The aspirational charms of remote living are laid bare in gestalten’s new monograph, Northern Exposure. Although the blurb promises a ‘shift away from rustic clichés toward an architecture of profound ecological responsiveness and sensory clarity,’ we all know that monographs like this exist to soothe the existential angst of everyday life by transporting us to a warm, wood-lined cocoon perched on the edge of a pristine wilderness.

In this respect, the book does not disappoint. Across 32 projects, the reader is treated to sylvan retreats, back-to-basics construction and neo-vernacular experiments. Some will be familiar from our pages, like Bishop McDowell’s Lawrencetown House on the Nova Scotian coast and Quinzhee Architecture’s Chez Léon retreat in Charlevoix, and you’ll certainly recognise many of the featured firms, which include Omar Gandhi, Pierre Thibault and Mackay-Lyons Sweetapple.

When assembled in the context of a monograph, the FOMO is almost overwhelming, with endless sylvan vistas framed by picture windows, kitchen countertops that overlook rocky shores and decks beneath dark skies and wide horizons.

The editors describe the featured projects as representing a ‘shift away from rustic clichés toward an architecture of profound ecological responsiveness and sensory clarity,’ and in practice this comes across as a new form of rural minimalism. It’s not an architecture of white walls and rough concrete, but of natural materials, modest proportions and a desire to be more attuned to the landscape instead of dominating it.

Often the sense of splendid isolation is an exaggerated one, created by careful siting and orientation, bolstered by the photographic framing, be it on the ground or from the air. Nevertheless, these contextual images give a sense of the scale of the Canadian landscape, emphasising how important it is for rural architecture to tread as lightly as possible on the surrounding environment.

Northern Exposure: The New Canadian Cabin, €50 / £45 / $75, Gestalten.com, @Gestalten

This lakeside retreat's authors, Marie-Claude Hamelin and Loukas Yiacouvakis of yh2 architecture, have long experience of building in the Potton region of Québec. The architectural design studio, which was founded in 1994, takes a workshop-led approach, minimising the number of projects it takes on in order to dedicate itself to the holistic scope of each individual building, regardless of scale or programme. The award-winning studio has also worked in India, but its speciality is creating residential works that feel embedded in their surroundings.

Explore a lakeside retreat on the shores of Lake Memphremagog

The Counter-Slope House is a case in point. Set on a sloping site in a prime location on the shores of Lake Memphremagog, the house is embedded in the hillside, with a multi-functional windowless basement (containing stores, a gym and a cinema room) set beneath an expansive ground floor.

Here you’ll find an open-plan living area, with floor-to-ceiling glazing that takes advantage of the sloping site to make the room feel immersed in the forests at the water’s edge. With polished stone floors and exposed timber beams, one half of this floor is given over to living, with the other half occupied by the main bedroom suite. The staircase bisects the two areas, while the lake-facing façade is edged with a generous terrace.

The terrace includes a spa and dining area, with the cantilevered upper floor providing a sheltered courtyard in the heart of the plan. The upper floor is also the entrance level, given the way the site slopes away from the access road, with a bridge reaching across to a glazed entrance hall adjoining the stairwell.

There’s a separate deck up here (the ceiling of the living space below), from where there are uninterrupted views of the lake. A butterfly-roofed structure houses three bedrooms, two of which double up as offices when the house isn’t fully occupied.

According to the designers, ‘the project unfolds as a response to the dramatic nature of the site, an attempt at respectful coexistence with the expressive qualities of the terrain’. Unusually, the house doesn’t reveal itself all at once, with the roof of the main volume serving as what the architects call a ‘belvedere’, a space that is ‘threshold, reception area, and visual vanishing point’. It creates a rare horizontal space in a crowded, steep wooded site, a place to pause and contemplate the landscape.

Internal joinery is finished in white oak, while the exterior is clad in natural cedar, which will weather as the house ages. The combination of unusual vantage points and close integration with nature throughout the living spaces create ‘an architectural meditation on landscape’.

‘[The Counter-Slope House] questions how architecture can inhabit a site not as an object, but as a condition for experiencing place,’ say Hamelin and Yiacouvaki. ‘[It is] an architecture of subtraction that reveals more than it imposes.’

yh2architecture.com

When it opens, the new Gordie Howe International Bridge is set to become an important addition to North America's network of busy land border crossings. Named after Canada-born Detroit Red Wings hockey player Gordie Howe, this piece of architectural infrastructure looks elegant, almost ethereal, from afar – and up close, its dynamic form appears sculptural, designed to delicately guide traffic through a subtly shifting moiré effect.

Delivered by client WDBA – the Windsor-Detroit Bridge Authority – to connect Detroit, Michigan (USA) and Windsor, Ontario (Canada), the project looks sharp and modern (and it's currently getting ready for an imminent opening by the US and Canadian governments). It also aims to become far more than a piece of smart (and smart-looking) bridge design.

Explore the new Gordie Howe International Bridge

Its architect, Erik Behrens, explains that the Gordie Howe International Bridge was not created to just carry the traffic from A to B. It will also accommodate broader border facilities, such as a customs plaza and more – these operations and traffic are currently being stress-tested ahead of its official opening to the public. Many of its facilities are 'hidden' within its slender form to avoid detracting from the bridge's inherent sculptural effect.

'The bridge was designed to do more than move people – it creates a shared civic experience at the scale of a city,' Behrens said. 'Bridges, transit, towers, and large urban systems must do more than function – they must belong, endure, and inspire.'

Howe, who lent his name to the project, is also referenced in the design, which is composed as a slender construction of cables and tower legs – the latter poetically resembling the curvature of the athlete's hockey stick mid-slapshot. Its subtly curved bridge (an 853m main span, the longest in North America) connects to ultra-light stay cables whose size and crisp white colour make them appear almost transparent and gravity-defying.

AECOM was the engineering practice and is the design lead for Bridging North America (BNA), WDBA’s private-sector partner – and they were instrumental in making the Gordie Howe International Bridge's slender form a reality. The bridge was conceived to be high-performing, with a projected 125-year lifespan to ensure its durability.

'It turns mobility infrastructure into a shared civic experience – where movement becomes meaningful, strengthening connection and rekindling a sense of collective pride. Through elegance, technical rigour, and enduring purpose, the bridge emerges as both contemporary infrastructure and a work of civic art,' Behrens explained.

The set of twin 220m towers and their fan-shaped cables look majestic, marking this important gateway across the river between the two sport-loving countries. 'The bridge captivates through a precise interplay of form, light and movement,' Behrens added. 'Its paired arrays of white stay cables produce a subtly shifting moiré, endowing the structure with a quiet kinetic elegance and a sculptural depth that reveals itself from every angle.'

Behrens worked with Canadian visual artist, designer and writer Douglas Coupland on the bridge's lighting art installation. Coupland (the project's lighting artist – RBLD acted as the lighting designer) created a spectacular show using almost 5,000 white bridge lights to creatively illuminate the structure. He said: 'It’s a relief to see infrastructure that feels like it belongs to this century. There’s a generosity to Detroit right now – you can feel the future being tested in real time.' (We agree – and named Detroit our City of the Year at the 2026 Wallpaper* Design Awards.)

'I’ve somehow become a person who arranges light into sentences. This was unexpected,' the writer added.

Originally set to open this spring, the bridge doesn't have an official launch date yet – due to the aforementioned final checks, yes, but also because the bridge has been part of political movements around trade negotiations between the US and Canada. The project was paid in full upfront by Canada and is co-owned by the Government of Canada and the State of Michigan.

When it does open, the Gordie Howe International Bridge will no doubt become an important vehicle for trade between the two neighbouring countries – while also paying tribute to the 'hockey-loving nations who share this great man’s sporting legacy', its creators highlight.

gordiehoweinternationalbridge.com

erikbehrens.com

aecom.com

Cut Out House's distinct geometry is not random; nor was it an architect's flight of fancy or a purely aesthetic gesture. Set in the foothills of the Canadian Rocky Mountains, this home, a family's holiday retreat, posed the challenge of navigating shelter and openness – offering the protective, all-mod-cons cocoon of a comfortable 21st-century residence, and connecting with the site's dramatic natural setting.

Explore Cut Out House in the Canadian Rocky Mountains

As a response to this brief, its author, architect Bryan Young and his New York-based team at the creative collective Young Projects, composed a structure that opens to the landscape but also features a 'cut out' element, forming a curved opening – an embrace, where the home encircles nature while also creating an inviting, protective space away from winds and the wilderness. This concave shape is informed by a large boulder found – and retained – on site, which now signals the entrance to the residence.

The 3,320 sq ft Cut Out House is striking – respectfully rivalling its context, a sweeping, lush natural landscape and the point where the local forest and mountains meet. A butterfly roof becomes another key feature in this project, defining its overall volume as seen across the nearby body of water from a distance.

Internally, the house balances serenity and dynamism, orientated towards its long vistas, which are framed through large openings on the opposite side of the rounded entrance patio. Behind those openings, a main piano nobile spans an open-plan living, kitchen, dining area and a study. One primary suite and three further guest bedrooms are nestled underneath, into the slope.

The material palette was conceived to mirror the home's natural setting, using primarily textured concrete, light wood, and warm stone. Furnishings and colour tones nod to midcentury architecture icons, blended with contemporary pieces from companies such as B&B Italia, Bocci and Bloc Studios.

A fast-emerging and extremely versatile studio, Young Projects has a strong focus on material explorations and work that plays with form, textures and scale to dramatic but also highlight function-driven effect. Past work includes the playful Six Square House in Long Island – while the studio has more underway, including private residential, retail and hospitality work.

young-projects.com

A new all-day café has sprung up in Vancouver’s downtown, with a space inspired by North American nostalgia. Behind the interiors is Vancouver-based McKinley Studios, who took inspiration from the 1990s – baseball clubhouses, early record shops, and varsity iconography – for the 2,800 square-foot space. McKinley Studios worked collaboratively on the interior design with owner Jess Reno, who previously founded the award-winning Nemesis Coffee (ranked the top coffee shop in Canada by the World’s 100 Best Coffee Shops 2026 list).

Bam Bam, Vancouver

‘As soon as you walk in, there’s an emphasis on immediately feeling the social aspect and a buzz of activity,’ says architect Walker McKinley, the founder and CEO of McKinley Studios. ‘You’re greeted by the team, the music is front and centre, and the experience unfolds naturally from there.’ Walking in, waxed stainless steel counters stretch across the space, with a curved cherry veneer bar. Built-in speakers pay homage to founder Reno’s love of music, as well as the record shop nostalgia inspiration. On the countertop, an enticing array of donuts and pastries sit on stainless steel pedestals, all baked in-house.

Anchored by warm woods and steel, the rest of the interiors comprise distinct yet interconnected spaces that balance nostalgic references with a futurist sensibility, underlining the design with a freshness and dynamism. ‘Jess and the team wanted to build an experiential world,’ says McKinley. ‘Our approach was to create a series of episodic spaces across the interior, each focused on different moments.’

A retro-futuristic metallic sofa and armchair are a compelling centrepiece, while a vibrant green communal banquette table is accented by an orb-like chandelier from Vancouver lighting studio A-N-D (the brand’s Pebble sconces also feature near the entrance). A dedicated retail space with powder blue lacquer shelving displays the Bam Bam’s debut apparel collection, which draws inspiration from vintage varsity apparel and features their bulldog iconography. Throughout, paintings from Filipp Jenikae reference early hip hop artists and street photography.

The menu at Bam Bam is playfully nostalgic. Classic coffees are served alongside speciality drinks like a cherry pie matcha, an apple pie latte, and diner-inspired cream sodas. A rotating assortment of pastries is on offer, such as a strawberry shiso doughnut or a honey sea salt roll, alongside a menu that features crispy fried chicken sandwiches. A selection of cocktails, such as a strawberry shiso negroni or hot honey margarita, extends the enticing nostalgia into the evenings.

Bam Bam is located at 160 W Georgia St, Vancouver, BC V6B 4P4, Canada

If there’s one thing that Wallpaper* does well, it’s houses – spotlighting architecturally arresting gems from around the globe and spanning the spectrum of modern design. Our inboxes are overflowing with news of the world’s most boundary-pushing architectural projects, and we strive to bring you the very best.

To ensure you don’t miss a thing – and to showcase the scope of residential architecture today – we’ve launched a monthly series: The Architecture Edit. Each instalment will highlight our favourite houses of the month: buildings that demonstrate creative planning, innovative methods and, of course, aesthetic excellence. Here are the best new houses of April 2026.

A coastal Florida home

Architect Jennifer Bonner designed this Florida home for her mother, working within strict Homeowners Association rules that demanded a traditional material palette and symmetrical façade. To get around this, Bonner redirected her creativity to the roofline, introducing daring curvilinear eaves with soft pink undersides, while two false-front porches satisfy the symmetry requirement and corrugated metal is cheekily repurposed on the façade. Interiors by Carol Mockbee carry the theme through, with custom furnishings, terrazzo floors and ombré walls mirroring the exterior's curves.

Read about it here.

A pyramid-shaped house

Built in 1981 as part of Milton Keynes' Homeworld exhibition, the Pyramid House was a bold experiment in future residential design. London studio Khan Bonshek recently overhauled its confused layout, installing a spectacular new birch ply staircase as the home's centrepiece. Light cascades from the glazed apex, animating every room. Eaves were repurposed as sleeping pods, a sauna and workspace, while ground source heat pumps replaced the original inefficient ventilation. The result is eccentric, energy-efficient and far more liveable.

Read about it here.

A curved concrete villa 

Belgian architect Magalie Munters designed this concrete villa in Oostduinkerke, which is shaped by dunes, wind and light rather than conventional façade logic. Bedrooms are half-buried in the dunes while the living space rises toward the horizon. Striated concrete recalls sand at low tide, and interiors feature lime-washed walls, built-in concrete elements and sandblasted oak furniture – creating rooms that feel carved from a single continuous material body.

Read about it here.

Modernism in West Yorkshire

Designed in 1954 as a wedding gift for his brother, Peter Womersley's Farnley Hey is one of Britain's most celebrated modernist homes, and it’s now on the market for £1.05 million. Drawing on Le Corbusier and Frank Lloyd Wright, Womersley created something strikingly un-English – at the time, the flat roofs, floor-to-ceiling glazing and open-plan interiors were more akin to California than the Pennines. Camphorwood floors, York stone and lemon-yellow Formica panels add warmth, while a double-height reception room – known as ‘the dance floor’ – comprises the heart of the home.

Read about it here.

An Ontario home in the trees

Perched on a forested bluff above Lake Huron, Cedar's Kin is a sprawling 5,000 sq ft residence by Omar Gandhi Architects. Three interconnected pavilions, a guest cabin and a beach hut are threaded through the treeline, each rotated to align with gaps in the canopy and maximise lake views. To further harmonise the building with its wooded surroundings, careful planning preserved existing trees and minimised erosion, while eastern white cedar clads the exterior and white oak joinery warms the interiors.

Read about it here.

A Japanese home in London

Hagen Hall transformed this Grade II-listed Islington terrace house for a couple with ties to Japan – this connection is felt in a singular material palette of oak joinery and wall panelling and a genkan entryway, shoji-inspired glass shelving and a tokonoma-style display niche. A sunken garden dining room and moody snug complete a home that balances late-Georgian heritage with rigorous contemporary minimalism.

Read about it here.

An abandoned home revived

No Architects revived an abandoned structure in the Czech Ore Mountains – a region emptied after post-war expulsions – and transformed it into robust holiday accommodation. The studio stripped back decades of additions, burying what didn't fit and connecting the restored original farmhouse to an overhauled structure via a single-storey link. Ground source heating, a new well and remote-controlled systems ensure resilience against the brutal Czech winters, while white-painted walls, timber, terrazzo and steel roofing create a gleaming, hardwearing retreat.

Read about it here.

A Mexican brutalist villa

Casa Macahuite, a brutalist villa in Puerto Escondido, Oaxaca, by Studio Font, sits between ocean and mountains, accessible only by bridge over a lagoon. Designed to withstand earthquakes and hurricanes, the 300 sq m off-grid home features five structural planes and a 14-metre cantilevered pergola that shades, frames views and ventilates. Softened by parota wood, textiles and native planting, the residence blurs indoor and outdoor living – it even overlooks a protected turtle nesting beach.

Read about it here.

A boulder-supported guesthouse 

This serene guesthouse in Columbia County, perched atop glacial boulders sourced from within a 35-mile radius, is the work of Brooklyn studio Of Possible. Guests enter the sub-1,000 sq ft, timber-clad structure from beneath, ascending a staircase as the building wraps around them. Inside, two snug bedrooms, a serpentine marble kitchen island and carefully chosen vintage furniture create a warm, Scandinavian-inflected atmosphere.

Read about it here.

A serene Indian home

On the edge of Theni city in Tamil Nadu, oriented toward a nearby valley and lake, STO.M.P designed this calm, linear home. Three horizontal bands of varying texture and openness correspond to the home's functions: communal spaces at ground level, bedrooms above and a gym and suite at the top. Warm timber surfaces blend with brass detailing and bold colour accents, creating a layered journey which blurs the boundaries between interior and landscape.

Read about it here.

A spectacular waterfront home in Huron County, Ontario, has been completed by Canadian studio Omar Gandhi Architects. The house, called Cedar’s Kin, is perched on the eastern shores of Lake Huron, raised up on a forested bluff above the beach. Set across three levels, the accommodation is divided into three distinct but connected elements, alongside a separate freestanding guest cabin and a beach hut closer to the shoreline.

In total, the house offers some 5,000 sq ft of programme, a generous scale that is matched by the sweep of lake viewed from the main living spaces on level one. Because of the pitch of the site, the main house is accessed from level two via a bridge that leads directly into the central pavilion of the three-part structure. From here, a stair leads down into the double-height living room, with the primary bedroom suite off to the right.

READ: An immersive Nova Scotia house is a viewing platform for rugged Canadian nature

The bedroom makes the most of its elevated position to offer sweeping views across the water. Angled away from the main volume and separated by a study area, the suite includes a dressing room and bathroom, as well as a small balcony. Downstairs, the living, dining and kitchen occupy the first level of two pavilion elements, with a generous deck wrapping around the entire structure.

Services and utility areas are located at the rear of the plan, close to the slope, freeing up the main façade for unobstructed views. A thick, chamfered timber frame gives the lake façade a geometric quality, in stark contrast to the more rectilinear entrance approach.

The second level of the third pavilion – linked to the living area via the terrace – houses two bedrooms. Below this is an extended basement area, containing another bedroom, bathroom and games room with its own deck and lake views. There’s also a laundry and plant room, alongside a small sauna, which also has access to the low-level deck.

The carefully orientated components were placed so as to maximise available views. ‘Each program volume rotates to align with existing openings in the tree canopy, framing sweeping views of Lake Huron,’ says Gandhi, ‘Gentle shifts and variations establish a rhythm along the slope, with each interior space forming a unique relationship with the surrounding forest.’

The proximity of the trees and the west-facing lake elevation transform the interiors and exteriors at sunset, with light dappled by the branches. Wood also plays a central role in construction, with eastern white cedar used on the exterior, with cedar soffit boards used on interior ceilings. Joinery and detailing is in oak, giving the interior and warmth that comes to life with the dynamic natural light.

Gandhi, who worked with architects John Gray Thomson and Chad Jamieson on the project, ensured the house both reduces any potential erosion on the site, whilst also preserving as many trees as possible through careful planning.

Steps lead up to the guest cabin and down to the beach hut, both of which are finished in the same materials and geometric approach as the main house. The result is a coherent ensemble of architectural forms in perfect harmony with their surroundings.

If there’s one thing that Wallpaper* does well, it’s houses – spotlighting architecturally arresting gems from around the globe and spanning the spectrum of modern design. Our inboxes are overflowing with news of the world’s most boundary-pushing architectural projects, and we strive to bring you the very best.

To ensure you don’t miss a thing – and to showcase the scope of residential architecture today – we’ve launched a monthly series: The Architecture Edit. Each instalment will highlight our favourite houses of the month: buildings that demonstrate creative planning, innovative methods and, of course, aesthetic excellence. Here are the best new houses of March 2026.

A house between mountains

Set between Brazil’s Serra do Mar and Serra da Mantiqueira mountains, Valley House is architect Beatriz Meyer’s family home. Built on a rural plateau, the single-storey, horizontal structure is designed to blend into its landscape rather than dominate it. It’s divided into three volumes using glass, stone and carbonised timber, balancing transparency and solidity, while open-plan interiors emphasise light, airflow and connection to nature with pergolas and apertures framing views. The house embodies Meyer’s vision of calm, sustainable living, rooted in place.

Read about it here.

A Gujarat behemoth

Amaltash, a 12,000 sq ft home in Navsari, India, combines technical precision with cultural meaning. Designed by Veeram Shah, it embodies Le Corbusier’s idea of the home as both a ‘machine for living’ and a space rich in symbolic meaning. Climate-responsive design drives its form, with solar strategies shaping layout, patios cooling interiors, and large windows – the house operates as a micro-ecosystem, with rainwater harvesting and greenery replacing lawns. At the same time, it draws on Gujarati traditions. Crafted with local materials and artisan collaborations, Amaltash merges sustainability and heritage.

Read about it here.

A Canadian forest retreat

Nestled in British Columbia’s Coast Mountains, the Passive House Forest Retreat is a highly sustainable home designed to rigorous environmental standards. Its treehouse-like structure sits lightly on a forested slope, featuring a cantilevered volume that frames expansive views while creating a sheltered space below. Dark cladding and natural materials allow it to blend with its surroundings, while precise construction ensures top-tier energy performance. Interiors, meanwhile, complement the architecture with refined detailing and sculptural lighting.

Read about it here.

An unusual floorplan

Trim House in Vilnius, Lithuania, is a striking triangular residence shaped by unexpected planning restrictions. Originally designed larger, the project was reduced by 40 per cent after new regulations limited building size. Rather than compromise, architect Robert Konieczny reimagined the design into a compact, angular form centred around a courtyard. A spiral staircase leads to upper-level bedrooms and a terrace, while expanded outdoor space improves daylight and connection to the surroundings. The enforced ‘trimming' ultimately enhanced the project, proving constraints can inspire innovative architectural solutions.

Read about it here.

A modernist landmark

Designed in 1946 by Rudolph Schindler, the Kallis-Sharlin Residence is a modernist hillside home in Los Angeles. Built into a slope overlooking the San Fernando Valley, its layered volumes, terraces and glass walls blur indoor and outdoor boundaries, and distinctive features include a butterfly roof, clerestory lighting and rich materials like mahogany and Douglas fir. Recently restored and listed for sale at $6.35 million, this cultural monument stands as a lasting example of a modernist architecture that harmonises innovation, landscape and human experience.

