The Brief was to create a spectacular home which encapsulated the expansive 360 degree mountain and sea views. Though views out were paramount this needed to be carefully balanced with the required privacy from within. The living areas were to be open plan – enhancing everyday life. “The architecture needed focus on creating a contemporary, uncluttered and sculptural bui...
Instead, architects Marcio Kogan and Carolina Castroviejo found inspiration from the way that the boxes in that game fit together snugly. This home, like the game, seems to be made up of many different boxes that fit together, creating separate rooms that work in harmony with one another. The home is large and gorgeous, featuring a bold use of natural wood slats, creativ...
Perched above the beach at the edge of the tree line, this vacation home allows the dramatic Oregon Coast to take center stage. The design maintains sightlines from the sheltered forest to the open coastline with a minimal structure of glass and steel. Atop the two-story, transparent box, the copper-clad green roof is an elevated slab of native ferns and grasses. Only...
A ribbon of veneered wood fronts this staircase in a refurbished and extended Montreal residence by local office Naturehumaine. Naturehumaine was asked to renovate the interior of a house near the Jean-Talon farmer's market in Montreal by a couple with a passion for cooking. The architects carried out a complete interior reorganisation of the Drolet Residence, addin...
More often than not, home and family are inextricably link. With the Greja House, Singaporean architecture firm Park + Associates reconsidered the influence of the home environment on family togetherness by creating a layout that encourages domestic interaction. Instead of breaking the space into walled off rooms, the architects used interconnected voids to generate an e...
If you know a little about Thailand, you might have heard about an earthy paradise called Phuket. Well the architecture firm A-cero led by Joaquín Torres and Rafel Llamazares have managed to make it even better by designing the interior of a unique hotel and restaurant located there. One step away from the dreamy white sand beaches, the hotel is composed of 10 villas des...
Haus S is the renovation of a 1960s bungalow in Wiesbaden, Germany. A young family purchased the home and quickly realized that they needed more space. But space is scarce in urban areas, and sometimes a creative solution is needed. The design by German architecture firm Christ.Christ. associated architects converts traditionally unused roof space into a useful place for...
Currently under construction in Itauna, Brazil, the Gres House project by Luciano Kruk helps us refocus on a major existential debate in architecture: is a building supposed to adapt to its surrounding environment or adapt the environment to its convenience? Well, even if growing environmental concerns have made the answer more and more obvious, only a few houses have da...
A 5,050 square-foot house in California’s Napa region comprised a 2014 project by Jorgenson Design. The structure, which in fact consists of two houses connected by glass, is situated within the vineyards on a large tree-dotted plot of land. The houses are divided from a busy road by two L-shaped walls – one stone and one cedar. An arrangement of pieces around the cou...
Award-winning Singaporean architecture firm HYLA Architects designed a semi-detached residence in Greenbank Park, Singapore, that centers around a two-storey courtyard. The first level of the courtyard is a timber-frame box with transparent glass walls. Inside, a small pond contains a single frangipani tree at the center. The second level faces the master bedroom and is ...
One of the main difficulties that one can encounter when building a house in a residential neighborhood is finding a way to get air and light inside the house while keeping a minimum of privacy. This problem can even get bigger when your lot is located in Japan where space is precious and maximized. mA-style Architects had to come up with an unconventional and original i...
Recipient of a National Commendation for Sustainable Architecture from the AIA Awards earlier this month, (-) Glass House is an eco-friendly revisitation of the 1949 Philip Johnson Glass House – without the glass. Adapting the structure to a tropical climate and adding a generous dose of eco-friendly elements (the house functions as a Carbon Neutral structure), Australia...
Los Angeles and its surroundings have always been the avant-garde of modern architecture in the US. Whether it is downtown with the 1927 Ace Hotel, or in Hollywood with the 1962 Garcia Residence, these architectural landmarks have grown old and need maintenance. And renovation can be tricky on a private building that has become part of the city’s legacy. The main task of...
Balancing on the edge of civilization, the Isle of Skye is a veritable natural paradise that remains largely untouched. Wide expanses of windswept grass give way to dizzying cliffs and battering waves uninterrupted by human intervention. In such a brilliantly unrefined environment, it seems only natural that Dualchas Architects would create a simple, low-key home that de...
The Drolet Residence is a two-storey urban row house located near Montreal’s Jean-Talon market. Rather than organizing the house traditionally, the clients requested that the bedrooms remain on the more private first floor and that the central living space be placed on the brightly lit second floor. And since the clients are passionate about cooking, they also requested ...
By completing the Donderen Barnhouse renovation, Holland architects Aatvos wonderfully embodiedthe dream of every person buying an old barn in the countryside. They’ve transformed the ancient property into a contemporary house that reflects modern life, while preserving the historic vibe. Their idea was quite simple: conserve the classic barn shape and restore it with...
In case you haven’t heard, Brooklyn, New York, is the place to be. The steady mass exodus of Manhattanites escaping sky high rent has…quickly drive rent sky high in Brooklyn. But it has also meant the renovation of a number of existing buildings. The Doehler loft is one such project. The Franco-American design office SABO project completely reinvented the space, which...
Brazilian architect Guilherme Torres makes magic in the form of architecture. Okay, we might be exaggerating slightly, but there’s something that certainly feels magical about the renovated DM House in São Paulo, Brazil. Created for a couple based in London that had decided to come home to Brazil, all of the collaboration was done via Skype. Slowly, the project transf...
