Sitting at the peak of a hill in the Moroccan mountain ranges, Villa E rises up from the landscape, like a form extruded from the earth. The locally sourced Oika stone walling reads like an extension of the landscape. From the road in the valley, only the tiniest window openings pierce through the structure, veiling the life that occurs inside. Hidden within is a private mountain retreat by Studio KO. With studio bases in both Paris and Morocco, Villa E represents the convergence of ideas from both design cultures. Studio KO weave together the contemporary minimalism of Paris with the earthy textures of the Moroccan aesthetic.

Amongst over 400 entrants Figureground Architecture has been awarded the 2014 Hospitality Design Award and the 2014 Best of State Commercial Design Award for transforming a concrete shell warehouse in Fitzroy into a busy café and roastery. Inspired by the intimacy of Melbourne laneways, the design took advantage of the high ceilings to create a long narrow ‘dining hall’ experience. Economic materials such as operable black painted pallets and corrugated polycarbonate define the space and create a playful sense of habitation. The language of operable panels is also used in the external seating area which can be completely open during the day or securely closed down after business hours.

Prix Fixe is a first time collaboration between two clever and seasoned operators in the Melbourne hospitality scene, chef Philippa Sibley and restaurateur Jason Jones. The duo commissioned Fiona Lynch to create their latest dining room and Australia’s first ticketed restaurant. Prix Fixe embraces the inherent sense of theatre present in busy, dynamic restaurants, and celebrates a return to glamorous dining. The restaurant interior is formed from a material palette of mirror and marble, brass and metallic glazed linen, exposed ceiling fixtures and concrete, with a bold, confident and directional aesthetic. The end result is ultimately a play on contrasts – moody and inviting, luxe and raw, but above all incredibly dramatic.

Oh no. Today is the last day of our Brazil Week guys. Are you sad? No? Well – you should be. But before you go off drowning your sorrows in pear cider and carbohydrates, we still have a fair bit of hot Brazilian action to get through. Hooray! So without further ado, please make some noise for Part II Round-up of Smokin’ Hot Brazilian Architecture.

We know, we know – every freaking design blog and website out there seems to be rounding up Brazilian Architecture because of The FIFA World Cup 2014 currently in it’s finals week in Brazil. Ours is a little late because it took just a liiiiitle bit of research. You see, we wanted to dig a little deeper into the amazing design and architecture, both historic and current, and bring you a whole week of awesome Brazil related content. I guess you could say we are literally giving you The Full Brazilian all week. Ouch! Except this one won’t hurt, and it’s completely appropriate for all age groups.

It’s always a tricky thing, negotiating a contemporary brief with an existing heritage space. While many designers might obsessively refashion a square peg for a round hole, revealing as little evidence of this process as possible, Spanish architect Francisco Javier Eguiluz takes the opposite approach. Instead, he expresses some of the incongruous quirks that result from this process. Dog legged floor finishes, new rooms that straddle over two existing rooms and the deliberate expression of demolished walls. This is a space that does not try to paper over its past.