Watch Apparatus’ film produced by creative director Gabriel Hendifar and filmmaker Matthew Placek. Courtesy of Apparatus

The smouldering elegance of New York-based studio Apparatus’ world comes to life in the form of a new film that the design studio’s creative director Gabriel Hendifar produced together with filmmaker Matthew Placek. Created to mirror the studio’s latest collection, Act III, the film and the designs both draw from Hendifar’s personal experience as a first generation American born after the Islamic Revolution in Iran.

Set within a futurist villa located in an Iranian desert landscape, the film follows a young boy as he ventures around the empty family home, which showcases Apparatus’ newest furniture and lighting creations. Its dreamy, melancholic tone is propelled by the soundtrack of a woman singing in Farsi (actually Hendifar’s mother, Afsaneh) and references Hendifar’s childhood memories of hearing stories and recollections of a place he had never been that were shared amongst his family over food and song.

‘This is the first time I have mined personal cultural history to inform a collection, and so this one is very close to the heart for me,’ Hendifar says. ‘As a first-generation American, my moments of intersection with Iran and its culture have always been experienced at a distance. I’ve never been, and it was a place that my family had to leave abruptly. My connection to it has always been through their rose-tinted memories of this place that is suspended in time, almost a fantasy. This collection is an attempt to create a tangible connection to this place, and to imagine it on my own terms.’

In the collection, the cultural motifs are treated with an equal sophistication. Ranging from its Drum table, which nods to the shape of the Persian Tombak drum, to the Pars series that features stacked leather disks along brass legs to echo the tray tables found all over the Middle East, there is a poetic pancultural fusion of influences that ripples through each of the designs.

For those who wish to see the works in person, Apparatus has opened its studio during New York Design Week for visitors until 23 May.

See more from New York Design Week here

INFORMATION

The Act III collection is on view until 23 May. For more information, visit the Apparatus website

ADDRESS

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The white, clean shapes of the 20th-century’s modernist villas and the sculptural outlines of brutalist concrete homes make for perfect juxtapositions against the softness and rawness of nature; but creating playful contrasts is not the only way to negotiate architecture’s relationship to nature. Often, a different approach can have just as striking results, and Alma-nac’s House in the Woods, a new modern home quietly nestled in a tree-filled site within the South Downs National Park, is a case in point.

Aiming to create a contemporary house for its clients, a family that owned a bungalow on site for over 60 years, the London-based practice chose to work with modern shapes but took a softer approach, opting for clean but relatively modest geometries, brick-clad volumes and a pitched roof that references local vernacular.

This being an area of outstanding natural beauty, it was important for the team to make the most of its surroundings, while respecting the setting. ‘Together with our client, we wanted to make the most of the views out to the landscaped garden and the South Downs beyond and a connection with the outdoors was essential’, explain the architects. It was equally crucial for the client to design a space that is flexible enough to act as a one-bedroom holiday home, but also accommodate larger family gatherings and guests when needed.

The result is a warm and thoroughly modern home that spans 240 sq m and two levels, featuring large openings that connect inside and outside visually through abundant glazing, and directly, with living spaces spilling out onto decks, terraces and gardens. A natural material palette of hand-cut brick, timber and natural slate also emphasise the house’s affiliation to the outdoors.

A generous, flowing ground level plays host to the main living spaces, including sitting room, and kitchen and dinning areas (divided by a feature fireplace), which are placed on the southern end of the plan. Double-height spaces underline a sense of lightness and space. Two large bedrooms are located upstairs, while further guest rooms are situated on the ground level’s southern side.

The project’s effortless connection to nature made it an ideal architectural setting for our outdoors themed fashion story, ‘Natural High’, featured in our June 2018 issue, out now.

INFORMATION
For more information visit Alma-nac’s website

London-based design and development studio Noiascape has principles that date back to the Victorian era. Brothers and architects Tom and James Teatum, the founders of Noiascape, list public libraries, bath houses, parks and civic spaces as some of the first examples of the shared economy – ‘We want to re-engage with this view of urban space,’ they say.

The Teatum brothers, who grew up in West London with a father who worked as a builder and an aunt who ran a local pub, are familiar with the ever-evolving London residential scene. Their studio, Noiascape, produces well-designed mixed-use buildings and a range of co-rental spaces across London that are aimed at ‘generation rent’.

The Garden House is designed for the co-living lifestyle. It’s a rental property – part of Noiscape’s growing portfolio – that they designed, developed and also manage. For the Teatums, co-living is a facet of their mantra of ‘modern living’: ‘We consider modern living as a mix of an efficient infrastructure, a flexible spatial organisation that can be adapted, and a level of service that allows our tenants to focus on enjoying the spaces.’

They reorganised an existing mews house in Hammersmith, completely redesigning the interior structure to create central double-height spaces, a study space in a new roof level and a long garden room space.

Instead of isolating renters into a box room, the house is carefully configured to encourage social interactions and the option to comfortably work from home. One unconventional move was to invert the living and bedroom spaces: ‘By placing the living space at first floor and second floor, we could create double-height spaces that were top and side lit – triple aspect spaces change in daylight quality through the day, they are more animated compared to single aspect.’

Exposed materiality – from the cast concrete walls, to the birch joinery and coloured floors – brings a unified personality to the home and encourages renters to use and enjoy space. ‘Considered architecture will always engage and be a reason to enjoy experiencing space,’ say the architects, whose aim is to resist ‘monocultures’ and bring living, working and social space together, as part of their ‘City in a Building’ concept which they bring to all their schemes.

‘We place social and cultural exchange as the generator of the project’, they say. This spring, Noiascape will break ground on their ‘High Street House’ that consists of 12 residential studios to rent, above a new gallery and residents lounge with communal facilities in Shepherds Bush, London.

INFORMATION

For more information visit the Noiascape website

Not many houses can boast sites as spectacular as those in the Chilean countryside. From dramatic rocky shores to dry deserts and leafy mountains, the South American country is not short of striking landscapes where architecture can choose to blend seamlessly, becoming one with the scenery, or make a mark, standing defiantly against the surrounding nature. Casa Hualle, the latest residential project by Ampueroyutronic, belongs somewhere in-between.

Located in the town of Pucon in the country’s Araucania region, the house is set within a landscape of open vistas, a lake and the rolling hills of the nearby Villarrica volcano. The single family residence is a sculptural volume created by geometric folds and cut outs (one of them highlighting the entrance), clearly marking its presence within its surrounds; but at the same time the architects – led by Javier Ampuero and Catalina Yutronic – chose to embrace its natural environment by carving large openings out of its monolithic form, orientating the eyes towards the views, taking in the nature and placing it centre stage. Additionally, its dark-stained softwood skin colour references the area’s architecture, which has been traditionally clad in black volcanic rock.

Inside, the space unfolds across 230 sq m and two storeys. Offsetting the black exterior, the interior is enveloped in pale, almost white, stained wood. Smooth, exposed concrete floors bring all the different rooms together. A central double-height volume sits at the heart of the house, hosting the kitchen, dining and living areas on the ground level. Flanking it are two guest bedrooms, while upstairs sits the master bedroom and bathroom. This is accessed by a carefully designed, generous staircase that doubles as a library and studio space, with a gallery that overlooks the main living spaces below.

In a gesture of respect towards the surrounding nature, the architects opted for the use of a number of eco-friendly systems, including passive energy saving features that encourage sustainability; while a swimming pool outside makes taking the plunge an exciting experience, set against the dramatic volcanic backdrop.

INFORMATION
For more information visit the Ampueroyutronic website

Dealing with a city’s existing fabric is an intrinsic part of the urban architect’s daily work and challenges. Groves Natcheva, a dynamic Kensington-based practice, knows this well. The firm has consistently created craft-based, sophisticated residences across the British capital, from mews renovations to new-build townhouses. So when it completed its latest residential offering – the redesign of a 20th-century home in Hampstead – its signature approach of confident, yet very refined design, was unmistakable. 

While the original architect’s name was unknown, the team knew the house had a fascinating history, being the home of German actor Conrad Veidt who was forced to emigrate to London in 1933 to escape the rise of Nazism. Dark brick and patterned tiles, as well as the house’s fairly formal presence (with its rectangular forms being set back from the residential street), create a subtle art deco feel throughout. 

The current client, a property development company, approached Adriana Natcheva and Murrey Groves in 2011 with the task to redesign the building to feel more open and also increase in size. The architects also needed to reconfigure the layout to suit 21st-century living.

Take an interactive tour of Hampstead House

The architects embraced the building’s inherent character. ‘We chose to engage with the existing building with a lightness of touch always, choosing to tell the story of the refurbishment within the fabric of the building. Great care was taken at the intersections between old and new,’ they say. Colours and materials were chosen to blend seamlessly with both parts of the house resulting in a consistent, well-balanced composition that hovers between Nordic simplicity and craft-based minimalism. 

Of course there were also changes to be made. ‘Our client showed a desire for a greater connection to the garden and there was a need to bring the house up to modern standards of heating and insulation’, recall the architects. They also gave the building a new roof (clad in bronze and tile), new brickwork at places and new windows, which ‘sharpened the edges of the house’, they add. 

The result? A thoroughly refreshed home, rich in detail and history and effortlessly mixing old and new.

INFORMATION

For more information visit the website of Groves Natcheva

In a gritty but rapidly evolving part of San Francisco’s SoMa (South of Market) neighbourhood, Thai-born artist and architectural designer Raveevarn Choksombatchai (who often goes by the single name Raveevarn) has recently completed a new live-work building for herself. Along these urban streets, it's increasingly common to encounter cutting-edge and experimental architecture shoulder to shoulder with worn industrial structures. Like much of the recent interventions, Raveevarn’s new home-and-studio took on the challenges of a tight, mid-block site.

She responded with a quiet insertion that strikes a balance between engaging its urban surroundings while maintaining a private, secure inner realm. From outside, the almost cubic, two-story structure – clad in metal that echoes the industrial setting – may appear deceptively simple. But on the inside, this courtyard building reveals itself as an architecture of layered veils.

Take an interactive tour of 49 Grace

The outermost skin is a rain-screen, a facade of perforated aluminum panels, which overlap to create moiré patterns and other optical effects. Within that shell, a glass-and-metal layer wraps the 226 sq m of interior space; and further inside is a honeycomb of thin, sheet-metal shelving – a practical storage element that forms a two-story partition along the stairway up to the main residential level. Beyond that steel matrix of cubby holes, the design plays with light in finer-grained ways. For example, the freestanding bathroom structures on each floor glow, lantern-like, at their tops, where layers of stretched, translucent fabric form a light-diffusing enclosure. The architect designed all the built-ins, and the place – which includes a garage and a guest suite — also showcases her collections of mid-century modern furnishings and ceramics (much of that pottery is displayed on the steel shelves).

Throughout, there’s an animated play of opacity versus transparency, with screening elements modulating light, shadow, and views in (while simultaneously providing for generous views out). It’s an architecture that changes appearance continually over the course of the day and night, with the facade morphing from quite solid to seemingly ethereal. Meanwhile, across the inner realm, spaces flow together with boundaries subtly defined, as walls of intense colour — such as tangerine and hot pink — punctuate the interior, leading the way.

