Thanks to a system of highly modular doors and windows, the house can be transformed into an open air structure. And if that’s not impressive enough, the sheer scale of the whole system is mind blowing. Colossal sliding glass doors, a pool with a retractable roof, entire walls that open and shut…we could try and give you all the details, but we suggest that you simply wa...
Prefab can be fab, and Peninsula Shift is the proof! A design collaboration between Method Homes and Elemental Design, Peninsula Shift is the first result of an entire series. The Elemental Series proposes modern, cost-effective homes that are modular and can even be entirely customized. Six different floorplans are offered with various interior palettes and finishes fro...
Sloping site? No problem! At least not for Lima-based architecture firm Domenack Arquitectos. The Peruvian architects took a steep, rocky plot in Lima’s Pucusana District and constructed the P2 House Poseidon, a contemporary coastal dream home. Perched high on red, rocky cliffs overlooking the water, the site presented two access points: one high and one low. The arch...
Living in an old historical building in San Francisco, California, doesn’t go without a few sacrifices. This loft is located in the old Oriental Warehouse, immediately giving the building a certain cachet as well as a great location downtown. But if renovating an old storehouse adds some romanticism to a utilitarian structure, it also comes with drawbacks. Obviously, you...
Swiss architecture firm Guz Wüstemann proved with Los Limoneros that it has understood every aspect of building a house in Andalusia. Indeed, this new Marbella house is the perfect mix of elements that make Spanish culture so great. One of the key details was to design an open house where its inhabitants would be able to enjoy life outside without the feeling of being...
Iconic Hotel Daniel in Graz, Austria, is about to welcome a new wave of visitors. The reason is a small but noticeable addition to its roof: a luxurious prefab suite called the LoftCube, designed by Berlin-based Studio Aisslinger. It might have a wonderful interior and stunning views of the various landmarks of the town, but the real intrigue is elsewhere. What make...
Making new out of old has become the great trend in modern architecture. And with the constant reminder that our natural resources are scarce and limited, the concept of renovation has taken on a whole new meaning, as demonstrated by this loft in Bratislava designed by Slovakian architects gutgut. You can forget about fancy interior design and think more about going back...
Melbourne-based architecture firm Make Architecture has renovated Local House, a private family home in the Melbourne suburb of St. Kilda. When approaching the renovation, the architects first examined how a family lives and endeavored to create connections both internally and externally. “Spaces are playful; conceived more like a favorite local café than a private house...
Lines of Light is a two-story corner terrace house in Singapore, designed for a family by HYLA architects. The site occupies a corner lot, with the front of the house facing a side street. A slatted timber screen covering the entire side preserves privacy while allowing light and ventilation. A high-volume outdoor terrace faces the main garden, with the space conti...
Typically, rapid urban expansion leads to the transformation of homes into apartments, but Japanese architect Kazuyasu Kochi is doing just the opposite with this recently completed project in suburban Tokyo. Thanks to a clever renovation by Kochi’s firm Kochi Architect’s Studio, what was once a two-storey apartment building set to be torn down is now a unique single-fami...
Said model can be twisted, distorted and stretched while remaining topologically unchanged. A veritable architectural playground. Now take your math hat off. Let’s get beachy: the house is just like the inner workings of a conch. McBride Charles Ryan Architects have combined abstract mathematics and a humble shell to make an amazing seaside retreat. A satisfying project ...
Today, we’re craving architectural eye candy, and the Kew House 3 in Melbourne, Australia, is the perfect remedy. Inspired by stereo cabinets from the 1960s, Vibe Design Group designed a solid center façade flanked by timber battens of slotted Silvertop Ash to replicate the speakers. The house is delicately posed on steel posts that once again evoke the vintage musical ...
How do you feasibly construct a family home that is bright, open and spacious with a width of only 7.3 meters? Such was the quandry confronted by Kariouk Associates for the Stacey-Turley Residence in Ottawa, Canada. Due to zoning restrictions, the home’s width was limited, meaning the structure had to be long, but zoning restrictions also made it impossible to line the ...
Last time we featured the work of Spanish architect Joan Puigcorbé, it was the half-submerged and completely drool-worthy Casa Altamira in Costa Rica. The INOUT House is also in Costa Rica, but there’s nothing submerged about it (except for perhaps the swimming pool). While Casa Altamira buries itself into a hillside to become one with the earth, the INOUT House uses exp...
Nowadays, architects seem to have found ways to overcome the difficulty of a sloppy location. We’ve seen several projects similar to the Invisible House with an intelligent use of levels that perfectly integrates the house into its geographical surroundings. But things are pushed a little further here. First, the slope gives meaning to the house’s name since it keeps it ...
It is the perfect place to spend a vacation or, you know, the rest of your life. The original house has been conserved and authentic elements, like the original beams in the ceiling, are juxtaposed with minimal, but contemporary, elements. A glass panel in the kitchen floor is a striking feature that, despite its definitively modern character and thanks to the unchanged ...
