The crisp, white interior is a protected space that is flooded with sunlight thanks to an architectural glass box structure and numerous skylights and windows. The transparent tendencies and frameless nature of this home make it feel feather light. Not wanting the house to waft away in the breeze, the architects anchor it to solid ground with a floating glass staircase t...
Nestled in the idyllic countryside between London and Oxford, The Bluff is a contemporary single-family residence. Lazzarini Pickering Architetti replaced the original cottage on site with a Miesian assembly of steel and glass that opens an interesting dialogue with the trimmed hedges and manicured lawns of the traditional garden. In direct contrast with the home’s mo...
Architecture as often defined as something fixed and inflexible. It is preserved or it is knocked down, but an existing building is not always conceived to evolve. The Afsharian’s House in Kermanshah, Iran, is specifically designed with a future evolution in mind. When conceiving the three-storey family home, Tehran-based multidisciplinary studio ReNa Design knew that...
Located in Austin, Texas, the Tree House is a stunning single-family home designed by local architecture firm Miró Rivera Architects. Two separate roofs cover the structure: one convex and one concave. The concave roof ensures an inconspicuous facade that blends into the surrounding neighborhood and provides a certain amount of privacy for the bedrooms. The convex ...
T&G House by Nicolás Campodonico is located near the center of the Rosario area in Santa Fe, Argentina. Built in 2014, the 145-square-meter house faces north on a small passage within a consolidated urban area of single and double story residential buildings. Different heights and depths are created in the facade through divided vehicular access and a reinforced concr...
Appropriately named, the Tetris House uses absolutely every inch of a tightly zoned 40’ by 110’ lot in Toronto. Confronted with a puzzle worthy of the iconic video game, Reza Aliabadi of rzlbd had to decipher the most efficient way to incorporate the client’s requests into a limited space. The result is three stories and 3000 square feet that encompass 5 bedrooms, 6 bath...
The Termitary House is the renovation of a two-storey home located in the coastal town of Da Nang, Vietnam. Influenced by local red brick towers which date back to the 4th century, the architects at Vietnamese firm Tropical Space encased the original cement structure in a web of latticed brickwork. A local material, baked brick was logical choice for the home’s exteri...
Measuring a meager 2.3 meters internally, the Slim House earned its name. London architecture firm Alma-nac took on the remodel for a young couple with a strict budget. The house’s northern facade faces a busy street in southwestern London. With no outward facing walls on the east and west side of the home, natural light was scarce. Rather than mimic the neighbors and...
In his most recent project, Slovakian architect Peter Jurkovič and principal of Bratislava-based firm JRKVC has designed small, simple home rooted in folk architecture and sustainability. Jurkovič has applied a few humble, practical characteristics of traditional Slovakian rural architecture such as modest size, an under-roof porch, as well as local, easy-to-transport ma...
Paris is considered one of the most beautiful cities in the world. The banks of the Seine, the monuments and the preserved buildings make it seem untouched by modern architecture. Yet, when you start digging a little, you uncover some hidden surprises. A prime example? The Maison Escalier in the 6ème arrondissement. Moussafir Architectes built the house on the site of an...
Confession: we have a weird fascination with Japanese capsule hotels. It is entirely unfathomable how a human being can sleep in such a confined space without having an acute panic attack. However, for those that do not suffer from claustrophobia, Alphaville Architects have created a successful mélange between the traditional capsule hotel and a hostel dormitory at the K...
With its location on a rural plot of land in Westland, the Netherlands, the Villa New Water’s construction came with a strict set of regulations. The home was allowed only a limited volume above ground level, so Koen Olthuis of Dutch architecture firm Waterstudio worked with the regulations to create a low profile residence that complements and absorbs its surroundings. ...
You might have heard it several times: things aren’t black or white. The same usually goes for architecture. It’s sometimes hard to decide between tradition and modernism, so the game is to find a decent balance between these two concepts. For instance, if you take a city like San Francisco, with its very typical row houses, you might dream of living in one of these beau...
Located near Ghent, Belgium, House VDV is a distinctive residence created by Graux & Baeyens Architecten. The residence is at once rustic and modern with its form is not unlike a traditional barn or farmhouse. However, it integrates purely modern geometry through large angles that cut into the structure and are completed with glass walls. The interior remains thoroughly ...
House T by Hiroyuki Shinozaki Architects is a two-person home and office located in Tokyo, Japan. It is only accessible through a narrow alley and is completely surrounded by buildings. Must be impossibly dark and claustrophobic, right? Wrong! The magicians at Hiroyuki Shinozaki conjured up an astonishingly open and airy structure. How did they do it? By creating a se...
Near the crossroads of the Mediterranean Sea and Atlantic Ocean lies the House of the Infinite by Alberto Campo Baeza. With its idyllic location on the coast of Cádiz, Spain, the home is a pure extension of the horizon, a simple plane the reaches out to the expansive blue of ocean and sky. Fascinated by Rembrandt’s 1655 etching titled “Christ Presented to the People”...
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...
How do you get a little green in your life if you live in an urban setting? If you’re the owners of the GaOnJai house in South Korea, you create your own private forest! Okay, we’re exaggerating a bit, but their Korean-style inner courtyard (Madang) is pretty much its own tiny, green universe. Indeed, IROJE KHM Architects created a microcosm with enough spatial and visua...