Tucked in a dense urban environment, the aptly named 3X10 House has a teeny tiny footprint of only 3 by 10 square meters. Vietnamese architecture firm DD concept worked around the spatial constraints by vertically stacking multiple volumes. The different levels create a dynamic relationship between interior and exterior as they transition from entirely closed on the grou...
Tucked away in Barcelona’s famous Gothic quarter is David Kohn Architects’ award-winning Carrer Avinyó. Beating out 55 other nominees, the design triumphed as World Interior of the Year 2013 at the INSIDE: World Festival of Interiors award ceremony in Singapore. As is typical of the neighborhood, the apartment is triangular, therefore the architects removed the inte...
London-based architect David Kohn has completed the extension of the Sanderson House in the London borough of Islington. Named after its occupants, Sanderson House is the home of British shoe designer Rupert Sanderson, his wife and their three children. The project transforms what was historically the home’s scullery into a modern kitchen, dining and reading space. Th...
Located in a suburb of Sydney, Australia, the Piebenga-Franklyn Residence is surrounded by oppressive buildings on every side with no views in sight. When solicited for an extension of the existing home, Australian architect David Boyle was confronted with a particularly tight location within which to maneuver. Yet somehow, he managed to carve a bright, sculptural home o...
Developed by the philanthropic foundation Realdania, Brick House revisits traditional building techniques to create a long-lasting house with a low CO2 footprint. Located in Nyborg, Denmark, Brick House’s main objective is to provide a home that is maintenance free for 50 years with a life span of at least 150 years. Due to the proven durability of traditional brick home...
Auckland based architects Glamuzina Paterson designed a very special one-bedroom house for a couple on a very modest budget. Deep down you might think this is just another container house. But the Blackpool House reveals its charm once you step inside. From the outside, the house stands as a black monolith, strongly contrasting with the flourishing nature of its surr...
From the exterior, the House of Four Courtyards appears entirely ordinary; its walls are in perfect harmony with the traditional facades that line the street, and no hint is given at what lies beyond. Located just west of Mexico City in the heritage area of Tacubaya, Mexico, the home’s unsuspecting exterior that hides an ultra-modern interior designed by Andrés Stebelski...
The awarding-winning Swiss architects at Evolution Design have transformed a nineteenth century chapel into a unique, self-service holiday cottage. Located in England’s beautiful North Pennines, the building was vacant for many years and in a state of severe disrepair. Extensive water damage had ruined the interior finishes, the roof had been badly damaged and the rafter...
Sometimes, architecture turns outwards and serves as a showcase of life. More frequently, however, architecture turns inward, closing itself off from prying eyes and creating secret havens just waiting to be discovered. Such is the case with the Zurita Box in Mexico City. Mexican architecture firm Darkitectura renovated a building from the late 1980s, turning it from ...
Sometimes, all an architect needs is a simple idea, a seed that will grow and blossom into an innovative creation. It can be a simple geometrical shape, like a triangle. In the case of the renovation of an old 1930’s Chinese building, SKEW Collaborative decided to take the triangle-shaped window as a starting point and make this idea evolve throughout the apartment. By p...
Why make new when you can improve what’s already there? That’s very often the question that comes to mind. If new projects can let the imagination run wild (as long as the financial means can follow), the element of history that lies in old stones can be missed by some people. And keeping this element of history doesn’t mean that you can’t have a very modern home. Proof ...
Winona House is the renovation of an existing residence in Ottawa, Canada. The inhabitants had outgrown the original home and had intended to expand the space with a second level. However, due to structural degradation, a second storey addition was impossible, leaving the owners with the choice to move or demolish. Due to the home’s desirable location, the decision was m...
Light-filled and starkly white, the White House by Studio Pierre Antoine Compain is the renovation of a townhouse in La Rochelle, France. The four floors are organized around a central atrium that is topped with a large skylight to let in natural light. Glass partitions and floors lets the light filter to the lowest level and white was used extensively with light wood...
By renovating the Thao Dien House, MM++ Architects may have given a brand new momentum to Ho Chi Minh. The villa is located in an eastern suburb of the city, in District 2. What used to be a “pastiche” art deco needed to be freshened up and the Vietnamese architecture firm were tasked with turning it into a contemporary villa with clean lines and open spaces. The proj...
Slice is a 15-square-meter outdoor guest room located just outside of Haugesund, Norway, and designed by Saunders Architecture. The client requested a pleasant place in which to spend the day or night and in which it would be agreeable to wake in the morning. Confronted with clear spatial constraints, the architects faced the challenge of maximizing the given area with a...
Although admittedly not huge fans of sharing personal space, the concept behind Salva46 is rather intriguing. Barcelona-based firms Miel Arquitectos and Studio P10 joined forces to create a flexible co-living space in the heart of the city. For the project, the architects designed two individual units with shared common space. The concept creates directly opposing for...
The timber-clad N House is located on a sloping plot in Fukuoka, Japan. In building the two-storey home, the architects at Japanese firm Roote had to navigate a four meter elevation change and a triangular plot that narrows from 16 meters to a mere 4.5 meters. Additionally, the clients, a married couple with two daughters, requested that the architects carve out ample ga...
It might be time to think about making your summer retreat a little more permanent, and Mothersill by Bates Masi Architects will probably suit you perfectly. Located in the Hamptons, it’s not too far from New York City and yet just far enough. No concrete, bricks or glass as you would find in Manhattan. Mothershill is in fact a complex structure. It is made of two dis...