INFORMATION

For more information visit Veev Design’s website

When faced with the redesign of a Victorian townhouse, most architects would be tempted to go for a typical open-plan floorplate; not Edmonds + Lee Architects. The San Francisco-based firm decided to buck the trend, and maintain the division between different rooms in Gable House, one of their recent residential projects in their home city. The architects decided instead to focus on the internal flow and the strategic sequence of spaces.

Working the client who is also a designer, the architects masterminded the 3,000 sq ft renovation and extension by embracing the original house’s character, and bringing it into the 21st century with carefully placed details and an overall Scandinavian aesthetic.

The floor is lined with extra long, Dinesen Douglas Fir planks, creating a seamless interior. The client’s favourite objects are the highlights of each room, explain the architects. So there are pieces by Arne Jacobsen and from Carl Hansen and B&B Italia, all housed beneath the existing, but refurbished pitched roof – a key architectural element the architects decided to retain and celebrate.

Gable House’s main living level is the raised ground floor, with a basement below hosting the garage and auxiliary spaces. The living room and the kitchen and dining area (with cabinetry designed by Sozo Studio) sit separately, lit brightly by large openings towards the landscaped garden by Garden Route Company. The three bedrooms with en-suite bathrooms occupy the top two floors.

The carefully choreographed rooms were designed to ‘draw visitors through the house, with each room offering a different experience’, say the architects. The sequence reaches its culmination at the very top.

‘At the top of this procession is a celebration of the original architecture of the building’, say the architects. ‘A moment of jubilance that sets the home apart from the flat ceiling typical of modern renovations. The attic of Gable House instead reflects and honours its pitched roof, featuring skylights and a playful approach to cove lighting. The end result is a house that is airy with effortless, timeless and tactile minimalism.’

INFORMATION
For more information visit the website of Edmonds + Lee Architects

If one were to paint a picture of the perfect tropical retreat, it would surely involve large open spaces, swathes of concrete, wood and glass, generous openings that create a seamless transition between the interiors and the lush greenery and bright sunlight outside. Studio Saxe has it nailed with not one, but two neighbouring houses in Costa Rica’s Santa Teresa rainforest. 

The Joya Villas, a set of modern homes designed as rental properties, are head architect Benjamin Garcia Saxe’s latest residential offering. The San Jose-based architect likes to explore the relationship between architecture and the natural environment, and this commission gave him the perfect excuse to test out his studies.

Take an interactive tour of Joya Villas

The houses are nestled on a hillside and jut out of the area’s rich forest vegetation, standing out with their steel frames and rectangular forms. Aiming to use modernist forms and an international, contemporary design language, the studio paired the structural steel with naked concrete and wooden screens and doors, referencing both historical and modern Central American tropical architecture. 

Dramatic cantilevers hang over the houses’ main living spaces, offering shade and protection from the region’s warm sun. The large openings and delicate details – such as the floating staircases – engender a sense of lightness. The interior follows a traditional arrangement, with living spaces on the ground level, leading out to a terrace with swimming pool, while private rooms are tucked away above. 

‘Joya Villas is a clear reflection of a new wave of contextual contemporary tropical architecture that is born from and adapts to its precise location, land contours, and climate’, says Garcia Saxe. ‘Everything we do at Studio Saxe is focused on trying to enhance the experience of the natural in the inhabitant of spaces and perhaps even create moments of relaxation and reflection. This train of thought and the architecture that is emerging could begin to be considered as the birth of an authentic Central American Tropical Architecture.’

INFORMATION

For more information visit the website of Studio Saxe

The Disco House in Notting Hill, London, is the fifth collaboration between architect William Smalley and Danny Pine, founder and creative director of interior design and property investment company Pinzauer. From the shell that they found five years ago, this dynamic duo has fashioned six floors of decorative delight, using a delirious mix of Italian and bespoke pieces.

‘The design of the house evolved during the time we worked on it,’ says Pine, ‘and is really the distillation of our shared experiences – travels, conversations, films, books. The final product is nothing like either of us would have thought of alone but is a consequence of creative tension: a dissonance that resulted in something harmonious.’

The not inconsiderable challenge for Smalley and Pine was to preserve (or more accurately, recreate) the character of a Victorian townhouse while incorporating 21st-century essentials such as the display kitchen, the twin walk-through wardrobes in the master bedroom, the home cinema and a Peter Zumthor / Vals-inspired spa room in the basalt-lined sub-basement.

The house is full of meticulously designed details, such as the reeded oak stair rail that takes the curve of the original newel post on the ground floor, the alabaster windows or the brass fillets in the ceiling of the first-floor den that link the centre of the back window to the centre of the opening to the drawing room.

Italian influences abound, with vintage pieces by Gio Ponti, Paolo Buffa and Melchiorre Bega that Pine sourced on visits to Milan, mixed with modern classics from B&B Italia and Flexform, but perhaps our favourite room is the Villa Necchi Campiglio-inspired winter garden: all glass and polished brass, with a heated green marble floor.

It may all look madly opulent, but Smalley says ‘I think there is a clarity underpinning the richness.’ All it needs now is Tilda Swinton to move in, dressed from head to toe in Prada.

INFORMATION

For more information visit the William Smalley website and the Danny Pine website

A drab canal-side house converted from a factory has been reinvented with sleek new interiors and a one-off roof extension. The 1990s house, Union Wharf, sits on the Regents Canal in London’s Islington. It had been fashioned out of a post-war factory, and suffered from cellular rooms, timber laminate flooring and a roof-top conservatory that leaked heat. 

The most striking change made by Nicholas Szczepaniak Architects is the replacement of that energy-inefficient top room. In its place is a steel and timber pod with visible cross-bracing on one side, which was devised with the help of structural engineers, Blue. The smart new space has a small en-suite, so that it doubles as a guest room and study. Steel cables are strung vertically in front of some of the glazing, to diffuse the direct sunlight. Light comes into the stairwell via glass bricks and a porthole, which references the boats below.

Take an interactive tour of Union Wharf House

On the ground floor, the problem was a lack of character and good usable space. Szczepaniak moved the kitchen into the converted garage and took a wall down, so that the kitchen is connected to the dining area. The previous kitchen has been turned into a playroom for the client’s young family, which can be cordoned off by a 2m by 2m fluted glass sliding door.

More lovely fluted glass has been used in the kitchen, for the specially-made rotating window shutters. ‘They were borne out of real issue, because the house is directly on the canal towpath,’ explains Szczepaniak. ‘Previously the owners had to have ugly metal shutters and a black-out blind to stop people looking in.’

With the enlarged roof-extension and clever reconfiguring on other floors, this three-storey house has gone from being 150 sq m and tired to 163 sq m and highly-functional.

INFORMATION

For more information, visit the Nicholas Szczepaniak Architects website

The Jackson Residence, designed by Seattle-based architects Bohlin Cywinski Jackson, is a spacious retreat for a couple whose retirement was an ideal moment for them to focus on their passion project – a piece of land that had lain dormant for years while life happened.

Their sloping plot, settled within the dramatic landscape of Jackson, Wyoming, had been waiting for the Jackson Residence to be built – a place for contemplation, family entertaining and a dramatic response to its location overlooking views of the Snake River Valley and the Teton Mountain Range.

The design of the house is a journey that starts at the edge of the plot; a private road moves through a sagebrush meadow alongside a grove of delicate aspen trees, descending between concrete walls that frame the moving landscape and arrive at a plateau that marks the entry to the house.

A steel canopy extends from a crevasse in the concrete façade that parts into a front door. Step inside and an axial view extends before you into the heart of the home, between two vast concrete fireplaces and out the other side to the study – a room with glazed walls that cantilevers into the landscape like a diving board into nature.

This upper level of the house is defined by a series of linear bars, wood-lined boxes and glazed ‘pavilions’ that are used as devices to segment space and frame the exterior landscape, creating intimate zoning for the couple.

The lower level – reached by a floating staircase – offers a different pace, opening up communal spaces for family time and a covered terrace for entertaining that extends into the landscape.

INFORMATION
For more information, visit the Bohlin Cywinski Jackson website

For space-strapped Londoners, making the most of unexpected and neglected sites often seems to be the only route to a bespoke family home; and the capital’s architects know this well. Emerging architecture practice 31/44’s latest residential project, Park House, is a case in point.

The house is a ground up new build structure, created in a trapezoid shaped brownfield site, formerly occupied by garages, and backing onto the River Quaggy in the London Borough of Lewisham. The architects took on the challenge to redesign the disused space into a warm family home; and so they did, using modern, rectilinear brick volumes, while taking full advantage of the location’s verdant woodland location. Frameless Velfac windows underline the structure’s light, minimalist character.

Take an interactive tour of Park House

An elegant composition of volumes and voids ensure the interior gets plenty of natural light. A dramatic double height entrance lobby leads to an array of living areas lined in oiled oak timber and grey Mosa ceramic tiles. Upstairs are the house’s bedrooms. A simple material and colour palette makes for a bright, homely, yet sharp and contemporary interior. Large windows allow for plenty of direct visual connections to the leafy outdoors, as well as a gentle shadow play inside.

Park House may have been created as a speculative single residence for a private developer, but it was snapped up by a young family in no time. The new owners admired the practice’s work ever since they had the chance to visit an earlier project, No 49 Lewisham, during Open House London the year before; so when the chance came up to own a 31/44 design, they jumped at the opportunity.

‘We were fortunate to find this hidden gem, a haven on the edge of the meadow with all the benefits of living in London’, say Park House owners Pia and Jon Fairhurst. ‘We love the lifestyle that Park House gives us with the sense of light and space. Every window gives us another view of our garden, the meadow or the sky. Every detail of the layout and storage has been carefully considered and beautifully crafted.’

INFORMATION

For more information, visit the 31/44 architects website

Mixing the inside and outside takes a whole new meaning in this project in Mexico City by local architect Verónica González Zavala and her firm, VGZ Arquitectura. The luxurious family home, entitled House P29, not only opens up to a large garden and terrace that make the most of the region’s pleasant, warm climate, but also makes sure each that every main space has a direct visual connection to the outdoors and interiors are framed by greenery at every possible opportunity.

The generous plan spans four levels. A large lower ground open plan space plays host to the owner’s car collection, exuding an almost gallery-like feel, with its tall ceilings, polished floor and rough concrete walls. A separate parking space at the property’s front sits on a slightly higher level – the site is lightly sloped – and provides further accommodation for cars for the family and guests. Several bedrooms, service and facilities areas, including a dedicated security booth by the garage, sit on the same level, inside. 

Upstairs are the home’s main living areas, which spread across the whole level, unfolding in a striking sequence of five interconnected rooms. These include a more formal sitting room, a dining area, a kitchen and a separate study and library. From here, there is immediate access to the garden, which is planted with rich, mature trees, lawn and some lower foliage. 

A floating staircase forms the house’s main circulation core, situated right off the main entrance and leading up to the top level, where the master suite can be found – featuring its en suite bathroom, walk-in closet and an informal sitting room – as well as two children’s bedrooms and guest accomodation. All rooms have access to a decked terrace that runs the length of the building.

House P29’s material combination of board formed concrete, stone and dark timber ensures an elegant colour palette throughout, while the careful wood detailing hints to the house’s top construction quality. Add to this natural ventilation and sunlight, and you have a family home that is fully in tune with its location, while acting as the perfect modern urban haven for its residents. 