Read about it here.

A bright red villa

Villa Jevany in the Czech Republic boldly contrasts its forest setting with a vivid red façade. Designed by Architektura, the house intentionally stands out rather than blending in, creating a dialogue between man-made form and nature. Built into a sloping site, it appears single-storey from the road but reveals additional levels below. Inside, a central staircase leads to a spacious living area with forest views, while irregular windows reference abstract art. Divided into active and quiet zones, the home balances striking visual identity with functional, family-oriented design.

Read about it here.

A timber house

Orchard House in Cheshire exemplifies thoughtful rural architecture. Designed by Studio Bark under strict UK planning rules, the home demonstrates exceptional design quality while remaining modest and energy-efficient. Its S-shaped plan spans two levels, with living spaces elevated for views across a restored orchard. Timber construction, passive design strategies and local materials reduce environmental impact, including parquet flooring made from a tree on-site. Over time, the house has blended into its landscape, aided by weathered cladding and revived planting, now representing a balance between contemporary, sustainable living and deep connection to place.

Read about it here.

A traditional Kyoto residence

House in Narutaki is a sensitive renovation of a traditional Sukiya-style home in Kyoto by kooo architects. Respecting strict preservation norms, the design maintains the building’s historic character while adapting it for modern living. Original tatami spaces were reconfigured into three flowing zones, including a garden room and connecting passage, while natural materials, sliding doors and handcrafted details preserve cultural authenticity. The result is a calm, minimalist home that honours Japanese tradition while providing a refined, contemporary living experience.

Read about it here.

A Jacques Couëlle-designed home

This organic modernist home near Cannes, originally designed by Jacques Couëlle in the 1960s, has been carefully refreshed by Miriam Frowein Interiors. Distinctive for its sculptural, fluid forms, the house exemplifies Couëlle’s ‘architecture-sculpture’. The renovation respects his vision, using organic shapes, earthy tones and handcrafted elements throughout, as well as mid-century-inspired furnishings to complement rather than compete with the architecture. The design approach allows the building’s expressive form to remain central while enhancing comfort and livability for contemporary use.

Read about it here.

A hidden island escape

Euthea, a house on the Greek island of Meganisi, is designed to disappear into its landscape. Created by Ateno Architecture Studio, it is partially buried and covered by earth, making it nearly invisible from above. As the first structure on its peninsula, the project prioritises minimal environmental impact – built with local stone and earthy tones, it blends seamlessly with its surroundings. Interiors are arranged to frame sea views, enhancing the sense of isolation and immersion in nature. Even functional elements, like a brass drainage pipe, are treated poetically, reinforcing the home’s quiet, thoughtful integration.

Read about it here.

The late great Arthur Müdry’s family home, now on the market some five decades after its creation, is both a lovingly crafted ode to West Coast modernism and a testament to Vancouver’s midcentury modernist architecture community.

Tour Müdry House, now for sale in West Vancouver

Müdry’s Frank Lloyd Wright-inspired Beaton House, a paean to the Pacific forest, located eight miles from his family home in West Vancouver and once part of the annual West Vancouver Art Museum Homes tour, was sadly demolished by buyers when its original owners put it on the market in 2018. While West Vancouver – a treasure trove of midcentury gems – still lacks any substantive laws to protect modernist heritage, hopes are high that a preservationist will scoop this one up.

As a teenager in 1940s Calgary, Müdry dreamed of being an aeroplane engineer. But a chance discovery of a book on gothic cathedrals caught his imagination and changed his career trajectory to architecture. While grounded in local wood and stone, his work embodies a sense of nature as sacrosanct, and his family home was designed accordingly as a cedar-and-glass rich cathedral of light.

In his 1977 renovation, Müdry took a non-descript box-like 1937 bungalow, that like many of the surrounding homes was buttoned down, conservative and closed off to the natural world, and blew it up.

Opening it up to framed views of the surrounding fir and cedar trees with full-length horizontal sightlines and oversized panels of glass, he removed all the doors, took down walls and played with the roofline, shape-shifting what had been a typical suburban home into a temple to the genus loci. Strategically placed mirrors helped collapse wall planes, extend space, and provoke visual connections between rooms and to the outdoors.

The renovated house expanded to 3,790 sq ft over three levels, and the roofline was raised to use the original attic as a storey. The inside was wrapped in a wabi sabi-like combination of the rough and the refined – raw hewn cedar walls contrasted with smoother fir flooring. Custom cabinetry and judicious use of glazing transformed the interstitial into the intimate – like an upstairs study peeking over a grove of bamboo, or a downstairs bedroom overlooking a Müdry-designed reflecting pool - within the larger, light-filled spaces.

Rounded windows were salvaged from the old Edwardian Birk's Building in downtown Vancouver when it was demolished in the mid-1970s, and Müdry painstakingly stripped the paint and sanded them himself, in homage to a previous era. Now his own home has become a classic.

A chevron-capped cedar structural beam offers an Arts and Crafts-style nod, while much of the carpentry was done by Russell Hollingsworth (before he had his architectural licence), son of renowned West Coast modern architect Fred Hollingsworth, a friend and contemporary of Müdry, also known for his craftsmanship.

The journey down a stairwell edged by a concrete wall to Müdry’s ground-level study and reflecting pool made of exposed aggregate feels like an Ericksonian moment. Indeed, the house embraces both the surrounding environment and the architectural history of the region.

Its sale comes at an auspicious moment, with a new archive of Müdry’s work recently organised by his family at the CAA, recognising his legacy as an often undersung star in the West Coast modern firmament.

Müdry House is for sale for $2,195,000

rew.ca

It almost reads like a fairy tale that the founders of one of Canada’s most sought-after treehouse retreats first met at an Ontario summer camp on the shores of Koshlong Lake. Years later, after reconnecting and marrying, Lauren and Cam Green of Fort Treehouse Co chose rural Minden as their home, where their fascination with tree-supported architecture took root.

Fort Treehouse Hårtwood, Ontario

After extensive research, they built a single treehouse on their property, The Baltic, designed to engage directly with living trees while minimising impact on the forest floor. It quickly became a coveted Airbnb stay, booking nearly two years in advance. Now, they take the next step with an ambitious off-grid treehouse hotel bordering the 500-acre protected Dahl Forest and the Burnt River.

Named after the Swedish word for ‘hardwood’, Hårtwood comprises three private treehouses and a communal hub, The Hydda. Each structure, designed by Toronto-based Studio KSA, is anchored to a pair of carefully selected host trees that will continue to grow, sway, and respond to the elements. Canadian arborist Philip van Wassenaer of Urban Forest Innovations led the selection process, assessing species, health, maturity, and long-term growth.

Guests wake beneath a canopy of maple, spruce, pine, and birch, with days unfolding between slow mornings and evenings at The Hydda, where visiting chefs will host intimate dinners. Plans are also underway for a forest spa, complete with sauna, hot tub, and cold plunge.

Each treehouse is designed to dissolve the boundary between architecture and nature, immersing guests in the landscape. Sleeping one to five, they offer only what’s essential: comfortable beds, a hot shower, a full kitchen, a fireplace, strong Wi-Fi, a turntable, a rooftop deck, and a fire pit below.

Hårtwood + The Hydda Wine Bar are located at 1251 Geeza Rd, Minden, ON K0M 2K0, Canada

If the striking looks of this forest retreat in Canada's leafy Coast Mountains are not enough to stop you in your tracks, then the fact that they are combined with strong, sustainable architectural credentials no doubt will. The project, designed by British Columbia architects Stark, was created to follow the rigorous Passive Premium environmental standards – a Passive House Institute certification rooted in smart building science for high-quality, eco-friendly results. It is a private retreat that not only looks good, but also does good.

Inside the new Passive House Forest Retreat

Titled Passive House Forest Retreat, the home is nestled in mature trees in a forested part of the mountains, set on a sloped site. A gently cantilevered element juts out towards the vistas, creating a cosy communal area beneath, for entertaining and resting while taking in the long green views.

The treehouse-like home cuts a crisp, contemporary figure amid the foliage, but its dark cladding and the orientation of its strategic lines and openings ensure it holds a fruitful dialogue with its natural environment.

Materials play a key role in this too, with natural surfaces, such as timber and a restrained overall palette, helping to maintain the balance between technical performance and lightness of composition. Nick Postle, the owner of Postle Construction and the project's builder, says: 'Delivering a Passive House at this level requires an unusual degree of precision in execution. Every junction, penetration, and material transition has to be thought through and built with intent to maintain performance while still achieving the architectural vision.'

The architects matched the building's energy and design performance with carefully chosen interior gestures, such as the inclusion of smart Miele appliances. Bocci and Simple Form lighting add a sculptural accent in the rooms, as well as the requisite illumination.

'It has been a pleasure working with such kind clients on this Passive House Forest House,' says Stark partner and director of interior design Josianne Bérubé. 'Local craftsmanship and careful detailing come together in a sculptural form that frames the views of Mount Currie, with a lighting design inspired by the subtle rhythms of natural light.'

stark.ca

If there’s one thing that Wallpaper* does well, it’s houses – spotlighting architecturally arresting gems from around the globe and spanning the spectrum of modern design. Our inboxes are overflowing with news of the world’s most boundary-pushing architectural projects, and we strive to bring you the very best.

To ensure you don’t miss a thing – and to showcase the scope of residential architecture today – we’ve launched a monthly series: The Architecture Edit. Each instalment will highlight our favourite houses of the month: buildings that demonstrate creative planning, innovative methods and, of course, aesthetic excellence. Here are the best new houses of February 2026.

A leafy Hampstead home

A timber-clad extension in Hampstead, London, immerses a family in nature, fully opening onto a lush garden to create a flexible indoor-outdoor living space. The architect, Mata, worked carefully around mature trees, collaborating with arboriculturists to protect roots while extending the home’s ground floor. Glazed walls, tapered stainless-steel undersides and bespoke furniture blur the boundary between interior and exterior, while thoughtfully-crafted terraces and furnishings ensure functionality without compromising the natural setting.

Read about it here.

A minimalist Spanish house

In Gijón, Asturias, Casa Guadalupe by Hanghar blends minimalist aesthetics with prefabricated industrial methods. Its lightweight steel frame and modular panels allowed rapid assembly – in just 48 hours – on stilts, reducing site disruption and preserving the landscape. The house follows the terrain, opening to panoramic rural vistas while maintaining a restrained, methodical architectural language. The project demonstrates a flexible, sustainable approach to 21st-century housing, balancing precision, spatial quality and landscape connection while challenging conventional ideas about prefab homes.

Read about it here.

An Australian architect’s home

Stephen Collier’s home in Scarborough, south of Sydney, sits on a triangular plot near a railway, organised around a central courtyard. Constructed from steel framing, fibrocement walls and tiled floors, it features movable furniture and joinery that allow spaces to be reshaped according to season or activity. The courtyard, open or enclosed, includes a Teppanyaki stove and Japanese-style bath, connecting indoor living to nature. Elevated on concrete columns with operable hatches, the house is responsive to its bush setting and local climate. Designed over 21 years, it balances privacy, playfulness and immersion in the environment.

Read about it here.

An immersive Nova Scotia residence

Perched on steel stilts between rocky inclines, Omar Gandhi’s East River Residence in Nova Scotia embraces its rugged coastal surroundings. The linear structure frames views of the Atlantic Ocean and surrounding forest, while cedar and metal cladding complement open-plan living, yoga spaces and cosy timbered bedrooms. Expansive windows connect interiors to terraces and patios, fostering a strong sense of connection to the outdoors. This is enhanced by the way that the building follows the site’s natural topography, touching only lightly on the land.

Read about it here.

An icon of British modernism

This month, Six Pillars, a Grade II*-listed home in Dulwich designed by Valentine Harding with Tecton in 1932-34 and restored by John Winter in 2000, came on the market. This classic example of British modernism spans 3,500 sq ft over three storeys, and retains original features such as chevron parquet flooring, steel-framed windows and an art deco fireplace. The angled plan creates fluid living spaces including an open-plan kitchen, principal living room, four bedrooms and a rooftop retreat, while the minimalist façade, clerestory windows and six cylindrical pillars define its iconic profile.

Read about it here.

A modern Utrecht house

In Utrecht, a 1992 house by Mart van Schijndel reimagines elements of a former glass warehouse in bold modernist terms. Awarded the Rietveld Prize and now a municipal monument, the home features a lavender-and-grey plaster façade, two trapezoidal patios and folded plywood furniture designed by the architect. Light floods the open living areas, blurring indoors and outdoors, while a mezzanine suite offers a tranquil escape. The house reflects van Schijndel’s innovative vision and Dutch modernist traditions, and is now awaiting a new custodian.

Read about it here.

A green retreat in Paraguay

‘A Forest in the House’, designed by Equipo de Arquitectura in 2025 on Ypacarai Lake, Paraguay, is a 260 sq m indoor-outdoor retreat inspired by jazz. Three pavilions surround a fenced garden, connected by patios, with the main house containing kitchen, dining and living areas. Floor-to-ceiling glass doors integrate the lush landscape, while concrete floors and roofs create terraces and continuity. Trees are incorporated as design elements, and natural light and wind animate the spaces, resulting in a fluid, playful environment existing in perfect harmony with its tropical surroundings.

Read about it here.

An architect-designed Paris apartment

In Paris’s 11th arrondissement, Cyrus Ardalan renovated a 65 sq m apartment into a minimalist, industrial-leaning home. West-facing light fills an open-plan living area that combines lounge, dining and office zones, connected to a glass-paste kitchen. Two courtyard-facing bedrooms, a shower room and integrated storage maintain the home’s clean lines, while custom plywood furniture and a pivot door conceal or reveal the workspace. The apartment reflects Ardalan’s blend of modernist minimalism, functional architecture and craft-inspired materiality.

Read about it here.

Tradition meets modernity in Ukraine

The Reed Roof Guesthouses in central Ukraine, designed by YOD Group, reinterpret traditional hata-mazanka huts in a contemporary, minimalist style. Each self-contained unit features curved glass facades, tall thatched roofs and concrete cores, creating airy, light-filled spaces, while heat pumps and air conditioning ensure year-round comfort. Inside, organic furniture and tactile carpets connect residents to the surrounding landscape, creating a serene, sensory experience.

Read about it here.

An LA gem on the market

Ray Kappe’s Kappe House (1967) in Pacific Palisades, LA, spans 4,157 sq ft over seven levels on a sloping Rustic Canyon site. Interlocking redwood beams, vertical concrete supports and vast frameless glazing define the midcentury modern home, which includes a double-height living room, glass-walled office, built-in timber furniture, lap pool with spa, sauna, and multiple terraces. The house, which was once described as ‘the greatest house in Southern California’ by the LA Times, was owned by the Kappe family until 2025 and has been listed for $11.5 million.

Read about it here.

Travelling to filming locations, or ‘set-jetting’, is arguably one of this year’s hottest travel trends. Screenings and streaming are no longer enough on their own; we want to experience blockbusters, classics and cult favourites in real life.

From Cwmmau Farmhouse, a National Trust holiday let featured as the childhood home of Shakespeare’s wife, Agnes, in Chloé Zhao’s Hamnet (2025), to Park Hyatt Tokyo, forever immortalised by Sofia Coppola’s Lost in Translation (2003), there is no shortage of options.

Ahead of the curve is vacation rental giant Airbnb, which recently unveiled a Wuthering Heights overnight experience in Yorkshire, faithfully recreating Cathy’s bedroom. It follows a series of high-profile collaborations over the last few years, including 2023’s Barbie’s Malibu DreamHouse and 2024’s Prince’s Purple Rain-inspired stay in Minneapolis.

How to book Barlochan Cottage in Muskoka, Canada

Now, it is the modernist cottage featured in hit TV show Heated Rivalry that is sending fans into a frenzy. ‘I think you’re going to like the cottage. It’s relaxing,’ says Shane Hollander to Ilya Rozanov – the two professional hockey players who maintain a secret, long-term relationship while playing for rival teams. It is here that their relationship is consummated.

Barlochan Cottage was designed by Toronto-based architect Trevor McIvor in 2020, when the private owner commissioned ‘a four-season cottage that intimately co-exists with its surrounding Muskoka landscape’. Situated approximately a two-hour drive from Toronto Pearson Airport and within close proximity to the scenic towns of Gravenhurst and Bala, the property is a prefabricated Douglas fir structure anchored by a cosy central granite fireplace.

‘The design strived to seamlessly integrate structural columns, beams and windows, allowing an extraordinarily light roof to float and fold like waves above the glazed structure,’ notes McIvor in the project’s design statement. Inside, floor-to-ceiling windows draw in abundant light, while the breeze from Lake Muskoka drifts through the space.

The surrounding Canadian Shield topography informs the snug interiors, which take on a distinctive tone and texture through charring using the traditional Japanese technique of ‘Yakisugi’.

The 2,500 sq ft cottage comprises three bedrooms, three bathrooms, a fully equipped kitchen, a home gym, and almost 400 ft of private waterfront, equipped with three kayaks, two canoes and a fire pit. Before it joins Airbnb’s Luxe category, four early-access bookings will be released, taking place over four weekends in May.

Guests will be able to book one of these four stays from 3 March at 12pm ET (5pm GMT), priced at $248.10 CAD per night – a nod to Hollander’s and Rozanov’s jersey numbers, 24 and 81, in the show.

To book, visit airbnb.com

Destined for a couple seeking a life immersed in nature, this Nova Scotia house was conceived to embrace its surroundings. East River Residence, designed by architect Omar Gandhi on the region's rugged shoreline, brings together minimalist architecture and views of its wild and wonderful environment.

Step inside this minimalist Nova Scotia house

The design is linear and perched on a rocky outcrop, facing a forest on its landward side and the Atlantic Ocean on the other. Large windows take in the views and bring nature inside, forging strong connections between architecture and its context.

The architecture team explain: 'On the first visit to the property, we followed the coastline before turning inward through a dense stand of forest, arriving at a soft valley held between two steep, rocky inclines. This natural topography became the foundation of the architectural response.'

Bridging two elevated banks and, at the same time, ensuring it touches lightly on its site, the structure is elevated on slender steel stilts. Metal also appears on the home's gable cladding, while the walls below are wrapped in cedar wood.

The home's more social and meditative spaces – the flowing, open-plan living room and the yoga studio – feature the largest openings, framing the long views. Elsewhere, in the bedrooms, which are enveloped in timber, a cosier, cocooning atmosphere prevails.

The connections with the outdoors and the intention that the house be at one with its environs are underlined by landscaping that includes carefully carved terraces and patios along the building’s façade.

Gandhi concludes: 'East River Residence is a home suspended within landscape – a quiet settlement on the coast that listens to the land, the weather, and the shifting horizon.'

omargandhi.com

Toronto’s CN Tower has been one of the Canadian city’s most notable landmarks since its opening in 1976. Initially conceived by WZMH Architects, the building stretches up, dominating the skyline at 553.3m tall. Now, the freestanding tower has unveiled its new Lower Observation Level, offering a fresh, ‘treetop’ experience in the heart of the city.

Step inside CN Tower’s new Lower Observation Level

The renovation was led by construction company Boszko & Verity and executed in collaboration with Canadian architecture firm Superkül. It marks the first extensive renovation to the Lower Observation Level since the CN Tower opened in 1976

Tree canopies and Canadian geography were the inspiration for the new Lower Observation Level interior. The movement and organic make-up of tree branches moving in the wind, rocky surfaces, and the rippling of water were subtly referenced in the design.

The renovation was no easy task for the firm and the wider team. Say the Superkül team: ‘We were challenged to execute a major logistical feat: create more indoor space within the Lower Observation Level’s existing footprint while working 1,200 feet up in the sky. The renovation saw us hoist up a new four-storey permanent maintenance gantry and attach it to the exterior of the Tower’s uppermost observation level.’

The new observation level includes fresh vertical glazing and a replacement of the glass floor. Along with updating the interior floor space and the exterior observation deck, the ultimate goal was to enhance the visitor experience. This was done by adding more steeply angled glass, for the brave, to lean over and observe the views below.

Those perhaps a bit more wary of heights can look up, instead, to admire the sculptural oak-laminated, modular ceiling. There’s a 40ft-long floor-to-ceiling immersive video wall titled ‘Artmosphere’ and two panoramic screens. This audio-visual element includes holosonic and satellite speakers to provide smooth acoustics. Here, visitors can enjoy original works by Canadian and Indigenous artists from across the country.

The tower is inclusive, accessible and immersive, delivering intriguing spectacles, whether that be the unfolding city below, or the video productions, placing the CN Tower firmly as a monument to Canadian life and ambition.

cntower.ca
superkul.ca

The organisers of independent design festival DesignTO could not have predicted that Toronto’s heaviest daily snowfall on record would coincide with the opening weekend of its 2026 edition. Held in the immediate aftermath of the more commercial trade fair IDS Toronto, the festival takes place in the depths of winter – when conditions are at their least hospitable – but Canadians, as we know, are a hardy bunch and, undeterred by freezing temperatures, headed out onto the streets to seek out the best of independent Canadian design. This year, Wallpaper* joined them.

With a programme of workshops, talks, exhibitions and window installations scattered across the city, a car proved essential to covering ground – and cover ground we did. What follows is a selection of highlights.

Pot-au-feu by Ensemble at The Plumb

The strongest showcase of homegrown design came courtesy of Quebec collective Ensemble and its group exhibition Pot-au-feu. Hosted by art space The Plum, the show is the third in an ongoing series bringing together emerging and established designers hailing from, or working in, Quebec, underlining the collective’s role as a conduit for new talent.

Spread across the basement space, which the team reimagined with clever scenography using stretched nylon and wood veneer panels, works included riveted rubber upholstery, shelving and lamps by Atelier Fomenta; stools upholstered in psychedelic corduroy by Sangaré Studio; and some new independent work by Alex Joncas, co-founder of Montreal lighting brand D’armes. Called 'Sorry for your loss' the lighting series features diffusers made from blown-glass offcuts cradled within bronze frames that resemble thorny brambles.

'It's a pretty small and tight-knit creative community in Montreal,' explained the show's curator Anaïe Dufresne of Studio Jeta. 'Everyone included here is a friend, or a friend we’ve made along the way, so the curation feels very natural.'

