Houses by Richard Neutra, R.M. Schindler and other masters of Los Angeles modernism line the steep streets of the Silver Lake district, though many are well concealed. Now, an unsung gem has come up for sale: a residence that John Lautner designed in 1955 for artist Joseph Baldwin and his wife, Rosemary. She survived him and lived there for 71 years until her death earlier this year. They changed nothing, so the Baldwin Residence is a time capsule, down to the space-age stove; modest in scale but packed with invention.

Explore Baldwin Residence by John Lautner, now on the market

Lautner is best known for the monumental houses of his later years, including the Chemosphere, Silvertop and the Elrod House in Palm Springs. These concrete palaces overshadow his early work in wood and brick, though they share the humanity that the architect brought to all his homes.

In an interview a year before his death in 1994, Lautner insisted that architecture 'has to be something that improves human life, with some spirit, some feeling, some real ideas contributing to human welfare; joyful; with light, air, free spaces; things that are alive, that are art.'

The Baldwin Residence embodies all those qualities. It is perched on a downslope, and you enter at the junction of a bedroom wing that hugs the hillside and the wedge-shaped living room that is cantilevered out from two concrete piers. The kitchen, dining area and the three bedrooms are tiny by contemporary standards, but high ceilings combined with the play of light make up for that limitation.

The house is a frugal masterpiece of inventive detail and expressive materials. Joists project out over a narrow sculpture garden to form a pergola. Sunlight filters through trees, highlighting the redwood and earth-toned stucco walls. The playful geometry of the interior parallels that of Schindler, and there’s even an echo of Frank Lloyd Wright in the triangular wall openings. Look up in the smaller bathroom, and the ceiling seems to be in motion.

Terrazzo floors give way to parquet, and Douglas fir wood is employed for built-in furniture, panelling, and to shade lighting. The expansive, glass-walled living room is bathed in northern light and doubles as an artist’s studio. It opens onto a wood deck and a panoramic view of the San Fernando Valley and San Gabriel Mountains. It’s anchored by a brick chimney and animated by a subtly folded ceiling. The void beneath may be built out, as Escher GuneWardena Architecture have done in their restoration of Lautner’s own 1939 house, a block north.

The Rosemary and Joseph Baldwin Residence, John Lautner (1955) is presented by Louis Magnano and the Modern California House at $2,099,999.

Jan Jakub Tesař of Prague-based Stempel & Tesar architekti, has completed a house in the city for his own family. The Minimal Maximum House is very much a crafted, self-directed project for Tesař, who joined the practice with his former teacher Ján Stempel in 2008.

Describing the house as ‘a personal manifesto in which more than two decades of designing residential architecture for others is condensed into a single, highly concentrated response,’ the new house sits on a tightly constrained and challenging spot in the city.

‘Every centimetre became a deliberate decision, resulting in a ‘minimal maximum’ – a house without corridors,’ says Tesař. The key feature is the three-storey central dining space that forms the core of the house. Over four metres tall, it connects to the various levels via a winding steel staircase and a series of half landings.

The site itself had been vacant for many years, located on a slope between two apartment buildings and villas, home to some ancient garages. Measuring 240 sq m, it also sits close to a railway track and contains a protected mature cherry tree, all factors that have dissuaded commercial developers from having a go.

For an architect, looking for a site for his own family, it presented an opportunity. ‘The plot shaped it, ambition motivated it, and responsibility refined it,’ Tesař says, ‘I built the house for us, for the whole family, but it reflects my ego. An ego shaped by twenty-five years of learning from the experienced and by building homes for others.’

By building high on a tight 70 sq m floor plan, Tesař and his team have created a three-bedroom house with a distinct vertical character that has around 100 sq m of accommodation. Light rights for neighbouring properties guided the shape and setback of the new house, with a frontage along the existing street line and its own garden to the rear.

The use of offset floor levels makes the most of the available space, with a sunken living area set into the hillside on the lower ground floor, stepping down from the entrance level. As one progresses up the house, this arrangement replaces a conventional hallway and corridors, with the staircase serving as the circulation and the 4.2m high dining room serving as lightwell and focal point.

The concrete structure required for the partially subterranean levels are left exposed and built-in furniture is used extensively to maximise the sense of space and the purity of the wall planes. Detail is everything. A single walnut tree provided the richly grained wood found throughout the kitchen, living room and doors, while in bedrooms have a more pared back, neutral finish.

This simplicity and minimalism is also carried through to the façade, which is clad throughout with vertically ribbed white profiled aluminium sheeting. In the dining room, a large sliding glass window opens up the space to the garden in the warm summer months.

Environmental performance has been carefully considered, with triple-glazed windows, high levels of insulation and underfloor heating powered by an air-to-water heat pump. The garden is irrigated by collected rainwater and a modest photovoltaic array on the roof deals with day-to-day energy needs.

As Tesar notes, the house is a unique creation, shaped by necessity and the demands of the site, but also highly crafted and individual in its detailing, right down to the custom front door handle, with ‘precise and functional geometry [that] also serves as an artistic statement.’

Stempel-Tesar.com, @Stempel_Tesar

A 1960s rural Ukrainian midcentury house near Kyiv has been transformed into a rich tapestry of found materials, antiques and creative interventions. Hata Yarova, which stands out in the village of Derev’yana thanks to a mural on its facade inspired by Ukrainian modernism and Suprematism by Levchenya, is the first of three neighbouring Soviet architecture-era homes that Ukrainian artist Oksana Levchenya (Konstantinovska) is remodelling as guesthouses, turning an ordinary, anonymous typology into something distinctive and woven with narrative.

Inside Oksana Levchenya's Ukrainian midcentury house project

The idea for the guest houses emerged during the pandemic, but the project has taken on new meaning since the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022. 'Continuing to build during the war is, in a way, an act of defiance against the death and destruction that Russia has brought to us,' Levchenya tells me via video call from Kyiv, her background darkened by a power cut.

She relies on a small group of builders, led by a man approaching his seventies, and the goal of renting the houses is largely about covering costs and sustaining the teams’ livelihoods. 'These houses serve as places of calm and restoration for those who have remained in Ukraine. We are all working enough for three people now, and all of us need rest and comfort.'

Levchenya’s own childhood was another spur. After her parents’ divorce, she stayed with her grandmother and later her aunt while her mother pursued a career as a surgeon. At the age of nine, she went to live with her mother in one of the meagre apartments allotted to physicians during the Soviet era in low-cost blocks, called Khrushchyovka.

'Throughout my early childhood, I was always staying in other people’s homes, dreaming of a place of my own,' she explains. 'The Hata Yarova project was born from a desire to create a space in which time is somehow suspended – a place that does not belong to any particular period.'

She calls her approach 'intuitive additive architecture': an organic method of adaptation, in which the final form emerges through a slow process of interventions and additions, rather than from a fixed blueprint. Replacing the roof gave her a chance to add an attic level housing guest rooms. The original porch was dismantled, its timber planks reused as the staircase. In its place, Levchenya added an extension housing the kitchen and bathroom.

Salvage is a defining feature of the project: oversized arched windows rescued from the renovation of a private residence have been cut up to suit the scale of the house and reassembled in a new composition, while an old timber platform from the former Kosmos factory was refashioned as outdoor decking.

In the bathroom, reuse becomes even more expressive, with unglazed tiles from the 1960s and 70s mixed with rare, hand-painted pieces from Kharkiv, and contemporary Spanish ceramics.

The interiors are kitted with vintage finds and pieces collected from friends, such as a stove from a restaurant. An antique wooden chest from the 1930s purchased from a fair is a poignant nod to her family history, made during the time of Soviet collectivisation, when privately owned farms were consolidated into state-controlled collective farms.

‘My family has lost its inheritance and material possessions several times: first in the aftermath of the October Revolution of 1917, and again during the upheavals of the 1930s,' she explains. 'Today history has cruelly repeated itself; the elders of my family - my mother, her sister, and her brother – have once again lost their homes in Krasnopillia, a rural settlement in Sumy Oblast.'

Rebuilding from these ruptures has shaped a particular understanding of value within the family: that the most enduring forms of inheritance are not material, but intellectual - one’s knowledge, skills and capacities. The chest becomes a metaphor for the limits of what can be carried through history: only what is essential, portable, and internalised. It is more than symbolic, however. 'It is an authentic domestic object, originally used to store textiles and rugs, and therefore carries a direct connection to the material culture of the home,' she adds.

Textiles have always had a particular emotional resonance for Levchenya, who describes them as a 'matriarchal medium' that connects women across generations. Thanks to her mother’s medical supplies, Levchenya’s favourite plaything as a child was gauze, which she used to create toys. Later, she was drawn to them again through her research into traditional Ukrainian craft heritage, but also a frustration with painting, 'which began to feel too confined and controlled,' she says. 'I wanted to have more freedom to experiment and make mistakes.'

Today she creates textile sculptures and woven wall-hangings that draw from local traditions, spliced with Ukrainian modernism and contemporary imagery. 'I find a particular magic in combining opposing textures and creating structures that contain a certain paradox within themselves,' she explains. 'This can happen through visual imagery - for example, Pac-Man combined with traditional Ukrainian ornament - or through the contrast of materials.'

Her own work is present in the house, including a white totem made from remnants of textile from a knitwear factory, and rugs made by her brand OLK Manufactory.

Hata Yarova and the subsequent houses are about 'combining contrasting aesthetic worlds that seem almost incompatible,' she says. While the other two houses undergo their transformation, Levchenya and her team are developing a philosophy to unite this growing community. 'I would love to make the project larger in scale, and perhaps eventually international,' she says. 'But the immediate plan is to survive – and to win the war.'

oksanalevchenya.com

The ability to update a historic structure – such as this barn in Kent – should be in every architect’s toolset, but the reality is different. In heritage-obsessed countries like the UK, with its rich seam of listed buildings and copious accompanying legislation, even the simplest of changes can be a daunting prospect.

That’s often for the best, given the cavalier attitude some have to history, but when necessity, sensitivity and innovation finally come together, the process is no less protracted.

Tour this refreshed barn and its new extension

This re-jigged barn conversion is a case in point. The original building dates back to the 16th century and is now Grade 2 listed. Built in the 16th century, the oak framed barn has a clay tiled roof and horizontal weatherboarding and also lies within the High Weald Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. The owners, a curator and joinery designer, wanted to update and enhance the layout of the original conversion into a dwelling.

That work, carried out back in 2003, left the barn divorced from its context by closing off the connection from the original farmhouse and entrance yard. As a result, the orientation left it disconnected from the tranche of garden allocated to the new dwelling.

Sandy Rendel Architects, the South London-based practice best known for Bury Gate Farm, an award-winning house on the South Downs and an elegant village residence, were commissioned to update and improve the outlook.

‘The main aim of the project was to help reorientate the house and offer a much clearer connection with the external spaces and views across the fields to the southwest,’ says Rendel, citing ‘extensive negotiations’ with the planners that resulted in a breakthrough for the design of the new kitchen extension that transforms the interior arrangement of the former barn.

‘It was actually the heritage officer who suggested a Corten steel roof to provide a clear distinction and contemporary twist on the clay tiles,’ the architect recalls, noting that the practice has become all too familiar with the material in recent works. ‘We ran with the idea and developed the concept of expressing the roof very directly and abstractly as these simple sheets of metal with fine crisp edge that stands out against the wavy softness of the sagging original roof and its original handmade tiles,’ Rendel continues.

It’s here that the practice’s obsession with detail stands out, with a recessed gutter tucked beneath the eaves, with water collecting in laser-cut slots running around the perimeter of the Corten steel. Beneath the roof, the gutter and downpipes are formed from dark zinc so as to blend with the black stained larch cladding on the extension.

The new addition is a timber framed structure, in keeping with the construction method of the original barn. To showcase the carpentry skills of Scott Partnership, who constructed the framework, everything is revealed, from the roof rafters to the ridge, hips and collar ties.

Large sliding glass doors provide the all-important connection to the garden, with the span supported by single slender square column, rotated at 45 degrees to the other timbers, supporting the ring beam.

Although the new extension is spiritually connected to the barn through the construction method and the material juxtaposition, there’s still a sense of separation between old and new thanks to the glazed structural link between the new buildings. Inside, the meticulous joinery of the kitchen cabinets – executed by the client – follows the grain and texture of the roof structure.

‘The project is one of the smallest things we have done but it was great to really get into the fine details of the timber connections,’ says Rendel, ‘it was a truly collaborative process with engineers Foster Structures and St Pierre Contractors, along with the frame makers and the clients themselves.’

SandyRendel.com

Arranged as a trio of interconnected structures, this seaside, Atlantic coast house project by BAL architects is a self-contained compound on a sloping site in Lacanau Océan, with the structures themselves providing weather shielding, privacy and carefully framed views of the ocean, just 200m away.

Tour this Atlantic coast home in France

The strategy of creating three discrete structures partly camouflages the scope and scale of the house, which has a total of six bedrooms across 300 sq m. The rhomboid-shaped plot itself isn’t much larger, at 500 sq m, but there’s still space a pool, playhouse and cycle storage, in addition to off-street parking and a careful planting scheme using local species.

The three structures are connected at basement level, with a separate connection at ground floor level adjacent to the entrance. With the volumes set at an angle to one another, the plan produces gaps, vistas and slices of garden, as well as enticing views between each building and the promise of secret passageways, underground connections and pathways through the garden.

The basement in particular is a world of discovery, with the building closest to the road housing a games room and home cinema, connected by tunnels to a pair of basement bunkrooms in the adjoining building and to the hammam, surf workshop and cellar area in the other.

At ground floor level, the main living and dining space sits above the basement games room, connected to another sleeping level. Across the terracotta paved upper terrace, the furthermost structure houses a double-height living space; both can be fully opened up to the exterior via large sliding glass doors. This living area also has a staircase that connects directly with the basement via a planted courtyard.

The architects had 30,000 terracotta tiles made locally especially for the project, colour coded to match the sandy soil of the garden – they run inside and out in a herringbone pattern to give a unity to the surfaces.

Each ‘house’ is very similarly shaped, with angle-cut Douglas fir cladding that references the tiling. The architects cite the area’s historic tobacco-drying sheds as a precedent for the quasi-industrial vernacular of the project.

The walls themselves are highly insulated with lime-hemp and plant-based wool, the concrete used is low-carbon certified and rainwater is collected for reuse, while solar shading and air circulators are included in every room.

The first structure also has an additional floor, where a further pair of bedrooms can be found. Despite the region’s high summer temperatures and strong winds, the house is designed to be comfortable all year round, as well as being fully permeable to soak up the sound of the ocean.

Thomas Sabatier, Thomas Cestia and Jeanne Mauvezin established BAL in nearby Bordeaux in 2015. All three studied at the École Nationale Supérieure d’Architecture de Versailles before working around Paris and Bordeaux for various firms before coming together for their first project, the refurbishment of the Hôtel Splendid in Dax.

The name – Bureau des Architectures Libres – was chosen to emphasise the studio’s commitment to freedom of design, as well as a ‘love of beautiful things, a taste for bespoke environments and unique projects, whatever the scale, from the tiniest coloured chamfer on a stair tread to the major refurbishment of a listed building’.

Their approach to this particular project highlights their love of a non-linear solution fused with a close attention to detail.

BAL-Archi.com

The development of Barcelona’s Eixample district has been shaped by an unexpected source: washerwomen. The clothes of the Catalan bourgeoisie were washed, scrubbed, rinsed, and cleaned in the wells of Calle Aiguafreda, a quaint and picturesque street. It is here that Casa de las Lavanderas – a historical washerwomen's house – was restored by architect Raúl Sánchez.