INFORMATION

For more information, visit the VGZ Arquitectura website

Designed by Canadian studio +tongtong, the two-level Long House is sunken into the landscape. Its’ long, stretched form has extensive glazing and plenty of wall space and alcoves inside for the display of art.

Located along the Niagara Escarpment, immersed within 50 acres of forests and hills, Long House is a slim rectangular house built for a pair of art collectors inspired by the white cube gallery aesthetic.

Designed by Canadian studio +tongtong, the minimalist house with extensive glazing and plenty of walls and alcoves for the display of art, was inspired by the high-ceilinged, white-walled galleries of Marfa, Texas, where a burgeoning contemporary art scene has taken root within the desert city landscape.

Through the architecture, gallery spaces are integrated into the circulation of the home, bringing the appreciation of art into the daily routine of life.

Take an interactive tour of Long House

Entry to the house is through a north-facing gallery that opens up into a series of UV protected niches for the clients’ collection of historical Native North American art.

While minimal, +tongtong’s design isn’t without character and quirk – additional spaces for artwork organically emerge from the core form, such as the extended plinth at the base of the stair or the triangular glazed niche for the piano that juts out into woodland.

Always in conversation with its natural surroundings, Long House is half sunken into the earth – its' low-lying two-storey form with a micro agricultural green roof follows the shape of the sloping land and it is surrounded by layered terraces and a reflecting pool.

The exterior walls are clad in split cedar shakes, each hand dipped in black tar – a traditional Scandinavian waterproofing technique, sensitively chosen to complement the context of the tawny-coloured timber terraces and tree trunks.

INFORMATION

For more information, visit the +tongtong website

Olson Kundig have a reputation for creating stunning private homes set within the vast, leafy American countryside, so in a way, Meg House bucks the trend. Nestled in Seattle’s Queen Anne neighbourhood, in fact not too far from Tom Kundig’s own home, and overlooking downtown Seattle and Puget Sound, this project is as urban as they get. Yet the house has all the hallmarks of an Olson Kundig design. 

There’s swathes of glass, a distinct industrial feel, and a large-scale retractable window, which is operated with the help of a hand-cranked wheel and three large counterweights; all pleasingly familiar Tom Kundig obsessions. The metal structure’s glass wall towards the garden allows for a generous ‘guillotine’ opening that leads out to the greenery and seamlessly connects indoors and outdoors.

Take an interactive tour of Meg House

Making the most of the steeply sloped site, the house offers long, 180-degree views of the residential landscape around the house, and down towards the city below. The architects juxtapose this sense of lightness and openness with the house’s street front on the opposite side of the plot; here, the house was designed to be ‘respectful’ to its surroundings in terms of scale, set back from the street and discreetly positioned behind a leafy front garden. 

Inside, there’s exposed industrial details everywhere, such as unfinished steel beams and plywood casework. The 6,050 sq ft home spans three levels. The lower ground floor hosts private areas, such as bedrooms and bathrooms; the main, street level features the open plan living spaces; while a smaller level on the top is reserved for the master bedroom suite. A custom-built, reclaimed fir dining table exemplifies the level of detail that went into the interiors, which are a mix of contemporary and vintage styles. 

Meg House was designed to balance ‘transparency and refuge, spare industrial modernity and inviting warmth’, explain the architects; making for the perfect urban retreat.

INFORMATION

For more information, visit the Olson Kundig website

Heritage-listed areas are generally approached with trepidation, given the strict local council guidelines when a ‘new kid’ on the block arrives. However, Inarc Architects designed not one, but two contemporary townhouses in a heritage-listed streetscape in Fitzroy, Melbourne. Framed by Victorian terrace homes, the two sawn bluestone townhouses sit quietly in this inner-city street.

‘We wanted to respect the past, but also create contemporary two townhouses for two couples, who are also friends,’ says architect Reno Rizzo, co director of Inarc Architects, who worked closely with the firm’s co-director interior designer, Christopher Hansson.


As with the neighbouring Victorian terraces, many of which are elevated above the street on bluestone plinths, these townhouses are perched above their contemporary steel picket fences, with lush front gardens. Although the pair appears identical from the street, each one is considerably different inside, both in the configuration of rooms and interior finishes.

Take an interactive tour of The Eyrie

The larger of the two, called the Eyrie and approximately 430 sq m, is spread across four levels, including a basement, with a detached car-stacking system located at the rear of the property to accommodate four cars. ‘Although our clients are empty nesters and scaling down from their large home in the suburbs, their brief was still for an extensive program of required spaces,’ says Hansson. 

At basement level there’s a games room and a wine cellar, together with a separate laundry and storage areas. And on the first floor, perched above the street, is a separate study that allows the owners to watch locals strolling by. A generous open plan kitchen, dining and lounge area, linked to the rear courtyard – style garden, designed by Robert Boyle, with generous glazing, allows the blurring of lines between indoors and out. Bedrooms, including the main bedroom suite, are located on the middle level, and on the top level there’s a second living area/self-contained suite for guests. 

On either side of this floor are terraces, one offering views of Melbourne’s skyline, the other of the Dandenong Ranges in the distance. And piercing the four levels is a striking white powder-coated steel staircase, with a skylight above to bring natural light into the core. ‘It’s quite a narrow site, so bringing light into the centre of the house was a key strategy,’ adds Rizzo.

INFORMATION 

For more information visit Inarc Architects's website

Nestled in the rolling hills of California’s Sonoma Valley, this new house’s discreet, low volume sits in complete harmony with its environment. Created to take its cues from its surroundings, in a harmonious coexistence, its grey, transparent form looks and feels, at the same time, thoroughly modern.

Its architect, Neal Schwartz, likens it to lichen. ‘The precise relationship between lichen and its host provides inspiration for an architecture specifically tailored to its site - both as a response to it and as an augmentation of its best attributes’, he says. The design, for a young family, Schwartz explains, does not mimic blindly, but attempts to expand our understanding and experience of nature, through architecture.

Drawing a more literal parallel, the plot’s oak trees support actual, draping Ramalina Lichen. These, not only filter sunlight, but also capture moisture and remove pollutants from the air, making a remarkable contribution to the site. This supports a unique microclimate. 

Take an interactive tour of Lichen House

Similarly, Lichen House is conceived as a ‘porous and breathable building’, where each opening is carefully positioned to ensure the best conditions for the residents, both inside and out. The structure is orientated so that it makes the most out of the daylight and passive heating opportunities the area’s pleasant climate and geography provides.

Planned in a T-shaped arrangement, the house features a wing of generous, open plan public spaces and two wings of private areas that include five bedrooms with en-suite bathrooms and ample storage and service spaces. Operable windows ensure privacy where needed, while allowing the option of letting the outdoors in. Wood detailing and floors soften the concrete and glass building’s interior.

The driveway leads up to a large garage, while a garden, wide deck and a swimming pool sit on the plot’s opposite side, offering long views of the valley, making the most of this contemporary house’s striking location. 

INFORMATION

For more information visit the Schwartz and Architecture website

Heading one of Canada’s leading furniture brands can come in handy when it comes to envisioning your own home, as Avenue Road’s Stephan Weishaupt found out, when he embarked on a project involving the transformation of an old Toronto townhouse.  

Weishaupt collaborated with local architects Chapi Chapo Design on a complete overhaul of a derelict Edwardian structure, in one of his favourite neighbourhoods, Cabbagetown. ‘I was initially thinking of moving into a larger home and I realised that it wasn’t really what I wanted or needed,’ he explains. ‘What was more interesting to me was to work with the artisans I collaborate with at Avenue Road. I aimed to have some unexpected and inspirational pieces that would allow them to demonstrate how far their talents could be taken. I wanted to focus on the details to refine a home I already love.’

Take an interactive tour of Avenue Road

Working together to inject new life into the old house, the team studied the original building’s architecture in order to incorporate its essence in the interiors, explain the architects. They also wanted to respect their client’s needs and personality. ‘In this particular residence, the client’s identity is multi-layered – there is a public persona and a private persona that need to be reflected in the home’, they add.

The architects response included creating an open space for entertaining – something fun, that ‘stimulates the senses’ - while also defining a series of private spaces, which would counterbalance the public areas and serve as sanctuaries to retreat into after the owner’s busy daily life. Highlighting Weishaupt’s significant art and furniture collection – without ‘being ostentatious’ – was also central to the design.

Achieving the level of detailing Weishaupt was after, was another of the project’s key challenges. ‘[It] required a lot more time and changes that originally anticipated’, he recalls. ‘It went from a renovation to more of a rebuild. It was important to make the house as environmentally responsible as possible for well into the future.’

The result? A playful and homely environment with a carefully thought out private and public areas that together form a refined and composed whole; peppered of course, with Weishaupt's carefully curatred personal art and design collection.

INFORMATION
For more information, visit the Avenue Road website and Chapi Chapo Design website

The São Paolo-based architect Fernanda Marques says her brief from her clients, a pilot and her businessman husband, for this sprawling home was to have ‘a dramatic sense of openness. And so, I envisioned broad spaces that develop continually, with no partitions.’

Certainly, the approach to the 1,200 square metre Jaragua house in Alphaville – a residential suburb with aerie-like views of São Paulo, about a 40-minute drive away – gives little away, other than the impression of a long angular silhouette, its thick white border framing dark stained timber and glimpses of the sky through the cutaway windows on the mezzanine level.

Step through the front door, however, and the interior unfolds as an impressive series of linked volumes. On the ground floor, Marques clustered the living, fireplace, dining, media and breakfast rooms, alongside the kitchen, study, cloakroom, guest restroom and staff quarters. The upper floor, meanwhile, holds the family’s private quarters featuring three suites with adjoining balconies, and a family room.

Take an interactive tour of Jaragua House

Each space – lined in shades of white and sand, limestone flooring and walnut veneer panels – is awash with indirect natural light through floor-to-ceiling windows or, in the case of the living room, a gigantic clerestory whose view of the sky literally floats over the panorama of rainforest and skyscrapers of the distant horizon that’s visible through the ground floor windows. It is a remarkable sleight of hand that Marques says was her greatest challenge.

Views aside, the other structural challenge Marques faced when planning Jaragua House was the weather. ‘We also had to consider heavy rains during summer, especially by the end of the afternoon, combined with temperatures around 30 degrees celsius during the day,’ she says. Which explains the oversized terraces that wrap around all the upper and ground floor living spaces.

With the sliding glass doors fully open, the deep terraces extend the visual line of the interiors to draw in the exterior garden and the indigo-tiled lap-pool. In this way, Marques says, ‘people can stay indoors, and be protected from both rain and sun. This also decreases the need for air-conditioning.’

INFORMATION

For more information, visit the Arquiteta Fernanda Marques website

New York architect/developer Cary Tamarkin designs all the condos and townhouses he sells with high-sheen, luxury details. But on the rare occasion a house commission comes along, he goes primitive.

Island Creek, a family home in Southampton, couldn't feel further than New York City. One simple timber box perched atop a local-stone base interacts at every level with the surrounding wetland and the natural arc of the sun – overlooked by nobody but osprey.