Brazil and its architects don’t have the monopoly on dream houses! You might think that open houses that are one with the surrounding nature, cutting the air smoothly with straight lines of wood or stone and confronting the sky with bright blue swimming pools could only exist in South America. And yet, Guz Architects built the Cluny Park House in Singapore. The similar e...
Constructed in local materials and IPE wood, the home embraces respect and nature, and boy, does it look good. The accessible roof concept embraces four separate u-shaped units that open onto sweeping views of the Pacific and welcome gusts of Northern Hawaiian wind to cool the house. As nature intended.
Building a house in the middle of nature is always a challenge for architects because, in the end, the house has to blend in with its environment rather than struggle with it. And when we look at what is modern architecture today, we face a contradiction. On one hand, architects and clients tend to become more responsible and awarethat the environment needs to be protect...
Almost by definition, urban areas have limited space and a surplus of citizens. One common solution is the high-rise apartment building that permits an excellent ratio of space to density. Build up, not out, right? However, high-density apartments can detract from privacy and individual quality of life, so Caramel Architekten have proposed a different solution in Vienna,...
Almazán Arquitectos Asociados might have created the ultimate backyard terrace. The Casa del Agua is located in Jalisco, Mexico, and we are pretty sure that the owners throw the best parties on the block. A semi-enclosed exterior and floor-to-ceiling windows create an exquisite optical illusion, giving the impression that the house is entirely open. The entire house is a...
Casa Altamira by Joan Puigcorbé of PAAS Arquitectura is tucked in the lush landscape of Ciudad Colón, Costa Rica. Cast in concrete and clad in local volcanic stone, the architect wove the structure into the topography and existing vegetation of the bright green hillside. A central living room opens directly on views of the Virilla river valley and each bedroom has its o...
Who needs walls? Certainly not us, and certainly not when you have a view like the one at Casa 7A! Located in Villeta, Colombia, and designed by Arquitectura en Estudio and Natalia Heredia, Casa 7A is certifiable eye candy. The architects were faced with a steeply sloping lot that offered beautiful views of the pristine mountains. With its perfect orientation from nor...
Forget zero carbon! Actually, don’t forget about zero carbon, but Australian architecture firm Archiblox has gone above and beyond carbon neutral by designing a house that actually produces more energy than it consumes. Their Carbon Positive House (CPH) is a prefabricated dwelling that marries a variety of green building techniques and technology to actually produce a su...
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...
Located in southeastern California, Joshua Tree National Park encompasses over over 3000 square kilometers of exquisite scenery and intriguing natural sites. Integrating a residence into the landscape without ruining the pristine scenery seems unimaginable. However, the architects at Oller & Pejic were up to the challenge. The Black Desert House is located in the Yucc...
The Black Cube House project starts with the makeover of a 1970s home. A very common idea as we can imagine houses built at the time in Poland and in the rest of eastern Europe might not have aged so well. The owners wanted to double the size and volume of the house while incorporating the old structure of the building. Playing around the idea of the cubic shape of the o...
Some architects are given projects that are way too easy…or so it seems. We might think it’s easy to build a big beach house, that all there is to do is to take advantage of the stunning view, put a giant pool and the house will be awesome – no matter what. A quick look at the Baleia Condo is enough to understand that Studio Arthur Casas didn’t really do that while doing...
B house in Berrocal, Spain was built in 2011 by Josemaria de Churtichaga and Cayetana de La Quadra-Salcedo of ch+qs architectos. Inspired by the surrounding Castilian landscape and the variety of yellows found therein, the 150 square meter house was constructed by Pablo Campoverde and is the result of 12 years of planning. Meant to serve as a refuge as well as a frame...
South of India and north of the Maldives, sits snuggly the island of Sri Lanka. A quick look to the Laccadive Sea side, you may notice Matugama. However, as close as you put your nose to your google map, you will most likely miss the bungalow designed and achieved by architect Narein Perera in 2010. It certainly isn’t for a lack of visibility since it lightly connects to...
The single family home is a modern architectural quandary – particularly in countries like Japan where land is a finite resource. It raises a whole host of ecological and sociological questions. Many modern projects simply reduce the overall footprint, but Japanese firm Tonoma chose a different solution. The T House is built on an elevated one-storey platform that bri...
Located in Vinaròs in Spain’s Castelló region, Seasonless House was built in 2013 by Casos de Casas in collaboration with Irene Castrillo Carreira and Mauro Gil-Fournier of Esquerra Arquitectos. The white 361.0 square meter house encourages personal design of the climate for increased domesticity, with the inhabitant controlling certain aspects of the environment. Amo...
You would think a seaside house in Poland might not be the thing of dreams. And yet, on the other and, you’d speak differently of Polish firm Ultra Architects‘ work. The Poznań firm built a house capable of dealing with the heavy natural conditions of the northwestern Polish beaches. With high groundwater levels, the building had to be waterproof and strong. Concrete wor...
RD House is a summer vacation home in the Dominican Republic. Set in the middle of a terrestrial paradise and confronted with a steep gradient, the architects at VASHO opted to bury the house in the hillside. The act of plunging the home in the hillside minimizes the visible volume and revere the beautiful surroundings. It also creates a green roof that serves as insu...