Step inside a historical Barcelona house that scrubbed up nicely

The architect’s clients were a couple with a newborn baby. Sánchez wanted to make sure that the narrow two-storey house reflected its history, having accommodated washerwomen and their families, who went out daily to their wells to hand-scrub clothes.

‘The history of the place, the existing wells, the washerwomen... I tried to take all this history and translate it into the present times,’ the architect told Wallpaper*. ‘The biggest challenge is always to make something that can move you, to bring that narrative element of the well of light into the functionality of the house, and create a space which can enhance the level of complexity that any house has to have.’

The washerwomen's house overlooks two streets, Calle Aiguafreda and Calle Granollers. However, there is a 1.5m drop in level between them. The architect had to carefully integrate access to the house at mid-level on the 40 sq m ground floor. A new staircase leads down to the lower level, while another ascends to the first floor, which houses bedrooms and a bathroom.

While the building lost its original laundry purpose, the architect made sure to nod to its context through bright cobalt blue lacquer, reviving the memory of the wells in a contemporary way. In the heart of the building is a lightwell, topped with an openable skylight, allowing the sun to shine down through the semi-subterranean ground-floor spaces. 'The well of light, with the glossy blue lacquer, is the element which creates the entire project’, says Sánchez.

The ground floor features an open-plan living, dining, and kitchen area. The client, who spent time living in Japan, adored the integration of folding doors made of wood and rice paper, which nod to the old washrooms’ use of large screens as room dividers.

The material palette is a dialogue of terracotta tiles, glazed tiles, reddish lacquers and paints, all an ode to the traditional clay of neighbouring orchards. The interior overhaul marks the first phase of the project's new look, with a garden redesign currently under development.

Casa de las Lavanderas provides a strong narrative of preserving historical context without slipping into conventional clichés. As the architect concludes, ‘I would like [people] to feel that the house is part of the history of the place, and at the same time, it is adding a new contemporary layer.’

raulsanchezarchitects.com

The site of Connaught House is a storied one. Its corner of north London on St John's Wood Terrace is a stone's throw from Abbey Road Studios, Lord's Cricket Ground and Regent's Park. The building itself was initially a chapel, but then evolved into a squash club for a while, and the studio where Queen filmed Radio Ga Ga. Now, the Grade II-listed structure is entering a new chapter in life, as owner Marcus Cooper Group and developer Valouran reveal a new, boutique family of homes within, featuring architecture by Darling Associates and interiors by Gunter and Co.

Explore Connaught House in London

Connaught House was originally built in 1841, a handsome neoclassical religious structure, featuring intricate Corinthian columns and crisp white stucco. Designed by architect John Tarring, it's been a local landmark and popular community spot for decades. The redesign project has been a painstakingly detailed one, transforming the interior into just five contemporary homes.

The original chapel's striking crowning cupola, which was lost for almost 100 years due to past alterations, was beautifully restored. Meanwhile, handcrafted windows and refined rooflines help bring the building into the 21st century.

The resulting five apartments are all unique, designed using a common language of green and neutral tones, and timber and stone surfaces to create a coherent whole. Gunter and Co's Irene Gunter says:

'Our approach to the interiors was shaped by a pursuit centred on bringing back the chapel's original character- celebrating the arches, the period detailing, and the quality of daylight, and restoring features lost to a series of unsympathetic alterations over the years. We were careful, though, not to simply wind the clock back. It was just as important that the five homes felt luxurious, refined and considered for modern-day living, not a museum piece.

'The overarching approach was to let the architecture dictate the language, room by room, rather than applying one flat design across all five homes. The apartments with the arched windows at the front of the building lean into a more classical style, in keeping with the chapel's original proportions and detailing. To the rear, where the building is more contemporary, the interiors shift into a more modern design language,' she continues.

'What ties the apartments together is a shared material palette - sympathetic wood tones, neutral paint colours, and consistent ironmongery and tapware carried through both the classical and contemporary spaces. That common thread is what gives the collection cohesion, even as each apartment's character shifts depending on where it sits in the building.'

Soft furnishings, curated artwork and the building sense of space and generosity – through tall ceilings and large windows that open up to the surrounding green spaces – complement perfectly the design studio's craft-led approach.

Says Gunter: 'Every supplier and maker was chosen through the same lens as everything else on this project – quality, craft and longevity. We leaned heavily on a team of suppliers we've tested and trusted over years of projects, with a strong focus on UK makers. Around 80 per cent of what you'll find across the homes is UK-made. This is a proudly British project, and investing in that craftsmanship felt like the right way to honour it. We also wanted this to be a chance to shine a light on new artisans we've discovered along the way. In each of the apartments, you'll find beautiful bespoke pieces created by makers we've met at craft fairs, and others discovered along the way and beyond.'

gunterandco.com

valouran.com

connaught-house.com

In the Arruda Dos Vinhos, just north of Lisbon, a new project by (Umtodo) architects transforms a ruined watermill into a striking Portuguese house. Carefully shaped so as to exist completely within the footprint of the original structure, Casa da Azenha retains only fragments of the thick exterior wall and an internal retaining wall, which has been kept in order to delineate the shift between the three levels of the new house.

‘The project seeks to enhance both the existing fabric and its natural setting, reinforcing the dialogue between architecture and landscape,’ the architects say, explaining how all the original openings in the mill have been preserved and used as the basis for the internal plan, doors and windows of the new house.

One enters at road level, which was originally the upper floor of the mill building, which steps down towards the riverbed. This level houses the main reception room, which soars up into the void of the pitched roof around a central fireplace. From here, stairs lead up to the kitchen and dining area, alongside a guest bathroom. The dining area features a large frameless picture window with views across the valley.

An additional level sits directly beneath the kitchen and houses two bedrooms and second bathroom. The building is practically set into the hillside, giving these rooms a monastic, cell-like feel that is quite distinct from the light-filled upper floors. The new structures features rendered grey walls that stand in contrast to the honey stone of the ruins.

‘To emphasise the contrast between the permanence of the historic ruin and the new intervention, the inserted building is conceived as a single, monolithic volume which recalls the archetypal form of a pitched-roof house,’ the architects explain.

Ultimately, Casa da Azenha is about retaining the memory of place without compromising the demands of contemporary living. The studio, led by João Pedro Cavaco with Hélia Pereira and Rafael Jaleco, is based locally and specialises in refined residential projects with a calm, reflective relationship with the surrounding landscape.

umtodo.com, @umtodo.sobrearquitetura

We love houses here at Wallpaper*, and we strive to spotlight only the best architectural gems from around the world. Every day, the team is presented with a portfolio of boundary-pushing residences, which span the spectrum of modern design. Here, we bring together a selection of those that impressed us the most each month.

This month’s finds include a few listings: The Stahl House – one of LA's most famous midcentury homes, still hasn’t found a buyer; Sylvan Rock, designed by S3 Architecture with Aston Martin; and a Ventura Beach house that could also be yours. Other projects include a residence shaped like an avocado in the Californian desert and a charming Victorian townhouse in London. Here are the best new house stories of October 2026.

The stunning Stahl House for sale

Pierre Koenig’s Stahl House, a midcentury modernist landmark in Los Angeles, languishes on the market despite a $5 million discount. Now at $20 million, buyers still hesitate: its two-bedroom, 2,200-square-foot floor plan is remarkably modest for the price tag. Compounding the challenge, building alterations are prohibited, and demanding maintenance required for ageing materials makes preserving architectural history a costly, labour-intensive proposition. Whether or not the discount will compel the right buyer to make a move remains to be seen. But one thing’s for sure: they’ll be owning a piece of America’s architectural history.

Read more here

A spooky ‘Verity’ House

Beyond its erotic plot, Michael Showalter’s psychological thriller Verity lures design aficionados with an architectural rarity: a secluded lakeside retreat. The Armonk residence was originally built in the 1960s by Danish designer Jens Quistgaard for Dansk's founders. One of its defining features is its evocative, jagged sawtooth roof. Production designer Amy Williams channelled Quistgaard’s midcentury modernist designs for the sets, layering brutalist furnishings, custom woodwork, and Dansk artefacts into a menacing domestic stage.

Read more here

An avocado home

Architect Arshia Mahmoodi’s newly unveiled Avocado House translates a minimalist geometry of three intersecting circles into a striking hillside sanctuary. Perched above California’s Yucca Valley, the residence is shaped around a central crescent courtyard that forms its namesake 'pit'. The curved retreat captures panoramic desert vistas from its sculptural framework.

Read more here

A quiet Victorian townhouse redesign

Architecture for London has sensitively reunited two divided flats into a single Victorian family residence. Located in Kentish Town, the house is designed to prioritise quiet refinement over dramatic overhaul. The reconfiguration pairs restored period elements with the clients’ midcentury furniture collection. A light-filled Shaker-style kitchen, anchored by reclaimed brick and exposed timbers, forms the heart of this unfussy home.

Read more here

A green ceramic extension

In Brockley, south-east London, Bolans Architects has transformed a Victorian terraced home, saving its boldest design statement for the rear garden. Named Ceramic House, the project features a playful yet sophisticated green ceramic façade crafted from arches, recesses, and shifting planes. Beyond the glazed extension, the refurbishment reconfigures the ground floor to create space for a cosy loft conversion.

Read more here

A minimalist Melbourne house

Casa Piva is a minimalist residence offering privacy and seclusion. Found in suburban Malvern East, Melbourne, B.E. Architecture has crafted the residence to be a serene cocoon for practice director Andrew Piva and his family. An austere white-brick façade conceals a series of hidden courtyards and tactile communal spaces. Rich interior layers of travertine, brick, and antique oak joinery nod to the owners’ Italian heritage.

Read more here

An Eichler House could be yours

The celebrated Eichler X-100 in Northern California is seeking a new custodian. Conceived by developer Joseph Eichler alongside architects A. Quincy Jones and Frederick Emmons, the steel-framed residence was designed as a living laboratory for postwar modernism. Restored to its 1956 glory, the 2,310-square-foot home integrates interior gardens, expansive glass, and Santa Cruz Mountain vistas.

Read more here

An Aston Martin-branded home

Set across a 55-acre Hudson Valley estate, Sylvan Rock is the first private single residence designed in collaboration with Aston Martin and S3 Architecture. Defined by a jagged, blackened-cedar and faceted-metal roofline snaking around a rocky ledge, the compound features bespoke Aston Martin-designed furnishings, a subterranean automotive gallery, three guest pods, and an architect-designed treehouse. It is now listed for $19.5 million.

Read more here

A monolithic Ahmedabad house

Architecture studio FLXBL has completed Solidus, a residence crafted through the progressive subtraction of a monolithic concrete volume. In Ahmedabad, India, the shuttered-concrete form is punctured by courtyards and carved-out terraces that add native vegetation across every level. Inside, stone floors and a brick spine wall balance monumental scale with shaded, microclimate-moderating spaces.

Read more here

A Ventura Beach house

Architect Carl Maston’s 1984 Susman House in California’s Faria Beach Colony has hit the open market for the first time, listed at $5.1 million. Overlooking a renowned surf spot, Mondo’s Cove, the residence channels the rustic spirit of classic coastal cabins into late-period modernism. The residence boasts cedar cladding and exposed brick fireplaces, and frames 240-degree panoramic Pacific views.

Read more here

A geometric Thai home

Khao Yai Mountain Grounded Villa is a crisp white family retreat in northeastern Thailand. Designed by HAS Design and Research, the residence features a distinctive zig-zag roof that mirrors the local mountain ridges and traditional shadow puppets. Through natural ventilation and rainwater harvesting, the contemporary, open-plan home maintains a comfortable climate without air conditioning. Cultural heritage sits neatly within modern design.

Read more here

A Nigerian lagoon house

Perched on Ikaare Island off the Lagos lagoon is OA House, a four-bedroom retreat. Architect Tosin Oshinowo spearheaded the project, which features sculptural, matte off-white volumes and timber flooring. The redience is defined by its minimalism, which frames the Atlantic Ocean. An open, breezy pavilion living space and swimming pool deck maximise sea views, while ground-floor and terraced upper bedrooms provide serene, private sanctuaries.

Read more here

River Forest Lookout was built in 2023, designed and constructed by Mark Derenthal as the perfect getaway in nature. Built from galvanised steel set into a concrete plinth on the forest floor, the watchtower has enjoyed a healthy career as an Airbnb but is now looking for a new owner.

The accommodation is located in two modified shipping containers set 60ft up, atop a custom steel stair tower – the attached winch is most definitely not designed for pets, let alone people.

Consisting of a kitchen, living and sleeping area with a modest balcony, alongside a full bathroom, it’s a tight 300 sq ft space that is mitigated by the panoramic 360-degree treetop views across the Chattahoochee National Forest to the Cohutta Mountains. Warning: things get insanely photogenic in fall.

The site itself winds across 14 acres of forest and includes around 3,000ft of private frontage onto the Jacks River. This is fishing territory (trout), and there are waterfalls and swimming holes to discover as well. The structure made extensive use of prefabricated industrial components.

Derenthal, who collaborated on the project with the structural engineer Bill Seeber, not only re-used shipping containers but adapted a tower crane mast for the support structure. Derenthal did much of the construction work himself, creating a project that is low maintenance, fire resistant and self-sufficient.

Atop the tower, reached by a spiral staircase set between the two shipping containers, the Forest Lookout offers a rooftop terrace complete with firepit. It sits between the solar array, which works alongside propane heaters to create a totally off-grid living space.

The property, which is being sold through Mountain Sotheby’s International Realty, is offered as a fully furnished, totally turnkey operation, a nod to its current role as a popular Airbnb destination. The site also has permission and utilities in place for a second structure, should the new owner want to expand the hospitality concept.

The River Forest Lookout splices the technological transfer beloved of High-Tech architecture with a very specifically American picturesque, one that frames the individual within the wilderness in an elaborate and dramatic way. By eschewing a more austere architectural approach in favour of gutsy, durable post-industrial architecture, the lookout is a fortress of solitude that offers the ultimate escape from the day-to-day.

For sale via Mountain Sotheby’s International Realty, priced at $1,200,000, SothebysRealty.com, @mountain.sir

King's Cross has evolved into more than a pass-through transit hub. Coal Drops Yard has a bustling independent Japanese crafts market, cool listening bars and design shops galore. Meanwhile, visitors can soak in the creative energy of the neighbouring arts college, Central St Martins.

Adding to this mix, positioned at the northern edge of Lewis Cubitt Park, are the newly finished Cadence residences by London-based architecture firm Alison Brooks Architects (ABA). The red brick facade, with dramatic arched windows, makes the complex instantly intriguing, and you can’t help but think as you pass by, ‘I bet it's nice in there.’

Wallpaper* got a look when we toured the new ‘courtyard tower’ with its architect.

Step inside Cadence in King's Cross

Cadence houses 163 residential units, with commercial and social spaces, including an open courtyard and a gym. Upon entering, its lobby towers above you – almost like a cathedral, thanks to towering arches and mirrored walls that create a sense of infinite space. Ahead, a large glass door frames a courtyard, which is surrounded by small cloister walkways.

At the heart of this courtyard is a sunken reflection pool, with low-hanging sculptural lights carefully suspended above. Brooks explains that the pool was inspired by Venice, and she initially wanted the water to rise and sink like the changing tide. In the end, it sits peacefully still. But there are still overt references to the Floating City: Receding steps, just like the ones along Venice's canals, descend into the water, and small enclaves filled with greenery are reminiscent of canal algae.