Take an interactive tour of Island Creek

Tamarkin lists his four chosen materials like essential food groups: wood, stone, concrete, steel. The old-growth cypress siding ‘turns a beautiful silver-grey over time,’ he says, ‘but more importantly it’s hard to get.’ His sources in Florida and Georgia harvest logs from deep water, where they’ve been immersed for a century. ‘They’re fully saturated, and the fact they don’t rot makes them great for waterfront houses.’

He restricts his steel to thin cables around the suspended deck and a discreet balcony for the recessed second storey. It also frames the panoramic windows that trace the perimeter, making the wood tiers appear to float. The effect is evocative of a Donald Judd installation – unsurprising for a man who considers his residential work to be ‘an artistic rather than business move’. Those windows, with their pull-open panels, circulate light and breeze so the blown-air systems are seldom deployed.

To keep the interior open and loft-like, a mechanical core at the centre contains all the plumbing and wiring. Natural sunlight streams down from the rooftop deck through the treads of the floating concrete staircase, into airy spaces packaged in new-growth cypress. Tamarkin chose the wood, like the siding, for its potential to weather. ‘This is a vacation home and I want it to be treated without fear,’ he says.

‘All the materials lend themselves to changing over time – even scratches in the stainless-steel sink. The patina becomes part of its identity, like a kid growing up.’

INFORMATION

For more information, visit the Tamarkin Co website

Coffey Architects inflicted a savage architectural initiation upon the youngest member of their team, Ella Wright. In order to pass her Part Three qualification and join the architects’ club, she had to design a house on a 72 sq m site, formerly a caretaker’s shed, set on ground above a Grade II-listed prison built in 1847, in a mixed use, green conservation area, and the final challenge: an architect client. Against all odds, the resulting house is graceful, neat and rather luxurious.

Located in the heart of London’s Clerkenwell district and separated from an old school building converted into offices by just a slim footpath, one of the key challenges was maintaining a sense of privacy. The context also meant that planning restricted this project to one-storey height, so a second key challenge was creating space and bringing in natural light.

The client, Selim Bayer, founder of Flat C Architecture, needed a central, city base for him and his wife, who split their time between London and Istanbul. They also were looking for a place to host friends and family. While Wright had been wary of working with another architect, she was pleasantly surprised, saying, ‘He was really on board with the process and really open to ideas.’

Fitting like a glove into its surroundings, the house unfolds like a box of boxes. It is the careful attention to functional detail that allows this house to be a success, yet practicality is never secondary to aesthetic. The smooth oak panelling that hides sliding doors and invisible storage, becomes a design concept, while similarly the roof lights that bring in light while preserving privacy, are deep set and strongly geometric bringing a sense of generosity to the small space. Again, polished concrete floors that hide underfloor heating, also give this home a contemporary edge.

A wide rectangular roof light is positioned directly over the bed in the master bedroom, with another glazed roof light above the shower in the master bedroom. ‘It’s quite unusual to have a bedroom without a traditional window in the wall, but it doesn’t feel claustrophobic,’ says Wright, who also designed a narrow, long and deep roof light that runs along the ceiling connecting the bedroom entrance to the bathroom like a guide.

‘This was an obnoxious piece of plastering for the builders to do – they were not impressed,’ she smiles. Coffey work with the same joiners on many of their projects. ‘We talk them through the concept with the 3D model, so they have the visual from day one, they understand the space and what we are trying to achieve – it’s all about alignment.’

In the combined living, kitchen and dining room, another wide window overlooks a private communal garden. ‘Everywhere we have a window, it’s almost like a punch. They have deep reveals, either made from – brick or oak which is punched, framing a very specific view. It’s the same with the front door, there's a really deep threshold,’ says Wright.

In addition to architectural details, bespoke pieces of furniture also designed by Wright fit perfectly into the box further continuing this smooth and seamless living experience. From the sofa bed in the guest room with matching side tables, to the extendable oak dining table that hides cutlery drawers within, these elements cleverly preserve space while remaining conceptual.

INFORMATION

For more information on Hidden House, visit the Coffey Architects website

Among rows of impeccably restored Victorian and Federation-style mansions in Melbourne’s leafy Armadale, BE Architecture’s house stands firmly. Comprising a hefty granite façade – some 260 tonnes to be precise – one would assume its presence was imposing.

Yet given the stone’s silvery grey split-faced texture, the hard lines of the stacked modular design are softened by ripples that grant it a weightlessness when the sun refracts over its quartz veins. Large mechanical timber shades piercing the sheath compliment its organic nature, ushering in daylight.

The house was built for clients downsizing from a large family home. ‘The internal spaces are light and open, particularly in the living area where the fully retractable glazed doors open onto the adjacent courtyard,’ says BE Architecture co-director, Andrew Piva. The footprint (including a pool abutting the rear wall) almost covers the entire 537 sq m block.

Take an interactive tour of the Armadale Residence

However, the house’s volume is concealed by the placement of sleeping quarters – including additional bedrooms with adjoining en-suites for visiting adult children – on the upper level, while a gym and second study are tucked behind the subterranean double-garage. Granting the illusion of outdoor space, BE’s in-house multi-disciplinary team designed the landscaping too.

A secluded Japanese garden surrounds the master bedroom’s outdoor shower while Mount Fuji trees line the front fence in response to ‘the clients’ desire to have diverse planted outlooks and terraces without the maintenance of a full lawn,’ adds Piva.

Throughout, raw and refined materials contrast and compliment, with granite used consistently. Underfoot, Torino Granite was flamed and brushed for the outdoor terrace, seamlessly blending to a honed speckled version within the open living plan. ‘The builder, LBA Construction, felt that given the importance of the stone in the project that a specialised stone mason was essential,’ notes Piva, especially regarding the master en-suite’s original use of Fallow Granite. The custom bath and basin benches were engineered from solid blocks to achieve a dense, textural finish.


Adding an emotive layer is BE’s masterful manipulation of chiaroscuro. Angular shadows are cast by generously proportioned doorways while pure light streams through the oculus above the stairwell creating a crushed velvet plushness to the polished grey cement render upon its curved walls – the only sculpted planes of the linear build.

INFORMATION

For more information, visit the BE Architecture website

On a corner lot in a traditional Vancouver neighbourhood, architect Arno Matis has created a contemporary home that blends Asian and West Coast features, with a scale and design that still respects the site.

In storied Dunbar, an area carved out of forest a century ago, most of the 1930s and 40s era housing closes itself off to the surrounding greenery, like the tiny neighbouring peaked roof stucco bungalow to the West of the Matis designed home. On the other extreme, new ‘monster’ homes have invaded the neighborhood with loud designs and insensitivity to the surrounding built and natural environment.

Here, Matis has instead created an elegant residence in a palette of wood, stone and glass that opens itself up to the outdoors. And by creating ‘biomimetic’ wooden screens that offer texture and shading, evoking a tree canopy, he has essentially returned the site to the forest. The brief from his clients – a professional couple who travel extensively in Asia – was to create a ‘retreat’ – but one that could accommodate them as well as an aging parent within a relatively small 4000 sq ft footprint (mandated by local zoning).

Take an interactive tour of Floating House

Matis’ response was to plan the three-storey home around the central core ‘like a high-rise’ and to ‘make the perimeter as transparent as possible’. Structural elements are contained and minimised, with a central column disguised by two fireplaces, a floating stairwell hanging from a single steel stringer and a cantilevered roof supported by a healthy mix of steel with concrete.

While the architect was partly inspired by Louis Kahn’s Esherick house, unsurprisingly for Matis, who began his career working for Arthur Erickson’s colleague Bing Thom, there are some very Ericksonian moments here as well: West Coast/Asian infused water elements and greenery, including an infinity pool at the south facing entrance, and a waterfall that cascades into an East facing sunken garden, but also a sense of terracing in the sequencing of the house.

From the everyday entrance at the north, the three levels flow into each other with a grace and fluidity. From the garage one enters a courtyard that terraces down into the kitchen, with the sequence continuing into a reflective pool and garden, creating a sense of leaving the outside world behind and entering into a meditative space. But also notable is the use of concrete – that Erickson famously called ‘the marble of our time’.


By developing a special blend of white concrete, white sand and white aggregate, Matis transcends the greyness of the West Coast rainforest. In a subtle play of gravity and light, he has created a translucent lantern house floating on water, gently elevating the neighbourhood aesthetic.

INFORMATION
For more information, visit the Arno Matis website

Driving up a gently winding private road in the countryside beyond Vienna, a dark house emerges from a vista of endlessly rolling meadows and rows of fruit trees. Settled on a southeast facing slope with uninterrupted panoramic views extending for 150km, this striking family home is designed by Austrian architecture practice WILLL Architektur.

A weighted cantilever strong-arms the house directly into the landscape, connecting the master bedroom on the first floor to the landscape, while opening up a covered terrace below for dining. A wooden sun deck and 15m natural swimming pond extends again further into the valley.

The house has a dense presence, owed to its rough plastered dark grey exterior walls. It holds its own in the striking countryside setting, while also embedding itself in its context. Frameless glazing allows windows to float and oak garage doors are seamlessly integrated.

Take an interactive tour of Where the Eagles Fly

Architect Johannes Will worked with experts in feng shui and geomancy – as the practice do in all their projects – to achieve a natural and spiritual balance across the interiors and architecture. On the ground floor, the dining, living and kitchen spaces are grouped together and oriented towards the valley. Corner glazing opens the kitchen up to the dining terrace, expanding the space naturally during the summer months.

‘When I enter the house, I’m always touched by the tremendous view and how it is staged. I like the contrasts. On one hand the view and on the other hand maximum intimacy,’ says Will, who used oak paneling on the interior walls and some of the ceilings, to bring warmth into the house.

Taking into consideration his client’s request to be able to stargaze, Will extended the ceiling of the master bedroom to 4m high and tilted it to 29 degrees. Using a 5 sq m piece of glass to open up views of the sky above, the room is completely exposed to the outdoors, while also feeling sturdy and secure. A sliding door opens to a sheltered courtyard that connects to the master bathroom.

INFORMATION

For more information, visit the WILLL Architektur website

Sydney-based architects Tribe Studio have taken the unusual step of reducing the footprint of a bungalow, in their efforts to make it more spacious. House Au Yeung is typical of the tree-lined suburb of Roseville, 14km from the city centre on Sydney’s North Shore. 'This house was a good, if modest, example of an inter-war house in the Olde English style,' says Hannah Tribe, who founded Tribe Studio in 2003. 'It’s a vision of the Australian ‘suburban utopia’ of the 1930s, brick and tile family houses set wide apart in large gardens on generous streets.'

The young family who own House Au Yeung wanted it to work better for them. That involved making it more spacious and functional, with a better connection to the 362 sq m garden.

Take an interactive tour of House Au Yeung

Most of the changes, which took two years from design to completion, have happened at the rear and upstairs. The mish-mash of rooms at back let the house down, and didn’t connect well with the garden. So Tribe replaced the rear ground floor with a new pavilion, reducing the building footprint slightly by 4sqm to 129 sq m. The back now in part houses a big open plan kitchen, living and dining room. And one of the original formal reception rooms at the front of the house is now the master bedroom and en suite bathroom. Meanwhile two children’s bedrooms, a bathroom and playroom have been shoehorned into the roof extension, with its extended gable.