All Light at Gallery 1065

A ten-minute drive south of The Plumb, at Gallery 1065 in Toronto’s Bloorcourt neighbourhood, was All Light, a show featuring 15 Ontario-based artists and lighting designers. Designer Kate Tessier (Kilowatt Kate) –who curated the exhibition alongside Common Good Studio– told Wallpaper* that the Canadian maker movement is ‘one of experimentation and audacity’. Among the highlights was 'Gathering Light', a wall lamp created by textile artist Khadija Aziz in collaboration with Tessier, made from structured linen intricately hand-stitched to create a softly glowing surface.

Tape at 8 × 7 

Toronto designer, and Wallpaper* regular, Jamie Wolfond opened up his studio and workshop for a special tour, while his adjoining gallery space, 8×7, hosted a studio-curated exhibition titled Tape, which saw nine designers experiment with the ubiquitous material. Pieces included a stained-glass lamp by Copenhagen-based Canadian designer Persia Mckinney Duncan held together with duct tape instead of solder, a kite by Dutch designer Bertjan Pot, and a series of colour studies made using washi tape by Rotterdam-based Earnest Studio.

Slow Furniture at Craft Ontario

At Craft Ontario, housed within the city’s warren-like 401 Richmond building, Eastern Ontario furniture maker Heidi Earnshaw presented an immaculately detailed collection of wooden furniture and cabinetry, recalling Japanese and Scandinavian joinery traditions.

Norm at Mjölk

Continuing this Scandinavian-Japanese thread, Danish firm Norm Architects showcased a selection of their work at Toronto design showroom Mjölk, where a Saturday talk by Norm partner Frederik Werner drew such a crowd that attendees spilled out onto the pavement. Presented in partnership with the studio’s collaborators, Japanese furniture brand Karimoku, the furniture and objects on show reflected Norm’s signature ‘soft minimalism’, with an emphasis on craft and natural materials, including carved wood, thrown stoneware and carved stone.

Ace Hotel

In the Garment District, the Shim-Sutcliffe Architects-designed Ace Hotel Toronto joined in the fun with a sultry duo of DesignTO events. The first was an exhibition by architect Quan Thai, TO.BE.LONGING: portraits of queer living, which explored ideas of home and identity.

Installed within one of the hotel’s suites, redesigned by Thai using sheer curtains to redefine public and private space, the exhibition was furnished with everyday objects collected from queer communities across North America. In doing so, the exhibition positioned the hotel suite as a flexible domestic setting – a more intimate experience – shaped by adaptation and chosen family, rather than by fixed or normative ideas of home.

In the hotel’s event space, Wallpaper* Design Award-winning design substack For Scale injected a note of mischief with a nude life-drawing class featuring design classics. The sold-out event saw aspiring artists sketch male model William Miguel striking poses across various iconic furniture pieces – including a 1970s modular sofa manufactured by Overman of Sweden and a 1960s Platner lounge chair for Knoll – supplied by Toronto collectible design store In Corso.

The class served as a playful exploration of the parallels between the human body and the ergonomics, curves and proportions of modern furniture – putting the body back at the centre of objects so often discussed in abstract terms. Or in the words of For Scale founder, David Michon: 'This was really a psychological experiment. BODY AND CHAIR! WILLIAM M. gave us his exceptional poses, but then individual SKETCHERS decided for themselves WHAT was interesting about the BODY-CHAIR CONNECTION.'

Pressing Matters

We also enjoyed Pressing Matters, the debut exhibition from a collective of recent graduates, which emerged from a shared brief exploring compression-defined forms. Pieces included the 'Lila' lamp by Kai Luk Laughton made from spun thermoformed plastic; Mary-Beth Scully’s 'Bound' lamp made from washi paper using a process inspired by traditional bookbinding; and chairs made from bent plywood and reclaimed springs by Patrice Temush.

Tactil by Futil Studio

DesignTO listings also included window displays, ensuring the festival was accessible beyond gallery walls. One standout was Tactil by Montreal-based artist and designer Alexandre Berthiaume of Futil Studio. The four lighting pieces are produced using large-format 3D printing to generate their complex, biomorphic forms, before being finished with a thick layer of scagliola – a 17th-century Italian technique for creating imitation marble, stone and alabaster. Made from plaster, glue and natural pigments, Berthiaume has spent 18 months refining his own recipe to suit local materials and contemporary production methods.

Across the programme, exhibitors and curators noted that amid growing political tension internationally and across the border, there has been a renewed enthusiasm for Canadian design, and for Toronto as a city capable of generating its own energy, programming and community, without seeking validation from traditional design centres such as New York, Milan or Copenhagen.

‘I want to establish that Toronto is enough, you know?’ said Jamie Wolfond at his studio space. ‘The turnout was huge, people were excited – it feels like a really good year for design week.’

DesignTO runs until 1 February, 2026 designto.org

If there’s one thing that Wallpaper* does well, it’s houses – spotlighting architecturally arresting gems from around the globe and spanning the spectrum of modern design. Our inboxes are overflowing with news of the world’s most boundary-pushing architectural projects, and we strive to bring you the very best.

To ensure you don’t miss a thing – and to showcase the scope of residential architecture today – we’ve launched a monthly series: The Architecture Edit. Each instalment will highlight our favourite houses of the month: buildings that demonstrate creative planning, innovative methods and, of course, aesthetic excellence.

A Californian community

Set within California’s Sea Ranch community, The House of Four Ecologies is a coastal retreat designed by a group of architect friends. Led by James Leng alongside Natasha Sadikin, Juney Lee and Hoang Nguyen, the 1,600 sq ft home is conceived as four distinct volumes nestled into a riparian corridor of firs, grasses and shrubs. Each space is oriented to a different ecological condition, creating varied relationships to ocean, garden, meadow and forest. Inside, rooms unfold as experiential moments: the Ocean Room frames the Pacific through a single large window; the Garden Room blurs interior and exterior with sliding walls and a courtyard; the kitchen and dining area forms the social heart; and an ensuite studio overlooks the meadow beyond.

A sunken garden home

Designed by architect couple Deborah Saunt and David Hills of DSDHA, Covert House is a discreet yet radical response to London’s housing constraints. Tucked behind Clapham Old Town’s historic terraces, the house is invisible from the street, sinking partly below ground. Built on a speculative backland site, the project became both a family home and a testing ground for the architects’ broader ideas about urban living. Cast concrete defines the structure, alternating between raw and refined finishes, while large skylights and glazed façades flood the interior with daylight. The inverted layout places living spaces above and bedrooms below,. Reading a bit like a pavilion set within greenery, the house demonstrates how dense cities can accommodate inventive, sustainable architecture.

A Tbilisi apartment

In a historic art nouveau building in Tbilisi’s Sololaki district, designers Nino Nozadze and Eka Papamichail have reimagined an apartment for Georgian chef Tekuna Gachechiladze. Original parquet floors, tall ceilings and double doors preserve the building’s character, while new material interventions introduce warmth and clarity. Walnut furniture, plastered walls and a sculptural coffered ceiling shape the living spaces, anchored by a long dining table. The kitchen combines professional stainless-steel surfaces with generous daylight and garden views, functioning as both workspace and social hub. Throughout the apartment, muted ochres, greens and turquoise accents act as subtle architectural gestures, while bathrooms introduce marble and travertine tones.

A Canadian ranch

Daisy Ranch, designed by Olson Kundig for builder and fabricator Patrick Powers, is a home rooted in adventure, craft and landscape. Set on Salt Spring Island in British Columbia, the cabin-like residence responds to its rugged surroundings with durable materials and a straightforward architectural framework. Inspired partly by the brick farmhouse Powers grew up in, the house features expansive windows that forge a strong connection to nature. The interior acts as a living archive of family history, filled with found objects and personal artefacts, including a canoe suspended from the ceiling. Designed to withstand the energy of family life, Daisy Ranch is a robust home that celebrates making and memory.

A Richard Neutra landmark

Richard Neutra’s 1960 Sale House in Los Angeles was listed for sale this month, offering a rare opportunity to inhabit a meticulously restored modernist landmark. Originally commissioned by Robert and Elsa Sale, the single-storey home exemplifies Neutra’s signature glass-walled design, with fluid living spaces radiating from a central kitchen. Panoramic glazing frames views of protected greenbelt land, city lights and the Pacific Ocean, allowing the house to shift with the seasons. Original details – including built-in furniture and mosaic tile work by Elsa Sale – were preserved during a sensitive restoration completed in 2021. The house has always remained fully lived in rather than museum-like, embodying Neutra’s belief that architecture should enhance wellbeing.

A Czech chalet

Na Kukačkách is a contemporary reinterpretation of the traditional alpine chalet, designed by edit! architects in the Giant Mountains of the Czech Republic. While the exterior adheres strictly to local building codes – with a timber-clad form, gabled roof and stone plinth – the interior introduces a bold, vertically connected spatial experience. Built using prefabricated cross-laminated timber panels, the chalet maximises daylight and views through large-format glazing on its freer façades. The main living space occupies the first floor, where a soaring timber ceiling and expansive west-facing window frame the mountainous landscape. Bedrooms are tucked into the eaves above, linked by a gallery that overlooks the living area.

A calming Palma home

Casa Óculo, designed by OHLAB on the outskirts of Palma, is a contemporary Mediterranean home shaped by light and material ageing. Defined by a large flat roof stretching across the site, the house is organised beneath thick lime-rendered walls that rhythmically divide interior spaces. A circular oculus punctures the roof, functioning as a domestic sundial that tracks the sun’s movement throughout the day. Materials – lime mortar, stone floors, wood and brass – were chosen for their ability to weather gracefully, and a lush Mediterranean garden is treated as an extension of the house, merging interior and exterior life. Casa Óculo offers a calm, sensory environment where architecture quietly frames the passage of time.

A woodland retreat

What began as a simple weekend retreat for a New York City couple evolved into a lifestyle transformation anchored by architecture and farming. Designed by Desai Chia Architecture, this house sits atop an 86-acre site in Columbia County with sweeping views of the Catskill Mountains. The low, elongated structure is organised around a central glass-walled living space, with bedroom wings extending on either side. A sweeping curved roof, inspired by the silhouette of oak leaves, shapes light, directs rainwater and softens the building’s relationship to the land. As the project unfolded, a working farm emerged alongside the house, turning the retreat into an immersive, seasonal way of life deeply connected to place.

A London retrofit

Trace is a low-carbon retrofit project by Bureau de Change that reimagines a 1980s brick building in Euston as contemporary multi-family housing rooted in circular design principles. Rather than demolish the existing structure, the architects retained and extended it, adding two floors to create five new apartments. The most distinctive feature is the bespoke glass-reinforced concrete façade, made using crushed bricks salvaged from the original building. Inspired by Georgian proportions and arches, and ntegrated into the wider Euston Area Plan, Trace demonstrates how reuse, material innovation and architectural sensitivity can offer a compelling model for urban housing.

Daisy Ranch on Salt Spring Island sounds intruigingly more like a whimsical fictional residence than an actual home. However, this is the latest project by architecture firm Olson Kundig, which created an unapologetically personalised cabin-like home for their builder and fabricator client, Patrick Powers.

Inside Daisy Ranch by Olson Kundig

The residence, in British Columbia, Canada, is inspired by its context – a landscape wild and remote, rooted in nature. ‘This energy really drives the architecture,’ says Tom Kundig, co-founder at the firm. ‘We wanted the house to feel connected to that environment, influenced by the climate, culture, and rugged character.’

His client, of course, played a large role. Kundig explains: 'He is a skilled contractor and fabricator, but also someone who loves craft and has a real lust for life. That raw sense of adventure – reflected in his family’s lifestyle – is woven into the design. It’s a house that’s meant to be lived in, explored, and enjoyed; a reflection of both the place and the people who live there.’

The earliest inspiration for the design came from the turn-of-the-century brick farmhouse that Powers grew up in in Ontario. In particular, it was his childhood corner bedroom with windows on two sides that shaped his relationship with light, views, and the feeling of being connected to the landscape. Daisy Ranch has similar qualities, featuring large windows that bring the outdoors in.

The home’s interior acts as a museum of personal items and family history, which creates a warm and cosy environment. Bocci lighting features in the living room, while audio is courtesy of a sound system by Ryan Johnston. Design studio Chairman Ting created artwork for the floors and kitchen island, while the log-cabin fabrication was delivered by Nicola Logworks.

‘My favourite part of the house is the main space,’ Kundig tells Wallpaper*. ‘That’s where everything comes together – the inside and outside, the views stretching in both directions, and the pulse of family life. It’s the heart of the home and a place that feels like a launchpad for adventure, setting the rhythm for how they live their lives on the Gulf Islands.’

The architectural design offers a deep connection to the landscape, founded in honest and durable materials. Its straightforward framework emphasises the tiny details by the hands of the maker. It puts the spotlight on how materials come together, and as Kundig puts it, ‘how a building is conceived, assembled, and experienced’.

While Olson Kundig crafted the architectural framework and modern volumes, Powers slowly developed the interior palette over the course of the build. He used found objects for vanities, steel tubes for firewood storage, and Corten steel for the kitchen counters and backsplash, ‘all are an expression of who I am and who I have become over the build of this house’, he says.

Powers continues, ‘I’ve always hosted what I think are fantastic parties in fantastic spaces. This house is unquestionably a fantastic party house – it’s architectural, but it’s also rough and tumble and ready to put on a show. We run the gauntlet of parties here – dinner parties, birthday parties, small music festivals – it’s meant to be a beating pulse for my family and my friends.’

At the core of the house is a canoe, which hangs from the living room ceiling. ‘It was a present that was given to [my father] when he contracted polio as a small child, to help him rebuild his shoulders that were left damaged from that experience,’ Powers tells Wallpaper*. ‘He grew up with the canoe, courted my mother in it and finally paddled my brothers and me around the Georgian Bay. The canoe feels at home here and represents the love of my family.’

The home has also been designed with the client’s children in mind. On the deck is a half-pipe skating ramp for his son, while in the living room, there are aerial silks suspended for his daughter. ‘First and foremost, the house could never feel precious,’ says Powers. ‘It had to be tough enough to let two young children live freely – running, skateboarding, painting, and generally using the house as a backdrop to real life rather than something to be wary of using. I think of the house in the same way I do my beautiful 1979 Ford pick-up truck. Dents and scratches are a form of patina, not damaged goods.’

For visitors entering the space, Kundig says, ‘My hope is that they’re met with a sense of possibility and wonder, as if something unexpected might happen around any corner. The house is meant to spark curiosity and creativity, to feel adventurous without being prescriptive. It’s about creating a home where everything can merge into something special – something that could only happen at this point in time, in this very place.’

olsonkundig.com

Discover more unusual homes in Tom Kundig: Complete Houses (Phaidon, 2025)

A new Canadian house on the north shore of St Lawrence River, the Résidence l'Échouage was designed by Quebec-based architects Bourgeois / Lechasseur. Located in the city of Saint-Augustin-de-Desmaures, the new house is a radical overhaul of a small summer cottage that stood on the narrow point of land close to the riverbank. The outlook is idyllic, a tree-lined plot leading down to sandy bays, and the new house makes the most of the views.

Step inside this new Canadian house by a river

The architects were commissioned to create a new house that built on the character of the original cottage, with its sense of seclusion and connection to the water. Initially, it was suggested that the existing structure be demolished and replaced, but its qualities and charm outweighed this approach and instead the architects chose to integrate it into the new scheme.

As a result, the residence consists of two new pavilions, linked to the existing cottage via a bridge. This decision retained not just the cottage’s excellent outlook and its covered terrace, but also the patina and form of the internal wooden roof trusses. A new roof structure replaces the original and ties the old into the new, while the entire cottage was also lifted to install new piles and additional reinforcement of the walls, floors and roof together with modern levels of insulation and glazing standards.

The architects still had to be mindful of the total built area, due to the proximity of the water and legal protections on the shoreline. The restored cottage serves as the main living space, with a new east pavilion housing the primary bedroom. The third pavilion is a self-contained additional dwelling that houses the client’s parents. Subtle shifts in the alignment of each structure maximises views and solar gain whilst also preserving the privacy of the individual pavilions.

The team, led by practice co-founders Olivier Bourgeois and Régis Lechasseur and including Emmanuelle Champagne, Isabelle Auclair, Maxime Turbide, and Lisa Hallé, describe how the massing of the ensemble creates forms that ‘evoke both beached boat hulls and the rocks scattered across the site by the movement of the tides.’ The space between the structures is also important, with a sheltered inner courtyard housing a pool and an outdoor room overlooking the river.

Bourgeois / Lechasseur have maximised the views between the structures through angular walls, walkways and floor to ceiling glazing. The linking ‘bridge’ leading to the original cottage ‘introduces a moment of transition and surprise.’ Exterior cladding uses dark cedar, whilst a lighter variant of the wood is used inside to provide a contrast with the views and accentuate the sculptural forms of the pavilions.

BourgeoisLechasseur.com

A wood-clad retreat hiding amid the fir and oak trees of a waterfront site in the Gulf Island archipelago of Canada’s Pacific Northwest appears to hover above a small gully filled with a carpet of bright ferns. It’s a magical setting for the latest architectural project of lighting wizard Omer Arbel, the co-founder of Bocci and the architect behind projects such as a house with lilypad-shaped concrete columns in rural Vancouver.

Inside Omer Arbel's new, wood-clad retreat design

Built for Josh Pekarsky and Marla Guralnick, 91.0 Bridge House is a 300 sq m home set perpendicular to the coast, offering incredible views of the water but also the surrounding rocks and trees. As its name suggests, it is designed as a suspended bridge between two naturally occurring rocky ridges, with a discreet entrance opening on a long central corridor resembling a path through the forest.

‘We organized the spaces of the house to be on one flat plane, with the idea that the occupants never go up and down; instead, the site topography goes up and down around them. You enter after walking through the forest, walking down the long storage corridor, explains Arbel. ‘You are not aware at first that the topography of the site has fallen away around you, and in fact you are now on a bridge… until you reach about midway through the floor plan.

At this point, visitors encounter a central triangular courtyard, punched through from top to bottom, opening the house to the tree canopy above and the ground below. ‘This gives you the awareness that you are suspended in a bridge over the fern gulley, and affords you a view up to the sky,’ says Arbel. ‘The entire roof drains to this triangular void, such that on a rainy day the expense of water becomes especially pronounced and visceral.’

‘It brings light and air into the space and reminds us that we’re suspended among the trees without a single step anywhere on the property,’ say Pekarsky and Guralnick, who were involved in the design process. ‘The house was a very personal moment of expression and vision for the owners, and it took many conversations to weave into an architecture that our studio felt comfortable about,’ says Arbel. ‘The process was lengthy but very rewarding.’

The house is organised in two wings, with the main one containing a kitchen, living room, utility spaces and suspended principal bedroom. A second wing, which can be opened or closed selectively for family or guests, provides two additional bedrooms and a bunk room.

‘The entire south wall of the house is considered as a storage wall – not just for things but also for people and activities,’ says Arbel. ‘Mini rooms, in the same language as the millwork, contain intimate activities.’ These include a reading nook, bunk beds with a hidden ladder, a breakfast nook and a bar. ‘The long entry volume is punctuated by a series of jewel box spaces,’ add Pekarsky and Guralnick. ‘The whole of it feels like a magical train car to an untouched coastline.’

Past the triangular courtyard, the experience and scenery changes dramatically, from the feeling of being suspended in the tree canopy, to landing on solid ground again. With floor-to-ceiling windows framing the west-facing beach and Pacific Ocean, the living space features a custom concrete fireplace insert, as well as Bocci’s ‘1.8’ walnut shelving and a branch-like ‘28.11 Armature’ chandelier. Throughout the house are many other Bocci designs, including the cast-glass hemispheres of the ‘14’ wall sconces, part of the iconic 14 series, the first design created by Arbel for the lighting brand.

Each of the main spaces of the house opens up to a corresponding outdoor room, so as to better highlight the site’s different micro-ecologies, which include the fern gully, a Gary oak grove and the rocky beach. From these outdoor spaces it is possible to admire not only the surrounding nature but the house’s façade, clad in heavy cedar blocks with a sandblasted finish.

‘Omer experimented with several approaches to the exterior cladding before we settled on sandblasted cedar that gives the house a timeless quality, as if the house has always been here among the trees,’ explains the clients.

‘Our region has a robust maritime shipping industry, which includes industrial-scale sandblasting typically used to clean up the hulls of ocean-faring ships,’ explains Arbel. ‘We used these methods to sandblast cedar, calibrating the abrasive such that the denser ridges of the grain pattern remain unaffected, with only the softer layers in between blasted away. The result is an almost geological formation with very high contrast shadows perfectible on the detail level.’

This makes the house almost disappear into the forest landscape, a coastal habitat that is due to be soon completely transformed by climate change. It is anticipated that over the next 100 years, rising sea levels will flood the fern gully, giving the project an entirely different reading and character.

‘I love imagining the fern gully flooded, a tidal pool basin, a century from now, with the house bridging above it. I think it is interesting to think about climate change simply as a phenomenon alongside other phenomena of any given site, rather than in apocalyptic terms,’ says Arbel. ‘Thus, we can respond to it poetically. In this case the topography, siting, and building section unfold in both the present, making a wonderful house… and also in the future, giving the project a completely different reading.’

For the owners, the house is ideal at present. ‘More than any particular space, it’s the materials and details that make the difference. The fir strip walls, walnut millwork and shelving, dark-stained cedar ceilings and practically no right angles anywhere add up to an intimate, organic and deeply personal space that is everything we wanted and nothing we could have imagined,’ they conclude.

omerarbel.com

This may be North of Brooklyn Pizzeria’s eighth Toronto location, but it is arguably its slickest yet. Set in the city’s western district of Etobicoke, the venue has a spatial complexity that elevates this much-loved hotspot for New York-style slices.

North of Brooklyn Queensway, Toronto

The new outpost is designed by MRDK – the Montreal studio behind several of Toronto’s most distinctive restaurant interiors, including North of Brooklyn’s Avenue Road outpost – and guests enter beneath a lightbox to find a crisp white takeout area. Bathed in natural light, the space is wrapped in Dtile moulded tiles, creating a continuous surface that runs from wall to ceiling.

Upstairs, the room takes cues from nostalgic Italian design but pushes it towards a more contemporary edge, centred around a low-rise bar clad in tumbled-marble mosaic with a zinc countertop. Above it, a fluted pendant by In Common With casts a warm wash of light.