Brooks looked to the building’s context and used red brick throughout to pay homage to London’s St Pancras station. The Canadian-British architect also was inspired by the arched buildings of Paris and Rome, where she studied for four months in 1985. It's all typical of her style, which blurs the boundaries between period, places and materials. ‘We can draw on memory which in turn enriches a pragmatic approach to a place,’ Brooks explains.

The building is placed within a six-sided block, with two towers of 12 and 16 storeys. The first two floors of both buildings are devoted to commercial, social and service spaces, while the remaining levels comprise homes and apartments.

There are plenty of perks to be had at Cadence. The apartments are spacious. ('Residents love it because they get morning sun, midday sun and afternoon sun. It's filled with light,’ says Brooks), plus the building sits on top of the Thameslink line.

The latter proved crucial to the design of the towers. ‘There are two tunnels that go under the building, and so that determines the geometry and the alignment of this building,’ the architect explains. ‘It had to be designed with isolators and very special consideration of the structure to come down on either side of the tunnels’.

While Cadence has a made-in-place feel, nearly 85 per cent of the buildings are made from prefabricated components – including the world's first prefab lift system. ABA, working closely with contractor Laing O'Rourke, leaned into the innovative construction method.

‘Everything you see in the building has been manufactured off-site: the columns, the beams, the slabs, the lift shafts, the facade panels and the bathroom pods,' Brooks says. ‘Everything came in and was lifted into place, which made it very clean and practically very little waste.’

Construction moved quickly, but there was an unexpected setback: a bird’s nest was found on the site. ‘It was on top of one of the cores, so the construction had to stop until the eggs had hatched. It was a protected species, a redstart. It was a three-month delay,’ Brooks says.

Of the 163 residential units, 60 are affordable rentals acquired on behalf of the CBRE UK Affordable Housing Fund. These are offered at discounted market rents, with priority given to individuals and families from the Camden community. The market-rate one-bed homes were listed or resold from £585,000 to £860,000, while larger residences are listed between £1.9 million to £2.4 million or more (Penthouses, for instance, are listed for upwards of £15 million).

The mix feels reflective of Cadence's blend of styles and ideas – playful and robust, solid yet soft. Above all, the project is a welcome addition to the ever-evolving King's Cross neighbourhood.

Have you always dreamt of living in an icon of brutalist architecture? The forthcoming Torre Velasca Residences in Milan can offer a vision of just that, thanks to an exclusive new group of luxury homes that are soon coming to market.

Occupying the top eight floors of the legendary high-rise, first designed by BBPR in 1958, the 72 new residences, which have launched their first phase this autumn, have been curated to perfection by Matteo Thun & Partners.

Explore the new Torre Velasca Residences by Matteo Thun & Partners

Thun's design draws on the tower's prominent position in the Milanese skyline and its architectural avant-garde spirit. The interiors, as a result, are elegant and nod to 20th-century modernism, yet still remain perfectly tuned to 21st-century needs and contemporary mod-cons. And while the project comprises levels 19 and 26 (the rest of the building is a hotel operated by METT Hotels & Resorts), the design scope also included a rethink of some of the communal areas, such as the main reception, the welcome lobby at the rear of the ground floor, and the corridors.

Says Thun on his approach in working with such a historically significant location: 'Reinterpretation is our key methodology when engaging with a legacy. At Torre Velasca, we allowed the masters and the building itself to speak, imagining a way of living within it that could accompany the building a little further into the future, adding a new chapter to its history.'

'In our design, we did not seek contrast with the existing building; instead, we started building our colour codes from the iconic pink plaster and the green and blue tiles of Torre Velasca. Where we felt the architecture had already achieved a sense of completeness, such as at the loggias and the rooftop that have an almost sacred quality, we chose not to intervene further. Sometimes designing also means recognising when there is no need to add anything,' he adds.

'The interiors look to Milanese design from the 1950s through the 1980s, where we collaborated with some of Milan's iconic companies, such as Molteni, Oluce, Cassina and Dedar, who had shaped the city’s identity as an international design capital. Different eras and locally rooted realities come together in a shared narrative of evolution and continuity: the ability to change over time while maintaining an intact sense of identity.'

To match the existing tower and the new interiors' vision and refinement, the residences will now be operated by Sunset Hospitality, which will offer high-quality resident services that will ensure frictionless living.

Thun concludes: 'Although the project focused on interior design, Torre Velasca first and foremost challenged us to think and work as architects. Perhaps the most interesting aspect of this experience was precisely this: every time we crossed the building’s threshold, we discovered something new. It was, in every sense, a lesson in architecture.'

'Working within its walls meant constantly engaging with composition, construction details, and the relationship between the building and the city. At Torre Velasca, domestic space and urban space cannot be conceived as separate entities, but rather as parts of a single, deeply interconnected system,' the architect continues.

'In this sense, the project became a journey of discovery, in which the building itself became our first teacher,' Thun says. 'And perhaps this is the most important lesson it has left us with: in attempting to intervene in a work of architecture so rich in meaning, we received far more than we were able to give back.'

Craig Ellwood (1922 to 1992) was a charismatic and self-made architectural superstar, adept at whipping up mid-century modern confections throughout the hills and canyons of California for a coterie stylish, artistic, and creative clients.

Born in Texas as Jon Nelson Burke, Ellwood never formally qualified as an architect yet, remarkably, his name is now attached to some of the most iconic houses of the last century, including Case Study House #22, the Stahl House, the meticulous precision of Case Study House #16, the Salzman House, as well as houses 17B and 18.

Although the 1950 Ellwood-Zimmerman House in Brentwood was needlessly demolished in 2024, there are a still a notable number of surviving projects that bear his signature style, including the 1976 campus for the ArtCenter College of Design in Pasadena, designed with James Tyler, and the renewed and restored Moore House, also from 1965.

Now Ellwood fans have another opportunity to buy into the legend, this time with slightly less of the cultural burden borne by the Stahl House. The Kubly House is located in Pasadena and has a close connection to ArtCenter. Completed in 1965 for the princely sum of $45,000, the three-bedroom, two-bathroom house covers a modest 2,277 sq ft.

The clients were Don and Sally Kubly, both ArtCenter alumni and educators; Don went on to become its second president. The process of building the house kickstarted the creative partnership that eventually led to Ellwood’s involvement on the new campus buildings a decade later.

The structure is simplicity itself, a glass and timber box with a clear Miesian inspiration (allegedly sketched on a napkin by Ellwood during a client lunch). All utility spaces sit within the glazed envelope, with a galley kitchen at the heart of the property, flanked by a living room and dining/family room. The corners of the rectangular plan are given over to bedrooms, with the primary ensuite bedroom on one side and two children’s bedrooms on the other, sharing a bathroom.

Steps and terraces, aligned with the centre of the house, lead down to the landscaped 0.6-acre garden and pool. The post and beam pavilion is raised up on short pilotis above the gently curving site, with mature trees along the perimeter providing framed views from every room.

The Kubly family retained the house until 2022. The subsequent owners undertook a sympathetic restoration of what is believed to be the architect’s only residential project in Pasadena. This included updating all the house’s major systems and restoring the surfaces, structure and glazing, readying the Kubly House for the next phase of its history.

The Kubly House, 215 La Vereda Road, Pasadena, for sale via Chris Suarez and Kimberly Benz of Suarez + Benz at Compass, TheKublyHouse.com, priced at $3,250,000

Have you ever wondered where creatives live? Artists’ Modernist Houses, a new book by publisher Batsford, looks at just that, taking readers on a fascinating journey across scales and territories in the midcentury movement and looking at homes 'which are or have been lived in by artists'.

The book, authored by Wallpaper* contributor – and former staffer – Harriet Thorpe, compiles 50 examples. The projects include residences not only commissioned by artists, but also, on occasion, co-designed by them, exploring how art and the owners' creative spirit help form space and the entire living experience.

Discover a treasure trove in ‘Artists’ Modernist Houses’

Projects span the globe, being built anywhere between the mid- to end of the 20th century – always in the progressive, for the time, modernist architecture style. Examples span from André Wogenscky and Marta Pan's home outside Paris to Barbara Hepworth’s studio and Georgia O’Keeffe’s ranch in New Mexico, the Bauhaus Masters’ Houses in Germany, and the studio and houses of Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera in Mexico City.

'I’ve always loved visiting artists’ house museums, where the aura of the artist remains, absorbed through their personal objects [such as] notebooks, sketches and books, [and] their daily views and working processes. I feel like in those kinds of rooms you can really start to understand an artist on a deeper level,’ Thorpe says.

The author says: 'Working on this book made me think about exactly why I love to get lost in those domestic worlds. My mother loves art, particularly the Impressionists and early abstract art, artists like Mary Cassatt, Modigliani, and Gabriele Munter – so paintings, in the form of postcards, books and exhibitions, were very present in my childhood.

'I went on to study art history and then developed a closer interest in the 20th century and domestic space while writing as a journalist about architecture. I realised that artists’ houses brought together all of these parts of me through a kind of journey into experiencing someone else’s life.'

Thorpe's investigations and analyses go beyond 'just' looking at the case studies – rich, varied and visually captivating as they are. Artists' Modernist Houses also includes a series of essays that lets readers dive deeper into what it means to have art in the home, how architecture enters into dialogue with art, and museums within homes, particularly artists' homes.

Meanwhile, luxurious photography, a mix of newly captured and archival imagery, adds a sense of expansiveness to each case study, transporting the reader into the beautiful dwellings.

'During the process, I felt a growing nostalgia for a “modern” way of life. These houses were imagined as personal vessels for thinking and creating; many of them feel like private worlds, where objects and resources were well-made and treasured. Today we live faster, with far more connection and convenience, yet it comes at a mental and spatial cost on the atmospheres of our homes and what they mean to us,' says Thorpe.

'While writing the book, I did lose some of this nostalgia, particularly reflecting on the social challenges that women and people of colour faced and fought to break in the 20th century; and on the changing meaning of home during and in the aftermath of two world wars. Yet even in the face of these challenges, artists continued to carve out their ideas and philosophies into space and living in radical ways, which really inspired me.'

She adds, of the sense of discovery that working on this book afforded: 'I think what I discovered is the relationship between modern art and modern architecture in the 20th century. Modern art seemed to pave the way through theory and movements, then modern architecture had the task of translating this thinking into three dimensions. Art and architecture had moments of deep reciprocity, which can be seen in like-minded collaborations or echoing aesthetics, yet also developed on their own independent trajectories too.

'In the book, some artists gave an architect carte blanche, trusting their total interpretation of their artistic way of life; others collaborated with an architect sharing influences; while some artists used architecture as their medium, creating living sculptures; and others took on the formal role of the architect themselves. Every space reflects radical ways of thinking about how we can live creatively in the world, and the extraordinary ideas that can emerge when the two disciplines meet.'

'Artists’ Modernist Houses', Batsford, £30, published by batsfordbooks.com, also available from Waterstones

This Brazilian house is a statement that only reveals itself upon closer inspection, so deeply is it set into its context. Casa Lilaya ‘is located in Alto Paraíso de Goiás, in a rural area close to the Chapada dos Veadeiros National Park, in Brazil,’ says Alan Chu, the architect behind it. ‘It sits near a river that runs through the site, immersed in the native vegetation of the Cerrado biome. The sky is vast, and the hills and plateaus fade into the horizon.’

The region is known for ecotourism, but perhaps not as you’d expect. Those interested in holistic living may have heard of the area's strong mystical connections, credited to the high concentration of crystals in the local soil.

Casa Lilaya sits low in a clearing and is accessed by a winding dirt road. It comprises a low, single-storey volume, with crisp lines that seamlessly extend into the landscape.

Inside Casa Lilaya, a minimalist Brazilian house

The client asked for a simple country retreat that was cost-efficient. The two-bedroom home is an example of elegant restraint; however, it was not conceived in pursuit of a specific aesthetic, as Chu explains.

‘It grew out of the experience I wanted to create. How can we perceive time, and how can we create a journey, within a simple building with a limited area? Dividing the plan into quadrants automatically creates four distinct dimensions; I would say at least four different moments in time, without using more area to achieve this. Each quadrant has its own orientation and its own views.’

Chu was careful to note that the region has a long dry season and a rainy one, so he felt it was important to lift the house off the ground to protect it from seasonal changes. It is reminiscent of similar Japanese house typologies.

A long wall extends out from the project's primary volume and acts as a welcoming 'arm' guiding guests towards the main entrance and into the home. It also provides a cosy seating area. This wall is 80cm thick and runs 31m, crossing the entire house. It takes on different functions along its length: seating, the kitchen counter, shelving, the entrance porch, and closets.

Chu, however, designs from the inside out, ‘but always with a sense of aesthetics and proportion’, he says. ‘The experience begins before arriving: a drive along a winding road through the vegetation, then the first glimpse of the house, a moment of mystery and approach. Inside, each room reveals a different landscape.

‘The walls that extend beyond the building create a sense of movement and freedom, and at the same time they give the house a longer, more horizontal, and elegant proportion. The monochromatic palette reduces noise and the amount of information. It is a way to quiet the mind and reinforce the presence of the natural landscape.’

Stepping inside is an invitation to relax. The material palette is minimalist and calming, comprising terracotta, cement, and solid-wood joinery. Large floor-to-ceiling windows open up to nature outside.

Chu concludes: ‘I like the harmony and coherence of the whole. Above all, I am glad to have designed a house that escapes the stereotype of the country cabin. It is hard to imagine it anywhere else. It was made to be there, and that is essential.’

chu.arq.br

There are trophy houses and then there are icons. California is liberally scattered with the former but also has more than its fair share of the latter. Now another example of a prototypical modernist residence has gone up for sale, a house that helped set the template for what was to come.

The Lovell Beach House was the first property commissioned by a far-sighted, forward-thinking couple, in more ways than one. Built for Leah and Philip Lovell, the house was designed exactly a century ago by the architect RM Schindler (1887-1953), with Richard Neutra, no less, working on the landscaping.

Philip M Lovell wrote for the Los Angeles Times. A committed naturopathic health advocate, as well as a vegetarian and a fanatic advocate of naturist sunbathing and avocados, although not necessarily at the same time, he wrote a column called ‘Care of the Body’. In many respects, he is the prototypical modern Californian, healthy, wealthy, and committed to natural wellness with a light side order of eccentricity.

Happily, his wife, Leah Press-Lovell, shared his enthusiasms. The couple had met through her work at a private progressive school in East Hollywood, on land owned by the heiress Aline Barnsdall, whose own residence was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright and finished in 1921: the Hollyhock House (now open to the public, and having survived recent threats of closure).

One of the architects working with Wright on the Hollyhock House was Rudolph Michael Schindler, a Vienna-born architect who had arrived in the US in 1914, having studied under such luminaries as Adolf Loos and Otto Wagner.

Although Schindler was to ultimately fall out spectacularly with Wright, as well as have a fractious relationship with Neutra, his fortuitous place in this creative and somewhat cultish milieu led to a connection with Lovell – both men’s wives taught together at the progressive kindergarten.

Together, the Lovells commissioned Schindler to design them a new house in Newport Beach, a shining piece of concrete and glass modernism that fulfilled their love of the open air, freedom, light and health.

The Lovell Beach House was completed in 1926 and appeared to tick all the boxes for the Lovell’s radical lifestyle, with sleeping porches on the first floor that could be opened up to the Pacific air and floor to ceiling glazing.

The Lovell’s unconventional living requirements allowed Schindler to experiment, using reinforced concrete – still a relatively new material, especially in private residences – to raise the house high up off its plot. This created spectacular ocean views from the terrace, while the thin but strong structure allowed for the ribbons of glazing that illuminate the double-height living space in the heart of the 2,741 sq ft house.