Tribe describes the house as 'whimsically and nonsensically detailed - with a bit of Tudor and a bit of California Bungalow style, there are all sorts of things going on.' To enhance that charm, the Miriam Green, Tribe’s managing associate director, recreated the front elevation’s brick sunburst feature at the back, while the lead light windows at the front are reinvented as steel window frames at the rear. 'It is a kind of material palette call and response between the public and private faces of the building,' Tribe adds.

INFORMATION

For more information, visit the Tribe Studio website

Kim Benatar and Sian Fisher, co-founders of Three14 Architects, persuaded their client to demolish his home of ten years to create this calm, contemporary cuboid in Bantry Bay, Cape Town. In with the new! We say. Looking for an open-plan home that was elegant, yet easy, a peaceful backdrop to his routine and a space that would transform easily to entertain guests, their client made a brave decision, yet a life-changing one with House OVD525.

Using exposed off-shutter concrete, the architects created strong vertical flanking walls to define ‘voids’ of living space, then slotted in a series of horizontal slabs, which extend as platforms for the gardens, decks and pool.

Take an interactive tour of House OVD525

‘The exaggerated thickness [of the concrete] provides a sense of privacy, containment and intimacy whilst creating a strong visual framing for the spectacular views beyond,’ says Fisher, principal architect at Three14, whose main challenge was to balance privacy and openness.

The house sits on a steep mountainside, looking out across views of Cape Town’s Atlantic Seaboard, Robben Island and into arresting ocean sunsets. The house responds in its form to the views, particularly with the master bedroom: ‘We worked very hard with our engineers to achieve the aggressive cantilever of the master bedroom suite which hovers over the external entertainment and pool area in order to capitalize on the views. From the living room, this is experienced as the planked concrete soffit stretches out towards the horizon,’ says Benatar, principal architect.

The architects designed the home to be open to the striking ocean views

The house is a contemporary contrast to the neighbouring architecture. From the street view, a double-layer of laser cut perforated aluminium sheeting, suspended over an entry forecourt below, can be seen, lightly shielding the house.

‘Locally, punched aluminium screening is not an unusual material, especially in the commercial realm, but is far less prevalent in the residential arena,’ says Fisher of the material, which acts as a smooth and speckled shell, protecting the serene environment within. ‘On the screen one can see the pixelated form of a tree, which was specifically selected, and held meaning to our client. This screened façade offers privacy from the street whilst allowing interesting light penetration over different times of day and glimpses out towards the mountain from the internal spaces behind.’

INFORMATION

For more information, visit the Three14 Architects website

Living in a trendy high-ceilinged, two-bedroom home in a converted derelict building in Hackney is an inevitable dream for many young, creative Londoners. But for James Davies, founder of Paper House Project, the architecture studio he set up in 2014, it's now a reality.

‘It's fascinating watching a project you've poured your heart and soul into coming together on site,’ he says of the new house on Defoe Road, a brick building which he restored and renovated, adding new gridded steel frame windows and an inner courtyard.

Take an interactive tour of the Defoe Road house

But he didn’t just wake up one morning inside this lofty, concrete-floored residential reverie and stroll into the open-plan kitchen to make a coffee – Rome wasn’t built in a day and neither was this challenging, former schoolhouse property. ‘I don't think you could get a more complicated residential site in central London. Landlocked, no services, and surrounded by angry neighbours,’ says Davies.

‘Negotiating access with freeholders and leaseholders and bringing new electric and water connections to the property via a 90m service trench across third party land presented problems that I'm sure would have put most people off.’ Yet the project was a labour of love for Davies, who saw problems as challenges instead of obstacles: ‘Patience, dogged determination and unwavering confidence in what we were doing got us through these issues.’

Unlocking the potential of the site, Davies’ plan saw the restoration of the original brick envelope of the building, retaining the historic design while working with an engineer to minimise the visible interior structure, opening up the double-height space. ‘It's incredible how natural light, height and volume can improve your mood and general well being,’ says Davies. ‘I really enjoy the views onto the internal courtyard, especially in the mornings as the sun breaks over the surrounding building. It's very peaceful and tranquil and quite easy to forget that you're a stone's throw away from two of Hackney's busiest high streets.’

Personally influenced by buildings such as the Turbine Hall at Tate Modern, Liverpool's Albert Docks and warehouse living in New York City, Davies selected concrete and steel surfaces for the interiors, creating a smooth and stylised industrial aesthetic.

INFORMATION

For more information, visit the Paper House Project website

Even tech moguls must sometimes be reminded to think outside the box. That is precisely the wisdom Alfredo Muñoz imparted when a successful Microsoft exec approached his firm, Abiboo, to build a ‘traditional programme’ of bedrooms and common areas – collectively dubbed Casa C+ – near a golf course outside Madrid.

Influenced by the rebellious German architect Gottfried Semper, who approached his work anthropologically, Muñoz has never opted for the traditional residential format. Instead, he spent two days with the client’s family of five, studying their habits, interests and aspirations. 'We all came to the conclusion that the programme had to be dynamic, like a self-generating organism that grew from within,' he says.

Take an interactive tour of Abiboo’s Casa C+

Identifying specific activities that would go on in the house – dining, sleeping, studying, swimming, entertaining – Muñoz planned a series of isolated ‘mini-houses’ and arranged them in a centrifugal formation around a monumental fibreglass spiral staircase, what he calls 'inductive', rather than deductive growth. Each block has a different panoramic view and is easily identifiable from the outside. 'The villa had to have a centre but still maintain a non-hierarchical relationship between its parts,' he says.

The materiality of these parts was integrated within the site, a 5,000 sq m, rolling green plot punctuated by century-old trees and surrounded by mountains. Turning back to Semper, he designed the lower, communal levels in earthy, 'stereotomic' stucco, graduating upward to lighter 'tectonic' materials. A ventilated double-skin facade of ruddy laminated wood helps improve thermal performance upstairs, where exposure to the Sun's radiation is higher.

Casa C+ is inspired by the past but designed for the future

‘Having the lower part of the house connected to the earth and the higher areas with lighter materials emphasises the experience of an organic villa that grows from the site,’ says Muñoz. ‘Like a tree.’

It’s inspired by the past and designed for the future, yet Muñoz says Casa C+, with its scattered volumes and unifying continual stair, is a symbol for the current zeitgeist. ‘We were interested in exploring the spirit of our time, represented by complex relationships and permanent change.’

And there is nothing traditional about that.

INFORMATION

For more information, visit the Abiboo website

Louis XIV built the Château de Marly as his ‘pleasure palace’, an escape from the formality of Versailles five miles south. The neighbourhood of traditional peak-roof houses that eventually sprung up nearby didn’t have quite the risqué overtones. But a new Passivhaus has come along to sex up the bedroom community of Marly by subverting the conventions of the residential vernacular.

Maison Marly takes the peaked motif, nudges it off centre and folds it outward like a Tetra Pak. It cleverly skirts local building regulations, too. Guided by strict rules that forbid homes to overlook one another, Milena Karanesheva and Mischa Witzmann of Karawitz, an award-winning Parisian practice lauded for its super-insulated residential architecture, achieved a desired neighbourly link by exposing it instead to the quiet tree-lined street.

Take an interactive tour of Maison Marly

‘The residents wanted to create a new feeling of urbanity in this zone, where each house is isolated,’ says Karanesheva, originally from Bulgaria (Witzmann is Austrian). ‘They wanted to create a connection with their neighbours, to exchange with them.’ Lest the arrangement feel too open, they angled the upstairs facade with a vertical crease to redirect views into the garden. Galvanised steel fencing with an ethereal peek-a-boo effect tempers the degree of exposure downstairs.

The weight of the house rests on a deep reinforced-concrete foundation containing a sous-sol entry foyer and guest room. From here, visitors climb to the more public main floor, arranged around a fireplace that heats the entire house. The kitchen and living room are tucked into the side and rear, with long, shallow windows facing the wooded garden. Moving around to the front, the dining room opens with full-height windows to a cantilevered terrace and the street beyond.

The house is clad in pre-oiled grey larch and Galvanised-steel fencing surrounds the house

Three family bedrooms, accessed by a prefabricated-steel staircase, are suitably private but equally bright. Wrapped in whitewashed wood beams, their windows are pitched higher to avoid awkward contact with the neighbours. Six skylights penetrate the roof, giving it all a heavenly glow in daylight.

The fresh look of the pre-oiled grey larch cladding invites curiosity from passersby, yet the slight elevation prevents them from seeing too much. It is not for exhibitionists, after all, just an escape – like the château – from formality.

INFORMATION

For more information, visit the Karawitz website

It was the topography of the secluded plot, settled within a luscious manmade forest on the sloping dunes of Cariló, a coastal town south of Buenos Aires, which guided the design of Casa Kuvasz. On visiting the location for the first time, Ariel Galera, principal at Estudio Galera Arquitectura, agreed with the owners that the house should respect and accentuate the natural landscape.

By lifting the cool mass of the house off the ground with slim concrete ribs, echoing the surrounding vertical tree trunks and reducing the impact of the build, Galera opened up the main living area to natural light and the leafy landscape with an open facade of terrace space and glazing. A concrete corridor, wrapping around and inclining up the sloping dune to the house, connects the floating form to the forest terrain.

Take an interactive tour of Casa Kuvasz

‘The access is in the lowest part of the lot and the vertical circulation accompanies the natural change of level,’ says Galera. ‘The upper floor functions as a "piano nobile" where almost all the programme unfolds. This floor touches the lot in a few spots while dominating the landscape in others.’

The enclosed concrete stair is perforated with circles, taking the inhabitants on a journey from the landscape and into the house. ‘The idea was that the stairs' sleeve first rejects the landscape, only to then empower it. This contributes to seeing architecture as a path and sequence of sensations,’ says Galera.

‘The perforated circles on the concrete were designed to glimpse at the landscape at specific points, at the time that provides soft and changing lighting throughout the day.’ The architects studied the relationship of natural light to the location – ‘a permanent and interesting challenge due to its variable nature’, says Galera. ‘We believe that it is paramount to connect technology to phenomenology, the sensorial elements, especially when we are designing a house and not a public building. Thus, we set this as a challenge: to transform the architecture from being static into something dynamic.’

Continuing to play with framing, light and shadow, the architects extended the roof slab out over the terraces as an overhanging concrete pergola, while the lower concrete beam overhangs to form a bench and open up a gap exposing the land below.

INFORMATION

For more information, visit the Estudio Galera website

One of the thrills of following Canadian architecture is witnessing how the most radical designs play out on the least hospitable terrain. A case in point is the Estrade residence, cantilevered over a rocky ridge that plunges into a lake 90 minutes from Montreal.

Charles Côté and Jean-Sebastien Herr of the Montreal practice MU were undeterred, having already successfully tackled homes in the rugged Laurentian mountains. This one, commissioned by a family of five, took more than a year to construct, including the requisite winter hiatus.

Take an interactive tour of Estrade Residence

‘We had to play with the topography in order to insert the house,’ says Herr, using code for the dynamite required to excavate. ‘Once we’d inserted the cantilevers and set the road with the excavated stone, it was pretty straightforward.’

The clients wanted a weekend home that integrated with the landscape, benefitted from natural light and ventilation and looked across the breathtaking lake. ‘Otherwise we had carte blanche,’ says Herr. ‘Apart from the budget.’

That it would be minimalist came with the territory of hiring MU. The warmth came from the local materials – stone, ash and black-stained brushed cedar, which will soften in tone from the harsh winters.

