THE MODERN MINT BLOG

Mar18

Oneness – Learning To Live With Other People

This short, 4 minute film is about Yui and Takaharu Tezuka – a Japanese family who live in one room. Well worth a watch! Not only does it suggest that this type of communal living prepares you better for living with other people, learning to get along, but it showcases some fun ideas for how to make create separate areas within a room We also love how they have captured the light – the main window looks North, so they have ‘stepped’ the roof down on the South side and placed windows there, which allows in more light and more heat, while …

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Mar18

Growing Botanicals in Hampshire

How do you grow Cassia in the UK? You have to make it up as you go along…. We have found a lovely, short interview about growing the botanicals for Bombay Sapphire Gin in 2 glasshouses in Hampshire (near where we learnt to garden just outside Basingstoke!) According to the gardener Chris Cottrell, who runs the glasshouses at Laverstoke Mill, the only other place in the country that is growing cassia is Kew, so when it starts to look unhealthy there are not a lot of places to turn for advice. It is the bark of the cassia tree that …

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Mar17

Tiny Buildings That Will Make You Laugh

Just wanted to point you to this collection of buildings that really do capture the ‘small is beautiful’ aesthetic… Here is our favourite: Is that not just the most beautiful green roof? To see more of this collection you can visit this Architectural Digest blog. Or see more of these buildings in greater detail by getting the Taschen book ‘Small Architecture Now!’ Enjoy!