The Mud House Once Owned By Steve Martin

The Mud House Once Owned By Steve Martin

Mud House by Roland Coate Jr.

The Mud House by Roland Coate Jr.
This semi-subterranean, poured concrete home constructed in 1974 in Santa Barbara, CA was one of the few homes built by Roland Coate, Jr. whose father, Roland Eli Coate, Sr., was a much better known architect. The home was not considered architecturally significant when first built, but as the years passed, it has become known for being one of the important examples of Modernist concrete architecture (or Brutalism) in California. (more…)

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Urban Concrete Cuckoo Clocks and Brutalist Birdhouses.

Urban Concrete Cuckoo Clocks and Brutalist Birdhouses.

Cuckoo Blocks by Guido Zimmermann

If It’s Hip, It’s Here has long been a fan of modern cuckoo clocks as is evident by previous posts beginning with our first way back in 2007, then one on Italy’s Diamantini and Domeniconi Cuckoo Clocks and finally the beautiful handmade Pedro Mealha Cuckoo Clocks. Now we bring you sculptural concrete

Cuckoo Blocks by artist Guido Zimmermann. (more…)

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Brutalist Sand Castles by Calvin Seibert

Brutalist Sand Castles

Not your typical sandcastles, those by artist Calvin Seibert are modern, geometric structures whose designs express elements of Brutalism*, Modernism and Constructivism. The chunky, non-ornamental buildings made of sand – of which he has made hundreds – bring to mind the architectural works of Paul Rudolph, Marcel Breuer and Konstantin Melnikov. (more…)

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Modernist Masterpiece, Frank Gehry’s Schnabel House [28 photos]

Modernist Masterpiece Frank Gehry's Schnabel House

Foundation Films production company owner Michael LaFetra has put his modernist masterpiece, the Schnabel Home by Frank Gehry, on the market for just under $15 million. Purchased in 2013 by LaFetra, who happens to restore architecturally significant homes himself, the unusual Brentwood abode was originally built in 1989 by Gehry and fully restored in 2010 by Broadway producer Jon Platt under Gehry’s watchful eye. (more…)

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New Modern Concrete House in Madrid Resembles A Bunker. But What A Bunker!

Concrete House II

One of the most popular posts ever featured on this blog was that of a large concrete home in Poland by kwk promes, whose sliding walls and ominous exterior resembled a modern fortress. This recent project, Concrete House II, from Spain’s architecture firm, Joaquin Torres’ A-Cero, gives that sanctuary a run for its money with its wild bunker-like appearance. This modern concrete house in Madrid features giant angular planes inside and out. (more…)

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