Berlin is a city with its share of scars. In a rare corner of Berlin Mitte, vestiges of Medieval buildings can be found across from the old city walls. Here, surrounded by seven-story buildings, was a geometrically challenging plot that was up for transformation. Sohrab Zafari, a German architect of Persian origins and the founder of Atelier Zafari Architecture, was give...
Spanish architects Estudio Entresitio designed and built a labyrinth-like, two story residence on a long and narrow plot in a Madrileño suburb; the expansive volumes of the home clad in retractable metal shutters serve the dual purpose of providing privacy and hiding structural elements. Entrenched in nature, this starkly white project is set off by greenery, trees and a...
Architecture can get really tricky when it comes to renovations or adding extensions to existing buildings. That was precisely the task of Dutch architecture firm Studio Prototype for the House W in Duiven, the Netherlands. The owners asked the architects to add a whole new and modern-looking volume to the existing parts of an old family house. The main challenge was the...
Imagine your infinity pool and gazing down at the endless stretch of Los Angeles lights, traffic and blazing skyscrapers. Imagine living on top of the world. Welcome to Hopen Place by Whipple Russell Architects. Rising high above the smog and throbbing heat, the residence boasts four bedrooms and five bathrooms – all surrounding a gorgeous inner courtyard with an infinit...
Often, architects create subtle dialogue through transparency, materials and nature. Throwing subtlety to the wind, the Australian firm OOF! has chosen to be a bit more literal. The Hello House, with its friendly and humoristic facade, offers the neighborhood a bright and cheery greeting in its white brickwork. Located in a heritage neighborhood of Melbourne, Australi...
As our population grows, affordable housing is becoming an increasingly pertinent issue, particularly in densely populated urban areas. Stockholm, Sweden is one such city where prices are constantly climbing and space is limited. As a response, architects and their clients are looking for unused, abandoned space to make their own. The HB6B apartment is one such space. ...
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...
Future Studio teaches us how to properly take advantage of shortcomings with the Beam House in Hiroshima, Japan. In remodeling the structure, the Japanese architects encountered low beams, varying ceiling heights and other ‘flaws’ that they wonderfully transformed with color, lighting and reflection. The use of reflective materials brightens up dark spaces and mirrors cr...
Fujigaoka M is the renovation of an apartment for a married couple in Fujigaoka, Japan. In order to preserve light and airflow throughout the relatively open 64-square-meter floorplan, Tokyo-based architecture firm Sinato designed a multipurpose wooden structure to divide the space. Referred to as the “inner terrace”, the wooden structure envelopes the central load-be...
It has been clear for a while now that cabins are no longer the gloomy man-caves in which you’d expect to have minimum comfort. So you wouldn’t be surprised by the level of comfort the Fuentealba House by Francis Pfenniger offers. Facing the Castro canal in Chile, the cabin is located in a magical place, surrounded by trees. It has been built as a family home, for chi...
Built on a rehabilitated brownfield site, the residence aims to repair the damaged landscape and raise awareness about the earth’s finite resources. In harnessing nature’s intelligent design, the home maintains a comfortable temperature year round without the environmental footprint. Even the pool is smart–used as an additional thermal mass tied to the hydronic system ap...
For those with a crushing need to escape from civilization, this might be the most interesting design to be presented this year. Slovakian firm Nice Architects has designed the Ecocapsule, an egg-shaped shelter that can function off-the-grid for prolonged periods of time. The Ecocapsule may look more like a stranded UFO than a home, but it is an impressively compact, por...
De Eenvoud (the simplicity) has been lauched as the third in a series of experimental housing communities in Almere, the Netherlands. Twelve winning teams were selected to create private houses that hold a strong connection to their surroundings. Designed by Johan Selbing and Anouk Vogel, the Mirrored House distinguishes itself with its entirely mirrored façade. The ref...
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...
You might not see it straight away, but hidden somewhere on the Chilean coast is the Casa Till by WMR Arquitectos. The local architects have achieved wonders to meet the expectations of their German clients. One might think their task was easy with such an astonishing view of the ocean, but things weren’t that simple. First of all, the house being the only one for mil...
Limited space is a ubiquitous challenge in urban settings. On the bright side, cramped conditions often lead to unexpected ingenuity. For the Casa no Príncipe Real in Lisbon, Portuguese architecture firm Camarim Arquitectos turned a tiny plot of only 41 square meters into a roomy, five-storey, single family home. That architects circumvented the spatial confinements b...
The Casa No Morro Do Querosene by Brazilian architecture firm grupoSP is not a new kid on the block, but we’re still completely enamored. How could we not be? That giant wall of books is probably the most magnificent display on which we’ve ever laid eyes. We can only hope that they also have a ladder that slides back and forth, but we’re probably just getting our hopes u...