As originally conceived, the ground floor contained only a garage and an open area between the angular concrete pillars, with twin staircases leading off in two directions from a central plinth. The first floor contained the double height living room, alongside a dining area, kitchen and breakfast area.

Upstairs, four identical bedrooms were reached off a galleried landing, with an appropriately private roof deck on top. The chilly Pacific fogs quickly put paid to the open sleeping areas and the balconies were enclosed by the end of the decade.

Neutra’s contribution was the modest landscape plan, overlooked by a balcony reached from the sitting room, which in turn had the beach and ocean in the distance. Featuring a curvaceous raised flower bed and semi-naturalistic planting and seating, it’s enhanced by the house’s excellent position on the last building plot before the beach.

Remarkably, the Beach House has stayed in the Lovell family ever since, a focal place where key family gatherings and celebrations have been held over the past hundred years.

The last Lovell to live there, Philip and Leah’s daughter-in-law Barbara, died in 2025, prompting the family to finally sell a place that has been so integral to their life for so long. Over the decades, changes have been sparse and sympathetic, with almost all Schindler’s original built-in furnishings retained.

Philip and Leah went on to commission Richard Neutra to design their next house, the equally famous Lovell Health House, completed in 1929. Ultimately, they chose to spend more time at the beach residence, even though it was initially the Neutra building that won more plaudits and attention from the world’s architectural press.

Taking on such an icon – in such a prominent spot – is not for the faint-hearted. We reported recently on the struggle to sell the Stahl House (Craig Ellwood's Case Study House #22), another slice of American architectural history that comes with caveats as well as kudos.

Although the Lovell Beach House is a veritable antique by Californian standards, it’s still a monument to the kind of innovation and thinking that defines the state today.

Lovell Beach House, 1242 West Ocean Front, Newport Beach, California, is for sale at $18.8m, co-listed by Nate Cole of Modern California House and Todd Bousman of Bouhaus Properties, TheLovellBeachHouse.com

Nestled in the green landscape of Khao Yai in northeastern Thailand, this new home clearly stands out – not just for its colour, a crisp white that pleasingly pops within its leafy setting, but also for its unapologetically contemporary form and the zig-zag roof that defines its volume. Welcome to Khao Yai Mountain Grounded Villa, a new countryside retreat designed by Thai architecture practice HAS Design and Research and its founders (and 2022 Wallpaper* Architects Directory entrants) Jenchieh Hung and Kulthida Songkittipakdee.

The project was conceived as a family dwelling which responds to 'the philosophy of the Sufficiency Economy, initiated by Thailand's King Rama IX, which advocates self-reliance through sustainable, environmentally conscious living,' the architects explain. This means that old and new building methods and spatial arrangements merge for the optimal result that creates ample and comfortable living space while respecting the surrounding environment and its resources.

This means the home uses passive environmental strategies to both work harmoniously with its context and operate in the best way for its users. Techniques used include maximising sun exposure and ventilation to help maintain a comfortable internal environment, and a harvesting system that collects and reuses rainwater for irrigation in the garden.

The house itself looks decidedly modern, yet takes its cues from context and history. Its L-shaped footprint references the local agricultural vernacular's courtyard arrangement – which also helps control sun and airflow within the home, protecting some areas while opening up others to the outdoors. The result is a residence that 'maintains an average temperature of approximately 26°C without the need for air conditioning,' the architects explain.

At the same time, its tongue-in-cheek, jagged roofline is not just a playful geometric design, but echoes in an abstract way the outline of the region's surrounding mountains, seen from the home's large openings. Meanwhile, these shapes cast distinctive pixel-like mountain shadows on the floor, and reflections on the extensive glazed surfaces, bringing a sense of fun and dynamism into the design.

This approach, the architects add, 'draws inspiration from the dramatic silhouettes of Nang Yai, Thailand's traditional shadow puppet theatre. While Nang Yai is one of Thailand's most celebrated cultural traditions, its visual language has never before been translated into contemporary Thai architecture. Here, the project reinterprets this cultural heritage through architecture, transforming light, shadow, and landscape into an immersive spatial experience.'

Inside, a flowing open plan is designed to allow for maximum flexibility in terms of how to use the spaces – gathering, communication, yoga, meditation, and a range of everyday activities can all be easily accommodated. Further auxiliary spaces discreetly support a tatami room, music room, water closet, kitchen, and wine cellar. One arm of the 'L' contains social areas, and the other hosts the house's two en suite bedrooms.

The architects conclude: 'More than introducing a new residential typology, the project redefines the role of the villa by shifting its architectural paradigm from Le Corbusier's free plan to Mies van der Rohe's transparent façade, and ultimately to the roof as a new architectural manifesto of shade and shadow. In doing so, the project proposes a new paradigm for contemporary tropical living, where wind, rain, light, landscape, culture, and nature become the primary generators of architectural space.'

hasdesignandresearch.com

It's exactly ten years since Dame Zaha Hadid passed away unexpectedly at the age of 65, leaving an unassailable legacy in her Issey Miyake-clad wake. In a strange piece of synchronicity, there’s now an incredibly rare chance to own one of her buildings in the heart of London.

Constructed from 2014 onwards, this house in Belgravia’s Grosvenor Crescent Mews has the distinction of being one of only two private residential projects completed by the studio (the other being the Capital Hill Residence outside Moscow).

A unicorn in the London property market, 6 Grosvenor Crescent Mews isn’t just a rare example of Hadid’s work but it’s also a 3,980 sq ft house with integral garage just a stone’s throw from Hyde Park Corner, located in what is Belgravia's only private gated mews.

Gaining permission for such an avant-garde structure in the midst of a thicket of Conservation Areas and listed buildings was no mean feat, even for an architecture of the calibre of Zaha Hadid. The site had boundaries with no fewer than nine different neighbours, placed in such a way that the only public-facing façade was just six metres in width.

That element, a rippling curtain of back-lit brickwork lattices and patterned glass, belies the scale of the house behind it, which extends over four generous 1,000 sq ft floorplans.

The garage was a planning condition, but it was fitted out to a residential specification so that it can be used as a study area if needed. It adjoins the main reception room, a space bounded by the curved interventions of the polished balustrade rail and the custom-designed staircase, formed from polished concrete and shaped to wind sinuously between the floors.

Like many London mews and conversion projects, the house goes down as well as up, with a kitchen and sitting room located in the basement, beneath a double height space which in itself is topped by a glazed terrace at first floor level. With windows, parapets, courtyards and walls arranged so as to avoid overlooking from surrounding properties, the entire house is cleverly folded into its site, making the most from the available space.

Utility, plant and stores are tucked away in the basement behind the kitchen, another area that is defined by a trademark Hadidian swoop, this time in the form of a polished kitchen counter that projects out from the wall like a geological form.

From here, the two-storey atrium rises up to the gauzy light that filters through the glass roof, with the polished balustrade playing off the curved concrete stair risers contained behind a glazed wall.

The first floor houses the principal bedroom suite, complete with curved glass and sole access to the terrace. A living wall flanks the perimeter of the property (it’s joined by a brown roof system designed to improve the house’s insulation), while the glazed stair tower rises up beneath the fluted forms of another skylight. On the second floor there are two further ensuite bedrooms, each winding around a central dressing room space.

The artistry and style of 6 Grosvenor Crescent Mews is sadly unrepeatable, making this project a rare opportunity to acquire a functional work of art in the heart of London.

In the decade since her death, the firm Hadid established in Studio 9 of a former school on Bowling Green Lane in Clerkenwell has gone all out into making her wildly exuberant approach into a clearly defined architectural style, Parametricism, translating Hadid’s wild, analogue forms into a heady, AI-infused cocktail of data-shaped aesthetic adventures.

If you can ignore the Succession-like shenanigans that have swirled around ZHA in the years that followed, the Zaha Hadid Foundation holds a fascinating archive of her work.

6 Grosvenor Crescent Mews, London SW1X is for sale at £11.95m through Forbes Gilbert-Green, ForbesGilbertGreen.com

What happens when a Southern California desert home is designed around just three circles? This curved residence was born of such a minimalist premise, taking its cues from, and unfolding around, its surrounding landscape.

Avocado House is a newly completed retreat perched above the Yucca Valley, created by Arshia Architects' principal architect Arshia Mahmoodi. The starting point was three simple circular shapes. One forms the house's core, another defines the yard, and a third connects the two. Sections of that geometry were then carved away to create a crescent-shaped courtyard and frame views across Yucca Valley to the San Jacinto Mountains.

Explore Avocado House, a new Californian desert home

Somewhere along the design process, the floorplan began to resemble an avocado, with the rounded core forming the ‘pit’ and the name stuck. The three-bedroom home is now part of Fieldtrip’s Signature Homes portfolio, the hospitality company behind Joshua Tree’s famed piece of desert architecture, the Invisible House, and other distinctive properties for home stays that include boutique hotel amenities.

The shape of Avocado House was conceived around its hilltop setting. Rather than placing the outdoor spaces behind the house, the architecture wraps around a central courtyard (or the pit, if you will) with a pool, spa and fire pit. Angled openings capture the surrounding boulders, desert sunsets and mountain views, while the main living room and two bedrooms open directly outside, serving as both a gathering space and a frame for the surrounding vistas.

The courtyard was a key element of the circular layout. ‘We wanted an outdoor space carved directly from the building volume, one that connects the house to the hillside and creates a quiet, intimate space within this vast hilltop landscape,’ says the owner of the home, Zhang Zhuo.

The curved interiors were developed by Xinlei Li of Xinlei Architecture, Inc., in collaboration with the ownership team, and include lighting fixtures by Flos with custom furniture pieces and artworks commissioned for the house to reflect the natural light at different times of day, while a lofted lounge with a pool table overlooks the main living area, creating a more intimate space within the open interior.

The curved wood framing and canopy were among the home’s most challenging elements to execute, but also some of its most defining. Following the geometry of the house, they create a sense of enclosure and privacy without closing the home off from its desert surroundings.

With the views as a core priority for the owners, Zhuo notes, ‘We explored a circular geometry for the layout with a central core for the living spaces, an outer ring defining the yard, and a connecting zone linking the house and yard together. We developed this circular idea into a volumetric form and wrapped it within an outer shell. We then made two intentional cuts into the building mass to frame the views and manage building height. The courtyard was carved out of this volume to tie the house to the hillside. The curved walls and canopy grew naturally from this circular geometry we pursued for the project.’

One of the main construction challenges for the team was building the curved wood framing and canopy accurately. ‘The most distinctive material we used is curved glulam timber,’ adds Zhuo. ‘It forms the sweeping canopy and roof structure, bringing warmth while following the building’s soft, rounded geometry.’

The project also incorporates a roof-drainage system with runoff directed to two dry wells on the property, and a solar-panel system to offset electricity demand.

‘When we started planning the home, the three-circle layout was our response to this hilltop setting. The three rings create a natural flow from the private interior living zone, through a transitional courtyard, out to the surrounding desert landscape. This layered arrangement lets us enjoy the panoramic views while still maintaining privacy.’

stayfieldtrip.com

This German house in the small city of Ludwigsburg offers a distinct proposition. House in Process, a residence for a family of four, is the redesign of an existing 1961 property. Yet what is different about this structure is that the architects, Stuttgart-based SOMAA Architektur & Innenarchitektur, worked with the owners to continuously develop the home between 2013 and 2026, eventually bringing it to its current form.

Explore the German House in Process by SOMAA

The aim was not to blindly 'replace the 1961 structure, but reread it', the architects explain. Their response focuses on wrapping the structure in a dark, calming envelope – a ventilated skin made of charred timber, following Japanese principles. The team adds that this 'surface follows the logic of yakisugi: fire is understood not as destruction, but as protection, depth and the ability to age'.

Gold-anodised window reveals and a brass front door stand out elegantly from this blackened exterior.

The property contains the main home and an additional independent apartment. The outside's bolder colours give way to light tones indoors, with lots of naturally coloured wood and refurbished existing surface fabric, such as white plaster walls and parquet flooring.

Overall, functionality rules, as rooms and operations were cut out and redefined around the family's daily life and needs.

The need to completely replace the ageing house's roof led to an opportunity – to work on a loft extension, which the architects crafted wrapped entirely in timber in a manner that proves warm and inviting, but also refreshingly minimalist. The team took its cues from studio founder Hadi A Tandawardaja's saying: 'Reduction is not renunciation, but the conscious focus on what truly matters.'

To ensure the German house is up to contemporary sustainability standards and the country's requirements for new buildings, the architects did a full energy assessment and retrofit during the redesign, too. The results led them to add wood-fibre insulation, an insulated pitched roof, triple glazing, an air-to-water heat pump and an in-roof photovoltaic system to support passive temperature control strategies and operational energy needs.

The property's outdoor areas were given just as much love as the interior, with the garden and decks carefully curated to bring in a welcome touch of green space to the family's everyday life. The later addition of a natural pool completes the constellation of al fresco living areas that become an integral part of the home's functions when the weather allows.

Importantly, this project was not a 'linear renovation story,' the architects hasten to point out. The close relationship the team nurtured with the clients and the luxury of time permitted them all to craft a different, slow type of architecture, which delved into not only the family's current needs, but also their future ones – building flexibility into the plan, too.

'The project shows that architecture does not only emerge through the design of a new object, but through the precise continuation of what is already there. A house can grow over years without becoming arbitrary. It can absorb layers without losing its legibility. And in the end, it can appear not as an addition, but as a house that has found its own way,' the architects conclude.

somaa.de

M Residence is an eye-catching sight. This Greek island home looks almost alien from the air: geometric and mysterious, its upper storey sits high on a cliffside, while its base is nestled low into the ground. From above, its pizza-box shape features a series of cut-outs, reminiscent of eroded rocks on the beach that slowly emerge as the tide goes out. The project is the work of Mold Architects, a dynamic, female-founded, Athens-based practice.

Discover M Residence, a new Greek island home

The residence is located in Lia, Serifos, a small island situated between Kithnos and Sifnos – and it isn't the first time the architecture firm has worked on the island. M Residence was actually first designed in 2011, becoming one of the firm’s very first projects. It wasn't built at the time, but now, a decade later, the new owners have decided to move forward with the scheme.

‘When the client expressed an interest in building it more than a decade later, I was thrilled,’ says Iliana Kerestetzi, founder of Mold Architects, ‘I still loved the idea, but opening that folder also meant confronting an earlier version of ourselves. The challenge was to look at the work critically while committing to its future. Our thinking had changed, and a design that had remained on paper was about to become someone’s home. That gave every decision a different weight. What still felt essential? What needed to evolve?’

Although the original idea held its strength, Kerestetzi explained that they began to see new possibilities with it, telling Wallpaper*: ‘The rooms opened more generously onto the courtyards, the materials became warmer and the details quieter. The house took shape through that exchange between our earlier intentions, our present perspective and the people who would inhabit it.’

This Greek island home's volume is compact and monolithic, inspired by local monasteries. However, internally, the building features smooth curves and rejects harsh angles, allowing the visitor to transition between each room and courtyard fluidly.

‘We combined this with two other local architectural languages: the crisp, cubic rooms of the villages and the softer contours of rural buildings and dry-stone walls. Within a square outline, rooms turn gently towards different views, while curved walls connect them and draw out a sequence of seven courtyards,’ notes the architect.

When the architects focused on revising the original plan, they decided to simplify and soften it. Interior spaces were opened up towards the courtyards, creating a more protected exterior. As a result, the residence feels at once both open and entirely sheltered, with this contrast forming the conceptual heart of the project.

Perhaps the most intriguing change was how the building sits, or in this case, doesn’t sit, on the ground. The entire volume is raised on a plinth, which in turn creates a shadow line that makes it look like it is hovering. A swimming pool was also introduced, positioned outside the main volume in a geometric placement gesture.