The home thrusts toward the lake, but visitors approach from the side, past a floating staircase that leads downstairs to the children’s rooms and up to a master suite. ‘Nobody wanted to build that staircase,’ says Herr, ‘but we found a young steelworker with a structural engineering background.’ He designed a reinforced-steel stringer that anchors into the wall, supporting the ash treads and handrails without pillars.

Around the corner, the living room, dining room and kitchen orient toward a 19m veranda. ‘Rooms follow a sequence, or promenade, on every floor,’ says Herr, ‘always with a visual connection to the outdoors.’ The titular estrade, French for platform, refers to the staggered terraces, which appear to levitate over the uneven rock. They facilitate a dialogue between the architecture and the wild landscape. ‘And they promote a feeling of wellbeing.’

INFORMATION

For more information, visit the MU Architecture website

‘The house is geometry and material. Nothing more,’ says architect Eduardo Cadaval of his latest project, MA House in Tepoztlán, a pre-hispanic village south of Mexico City known for its natural beauty, temperate climes and its popularity as a retreat for the Mexicana cultural set.

Built as a holiday home, which will eventually become the main residence for its owners, the house is a monumental construction of volcanic stone and concrete. The controlled forms of two diagonal peaks follow the incline of the rocky mountains on either side of the site, bringing a sense of order to the landscape, yet also becoming a part of it.

Take an interactive tour of MA House

Architecture firm Cadaval & Solà-Morales sought to create an intense relationship between the house, the landscape and the inhabitants. Views of the mountains were opened up to the interior through walls of framed windows, and covered patios intersecting diagonally across the square plan connected three separate ‘pavilions’ beneath the same solid concrete roof, creating natural spaces for outdoor living within the circulation of the house.

Sourced locally in the area, the exposed volcanic stone was the main construction material, authentically connecting the house to its environmental context. Selected by the architects as a low-maintenance and low-cost material, it also proved difficult to work with.

Cut stone stairways lead from the ground floor to the upper levels

‘Using it to work structurally, and not just as a finishing material was a challenge,’ he says of the stone. ‘The walls are 40cm thick and they really take the whole load of the house. Nothing in the house is decoration. If it’s there, it is because it's working structurally.’

Similarly economical and functional, the roof is made of waterproof concrete, which allowed the architects to leave the material exposed without any surface finishes.

INFORMATION

For more information, visit the Cadaval & Solà-Morales website

Responding to the sloping coastline of the Greek island of Skiathos via form and elevation, Achladies House is a modern evolution of Mediterranean architecture and Greek craftsmanship. Conceived as a summer holiday home, architect Lydia Xynogala created three volumes – a master suite, communal area and guest house – built using solid retaining walls, used typically across the region.

Take an interactive tour of Achladies House

The shape of the architecture follows the natural topography of the site, with the parallel volumes varying in elevations in response to the landscape, and south-facing rooms opening up to framed views of the Aegean. While the landscape inspired Xynogala, it also tested her: ‘It was a big challenge to juggle complex zoning requirements on an irregular trapezoidal site that is located on a steep slope,’ she says.

The plan is inclusive to visiting family members and friends. The living spaces are positioned in the central volume and sliding doors, which cut through the double concrete walls, offer the option to connect – or disconnect – the adjoining rooms. When needed, private terraces slotted into the suites allow for a moment alone with the landscape.

Xynogala arranged built-in furniture, storage, sinks and desks along the centreline of the plan, forging them into the design of the house and working with local Greek craftsmen. ‘I really enjoyed using their traditional craft skills and transcending them into modern design,’ she says of the process.

‘I was interested to use materials that are very familiar in older Greek residential interiors such as terrazzo floors, which are present throughout the house inside and outside, as well as marble and plaster render, but using them in spaces, forms and combinations that are not so familiar.’

INFORMATION

For more information, visit the Lydia Xynogala Projects website

EAT Architects' Moving House in Kew, Melbourne, is immediately striking for its spaciousness, soft light and breezy atmosphere. EAT director Albert Mo and his team performed their customary architectural magic to deliver a private and light-filled home, although faced with a site whose north face opened to the street.

Their solution hinged on a handful of design features, including bespoke vaulted skylights, geometric repetition, light screens, and deft placement of architecture on site:  Moving House was carefully positioned to occupy two-thirds of the width of its block; with the other third reserved for the garden. This ensured that green spaces received plenty of northern light. Vaulted skylights were devised to draw the maximum amount of daylight inside from above, rather than the front, so light did not come at the expense of privacy.

Take an interactive tour of Moving House, Melbourne

A white screen of aluminium slats also envelopes much of the house, fulfilling a number of functions. Its simple form, in the outline of a suburban gable roof, offers structural clarity while subtly referencing the houses on either side in colour and form; and the partially transparent screen lends lightness to the exterior design.

A visitor’s entry experience is prolonged with a brief journey along this facade, past a series of recesses made from cantilevered concrete beams, plants hanging from gutters and tactile, rough concrete surfaces. These provide partial shade and refuge. A lovely green front door (in the same shade used by Corbusier at Chandigarh High Court) with a fine timber handle signal the end of this journey and the entrance proper. 

A third of the site was reserved by the architects for outdoor space

The interior is defined by repeated roof geometries – three concrete vaulted skylights, the form-blade columns supporting them, and off-form gutter beams. And despite the raw, industrial feel of these materials, the strongest impression is one of refinement.

The three skylights ensure ample direct daylight, nuanced by the hours and seasons, enters this expansive space; while indirect light is variously projected onto the textured curves of the vaults. The clients have found 'the house’s rawness somehow transports them to a tranquil place,' according to Mo. 'As if the house is part of the nature.'

The slats allow light into the interior and create a lightness to the structure

Full glazing of bi-fold doors and windows to the east means the house can be fully opened out to the garden in fine weather. And these features, together with glass louvres at the top of clerestory of skylights, make for excellent cross-ventilation. 'The clients were surprised at how well the house responds to the climate,' said Mo. They also love the animated lights that enter the house throughout the day.

Each evening, as the sun sets to the west, the ceiling vaults are faintly and briefly silhouetted on the white screen. And soon after, the internal glow of artificial lights transforms the stylised street facade into a lantern.

INFORMATION

For more information, visit the EAT Architects website

Cape Town-based architecture practice Saota has used its local knowledge to build a hoilday home that resists extreme weather conditions while taking advantage of the sunlight and the sunsets at Pringle Bay. Nestled in a rocky landscape at the foot of the steeply rising Hangklip mountain and overlooking the South Atlantic ocean, Restio River House had to be robust in its construction, yet comfortable and relaxing within.

Saota director Philip Olmesdahl brought an intimate awareness of the geographic area to the project: ‘We live in Cape Town, where we work, but our "home" is in Pringle Bay,’ he says. Olmesdahl lived on the property for almost ten years before building, so had the opportunity to understand the intricacies of the changes in light across the day and the seasons.

Take an interactive tour of Restio River House

‘The landscape has a rawness, with seasonal and daily shifts reminding you how profound it is to live in such a beautiful place. Experiencing the property before building allowed us to create a home that captured the spirit of the place – or at least as we know it.’

Olmesdahl decided to orient a staircase surrounded in glass to the north which would allow light to flood through the stairwell and into the kitchen. The staircase is a feature in itself, made of black, matt enamel-painted plate steel with terrazzo treads. The architects opened up the ground floor plan of the home to allow for a sense of continuous space and flow of light. The living area and the terrace look west towards Cape Point, positioned to catch the intense haloed early evening sunsets.

The home had to have a sturdy structure to withstand the elements: ‘The climate of Pringle Bay is severe and ever-changing, but within the turbulence of the prevailing winds and weather this close to the sea, the area is still tranquil with incredibly memorable days,’ says Olmesdahl.

The architects used a concrete and brick structure, with grey metal-zinc frames. The strong horizontal lines of the architecture reflect those of the horizon and the layered landscape beyond. An internal courtyard provides a sheltered outdoor space, while surrounding the property milkwood, coral trees and waterberries were planted to blend with the surrounding fynbos.

INFORMATION 

For more information, visit the Saota website

Blakeburn, by Edinburgh-based A449 Architects has gone some way to throwing down the gauntlet in terms of elevating the concept of home renovation. This woodland cottage for a writer in Roxburghshire may appear, on first impressions, to be an exciting new addition to contemporary Scots vernacular design. However scratch beneath the scorched larch cladding and the bones of a 1930s bungalow, the site’s previous bricks-and-mortar resident can still be traced.

Eschewing the option to rip up the original ‘nondescript’ bungalow and start again, A449 principal Matthew Johnson chose instead to take key design cues from the original building. 'It looks like a new house but pays subtle reference to the existing cottage,' explains Johnson. 'We endeavoured to use as much of the existing building fabric as possible, allowing the story of the building to continue. The two chimneystacks, still visible here, give a nod to the scale of the original building. There is also something satisfying about the gable form being totally driven by the original form of the cottage.'

Subsequently, the final design extends the footprint to the east and west of the existing bungalow, with the entire building then over-clad in scorched larch (blowtorched on-site). The timber effect was chosen to blend in with its woodland setting, an effect that’s particularly dramatic, lyrical even, when the sun casts shadows of the surrounding trees onto the west gable.

A full internal strip out has created flexible accommodation over one level with double height space to the roof pitch in all rooms. Rooflights feature in most rooms, but in the cathedral-like bathroom, two large rooflights sit directly above the bath creating a unique opportunity for cloud watching.  All rooms are linked by a corridor - that also functions as a gallery for the owner’s art collection - running along the length of the north elevation.

A recent recipient of this year’s RIAS Award for Architecture 2016 and Saltire Medal at the Saltire Society Housing Design Awards, Blakeburn is a potent reminder that far from being perceived as the more restrictive route, renovating can yield as thrilling a design opportunity as a blank brief with carte blanche. 

INFORMATION

For more information, visit the A449 Architects website

Overlooking the sandy expanses of Baleia Beach in Brazil, Casa EK is a modern, open-plan retreat, designed by São Paulo-based architect Arthur Casas. Structured as a series of stacked volumes, the house takes advantage of the view, but its strong geometric forms are softened through luxury elements, such as vertical gardens and a rooftop jacuzzi, woven into the fabric of the fort to create a smooth and sensual beach home.

Take an interactive tour of Casa EK

On its way to monopolising the coastal architecture of the area, Studio Arthur Casas built Casa EK on a plot next door to Casa MD, a previous project that the firm completed in 2014. The clients are close friends with their neighbours and liked the style of their home, yet wanted a unique identity for their own.

The long, oblong site of Casa EK has its sole access at the front of the site, which also overlooks the coastal landscape. Looking to combine a major asset of the site (the view) with a practical purpose (access to the home for vehicles and people) the architect built a subterranean carport sloping beneath the property, while raising the home up and neatly stacking its top levels to make the most of the views.

A warm wooden deck with a pool opens up the property towards the sea, leading seamlessly through sliding glass doors into the open-plan living space and then out again to a small garden at the back of the site. On the first floor, five suites complete with double bedrooms, storage and bathrooms are arranged around a central living space. For visual continuity and privacy, metal panels can be folded across the glass windows and doors around the property.

