The bedroom has glass walls to let in the light. The roof offers shadow.
The geometrical shapes inspired me to start building this MOC. In some way it is like a puzzle game.
peninsula.bcarc.com/tour.html
The project begins with a 1980’s home-builder house fronting on lake austin. The original design did not harness views to the lake and Mount Bonnell, nor did it respect the ecological sensitivity of its site. The challenge was to develop a sensitive and inventive result out of a pre-existing condition. Through the use of glass, steel, detailing and light the home has been adaptively reinvented. Reflection, translucency, color and geometry conspire to bring natural light deep into the house. A new solarium, pool, and vegetative roof are tuned to interact with the natural context. Exterior materials and refined detailing of the roof structure give the volume clean lines and a bold presence, while abstracting the form of the original dormers and gable roof. Further connecting the home to its site, the roof begins to dissolve where a glass clad chimney and slatted wood screen stand in relief against the sky.
Bercy Chen Studio LP
Selected for 2010 AIA Homes Tour
www.youtube.com/watch?v=18r94QQ10qc
Sustainable Systems and Green Materials
Sustainable Systems and Green Materials
1) Photovoltaic solar energy system
2) Grey water recycling system - takes water from the -bathroom sinks and showers, and the washing machine, filtering it and pumping it to the fruit trees in the garden
3) Rain water collection system
4) Passive Cooling - uses low windows on the windward side and high windows on the leeward side of the house. Cross ventilation is maximized by eliminating most of the interior walls and aligning windows and sliding glass doors. Ceiling fans are distributed across the ceiling to move the warm air out when there is no natural breeze.
5) In order to reduce the size of the house, we used efficient efficient custom storage system of movable shelves and cabinets runs through the length of the house. This allows for a smaller, but smarter building.
6) Natural Daylighting - uses interior clerestory windows and transoms to allow all of the rooms to borrow light from each other.
Materials
1) recycled flooring for the first structure, patched together and left roughly finished.
2) plywood floors for the second structure
3) Ceilings of both structures are plywood, cut into horizontal boards.
4) Composite decking made of recycled content.
5) All of the Interior doors are made of recycled flooring from the existing house
6) Poured in place concrete countertops in the kitchen and bathrooms, use recycled fly ash
8) Non VOC Paints and Stains
9) All plumbing fixtures are low-flow energy efficient
10) All electrical appliances are energy star rated
-LED and fluorescent lighting fixtures
11) Ductless Mini-Split HVAC system zoned for maximum efficiency
Credits:
Jeremy Levine Design
Designer: Jeremy Levine, Assoc. AIA, Principal
Associate Designer: Jonathon Pickup
Structural Engineer: Micheal Ciortea
General Contractor: Juan Macias Construction
Photography by Tom Bonner
Afternoon light streams through the clerestory windows of this quintessential Sea Ranch living space, transforming its vaulted wooden beams into lines of rhythm and repose. The interplay of architecture and sunlight—the way shadows taper along the ceiling, the way warmth settles into the grain of the floor—captures the serene balance that defines life on California’s rugged Sonoma coast.
At the heart of the room stands a minimalist fireplace framed in black, grounding the composition with quiet confidence. Above it, a trio of sculpted birds soars mid-flight, their brass tones catching the fading light like a visual echo of the Pacific winds outside. This is not mere decoration but a continuation of the Sea Ranch ethos: a reverence for the natural world and a commitment to design that harmonizes with it.
The exposed beams, so integral to the modern-rustic Sea Ranch aesthetic, lead the eye outward toward walls of glass that dissolve boundaries between interior and exterior. Beyond them, the landscape unfolds—rolling meadows, salt air, and the muted blues of the distant ocean. Inside, wood dominates: honey-toned, tactile, alive. Even the furniture and cabinetry respect this material honesty, blending utility and simplicity in perfect proportion.
Light is the true designer here. As the sun descends, it paints the interior with gradients of amber and rose, transforming what might otherwise feel utilitarian into something lyrical. The geometric precision of the ceiling becomes poetic; the natural imperfections in the woodgrain seem to breathe. There’s no ornamentation for ornament’s sake—just thoughtful restraint and a deep awareness of place.
This space embodies the human scale and quiet luxury envisioned by the original Sea Ranch architects—Charles Moore, Joseph Esherick, William Turnbull, and others—who sought to create buildings that yield to the landscape rather than dominate it. The room’s warmth comes not only from the materials but from its purpose: to provide refuge, perspective, and communion with nature.
As the viewer lingers, it’s easy to imagine the sound of the ocean mingling with the crackle of the fire, the faint call of seabirds overhead, and the peaceful rhythm of the coast. In this Sea Ranch interior, every line, every beam, every ray of light feels intentional—part of a living architecture that still teaches us how to dwell with humility and grace.
Artsand House MOC is a flirt with brutalism. A modern home with art gallery, spa and large bedroom with a garden view. Quadrangular concrete house bodies meet organic nature. A dog is waiting for the owner to come home.
In August 2019 I displayed some of my houses at the Kloss på Kloss exhibition in Hässleholm, Sweden. A visitor asked me if I didn´t have any brutalist houses. I said no and explained that it probably would be too boring. It would be hard to create the dynamics needed to make a modern house MOC interesting. After the exhibition I started thinking and decided to give brutalism a chance. Not purist brutalism, but rather contemporary architecture flirting with brutalism...
Three Trees House
Passive daylighting, recycled lumber, recycled fly ash concrete, solar energy, grey water recycling, rain water capture.
jeremylevine.com
Photography by Tom Bonner
Here's a wonderful booklet made by Douglas Fir Plywood Association titled 77 Ideas for Remodeling Your Home with Fir Plywood. It is full of awesome illustrations of modern house projects.
Photo: Javier García
More info & images blogged at No Barcode Blog »