The 40-seat dining room is defined by a sensual and intimate colour palette of dark wood, green and red. ‘To maximise natural light, we cut new windows into the side façade, aligning them with walnut dining tables that cantilever from the walls and nest within the niches,’ MRDK explains. Each table is paired with a version of Joe Colombo’s ‘Tube’ chair.

North of Brooklyn Pizzeria Queensway is located at 1180 The Queensway, Etobicoke, ON M8Z 1R5, Canada.

Twenty years in the making, Basin Glacial Waters has finally arrived at the Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise, on the shores of the storied Canadian lake. The wait has been worth it. What Italian architect Matteo Thun has created here is a thermal bathing destination that feels less like a building and more like a natural phenomenon sculpted into the Canadian Rockies.

‘The building appears as a carved incision in the landscape, embraced by nature on three sides and from above,’ Thun explains. ‘This deliberate cut opens up a complete, uninterrupted view of the magnificent Lake Louise and its glacier. The concept is to extract a portion of the terrain to form a protected space.’

Basin Glacial Waters

The entrance sequence establishes an immediate shift in consciousness. The reception sits elevated above the main bathing floor, creating what Thun describes as ‘a journey of descent.’ As guests move down the gently curving pathway, a narrow channel runs alongside, water flowing over smooth lake pebbles. The effect is both sensory and psychological, compressing space before releasing visitors into the facility’s soaring main volume. Here, dramatic windows command attention while serving a deeper purpose.

‘The arched windows are a homage to the original Chateau building,’ Thun says, pointing to the historic Fairmont’s Painter’s Wing. ‘Our building is designed to feel as though it truly belongs; we chose an architectural language that respects both the natural and built context. Loud, attention-seeking architecture belongs to the past; we believe in an architecture that harmonises and blends in.’

These carefully proportioned openings flood the interior with natural light while creating powerful visual connections to the glacier-fed lake and surrounding peaks.

This philosophy of restraint and longevity is reflected in the material choices. Cedar and fir provides warmth against the stark alpine landscape, complemented by stones, pebbles and lime plaster that echo the surrounding terrain. Thun’s palette also features the use of porcelain tiles, which he says is ‘the most sustainable and thoughtful alternative to natural stone’ and a pragmatic choice for environments exposed to constant water and temperature extremes.

The spatial organisation follows what Thun calls a 'box within a box' strategy: ‘Inside the larger container, we’ve placed smaller boxes that house the primary functions, such as saunas, steam rooms and changing rooms. The spaces surrounding these inner boxes define the circulation routes, the more open zones, the water areas, and the places for connection. It’s an urban design approach translated to an interior scale.’

This strategy creates a natural flow between moments of solitude and social connection, allowing guests to move between the intimate Silent Salt Relax room and the communal energy of the pools.

Rather than treating interior and exterior as separate realms, Thun created fluid transitions that shift with Lake Louise’s dramatic seasonal changes. The Infinity Pool extends seamlessly onto an expansive terrace, while the outdoor Aufguss sauna maintains visual connections to interior spaces, forming what feels like one continuous, breathing environment. Positioned to capture uninterrupted glacier views, the reflexology pool transforms functional bathing into a contemplative ritual, while varying water temperatures create microclimates within the larger architectural envelope.

When asked about bringing Nordic wellness traditions to the Canadian Rockies, Thun emphasises their universal appeal. ‘We found an incredibly receptive context to propose something indeed very European. When you move away from trends and distill directly the essence of wellness experiences, I feel the whole world can easily speak the same language.’

As part of Fairmont’s broader wellness portfolio, Basin establishes new precedents for how contemporary architecture can honour both cultural wellness traditions and specific geographical contexts, creating spaces that feel transformative rather than merely accommodating.

Basin Glacial Waters is located at 111 Lake Louise Dr, Lake Louise, AB T0L 1E0, Canada.

If there’s one thing that Wallpaper* does well, it’s houses – spotlighting architecturally arresting gems from around the globe and spanning the spectrum of modern design. Our inboxes are overflowing with news of the world’s most boundary-pushing architectural projects, and we strive to bring you the very best.

To ensure you don’t miss a thing – and to showcase the scope of residential architecture today – we’ve launched a monthly series: The Architecture Edit. Each instalment will highlight our favourite houses of the month: buildings that demonstrate creative planning, innovative methods and, of course, aesthetic excellence.

A terraced home transformation

Architects Edward Williams and Laura Carrara-Cagni of Cagni Williams Associates reimagined this Edwardian terraced house in south London as a sustainable, light-filled home. A striking new ‘gallery’ extension – clad in Corten steel and glass – replaces the old conservatory and brings a sculptural modernity to the rear façade. The rest of design balances bold forms with natural warmth, linking home and garden through large pivoting doors and oak-lined interiors. From the outset, sustainability guided the project, which features an air-source heat pump and underfloor heating.

A Malibu beach pad

Interior designer Pamela Shamshiri has transformed a 1990s Malibu beachfront compound for producer Jana Bezdek, fusing Hollywood glamour with Brazilian modernism. Inspired by Lina Bo Bardi and James Bond, the main house features a sculptural De Sede sofa, white terrazzo floors and a curved timber bar, all cast in an elegant taupe-to-caramel palette. Elsewhere, a crimson screening room exudes California luxury, and mirrored walls ensure ocean views from the bedroom and office. Outside, lush landscaping and tiered terraces further blur the boundary between indoor and out.

An Arizona compound

Prompted by a zoning law change that sanctioned attached secondary units, architect Benjamin Hall converted this suburban Phoenix house into a multigenerational desert compound. Using cost-efficient concrete masonry units (CMU), he designed a 1,700 sq ft addition that harmonises with the desert landscape both aesthetically and environmentally – thick, insulated walls, concrete floors and maple cabinetry create a minimalist yet welcoming interior, while sliding doors open onto a courtyard planted with native flora and framed by mountain views.

A Canadian modernist gem

Perched on Bowen Island near Vancouver, Morse House (1983) by Dick Mann of Thompson Berwick Pratt epitomises West Coast modernism. Crafted from cedar, fir, stone and glass, the 21,526 sq ft residence immerses its occupants in forest and ocean panoramas. A cedar staircase descends to a glazed façade surrounded by gardens and waterfalls, leading to an atrium centred around a 50ft pool and a soaring great hall. With its guesthouse, gym and private dock, this handcrafted home achieves a rare equilibrium between architecture and nature.

An eco-brutalist sanctuary

On the outskirts of Hyderabad, Antriya by 23 Degrees Design Shift redefines brutalism as lush, livable and sustainable. Constructed from local Khammam sandstone and Markapuram slate, and softened with reclaimed teak and abundant greenery, the 14,500 sq ft residence accommodates three generations of one family. Cascading plants and lily pad-filled ponds blur boundaries between architecture and nature while passively regulating the tropical climate. Concealed behind boundary walls, the home seems to emerge from the undergrowth as you approach – a tactile, nature-infused reimagining of brutalism.

A Canadian cabin 

In Ontario’s wooded hills, AKB Architects’ Timbertop is a minimalist four-bedroom retreat designed for family gatherings and outdoor adventure. The single-storey, barn-inspired home marries rural simplicity with modern refinement. Clad in crisp white to contrast with the surrounding evergreens, the home withstands heavy snow and wind while maintaining warmth and intimacy under its pitched gabled roof. Open-plan living, kitchen and library spaces create a cosy refuge amid the winter landscape.

A rainforest retreat

Set deep in the Costa Rican jungle, Studio House by Dagmar Štěpánová of Formafatal appears to float above a slope on concrete and Corten steel supports, minimising impact on the terrain. Designed as Štěpánová’s personal residence, the 125 sq m structure consists of open terraces, raw concrete interiors and a glazing-free ocean-facing window which immerses the home in the sounds and textures of the forest. Two simple bedrooms and an infinity pool continue the elemental aesthetic, while the rooftop and east terraces offer uninterrupted views of the Pacific.

A brick and concrete home

In Ahmedabad, architect Vaissnavi Shukl’s Teen Vaults reinterprets brick-and-concrete construction. Originally conceived as a weekend retreat, it evolved into a full-time family residence organised around three vaulted volumes – one for for dining, one for living, and one for reading. Exposed brick walls, terrazzo floors and teak furniture evoke a grounded simplicity, while a folded concrete staircase with a wooden-bead railing adds sculptural elegance. A central courtyard surrounded by mango and frangipani trees serves as the home’s spiritual heart.

Morse House, a rare modernist architecture jewel, awaits its next custodian at the Northern edge of British Columbia’s Bowen Island. Just a 20-minute ferry ride away from Vancouver, the exquisite post-and-beam home is a portal to another era.

Designed in 1983 by Dick Mann, a principal at the legendary firm Thompson Berwick Pratt (one that employed the likes of Arthur Erickson and Ron Thom), the home hearkens back to a midcentury era – when less was more, and connection to site was all.

Discover the riches of Vancouver modernism with Morse House

An anachronism to the 1980s postmodernism that reigned supreme at its inception, the artful architecture of Mann manages to make the 21,526 sq ft residence situated on a 23-acre lot feel cosy.

Designed with a simple yet elegant palette of cedar, fir, glass and stone, the materials reflect the surrounding environment, which includes a grove of 800-year-old conifers. The house becomes a device for viewing the surrounding forest and ocean, reflecting it back to the viewer from the outside and drawing it deep within the interior.

When approaching the steeply graded site carved out of bedrock that processes down to the shores of the Pacific, where whales and eagles are regular features in the ever-shifting panorama, one is greeted by a protective fortress of cedar. Only a triangular slice of peekaboo window hints at what lies within.

As one walks north towards the water, the real entrance is revealed, via a descending cedar staircase, and a façade of glazing, cedar and Colorado quartz. Framed by lush landscaping, gardens of ferns and waterfalls, it feels like a West Coast modern Moorish courtyard, with tiles of fossilised sunrise flagstone from a lake in Utah offering textural intrigue. Intricately angled geometries of roofs and windows amplify and contain the space at once, with every edge and reveal finely crafted.

Inside, the house is anchored by a giant atrium, featuring a 50ft swimming pool, and adjacent children’s bedrooms grounded by south-facing window views of earth and native greenery. Light streams through floor-to-ceiling atrium glazing, while the language of cedar beams supported by fir posts continues through to the adjacent great hall, mitigating scale with angled intimacy. All is a grand visual dance drawing the eye to the Pacific waters below – including the upstairs master bedroom that practically levitates over the ocean – while trees shelter this unique sanctuary.

An adjoining guesthouse up the eastern slope features a gym and a tennis court, as well as a garage converted into a studio by TBP’s Fook Weng Chan. While this house has starred in several Hollywood movies, its scale, simplicity and embrace of nature remain decidedly Canadian. Its private beach and dock allow for boating to the mainland and, along with its lovingly crafted design – with materials barged in and cast on site – mean that a home like this can never be built again. And in a province with no heritage laws to protect it, one can only hope that its exquisite beauty will save it.

The Morse House by Thompson, Berwick & Pratt Architects, 1982, Bowen Island, British Columbia, is on the market through West Coast Modern

Across a field of powdery snow lies a minimalist Canadian cabin by Akb Architects; welcome to Timbertop. The four-bedroom home located in Mono, Ontario, was designed for a family that share a love for the outdoors. The structure's single-storey plan was conceived to help with practicality and ease of movement during action-packed getaways. Fittingly, the residence is also equipped with a large mudroom and shoe cubbies, as well as shelves to store seasonal equipment and embrace country life.

Situated on top of a clearing within the landscape that the client lovingly calls the 'Rolling Hills of Old Ontario', the 200-acre property has remained in the same family for many generations. When the land was first purchased and built upon, the old structure on site eventually outlived its usefulness and was removed, leaving behind space for a new residence.

Tour this minimalist Canadian cabin

Timbertop was designed with the intention of serving as a weekend getaway for the new generation of the family and its three young children. Given its location, it is the perfect spot to enjoy the surrounding trails while walking, horseback riding, snowmobiling, and using ATVs. The woodland is home to deer, porcupines and turkeys.

When designing the home for their clients, the architects referenced local barns and farm structures. ‘The design draws inspiration from local agrarian building typologies, reinterpreted through a contemporary lens,’ explains AKB Architects’ creative director Kelly Buffey, also behind striking holiday homes such as Whistling Wind. ‘It pays homage to the powerful simplicity of utilitarian barn forms and the understated character of traditional Ontario farmhouses, historically clad in white-painted clapboard.' This creates a narrative between past and present and creates, what Buffey describes as a ‘subtle tension that feels both bold and restrained’.

Words such as 'bold' and 'restrained' could also extend to the environment, which posed the biggest challenge for the architects when designing the home. ‘Construction spanned two winter seasons, bringing relentless snowfall and drifting snow. Situated on a plateau at the crest of a hill, the site is exposed and often windy. Before the structure was enclosed, snow had to be cleared from the interior repeatedly, only to blow back in with each wind squall,’ says Buffey.

Regardless, the team prevailed, their efforts resulting in a cosy cabin-like home. Inside the residence, the open kitchen with a harvest table acts as a social area, bookmarked by a built-in pantry and library wall.

However, it is the main living space which is Buffey’s favourite area. Located beneath the gabled roof, the long windows invite light, which animates the interior. Buffey tells Wallpaper*: ‘It provides a space of mental stillness, where everything feels inevitable, effortless, and deeply human.

‘I want visitors to feel an immediate sense of intimacy and belonging – like a warm embrace. The architecture is meant to dissolve rather than impress; it invites presence. Light is choreographed to move quietly through the spaces, revealing subtle textures and framing views of the surrounding landscape. There’s a balance of precision and warmth where beauty inspires an experience that I hope makes people feel both uplifted and grounded.’

akb.ca

A new book by long-term Wallpaper* staffer, writer and editor Léa Teuscher explores the diverse expressions of library design across the world. '[They are] symbols of the power of learning, they can be the key to democracy, or become battlegrounds for culture wars,' she writes in the book's introduction. 'Or, they might be safe spaces where public debate thrives and creative gatherings abound.'

In her new book, 150 Libraries You Need to Visit Before You Die, for Lannoo Publishers, Teuscher has collected the world's best, from architect-designed temples of culture to historical palaces of books, to grassroots initiatives that bring reading to the people.

Here, she picks fifteen libraries from the book, to give us a taste of the global diversity of the genre.

Craigieburn Library, Australia

Australian architects Francis-Jones Morehen Thorp of FJCstudio designed the Craigieburn Library in 2014, using locally sourced rammed earth, which they chose for 'its thermal properties and for its symbolic resonance, embedding the building in the very ground from which it rises'. The steel and timber roof structures are lightweight and conceived as a series of interlocking pavilions. On the grounds is also an art gallery and café. When it opened, the Craigieburn Library was honoured as the IFLA Public Library of the Year for the way it created ‘a sense of belonging for all, as both a learning centre and a gathering place for the city'.

Beijing Library, China

'This glass-lined library by Snøhetta boasts the world’s largest reading space, a forest of soaring ginkgo columns and a valley of books,' writes Teuscher. From an architectural perspective, the Beijing Library features the world’s largest climatised reading space and China’s largest load-bearing glass system, while inside, it is built as a landscape with volumes shaped like hills separating its spaces. Its high-tech design also comprises the largest automated book storage system in the world and the highest attainable sustainability standard in the country.

Muyinga Library, Burundi

'Muyinga’s first library tells an important story about how to think and build differently,' writes Teuscher. Designed by Belgian practice BC Architects and Studies, the Burundi library is part of an inclusive school for deaf children and was built from earth blocks masonry and baked clay tiles, employing a local labour force and supporting the local economy. A superb example of welcoming design that serves a social function, the Muyinga library also features a large sisal hammock, woven from plants found on the construction site and accessed through a bookshelf that also serves as a ladder.

Drummondville Public Library, Canada

Canada's Drummondville library is connected to the city's history and winter sport mission. Designed by Chevalier Morales with DMA Architectes, the building's aesthetic nods to the city's steel and hydropower heritage, and its silhouettes are inspired by the neighbouring outdoor ice rink, of which the reading rooms have a view. 'An innovative pairing of sport and culture, this award-winning, immensely popular library is proudly of its time and of its place,' writes Teuscher.

Yuyarina Pacha Library, Ecuador

The Yuyarina Pacha children's library was born from the efforts of a reading club organised by local associations Laboratorio Creativo Sarawarmi and Witoca, and designed in 2024 by Quito-based practice Al Borde. 'A space for knowledge, this rainforest library is a symbol of the ability of rural communities to take charge of their own development and learning,' writes Teuscher. The building reflects local techniques, with a structure made of chonta, an Amazonian palm known for its durability and strength, a steep thatched roof and a glass skylight.

Cloud Cave Library, China

Designed like 'a portal to another dimension,' this library is part of the redevelopment of Haikou's coastline and was designed in 2021 by MAD Architects. Nicknamed 'The Wormhole' for the architects' intention to create ‘a journey transcending time and space', the 10,000-book library features a smooth, curved concrete structure with cave-like rooms. ‘Architecture, art, humanity and nature meet here, opening up a journey of visitors’ imaginations to explore and appreciate the meaning that different beauties bring to their lives,’ says MAD’s Ma Yansong

Oodi, Finland

This multifunctional space by ALA Architects opened in 2018 and its offering, including a cinema, workshops with 3D printers, a video games room and a reading room embodies what a contemporary library should be. ‘Everyone is welcome at Oodi, and equality is the most important of the library’s values – together with freedom of expression,’ says its director Anna-Maria Soininvaara.

L'Animu Porto Vecchio, France

'Nestled among olive trees, this building by Dominique Coulon & Associés symbolises the importance of the local public library in France,' writes Teuscher. This library opened in 2021, the same year the French government declared libraries 'an essential public service’. The architects created a building that complements the surrounding landscape, informed by the location of the olive trees and rocks found on site, and includes a garden, shaded terrace and summer bar.

Oscar Niemeyer Library, France

'A once dormant hall has been turned into a stylish cultural hub now bustling with readers,' says Teuscher of this building, one of two volcano-shaped Oscar Niemeyer structures in Le Havre. The space was originally conceived in the late 1970s as a cultural hall among the modernist apartment blocks of Auguste Perret. Niemeyer gave permission in 2006 to transform the building into a public library, a transformation led by Françoise Sogno and Deshoulières Jeanneau to update the space with natural light and a winter garden.

Library of Birmingham, UK

'Uniting the ‘written and the spoken word’, this library and theatre is an ode to the circle, wrapped in a delicate filigree façade inspired by the city’s crafts and industries,' writes Teuscher of the Mecanoo-designed Birmingham library. The design references the city’s jewellery heritage and steel industry and it is based on eight rotundas, including a golden room on the roof which is home to the library’s Victorian Shakespeare Memorial.

City of Parramatta Library (Phive), Australia

In the Western Sydney suburb of Parramatta, this library was completed in 2023 by Manuelle Gautrand Architecture, and inspired by local flora, with a roof shaped to maximise sunlight and communicate with the surrounding infrastructure. ‘The carefully sculpted final volume gives the impression of literally bending under the passage of the sun across the sky,’ explains Gautrand. The library includes a children’s centre, a theatre, and a Keeping Place dedicated to local Indigenous artefacts and reserved for the Aboriginal Dharug people.

Shanghai Library East, China

'Evoking a scholar’s rock in a Chinese garden, this beautifully detailed, art-filled cultural hub appears to float above Shanghai’s Century Park,' writes Teuscher. Designed by Danish studio Schmidt Hammer Lassen (SHL), it was completed in 2022 to ‘embrace the idea of collection to connection – a space to bring people together'. The shape is a nod to the Taihu stones that Chinese scholars used for inspiration and meditation, and the exterior is clad with panels imprinted with photographs of marble swirls. The library holds a whopping 4.8 million books, as well as play spaces, outdoor reading rooms, and panoramic views of the city.

Tama Art University Library, Japan

A masterpiece by Pritzker Architecture Prize laureate Toyo Ito, this library is made of concrete arches seemingly floating above the university campus. ‘A light and rhythmic space is achieved by placing arches with tapered footings continuously in different directions; but the interior space as a whole has a sense of tranquillity and transparency,’ says Ito.

Beinecke Rare Books and Manuscripts Library, USA

The interior of Yale University's Beinecke Library features a six-storey, glass-enclosed tower of books, holding around 180,000 rare volumes. A Skidmore, Owings & Merrill project from 1963, the design is based on a grid of translucent Vermont marble panels that act as windows while protecting the precious collection from direct light. 'Design fans will want to check out the Florence Knoll and Marcel Breuer furniture, as well as the Isamu Noguchi sculpture garden,' says Teuscher.

Mariam's Library, Tanzania

'Built in only 34 days on a tight budget, Mariam’s Library shows that low-cost libraries can be as impactful as big landmark projects,' writes Teuscher of this Zanzibar library, part of Kuwait-based Parallel Studio's Parallel Gives – a volunteer-supported initiative dedicated to community service. Built from perforated bricks, the structure is conceived to stay cool and offer shade, while the corrugated roof filters the light above. '[The focus is] how to contribute to the global community, how architecture can positively affect human development, and how we can inspire our colleagues to spread such kindness,' says Parallel Studio founder, Mai Al Busairi.

Newly for sale, The Sanctuary is a striking modern house in Crumpit Woods, Squamish, a development of new houses carved into a hillside in British Columbia. Designed by Vancouver-based BattersbyHowat Architects, the house is located around an hour to the north of downtown Vancouver and around 45 minutes from the expansive ski trails and facilities at Whistler.

Step inside The Sanctuary

The site is impressive, with far-reaching views across the valley to Stawamus Chief Mountain, a 700m peak rising up above the Howe Sound beyond. Notched into the slope, with granite outcrops forming part of the terrace and rear elevation, thanks to clever structural engineering by Natural Balance, The Sanctuary serves as a frame for the ever-changing spectacle of nature.

Inside, the architects have arranged nearly 4,000 square feet of accommodation as a series of volumes that twist and turn to reveal a new vista on every level. The focus has also been turned on the wellness of the occupants, with a design brief that rejected man-made and synthetic materials in favour of natural solutions.

According to the architects, ‘every material was considered for its effect on both body and environment.’ This includes halogen lighting specially calibrated to daylight cycles and an advanced air and water system that uses passive cooling.

No detail was too small, from the way the porcelain tiles have been left unsealed to the calming palette of natural materials, including white oak joinery, hemlock-lined ceilings, stone floors, and linen drapes.

The house, which was completed in 2019, is described as a sanctuary by the original clients. For them, life in the house could be broken down into a series of simple rituals, from growing herbs and vegetables for cooking, to using the outdoor pizza oven or saltwater tub and shower. There’s even a meditation room.

