I’m not one for putting up a new shop openings but occasionally there are certain small places that seem to get it right.  Just around the corner from the revered fashion outlet Oi Polloi, North Tea Power is a clean open space decked out with thick solid wood tables and decent selection of food & drink.  It hopefully seems to be be part of a bigger thing for Manchester as local takeaways shut down and get replaced by new independent trade relevant to the area. After working in a studio nearby over the last 5 years it’s starting to get a flavour similar to what you would expect to see perusing the streets of Berlin.  Well worth supporting such places if it promotes more businesses to do the same.

Photo by Sanna H. Berger

I’m not sure weather it’s just the longing to live in an amazing house or just the element of voyeurism that The Selby has brought to the world but never the less I’m completely enthralled ever time I got on his site. Better yet his long over due book ‘The Selby is in your place’ is out now. That’s 250+ pages of beautiful photographs to for fill your house stalker jealousy. Click the image above take a quick peek of what you can expect to see.

Approach Rio de Janeiro by sea and you couldn’t help but be overwhelmed at the site of the dramatic Museu de Arte Contemporânea de Niterói perched high on the overlooking sea cliffs of the Guanabara Bay. It’s double curving figure is just one of many seductive structures by prized architect Oscar Niemeyer. It stands at 16 meters high with a diameter of 50 meters over the three floors. The museum projects itself over Boa Viagem, the 817-square meter reflecting pool that surrounds the cylindrical base built to symbolize a flower in a pond.

Flickr Set /  YouTube Video /  Google Earth

RATP Bus Centre in Thiais that controls all the bus lines of the south and east of Paris was designed by architect Emmanuel Combarel Dominique Marrec. Both are ardent supporters of contextual architecture, taking structure, restrictions linked to function and the socio-cultural concerns of the surroundings into account. Located in the southern suburban area of Paris along wide boulevards and roadway interchanges, in an industrial landscape characterised by a succession of boxes, at best basic, RATP Bus Centre in Thiais accommodates 300 buses, 800 bus drivers forward through the building every day, plus the administrative staff.

Flickr Set / Website

Wealthy South American businessman Pedro Ibañez built this lodge in 1998, offering guests refined luxury in the middle of the rugged-adventure land the Inca once called home. Set in a 700-mile-long desert amid six soaring volcanoes, the mile-and-a-half-high town of San Pedro de Atacama is close to the driest place on earth.

Flickr Set /  YouTube Video

It doesn’t get much more sleek and chic than the -5° Supperclub in Pattaya, Thailand, where guests enjoy food and drinks while they lounge on beds of pure white in a room of ever changing colours. If the Supperclub isn’t cool enough for you, there’s also the -5° Icebar which is kept at minus 5 degrees and drinks are served in glasses made of ice.

Image Set /  YouTube Video

Masterpiece of metabolist architecture and the original “capsule building” the Nakagin Towers in Tokyo, Japan sure are a treat to the eyes. The building follows the axioms of Metabolist philosophy spearheaded by Kisho Kurokawa. It consists of two separate towers which serve as support to 140 prefabricated capsules. Each capsule is one self-contained tiny apartment. Original idea postulated that capsules could be eventually replaced by newer models, keeping living standards in the building constantly up to date. The original target demographic were bachelor salarymen. The capsules were fully furnished in up to the minute fashion, including such amenities as a kitchen stove, a refrigerator, a television set, and a reel-to-reel tape deck.

Flickr Set /  Youtube Video /  Google Earth

It’s hard to believe that fallingwater was built by Frank Lloyd Wright in 1934, to me it demonstrates how dull many house designs still are today and how influential the pioneers of ‘modern’ design were, nothing beats an incredible piece of architecture in a beautiful setting, even if it’s beginning to collapse…

Flickr Set / YouTube Video

Habitat 67 is a housing complex and landmark located on the Marc-Drouin Quay on the Saint Lawrence River at 2600, Pierre Dupuy Avenue in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Its design was created by architect Moshe Safdie based on his master’s thesis at McGill University and built as part of Expo 67.

Flickr / Google Earth

200 Hundred miles inland from japan, near the town of Karuizawa, stands the TNA designed Ring House, it’s was built as an exclusive retreat in a previously unremarkable plot of sloping land near the Owner’s Hill workers resort, it is constructed of strong glass and wooded rings which alternate allowing 360 degree views from inside the building, and allowing the structure to blend into the forest from the outside. Each of the rings is a specific height to hide or reveal areas of space within depending on their utility. The dark light sucking forest around and below the ring house, coupled with the cleared slope leading to the road fill the house with light, contrasting with the forest around it giving it it’s ethereal aesthetic.