A Taste for the Contemporary
Vampires aren’t my usual subject, but when they become interested in modern design, it’s time to look over their shoulders. The hugely successful film Twilight, just released on dvd, is a case in point. When my daughter took me to see it last December I forgot about the plot as soon as the vampires’ home appeared on screen: it’s a dazzling modern sculpture in concrete, wood, and glass. Here it is in a photograph by Stephen Cridland from Portland Spaces magazine.
Clearly these vampires — their name is Cullen — have evolved. They must subscribe to Wallpaper, Metropolis, or Dwell. And they turn out to be a very nice family, too. Ironically this vividly foreshortened view gives the house a more “supernatural” look than it has in the film; nevertheless, all the glass and jutting cantilevers make it an unusually open and bright — not to say scene-stealing — design for folks who enjoy the dark and are somewhat reclusive.
It’s a real house and was designed on spec by Jeff Kovel of Skylab Architecture (and is now owned by an executive with Nike). I just wanted the movie to show a little more of it. So here are two other views by photographer Bruce Wolf from Portland Spaces magazine.
The bathroom shows how a single architectural feature like a deeply set window wall/skylight can shape a space and give it compelling character. Dense foliage outside the window becomes a natural shower curtain.
A screen made of finely scaled horizontal wood slats turns part of the porch into an elegant and private outdoor dining area. Walls and floor of wood continue the horizontal theme and add a warm counterpoint to the cool abstraction of the design.
Clearly you don’t need to be a celebrity vampire to yearn for a sleek contemporary house. Our Exclusive Studio and Contemporary Collections contain many plans to satisfy your thirst for modernity.
Houseplans.com in the News
It has been a busy press week for Houseplans.com, with Design Editor Pilar Viladas vividly explaining the Flexahouse in the New York Times Magazine The Moment Blog on March 24, Design Writer Mike Cannell describing our exclusive William Turnbull Sea Ranch plans at Fast Company on March 31, and Reporter Les Christie interviewing one of our house plan customers for CNN.Money.com, also on March 31. In addition, several hot and extremely popular design blogs have reported on Houseplans.com recently. Remodelista’s Julie Carlson covered Nick Noyes and the Flexahouse in detail; Sunset’s Allison Arieff also described it in her HomebySunset blog; Materialicious explored both the Flexahouse and the Turnbull plans; Mocoloco picked up the photos of the house by architect Nick Noyes that was inspiration for the Flexahouse; and Livemodern carries this very blog. Onward and upward.
2 responses so far ↓
lloyd alter // April 6, 2009 at 6:22 am |
but no house built for the movies ever beat that FLW knockoff in North By Northwest.
Steve // April 8, 2009 at 12:11 pm |
I wish you would use some of your good taste to edit what plans are available on housplans.com. I see the same plans I saw when my parents were look ing to build a house in the 1970’s. You ‘contemporary’ category has the cheap 70’s saltbox and such. Some of the newer stuff done in Sketchup looks so vague and undesigned. At least you could add a modern category and try to have some quality control.