Ah, the cabin in the woods— a horror movie favorite! Cabins get a bad rep; they’re usually depicted as dusty, creaky, soily, mossy, not to mention preternaturally susceptible to all kinds of hauntings, murder, and mutilation.

This cherry-red cabin is none of these things, and a whole lot more. Designed by Stockholm-based architects SandellSandberg, the cabin is one in a series of five special edition treehouses at Treehotel, the quirky and surreal camp-in-the-woods getaway that’s tucked away in the forests of Swedish Lapland. If the house’s bright outer shell is loud, the interiors are restorative. The walls and pine floors are finished in a soothing palette of whites, grays, and light woods.

Visit our media partner Remodelista to read more about this project!

Photos: Peter Lundstrom

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It’s been a long time coming, but  Sir David Chipperfield‘s expansion of the St. Louis Art Museum is finally scheduled to open later this year.

The museum, which houses one of the most comprehensive art collections in the United States (including an impressive catalog of post-war German artists), is located in the city’s large urban landscape, Forest Park. In 2005, the Museum Board selected Chipperfield to design the expansion, with St. Louis-based HOK serving as the project’s architect of record. Two years later the Museum finally released plans and renderings of the design, which sparked controversy among local residents.

Halted in 2008 during the economic downturn, the project did not break ground until 2010. Now, eight years in the making, the expansion—Chipperfield’s largest U.S. project to date—will finally open this summer. Read more.

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The big day is finally here, and you better have ordered those flowers. It’s Valentine’s Day, the loveliest—or ugliest, depending on your view—day of the year. We’ve spent the last two days attempting to set the mood with tantalizing boudoirs and wineries, but now it’s time to get down to what really matters: chocolate.

Love— it’s great and all, but we all know that Valentine’s is really all about the chocolate and candy (obviously!). If you know us at all, you’ll know that we like to overindulge in the sweet stuff(s) in more ways than one. So what better way to celebrate a holiday that glorifies mass consumption of chocolates than to roundup our favorite sugar-inspired locales. All these ten projects are devoted entirely to the manufacturing, selling, and even fashion of our favorite decadent desserts. The architects and designers behind these tasty schemes will surely satisfy all your sugar cravings. Click through for the slideshow!

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Photo: via sheknows

When Frank Lloyd Wright passed away in 1959, he left Florida Southern College with the largest collection of his designs at any one location. The campus, located in Lakeland, Florida, is home to a whopping 12 FLW-designed buildings—just six structures short of the 18 building anthology he had initially envisioned. Well, FSC is in the process of adding six more structures inspired by the storied architect to the central Florida campus. Oh, and did we mention these structures are for cats? Read more.

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Orange Country Government Center by Paul Rudolph; Photo: Ty Cole

It’s been a rough year for Brutalism. Chicago’s Prentice Women’s Hospital will likely be razed, and last spring, it appeared that Paul Rudolph’s Orange County Government Center in Goshen, New York, would face the wrecking ball too. But, at last, a victory story!

In a 15-6 vote, members of the Orange County Legislature decided it would be more cost effective to renovate the 43-year-old Rudolph building, rather than demolish it and construct a new, $68 million government center. For the better part of 2012, preservation groups had lobbied hard to save the building, arguing that it’s an important landmark that benefits the community. Read more about the recent decision at The Herald-Record.

And click here to see other embattled Brutalist icons!

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Ever wanted to live in a Frank Lloyd Wright house? Well, now you can — for just $1.79 million! Our friends at Curbed have reported that the Gerald B. and Beverley Tonkens House in Cincinnati, Ohio, designed by Wright in 1955, has just hit the market for the very first time.

Set on more than 4 acres of land, behind a custom Wright-designed gate, the house was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1991. The structure itself measures a cool 3,100 square feet and includes three bedrooms and two baths.

