Rooftop terrace

Located in the coastal community of La Jolla, San Diego, this modern family home brings the comforts of luxury living outdoors, with terraces and gathering spaces on every floor. The home’s main living spaces are on the upper level, where an open-plan kitchen, dining room, bar, and living room invite everyday living and entertaining. Sliding glass walls open onto an expansive terrace, where a sofa arranged around a fire feature makes a comfortable outdoor lounge, and a dining table and built-in barbecue look out over the pool terrace below.  On this same floor, but separated by a glass bridge walkway and skylit lightwell, is the primary suite. Featuring a spa-style bathroom with sauna and steam shower, it opens onto an outdoor... More

Our Hanging Gardens home is now available. Located on 5338 Highland Road in Minnetonka. While some would consider this a difficult lot, we see it as an opportunity to work with the land – wooded with lots of established trees.  JMAD JMAD JMAD JMAD JMAD JMAD The design includes a turn-around drive, a stately new home with a tuck under garage and potential for two buildings: one an ADU, Accessory Dwelling Unit and one detached garage.  JMAD JMAD JMAD JMAD JMAD JMAD The home is designed to be very biophilic – the idea is to be part of the nature and feel like you’re in your own oasis. Plants grow on multiple levels, and we’ve included terraces and c... More

Set within the coastal landscape of Biarritz, France, this modern resort-style home features a layered composition of glass and stone around a front yard swimming pool at the heart of its outdoor spaces.  Arrival unfolds vertically, with a covered passageway and stairs leading to the main living level. Landing on an expansive terrace at the door of a light-filled interior, the design immediately establishes an emphasis on indoor-outdoor living.  The upper level is the center of daily life. On one end sits the primary suite with private terrace, spacious dressing room, and generous bath, and on the other, a kitchen, dining area, and living room, all flowing together in one open-plan design. Extending onto the outdoor terrace, ope... More

Located at 144 Ferrars St, South Melbourne, this 5-storey commercial development designed for Ravensdown and Mr Shipping comprises four levels of workplace and a communal rooftop terrace, with car parking and a cafe and lobby to the ground floor. The architecture celebrates the unique characteristics of its Fishermans Bend context through triangular geometry, creating a defined street edge. Subtly curved corners and large aperture punctuate the north-facing facade, a nod to the owner’s connection to shipping and the nearby Docklands area. Column-free floorplates were achieved through the structural facade which uses a patterned precast concrete skin. This maximises the commercial space and allows for future flexibility. Richard... More

Overlooking the stadium at Mercer University in Macon, Georgia, you will find an expansive roof top recreation area atop a university housing complex. The expansive recreational roof deck common area was completed with Duradek Heritage Agate with cool roof qualities. Applied with adhesives, the 6 ft widths of vinyl sheets were heat welded for a completely water-tight seal. Duradek is installed only by applicators that are trained in the techniques required to integrate the membrane into the building envelope. The 10,000 sq. ft. rooftop terrace is a highly used outdoor amenity for The Lofts student housing so shutting down access for maintenance is a troublesome prospect. With Duradek™, maintenance is minimal and requires no recoating... More

The renovation project of an apartment in the historic center of Milan, located on the seventh floor with simultaneous expansion on the roof terrace, has placed us in front of the now increasingly recurring theme of "building on the built". The design choice consists in the realization of a volume, almost entirely in glass and polished steel, set back from the façade wire for its vertical components and instead re-aligned to the horizontal ones. This volumetric decomposition allows, from a perceptual point of view, to relegate the new glazed façade on the background plane and to make the horizontal brise-soleil protagonist; "glass shards" with different orientations and lengths, allows to fragment the physicality of the artifa... More

Real estate developer Carmel Partners awarded Surfacedesign creative control of the outside living spaces at its luxury apartment project Atelier, designed by architecture firm Solomon Cordwell Buenz.  Taking inspiration from the building’s proximity to the former Los Angeles Garment District, Surfacedesign’s overall approach was influenced by the Bauhaus textile patterns of Anni Albers.  Geometrical lines and shapes are repeated throughout the 33-story project’s two outdoor living spaces: pool/amenity deck and rooftop lounge.  Surfacedesign injected the textile inspiration into the composition, stitching together the hardscape with a rich landscape of native and Mediterranean plantings.   Atelier&rsq... More

Featuring an iconic merging of traditional and contemporary visuals, this Modern Islamic Private Villa in Medina, Saudi Arabia, is an ode to beautiful harmonizing. The design features clean lines with horseshoe-style arches and mashrabiya geometry. The layout respects the cultural boundaries of Saudi Arabia by segregating the men’s and women’s entrances. The outdoor area is lushly landscaped and feels like an actual oasis in the middle of the desert More

You may not have heard of Ebenezer Howard, but visit our new multi-residential project in Port Melbourne and you can see his legacy come to life. In the 19th century, Howard drew up concepts for a ‘garden city’, urban pockets with plenty of green space clustered around the city centres to help evenly distribute density. With P.M. we’ve picked up where he left off, creating a 21st century garden city in resort form, which will anchor Port Melbourne’s future. Three buildings grace the landscaped grounds. The P.M. building is the tallest of all three, a slender, sculptural structure with wrap around flesh glazing covered in white lace. Anchoring the corner of the site, the twisting form is followed by the two billowing... More