One thing that Kerestetzi wants visitors to feel is at ease, saying: ‘A room opens into a garden, a courtyard offers shelter, a shaded corner invites a pause. The warmth of the coloured plaster and the closeness of the planting make these spaces feel intimate. We hope people move through them intuitively, finding the spot that feels right for a particular moment.’

However, she also notes that part of the intention was to allow room for the home's inhabitants to add to its character and make it their own. She explains: 'The residents have already hung a piece of white fabric beneath one of the roof openings. It filters the light and moves gently, bringing a softness we hadn’t designed.’

Her favourite aspect is that the house reveals multiple facets and identities over time; the same spot easily evokes an entirely different vibe depending on light and seasons. She concludes: ‘A detail that recedes in the morning can become the most compelling thing in the afternoon.’

moldarchitects.com

A reimagining and wholesale refurbishment of a village house built at the turn of the century, this residence by architects Anna and Eugeni Bach expands the original structure with a series of geometric additions and insertions. The result remains in keeping with the sober restraint of this small, upscale village near Girona, in Spain’s north-eastern corner, whilst adding a layer of materiality and functionalism that better serves the owners.

Explore this contemporary village house in Spain

The House in Fonolleres occupies a prominent site on the edge of the village, bounded on three sides by roads with a south-facing garden. This part of the house underwent the largest alterations, with a new full-width extension and veranda, above which is a large terrace. Another extension was made on the front façade to create a more generous entrance and an internal garage that was better suited to the size of modern cars.

Additional smaller interventions take the shape of the five bespoke circular canopies on the terrace, a new circular pergola covering the outdoor kitchen table and a triangular notch that cuts into the floorplan at master bedroom level to create what the architects call a ‘studiolo’ (an Italian Renaissance term for a compact study room). Tucked in behind the bedhead and flanked by a bookcase that spans two storeys, this niche is just one of idiosyncratic design touches that abound throughout the house.

The Barcelona-based architects worked alongside their colleagues Roger Molas and Nuria Gómez on a project that feels like it has evolved over time, much like many of the other houses in the village. Each of the new additions appears to stand alone as a discrete object, thanks in part to its formal, geometric design, with a unifying palette of natural materials.

Many of the additions are guided by the desire to expand the range of ‘shade and shelter’ available to the occupants, making the house more liveable all year round. Plaster, timber and ceramic finishes have been carefully chosen to present a warm, common language and earthy palette.

Shade is carefully placed according to function; planting on the circular pergola will eventually screen the breakfast table from the morning summer sun, while the built-in barbeque is shaded at midday.

Other quirky details reveal themselves through familiarity, from the hidden studiolo to the shallow end of the pool shaded by the new covered seating area. Throughout the 350 sq m house the rooms are modestly scaled, kept anchored by straightforward materials and meticulously crafted details, from the precision of the roof beams to the notched stone anchors for the timber columns.

AnnaEugeniBach.com, @eugenibach, @anna_k_bach

Architect Carl Maston completed this exemplary Ventura Beach house in 1984 for a former actress and her partner. The Susman house sits above the shore in the heart of California's surf culture, looking back at the grand sweep of the bay with its Channel Islands beyond.

Step inside this Ventura Beach house, now on the market

The work of Maston (1915-1992) epitomises the aesthetic and spirit of midcentury California; his own house, completed in 1947, was subsequently owned by Ryan Murphy and then Dakota Johnson, and other local luminaries, including Ray Kappe, worked in his studio.

With Maston’s star riding high, this is a rare opportunity to acquire a late period work that embodies all of his architectural devices, set in an unbeatable location. Back in 1985, the house was extensively photographed by Julius Shulman, adding another layer of historical lustre to an already impressive project.

This is the Susman House’s first time on the open market. The original owner, Tracy ‘Babs’ Susman, acted and modelled before studying town planning and working in local politics and environmental planning, with the occasional foray into film production.

The house was built on a plot once owned by her sister and brother-in-law, and her brief to Carl Maston was to keep the spirit of the traditional Californian cabin alive in a contemporary structure.

Maston went to town. The Susman House was one of over 40 he completed in the area during his career, but probably most dramatically sited of all of them. Pairing traditional cedar siding on the interior and exterior walls along with exposed brick flooring and fireplaces, Maston integrated large areas of glass for lightness along with hefty concrete foundations to anchor the structure into the coastline.

From the roadside, the 2,640 sq ft house is nestled between mature trees and only hints at the views and space within. A large sitting room adjoins a kitchen with bay views from the sink, with sliding glass doors that open out onto a spectacular terrace with 240 degrees of Pacific views.

It’s a spot that has long been favoured by surfers, including one of the sport’s pioneers, Mary Monks, who became closely associated with nearby Mondo’s Cove in the late 1950s.

Upstairs, there are three main bedrooms and a separate sitting area with balcony. All of these incorporate the slope of the roof to achieve high ceilings, walls of glass and Pacific views. A central atrium and landing is arranged around the brick chimney with internal glazed partitions bringing light down into the heart of the house.

The house retains the modesty and feel of the original Faria Beach Colony, one of the classic Californian coastal retreats that began as a stretch of summer cabins in the years before WWII. As the original Shulman photographs attest, very little has changed in the four decades since the house was completed.

The family eschewed any extensive remodelling, keeping Maston’s architectural pristine and original as a testament to the fundamental rightness of the original design.

The Susman House is for sale through Shannon and Chuck Menzel at The Menzel Group priced at $5,100,000. More details at MondosCove.com

On a waterfront site in Delfinópolis in Brazil’s Minas Gerais, this expansive contemporary house uses the luxury of space to create a refined architectural experience. Designed by Filipi and Mariana Oliveira and their team at MF+Arquitetos, Casa Celeiro (Barn House) covers some 1,108 m², arranged as two forms set at right angles in the landscape on the shores of a large reservoir.

The simple lines of the upper volume is what gives the house its name. A long, single-storey pitched timber roof structure that runs north-south, it is flanked on all sides by covered verandas. Formed from glue laminated timber frames, the roof structure oversails the built-up area to create the verandas, providing solar shading as well as access to a steel-clad inner core of five ensuite bedrooms, culminating in a principal between suite at the northern end, complete with two walls of sliding glazing that can be opened up to the landscape beyond.

In the centre of the barn element is a grand living room, the only point at which the internal spaces open up to the full height of the pitched roof. The verandas are used for circulation and incorporate glazed and louvred panels that be swung open as required. On the other side is a small kitchen, gym and utility spaces, as well as a generously sized covered terrace.

This space also houses a grand staircase that descends towards the water to the east, leading to the lower level. Half sunk into the hillside, this is the location of the main kitchen and living room, with three sliding glass walls opening onto a pool terrace with the reservoir beyond. The house is therefore divided between public and private, with each component having its own relationship with the landscape and horizon.

On the lower, more public, level, there’s very little perception of the accommodation structure above it. Likewise, when looking out east across the reservoir, the flat concrete roof of the semi-sunken lower level is planted to make it all but invisible. Aside from the internal staircase, one key physical element unites the two components, a cascade of rough-hewn steps that leads down from the upper terrace into the heart of lower pavilion, flanked by mature planting.

‘Rather than an abrupt connection, this route proposes a gradual transition between architecture and nature,’ the architects explain, ‘For a few moments, the building partially disappears, and movement is guided instead by stone, topography, and vegetation.’ It’s a rare of incursion for nature in a house that prides itself of simplicity and grand structural gestures. The lower level also a sauna and changing areas for the outdoor pool, alongside storage and a wine cellar in the more sheltered, cooler subterranean section.

The architects point to the house’s inherent contradictions – barn-like in form but not in execution, with many layers gradually revealed from within. The monolithic wooden form gives way to multiple materials and textures, as steel, concrete, stone, vegetation, light, and water are brought together under one roof.

‘Casa Celeiro … is simultaneously shelter and openness, form and void, permanence and transformation. The memory of the barn remains present in its most elemental form, while the architecture reinterprets it in response to a different way of living - one that is more open to the climate, to movement, and to the constant presence of the landscape.’

MFmaisArquitetos.com, @MFarquitetos

A Delhi apartment, set high up in one of the Indian capital's tall buildings, has been completely rethought by local practice Mold Design Studio. The project, titled Brickloom, spans an impressive 4,500 sq ft; its expansive interiors, long vistas and a generous outdoor area that evokes the feeling of a rural retreat make this a distinctive urban home in the sky

Enter Brickloom, a new Delhi apartment by Mold Design Studio

The family home is centred on a dramatic, double-height space at its heart. It contains the Delhi apartment's main circulation hub as well as its living spaces, connecting levels and ensuring a sense of spatial richness within. The property draws on a fairly raw, industrial character – exposed brickwork, metal detailing and crisp, minimalist surfaces abound.

At the same time, elements that add warmth and transform what could have been a colder, more utilitarian space into a cosy family home were strategically added throughout. These include teak and live-edge timber features, brass fixtures and pendant lighting, cane and rattan detailing and hand-blocked textiles.

The home's furniture language follows the same approach, mixing soft bouclé forms, artisanal wood-and-cane craftsmanship, and pared-down industrial elements (for example, a Crittall-style glass partition that separates the home office from the rest of the house). The result feels cohesive, with bold colour accents in olive green, rust orange, and cobalt blue underlining nooks and niches.

The floating timber-and-steel staircase that connects the Delhi apartment's heart – its kitchen and dining areas – with the private rooms upstairs is also treated as a key design feature and centrepiece. An open balustrade on the upper level keeps the corridors flowing and the visual connections alive.

Stepping outside, the roof terrace is defined by its ochre-washed walls and arched cobalt-blue louvred shutters. Features such as cobbled flooring and the blue waters of a swimming pool nod to the palette of the Greek islands, underlining its intention to serve as an escape.

The design team explains: 'Designed for togetherness year-round, this terrace centres on a sun-washed pool for summer lounging and shifts into a fireplace-and-barbecue gathering spot come winter. By night, fairy lights warm the terracotta and blue tones into a magical glow - a space built to be lived in, not just admired.'

mold.net.in

Completed in 2019, the Wonderland project by Los Angeles architectural firm Mutuo transformed a single-family house into three interconnected homes. Nestled into the Laurel Canyon hillside, the project balances privacy and connection, and its intriguing look earned it the 2021 AIA California Residential Merit Award. One of the homes is now for sale, for $1.495m.

Step inside Wonderland

The two-bedroom house, which spans three levels, is a flexible residence that shares outdoor green spaces. Mutuo was inspired by Laurel Canyon's surrounding historic row houses and reinterpreted them through a contemporary lens.

Architectural details include Victorian scalloped shingles with contemporary board-formed concrete. Due to zoning requirements, the residence optimises outdoor space, with a front-facing exterior terrace and a rooftop observation deck making the most of the desirable location.

After admiring the surrounding San Gabriel Mountains and golden-flecked sunsets, the inside is just as soothing. The bedroom suite, with a walk-through closet and adjoining bathroom, is found on the main entry level, along with a guest bedroom with its own bathroom and a laundry area.

The undercarriage of the staircase is carved into the living room ceiling. The main open-tread staircase is highlighted by the skylight, which speckles light throughout the floors that lead up to the dining area, outdoor terrace, and open kitchen.

It is rare to find such a new construction that also feels like it's been plucked out of the 1950s; Mutuo’s Wonderland blurs contemporary and modernist design. Whether it's the communal garden or its distinct architectural presence, it is a home that cannot help but start a conversation.

Wonderland by Mutuo is on sale for $1,495,000. To enquire, visit moderncaliforniahouse.com

The dark form of this new Chilean house idyllically peeks out over green foliage that moves with the sea breeze in this clifftop location in Tunquén on the country's coast. The home, titled Casa Asomada and designed by local studio Whale! (a 2018 Wallpaper* Architects’ Directory participant), makes the most of its wooded site and the fresh, salty air it brings, offering long views of the Pacific Ocean.

Tour the new Chilean house, Casa Asomada by Whale!

The structure may appear small from a distance, set against the vastness of the blue waters beyond and the remote, sparsely built location of its site. Yet this is a generous vacation house occupying a comfortable 255 sq m. The home is made up of two main volumes, interlocking and forming a single shape that helps negotiate the steep terrain of the plot.

Through the main entrance, the first volume contains all the principal shared spaces – kitchen, living room and dining room. Off them is located a guest bedroom. These communal areas lead to a courtyard, enclosed and protected from the elements by concrete walls. It incorporates a barbecue and storage.

The second volume contains this Chilean house's private areas. Two bedrooms for the children are on the lower level, and a primary en suite bedroom for the parents is above. A shared bathroom is also nearby.

The seed of its design concept is the archetypal form of a snake – coiling and rising its head to look into the distance, the architects explain.

'The house is conceived through a single gesture that articulates two distinct ways of relating to the territory. On the one hand, it retreats into the landscape, using the rock as shelter and protection. On the other, it emerges to look beyond, seeking to grasp the depth of the horizon.'

'Despite its apparent complexity, the plan – an architectural synthesis of the site's changes in level and its regulatory boundaries – is softened by a continuous roof that gently envelops the entire gesture. In doing so, the project becomes a single, quiet body: one that retreats, emerges and cautiously raises its head to look beyond and confirm what lies ahead,' the architects conclude.

whale.cl

The sculptural, white volumes of this Nigerian beach house effortlessly nod to the white sands beyond, as it sits idyllically placed on the coastline of Ikaare Island, off the Lagos lagoon. The project, designed by architect, curator and past Wallpaper* Awards nominee for Best Private House 2023, Tosin Oshinowo, blends crisp modernity, local design language and a site-specific approach; welcome to OA House.

Explore a new Nigerian beach house by Tosin Oshinowo

The project is a private retreat, a four-bedroom Nigerian beach house, conceived specifically around its seaside setting. The entire home's orientation - from windows to the outdoor areas, including a generous swimming pool deck - is designed to look out towards the plot's clean vistas of the Atlantic Ocean.

The same goes for the house's heart, its living space, which opens up to the outdoors and was approached as an 'open, breezy pavilion,' the architect explains. A hot tub and outdoor seating areas all cleverly, slowly create a 'gradual transition from the house to the shoreline,' Toshinowo adds.

The architecture is 'deliberately restrained.' This brings a welcome freshness, as it sits across the minimalist landscape - white sands, green palms and blue sea. It also creates a pared-down, flexible and calming backdrop for living and relaxing for its residents.

This simplicity becomes a key feature, defined by simple, smooth, matte off-white walls, timber floors and an aqua-green pool. The region's bright sun and distinctive vegetation frame the volumes' presence on the beach.

The ground floor hosts the main living spaces, opening up towards the water views. Bedrooms are also located on this level, but placed towards the plot's rear (yet still facing the pool) for privacy and a more cocooning feeling, facing away from the vastness of the ocean.

Upstairs, more bedrooms feature their own private terraces, offering moments of contemplation as residents can take in the coastal landscape.

'This project is particularly special because its narrow site became an opportunity to create an engaging visual transition through the property. The house remains true to our minimalist aesthetic, with a calm, cohesive palette of subtle off-white tones across the floors, walls, and exterior ceilings, complementing the surrounding landscape and the aqua colour of the pool,' Oshinowo says.

'No two homes are ever the same when designed for private clients. Residential architecture lets us explore the extraordinary diversity of possibilities within the world’s most fundamental architectural typology, shaped by each client's individuality, lifestyle, and relationship with place.'

oshinowostudio.com

A new-build Melbourne house brings mystery and seclusion to a sleepy, suburban part of town - Malvern East. The home, titled Casa Piva and designed by B.E. Architecture, is an elegantly pared-down arrangement of volumes composed so as to reveal little to the outside world. Instead, a series of internal communal areas and open-air courtyards, inward-looking and invisible from the street, create a luxurious sequence of living spaces for the family of one of the architecture practice's directors.

