Casa Calma / Ravel ArchitectureSave this picture!© Chase DanielHouses•Austin, United States Architects: Ravel Architecture Area Area of this architecture project Area:  4750 ft² Year Completion year of this architecture project Year:  2025 Photographs Photographs:Chase Daniel Manufacturers Brands with products used in this architecture project Manufacturers:  Western Window Systems, Sub-Zero, US Lumber Brokers Lead Architects: Alex Finnell, Dan Fields More SpecsLess Specs this picture! Text description provided by the architects. CASA CALMA is a sanctuary inspired by the warmth and timelessness of Mexican vernacular architecture while embracing Texas sensibilities and climate necessities. Designed to be both bold and serene, the home draws from traditional materials and typologies while introducing clear, modern geometries. Thick limestone walls, made from locally sourced stone, establish a grounded presence and offer both spatial clarity and tactile richness, connecting the home to its regional roots.this picture!Carefully nestled into a gently sloping site, the home uses the natural topography to heighten its sense of grounding and privacy. A forecourt terrace is carved into the slope, creating a protected outdoor room that sits on grade with the interior living areas. This gesture not only anchors the home to the land but also allows the living room to open directly onto a usable outdoor space—blurring the threshold between house and landscape.this picture!this picture!this picture!Natural materials are at the heart of CASA CALMA's identity. Exposed wood beams stretch rhythmically across the ceilings, expressing structure, warmth, and visual continuity. In the kitchen, these beams soar above a tall, open volume that serves as a lively communal heart—designed for gathering, cooking, and conversation beneath a canopy of light and timber. This space acts as the central anchor in a pinwheel-shaped plan, from which distinct programmatic zones radiate outward.this picture!this picture!this picture!The home is carefully zoned to balance sociability with seclusion. The pinwheel layout allows public and private areas to extend in different directions, creating a natural sense of orientation and flow without the need for hallways. Open-plan living areas invite casual gathering and entertaining, with seamless transitions between indoor lounges and lush outdoor courtyards—designed for flexibility, from intimate dinners to large celebrations.this picture!this picture!More secluded wings—such as shaded terraces, hidden alcoves, and a private primary suite—offer quiet moments of retreat, enriched by soft, neutral-toned finishes and the dynamic play of natural light. Expansive glass panels frame views of the surrounding landscape and soften the mass of the stone and plaster interiors, reinforcing a continuous connection to the outdoors. True to its name, CASA CALMA is a tranquil retreat—a home of contrasts and balance, rooted in tradition and crafted for contemporary living.this picture! Project gallerySee allShow less About this officeRavel ArchitectureOffice••• MaterialsStoneConcreteMaterials and TagsPublished on May 26, 2025Cite: "Casa Calma / Ravel Architecture" 26 May 2025. ArchDaily. Accessed . < ISSN 0719-8884Save世界上最受欢迎的建筑网站现已推出你的母语版本!想浏览ArchDaily中国吗?是否 You've started following your first account!Did you know?You'll now receive updates based on what you follow! Personalize your stream and start following your favorite authors, offices and users.Go to my stream #casa #calma #ravel #architecture

Researchers Discover That Chimps Drum Rhythmically, Suggesting Human Musicality Originated in Our Last Common Ancestor Not only do chimpanzees maintain a rhythm while drumming on tree roots, but two subspecies use distinct tempos and techniques, according to a new study A new study finds chimpanzees drum against tree roots with rhythm, suggesting they share an evolutionary trait with humans passed down by a last common ancestor. DaFranzos via Pixabay Wild chimpanzees often drum their limbs against the large roots of giant trees, sending out loud, booming sounds that resonate through the rainforest. Previous research identified the behavior as a form of communication and demonstrated that the animals have individual drumming styles. Now, a new study published Friday in the journal Current Biology shows chimpanzees also follow distinct, regular and non-random rhythms—traits that are building blocks of human music. This suggests the origin of our own musicality may have originated in a last common ancestor with chimpanzees. “They’re actually drumming often with their feet, so they’re using their hands to hold onto those roots, and then they’re kind of dancing,” Catherine Hobaiter, a co-author of the study and a primatologist at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland, tells NPR’s Jon Hamilton. “And sometimes they’re jumping between the roots and getting all of those different beat structures down, throwing a hand in if you want to get a little syncopated.”In the study, Hobaiter and her colleagues analyzed 371 drumming bouts produced by eastern and western chimpanzees in 11 communities across Côte d’Ivoire, Guinea, Senegal, Tanzania and Uganda. The drumming “had a predictability to it,” Hobaiter tells the Guardian’s Nicola Davis. “And when you’ve got predictability, you’ve got a really strong indicator that there’s rhythm there.” Though some earlier studies indicate that captive chimps can drum rhythmically, this new paper is the first to truly demonstrate that ability in wild chimpanzees, says Valérie Dufour, an animal cognition biologist at the University of Clermont Auvergne in France who did not participate in the research, to Science’s Rodrigo Pérez Ortega. “Showing that chimpanzees share some of the fundamental properties of human musical rhythm in their drumming is a really exciting step in understanding when and how we evolved this skill,” Hobaiter explains in a statement. “Our findings suggest that our ability to drum rhythmically may have existed long before we were human.” The team’s analyses revealed striking differences in drumming rhythm between the two subspecies: Western chimps used more regular intervals, while their eastern counterparts were more likely to alternate between faster and slower beats. The two groups also integrated the drumming into their vocalizations in different ways: Western chimps drummed more and faster, and they combined it into their vocalizations—known as pant-hoots—earlier than eastern chimps did. These contrasts might be linked to differences in social behaviors between the subspecies, researchers say. Eastern chimpanzees tend to be more aggressive, live in bigger groups and have more hierarchical societies than the more egalitarian western chimpanzees. The variations between their drumming styles might reflect differences in human language, reports National Geographic’s Olivia Ferrari.“This is the kind of science that wakes us up to the fact that every single population of chimpanzees is worth conserving and preserving,” Hobaiter tells National Geographic. “We’re starting to recognize that they might have cultures in their communication, in their rhythm, in their social behavior… if you lose a group, you lose the unique culture that goes with it.” In a similar way, two other recent papers are also shedding light on chimp behaviors that are uncannily close to human ones. A study published May 7 in Biology Letters suggests western chimpanzees often throw previously collected rocks against tree trunks as a form of communication. And other research published May 9 in Science Advances shows the primates communicate complex meaning by combining vocal sounds. Taken together with recent work detailing a headbanging sea lion that can keep a beat and a key linguistic pattern in whale song, the research suggests humans’ rhythm and language abilities might not be as unique as we once thought. “Humans are intrinsically rhythmic creatures,” Hobaiter tells BBC Science Focus’ Hatty Willmoth. “We have rhythm in our music and in our dance and in our song, but also in our conversations—and it’s a human universal, so it might be part of our evolutionary heritage.” Get the latest stories in your inbox every weekday. Source: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/researchers-discover-that-chimps-drum-rhythmically-suggesting-human-musicality-originated-in-our-last-common-ancestor-180986607/ #researchers #discover #that #chimps #drum #rhythmically #suggesting #human #musicality #originated #our #last #common #ancestor