The Sanctuary sits on a steep quarter acre site, with landscaping design undertaken by BattersbyHowat’s own design team. Many of the included furnishings were custom designed for the project, including the sofa by Cloth Studio and lighting by Davide Groppi. David Battersby and Heather Howat set up their studio in 1996. It has won a number of national design awards, with a focus on private residences and cultural spaces.

The Sanctuary is for sale via West Coast Modern, $6,850,000, WestCoastModern.ca, @WestCoastModernHomes, BattersbyHowat.com, @BattersbyHowat

Canadian architect Arthur Erickson left behind a legacy of celebrated modernist buildings across his homeland – and beyond. One of his iconic works, the Waterfall Building, is now experiencing a new chapter. Originally designed in 1996 with Nick Milkovich Architects, the triangular concrete structure has been thoughtfully restored and reimagined by Vancouver- and London-based Sml Studio. Today, it’s home to Ellipsis, a café and cocktail bar that brings new life to the architectural landmark.

Ellipsis, Vancouver

Working collaboratively with Tetherstone Construction, Sml Studio sought to return the structure to its intended character by restoring the original interiors when possible and avoiding making any modifications. To echo Erickson’s architectural language, Sml studio also incorporated geometric elements through the furnishings, lighting and millwork. The structure’s new function as a café and cocktail bar also pays homage to the building’s original intent as a community-focused space.

Guests enter through a triangular concrete entrance within the building’s courtyard, demarcated by a curtain of water. The interiors are anchored by twin metallic bars, which were positioned to avoid touching the walls to preserve the integrity of the design. To balance the palette of concrete, steel, and glass, velvet amber seating adds a deep warmth and texture.

‘The material palette plays with transparency and light refraction,’ explain the Sml team, ‘inspired by James Turrell’s use of light as a material and Larry Bell’s explorations of layering and transparency.’ During the day, bright light streams through the glass. In the evening, a collaboration with Halo light maker Mandalaki projects a sunset glow onto the wall, adding warmth. ‘Since the location is tucked away from the main street, the Halo light is designed to draw people in from the courtyard,’ say the designers. Above the bar, pendant lights from Vancouver-based A-N-D provide soft illumination.

The all-day menu includes espresso-based coffees, as well as a playful selection of original cocktails named after questions intended to start conversations. Take the nostalgia-inspired Are We There Yet, which pairs Scotch with peanut butter cream and a strawberry jam cordial, or the What Keeps You Up at Night that features vodka alongside cocoa, espresso and a toasted rice pillow.

A range of small plates and larger dishes is on offer, from brunch in the morning to snacks to shared plates as the day progresses. In the evening ,as the light dims, guests dine on plates like crispy toasts topped with liver moose and boozy cherries, or marinated tomatoes with shiso leaf. Large plates are a perfect pairing to Ellipsis’ inventive cocktails, from a tender pappardelle with chanterelles and corn to a standout smoked duck breast served alongside plum sauce.

Ellipsis is located at 1540 W 2nd Ave #205, Vancouver, BC V6J 1H2, Canada.

An ice cream craving is always latent, waiting for its cue. In Britain, it's roused by the toy-like chime of vans drifting through suburban streets – fairgrounds on wheels, plastered with cartoon cones and sun-bleached decals. The visual identity is maximalist and celebratory, yet the product itself remains restrained: the archetypal 99, a neat swirl of soft-serve crowned with the simplicity of a Cadbury Flake. It's at once both impulsive, yet ritualised.

In contrast, Italy could not be more different. Gelato is a passeggiata companion, its flavours artisanal and refined: pistachio, nocciola, stracciatella, amarena. Counters stretch wide, vitrines gleam, and pozzetti lids conceal the craft beneath polished steel. Each portion is shaped with a flat paddle rather than scooped: a fleeting moment of theatre, as opposed to a mere transaction.

The context of ice cream has always been inseparable from the experience of eating it: a mirror of history and culture. In Turkey, dondurma is dense and elastic, sold from brass-trimmed carts where fez-wearing vendors tease customers in playful routines. In India, kulfi is pulled from conical moulds at vividly painted stalls. In Mexico, tiled paleterías brim with rainbow ices and fruit sorbets dusted with chilli or chamoy.

Each country has long held to its aesthetic codes. But in recent summers, a new wave of parlours has emerged. Here, architects and designers approach ice cream as stagecraft, creating experimental environments that are as sensorial and inventive as the flavours themselves.

The evolution of the ice cream parlour

In Odessa, Tanu (‘Таю’ is Ukrainian for ‘I’m melting’) reframes the ice cream shop as a space of grown-up composure. Sivak+Partners resisted the usual pastel kitsch, instead wrapping the interior in undulating stainless-steel panels that ebb and flow like frozen liquid. What might have felt sterile was softened through finish: ‘Thanks to its matte, worn texture, the metal ended up resembling velvet or fabric on the walls,’ says studio founder Dmytro Sivak.

‘There’s no loud, boisterous music or children’s birthday-party vibe,’ Sivak adds. ‘Rather, it offers a calm and pleasant weekend serenity.’ This is a parlour where ice cream is contextualised as an adult ritual, not a sugar rush.

In a similar vein, El Equipo Creativo aimed to create something more grown-up for the design of Barcelona’s Gelato Collection by Spanish chef Albert Adrià. ‘We wanted a space that offered more than just ice cream, where each flavour would be presented as a collectable jewel,’ shares Natali Canas Del Pozo, co-founder and creative director of the studio, which borrowed aesthetics from perfumeries and jewellery stores for the project. The centrepiece is undoubtedly a glass display case designed like a block of ice.

Walls are lined with champagne-toned porcelain tiles, a material choice that echoes the creaminess of gelato. Overhead, octagonal glass light fixtures emit a cool glow. The entire design slows consumption: you don’t grab and go, you approach the counter as though entering a gallery. Adrià’s numbered, ever-changing flavours – recent ones include ‘balsamic candy,’ ‘hibiscus margarita’ and ‘mango green curry’ – are almost treated like precious stones.

Nearby, Amiko Gelato (also in Barcelona) takes a more exuberant, lush and playful approach. Masquespacio pushed Miami Art Deco into the future with pastel geometries, sculptural seating and a shifting play of light. Tropical greenery floods the room, set against ceramics, microcement and metal, creating a deliberate clash between nature and industry. ‘Organic forms and sculptural elements, directly inspired by ice cream, are seamlessly integrated into both the furniture and décor,’ explains Borja Sánchez Marín, product designer at the studio. The effect is lushly immersive, a sensorial oasis rather than a pit stop, sitting at the intersection of juvenile and mature.

Similarly, at The Dreamery in London, ice cream is recast as part of a longer, more indulgent ritual, while ensuring an immersive element: you stay for a glass of wine, under a ceiling mural that dissolves into infinity. English artist Lucy Stein created a canopy of folkloric creatures painted on unryu rice paper, backlit and reflected by three mirrored walls. The result is an enveloping dreamscape that makes time feel suspended.

The material palette – cement-coloured tiles, stainless steel bar, vintage Brutalist sconces by Marino Poccetti – sets a restrained stage, allowing the ceiling to dominate. ‘We wanted somewhere comfortable and playfully innocent,’ co-founder Alex Young says, ‘a retreat of sorts from cynicism and seriousness.’ Traditional English sweetshops informed the design, but nostalgia is filtered through sophistication.

Elsewhere, designers are looking at the past to inform the future of the ice cream parlour, while tuning it into a creative adult ritual. Scooped by Demetres at Square One in Toronto plays with cinematic artifice. ‘We were inspired by the simple, pared-down sets of 1940s and ‘50s films like The Gang’s All Here and An American in Paris, which used design elements like half-height partitions and gestural, line-painted backdrops that disrupt the vastness of the studio sets and ask the audience to use their imagination,’ explains Kfir Gluzberg, founder and principal at Kilogram Studio.

Fluted glass clad with mirrored film refracts light and movement, while perforated steel panels, lacquered with a soft pink automotive finish, shimmer under changing light. This choreography is deliberate: with no colourful tubs on display, attention shifts to the reveal of the scoop itself. ‘The lack of one clear focal point and the monochromatic palette draw heightened focus on the moment the ice cream is revealed,’ the architect notes.

Meanwhile, Gelato Messina’s Sydney outposts show how retro language can be sharpened into a contemporary brand identity. The Newtown site – described by Sans-Arc Studio as ‘a bit retro, a bit 1970s, but also a bit shiny’ – works with a narrow footprint, squeezing circulation around the central freezer. The architects borrowed cues from diners and mid-century gelato bars: timber panelling, a black-and-white chequered floor, and compact counter lines.

In Redfern, the diner influence is pushed further: cork wall panels and spotted gum bullnose battens hug bright orange light boxes, giving a vivid postmodern pop to the brand’s pint-sized offering. The atmosphere is cheerful yet disciplined, part retro homage, part contemporary riff. For Sans-Arc, each Messina outpost is an opportunity to evolve the brand language across multiple sites: ‘developing it over several spaces, improving and becoming more unique with time.’ Here, the parlour becomes an iterative brand experiment rather than a one-off showcase.

The new ice cream parlour occupies a threshold: between child-coded nostalgia and adult sophistication, between memory and reinvention. Designers are not erasing the kitsch traditions of the past, but translating them into new forms: velveted steel, jewel-like vitrines, dreamscape ceilings. The result is a typology redefined by tension; playful yet serious, indulgent yet reflective. Ice cream becomes both an artefact and a stage, suspended between different life stages.

And in each, the ritual itself is re-engineered. Whether through conceal-and-reveal, immersive theatre or sensory overload, ice cream is no longer a snack, but architecture’s most playful act of indulgence.

In Edmonton, Alberta, a series of interconnected dining destinations is infusing one of Canada’s northernmost cities with culinary energy and transportive design. Gathered together at the base of the residential tower Citizen on Jasper, the café, restaurant and cocktail bar Va!, Olia and Mimi unfold from morning to night like acts in an immersive play.

Citizen on Jasper introduces a design-led trio of restaurants

Each space in the multi-concept venue, designed by Vancouver-based Ste. Marie Studio, in collaboration with Corso 32 Group’s chef Daniel Costa, has a distinctive atmosphere yet shares an underlying sense of evocative design and an ethos of ease and enjoyment. Residents of Citizen on Jasper have their own private entrance to each.

A welcoming vibrancy defines the interiors at Va!, named for the Italian word ‘go’. Inspired by traditional Roman forni, or bakeries, Va! is a casual stopping point for an espresso and pastry to begin the morning, or a mid-day bite. The design is both fresh and nostalgic, with natural walnut furnishings, green panelling, and glossy white tiling. Underneath a retro-inspired menu, a selection of pizza al taglio is on display, with toppings such as potato and pancetta with lemon, or tomato with creamy stracciatella. On the walls, custom collages feature photography from chef Costa’s travels, integrating a personal touch into the energetic space.

At Italian restaurant Olia, just steps away, the pace slows. Curved forms, creamy marble and ecru leather seating lend a tactile softness to the elegant space. At Olia, light feels central to the design itself. Bright daylight is muted by sheer curtains, and as the day lengthens, the yellow glow of the backlit fluted-glass bar sets a warmer tone. Oversized pendant lights anchor the interiors, while art and sculptural pieces add visual interest, sourced personally by Costa and Ste. Marie Studio founder and creative director Craig Stanghetta. ‘The space is very elegant, and we layered it with different pieces to infuse it with an almost Pop Art counterpoint,’ says Stanghetta.

Here, guests dine on a seasonal menu of dishes alongside an all-Italian wine list. Small plates such as airy whipped goat ricotta and rosemary oil on toast stand out, alongside larger dishes like tender crab and potato raviolini in a creamy saffron butter, or an Umbrian-inspired cavatelli lunghi in a white ragù. A fluffy olive oil cake with fior di latte gelato and a chocolate torta made with locally produced chocolate provide a satisfying end.

Just next door, cocktail bar Mimi awaits. Reminiscent of a welcoming lobby bar, it’s easy to linger at the expansive counter or on the custom burnt orange velvet sofas, which recall 1960s sunken living rooms. The material palette of Rosso Rubino marble, burled walnut and chrome gives the space warmth and conviviality. The same pendant lights from Olia are echoed in a geometric pattern, complementing the glow of the vintage-inspired custom lighting. Cinematic references add to the nostalgic feel, including images from iconic cinema and a projection of classic films, all set against a backdrop of DJs or live jazz. Cocktails, like a Kingston Negroni made with fruity Jamaican rum, or the earthy Myrrh Old Fashioned with oregano, pair easily with small plates to satisfy late-night cravings.

The trio of spaces reflects Costa’s Italian roots and personal sensibilities, combined with Stanghetta’s design ethos and expertise. ‘All three spaces are very different, but all speak to each other,’ says Stanghetta. ‘Each is layered and cinematic, and ultimately an expression of Daniel and who he is.’

Echoes of Costa’s tastes are dotted throughout, from the records displayed behind the counter at Va! to the coffee table books at Mimi, which have been taken from his own personal collection.

Each space feels like a small world of its own, yet is connected by a shared narrative that moves from morning to night. ‘So much of what we do is informed by the principles of storytelling,’ explains Stanghetta. ‘We always look to create a strong sense of atmosphere and really consider how people feel in a space.’

From Va! to Olia to Mimi, this immersive quality feels like an invitation to linger just a while longer.

Citizen on Jasper is located at 10110 120 St NW, Edmonton, AB T5K 0M5, Canada.

Within the forests of Vancouver Island, a pair of secluded Canadian cabins have been given new life. Interior design studio Bidgood worked in close collaboration on the design with owners Niobe Thompson and Linda Chang, documentary filmmakers, who sought a family retreat with a minimal footprint.

‘The intention was to transform these two neglected structures into a family gathering place for years to come,’ says Kyla Bidgood, founder and principal at Bidgood. ‘The design was centred around longevity, and creating something that could be lived in and last.’ Rather than tearing down the cabins, Bidgood and the owners opted to preserve the original angular spirit of the two architectural forms – an approach that also speaks to an ethos of sustainability.

In the main 260 sq ft cabin, the downstairs features a living area, dining nook, and kitchen, with a lofted bedroom upstairs. The tiny 100 sq ft second cabin, or ‘bunkie’, provides additional sleeping areas and a small built-in desk. Both cabins are connected by a boardwalk, adding to the sense of immersion within the serene lakeside environment.

With the small footprint as a primary consideration, Bidgood took inspiration from the space-saving design of boat interiors by using built-in custom millwork throughout the cabins. The compact spaces were fully maximised, from a dining nook that reconfigures into a spare bed to shelving built into the staircases. Storage is cleverly integrated throughout the built-in living and sleeping areas. ‘We were really able to lean into craftsmanship,’ says Bidgood. ‘There’s so much detail on the built-in millwork, like the exposed dovetail joints in the kitchen and on the sofa.’

Materials such as Canadian oak, locally milled fir and stainless steel instill the space with a subdued beauty. Geometric windows frame the greenery of the forest and overlook the calm waters of the lake, putting the focus on the outdoors. In both cabins, thoughtful lighting complements the ambient natural light, creating a soft and calm atmosphere. ‘There needed to be pockets of light where necessary, but also pockets of shadow to create a bit of moodiness,’ says Bidgood. The lighting carefully integrates into the cabin design, including a built-in table lamp near the living area.

The interiors are elegant, pared back and functional, and the strong emphasis on longevity permeates the project. ‘We wanted to design it in a way that felt contemporary, but would age gracefully over the years,’ explains Bidgood. ‘The choices, even down to the wood species and stainless steel, were very much about how it would look and function over time.’

With short Canadian summers in mind, the cabins are intended to be enjoyed in all seasons. During the colder, rainy months, the windows offer a picturesque vantage onto the misty trees, while the wood-fired stove and a wood-barrelled sauna provide welcome warmth. In the summer, a dock and a rope swing into the lake bring a sense of playful joy. ‘It’s incredible to know that these cabins will be a backdrop for their family for so many years to come,’ says Bidgood.

This new house – a modernist family retreat – sits on a shoreline plot beside Lac Archambault, a site that was previously used for a long-closed summer camp. Located near the small town of Saint-Donat-de-Montcalm in Quebec’s Lanaudière region, about two hours north of Montreal, La Maison de la Baie de l’Ours was designed by Montreal-based architects ACDF, founded in 2006. The firm’s current partners, Maxime-Alexis Frappier, Joan Renaud and Étienne Laplante Courchesne, head up an 86-strong team of designers working across a variety of fields, from large commercial developments and community projects through to private houses.

ACDF was fortunate to find a prime site within the plot, a naturally flat area that had good access and a relative lack of vegetation. This was the obvious spot to build the house, the form of which can be broken down into three key elements. The most prominent is the large timber-framed roof structure, composed of a lattice of glulam beams that are evident throughout the interior and exterior of the house. This structure is cantilevered out over the edge of the supporting walls to provide covered areas of outdoor space.

The second compositional element is the stone walls that hold up the roof. On the plan, they read as thick rectangular slashes against the slender timber framing and glazed walls, creating something akin to a De Stijl painting in the landscape. Clad with the same local stone used on the external terraces, the walls anchor the house in the local landscape.

Finally, there’s the contrast set up by the dark wood cladding used in the bedrooms and service spaces. The house thus becomes a pattern of exterior-facing and interior-facing spaces, with glass walls defining the key living spaces and a more interior landscape housing the places to sleep.

Naturally, the lie of the land informed the orientation of the house. The principle living spaces overlook the lake to the west, while the north and east views are shielded by the edge of the forest. The architects describe the project as ‘offering a living experience deeply rooted in the landscape… establishing an intimate dialogue between nature and its occupants’. Maxime Frappier describes how the existing topography and views of the site were retained and amplified. ‘We didn’t want to impose a shape on the landscape – we wanted to reveal what was already there,’ he says.

The principal volume beneath the roof is attached to three elements, including a primary bedroom suite to the north, accessed by a glazed corridor, and a cluster of three ensuite children’s bedrooms to the south, separated by a playroom area and a dedicated children’s lounge with attached bunkroom for guests. The final element to the east contains the garage, with service area tucked away in the heart of the structure, along with a windowless media room.

Great effort was made to ensure that every long vista and run of glazing presented a spectacular view. The central spine of the house runs practically its full length, a corridor that leads from the main bedroom all the way to the playroom. The walls extend into the landscape as low-built stone structures, or murets, that create privacy and add an extra framing device, while both the main bedroom and children’s rooms have their own private terrace area. Above the children’s bedrooms is a second storey containing a guest suite.

The sunken panels, or coffers, in the wooden ceiling are lit from within and also contain acoustic insulation, to soften the feel of the main living spaces. Artificial lighting is paired with a number of rooflights that enhance the house’s relationship with nature and the seasons.

In addition to the series of covered and open external terraces, the interior living spaces also serve up a number of distinct, secluded environments. These include the centrally placed dining room, the sunken living area and the prominent fireplace that is visible from all the primary living areas.

In keeping with the house’s role as a retreat and entertainment space, there’s a secondary kitchen concealed within the dark wood element. A generous outdoor dining area, complete with insect screens and a large outdoor fireplace, adds another layer of integration with nature.

According to the architects, the house represents a combination of ‘precise composition, honest materiality, and constant attention to spatial experience… [the] architecture here becomes a medium of connection between people, between interior and exterior, between the built and the natural’.

ACDF.ca, @ACDFarchitecture

Osler House, a refreshed midcentury Vancouver home by Scott & Scott Architects, is nestled under a cascading canopy of maples, cedars and dogwoods, perched on a slope of one of the city's southern neighbourhoods. It is also one of the last remaining bungalow-scale homes in this part of Vancouver.

Inside Osler house, a quaint midcentury Vancouver home

Canadian architect Ron Thom designed the original, one-and-a-half-storey home in 1951, and renovated it in 1982. During this last redesign, he kept the residence’s bungalow style – an unusual move at the time, when larger plots and the construction of bigger houses were most desirable in the area.

This decision helped retain the midcentury essence of the original home, which is present to this day. It was something David and Susan Scott, founders of Canadian architecture firm Scott & Scott, wanted to pay tribute to in their own design for the residence – a frame-up reconstruction and renovation of the 240 sq m house, with the addition of a terrace, a swimming pool and a pool house.

Their works on Osler House were completed in 2024. Its original spirit was the main inspiration for the design, alongside its context of mature trees, the unusual lot shape and its south-side yard aspect. ‘We wanted to ensure we maintained the feel and essence of the original house,’ say the architects.

Going into the project, the Scotts aimed to deliver three objectives. They sought to create a sense of calm, a separation from city life, and a quiet sanctuary. This is rooted in the building's core, with its materiality reflecting its context. Cedar wood decking shelters the living spaces, while privacy is maintained as a priority, with a concrete brick hearth shielding the home from the street.

The general internal layout remained unchanged. The 1982 staircase, which was reconfigured to allow more natural light to flow seamlessly through the home, is the only exception.

The home's original midcentury flair was well preserved, as the architects had pored over archival images to distil its identity. They decided to use local wood techniques, which reflected the make-up of the old structure and Thom's 1950s choices.

More design gestures to this end include the incorporation of Douglas fir and concrete bricks that add texture and a warm, 1970s tone, which midcentury design harnesses.

The architects’ favourite part of the design, they say, is ‘the double-height volume that connects the kitchen, living space, stairs, office and den, and brings light into the centre of the house’.

The living-room hearth was extended as an inglenook with added concrete seating. A second concrete-base sofa is situated outside, providing seating between the pool house and the main home – a tranquil hideout to enjoy the Osler House's magical seasonal context.

A radical overhaul of a 1960s house on a waterside site in Victoria, British Columbia, the Shoreline House was designed by Vancouver practice Splyce Design. The outlook belies the suburban nature of the site, with detached houses backing onto a slice of Canadian wilderness. This is one of the most spectacular plots in the area, with a rocky, rugged coastline and 180-degree views across the water.

Retention and refurbishment was deemed a more cost efficient and environmentally friendly approach to the new house, especially given the sensitive ocean habitat. A substantial single storey contains the primary bedroom suite and also provides a covered entrance walkway, with light-stained cedar clad walls and slender steel columns.

The rest of the structure is rendered in dark grey with a roofscape of ribbed metal, helping it blend into the forested foreshore. The alignment and placement of the new extension was defined by the local codes which set out strict setbacks from the water’s edge. This element has a small footprint with the accommodation above cantilevered out over the plot, culminating in a prow-like point.