Vertical gardens of patterned plants cover the external walls on the ground floor, while the interior walls are painted a warm light beige, referencing the sandy beach and bringing the wholesome sensation of being outdoors in. While the site is narrow, the access to green space feels plentiful. Upstairs on the roof, another garden with a jacuzzi and hearth sits enclosed in clear glass panels, leaving the 360-degree view unobstructed.

INFORMATION
For more information, visit the Studio Arthur Casas website

After conceptualising her dream home for 20 years, architect, builder and designer Sarah Waller found the perfect plot of land to build it, in Noosa, Australia, where she relocated to ten years ago from the UK. Inspired by midcentury architecture, her Glass House follows her own minimal and monochrome design principles.

‘I’ve always wanted to live in a glass house since I was an architectural student in London when I fell in love with the Philip Johnson Glass House and the Farnsworth House,’ says Waller, who designed the light-filled single storey home to blur the boundaries between indoor and out.

Take an interactive tour of Glass House

As a licensed builder with an extensive design background she was involved in every step of the design process, which was liberating and challenging: ‘Being the client and the designer is sometimes difficult, but I only had myself to disagree with!’ she says.

Built almost entirely of glass around a steel and timber frame, architectural simplicity carries through to the interior design with white terrazzo floor tiling and a subtle lighting scheme of concealed task lights and feature pendants used across the home.

Central to the plan is the kitchen, which in contrary to many family homes, is an oasis of calm. Waller grouped storage into a nanotech Fenix clad black box containing extra bench space and a sink and two islands, one white marble look porcelain and one matte black laminate, create a balanced alley of space within the open plan design.

‘It’s very minimal and pared back but we love the clean lines. To us it is all about the view and the feeling of being in the outside with all the transparency with the glass,’ says Waller. Outside she planted coconut palms and frangipanis surrounding the pool, modeled on a 1950s modernist Palm Springs style.


Living in the house for 18 months now, Waller is still very much in the honeymoon period with her home. ‘We feel like we are living in a resort, everyday feels like a holiday apart from the fact that we still need to work,' she says. 'But we love what we do, so it's not too bad.’

INFORMATION

For more information, visit the Sarah Waller Design website

Critics of Singapore’s modern built landscape invariably focus on the bent of local architects for creating glass boxes that, in the humid tropical heat, become year-round saunas that need 24/7 air-conditioning. This house, located in the island’s tiny King Albert Park, is a textbook example of what can happen when the natural setting and judicious orientation are factored into the design.

For starters, the six-bedroom house backs onto the overgrowth of the abandoned Malayan Railway track. For architects ONG&ONG, the lush green corridor creates an ideal framing device. ‘We incorporated shakkei, the traditional Japanese design philosophy of borrowed views for the home in order to capture the rustic landscape as much as possible,’ say lead architects Diego Molina and Maria Arango.

Take an interactive tour of King Albert House

In particular, the house is comprised of three neatly stacked volumes of reinforced concrete. The first volume links the driveway with the foyer and a guest-room that opens up into the garden; the second volume contains the living room, kitchen and dining area; while the final volume sits above the public spaces and contains the bedrooms.

All three volumes are carefully orientated away from direct sun, and towards views of the railway corridor, while creating cross-ventilated rooms. The upper floor bedrooms are clad in a shell of retractable zircon timber screens that extend the entire length of the house, while deep overhangs provide passive climate controls, and shelter from the elements.

The use of natural materials is pervasive: the driveway is lined with limestone and textured concrete, the floors with zircon timber, granite in the bathrooms, travertine in the living room, and tobacco-hued cohiba stone in the basement.

The jade-green landscaping reinforces the impression of a tropical bolthole. ‘Our design intention,’ say Molina and Arango, ‘was to create a seamless relation between interior and exterior spaces.’  Which may explain why the architects were unable to resist inserting a glass panel in the underground multi-media room that peeks into the 25m lap pool above. It’s an enjoyably unexpected move. But then, so is the rest of the house.

INFORMATION

For more information, visit the ONG&ONG website 

Located just a short walk from the sea, Casa Tiny can be found nestled in an area of dense vegetation near the surf town of Puerto Escondido, on Mexico's idyllic Oaxacan coast. One of the first built offerings from young architect Aranza de Ariño, the little beach house is a compact, romantic retreat for two.

Happily isolated, the holiday home consists of a kitchen, bathroom and open mezzanine bedroom, reached by simple alternating tread stairs. Its neat plan is imbued with a self-sufficient spirit, designed with Henry David Thoreau’s seminal text Walden and John Burroughs’ New York state cabin, Slabsides, in mind.

The strongly gabled roof, which catches the breeze from the sea, is a playful reference to the Tiny House Movement in America where, in reaction to high rents, people began building their own 100–200 ft homes. But Casa Tiny is far from makeshift – rather, it's a sturdy construction built to withstand the elements.

Take an interactive tour of Casa Tiny

The roof, floor slabs, stairs and furniture are all built out of concrete, which appears everywhere in the house, giving it a robust feel. The other main building material is the native parota wood, a dark honey coloured timber less dense than other exotic hard-woods. This is used for the doors, windows, closets and shelves. While the house is small, the durable construction makes Casa Tiny feel opulent and secure.

Two concrete terraces extend out from the core, one encompassing the swimming pool and the second an extension of the kitchen. Its concrete dining table runs continuously from the cooking area to the terrace, encouraging dwellers to throw open the shutters and mellow out with nature.

Estudio Borrachia has constructed a wooden weekend home for a young family in the countryside just outside of Buenos Aires. Built on a grassy plot among trees and foliage, Casa de Madera breathes nature – indoor space is extended into outdoor terraces and wild plants will grow from its roof.

Selecting the material because of its easy indigenous availability and ease of transportation and construction, the architects used the building as a test – to create a well-designed, pre-fabricated and low-cost home that could be realised quickly. The result is a generous two-bedroom build with plenty of living space, completed in under five months without altering the surrounding eco-system.

Take an interactive tour of Casa de Madera

The design was defined by the properties of the main material – wood – which was used for the structure, cladding, division and deck. Consequently, a single-storey modular plan of connecting rooms and covered terraces was born, combining spatial efficiency with outdoor living.

Nature is part of the design itself. Cross ventilation and shady areas surrounding the house make for passive temperature regulation and with time wild fauna will grow from a bed of soil submerged within the corregations of the roof.

Casa de Madera is part of an architectural series by the Buenos Aires-based practice, titled ‘Housing Habitat’, which explores the relationship between homes and their environments. As well as commissions, the studio, led by Oscar and Alejandro Borrachia, is involved with academic research around the study of society, often collaborating with local organisations to advance their work.

INFORMATION
For more information, visit the Estudio Borrachia website

Photography: Fernando Schapochnik

Located near the Swartberg mountains on the edge of the Great Karoo desert in South Africa, this four-bedroom home, designed by Openstudio Architects, falls into step with its surroundings. Built using local materials, the sturdy lodging embraces the diversity of its environment and encourages its inhabitants to exist in harmony alongside nature.

Swartberg House can be found near Prince Albert, a picturesque town at the foot of the Swartberg Pass, a dry stone road built in the late 19th century. The owners of Swartberg House, publisher David Jenkins and Openstudio founder Jennifer Beningfield, wanted a home that was in tune with the changeable weather of the location and usable year-round, in order to fit its purpose as a holiday home.

A passive temperature regulating system specified in the brief largely dictated the design. Huge openings with sliding timber shutters were built into the main living spaces, positioned to interact with the sun. The shutters are a shield from heat in the summer and a sun-trap in the winter, warming up the dense brick floors.

Take an interactive tour of Swartberg House

Maintaining the traditional styles of the area, Openstudio employed local builders and used techniques typical of Karoo architecture, including brick-on-edge floors, roughcast lime-washed plaster walls and the outdoor dry stone wall which encloses the pool.

Aligning the shape of Swartberg House to the undulating forms of the mountains, Openstudio created varying room heights within the two-storey plan. The highest space is the ground floor living room opened up for increased ventilation. Outdoor spaces have also been thoughtfully designed. The two upstairs bedrooms open up onto the roof terrace, where a fire circle and seating protects from direct sun and harsh winds.

The stoic building is sensitive and reactive to night and day, as well as seasonal shifts. Walls are scattered with thin windows to bring in shafts of light yet keep temperatures regulated, while at night LED lights concealed around the windows imitate the flow of daytime light into the house. This sensitive home is an intelligent response to both its location and the desires of the owners to co-exist with nature.

INFORMATION

For more information, visit the Openstudio Architects website

As if building a house isn’t already a design and logistical challenge, imagine having to build a second one on the same sloping site, but in a way that is unobtrusive whilst mainlining its own space and privacy. Barcelona-based architects PMMT solved the puzzle with commendable aplomb for this three-storey family home in St Gervasio, a residential neighborhood in Barcelona at the foot of Tibidabo Mountain.

Built in the gardens that surround an existing 19th-century home belonging to the client’s parents, the biggest challenge was to integrate the new building into the landscape, and without blocking any views of the parents’ house. The fairly steep slope required the architects to split the volume of the house, so that the whole is terraced on separate levels below street level.

The resulting orientation of the TR House has meant that most of the interiors face inwards towards an open core through which light pours in, to create a calmness of space that is almost Japanese in its austerity.

Take an interactive tour of TR House

Maximià Torruella, PMMT’s general director, says ‘all of the rooms and spaces in the house are organized around a central courtyard, and all feature differing connections with their surroundings based on their specific needs.’

The façade is a mix of glass and vertical timber slats, but the eye is always drawn to the pergola on the upper floor terrace where a cloak of green vitrified ceramic tiles, assembled on a stainless steel wired net, practically cascades down the side of the building. 
     
The use of tiles in this way – part of a new patented building material and technique dubbed Fabrik and manufactured by the New Jersey-based Shildan Group, that debuted at this year’s AIA Convention – meant the architects were able to create open internal spaces that are protected from the sun and neighbours, while blending in with the surrounding greenery. 
     
‘Glazed ceramic has always been a traditional material in Catalan architecture because it can endure humidity and strong sun without noticeable change to its properties,’ says Torruella. ‘Moreover, Fabrik has the benefit of being a traditional material fused with a new technology. We also appreciated the possibility of using the product both vertically and horizontally, so that we could build the home's façades and its roof using a single solution.’

INFORMATION

For more information visit the architect’s website

Dutch architect and designer Rolf Bruggink's latest project, House of Rolf, is a renovated 19th century coach house with a modern interior made entirely out of reconstituted materials from a separate building on the same piece of land. With the help of fellow architect and designer Niek Wagemans, who also created a furniture piece for the property (part of his series ‘confused furniture’), Bruggink set about building House of Rolf from a rough scale model, developing and amending the design as the construction phase progressed.

Take an interactive tour of House of Rolf

The former coach house, originally built in 1895 in the back garden of a wealthy aristocrat’s home located in the stately Maliebaan district of Utrecht, had a 200 sq m wooden outbuilding added to the property in the 1950’s. This building, demolished by Bruggink after buying the property in 2011, provided the recovered materials used in the construction of a new sculptural and functional structure which forms the beating heart of the 50 sq m coach house. The result is a construction of architectural shapes that are rich and unusual in their diversity of texture and matter.

