Despite the narrow dimension of the plot – only 27.41 square meters – the architect created a house that maximises the space. The house is clad in vertical timber panels, and the use of wood continues inside for floors and ceilings giving the house a warm taste. Black painted metal defines windows, the entrance door and the stairs balaustrade. The program is distribute...
The building refurbished by Giuseppe Gurrieri and Valentina Giampiccolo is located in the upper section of the oldest part of Ragusa where longitudinal streets are running parallel at different levels, following the natural slope of the land and tied together by a criss-cross of steps. The current sequence of buildings is the result of combining or subdividing propertie...
Located in La Garrotxa – a nature area in the north of Catalonia – Mas Riells was no more than a ruin, transformed into a house by RVDV architecture. The house was rebuilt on the contours of the old masía using the original materials. Viewed from a distance, you still see a typical Catalonian farmhouse. Up close however, there is much more to discover. Inside the rebuil...
Constructed primarily of 5500 psi concrete, the 2300-square-foot one-story house is nestled on a hill in a forest clearing overlooking a natural meadow. Its low, modest profile respects the setting while honoring the homeowners’ modernist sensibilities, while a solar array, daylighting, rainwater catchment, reclaimed materials, pre-fab construction and careful placement ...
The home features classic earth tones and vaulted ceilings, along with plenty of windows and curving walls that guide daylight throughout the space. The 150 square meter space (about 1614 square feet) features tall windows and vaulted brick ceilings, while incorporating two large steel columns that divided the factory space. The architects wanted to focus on the colum...
The original 1960s building, with a leaky roof and cracked pile foundation, was renovated to maximize daylight and create an open-plan living space that features an internal promenade going through the entire volume. The house is located on a stunning site that boasts views of the bay. Its original structure is based on a three-story high A-frame, typical of the 1960’...
Stockholm studio The Common Office has designed a cliffside villa in Törnskogen, Sweden that smoothly blends the natural world with modern comfort and design. The designers envisioned Villa Altona as a Lego-like structure composed of interconnected blocks. Because the home is built into a steep rocky cliff with large boulders dotting the site, the block concept enabled t...
The goal of Tetris is to fit pieces together efficiently and not waste space, which is the same goal that the architects set as they sought to maximize the small infill lot. Inside, you'll find light-filled rooms efficiently designed and laid out to pack a 4,000 sq ft home into a space that measures only 3,000 sq ft. The Tetris House is located on a narrow 40’ by 110’...
The building, owned by a sculptor and artist preserves the rustic qualities of the original structure, but creates a striking geometry with two large sculptural windows-light catchers- which draws light into the interior. The architects separated the large hall of the existing structure by introducing two parallel walls, creating three distinct spaces-one storage area...
Located in Suoni, Finland, House L is surrounded by other renovated farm buildings, including an old granary that now houses a sauna. House L began as a simple renovation project for a bathroom in the former 1970s farmhouse; however, the architects later decided to overhaul the entire building, only keeping the foundations and a small section of the outer wall layer. ...
Whimsical and minimalist, this modern mobile home is just 140 square feet—but the tiny home’s clever design makes its small footprint look and feel much larger. Even better, the Toybox is equipped with an impressive array of eco-friendly elements, from radiant floor heating to gray water recycling. Designed by Frank Henderson and Paul Schultz, the Toybox Home is currentl...
Herbst Architects have taken the “kiwi bach,” or holiday beach house, to the next level with this design, which is built into the mountainside near the beach, and can be transformed into an open air sanctuary. The beach house is separated into two levels, the “living pavilion” consisting of a kitchen, lounge, and two covered decks. As you can see, each of the section...
The project includes two self-contained units with a common entrance, both of which boast beautiful views of a green grass field and the dome of St. Peter. The architects divided the apartment into Unit A and Unit B and introduced a common entrance area. Each unit has its own kitchen, bathroom, bedroom and living area, but the visual continuity was established through...
Keeping in line with other traditional “tube houses” in the area, the Vegan House, formerly a private home, now serves as a cultural center for the community. You can't miss it, thanks to a striking, multi-level arrangement of colorful shutters on its façade. Block Architects designed the house with the desire to bring culture and community together. They explain, “It...
In response to these challenges, he planted 3 glass boxes connected by a highly glazed, transparent corridor on a cantilevered roof, and surrounded them with a courtyard, a mini-meadow, and trees! The three new boxes on the roof house a master bedroom, dressing room and bath room, as well as a personal living room and home office. There’s a meadow and apple tree in on...
This colorful residence, dubbed Mancave, is a sophisticated retreat in Sydney that perfectly unites privacy and open living. The 1060-square-meter warehouse, which once functioned as a food manufacturing factory, was altered to house a large living room, four bedrooms, kitchen, music room, and a large terrace and swimming pool. The most exciting addition is the sleepi...
The pair took to rebuilding it from scratch and what resulted was a new space (organized around their heirloom sectional couch) that includes a queen bed, space for 10 person dinner parties, and a built-in video projector. The project became a prototype for Bryn’s later work designing efficient laneway houses.
Taking inspiration from the traditional children’s doll’s house, the gabled home features a beautiful fully glazed rear facade framed by oversized timber beams. Built as part of a suburban Melbourne home, the Doll’s House nearly doubles the size of the existing single-story Northcote structure and includes gray water recycling, VOC-free materials, and high-performance in...