The new entrance leads straight into the extension with a view down past the kitchen and dining areas to the main living room. A terrace opens off this space, enclosed on two sides by the house and open to the views in the other directions, with concrete steps that lead down to a second terrace closer to the water.

This sense of weaving the house into the landscape continues in every direction, with paths that exploit the topography – and even enhance it with new, native planting thanks to a scheme by Andrew van Egmond. With such views on offer, it’s unsurprising that the refurbishment included new windows – many of which are frameless sheets of glass – to set up precise vistas that are animated by the shifting patterns of light on the water.

The 3,000 sq ft house is arranged across a single storey, with shifting roof heights and skylights providing natural light throughout the day. In addition to the new primary suite, a guest bedroom is included, along with a study and media room. There’s also an expansive garage and mudroom.

Nigel Parish founded Splyce in 2001 and worked on the house alongside Tomas Machnikowski and Galo Oyarce. The architects say they value ‘timelessness over trends, drawing inspiration from a project’s unique context, site, budget, and the client’s vision’. In the Shoreline House, all the values have come together in a spectacular whole, with the environmental constraints providing a positive influence on the design.

Splyce.ca, @SplyceDesign

It’s not often that an architectural jewel comes to market – but this is one of those occasions. Sotheby’s International Realty has listed Hilborn House in Cambridge, Ontario: a modernist masterpiece designed by Arthur Erickson (1924-2009), one of Canada’s most celebrated architectural exports.

Hilborn House is part of Erickson’s coveted Signature Collection – a select few private residences personally designed by the architect, who is best known for works such as the Museum of Anthropology in Vancouver and the Canadian Embassy in Washington, D.C.

Commissioned by Dick and Laurette Hilborn and completed in 1974, the home exemplifies Erickson’s mastery of natural light, spatial rhythm and his reverence for Japanese design principles. It’s composed of tactile natural materials: warm mahogany, textured stone and brickwork, and a distinctive cedar deck roof.

Spanning over 6,800 square feet, Hilborn House sits on a quiet rise overlooking the Grand River. True to Erickson’s philosophy that architecture should be ‘an extension of the land’, the home lies low to the ground, merging seamlessly with its 1.77-acre setting. Glass walls dissolve the boundary between indoors and out, transforming the house into a kind of temple to the surrounding forest and water.

The geometric layout seems to unfold over the home’s two levels, evoking the spatial drama of a museum of modernism. The 'exhibits'? Cedar-panelled ceilings with exposed beams, travertine finishes, and a mosaic-tiled sauna with dual showers. The ‘great room’, with its skylight and floor-to-ceiling glass, bursts with sunlight. Elsewhere, a chef’s kitchen features beamed ceilings; the primary suite boasts a six-piece ensuite; and the upper-level bedrooms open to balconies that appear to float.

The Hilborns first approached Erickson in 1969, inspired by the modernist architecture showcased at Expo 67 in Montreal. Initial discussions didn’t materialise but, the following year, the couple arranged a spontaneous meeting with Erickson at Montreal’s airport. Expecting the architect to have a design ready to show them, they were instead treated to a moment of creative spontaneity: he pulled out an envelope and began sketching his vision for the house on the spot.

Erickson once said, ‘Great buildings that move the spirit have always been rare. In every case they are unique, poetic, products of the heart’. The next steward of Hilborn House will undoubtedly share that philosophy.

Hilborn House is on the market for CA$3,900,000 with Sotherby's International Realty

This Canadian House occupies a prime site on Nova Scotia’s wild and dramatic Eastern Shore. With the Atlantic Ocean as a backdrop, Lawrencetown House abuts a scrubby foreshore of wetlands, ponds, rocks and evergreen trees. Nearby, the region’s white sandy beaches are popular, if chilly, surfing destinations.

Tour this Canadian house on a rural Nova Scotia setting

Designers Bishop McDowell, working in collaboration with David Burlock, were briefed by clients with a young family to create a house that embraced the ocean while shielding itself from the outside world. The house takes advantage of the site’s topography to place the entrance main living spaces above lower ground floor bedrooms.

Covering 2,300 sq ft, the Lawrencetown House is divided into two pitched-roof volumes, the main house and a garage/guest suite. Linking these two elements is a thick wooden wall, an element that threads its way across the site with just a single gap providing a tantalising glimpse of the sea beyond. Where it intersects with the main house, the wall becomes the main source of services, containing the kitchen, mechanical elements, fireplaces and storage.

Through the gap, one finds a terrace stepping down into the landscape. Because of the slope of the site, the house appears to be a single-storey structure from the road and entrance approach, while the ocean-facing façade is arranged across two storeys, with the upper-level living area paired with a run of glazing and more conventional single windows for the three bedrooms and family room below. On the upper floor, the pitched roof provides a vaulted ceiling to the main living space.

Cladding is eastern white cedar shiplap throughout, an unfinished wood that will gain patina and texture as it weathers. Internal joinery and flooring uses clear maple. Roofs are grey metal, with integral guttering and an overlap that wraps around the upper level of the structure to provide another layer of weatherproofing.

Matthew Bishop and Lucas McDowell founded their practice in 2024. Both previously worked at MacKay-Lyons Sweetapple Architects, one of the key proponents of modern residential design in Nova Scotia. In addition, Bishop also interned with Studio Rick Joy in Arizona and McDowell at Bing Thom Architects in Vancouver, now known as Revery Architecture.

The studio currently has a number of major residential projects in progress, working across a variety of materials and aesthetic approaches, while it has also created a number of furniture designs, including the starkly beautiful ‘Bent Steel Chair’.

The new house in Nova Scotia is a study in refined and pragmatic modernism, a programme devoted to the space, light and views of the remarkable site, unafraid to use simple forms executed with pitch perfect attention to detail.

BishopMcDowell.com

Keats Island is a remote getaway spot near Vancouver, Canada, where visitors can enjoy the beauty of the marine park and coastal forests. There are just 50 full-time residents, the tiny population only adding to the location's calming charm. Perched on the island’s highest elevation is The Nest, designed by Daria Sheina Studio. From this rare, tucked-away location, the boutique off-grid retreat offers low-impact living, at one with its Pacific Northwest surroundings.

Inside The Nest, a remote living retreat

‘The island and site context had a profound influence from the very beginning,’ says Daria Sheina, founder of the design firm. ‘The serenity of the highest elevation, with breathtaking views of Howe Sound ( a smaller body of water), offered a unique luxury: the feeling of having the entire island to yourself. The site’s rugged topography, moss-covered bedrock, and dense evergreen canopy called for a design rooted in reverence and thoughtful integration.

‘When the clients proposed the name The Nest, it immediately resonated. It evoked a sense of shelter, intimacy, and belonging – all qualities we wanted the design to embody. We explored the nest not just as a metaphor, but as a spatial idea: shaped by circular movement and a deep connection to place. The result is an elegant interplay of two rotated geometric volumes, forming a compact yet sophisticated three-level living experience.’

The prefabricated residence is tucked within a dense evergreen canopy. Its design looks compact, yet inside it feels expansive, offering a three-level living experience.

‘Logistics, without a doubt, were the biggest challenge.’ Sheina tells Wallpaper*. ‘The island is only accessible by water taxi or foot-passenger ferry, and the building site has no direct vehicle access. Every design and construction decision had to anticipate and overcome that constraint.

‘Prefabrication was key. In collaboration with BC Passive House, we ensured all building components were precisely sized and weighted for transport. They travelled by truck and barge, then were helicoptered into place. It was like solving a three-dimensional puzzle – a balance of design intent and logistical complexity.’ Remarkably, the building was installed in just two days.

Given its natural context, sustainability needed to be at the core of the project. The residence runs entirely on solar power, and features a rainwater collection and filtration system. The Nest is clad in Western red cedar, ensuring the volumes will age gracefully and further blend into the surrounding forest with time.

The interiors are minimalist, with exposed wood surfaces and green Marmoleum flooring, chosen to reflect the outside environment. When visitors enter the space, Sheina wanted to evoke a sense of contemplation and connection to the landscape, with a touch of surprise. ‘The Nest is designed to restore and inspire, inviting visitors to slow down, reflect, and enjoy the moment.’

dariasheina.com

Vancouver-based architect Daniel Evan White was never a follower of style or trend. He marched to his own inner design drum, producing dozens of exquisitely executed houses, and a handful of public projects, largely confined to coastal British Columbia.

'In a way, Dan was a post-postmodernist,' says long-time client Maureen Lunn, who has had two residences designed by White. While he hit his stride in the 1980s, just as fussy post-modern flourishes like arches and colonnades were gaining in popularity, White stuck resolutely to his modernist principles of clean, simple lines, bold geometry and Frank Lloyd Wright-inspired organic architecture. His uncompromising approach may have been considered unfashionable at the time, but he has since acquired a cult-like following among earnest young architecture students and a whole new generation of aesthetic purists.

Enter the world of Canadian modernist Daniel Evan White

Seventy-seven and retired at the time of writing (the architect would pass away a year later, in 2012), White spent his working life designing deceptively simple yet complex structures that defied conventional wisdom – and often gravity – frequently for seemingly impossible sites. Homes on remote islands, on steeply graded cliff sides, at the ocean's edge, residences that emerged out of ancient bedrock, surrounded by forest and soaring into the Canadian sky. They celebrated and, indeed, amplified the beauty of their sites, but they were also noted for an intellectually rigorous aesthetic where precision and symmetry were counterbalanced by dramatic sculptural form.

There was nothing shy or retiring about White's design, or his daring engagement with wilderness sites. However, his colleague Russell Cammarasana recalls that his former mentor ‘had absolutely no interest in self-promotion’. As a result, White's work is largely unrecorded. There are some images, but no project descriptions, save for a couple of articles in provincial magazines, and very little architectural criticism. Cammarasana and White’s family share the archive of his hand-drawn sketches and plans. He never used computer-generated images, and for many years his office was an unassuming coach house with a bare light bulb hanging from the ceiling.

Unlike his friend and one-time architecture professor Arthur Erickson (behind projects such as Eppich House and the lesser-known Perry Estate), White received almost no international commissions. Instead, he was content building off-grid and out of the public eye. If Erickson had more in common with the flamboyance of his patron, former prime minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau, White was more the Glenn Gould of Canadian architecture. In many ways, he lived in his own world. 'Working in his office often felt like living in a bubble,' says Cammarasana.

'Dan had a kind of childlike innocence,' says Lunn. 'He was an artist, [in fact, White started out as a painter before entering architecture school in his early twenties] not a businessman.' Despite his love of beauty and luxury, and his many wealthy clients, he faced constant financial struggles, and sadly was never able to build a house for his own family.

But he was absolutely dedicated to his craft and to his clients. 'Dan was the kind of architect people with impossible sites and unrealistic budgets would approach,' says Cammarasana. 'And he never let them down.' When bridge engineer Peter Taylor and his wife Gillian acquired a waterfront property in West Vancouver in the mid-1970s – a steeply graded, semi-wild forested site that dropped dramatically down to the ocean –they turned to White for a residential design that would work on the site.

'Dan marched around for a while in the thick bush,' recalls Peter Taylor. 'He eventually emerged on top of a rock above a 6m-high cliff face and expansively spread his arms, proclaiming, “the house must span across this gulley, creek and all”. Gillian and I contemplated this breathtaking concept and then informed Dan that it was a crazy idea. However, Dan persevered. After a topographical survey of the lot, the architect prepared a relief model of the site and inserted a model of the house: it was a perfect fit.

Indeed, the resulting residence, built from concrete, glass and wood, fuses seamlessly with its site despite its generous 269 sq m. The two-storey edifice was conceived as a long, narrow bridge-like structure that spans a small ravine and is anchored to the granite rocks that embrace it. A stream flows beneath it, the run-off framed by the house as it cascades down to the ocean.

The journey to the Taylor house begins with a walk down a paved road – thick forest 30 years ago – at a steep, almost right-angled incline. Flanked by landscaping featuring a mix of native plants, both wild and tamed, the first glimpse of the house from the north side is magical: a wall of sloped glazing through which the sea can be seen via a second layer of south-facing windows.

The transparency of the approach is countered by an intimate, almost cave-like entrance area, an alcove that acts as a refuge from the open water. A large, solid hemlock door opens for the big reveal: a breathtaking view of a heart-pounding 12m drop to the seafront below.

While the north-facing entrance to the house draws one in, its south, sea-facing façade is the most monumental. Designed to appear as if it had been carved from the cliff, it features a long, steep, concrete and steel stairwell that seemingly floats in mid-air. The walk down (and much of the interior journey) is marked by framed views of the landscape, and at the end, a pathway leads to the ravine that the house straddles, and a platform shaped like a mini amphitheatre opens up to the seafront.

While some essential principles of organic modernism imbue all of White's work, each of his houses is notable for its utterly unique form. When the McIlveens asked White to design a floating home for them in semi-rural Delta, just south of Vancouver, in the late 1980s, he created a child's toy of a house on a tiny 9m x 12m footprint. Using a variety of geometric shapes, the rigorous composition of cubes, cylinders and spheres is arranged around a series of interlocking L-shaped columns rising up the full three floors of the home and anchoring it in an essential tension between the orthogonal and the oblique.

By setting the Mcllveen house at a 45-degree angle to the site, he ensured privacy from neighbouring homes and oriented the house west towards river and sea views, creating a heightened sense of spaciousness. With a simple palette of red cedar, glass and terracotta tiles, he created a unique space that plays with solidity and transparency throughout.

The first of two helix-like stairwells winds its way from a hooded, inward-looking first floor to the second floor that explodes into a light-saturated open living space. A curvilinear enclosed balcony offers a view of the water, while the kitchen curves out toward east-facing glazing. Above it looms a large cedar sphere, studded with recessed lights, that contains the third-floor master bathroom and sauna. At night, the giant orb appears luminescent, and from a distance, the house looks rather like a Kashmiri pavilion set on the moon.

A walk up the second spiral staircase reveals a different aquatic view with each tread, while the semi-circular balcony, framed by rectangular hoops, opens up to the coastal scenery. The cedar orb of the master bath hovers nearby, like a West Coast version of the orgasmatron from Woody Allen's Sleeper. On the other side of the bath, the snug master bedroom reads like the lair of a vaguely psychedelic sea captain. This is a floating home that dares to domesticate the ephemeral.

To say that his approach to residential design was unique is perhaps an understatement. When White was asked by his friends Gavin and Lynne Connell to build a cottage on Galiano Island in the early 1970s, his response was to subvert the traditional cabin by designing a home formed from a series of vertically oriented logs arranged in three circles. In a neat trick of Wright-inspired sacred-geometry-meets-a-child's-fort, the house is planned as a hexagon. The outer structure consists of three identical entranceways with floating cedar log stairwells, like ceremonial steps to a woodsy ziggurat. In between each are three decks framed by a circle of logs that extends all the way up to the roof. While the house appears like a log fortress from a distance, most of the outside walls are clear glazing, and light spills down from the Plexiglas-studded roof.

The house is marked by a fusion of inside and outside, with specially angled glass corners that fool many visitors into confusing the two. Weight-bearing log columns with fitted slats are split in two by the glazing. At night, when the logs are lit, the distance between the two spaces disappears altogether.

Sadly, White was too ill to finish his ten-year-in-the-making masterpiece, the Lunn residence on Bowen Island, and it was left to Cammarasana to execute White's design. The handcrafted, custom-designed interior, which reads like couture architecture, is exquisite. But the exterior, set on a 111-acre semi-wild site, is pure sculpture.

Placed so as to maximise the stunning sea view and nestled into a natural depression in the rocky landscape, the house's defining feature is its bronze, hyperbolic paraboloid roof, which defines the dynamic interior spaces. From the road, the house is almost invisible, but it gradually opens up counterclockwise to reveal a three-storey edifice with wraparound decks of cantilevered glass that embrace the surrounding landscape.

The interior is defined by a floating spiral staircase that descends into the library, contrasting with three glazing-heavy rooms that open up to the water views. Like many of White's residences, the house is a study in symmetrical precision and pitch-perfect siting. His houses have an explicit relationship with their surroundings, their robust forms simultaneously modern and timeless. 'White was a man of few words,' says Lunn. Instead, his legacy is more than capable of speaking for itself.

A version of this article was first published in the December 2011 issue of Wallpaper*

Set on a steeply sloping site in Bromont, a mountainous region to the east of Montreal, a new Québec house by Marie Isabelle Gauthier and Sylvain Bélanger of Muuk Architecture appears to be embedded in the surrounding wooded landscape.

Tour a Québec house that cleverly balances open plan with open views

As you approach Muuk’s Mountainside Residence, the structure appears to be a single-storey, pitched-roof structure, incorporating ribbons of glazing into stone walls and a dark steel roof. The house actually steps down another level, thanks to the grading of the site, with all living spaces occupying the upper floor beneath tall ceilings that reach up to the underside of the roof.

Arranged across 3,100 sq ft (approximately 288 sq m), the new residence is sparingly detailed, with the emphasis on hard-wearing, natural materials that should age gracefully inside and out. The entrance porch is set alongside a window that reaches up into the roof slope, providing a view right through the house to the landscape beyond. It’s flanked by a stone-clad wall that’s mirrored by a tall stone chimney breast inside the soaring open-plan living space.

The stone is contrasted with white walls, timber cladding and generous glazing. The chimney breast structures also serves an external fireplace, set in a generous open porch beneath one of the gable ends, creating a living space that reaches into the forest. The other gable wall is flanked with dark steel cladding that matches the roof, above a lower storey formed from rough concrete.

The latter material serves to anchor the house in the hillside, as well as enclose a courtyard at the same level as the forest floor. Although most of the house’s bedrooms are on this lower floor, the primary suite adjoins the living, dining and kitchen area, with a spectacular view from glazed walls set at canopy level.

The interiors were designed in collaboration with Montreal-based studio Les Stéphanies and uses a warm, minimal palette that doesn’t distract from the sylvan views. Natural tones have been used throughout, with built-in furniture and discreet lighting choices. Simple pieces, like the monumental timber dining table, add to the architectural structure of the primary space.

Founded in 2017 by Sylvain Bélanger, Marie Isabelle Gauthier, and Alexandre Gauthier, Muuk Architecture is based in the heart of the region. Specialising in residential works that embrace the spectacular local topography, the studio also has a strong environmental focus, striving to make structures with minimal energy use so that they sit lightly on the land.

Muuk.ca

LesStéphanies.com

Over the decades, MacKay-Lyons Sweetapple Architects has carved a deep furrow in the architectural culture of Nova Scotia. This modest practice, rooted in teaching and the physical act of construction, is responsible for an admirable scattering of vernacular-inspired contemporary houses across the region.

Alumni of our very own Architects’ Directory back in 2002, the firm was originally set up by Brian MacKay-Lyons in 1985, becoming MacKay-Lyons Sweetapple Architects in 2005 after Talbot Sweetapple became a partner. Today, the partner roster also includes Melanie Hayne and Shane Andrews.

Recent projects include the El Aleph guest house, which won a Wallpaper* Design Award 2025, the Chester House, the cabins on Bigwin Island in Ontario, a private ski house in the US, and Mountainside, an expansive ski retreat in Utah.

The studio’s latest work is this neat parcel of four rental cottages, dubbed Ridge On The Chimney. Built for a local client, Scott Fitzgerald, the four houses sit on a bluff of land on the west coast of Cape Breton Island in Nova Scotia, close to the small community of Chimney Corner. With views that extend across Chimney Corner Beach and the Northumberland Strait, the structures are modest, wood-clad gabled forms that draw on the local archetype of ‘bunkies’, another word for cabin.

Two of the structures have a single twin bedroom, while the two larger structures have two twin bedrooms and a bunk room, capable of accommodating up to six people. Carefully placed to form a sympathetic arrangement overlooking the cove, each cabin has a distinctive notched porch clad in either vertical cedar board or shakes and a pitched roof with no overhanging eaves. The forms recall local barns and fish shacks, and the simple detailing belies a robust structure that can withstand the powerful coastal winds, known as Les Suêtes.

Inside, the client has ensured that local craft and furnishings are all well represented, creating spaces that nod to the heart and soul of Cape Breton, right down to the linen and bedding, with organic mattresses from Obasan, duvets from Northern Feather Canada and blankets by MacAuslands Woollen Mills Prince Edward Island. ‘We’re in the smiles and memories business,’ Fitzgerald says. ‘Having grown up here, it gives me joy to share this little piece of paradise with the world.’

Each floorplan pairs small bedrooms with a generous vaulted kitchen, dining and living space, carefully orientated to provide the best views of the beach and surrounding terrain. According to the design team, each structure offers both ‘refuge’ – the enclosed, compact bedrooms – and ‘prospect’ – the stunning views into the landscape.

The project also includes a communal area with a firepit, a barbecue and outdoor seating, allowing larger groups to eat together and forge a sense of community during their stay, without losing the refuge and retreat aspect of the site. MacKay-Lyons led the design team alongside project architect Shane Andrews, with Sweetapple, Paryse Beatty, Isaac Fresia and Matthew MacKay-Lyons. Future works on the site include a spa, more cottages and even some larger private homes.

‘This project embodies and celebrates our practice’s values of cultural responsiveness to local landscapes, climate, and material culture,’ says Andrews. ‘Our work is known for its poetic and sensitive architecture that is often defined by its quiet strength, simplicity, and honesty.’

MLSarchitects.ca, @MackayLyonsSweetApple

Book your stay at ridgeonthechimney.com

Smoke Lake Cabin caters to the needs of an ever-more digitally led world, where the temptation to log out and go off-grid, whether for a short while or indefinitely, can be tempting. Importantly, this project by Anya Moryoussef Architect (AMA) balances remote living without compromising home comforts. Situated behind a curtain of leafy shadows, the cabin is a modular, demountable, off-grid cabin, also referred to in the region as a ‘bunkie.' Located in Algonquin Provincial Park in Ontario, the cabin nestles into the Canadian wilderness with understated charm.

Take a tour of Smoke Lake Cabin

The Toronto-based studio designed the 600-square foot cabin for their client, a landscape architect, who wanted the residence to reflect the natural landscape of the park and to minimise damage on the land. The reason for its easy disassembly is to respect the mandated twenty-year lease period, which stipulated the structure leaving no trace on the site after its expiration.

The materials of the cabin are a nod to the park itself. They include Douglas Fir plywood and timber for the main structure, and then playfully bend shadow and light to create the illusion of space within the cabin.

Constructing within the park is difficult as there are strict regulations to follow. This naturally provided a blueprint for AMA who then interpreted the colour, material, wall height and roof pitch creatively to fit the guidelines.

