This Paris loft was renovated by architects Karine Chartier and Thomas Corbasson who trained in the studio of Jean Nouvel (last year’s Pritzker Award winner). The space is an old industrial laboratory – you can see the building’s original freight elevator below. Most of the finishing was done in plywood – a moisture-proof, marine-grade, very low formaldehyde-content pine plywood certified by a European sustainable forest practices agreement. Plywood’s characteristic fat “wild grain” – a byproduct of the veneering process in which wood is shaved spirally from logs in thin sheets as logs are rolled past the blade – adds a lot of visual interest to an otherwise white industrial space. The plywood kitchen islands are mostly on locking wheels, which allows the space to flexibly mutate from small cooking area to larger gathering space. Via ATCasa. See also this great project by Chartier Corbasson.

PS Plywood is something that can really inspire strong reactions – see the comments on the AT post on Chartier Corbasson.

Selgas Cano is a Spanish architecture firm, and this long glass tube in a little wooded ravine is the Madrid office they’ve built for themselves. The shutters over the clear roof are retractable (see the photo of the pulleys at bottom). The building seems to have inspired some wildly varying reactions from those who either find it beautiful and inspiring or who feel it’s a cramped, claustrophobic, unventilated bunker or train car – see the archdaily link to see what I mean. The superb photos are by architectural photographer Iwan Baan. Via archdaily via kenmat and maxchad. PS Both fans and detractors of this space may want to read a recent Scientific American article on the neuroscience of how room design affects work, creativity and mood. Two relevant points are that low ceilings facilitate detail work while high ceilings facilitate abstraction; and that views of nature improve creativity, focus and memory. This space offers all of those advantages – natural views, as well as ceilings that are both low and high, depending on the retraction of the roof and on which part of the room you’re in.