Like many of Wright’s homes from the time, the design of the Craftsmen-styled abode places an emphasis on linear form, with various rectangular patterns repeated throughout the accommodation. The sale of the house even includes much of the custom-made furniture, original to the design of the home. Hey, that hefty price tag isn’t looking too bad … Click through to see more pictures of the Tonkens House!

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Many architects have teamed up with product companies to create luxe objects for everyday life: Frank Gehry alone has designed boots for French shoemaker J.M. Weston, jewelry for Tiffany’s, and plastic chairs for Heller.

But Peter Zumthor, the reclusive Swiss architect who has achieved cult-like status, always seemed above this type of collaboration. His portfolio mainly consists of small-scale civic, religious, and cultural buildings in Europe—all exquisitely crafted using natural materials such as wood and stone. His singular work is intense, awe-inspiring, and at times, a bit creepy (anyone visited his “witch memorial” in Norway?). This man of mystery has earned innumerable honors, including the 2009 Pritzker Prize and, most recently, the 2013 RIBA Gold Medal.

But prestige does not always bring in the big bucks, and Zumthor might actually need cash. First came news that he was tapped to design a house for the movie star Tobey Maguire. Then we heard that he’s renting out his vacation home in Switzerland. And now we learn that he’s jumped on the products-by-architects bandwagon and designed condiment containers for the Italian brand Alessi. Made of frosted glass and stainless steel, the collection features various-sized salt and pepper shakers and cruets for oils and vinegars. Read more.

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Yesterday marked the opening of this year’s Stockholm Furniture and Light Fair, and what better way to kick off the event than with the breathtaking pavilion created by Swedish architect Gert Wingårdh and Dutch illustrator Kustaa Saksi Created out of 1,120 stacks of paper — a total of 11,000 individual sheets connected at 44,000 points — “Hello! Anatomy of Communication” spans an area of 200 square meters. The paper acts as a canvas for the illustrative artist, reflected by the mirrored tabletops that rest below the suspended structure. As if the designers thought there wasn’t enough paper used in the construction, the reflective tabletops are also balanced upon stacks of paper. “Hello! Anatomy of Communication” will be on view during the fair, which runs until February 9 as a part of Stockholm Design Week. Click through to see more of the surreal paper installation!

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Google has spent the last decade (plus) growing an internationally recognized technological empire — and not just online. Google is taking over the world IRL too, opening, in just a few years, insanely cool offices everywhere from London and Zurich to Pittsburgh. Google’s latest office comes by way of Tel Aviv, Israel, and features everything any employee could possibly desire. Slides? Surfboards? Lush vegetation? Check, check, check. Occupying eight floors within the city’s Elektra Building, the 850,000 square foot campus was designed by Camenzind Evolution (the same firm that completed the Google Zurich EMEA Engineering Hub in 2008) in collaboration with Setter Architects and Studio Yaron Tal.

Featuring an emphasized focus on community and collaborative work spaces, the new office dedicates one whole floor to “Campus Tel Aviv,” a home base of sorts for entrepreneurs, developers, and start-up companies. Oh, and did we mention the office even includes three restaurants? Offering employess non-kosher, kosher dairy, and kosher meat options? Yeah, we’re a little jealous. Mostly because we don’t in fact work in an office that connects floors via playground slides. Click through to see more photos!

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Valentine’s Day is almost here, and you know what that means— over the next week and a half, large quantities of chocolate will be purchased and consumed by much of the world’s populations (we aren’t hating!).

If you didn’t know, chocolate has become a favorite medium of designers, used in everything from edible surfaces, hospitality design, and even 3D printing. But have you ever wondered just how long the delectable treat can withstand the elements—say, specifically, a warm light bulb? No? Okay, well admit it wasn’t our first question either, but thanks to designer Alexander Lervik and his new Lumière au Chocolate we now have the answer (as well as a tasty conversation piece).

The Poetry of Light lamp is constructed entirely out of chocolate, beginning life in complete darkness and then mimicking the rays of early morning light, spreading across the horizon as the bulb begins to melt the chocolate. See more of Lervik’s “sweet” lighting!

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