Buenos Mares House by RDR Arquitectos

This house by RDR Arquitectos is located next to the sea on a beach in José Ignacio in Uruguay. Completed in 2009, the program is a single family vacation home with continuous use during the summer, and occasional use during the winter. It is designed almost entirely in a single floor that terraces slightly following the natural slope of the terrain. The house is formed by a series of stone wall pavilions, separated by courtyards and covered by a large slab. This roof garden is a strong horizontal gesture that relates the house with the sunset on the ocean horizon. Both elements define the social area of the house as a sequence of exterior, interior, and semi-covered spaces that interrelate creating various conditions adapted to the climate variables of the site. 

Only God Forgives Trailer

Nicolas Winding-Refn's next offering, where he teams up with Ryan Gosling for the second time since 2011's Drive, is Only God Forgives. Also starring on of my favourites, Kristen Scott Thomas, the film is set in the gritty backdrop of Bangkok and revolves around the world of Muay Thai boxing. Ryan plays an ex-boxer-turned-gangster who fights a Bangkok police lieutenant to avenge the killing of his brother. Gosling's impressive line-up of films has most movie buffs and fan girls alike bursting at the seams and Only God Forgives doesn't look like it's set to disappoint. 

Afghanistan: March 2013 In Pictures

Afghan President Hamid Karzai spent last weekend in Qatar, speaking with Qatari officials about mediating possible talks with Taliban officials as the 2014 deadline for NATO withdrawal from Afghanistan approaches. Australia announced it will withdraw most troops by the end of this year, closing down at least one major NATO base. Two newly appointed U.S. officials -- Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel and Secretary of State John Kerry -- paid visits to the country last month, making efforts to shore up relations with Karzai, who has been stepping up his criticism of the U.S. and NATO. The photos below are just a glimpse of this conflict over the past month, part of the ongoing series here on Afghanistan. Check out the rest of the stunning images shot by The Atlantic here. 

House T by Tsukano Architect Office

A narrow vertical slice at one corner is the only interruption to the monolithic facade of this plain white house in Miyazaki, Japan, by Hiroshima studio Tsukano Architect Office. Designed with a simple rectilinear shape, the austere two-storey residence has a single window slotted into its narrow opening, as well as a dark corridor that leads down inside. Architect Michiya Tsukano describes his intention to protect the house from the noises of the road and the overbearing surrounding buildings using an encasing "white plate". He explains: "With the white plate, the house can be separated from the outer crowdedness, while sunlight is allowed to come into the courtyard."

Here's a short description from Michiya Tsukano:

"The road in front is so busy and noisy, and there are tall buildings for residence at the south. Considering all these factors, I came up with a brilliant idea to harmonize with the circumstances having a piece of white plate wrap the whole home space. With the white plate, the house can be separated from the outer crowdedness, while sunlight is allowed to come into the courtyard, which makes inner space warm and brighter."

Aerial Photography by David Thomas Smith

"Anthropocene" reflects on the complexity of urban landscapes. These images were composed from Google Maps aerial views and reconstructed on photoshop to produce these meticulous detailed images.  Anthropocence is an informal geologic term that serves to mark the evidence of human activities on the Earth's ecosystem. Anthropocene itself reflects upon the complex structures that define places of global capitalism, transforming the aerial landscapes of sites associated with industries such as oil, precious metals and consumer culture. Thousands of seemingly coded pieces of information are sewn together to reveal a grander spectacle. 

American Girl in Italy by Ruth Orkin (1951)

The most beautiful photograph... A beautiful woman and the male gaze... Read an American Girl in Italy's  backstory here.

Sensory Sky by Sieger Design

This movie by German art director Mike Meiré for bathroom and kitchen brand Dornbracht features one shower that makes you feel like you're washing outdoors and another that you use lying down. Created by Sieger Design for Dornbracht, Sensory Sky has a wide and flat shower head with separate sprinklers for head and body and a "rain curtain" that creates a solid wall of water, as seen in the movie by Cologne-based art director Mike Meiré. There's also a nozzle that uses cold water to create a foggy mist. Watch the video here. 

How to Find Your Purpose and do what You Love

“Find something more important than you are, and dedicate your life to it.” 

Philosopher Dan Dennett once said, But how, exactly, do we find that? Precisely how you arrive at your true calling is an intricate and highly individual dance of discovery. Still, there are certain factors — certain choices — that make it easier. Gathered here are insights from seven thinkers who have contemplated the art-science of making your life’s calling a living.

The Strangers Project

"Everyone has a story - What's yours?" 

In the same vein as Humans of New York, The Strangers Project is a site dedicated to sharing the stories of everyday strangers. The sit offers a series of anonymous journal entries collected from complete strangers. Read their stories here. 

What is Love? Words of Wisdom from 200 Years of Literary History

C. S. Lewis, who was a very wise man, in The Four Loves:
"There is no safe investment. To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything, and your heart will certainly be wrung and possibly be broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact, you must give your heart to no one, not even to an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements; lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket — safe, dark, motionless, airless – it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable. The alternative to tragedy, or at least to the risk of tragedy, is damnation. The only place outside Heaven where you can be perfectly safe from all the dangers and perturbations of love is Hell."

Katharine Hepburn in Me : Stories of My Life:
"Love has nothing to do with what you are expecting to get — only with what you are expecting to give — which is everything."

Philosopher and mathematician Bertrand Russell, he of great wisdom, in The Conquest of Happiness:

"Of all forms of caution, caution in love is perhaps the most fatal to true happiness."

Honoré de Balzac, who knew a thing or two about all-consuming love, in Physiologie Du Mariage:

"The more one judges, the less one loves."

Extreme Photography by Wanted Mustang

A combo of my two favourite activities: extremem sports and photography. Ukrainian Wanted Mustang, photographs himself in very compromising places, striking a pose whilst being suspended in air for example. The following shots are from his series "Extreme Photography".