Another challenge for the architecture studio was access to the site, which is only accessible by boat as the building is perched on a steep hill. Therefore, the structure had to be made of lightweight materials and should be able to fit on a 15 square metre ferry to then be hauled onto the land.

When entering the cabin, a series of rooms unfold. A ramp guides guests up to an open-air platform with a screened porch, which leads to the living and sleeping areas. These are tucked away within the shelter of the trees.

Exploring indoor and outdoor relationships, the architecture studio continued to play with light and shadow to highlight the cabin’s raw materiality and create a sunlit trail to the open-air room. Echoing the nature of Algonquin Provincial Park, the cabin sits behind a vale of smoky fog and provides the perfect lookout point to watch the golden hues of the sunset in uninterrupted peace.

amarch.ca

In his third volume of Homes for Our Time: Contemporary Houses around the World, Philip Jodidio spotlights homes that exist at the cutting edge of architecture and design. The Taschen tome details 59 projects from 25 countries, their designs exhibiting various styles and cultures and highlighting some of the best architectural talents in the world.

Take Mario Cucinella’s TECLA (Technology and Clay) house in Italy, which was 3D-printed in just 200 hours and made with raw earth, innovating both low-cost and environmentally responsible architecture. Kanan Modi’s House of Gardens in India is designed in a way that diffuses and reduces heat, which could be an integral part of more sustainable architecture in the face of rising global temperatures. The construction of Peninsula House on the Greek island of Antiporos, meanwhile, was virtually directed by Atelier Bow-Wow during the Covid pandemic.

The residences in Homes for Our Time are private, and thus constrained in terms of size and budget, which makes the creativity and prowess involved in their creation all the more impressive. That said, contemporary homes are the first to enjoy the full capabilities of computing – from something as simple as video conferencing to needle-pushing methods like 3D printing. These tools are opening doors – the new challenge is maintaining variety and originality.

Below, we lift the curtain on a selection of Jodidio’s most intriguing ‘contemporary homes’, which provide a glimpse into the architecture of the future.

Yuputira by Mariko Mori, Japan

Yuputira House is Mariko Mori’s private studio, and the Japanese artist’s first architectural endeavour. The spherical shape is inspired by the coral that surrounds Miyako Island, a place that is particularly susceptible to the ravages of climate change; the building’s bleached colour serves as a poignant reminder of the environmental challenges faced by the island, and the planet. The sweeping curves and organic form does not impose itself on the landscape, but works in communion with it. Mori partnered with local practice Ring Architects, as well as local Japanese craftsmen, to create this fascinating abode, which becomes an extension of the artist’s practice.

m.o.r.e CLT Cabin by Paul Kariouk, Canada

This home is an super-modern riff on the paradigmatic North American log cabin, intended to disrupt the myth that ‘natural’-looking buildings can be assumed to be ‘eco-friendly’. The m.o.r.e. CLT Cabin inverts this idea by presenting a design with harsh angles and corners in shiny, high-spec materials. But, despite sticking out like a sore thumb, the contemporary cabin is much more sustainably constructed than others: it has minimal contact with the land, reducing its foundation size through a steel mast. Low-waste cross-laminated timber (CLT) was used in the structure, which achieves greater tensile strength through a ‘folded’ structure. The home also uses off-grid power and has even created a home for endangered bats.

Culvert Guesthouse by Nendo, Japan

This building serves as both a residence and a storage facility for Japanese studio Nendo’s products and artwork. Located amidst dense woodland in the Nagano Prefecture, the Culvert Guesthouse is constructed using precast concrete box culverts (tunnels that carry utilities like water and power underground) stacked on top of each other. The main interior space is made of a 40m-long tunnel with glass windows at each end; the kitchen and toilets reside in a parallel tunnel with the space in between serving as a seating area. Two additional structures contain a bedroom and a secondary archive space with a study.

Labri by Nguyen Khai, Vietnam

This is the home of a retirement-age Vietnamese couple who wanted to ‘build a home where the two of [them] could spend the rest of [their] lives happily and peacefully’. They commissioned Nguyen Khai Architects & Associates to transform a 100 sq m plot at the end of an alley in Hue into a residence almost entirely made out of glass. At only 55 sq m, Labri is not large – in fact, the brief requested only one floor of living space, eschewing this for the inclusion of abundant outdoor spaces. But this home certainly packs a punch, notable for the way that it creates an almost invisible barrier between the outside and in.

Casa Neptuna by Edgardo Giménez, Uruguay

Casa Neptuna was commissioned by art collector Amalia Amoedo to be a residency space for her Fundación Ama Amoedo (FAA). It was created by Argentinian artist and designer Edgardo Giménez, who was a member of Buenos Aires’ Pop Art scene in the 1960s. The home’s bright colours, playful geometry, and elongated one-storey structure topped with decorative sculptural forms reflects this; it is designed to inspire creativity and experimentation.

Also featured in 'Homes for Our Time'...

Casa Q’anil by Juan Pablo Barrios, Guatemala

Ashraya by Kirkland Fraser Moor, UK

Açucena House by Tetro, Brazil

Casa Ladera by WMR, Chile

Rock’n’House by Christian Wassmann, USA

'Homes for Our Time: Contemporary Houses around the World' by Philip Jodidio is available to purchase at taschen.com, €60/$80/£60

Undiscovered Arthur Erickson gems such as the Perry Estate in Vancouver are a bit like ancient sites in Iraq. They are so ubiquitous and a part of the landscape that they are often unappreciated and frequently in peril. This home is the latest 'discovery' of a 'lost' Erickson house and, largely unprotected by heritage laws, it has been revealed via the great nemesis of mid-century architecture here: real estate.

Walk through the endangered Perry Estate

Happily, the $2,850,000 Cnd listing belongs to West Coast Modern Realty, whose aim is to celebrate the architectural value of Vancouver’s wealth of mid-century homes and sell them to 'custodians' who will preserve rather than destroy. And yet the Perry Estate, designed by a young Erickson in 1963 on a double lot of almost 18000 square feet, is definitely architectural prey, especially since historic zoning changes allowing for more density on land came into effect last summer. But the almost pristine example of Erickson's early residential design work is well worth saving.

On the day Wallpaper* visited the mountainside site in North Vancouver, cougar tracks were visible in the snow along the cedar and fir flanked entranceway to the 2500 square foot home and studio. Designed by Erickson for the sculptor Frank Perry - who had a pre-existing studio and small home on the lot - after his first marriage, it was something of an artist’s hang out – with the likes of legendary Bill Reid as regular visitors.

An ode to Japanese minimalism transplanted into the rugged Canadian forest, the house exemplifies the concept of Wabi Sabi that marries the rough and the refined. Walls made from resawn strips of fir contrast with sleek teak while unglazed creamy ceramic floor tiles from Japan alternate between matte and shiny, creating a shimmering, waterlike effect. The home is a study in elegant simplicity at one with its site that once contained a backyard pond.

Designed as both a residence and a kind of home gallery for Perry’s art, the house is a device for filtering sunlight and moonlight. The angle of the pitched roof that covers the northern half of the home before flattening over the south end, as well as the many skylights throughout, is the same as the declination of the earth. On December 21^st, there is no shadow, only light.

The teak-panelled dining room’s north-facing glass doors slide open to embrace the grove of firs, while custom cabinetry in the kitchen includes inventive teak cupboards that pop up to open. A Shinto-style corridor descends southwards opening up to a gorgeous high-ceilinged living room in a subtle choreography of expansion and compression. An east-west axis offers up a guestroom and a master bedroom with its own sunken garden - reminiscent of Erickson’s 1966 Fuldauer house in neighbouring West Vancouver.

Designed in the same year as Erickson and his then partner Geoff Massey won the competition for the Simon Fraser University, his masterpiece, the house is a perfectly executed haiku. Touring it feels like a walking meditation through Erickson’s oeuvre, with architectural details foreshadowing future works. But the Perry house, with its south-facing Japanese meets West Coast garden, is most reminiscent of Erickson’s own home, designed from an old garage on a giant lot – that narrowly escaped demolition in 2013.

Thanks to translucent lights under soffits, it becomes a beacon at night - both to wandering cougars and ambitious developers – but hopefully also for architectural preservationists.

The organizers behind DesignTO (pronounced design tee-oh) are well aware the festival (this year, 24 January to 2 February) falls in the midst of Toronto’s coldest, snowiest stretch. The timing is entirely planned: January isn’t just frigid, it’s also quiet with little to do. All the more reason, they say, to inject energy and joy and community into the Canadian winter.

Now in its 15th year, the once grassroots endeavour – which started with just seven exhibitions and a lofty dream to bring Toronto’s insular studio community into the open – now has over 100 exhibitors large and small. From art displays in shop windows to panel discussions with boldfaced designers and immersive installations in top-notch studios, the festival makes the most of ten full days.

One moment you’re browsing sculptural works at a proper gallery within Yabu Pushelberg’s white-walled office, and the next, you’re eyeing painted skateboards on the wall of a local laundromat – so long as you brave the cold, you’ll find art most everywhere.

Routinely overlooked, the design scene in and around Toronto is nevertheless determined to be seen this week. Here’s a quick look at what we saw.

Best of DesignTO 2025

Recent Works – Dennis Lin Studio

At Dennis Lin’s open studio in Parkdale, the Taiwanese-Canadian artist displayed memory-laden mobiles that are particularly close to home; Lin suspends salvaged and sentimental materials, notably chunks of charcoal from a fire that levelled his former house (read: look closely to spot a charred hardback from his child’s lost library).

Ensemble

The Plumb – located down a gritty alley and beneath a nondescript building – welcomed a dynamic display of collectible design from Montreal throughout three distinct rooms. A creature-like chair by Reggy was a bright red hit, as were meticulously crafted light fixtures by JETA, casting a flattering light on Montreal’s forward-thinking scene.

Dwell

At Union Station, Canada’s busiest hub, deliberate art moments encourage viewers to stop and ponder while everyone and everything else is on the go-go-go. The star, a sweetly designed maple tête-à-tête chair by Alison Postma (on theme and accidentally on trend, given renewed interest in ‘kissing’ chairs) nods to private moments for chit-chat.

The Invisible Tide: Awakening Unseen Forces

Enveloped with fabric and surrounded by misty water, Mason Studio proved its multidisciplinary might with an immersive installation that activated all senses. Light and rhythmic soundscapes blurred the boundaries of perception while Othership led guests through briefly transformative (and borderline athletic) breathwork, and a fragrance evoking dirt and frogs completed the delightful trip.

Panel: Craig Stanghetta: Emotionally Resonant Spaces

With panels aplenty throughout the festival, one refreshing chat at the Interior Design Show with Craig Stanghetta of Ste Marie Studio (known for transportive spaces like Elio Volpe and Caffé La Tana) reflected on emotionally charged hospitality – and how Stanghetta draws inspiration from childhood, theatre, and even the late David Lynch to create authentic concepts. ‘We're not asking people to have a fully cathartic experience when you're having a whisky sour at a hotel cocktail bar,’ he joked. ‘But we do want that atmosphere to be emotionally permeated – we want it to feel like there's something behind it.’

To Hold: A Group Exhibition Curated by Yabu Pushelberg

The all-Canadian exhibition at Yabu Pushelberg’s Leslieville studio loosely mediates on how the act of holding changes an object’s meaning. Pieces from emerging artists, like a fused pile of glass vessels by Montreal’s Verre D'Onge, to higher profile works, like a flattened disposable coffee cup embellished by Toronto’s Georgia Dickie, all hold your attention with ease.

Interior Design Show

The convention-center endeavour highlighted big brands like Montreal’s Montauk Sofa and Spain’s Cosentino, while a robust section called Studio North offered space for independent designers, including a special showcase on innovative prototypes. Vases made from men’s business shirts, and a midcentury-esque side table that’s not-so-secretly a safe? Big ideas, small packages.

REVIVE

Curated by DesignTo organisers, the exhibition at Gallery 235 contemplates preservation, exploring materials and creative practices at risk of extinction in our digital, global age. Haunting the centre, a physical self-manifestation by Ghanaian-Nigerian artist Delali Cofie takes shape as a West African-inspired masquerade garment made with sentimental scraps (like bedding, or old clothing from family members).

New Narratives in Design: Salvage, Reuse, and Toronto’s Evolving Aesthetic

An exhibition on material reuse (you know the drill: repurposed bricks, beams, etc) brought curious home-reno nerds to a conscious renovation project in Little Portugal. Nicky Bruun-Meyer, the architect, walked guests through a salvage-heavy Victorian property that she’s turning into a thoughtful three-unit building – one that puts tenants well above the bottom line.

Void: Jewelry by Chu Winnie Cheung

Chu Winnie Cheung, a recent Toronto transplant, infused a series of powerful jewellery (made by pressing shredded Xuan paper and dehydrated flowers into stone-like segments and shapes) with her deeply personal, decentralising perspective. The wearable pieces at Craft Ontario critique her experience with societal oppression, Chinese centralisation, and digital overload – jewellery, elevated with self-expression.

DesignTO Talks: Net Positive

An easy excuse to see the crowd-pleasing Ace Hotel Toronto, with its dramatic suspended lobby by Toronto’s Shim-Sutcliffe Architects (complete with a temporary light installation by artist Annie Legault), the half-day panel is certainly one for the wish-list. Aligning with a core festival theme, sustainability, local experts ruminate on topics surrounding the climate crisis, from regenerative design to urban infrastructure.

DesignTO runs until 2 February 2025, designto.org

A couple of hours north of Toronto lies what is colloquially known as ‘cottage country’ – the Muskoka region, a popular vacation spot for city dwellers in this corner of Canada. Holiday homes and rentals cluster the shores of the four principal lakes in the municipality, and in the right hands, there’s scope to create a true summer idyll.

Tour Family Cottage by Vokac Taylor

This particular project, dubbed the Family Cottage, has been shaped and steered to perfection by the architect Barbora Vokac Taylor. Founded by Vokac Taylor in 2013, the Toronto-based studio provides architecture and interior design services in the city and beyond, specialising in residential design.

The Family Cottage is a sensitive and dynamic upgrade of the local vernacular, set on a sloping site on the shores of Peninsula Lake. Consisting of a main house, integral garage and separate sleeping cabin, the accommodation is flexible and expansive. The triple garage is located at entrance level, reached by a winding drive that leads from the shore road. A kinked pitch roof unites it with the body of the main house, which in turn steps down the slope towards the lake shore.

Surrounded by a grove of maple trees, many of which have been preserved and come right up to the boundaries of the structure, the Cottage feels embedded within the landscape. The dramatic form of the pitched roof, with its facets and two inset triangules of clerestory windows give a hint of the interior spaces, while the body of the house shields the lake views until one has approached the front door.

The main house consists of four bedrooms, three of which are set on the upper floor at the same level as the garage, with a principal suite located on the lower floor. The roof pitch contains a fitness room (above the garage), a ladder leading to a child-friendly semi-concealed loft space and attic storage. As well as three bedrooms and a mud room (which serves as the principal entrance), the upper floor also has a bathroom, laundry and study room, with stairs that lead down to the principal living spaces on the lower floor. From the study, a window opens out on the main living space below.

This is a spectacular double-height living room, with a large stone-clad chimney rising up through the heart of the space. Signature lighting pieces from the likes of Flos, Louis Poulsen, and Dark Tools emphasise the verticality of the space, especially above the dining table.

Beyond this is the kitchen, with direct access to a barbecue deck. The main bedroom suite is also on the level, tucked away discreetly at the far end of the house and effectively self-contained for when the clients are alone at the property.

At the other side of the plan you’ll find the Muskoka Room, a covered outdoor double-height space that reads as part of the main volume of the house. Set within the ‘kink’ in-between the garage block and main house, this timber-clad space has a lighting installation embedded in the wooden slats, designed by artist and collaborator Victoria Fard. A vast ‘window’ frames views past the sleeping cabin to the lake beyond, while motorised screens can close off the open ends to protect from insects.

In the basement, there’s an additional family room, alongside the plant room, a sauna and a covered patio complete with hot tub. The house sits on a plinth of smooth concrete, which marks a clear distinction between the rocky terrain of the forest floor – the geological feature known as the Canadian Shield – and the steel- and timber-framed house with its black-stained Shou Sugi Ban cedar walls and sloped black zinc roofs.

As with many structures in Muskoka, the house is designed for extended family and friends, a place for generations to come together. Vokac Taylor worked hard to get the accommodation as close to the lake as possible without infringing on the strict local regulations. This also meant working with the Precambrian rock that makes up the Canadian Shield, which the studio had to preserve, hence the stepped levels that accommodate the terrain instead of flattening it.

The kink in the plan and the split form of the roof, which oversails a series of large interior and exterior spaces, was a practical approach that also gives the house a sense of enclosure. ‘It creates a more surrounding, welcoming embrace as you approach the cottage, as opposed to facing a rectangular, barn-like structure,’ says Vokac Taylor. It also created the area for the Muskoka Room, which has the added benefit of giving visitors lake views through the structure.

The original lakeside sleeping cabin has been refurbished to provide additional accommodation, with the same dark aesthetic as the main house. It’s possible to arrive by boat, and the lighting scheme ensures a warm but subtle welcome.

’Although the cottage includes several modern comforts and conveniences, it also embodies the essence of simple living and connections with nature,’ Vokac Taylor concludes. ‘It provides a welcome respite from the hectic pace of city life, allowing the clients and their guests to reconnect with their surroundings and, ultimately, themselves.’

BVTarchitect.com

‘The lake, it is said, never gives up her dead / When the skies of November turn gloomy,’ sang Gordon Lightfoot in 1976’s ‘The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald’. Canada’s most famous living folkie (Leonard Cohen RIP) knew that November is not the best month to visit North America’s Great Lakes region. The first icy winds blow, battleship-grey clouds win the arm wrestle with the sun, and the five enormous lakes, so vast they’re ocean-like, churn up some very wicked weather. Indeed, the Witch of November (as locals call the strong wind across the lakes) can produce 140km/h gusts and 11m-high waves. And the SS Edmund Fitzgerald’s 29 lost souls – the boat had sunk a year before Lightfoot’s commemoration – was just the latest in a long list of the lakes’ casualties. The Great Lakes Storm of 1913, for instance, sent 12 ships and around 250 sailors to their watery graves.

Inserting five futuristic pods and some artificial islands into the third deepest of those lakes might be seen as foolhardy. Bauhaus-trained Eberhard Zeidler (1926-2022) and Briton Michael Hough (1928-2013), the two émigrés responsible for Ontario Place, certainly had buckets of nerve to think that they could drop something smack-dab into the choppy soup of Toronto Harbour back in 1968. ‘It’s crazy, Eb and Michael saying: we’re going to take on those forces and build something,’ laughs Toronto-based architect and heritage advocate Catherine Nasmith. ‘What were they thinking? People had so much nerve in that period.’

Toronto's Ontario Place: a brief history

At the time, Toronto, then Canada’s second-largest city, was smarting over the fawn-fest that was Montreal’s Expo 67, a World’s Fair built on man-made islands in the St Lawrence River and which saw more than 50 million people seduced by Canada’s ooh-la-la francophone city. In the summer of 1968, the Ontario government announced it would build a similar, albeit smaller, architectural showpiece in Toronto. Ontario Place would be home to Expo-like exhibits trumpeting the province’s achievements in technology, industry, and culture.

Plans for a few water-facing pavilions on the grounds of the existing Canadian National Exhibition, however, soon morphed into a quintet of diamond-shaped pods suspended over the water, along with the Cinesphere, the first permanent IMAX movie theatre, in a triodetic dome, as imagined by Zeidler. When he discovered that 90 per cent of his budget would be eaten up by the massive underwater pilotis required to withstand lake forces, the idea was almost abandoned. A holiday in the Bahamas alerted him to the wave-breaking action of barrier

Ontario Place should be to Toronto what the Opera House is to Sydney reefs. Placing his buildings in a calm, man-made lagoon would call for much slimmer pilotis, bringing their cost down to ten per cent of his budget; with columns so thin, a floating-over-the-water effect could be achieved by hanging some of each pod’s weight from steel cables. ‘It’s a glimpse into the future,’ wrote Zeidler in his autobiographical Buildings Cities Life (Dundurn, 2013), ‘like the Eiffel Tower in Paris, or the Crystal Palace in London were.’

When landscaper Hough and his staff were added to the team in 1969, only the decision to sink three Great Lakes freighters to create a breakwater had been made. Zeidler and government officials had ‘concluded that few people would visit the pavilions or Cinesphere more than a few times a year’ unless there was more for families to do. The creation of two islands from subway construction landfill, and the programming of those 21 hectares of new land fell to the expanded team, says Hough’s former partner, Jim Stansbury.

‘And so we began to develop a series of canals,’ Hough told a University of Manitoba landscape architecture class in 1979. ‘So at no point – and this became a basic design principle of the programme – would you be unaware of water; sometimes it would be noisy and very powerful, like on the outer edges, and in other cases it would be sheltered and protected.’

A site visit in 2019

On a mild November afternoon in 2019, a meandering trumpeter swan illustrates Hough’s imagined idyllic setting perfectly as Hough’s widow, Bridget, along with Nasmith, architect William Greaves, and Zeidler’s oldest child, Margie, peer into one of those canals. The fallen tree trunk dipping its half-century-old branches into the murky water illustrates its current state of neglect.

Built over two years for C$29m, Ontario Place, which included an open-air, 3,000-seat concert venue, The Forum, under a hyperbolic paraboloid roof, opened with great fanfare in May 1971. In 1972, the wildly successful Children’s Village playground opened. While attendance peaked at more than three million a year in the 1970s, that number was halved by the 1990s and plummeted to well under a million by the 2000s. This, our little group postulates, can be blamed on a loss of focus in Ontario Place’s offering, which shifted from Expo quality to carnival rides.

Shut down by the provincial government in 2012, the grounds and the innovative, modernist buildings have faced an uncertain future ever since. The Children’s Village is gone, as is the beloved Forum, which was replaced by a behemoth called the Molson Amphitheatre. With government changing twice since – currently Doug Ford, brother of the late, notorious, crack-smoking Toronto mayor Rob Ford, is premier of Ontario – there has been no shortage of visioning exercises, committees, rumours of a casino, and a plan to finally bring a much-needed subway stop to the site, which today hosts events such as winter light shows and art workshops, as well as screenings at the Cinesphere, the sole part of the complex to be restored in 2017.

‘It’s unfortunate but we have no information to offer the public at this time,’ laments Eriks Eglite, Ontario Place’s director of special projects. ‘Everyone that I know, that I’ve had a beer with, asks: so what’s going on? And, unfortunately, we’re all waiting.’

