Feng shui calamity in Austria
This article in Great Homes and Destinations at the New York Times caught my eye today. It features a contemporary home near Salzburg in Austria, with 6 bedrooms and 3.5 bathrooms, yours for a mere 890,000 euros, approximately $1.3 million dollars.
The house near Salzburg
The house was designed according to the principles of Feng Shui – so should be harmonious with its surroundings. If you check out the slide show you will see how light and views from all those unusual openings really add something to the interior. I do wonder how that partially flat roof with no overhang deals with heavy snow, compared to the more traditional styles in the surrounding homes? But that’s off subject – I don’t know about Austria, but even where I live 1.3 million dollars is still quite a lot of money. With six bedrooms, and 3.5 bathrooms, I would expect to see a gorgeous, contemporary, European kitchen in this home. Here are the two kitchen pictures from the article:
Kitchen island
It is contemporary, and it is European, but gorgeous – not so much. Is it even finished, I wonder? So they have a nice wall of storage behind translucent doors, that’s OK. But what about some counter space? I know Feng Shui and its concern with fire and water means you can’t put the sink and the cook-top directly facing one another. But does that mean you have to jam them side-by-side with no landing space for either? And how the microwave? Not exactly convenient on top of that cabinet, is it?
Now to be fair, that is only the prep sink. Here’s the main sink. This time it’s jammed right next to the oven cabinet – at least there is probably landing space on the other side.
Kitchen sink crammed up to oven
I do like the windows in place of a backsplash – a nice touch. But I don’t like those counter-tops flush with the cabinet fronts. I know, it’s a clean and uncluttered look, but with no overhang at all, any drips have nowhere to go but onto the doors or drawer fronts, not a good thing for their longevity. Though perhaps, with this kitchen, nobody cares much about longevity?
I feel that more than one calamity from the same article on the same day would just be greedy – so I’ll leave this master bath to you:
The master bath
Let me know what you think!
Kiki – I don’t know, I can’t get past the impracticality of it for a master bath. If it was a rarely used powder room, I’d be more forgiving. Form follows function, and all that ….
If we are going for “looks” here, I don’t care where we put the toothpaste. I just love that blue!! Fabulous!
Hi Miguel – That would explain the impractical kitchen – the microwave probably gets more use than anything else. And better photography would certainly help – it’s not great marketing the way it stands
This looks like corporate quarters to me.
You know, those places big companies some times have for executives going through relocation. They are cold, impersonal, not very practical.
To top it off, the bathroom picture itself is bad making the space look worse than it already is. A true calamity all around!
Hi Pam – different standards indeed! And perhaps if it is designed to go with the home owner, this kitchen will fit the next house better than it does this one …
Hi Ann – Thanks for stopping by. I like the materials, and the storage hidden in the mirror – but even the most amazing photo wouldn’t make that vanity seem practical to me. I suppose I’m just too much of a clutter bug to appreciate it
I kind of like the bath. Change the blue and get a good photographer and the whole room would look differnt.
Reminds me of one of the many episodes of House Hunters International on HGTV. Certainly standards are so different from here. We do have an international building code system, but I guess many things like the sink jammed up against the oven aren’t covered there. I would think things like snow load on the roof would be though –especially for that kind of dough! Looking at the cabinetry, I wonder if that is a situation (common in Europe) that they are provided by the residents like furniture and weren’t specified by the builder. In any case, it sure is strange. Not a fan.
Paul – My thought exactly!
Where on earth is someone supposed to set down a tube of toothpaste in that master bath?