Tour this new Melbourne house by B.E. Architecture

A discreet and almost austere street-facing façade of minimalist surfaces in white brick tells little of the richness unfolding beyond. The home was conceived as a 'cocoon' of daily life, the architects explain.

'It is an inward-looking building within its dense urban setting, taking many of its cues from the owners’ Italian heritage, reflected in its simplicity and carefully curated materials and details.'

Craft-rich construction and immaculate detailing elevate this concept further, ensuring this project is as much about the overarching idea as it is about its everyday experience in the smallest moment. This is helped by warm, inviting interiors created using a mix of brick, timber and travertine - materials that feel both earthy and tactile, and 'strangely reminiscent of an older time and place,' the architects add.

Meanwhile, bespoke joinery throughout brings an extra layer of texture and warmth - showcased especially in areas where full rooms are lined in antique oak, such as the study, the kitchen and the primary ensuite bedroom.

Entry via the large courtyard, through a purposefully compressed single arch, leads to the ground-level areas, where a selection of social spaces provide room for living, resting, cooking, dining and entertaining. Three bedrooms are located upstairs.

The architects conclude: 'As the home of architect and director Andrew Piva, Casa Piva presented a more introspective design process. The brief turned inward, considering how spaces could nourish and support his family’s rituals and ways of living. Architectural references spanning different places and periods are quietly reinterpreted, their presence deliberately subliminal and open to interpretation.'

bearchitecture.com

Jackson Hole Valley is home to some of America’s most spectacular houses, which in turn have their fill of a landscape that mixes majesty with privilege in equal measure. Thistle Creek House is the debut project from Assembly Archive, an architectural firm set up by the Rhode Island-based designer Evan Farley. Farley and his team bring a human-centric scale and crafted approach to this new house set amongst Wyoming’s epic vistas.

Set within a four-acre meadow, Thistle Creek House draws on the region’s longstanding agricultural traditions, such as the distinctive Teton Valley barns and cabins that were once scattered around the valley floor. Superficially, the new 3,800 sq ft house has a traditional silhouette – two intersecting gables, rotated off from a right angle so as to capture the best views.

The property’s dark silhouette is thanks to the vertical yakisugi cladding, the traditional Japanese material made by the process of charring cedar wood to make it fire, pest and weather resistant. Developed by Japan-based Nakamoto Forestry, the cladding is paired with dark metal roofing and window frames. The cladding variation is Nakamoto’s Suyaki finish, which retains a layer of soot for added texture.

The smaller of the two volumes contains a double garage and utility area on the ground floor and a self-contained studio guest suite above it. The main volume contains three more bedrooms, including the principal suite. Both volumes have galleried landings that look down on the entrance hall, a space carved out from the intersection of the two volumes.

The ground floor changes level with the terrain, with the entrance hallway providing access to the house’s two staircases. There’s also a private study area, set well apart from the kitchen and the living room. This grand space steps down from the rest of the house and is also separated from the kitchen by a chimney breast.

Large picture windows overlooking the meadows and mountains beyond. The palette here is warmer, including traditional lye-washed fir paired with white oak and plaster, with stone and brick flooring on the ground floor.

The overall effect of this focus on materiality and simple is form is to create a house that appears rooted in its location, with a modesty, warmth and durability that respects its surroundings.

Before he established Assembly Archive, Farley worked for Barkow Leibinger in Berlin, as well as working with Diller Scofidio + Renfro and Howeler + Yoon. He is also a Design Critic in Architecture at the Harvard Graduate School of Design and the Rhode Island School of Design.

Assembly Archive, EvanFarley.com, @EvanFarley

This Bali villa was conceived around an important, overarching question: What happens when a home is designed strictly around daily nourishment and restoration? Titled Sora, this is the brainchild of locally based creative Andrew Swallow and his studio, Colvin Haven – the minds also behind a past, similarly thoughtful family home, Umah Tsuki.

Step inside Bali villa Sora by Colvin Haven

The two bedroom residence may be relatively compact, but what it lacks in scale it gains in immaculate detailing and construction, an orchestration in hand charred Shou Sugi Ban, local paras stone, and structural recycled Ulin hardwood.

Swallow's aim was to eliminate corridors for more purposeful and streamlined living that remains at all times connected meaningfully with the home's captivating, rich surrounding nature. His solution? To balance the home's arrangement around two central hearths of equal standing and importance in the house.

'Sora began with two things we kept hearing after Tsuki. People wanted that same feeling, only more intimate, and they wanted a more attainable way in. So the brief became subtraction: a two-bedroom home, edited down to only what a life needs, built around a kitchen where people gather and open to the garden. I wanted it to say that a home doesn't have to be large to be generous. The future of residential design isn't measured in square meters, but in how a home restores the people inside it,' Swallow says.

'Tsuki is a four-bedroom family home on a slope, and it already chose restraint over scale. Sora takes that further. It's the first home where smaller had to say more, and the first we built for a client. Tsuki was our own family's home, so Sora tested whether our language could belong to someone else. It can, and it's how we know the language can travel. Two new editions are under construction now, and they'll carry it further.'

One of these hearths sits in the kitchen, representing - physically and symbolically - the family home's core, where residents meet to nourish themselves and informally connect on a daily basis. The second is the home's wellness hub, an area encompassing private cold tubs, steam spaces, and outdoor garden showers, where the owners can fid tranquillity and internal balance.

As for his favourite moment in the house? Swallow explains: 'The walk. It begins in the open-air corridor, where the zen gardens slow every step. Then you come upon the koi, a living art installation, and pass through the kitchen, the heart the whole living area is built around. And then the house opens: rice terraces, and beyond them, the volcanoes. By then you've slowed down enough to take it in.'

The result, Swallow hopes, brings accessible luxury to daily life, without compromising on quality and equally without having to rely on size or imported materials which would feel out of place in Bali's environment.

colvinhaven.com

‘Don’t judge a book by its cover’ is the saying, and it rings true for the home extension at this Victorian terraced house in Brockley, south-east London. Bolans Architects recently led the residence's loft conversion and elaborate refurbishment. However, it is the rear extension, unseen from the street, where a green ceramic ‘brick’ façade packs a punch and gives the project its name, Ceramic House.

Step inside Bolans Architects' new home extension, Ceramic House

Lanre Falase, architect at Bolans Architects, led the project. ‘A big part of the inspiration came from wanting to articulate the ceramic brickwork more decoratively, rather than simply using it as a flat finish,’ he explains. ‘That level of detail comes partly from my own self-build, Black Edge House, where every junction and detail really mattered. We also wanted the clients to have a constant connection to the garden, even from the deeper parts of the house. So the extension was not just about adding more space, but about drawing light, views and the garden back through the house.’

The façade is composed of arches, recesses and changing planes, which Falase unified with the smooth, green surface. ‘There is a real playfulness to it, but at the same time it feels quite sophisticated,’ he says. ‘I love the way the façade changes depending on where you are standing. From a distance, it reads as one composition, but as you get closer you start to notice the arches, the recesses, the different profiles and all the smaller details that make it work. It looks playful and almost effortless now, but there was a lot of work behind it.’

The project also included a reconfiguration of the property’s ground floor. A new utility room was introduced, along with a concealed pantry and a guest bathroom. The kitchen gained a new curved island, which draws the eye through the home and outwards towards the garden.

However, trying to make the most of the space without overcrowding it was difficult. ‘We had to ensure that every space had a clear purpose, while also understanding which rooms needed natural light and which spaces could work deeper within the plan,’ Falase told Wallpaper*. ‘The ground floor also had to work incredibly hard. We needed to fit in a utility room, pantry, kitchen, dining area and snug, alongside storage and circulation, without it feeling overcrowded. Everything needed to flow together naturally.’

The loft proved to be the biggest challenge. The architect explains: ‘The original houses do not really have enough headroom to form a comfortable loft conversion, so we had to lower the entire floor structure to make it work. At the same time, we needed not to compromise the character of the first-floor rooms or their relationship with the existing windows.’ This loft space is accessed via a new staircase, with cork flooring seen on the staircase and the upper level.

Achieving a cohesive result was also due to the close involvement of the clients, one of whom is a project manager at a large construction firm. His professional understanding of procurement, sequencing and the realities of delivering complex construction work proved valuable, along with a willingness to see the design through to completion.

Falase concludes, ‘As you move through the house, your eye is drawn towards the garden and the extension, but you also start to notice the different volumes and the way the fixed furniture helps shape the spaces. We did not want it to feel like one large open-plan room. There are different areas and moments throughout the ground floor, but they still connect. Hopefully there is that feeling of the house gradually opening up as you move through it.’

bolansgroup.com

Some six years ago, Aston Martin announced it was making a bigger move into private real estate. At the time, the car maker’s Miami apartment complex was already underway, but the design team also had ideas for one-off homes. The first, the N°001 Minami Aoyama residence in Tokyo, Japan, was completed in 2025. Half a world away, the second project in the company’s low-key ‘Automotive Galleries and Lairs’ design service has now gone on the market.

This is Sylvan Rock, a spectacular modern residence set on a 55-acre site in Hudson Valley, New York, less than two hours from Manhattan. Aston Martin worked closely with local designers S3 Architecture, creating a house that was shaped to fit the land, snaking around the rocky outcrop that gives it its name. Across 7,773 sq ft, the main house is supplement by a trio of self-contained guest homes, as well as an architect-designed treehouse.

The house is defined by its snaking, faceted metal roofline, an enclosure that switches between vertical cladding and diagonal surfaces as it reaches across the various elements of the house, touching the ground to provide a covered car port adjacent to the main entrance.

Beneath this metal roof is a façade clad in blackened cedar, along with expansive glazing that opens up the interior to the surrounding forest – no neighbours here. In the distance are the Catskill Mountains. ‘When designing, we always let the land speak first and respond to it,’ says Christopher Dierig of S3 Architecture, ‘The roofline mimics the jagged edges of the rock ledge reaching down into the earth, as if the home is born of and launching from the landscape.’

The main house comprises of expansive indoor and outdoor living spaces, with the latter include an outdoor kitchen and 50-foot swimming pool. Key reception rooms have raised ceilings, whilst the entire house is furnished in bespoke and unique pieces designed in collaboration with the Aston Martin design team.

Upstairs there are four bedrooms, five full baths and two half baths; the house also contains a gymnasium and spa area, whilst a tennis and sports court are located on the grounds. Downstairs, there’s a subterranean automotive gallery garage as well as a movie theatre, while other features include an office suite, and bespoke wine storage. Outside, there’s also a spring-fed pond, a kitchen garden, and walking and biking trails that lead through the property.

Cathal Loughnane, the former Head of Aston Martin Partnerships who worked on the project, explains that ‘the team wanted the owner and their guests to experience the three-dimensional feel of the house in an organic way, just like you experience one of Aston Martin’s cars, there is no single façade that dominates. Sylvan Rock is a strong marriage of design sensibilities. Creating a luxury residence with warm textures, bold forms, and exceptional privacy is very aligned with Aston Martin’s vision.’

According to the broker, Jason Karadus, Sylvan Rock is ‘the most significant modern home in the Hudson Valley. It’s also the first single residence in the world designed in partnership with Aston Martin, and it’s a privilege to be the ones representing that story. Walking through it, you understand immediately why this is a singular property.’

Sylvan Rock, 165 Woody Row Road, Red Hook, Dutchess County, NY, is for sale at $19,500,000 via Jason Karadus of Corcoran Country Living, Corcoran.com, AstonMartin.com, @AstonMartin, S3arc.com, @S3arch

The prosaic-sounding code 934 SP57 is actually the project designation for an elegant family house in the Spanish town of Sabadell. Designed by the Barcelonan Studio Exitprojectes, 934 SP57 is a modern interpretation of the traditional urban terrace, benefitting from a double-width plot in relation to its neighbours.

Like all the best townhouses, the project is arranged vertically across four levels, making the most of the long plot to include a pool and outdoor dining area in the heart of the city, with a scattering of terraces arranged on the floors above.

From the street, the house splices a dark rendered ground floor with white upper storeys, with a vertical fluted recess creating privacy and providing daylight to the bathrooms on the first and second floors. This gives the house a greater feel of verticality, imitating the decorative forms of Art Deco without resorting to pastiche.

One enters into a grand hallway, adjacent to a three-car garage concealed behind a rolling shutter. From the hall, a staircase rises on the left while a ground floor sitting and dining area at the rear of the house opens out onto a rear patio with the pool below. Above this, a white rendered rear façade evokes the abstract forms of the International Style, stepping back as it rises, with a terrace at first floor and third floor level.

The interior continues the refined minimalist approach, from the darkly sybaritic garage space with its dynamic flashes of lighting, to the universal use of a lightly textured microcement on the walls alongside dark-stained oak joinery and natural oak floors. Where possible, the joinery – from wardrobes to kitchen cabinets – is treated as integral architectural elements, continuing the lines set up by the interior geometry.

The architects, describe the project as a ‘home built around the rituals of everyday life, where space, light and material are reduced to the essentials. Proportion, spatial continuity and a careful selection of materials shape a serene, timeless space designed for modern living.’

The vertical organisation was defined through close consultation with the clients. On the first floor is the main living space, with a linear arrangement of study (at the front of the house), passing through a double-height sitting room, and through to a kitchen and dining area at the rear, where a terrace overlooks the garden.

Above this, on the second floor, are two bedrooms, a gymnasium and utility area, arranged around a galleried landing that overlooks the main living space. The house culminates with the primary bedroom suite on the third floor, a modestly sized en-suite bedroom with adjacent dressing room (and storeroom), as well as direct access to a balcony.

The kitchen was supplied by Bulthaup, with furniture throughout by Casamitjana. Symbiosi Landscape shaped the garden, while the lighting was supplied by Nexia. Floors one and two are the day zones, with the opening rear façade unifying the inside and outside during the summer months. The upper floors feature more natural oak for a combination of warmth and light, while the top-lit staircase unifies the entire house with bold graphic moves.

Exitprojectes.com, @Exitprojectes

From the roof terrace of Cloud House, architect Peter Morris' new north London home, it is easy to see what inspired the project's name. A scalloped top edge painted in soft pink makes sitting on a lounger here feel like you are peeking at the Gospel Oak skyline through fluffy clouds of sweet candy floss.

The façade plays a part in this illusion too. Set on a quiet road off the southern edge of Hampstead Heath, on a little road that has everything from a Grade II-listed French school to an old church, Victorian homes and some modestly scaled new housing blocks, Cloud House stands out, for sure, cutting a distinct figure through its whimsical colour and shape.

It also somehow weirdly blends in. Its volumes follow the massing and rooflines of its adjacent buildings, and its arches echo the shapes found on the Grade I-listed St Martin's Church across the street. Were it not for its uncompromising soft pink and green hues, this project might have been an entirely different proposition.

Step inside Cloud House by Peter Morris

Cloud House's architect designed it as a showcase – a true expression of his own mood, vision and style. It is a very personal project, and one tackled with a lot of care precisely because of that. The scheme, in fact, comprises two semi-detached homes – one for his own family (he lives there with his partner Emily Kennedy, a producer) and the other belonging to clients who are about to start moving in.

The site contained an existing Victorian property, where the family previously lived, but which was getting increasingly worn and volatile – damp rising and urgent fixes needed. Morris decided to apply for it to be replaced, and after working with Camden Council over a few years, his permission was granted, and he embarked on Cloud House's design journey, which took ten years to complete.