Meanwhile, Ontario Place does the ‘listicle’ walk of shame: Heritage Canada Foundation’s Top 10 Endangered List in 2012; Docomomo US in 2014; and, thanks to the efforts of Greaves, the World Monuments Fund 2020 Watch. Ontario Place should be to Toronto what the Opera House is to Sydney. Under the surface rust, Zeidler’s jewel still shines. ‘And this is where we get back to the maintenance,’ says Margie as she ponders a temporary food service structure plunked right in front of one of her father’s small, crystalline-shaped restaurant buildings. ‘You need the same visionary people that designed it to be running it, you know?’

‘That’s very hopeful, but yes,’ agrees Bridget. ‘It’s like Michael said in that lecture, once you hand it over to the client, it’s theirs.’ 

A version of this article was first published in the April 2020 issue of Wallpaper.* Current plans for Ontario Place include moving the Ontario Science Centre there.

wmf.org /project/ontario-place

Stillness and drama converge in this Canadian guest house by Halifax-based MacKay-Lyons Sweatapple Architects on the country's East Coast. The project, a retreat attached to a larger estate including a little boathouse and a larger main house currently under construction by the same practice, has just been completed and ticks all the boxes for its typology: a serene, yet powerful, restorative place to engage with its coastal landscape – earning it a nod for best retreat in the Wallpaper* Design Awards 2025.

Tour El Aleph: a quiet, yet dramatic Canadian guest house

Brian MacKay-Lyons is the practice’s co-founder and the architect behind numerous private homes as well as Shobac, his own farm compound and architecture education centre on the Atlantic coast. He first came upon the plot that comprises the complex some 20 years ago. He attempted building on it twice in the past, for different clients and with varied briefs, before, third time lucky, his current clients, from New York, provided him with the perfect excuse to go at it again. ‘Every time we returned to the site starting from scratch,’ he says.

The guest house sits on a lot that faces, on one side, land that is said to be sacred to the region’s Indigenous Mi’kmaq People, and a headland on the opposite end. It’s on an uplift ridge and the surf comes in and out across its millions of years old rocky ledge. ‘Elemental’ seems to be an understatement for a site that feels mesmerisingly wild and open to the weather. It was a perfect fit for MacKay-Lyons, whose studio is known for crafting quiet buildings with a strong presence and a story to tell.

The main home, which was designed at the same time as the guest structure but is larger and currently about a year off from completion, is drum-shaped and features a square courtyard at its heart (‘It’s our nod to Louis Khan’s Exeter Library,’ McKay-Lyons says). Its shape was extruded and conceptually moved to a position nearly a kilometre away; it became the guest house. It is placed on the promontory’s granite bedrock on stilts. ‘When you’re there, it feels like you’re alone in the world,’ says the architect. ‘You can see the other structures but it’s a long journey from anywhere, it’s remote and dangerous, as well as spiritual, so it’s the perfect place to feel the solitude and be in tune with nature.’

Large openings, crafted around vistas and treating the four façades as a single, continuous ‘wrapper’, allow residents to be at one with their environment. Doors draw back and the living space becomes open to the elements – a risky choice, perhaps, as during a storm, MacKay-Lyons recalls, the rough sea and wind at one point threw a large rock through a neighbour’s roof. This fierce relationship was part of the goal. The architect adds: ‘We thought about it as a panopticon – a concept that allows you to see 360-degree ocean and landscape views. This is also where the project’s name – El Aleph – comes from, referencing Jorge Luis Borges’ book of the same name that describes the ultimate panopticon, a place from where you can see everything in the universe. ’

While refined formal detailing and rigorous spatial planning make for a finely tuned architectural experience, there is also a roughness and toughness about El Aleph, wrapped as it is in a thin, continuous leaded copper skin. ‘The landscape and the building share this,’ MacKay-Lyons says.

‘The guesthouse is manmade but also timeless, a 28ft pure cube. It has a strong relationship to the land and feels solid, but it’s also floating. There is a charge and energy between it and the natural context – architecture is not copying nature, but feeding off it.’

Large, opening-free areas on the façades allow moments of quiet, a kind of ‘white’ space that acts as a ‘breather’ to this tension, he says. The materials are not precious and might change appearance over time, but this was not about creating a precious retreat, the architect is quick to point out. ‘Louis Khan talks a lot about silence. There’s a lot of noise in the world. We want to make buildings that are more invisible and more silent. Silent but with more to say.’

mlsarchitects.ca

All of the Wallpaper* Design Awards 2025 winners will be celebrated online over the coming month and are featured in full in the February 2025 issue of Wallpaper* , available in print on newsstands from 9 January 2025, on the Wallpaper* app on Apple iOS, and to subscribers of Apple News +. Subscribe to Wallpaper* today

It feels like the past year was one of reassessment. In fact, the prefix ‘re’ seems to be popping up in project descriptions and initiatives the world over, with architects rethinking, restructuring, refitting and reimagining, aiming to restore, rebalance and renew the built environment and the way we live. Perhaps this is nothing new and indeed the entire purpose of architecture – to transform lives. Or perhaps this is felt more acutely now than ever, as big, ongoing debates on critical global topics (sustainability, equality, inclusion) and dramatic recent world events (pandemic, war and political turbulence) have sparked an urge in us all to hit refresh.

An overarching need for repair and reinvention is sparking simultaneously a speeding up and a slowing down of action on various fronts, as signalled in some key new projects that are primed to set the mood for 2025 – as part of an era of powerful, yet gentle statements.

Wallpaper’s Ellie Stathaki delves into what defined the 2025 Wallpaper* Architecture Awards

Wellbeing and restorative strategies are increasingly coming to the forefront of our efforts to nurture people, places, and souls. In this context, connecting with nature is steadily rising to the top of the priority list for many. For some, this might take the form of experiencing open spaces and the wild outdoors or seeking solitude and retreat, where one can focus on views, nature and oneself. Protecting and preserving said nature is an arm of this practice, boldly delivered through an entirely new arboretum in Belgium’s Marche-en-Famenne.

This trend can also bring out the desire to escape; here holiday homes, from the archetypal, simple cabin to more luxurious, contemporary guest houses, have always had this allure, often used as shorthand for the desire to leave the world’s problems behind and go into cocoon mode to refocus and hopefully, reach inspired solutions. Few projects embody this sentiment better than Halifax architect Brian MacKay-Lyons’ El Aleph, a building that is ‘silent, but with more to say’ on the ragged Canadian coast.

Of course, it would be naive to suggest that we should all forego the buzz of urban living and become solitary nature explorers. Cities and their myriad offerings present a different kind of ecosystem but one that’s equally important to develop and grow, blending the urban condition’s multiple layers and facets, while prioritising residents’ (human and otherwise) well-being.

Pausing to breathe and sync with the elements can happen here too, and doing so is not a mere ‘bonus’ any longer – but a necessity. The case of Rotterdam, The Netherlands’ second largest metropolitan area (but at a couple of million, still relatively small, compared to the world’s megalopolises) brings an interesting and refreshing approach to the global stage. How can this industrial, modern, growing city incorporate sustainable attitudes and intentions? The answer seems to be through several initiatives, all happening simultaneously, taking action at different scales while playing the long game.

This rethinking of our built environment also translates to the smaller scale and existing buildings. Our rich legacy of 20th-century treasures, many of which are now steadily becoming in urgent need of a refresh, is an interesting topic to explore in this light. What does the legacy of modernism mean for the 21st century, and where does it fit into our current needs and wider zeitgeist? We certainly do not need to reject the past altogether – but rather, make it work in a way that responds to the needs of today.

Helsinki’s Finlandia Hall, a listed, landmark project by Finnish modernist Alvar Aalto, responds to this with a dramatic restoration – yet a subtle one, which you may not even notice if you are simply walking past it. Opening in January 2025, the building has been delicately transformed in its accessibility and energy efficiency, while painstakingly and faithfully updating the monument’s fabric where needed.

Meanwhile, tackling the other end of the spectrum of the life of a building, Limbo Accra has launched its first physical museum - Limbo Museum - in the Ghanaian capital tasked with examining the African continent’s unfinished buildings, what they mean, and the role of these ‘ruins’ in our cities.

Architecture is a notoriously slow-moving beast, but if these projects are any indication, there is plenty to be hopeful about for 2025. And there’s plenty to be looking out for too, as after a pandemic lull, a slew of key new cultural openings are now on the horizon for the new year – including (but not limited to) the Yale Centre of British Arts’ reopening post-restoration in New Haven; the Tselinny Center of Contemporary Culture by Asif Khan in Almaty, Kazakhstan; the Frick Collection’s reimagining by Selldorf Architects in New York; the 2025 Expo Osaka; ; and Jean Nouvel’s new Fondation Cartier in Paris.

At the same time, the human dynamic seems to be changing too, thanks to digital technology. As architect and academic Lesley Lokko puts it in her essay about taking stock and looking forward to the next year, ‘newer, younger, “other” voices are bursting onto the scene and there is a generosity in the cultural zeitgeist that I find really inspiring.’ To move forward, this injection of fresh thinking is just what we need.

Best Modernist Revival

Finlandia Hall, Helsinki, Finland

Modernist architecture master Alvar Aalto's design for Finlandia Hall, a large concert and congress venue in Helsinki’s Töölö Bay, was built in 1971. It has since become a landmark, not only for its architect’s oeuvre but also for the city and Finland’s wider cultural scene. By 2019, nearly fifty years after its creation, Finlandia Hall was due a refresh. Now a listed monument and beloved city icon, Finlandia Hall has been refreshed by Arkkitehdit NRT, deeply yet delicately restoring its fabric and functions set to bring it to the 21st century.

Best Retreat

El Aleph Guest House by MacKay-Lyons Sweetapple, Canada

‘Elemental’ seems to be an understatement for El Aleph and its site, which feels mesmerizingly wild and open to the weather. The project was a perfect fit for MacKay-Lyons, whose studio is known for crafting quiet buildings with a strong presence and a story to tell. ‘When you’re there, it feels like you’re alone in the world,’ says the architect. ‘You can see the other structures but it’s a long journey from anywhere, it’s remote and dangerous, as well as spiritual, so it’s the perfect place to feel the solitude and be in tune with nature.’

Best Urban Rethink

Rotterdam, The Netherlands

Rotterdam has been changing, responding to the worldwide climate emergency, its intense densification in the past 15 years, its location on the mouth of the River Rhine, and the gradual move of its enormous port to a site further outside its main urban core towards the sea. Now, a range of new initiatives and live projects prove that this extremely architecturally active city has sprung straight into action in the face of these difficulties. As part of the country’s recently announced ‘New Dutch’ movement, a platform that focuses on its 21st-century innovation, Rotterdam has generated a wealth of schemes that aim to safeguard the city’s longevity and health - both in terms of its urban fabric and inhabitants.

Best Landscape

Marche Arboretum, Belgium

A new plant ‘museum’ has opened in Marche-en-Famenne, in the region of Wallonia. The site, Marche Arboretum, which has been many years in the making, includes a new visitor centre by local studio AW architectes. Marche-en-Famenne is the second scheme of its kind initiated by businessman and dendrologist Philippe de Spoelberch, who started informally planting trees in his family estate in Wespelaar, Flanders in 1966. An extension to an initial 10ha in 1986 allowed him to further his collection. The entire 20-ha extension was donated in 2003 to a dedicated foundation, the Stichting Arboretum Wespelaar - which is now behind Marche Arboretum.

Best Architectural Legacy

Limbo Museum, Ghana

Limbo Accra’s transformative approach to architecture redefines what it means to engage with the built environment - and their latest project, Limbo Museum, has just opened in collaboration with curator Diallo Simon-Ponte and architect Lennart Wolff,. By repairing and reimagining unfinished spaces, the studio creates dynamic platforms for dialogue, creativity and community, resulting in a new legacy for overlooked structures. Ultimately, Limbo Accra’s work reminds us that within every building skeleton lies the potential for new beginnings. 

All of the Wallpaper* Design Awards 2025 winners will be celebrated online over the coming month and are featured in full in the February 2025 issue of Wallpaper* , available in print on newsstands from 9 January 2025, on the Wallpaper* app on Apple iOS, and to subscribers of Apple News +. Subscribe to Wallpaper* today

When Raymond Moriyama (1929 – 2023) designed the Ontario Science Centre (1969), he took on the architectural mandate to ‘connect with nature’ to another level. Building on a challenging patch of green, 12km from Toronto’s downtown core, the Vancouver-born, Toronto-based architect broke down the building into three parts and made it a slave to its site: part one sits on the public road; a bridge leads to part two; and an escalator down a valley to part three.

As an added challenge, he made it out of concrete but so apposite it seems as if it grew from a scattering of seeds. But don’t call it brutalist architecture, says architect Brian Rudy, who worked closely with Moriyama on the 2005 Canadian War Museum in Ottawa.

The case of the Ontario Science Centre

'Maybe, technically, it was done in the brutalism era,' he says, ‘but it really wasn’t the experience in the building; [it was] about the textures, the spaces, and most importantly, the connection to nature. The bridge was the moment of being up in the treetops, seeing the canopy of trees, whatever wildlife you can see, getting a different perspective on the forest, and then the escalator was about the understory and the root systems, and the bugs and the insects.’

It certainly was unlike anything that had ever been built before. When the commission was awarded by the Ontario government in 1964, it was Canada’s first interactive science museum and one of the first in North America. Generations of school children were deposited under its bold, cantilevered canopy (obscured by a 1996 renovation by Zeidler Roberts Partnership that also added a domed IMAX theatre).

This led to an airy reception hall, where the anticipation of a day filled with touchy-feely activities and the hair-raising experience of the Van der Graaff generator filled the air with more than just static electricity. Some kids (such as this writer) were more interested, however, in the jagged bands of concrete and how they contrasted with other bits that looked like fossilised wood.

'He had very specific ideas about how the board-form pattern [...] should look and feel and work,' says Rudy. 'I remember he talked about the ooze joints, which means separating the boards where you’re forming it to ensure the concrete oozes out between them, and that was all about making it look very natural and kind of rough-hewn.'

Part rough-hewn Mayan temple, part sleek modernist architecture pavilion, Moriyama’s magnum opus currently faces an uncertain future. Abruptly closed by the provincial government in June 2024 due to 'failing infrastructure including critical roof issues' (quoted from the OSC website), the building was referred to as a ‘total mess’ by Ontario premier Doug Ford at a press conference.

Public outcry was swift, and the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation found that less than six per cent of the building’s reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (RAAC) roof tiles were dangerous. Working with Rudy, Canadian Architect magazine editor Elsa Lam determined that none of those were over exhibition areas. Moriyama Teshima Architects offered to oversee repairs pro-bono; the 'godfather' of artificial intelligence, University of Toronto professor Geoffery Hinton, offered up a million Canadian dollars; the family-run Vohra Miller Foundation offered the same; the Save Ontario Science Centre Group raised almost 93,000 signatures to a letter to the Premier to save it; while other concerned groups raised hundreds of thousands of dollars.

The premier has not accepted any help thus far, opting instead for plans to relocate the OSC to much smaller quarters at the shuttered Ontario Place site in Toronto Harbour (a significant architectural complex his government closed down as well).

'We do have a kind of brain trust that we’ve been working with and we’re trying to reimagine what it could be,' finishes Rudy. 'The City of Toronto seems to be interested in working with us and helping us. It’s a real legacy piece of architecture that, internationally, is recognised.'

While the province owns the Ontario Science Centre, the land it sits on is leased to the province by the City of Toronto and is governed by the Toronto and Region Conservation Authority (TRCA). The lease expires in 2064.

ontariosciencecentre.ca

mtarch.com

savesciencecentre.com

Feast your eyes on some of the top houses of 2024 in our edit of 12 outstanding residential stories. The end of the year and the start of a new one always prompt a bit of stock-taking and looking back – before we look forward, fully re-energised. These homes all commanded our attention during 2024; some through their ability to make us think, and some because they inspired us to travel virtually, from our sofa, through the sheer power of their captivating design and site.

Top 12 houses of 2024, picked by Wallpaper’s Ellie Stathaki

The 12 houses that follow represent some of the year's most-read stories, sprinkled with a handful of Wallpaper* team faves. Interestingly, stylish new designs sit alongside rediscovered modernist architecture classics, and results include projects from different corners of the Earth. Scroll down to see them all.

Station Lodge by Andrei Saltykov, UK

Station Lodge peeks out between New Malden's typical period homes, inviting visitors to the architecturally unexpected. This new home, designed by architect Andrei Saltykov in south-west London is certainly unusual – and offers a radical subversion to the residential architecture of its region.

Explore Station Lodge

Petra Island Massaro House by Frank Lloyd Wright, USA

Joe Massaro’s personal charm and determination should not be underestimated. Many before him had tried and failed to realise Frank Lloyd Wright’s proposal for a 5,000 sq ft residence on Petra Island, a heart-shaped private islet on Lake Mahopac, in New York’s Hudson Valley. He made it happen.

Explore Petra Island Massaro House

Concrete House by the Ocean by Micaela Benedicto of MB Architecture Studio, The Philippines

In a way, Concrete House by the Ocean does what it says on the tin – this family residence in The Philippines celebrates a concrete construction in a privileged seaside plot near the city of Nasugbu in the province of Batangas. Its name's simplicity, however, can be deceptive, as architect Micaela Benedicto had to masterfully craft the house to take in the striking seaside views of its cliffside location and be a comfortable contemporary home in refined minimalist architecture for her clients.

Explore Concrete House by the Ocean

Big Sur House by Field Architecture, USA

The rugged wilderness surrounding this Big Sur house is representative of its section of the Californian coast. Big Sur stretches 75 miles from Carmel to Gorda and offers truly dramatic landscapes, with the Santa Lucia mountains rising sharply 5,000 ft above sea level. It is in this dynamic and remote environment, shaped by heavy winter storms, wildfires, and the mighty Pacific Ocean, that you will find the latest private residence by Field Architecture.

Explore Big Sur House

Casa M by A-Lab Architecture, Portugal

A pattern of cement blocks poetically punctuates Casa M's exterior, a home which stands sentinel on a hill in Alvor, a seaside village of Algarve. The Portuguese region has over 300 days of sun per year, which makes it challenging to design homes without the AC unit – a bête noire of green-minded architects. One natural cooling tactic – common in Palm Springs and São Paulo, too – is cobogós, the hollow bricks that allow cool air to permeate a space without exposing it to the sun. This is exactly what this house is making the most of.

Explore Casa M

House of Greens by 4site Architects, India

In the suburbs of Bengaluru, India, House of Greens is a private slice of serenity, tucked away behind falling vines and leafy shrubbery. The home is designed by 4site Architects, who focused on creating a residence in touch with nature, visually and physically, for their clients. The architecture firm, based locally, wanted its work to reflect its home town's nickname, 'City of Gardens', a nod to its abundance of green space. Drawing inspiration from the surrounding gardens, parks and lakes, this home is a tranquil retreat with sustainable architecture and greenery at its core.

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House in High Park by Ian MacDonald Architect, Canada

With House in High Park, it's clear why Ian MacDonald has become Toronto’s architect of record for a certain homeowner blessed – whether they recognise it or not – with a tricky location. The architect's extraordinary buildings don’t merely overcome inhospitable conditions; they benefit from sharing their space with stubborn rock, overgrowth and draconian red tape. His talent lies in transforming such liabilities into fascinating characteristics. This vacant plot overlooking a 400-acre park – a so-called 'missing tooth' in the residential streetscape – presented just his sort of challenge.

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Four Mumbai apartments by Rajiv Saini, India

Four Mumbai apartments in the Indian city's Colaba district have been transformed into a single, flowing, family home by locally-based designer Rajiv Saini. The project, which spans an impressive 8,000 sq feet, including a large-scale terrace overlooking the city skyline, was a challenge in terms of bringing together the disparate apartment interior designs into a cohesive, light-filled whole.

Explore the Mumbai apartments’ transformation

Ena de Silva House by Geoffrey Bawa, Sri Lanka

In 1960, when Ena de Silva and her husband Osmund were casting about for an architect to build their family home on a small plot they’d just bought in Colombo, Sri Lanka, her friend, the landscaper Bevis Bawa, suggested his younger brother, Geoffrey, who had just started practising. De Silva, a bona fide aristocrat from Kandy in central Sri Lanka, hesitated. She’d seen the architect around town in his Rolls-Royce, his blond tresses and silk scarf fluttering in the wind, and had been decidedly unimpressed. Dilettante, she famously thought. To her surprise, she and Bawa hit it off, and the pair became lifelong friends and collaborators.

Discover Ena de Silva house’s remarkable preservation story

Villa Baizeau by Le Corbusier, Tunisia

Think of Carthage, and modernist architecture is unlikely to come to mind. Yet Villa Baizeau – Le Corbusier's only project in Africa – is located right here, in the historic suburb of the Tunisian capital, just steps from its impressive Roman ruins and brilliant blue seas. An exhibition in 32bis, a multistorey cultural space in downtown Tunis, earlier in 2024 aimed to bring the story of this lesser-known Le Corbusier project to the wider public. Locally based architect Chacha Atallah was the driving force behind the show, curated by architectural historian Roberto Gargiani and supported by art platform La Boîte. 'It went from being a private home to a property that became part of the presidential palace precinct so it has an air of mystery about it.'

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Chu Ming Silveira House, Brazil

A previously unseen house by Chu Ming Silveira formed the backdrop for this summer's ABERTO art and design exhibition in the Brazilian metropolis of São Paulo. The brutalist architecture home, which has never been published or opened to the public, was created in the early 1970s by the visionary Asian Brazilian architect and designer – whose work remains largely unknown outside the country's borders. With its bold concrete and glass structure, the house was crafted to symbolise a vision for the home of the future, at the time of its design – bringing together a powerful aesthetic with functionality.

Explore the Chu Ming Silveira house

Northcote House by David Leggett and Paul Loh, Australia

One neighbour refers to Northcote House as the ‘opera’ one. Accessed from an unassuming laneway in the Melbourne suburb of Northcote, it couldn’t be more different – in style, size, situation – to Australia’s more famous opera building, nearly 900km away in Sydney. Perhaps the home’s cantilevered, timber-strutted awning initiated the analogy – a grand gesture on a pint-sized block behind a row of shops. Designed by architects David Leggett and Paul Loh as their own home, the house was years in the making and has received numerous accolades since its completion earlier this year, including an award from the Australian Institute of Architects.

Explore Northcote House