Set in the footprint of the property’s former home, the modern rectilinear house is made up of six prefabricated modules. Spanning 2,788 square feet, the open-plan home gives its residents panoramic views of the beautiful Jackson Hole landscape. The original bungalow on the property was decaying and outdated, so the family decided to tear it down and make way for a mo...
Designed with a minimalist aesthetic, the secluded cabin offers off-the-grid luxury living in England’s forested Teign Valley on the norther edge of Dartmoor. Designed and built by Rupert McKelvie, the charred timber-clad cabin is the first prototype for Out of the Valley, a Devon-based workshop dedicated to off-grid and sustainable cabin design and construction. The ...
The terraced energy-efficient residence in the Village of Mamaroneck in Westchester County is both a retrofit and extension of an existing house built in 1963. Benzing Architects designed the project for a private client, using the existing footprint and first floor framing as the renovation's foundation. The design has won the 2015 EBie Awards, Urban Green Council`s "Os...
Commissioned by the Japanese real estate company Able, the award-winning concept features twelve different "bars" or walls that can be configured in multiple combinations to either save or occupy space. The twelve bars include a kitchen bar, a sleeping bar and a living bar that together create a customizable space that changes with the occupants’ daily needs. Furnitur...
Luckily, YUUA Architects and Associates have set a great example of livable yet compact living in their skinny 1.8m-Width House. Using height to make up for the lot’s narrow footprint, the architects brings natural light deep into the building through a large street-facing glazed facade. YUUA Architects and Associates designed the super narrow home for a couple and th...
The accomplish this, the team created a sculptural rooftop extension that climbs out of the original structure and seeks it’s way towards the trees of the surrounding forest. A new new off-grid solar system provides energy, and a wood stove provides warmth in the winter. Wastewater now ends up in a septic tank filtered by a halophyte filter. The rooftop extension was con...
This jaw-dropping renovation project is a little of both, as an expansive London church was converted into a glorious home with a wide open floor plan on the ground level. The enormous single family home is a combination of the best of both worlds - a celebration of the church’s history and architectural elements intermingled with the trappings of a modern luxury residen...
The stone-walled mountain home in Mexico has large glass doors that pivot from the walls and open up towards the surrounding landscape, blending in and out, new and old. The house sits at the foot of Tepozteco mountain in Mexico, considered sacred by the villagers and visitors of the El Tepozteco national park. The architects chose volcanic stone for the walls of the ...
Mansard architecture and modern gable roofs create a new composition that is invisible from the street. The extension doubles the living space of the old house but still remains inconspicuous as it is hidden behind the existing structure. Although the extension contrasts the existing building with its anthracite, flat facade and detailing, its overall volume fits perf...
The sprawling home was designed to give the family members different views of the neighborhood, downtown and adjacent garden, along with a range of play areas. The residence is topped with a green roof, a thermal chimney and solar panels. With a changing scale from the front of the home to the back, the sustainable home creates a daily sense of adventure as the family mo...
Inserted behind a 19th-century stable wall, the four-bedroom house is meticulously designed and clad in prefab weathering steel panels. The elegant home complements the historic architectural styles in southwest London’s Kew Green Conservation Area. Kew House’s successful design is due in part to the collaborative architect-client relationship. The client, who is a st...
Stationed in rural New Hampshire, the 160-square-foot mobile house can be rented for as little as $99 a night and is equipped with a composting toilet, solar electricity, and propane heat. Created to help grow the Tiny House movement, Getaway is the first project launched by the Millennial Housing Lab, a Harvard Innovation Lab project founded by Harvard MBA student Jo...
The transforming has a master bedroom that can be lowered down over a sunken living room area, while counters and dining tables fold up and to the side in the kitchen. The great thing about YO!Home is that the rooms can be reconfigured using sliding partitions which provide all the amenities of an average house squeezed into one space without generating clutter. This ...
The designers updated the structure of Villa Le Trident by removing several interior walls to create a fluid transition between different areas. They also refurbished the swimming pool and main stairwell and introduced a variety of materials that compliment the architectural configuration of the house. The villa was originally built for a the architect, Barry Dierks, ...
Designed by Christopher Simmonds Architect, the timber-clad cottage embraces the outdoors with large floor-to-ceiling glazing and a cantilevered living room that overlooks lakeside views. The home is partially buried into the stony Canadian Shield and is located in the Val-des-Monts district north of Ottawa. The top-heavy retreat is split into two main volumes: the sm...
The interdisciplinary practice's Haus JJ – located on the fourth and fifth floors of a terraced pile in the central Berlin district of Kreuzberg – is a two floor, modernist family home arranged around a central 'pivot point' hall that connects the levels by way of a spiral staircase. It's not a hugely expansive space, but the the delineation of the floors as private ...
And yet, Barcelona-based Josep Ferrando's latest house in Spain's Sant-Cugat - a Catalan town known for its rich cultural heritage - does just that. Casa Sant-Cugat is a hidden gem within a historical hub. The architect kept the existing street façade and it is only when entering the house that the contrast between old and new becomes visible. With this project, cons...
'It's dynamic by the water and there's the convenience of living and working in the same place,' explains Paul Williams, founding director of Stanton Williams, the Islington-based architects behind the neighbourhood's latest residential development. 'The combination of a vibrant community, great apartments, wonderful social spaces and gardens, and generous views is hard ...