The design changed significantly along the way, but only for the better, Morris explains – and it maintained its distinctive flair and individuality throughout the long-drawn process. 'The council saw my personal connection as a positive thing; they said my personality comes through with this house,' Morris recalls, wearing bright blue overalls and bold, round, black-rimmed glasses.

The fact that the street on this corner of Gospel Oak consists of a large blend of styles, from period to contemporary, and uses, including residential, educational and religious, helped. Cloud House contributes to an established diversity here. 'My work is typically more reserved than this. I might start colourful, but things get toned down quite a lot in the end,' he says. 'Here, I wanted to follow through with my own home.'

The long planning and construction process complicated things financially, but Morris was keen to remain true to his original vision. Some elements might have been adjusted, but important features – such as the arches and the colours – remained strong. Kind, crowdsourced help from the community ensured the painting and decorating finished on time.

What made things easier is that the house, a fairly conventional brick and concrete construction, is now clad with light polystyrene stone, a material that, Morris explains, is cost-effective but also highly functional, adding the building's thermal mass and insulation, while being easy to mould, lightweight and waterproof (it's been treated with rough render on top, making it near-indistinguishable from the typical peers).

Inside, the home spans three levels. A generous ground floor contains living spaces and Morris's home office. Bedrooms and bathrooms occupy the two upstairs floors, while a glass skylight at the top, right above the stairwell, opens to the roof terrace, a little sun trap that serves as the home's main outdoor space (a small courtyard downstairs is another open area – Morris plans to plant a herb garden here).

Bold colours, stripes and quirky details abound – just as you would expect, stepping inside a home that looks like a pink fairytale from the street. Painted arches on walls blend visually with arch-shaped doors, and round, ball-shaped plaster mouldings are reminiscent of the ones in Sir John Soane's Museum. Everything is decorated in Morris and Kennedy's personal style – 'It's the museum of Peter and Emily,' he smiles. No doubt, a good measure of success – a home truly reflecting its owners' spirit to the smallest detail.

Morris hopes for word to spread and more work in the Cloud House realm to come through for him, where he can let his imagination run wild and make someone else's dreams a reality too. 'The Cloud House is a colourful, joyful place, but it is also a statement about what residential architecture can be,' he says.

petermorrisarchitects.com

All photos by Will Pryce

Understanding the history of the ‘house of the future’ requires looking back 70 years. In San Mateo Highlands, Eichler X-100 was built as a promotional prototype for a new kind of domestic architecture: developer Joseph Eichler, who specialised in wood-framed family houses, saw it as an opportunity to explore whether steel could revolutionise residential construction.

Explore the Eichler X-100. now on the market

A grand opening brochure published in 1956 described it as a ‘new living form that served as a research laboratory for testing new design concepts, new materials, and new techniques of construction’. Designed as a test house by architects A. Quincy Jones and Frederick Emmons, the residence embodied many of the modernist principles that came to define the Californian ideal of postwar living: exposed steel, expansive glass, garden courts, skylights, built-in furniture, and seamless indoor-outdoor connections. Within a few months, it attracted more than 150,000 visitors and generated extensive press coverage.

What began as a research project is now looking for a fifth custodian who appreciates the opportunity to write its next chapter. Having been restored to its original condition, it spans 2310 square feet, comprising three bedrooms, two living areas and an open kitchen, with two bathrooms positioned at its centre. Two interior gardens invite nature into the home, while glass sliding doors along the entire rear façade create a sense of openness, with views of the Santa Cruz Mountains.

Initially sold for $47,000 in 1957, the house was later acquired by three other sets of owners. In 2016, it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places (the only Eichler house to receive the designation) and returned to its original glory the following year under the X-100 Renewal Project. Its current owner, Marty Arbunich, director of the Eichler Network, occasionally organises tours for educational purposes. Although it turned out to be the last steel house Eichler built, the X-100 remains remarkably relevant today as one of the most distinctive houses of the Californian modernist era.

For Sale: Eichler X-100, A. Quincy Jones and Frederick Emmons (1956), 1586 Lexington Avenue, San Mateo, CA 94402, via Boyenga Real Estate.

Owning a historic work of architecture isn’t for the faint of heart – which may be why one of Los Angeles’ most famous houses has languished on the market.

Last November, Case Study House #22, otherwise known as the Stahl House, was listed for $25 million by the descendents of the home’s original clients, Buck and Carlotta Stahl. When completed, the house immediately drew acclaim, both for its stunning cantilevered design by modernist architect Pierre Koenig, and an iconic 1960 photograph snapped by Julius Schulman that went on to epitomise midcentury glamour. But buyers aren’t biting. In fact, the owners opted to slash the price by $5 million, hoping to attract the home’s next steward.

Why aren’t would-be buyers scrambling to snap up the Stahl House? First and foremost is the eye-watering $20 million price tag. The house, while visually breathtaking and historically significant, is modest in size, with just two bedrooms housed in its 2,200 sq ft. 'It’s impossible to put a price on fame,’ Mike Deasy, a real estate agent who has overseen the sale of a Frank Lloyd Wright-designed residence, told the Los Angeles Times.

There’s also the question of maintenance. Historic properties require specialised care and upkeep to address aging materials and systems, work that can be time consuming and costly. In fact, that’s part of the reason the Stahls, who’ve kept the home in the family for some six decades, opted to part with their cherished home. ‘This home has been the center of our lives for decades, but as we’ve gotten older, it has become increasingly challenging to care for it with the attention and energy it so richly deserves,’ The Stahl children wrote in a statement on the Stahl House website.

Because of the house’s historical designations (it’s on the National Registry for Historic Places, and an LA Historic-Cultural Monument), it would be tricky (not to mention controversial) to alter or expand the building.

Whether or not the discount will compel the right buyer to make a move remains to be seen. But one thing’s for sure: they’ll be owning a piece of America’s architectural history, something you can't put a dollar on.

This Clerkenwell house represents the near-complete remodel of an existing property - the keen-eyed reader might recognise it as the home of designer Roksanda Ilincic ten years ago. Now reinvented for a family of three with a passion for travelling and art, the building was fully redesigned by architect Pauline Gidoin of MM Studio Interior.

The current owners had been living in the home for eight years, using a mix of the furniture they owned prior to purchasing it, and the original project's existing structure. Over the years, they realised they needed to fine tune the space and upgrade it to their own personal needs. They called upon Gidoin to optimise and tailor design their space for their specific purposes.

'Although the architecture was very strong, the rooms didn't necessarily feel connected to the scale or character of the house. In the large open-plan ground floor in particular, pieces felt as though they were floating within the space rather than defining it,' the architect says.

'Just before they contacted us, they had completed two infill extensions to the upper bedrooms, creating two much more usable rooms that now needed to be properly designed. It felt like the right moment to look at the house in its entirety.'

Gidoin developed a design working closely with Tate Joinery, who worked on all the bespoke storage elements throughout. The aim was the balance the property's bold looks with functionality, and bring warmth to the strong architectural interior.

She explains: 'We described the design language early on as Brutalist and minimalist. I didn't want to fight the architecture or fill the house with objects. Instead, the idea was to work with a relatively restrained number of pieces, but make each one count through proportion, texture and materiality.'

'Spatially, each floor presented almost the opposite problem. The ground floor was extremely generous and needed to be broken down into distinct living, dining and music areas without introducing walls. Upstairs and on the lower-ground floor, the challenge was much more about making every centimetre useful, incorporating storage and responding to very different qualities of natural light. We used furniture placement, rugs, lighting, art and bespoke joinery almost architecturally to define those spaces.'

It was this challenge, the need to rebalance and fine-tune between large, flowing and cosy spaces, that helped define the project, the architect explains: 'I think that contrast ultimately became one of the strengths of the project: some spaces needed to be given more definition, while others needed to work much harder within a smaller footprint. The bespoke elements helped us solve those very different conditions, while the consistent material palette and the clients’ art collection create continuity throughout the house.'

Natural materials throughout, particularly travertine in both refined and rougher finishes, oak, walnut, limestone, leather and chrome, were used in an honest way, exposed and left 'brutalist' to add texture to the spaces. Instead of using lots of different finishes, the team worked with a restrained family of materials repeatedly, simply altering their scale, texture and application from room to room. This allowed the whole to feel consistent but also varied and truly bespoke.

In order to fully capture the essence of South Barn, the home of Studio Weave practice founder Je Ahn, it is important to understand his starting point. 'It [is a project that] ties to ideas of flexibility, comfort and looseness – ultimately, having the trust and confidence to be relaxed about the result,' he told us in 2025, when we interviewed him about a building that made him smile, as he was completing the project.

It is this attitude of effortlessness, and at the same time luxury, that permeates this small but perfectly formed project, set on the UK's Isle of Wight, near the town of Cowes.

Explore South Barn by Studio Weave

The project came to be when Ahn had the opportunity to acquire an existing barn within a working farm – a relatively modest building of 158 sq m. He decided to snap it up for his own personal escape, and embarked on redesigning it to transform it into a pared-down retreat – as utilitarian and raw as they come, yet no less lush and charming.

Ahn recalled at the time: 'The budget was limited, but the project had an inherent sense of luxury in that I was in the unusual position of being my own client, so I could respond more nimbly and directly to project demands, such as the site’s conditions, market pricing and contractor capacity.'

The Studio Weave team developed the project with great respect for the existing structure and its 50-plus-year-old fabric. Many of the original materials were kept, often left exposed, and only repaired to ensure they are aligned with 21st-century habitation. Minimal overall changes were made, ensuring the new house feels like it's always been there, a true celebration of its agricultural context and building integrity.

A large open-plan kitchen and living area, featuring large windows, is the undisputed heart of the home. Off it, a small corridor leads to three bedrooms. Meticulous detailing and craftwork bring the fabric back to life – all done in collaboration with maker Mike at Imphouse and his team. The landscape was also an important collaborative work, produced together with Tom Massey Studio.

Ahn says: 'You cannot design the feel of an aged building – we knew it was important to retain the elements which expressed the passing of time. Studio Weave’s aim is to open up the building, both practically and metaphorically – making South Barn more accessible to the new inhabitants.

'The concept of “deep reuse” informs the design – we repurpose materials we have found on site, both [for] their narrative and practical value, in rebuilding this agricultural building. We also understand the importance of understanding the way people live – this project makes a backdrop for people’s lives.'

studioweave.com

Many of us might have daydreamed about living in a Japanese house; and now, a new tome by Phadon offers readers a joyful tour of the popular architectural typology, Living in a Japanese House allows us to step inside a rich selection of homes in the East Asian country and not only imagine what life inside them would be like – but also learn about how they came to be, their authors and architecture.

The book is written by Japanese author and Wallpaper* contributor Kanae Hasegawa. It brings together 35 examples of Japanese homes in a true visual feast, spanning interiors and exteriors and resulting in a luxurious survey of the region's residential architecture – its challenges and bold design solutions.

Project include many of the names in contemporary Japanese architecture field, such as Hiroshi Nakamura, Ryue Nishizawa, nendo, and more. They also feature lesser-known examples in a tour of eye-catching, thought-provoking dwellings in different setting - urban, suburban and rural.

At the same time, Hasegawa's texts provide valuable insights and reflections from the homes' architects, but also their homeowners. This makes for a marvellous 360 degree exploration into the typology - and what it means today, living in a Japanese house.

'Living in a Japanese House' by Kanae Hasegawa, Phaidon, £39.99

UK architecture studio Koto has made a speciality of prefabricated architecture, elevating the humble cabin into a well-crafted structure that can be precisely tailored to its location and use. The firm’s newest product is Haku, a ‘fully mobile piece of architecture’ pitched at everyone from hotels to homeowners who want the flexibility of additional accommodation without being tied down to a specific spot.

Explore Koto's new Haku suite cabin

The first Haku sites have recently been completed at the Denton Estate in Yorkshire. Demonstrating the flexibility of the system, Haku has been configured as an upscale hotel suite, complete with wood-burning stove and rain-shower bathroom. Countless other uses are possible, all thanks to the way the design slides into a particular loophole in UK planning law.

Because it sits on a wheeled chassis, the Haku is legally defined as a caravan (under the under the Caravan Sites Act 1968, no less). At a stroke, that does away with restrictions on placement in the landscape, giving the unit access to spots that might otherwise be out of bounds. Because it needs no foundations or concrete slab, the Haku can be removed as easily as it is installed, leaving no scar on the landscape. Measuring 9.74m long by 3.60m wide and 3.85m high, the Haku can easily be trucked onto most sites.

The building itself is timber framed, with an organic façade made from expanded cork. Koto can also fully furnish the Haku, creating a turnkey hospitality solution, with ultra-short lead times for design, construction and delivery compared to a conventional building. Order enough, and the price comes down – Koto suggests a unit cost of £80k per suite (or £90k each for off-grid units) if you take 15 units.

‘Haku takes the same philosophy as every Koto commission and releases it from a fixed address,’ says Koto’s co-founder Johnathon Little. ‘What matters is where it can stand: the clearing, the shelf above the water, the ground an estate has always had to leave alone. [It is] architecture that finds its place.’

Haku is available to hotels, estates and landowners from today. At volume, Haku starts from £80,000 per suite on-grid and £90,000 off-grid at fifteen units, with a tiered pricing scale available for operators planning a phased or multi-suite rollout.

Koto.co.uk

An abandoned theatre building in a historic Florentine district provided the raw material for this spectacular architect's home, a conversion now on the market through Savills for the first time since its completion. Discovered by architect Stefano Tozzi of AE5 Partners in 2015, the space was once the fly loft of a 19th-century theatre in Santo Spirito, retaining the original monumental masonry walls – as well as a spectacular brick arch – and some architectural elements that date back even earlier.

Explore this architect's home, now on the market

After acquiring the space, Tozzi undertook the long process of converting it into his own home. According to the agents, Savills, he was originally searching for a property with a city view, but his estate agent was insistent that he give this primarily top-lit space a look. Over a period of six years, Tozzi transformed the interior into a richly theatrical space, playing with the original form language, whilst also extending the sense of scale and drama.

After a spell of living there with his family, the yearning for a view has become too much, so the Fly Loft is on the open market for the first time. First impressions of the space are dominated by the impressive 13m height, with the central living area set beneath the brick arch, which in turn is mirrored by a ribbed timber form that serves as a divider on the lower level.

The new residence is arranged across three levels, with bedrooms and bathrooms given lofty perches high up in the eaves, and the kitchen and living area on the lowest. The central level houses a suspended glass-bottomed swimming pool, which allows light to filter down from the roof lights to the lower level.

No expense was spared on the materials and finishes. The three levels are connected by a winding teak staircase, which reaches through the original arch and its wooden counterpart to create dramatic, Piranesian imagery. Elsewhere you’ll find walnut, Calacatta marble and translucent polycarbonate panels that further filter the light and shadow.

The lower-level kitchen adjoins a dining niche, separated by freestanding custom cabinets. The primary bedroom suite not only has direct access to the pool but also its own private fitness area with a Turkish bath, while a vertical garden installation sees greenery cascade down the interior. In addition to guest rooms, there is also an independent annexe and a private parking garage, as well as a modest urban patio. A bar and cinema lounge are also located on the uppermost floor.

In all, the residence offers 600 sqm of accommodation, all meticulously finished and tucked away in one of the city’s most desirable areas.

Theatre conversion by Stefano Tozzi, Santo Spirito, Florence, Italy, €13.5m, Savills.com

In Kentish Town, the slightly sleepier side of Camden, a newly renovated Victorian residence artfully blends midcentury interiors with characterful, original period details. The clients, a designer and creative director working in film, had owned the building's upper maisonette for 14 years; when the lower flat became available, they saw the potential for a project.