’The principle of transformation is most important to me,’ says Bruggink. ’The notion that an existing building can be adapted so as to take on an entirely new countenance is something that fascinates me.’

The finished house is a stunning example of making the most of limited space. The interior is divided into three zones. The first zone is left completely empty so that the original coach house can be fully experienced. The middle zone contains a structure that stands completely free from the coach house shell so that one can easily look beyond it from the entrance. This second zone houses the kitchen, bedroom, toilet, shower, bathroom and office. By positioning this sculptural structure in the middle of the house a front, middle and back division is created. This functional object thus simultaneously divides as well as connects the space.

In the third zone a second structure is located which together with the structure in the middle zone, form House of Rolf’s sculptural living space. On the back wall a new large format panorama window has been cut out of the shell of the coach house allowing light to flood into the space. This is the only intervention made in the original shell of the building.

The interior is divided into three zones. The first zone is left completely empty so that the original coach house can be fully experienced. Watch a timelapse video of the building process

INFORMATION

For more information visit Rolf Bruggink’s website and Niek Wagemans’ website

Photography: Christel Derksen & Rolf Bruggink

Compact living has never felt so spacious; enter Mews House, a two-bedroom home on a cobbled little street in Highgate, North London. Using a subtle palette of materials, architect Russell Jones has transformed a garage and overgrown garden in a recently regenerated area into a serene haven for modern living.

Working with a fairly constrained site of 90 sq m, backing onto a red brick terrace, Jones says he was fortunate to have a client who allowed 'a relatively free hand to maximise the accommodation and develop a sensible approach to the design and construction of the project'.

The architect used several clever techniques to make the most of what was available. The ash-coloured Wienerberger Marziale brick helps lift the interior, creating a bright environment that encourages light to reach deep into the mews building. Extra luminosity was achieved by using a Scandinavian brick surface smoothening technique called 'sækkeskuring', which Jones chose 'as a way of creating a more monolithic architecture, without losing the identity of each and every brick.'

Take an interactive tour of Mews House

The same material continues inside, complemented by neutral concrete floor tiling that flows seamlessly between the ground floor open plan kitchen, living and dinning interior and the external courtyard. Continuous lines and light-coloured, earthy tones create a sense of spaciousness, reflecting the natural sunlight brought in through floor-to-ceiling windows on the ground level, as well as tactically placed dormer and skylights upstairs. The upper floor hosts the two bedrooms and a bathroom.

While relatively small, this home has plenty of personality. A floating staircase of light oil-finished Douglas Fir creates a focal point for the minimalist, open plan living space. Practical elements are harmonised with the overall aesthetic, highlighting Jones’s attention to detail. Examples include external storage for bikes and recycling, built-in storage in the bedrooms and niches in the courtyard wall for plants and candles.

'The house was designed for those living there to feel safe, sheltered, aware of the weather around them and for all to see the material and tectonic qualities that make this little home special', says Jones. The result? A city dweller’s perfect bolthole. 

INFORMATION

For more information visit the architect’s website

Californian architects have long been blessed by an abundance of natural light and a dry temperate weather, which explains the airy expansiveness of so much of the state’s best architecture. And when a half-decent budget is thrown into the mix, the results can be both inspiring and aspirational.

In every way, the Los Angeles-based Marmol Radziner were the ideal architects for the Summitridge residence. The site, a steep slope that rises over downtown LA with views of Century City, the Getty Center and the ocean to the west, perfectly suited the firm’s penchant for interlocking volumes.

Ron Radziner says the client, an independent art collector, ‘wanted a modern home where every bedroom and living space has a view of garden roofs and the city beyond. They wanted the design to accommodate their grown children on the first and second guest floors when they would visit, and the master suite on the fourth, with the main living area in between. They envisioned indoor-outdoor living with an emphasis on exterior dining and entertaining against a natural colour and material palette.’

Take an interactive tour of Summitridge

Radziner solved the tricky issue of the site by terracing into the actual rock a series of interlocking boxes, including a 54 ft saltwater infinity pool, with alternating north-south and east-west orientations. Zinc panels and bronze finishes differentiate the masses, while dry-stack stone and cement plaster add a rough-hewn warmth to the spacious proportions of the house.

The dry Californian climate is specifically catered to, with drought-tolerant Mediterranean plantings alongside California sycamores and coast live oaks, and native hillside plantings that provide natural erosion control.

‘The material and colour combinations on the façade, together with the terraced volumes and planted roofs, allow the structure to recede into the hillside,’ Radziner says, though, if it’s not already abundantly clear, Summitridge stands out in every other way.

INFORMATION

For more information, visit the Marmol Radziner website

Photography: Roger Davies, courtesy of Marmol Radziner

Located in the thick of the Cyclades, Syros ticks all the boxes of a Greek island – the gorgeous flat waters of the Aegean, postcard perfect tableaus of little towns that cling to slopes, bijou bays and a wild sparse interior that’s changed little since the days of Homer. And in a picturesque spot in Delphini, in Syros’s northwest, the Thessaloniki-based Katerina Tsigarida Architects have built a complex of low-slung residential villas for a London-based Greek family that has familial and business (textiles and shipping) ties with the island.

The complex – comprising five buildings that house living, dining and bedrooms, and a studio – is sited on the edge of a bay that overlooks a small deserted island. The orientation is subtly ingenious: the axis of each building catches an edge of the bay, while the axes of the intervening courtyards point directly to the island. Getting the orientation right, say the architects, was probably the most challenging part of the project. The results, though, were worth the effort – the spaces offer both natural ventilation and light, and protection from the strong coastal winds.

The architects say the complex is inspired by ‘the vision of the primitive hut, of man's longing to go back to the essential, and by the ideal of continuity through landscape and memory’. In particular, the silhouettes echo the monolithic stone shapes that can still be found on Syros.

Certainly, this imprimatur of a distant past is reflected in the choice of materials – local stone drives the impression that the buildings emerge from the very earth, whilst a palette of timber ceiling beams, floors of polished cement embedded with grey and black sandstones feels exactly right for the site. For the interiors, a mix of untreated plaster, wooden doors and windows, alongside bespoke wood, concrete and raw aluminium furniture, all add to a pleasing mod-rustic mood.

INFORMATION
For more information visit the architect’s website

Photography: Yiorgis Yerolymbos

The old adage that it takes a village to raise a child was very probably at the back of Alejandro Bernardi's mind when he sat down at his desk to draft the plans for the Mexican 'House on the Pacific Coast'.

As it turns out, ‘house’ is entirely the wrong word to describe this project, built on a secluded wind- and sea-swept spot in Zihuatanejo, a town on the edge of Mexico’s Pacific coast, 160 miles northwest of Acapulco.

The owner is an entrepreneurial businessman with a large family who has worked with Bernardi on a number of projects. The brief was to build a holiday home that could accommodate the family, but without detracting from the security and privacy of the site, nor stand apart from the community.

Take an interactive tour of House on the Pacific Coast

‘That was the biggest challenge,’ says Bernardi, of Mexico City-based firm Bernardi + Peschard. ‘We did not want a massive building which could disrupt the context. So, we decided to break up the plot into several small buildings that are separated by lush landscape. This creates a small village in which the family can grow for generations to come and each son can have his own small casita in the future.’

The result is a micro-village of 14 rooms, albeit a tremendously sleek one in which the traditional Mexican palapa (or beach house), with its peaked straw-thatched roof, has been given a distinct contemporary twist. Each of the small buildings – pavilions, really – is arranged along a sandy path connected by stepping stones made of cut rounds of tree trunks, and features an earthy, tactile mix of exposed concrete, local parota wood and stone against a landscape of wild vegetation and canopy of palm trees. 

The ocean views, of course, are spectacular – whether from the 17m saltwater pool or from the second floor bedrooms. And where possible, Bernardi has elided walls, allowing sea-breezes to flow through the non-air-conditioned spaces. The site is stunning, Bernardi points out a little unnecessarily, but ‘the way the buildings are arranged makes them very private while at the same time the public spaces are very open, inviting and with the best views’.

INFORMATION

For more information, visit the Bernardi + Peschard Arquitectura website

Photography: Rafael Gamo

Placed delicately in its context, architecture firm DUST's Tucson Mountain Retreat is situated on the outskirts of the lush Sonoran Desert, designed in direct response to its intriguing setting. The architects, who describe the project as being ‘rooted in the desert’, have created a striking rammed earth dwelling that makes minimum impact on its fragile environment. It seamlessly blends into the surrounding Arizona landscape, featuring elegant, clean lines and a minimalist aesthetic – making it the perfect backdrop for our September issue’s ‘High noon’ fashion shoot.

The house was meticulously positioned to optimise sun exposure without excessive solar heat gain and to allow for uninterrupted 360-degree views. The initial decision to use rammed earth greatly informed the design and construction of the property and played a crucial role in the process of submerging the home into the landscape.

Take an interactive tour of Tucson Mountain Retreat

The home’s designated car parking space is kept at bay, strategically positioned 400 feet from the entrance, requiring visitors to approach it by foot. As water is geographically scarce, the architects’ design incorporates a 30,000-gallon rainwater harvesting system to service the house all year round. The low, horizontal home stretches along an east-west axis, with the sleeping areas extending into a number of patios which open towards the south, protected by the intense desert sun by deep overhangs. 

The internal program is separated into three zones: living, sleeping and entertainment areas. These three areas occupy a different section of the structure and the visitor has to step outside one in order to enter the next. This gesture both allows a level of privacy between uses, and urges the inhabitants to be at one with the breathtaking desert landscape.

The ‘High noon’ fashion shoot is featured in the September 2016 issue of Wallpaper* (W*210)

Information

For more information on the Tucson Mountain Retreat, visit the DUST website or the Tucson Mountain Retreat website

Photography: Bill Timmerman

The Brazilian firm FGMF Arquitetos – headed by Fernando Forte, Rodrigo Marcondes Ferraz, and Lourenço Gimenes – has revealed its latest residential offering, Cases Mirante. Hidden within a condominium complex in Aldeia da Serra, close to São Paulo, Casa Mirante is a vibrant, modern and highly functional family home, designed for a young couple with small children.

On approaching the property from the exterior, the house appears discreet and understated at first glance, but immediately on entrance, Mirante’s bright and spacious interior unfolds. Greatly inspired by South American modernism, the architects opted to utilise a patinated steel for the majority of the home’s structure, supporting it with the strategic placement of concrete slabs and stainless steel framed glass.

The Mirante’s interior program was devised in two parts. First was the ground floor and the home’s entry point, and a slightly higher level which houses the property’s kitchen, laundry area, bathroom, living rooms, pool area and its accompanying balcony. The second section is subterranean, inserted into the sloping landscape of the site and containing a home theatre, wine cellar, guest room and an office accompanied by a balcony.

After entering the main living space via one of the home’s many runways, the large lounge greets guests. A series of small walkways connect the rest of the property and out onto the stunning infinity pool and balcony, which offers far-reaching vistas over the neighbouring lake and the surrounding picturesque landscape.

FGMF focused on implementing sustainable solutions throughout their design. Irrigation systems collect rainwater for reuse within the surrounding garden, the roof’s solar heating panels provide the home with energy and steel was chosen for the outlying structure, due to its low environmental impact.

INFORMATION

For more information on Casa Mirante, visit the FGMF website

Photography: Rafaela Netto