Step inside this modern Victorian conversion

Working closely with Architecture for London (which also recently completed a Neo-Georgian Islington house), the couple converted the Victorian structure's two separate flats back into one. The transformation wasn’t intended to be a huge revelation, however; instead, it whispers.

‘The clients loved the Victorian character of the house, so we tried to retain and reuse as much of the existing fabric as we could,’ explains Sophie Armstrong, senior architect at Architecture for London. ‘Instead of choosing between old and new, we wanted the two to sit side by side comfortably. The house had been divided into two flats, so much of the work was undoing that and restoring the generosity of a single family home.’

The big focus of the project was for the client’s midcentury furniture to fit effortlessly into the space. The architecture firm completely reconfigured the space. The former maisonette’s kitchen, on the first floor, was converted into a laundry and shower room, while the second floor was reconfigured, including moving the stairway, to create a spacious main bedroom.

The roof was replaced with a new loft conversion, which allowed space for two additional bedrooms and a large bathroom. The ground floor opens up into a spacious Shaker-style kitchen and a generous living and dining room.

Says Armstrong, ‘The exposed timbers and large rooflight [in the kitchen] give a generous sense of height, and the metal-framed glazing, reclaimed brick and Portland stone lintels help it sit seamlessly against the existing house. The kitchen is at the heart of the plan, and the lowered snug beside it adds a cosy pocket of space.’

Achieving this result wasn’t as effortless as it seems, as the biggest challenge was converting the two flats back into one while the clients continued to live on site. There was also a planning challenge.

Armstrong tells Wallpaper*, ‘The house lies within a conservation area, so external alterations had to respond sensitively to the area and meet the council's requirements. Every visible change, from the rear extension to the lead-clad loft dormers, needed to sit naturally within the character of the Victorian terrace.’

The house feels unfussy and welcoming. ‘It's a home for a working, creative family, so it should feel relaxed, rather than precious,’ shares Armstrong. ‘Tactile materials like timber and marble bring warmth, and the light-filled kitchen at the centre of the plan draws people in. It should feel like a Victorian house that has been quietly and thoughtfully refined, rather than being completely transformed.’

architectureforlondon.com

Design lovers might already be familiar with the residence: Los Angeles architectural photographer Julius Shulman, famous for spreading California's midcentury architecture around the world, captured this particular unit in 1964.

Explore this Cerritos Circle property on the market

Today, the four-bedroom garden home is on the market for $1,450,000, offering the opportunity to own a piece of Long Beach’s modernist architectural history. Located on Del Mar Avenue in the Los Cerritos / Virginia Country Club neighbourhood of Long Beach, an area known for its historic homes, the property is one of the 42 post-and-beam residential units designed by Clifton Jones Jr in 1963.

Spanning 2,768 sq ft of living space, the residence is arranged over a single storey as two mirroring side-by-side apartments, each featuring two bedrooms with their own ensuite bathrooms. At the centre of each home is an open-plan kitchen. East-facing dining areas were designed to capture the morning light, while west-facing family rooms receive the afternoon sun. Lofty, 10ft ceilings, sliding doors and monumental glass walls create a sense of spaciousness throughout, with living spaces leading to an entry courtyard and a fenced patio at the back.

The Cerritos Circle was developed on land that previously belonged to the Jones family and had been used for racehorse training. Influenced by his academic background at the USC School of Architecture, where he studied under Edward Killingsworth and Calvin Straub, and inspired the Southern California’s Case Study House programme of experimental homes built between 1945 and 1966, Jones Jr was eager to put his education into practice. His transformation of the site into a residential development reflects the midcentury ambition to rethink the relationship between architecture and contemporary everyday life.

‘This particular unit is being sold by the family of the original architect and developer Clifton Jones Jr. They have held onto it as a rental property since it was built’, says Nate Cold of Modern Californian House, an estate agency dedicated to the preservation of great architecture and design. ‘The side by side units feel more like single family homes, which works well for an owner to live in one and rent the other.’

More than six decades after it was built, the simple structural forms, flexible open-plan layouts and indoor-outdoor harmony of the unit remain a compelling expression of modernist ideals – and a sought-after piece of California’s architectural heritage.

For Sale: Cerritos Circle Duplex, Clifton Jones Jr. (1963), 4175 / 4177 Del Mar Ave., Long Beach CA, $1,450,000, via Modern California House

Set in the leafy meadows of Sun Valley, Idaho, Three Barns is a new-build home in the American wilderness – a structure designed as much to provide cosy shelter as to nod to its striking, surrounding nature. The project is the first in the state by the California-based firm Field Architecture – a studio known for its high quality, crisp family homes and retreats, such as a Big Sur house completed in 2024.

Explore Three Barns by Field Architecture

The Sun Valley house was conceived as a complex of three gabled structures – forms that nod to the region's agricultural barns – which also lends the project its name. Surrounded by windy planes and undulating mountains, the architecture was always going to be influenced by nature's movement in the area, a part of the US wilderness that never stands still.

The architects explain: 'Mountain ranges rise in four directions, grasses bend with the prevailing winds, snow gathers and recedes with the seasons, and water moves across the hillside toward the Big Wood River below. Rather than level this terrain into a platform for the house, the architecture takes its cues from the land’s existing structure.

'Natural benches become places of occupation, drainage patterns remain legible, and the native meadow continues between and around the buildings. The house emerges from this reading of the site as a collection of inhabitable terraces, each held within the larger topography of the watershed.'

Each of the three barns is rotated to respond to its terrain and, as a result, has its own specific view, relationship to the valley and quality of light. But together, the three buildings form their own little mountain range – containing discrete areas for the bedrooms; the entertaining areas with the kitchen and dining space at their heart; and the entry sequence and main living room.

Meanwhile, 'circulation becomes an encounter with the land', the architects highlight, pointing out that when residents move between the volumes, glazed breezeways mean they experience stepping out into the open air and leafy meadows.

Inside, contemporary design meets the concept's robust nature, with all mods cons making this a true, four-season alpine landscape. The Three Barns' two large chimneys, built out of local stone, serve as marks, gently highlighting the Sun Valley home's presence.

fieldarchitecture.com

This grand house in Ahmedabad, India, was completed by architects FLXBL, led by Cunal Parmar, with a team overseen by Arivanandh Manirathinam. Covering some 18,000 sq ft, the house has been dubbed ‘Solidus’, as well as ‘Private Residence No. 09’, in the FLXBL portfolio.

Step inside this sculptural new house in Ahmedabad

From the exterior, Solidus presents itself as an appropriately monolithic form, with shuttered concrete exterior walls that incorporate slots, openings and setbacks to shape the volumes and alignments of the interior accommodation. According to the architects, ‘the project is based on a single architectural operation: the progressive subtraction of a monolithic volume’.

As a result of this approach, the single block is struck through with different voids, from the courtyard at basement level to covered verandas on the ground floor and balconies and terraces on the two floors above. ‘The subtraction produces a sequence of edge voids, planted terraces, elevated gardens and light wells through which landscape, daylight and natural ventilation enter the built volume,’ say the FLXBL team.

Careful management of the planting brings vegetation into every level, a ‘connected landscape system across multiple levels’. The studio has taken care to stick with indigenous species and has incorporated rainwater harvesting, greywater recycling and automated drip irrigation into the design to sustain and nurture the landscaping as it matures.

Plants also play a key role in providing solar shading and creating a microclimate to mitigate Ahmedabad’s intense heat. The scheme encourages greenery to become enmeshed with the house itself, while the interior scheme also allows plenty of space for large interior plants. ‘Framed views, planted edges, shaded terraces and seasonal growth allow the landscape to remain part of everyday occupation rather than a separate layer surrounding the building,’ the team say.

FLXBL not only undertook the architectural design but also the interior, the furnishings and the landscaping. Key modern pieces are given prominent placement in the generous interiors, while spaces like the basement home theatre and the many reception areas offer plenty of opportunity for collection and display.

The ground floor is dominated by the central great room, with a kitchen, veranda, utility spaces and two ensuite bedrooms are also located at this level. On the first floor, a more private lounge has direct access onto a balcony, flanked by a study area and three more bedrooms, one of which has its own private terrace. The second floor is mostly given over to a generous common terrace, along with a lounge, private terrace and service terrace.

Interior features include stone floors, bespoke fabric wall coverings and carpets. The primary staircase rises alongside a brick spine wall, providing a warm central focus in the heart of the house, contrasting with the vegetation that encroaches on the openings in the solid form.

FLXBL.in

These two Croatian houses represent the concise architectural approaches of the two partners of Zagreb firm Njirić+ arhitekti. Founding partner Hrvoje Njirić set up the studio in 2001 and was subsequently joined by Iskra Filipović. Both have recently completed their own residences, with each one set on a very different site and therefore representing the firm’s varied typological and theoretical approach.

Double-Villa Bukovac: a Croatian house that redraws suburban rules

Hrvoje Njirić’s Double-Villa Bukovac was shortlisted for this year’s EU Mies Awards. Described by the architects as a ‘dialogue with Zagreb’s Urban Master Plan,’ it is in fact more of a critique.

Deliberately shaped to diverge from the many rules and regulations set out in the city’s General Urban Development Plan of the City of Zagreb, Njirić calls the house a ‘vision of reimagining the green foothills of Zagreb for a lower-density residential typology.' In summary, the architects state that they favour 'smaller volumes, lower structures, a gentler footprint and larger plots with a minimum area of 1200 sqm.’

In a way, this is an argument for preserving the city’s suburban character, using idiosyncratic and decidedly non-suburban forms, to provide something of a ‘case study that proposes a new form of urban decency for the city.’ The house actually contains two attached dwellings, deliberately undercutting the allowable maximum built space (600 sqm for a 1,200 sqm lot) in favour of a total of 180 sqm.

The Double-Villa Bukovac also goes out, rather than up, with a linear plan designed for multigenerational living arrangement consisting of a single structure spanning two adjacent lots. The public-facing street façade on the northwest is close to the road, maximizing the amount of available open space behind the houses.

In public, the houses present an austere façade of perforated brick, whilst the private rear to the southeast is glazed, open and shared, with views towards the city.

Double-Villa Bukovac embodies myriad architectural influences, old and new, from Palladio (who inspired the two components’ ‘disciplined symmetry’) to the Eames House and Studio. Even Thomas Jefferson’s work at the University of Virginia gets a nod for influencing ‘the relationship to the terrain and the classical rhythm of the façades,’ while a slightly more contemporary source was the American Case Study House programme.

All of these and more can be detected in the twin mirrored structured, with materiality that becomes lighter further up the structure, a love of unconventional materials (those bricks, the use of cable tray mesh on the façade, billowing ribbons of curtains) and a subterranean garage that also serves as a private art gallery and ‘party venue’. The orientation of the glazed façade minimizes winter energy demands, while passive shading comes into play in the summer.

Zagreb House Extension: A vertically extended city house

In contrast, Iskra Filipović’s residence at 140 Petrova Street reuses an original structure and adds a layer of new accommodation. A rejoinder to Zagreb’s current wave of redevelopments, Petrova 140 ‘was conceived as a way of creating additional living space while retaining and working with as much of the existing structure as possible.’

The prominent site sits on traditionally residential street that has been substantially redeveloped in recent years. By adding a new, distinct volume with twin sawtooth roofs, the architects have opted to preserve the area’s original character, along with its mature trees, as a way of supplementing and not erasing an established identity.

For that reason, contrast and contradiction are brought into play. The metal-clad addition is clearly distinct from the building below, yet in scale and use it remains consistently domestic – ‘different architectural languages sharing the same address,’ according to the studio.

The new addition is made of lightweight prefabricated steel structure to avoid adding any additional stress on the original building. It was also cheaper and quicker to build, qualities that the architects have decided to emphasise and not conceal.

Inside, there’s a welcome uplift to the character of the room thanks to the high-pitched ceilings, while new openings were aligned to predefined views and light paths to ensure daylight reached into the heart of the apartment.

Just as the Double-Villa Bukovac challenges the accepted way of building new houses in the suburban context, Petrova 140 is a riposte to unthinking redevelopment. Construction cost and cultural memory are both given equal play, adding another layer to the changing life of the city.

Njiric.com

Villa Pieds Dans L'Eau is a waterside property on the small Corsican island of Cavallo, located in the Strait of Bonifacio. Designed by the architect Savin Couëlle (1929 – 2020), it was constructed over a four-year period in the 1970s, as Corsica and Sardinia became favoured Mediterranean destinations for France and Italy’s smart set.

Tour Savin Couëlle’s organic villa, Villa Pieds Dans L'Eau

Couëlle was the son of architect Jacques Couëlle, who also built in the region, most notably the Cala di Volpe hotel in Sardinia, familiar to cinema fans of the era as a location in the 1977 Bond film, The Spy Who Loved Me. Cavallo also found favour as a cinematic backdrop. It was the location for Marco Ferreri’s 1972 melodrama Liza, starring Catherine Deneuve and Marcello Mastroianni.

On Cavallo, Couëlle had to contend with strict building codes, that included a 4.5m restriction on height and naturalistic planting that screened new buildings from the sea. Taking the landscape as his cue, Couëlle integrated the villa directly into the coastline, incorporating granite outcrops into the design, carving steps directly into the rock and creating a naturalistic series of curved roofs and cave-like openings to frame the sea view.

For sale through Lionard Luxury Real Estate, the villa sprawls for 700 sqm along the sea front, set within a private coastal park of 4,700sqm. All that space has been designed for sharing, with a total of no less than 12 bedrooms and 12 bathrooms, as well as additional staff accommodation, an independent guest house and dock. There’s also a private white sandy beach, offering the direct sea access that gives the house its name.

In keeping with Cavallo’s rules, the house is almost completely invisible from the sea, with monumental masonry carefully spliced between the existing granite rocks. Arranged across multiple level changes, with existing and new planting arranged naturalistically across the site, it offers the new owner an organic and immersive place in nature.

The main living area is dominated by a large chunk of granite, into which the house’s central staircase has been painstakingly carved, as well as a sculptural fireplace. Rough white lime plaster rendered walls twist and turn as they sprout from the tiled floors and rocky surfaces, framing views within and without the space. All windows are bespoke, shaped according to Couëlle’s principles of organic architecture.

The accommodation includes a number of self-contained suites as well as a fully equipped professional kitchen. Shaded sun decks and covered verandas are scattered around the complex, with ever-present sea views and an unrivalled sense of privacy and seclusion.

Pieds Dans L'eau Villa, Cavallo Island, Corsica, €18m through Lionard Luxury Real Estate, Lionard.com

Across three timber-swathed storeys, this family house in Belgium takes the classic domestic archetype and subverts it through a rigorous, stripped back geometry. Inspired by the classic parlour game of constructing pitched-roof houses from a pack of cards, the structure has steeply raked roofs that fold seamlessly into detail-free façades, with meticulously aligned slim timber cladding creating uniformity and simplicity.

The house itself was built on existing foundations in a neighbourhood where zoning restrictions constrained the volume and height of the building. Vantieghem Talebi, the practice responsible for the new design, created a form that evoked historic beach houses in the neighbourhood, maximising the available envelope on the original foundations with a cruciform shaped structure that informed the position and height of the structural bays.

The project makes extensive use of prefabricated CLT (cross laminated timber) panels, which were assembled on site in a matter of days. Each of the house’s four bays houses a room with a ceiling that reaches up into the eaves. Described by the architects as ‘pitched chapels’, the interiors feature timber cladding on the walls and timber flooring throughout, while the living areas on the floor below have white walls and timber flooring.