Minimalist architecture: strip back and set yourself free
These examples of minimalist architecture place life in the foreground – clutter is demoted and design becomes a simple stage. Embracing smooth lines and clean aesthetics these interiors elevate the everyday into a Scandinavian dream. Could you escape the magnetism of materialism to live inside these minimal environments?
Oslo penthouse, Norway
Stian Schjelderup and Øystein Trondahl
This 400 sq m penthouse has a 360-degree aspect onto the city and a carefully planned internal arrangement to ensure the space makes the most of daylight – the interior’s bright materials defy any gloom. This apartment, located in the city centre, initially consisted of three smaller units, but now comfortably spreads out to cover the whole floor.
Writer: Massimo de Conti
Oslo penthouse, Norway
Stian Schjelderup and Øystein Trondahl
Norwegian-born architects Stian Schjelderup and Øystein Trondahl of local practice Schjelderup Trondahl were called in to turn the fragmented space into a fluid, continuous, open-plan layout, created in a subtle style with minimalist details. Elegant simplicity was key for the architects. ‘It was a great challenge to conceal all the ventilation piping and other necessities while at the same time maintaining state-of-the-art craftsmanship and the simplicity of the atmosphere,’ says Schjelderup.
Mews House, London, UK
Russell Jones
Compact living has never felt so spacious; enter Mews House, a two-bedroom home on a cobbled little street in Highgate, North London. Using a subtle palette of materials, architect Russell Jones has transformed a garage and overgrown garden in a recently regenerated area into a serene haven for modern living.
Photography: Rory Gardiner
Mews House, London, UK
Russell Jones
Continuous lines and light-coloured, earthy tones create a sense of spaciousness, reflecting the natural sunlight brought in through floor-to-ceiling windows on the ground level, as well as tactically placed dormer and skylights upstairs. A floating staircase of light oil-finished Douglas Fir creates a focal point for the minimalist, open plan living space.
Photography: Rory Gardiner
Okinawa House, Japan
John Pawson
In their search for the ideal year-round holiday retreat from their ‘box-shaped house’ in Tokyo, a Japanese family enlisted John Pawson Architects to design them a modern and minimalist vacation home on the island of Okinawa, the country’s southernmost prefecture. Developed by Taishi Kanemura, from Pawson’s London office, the execution of the interior programme and external shape of the home was led by the site’s catenary curve.
Photography: Nacasa & Partners
Okinawa House, Japan
John Pawson
Local limestone was used in two spaces within the home, featuring different finishes in each place; the kitchen unit’s countertop showcases a honed and polished version, while the property’s external pavement has a brush-hammered look. The Okinawa house is a bright and open family home that showcases Pawson’s signature simple, uncluttered and natural style. Its clean and tranquil atmosphere and far-reaching ocean views provide a calming and meditative residential escape away from the buzz of the metropole.
Photography: Nacasa & Partners
FGN House, Fagnano Olon, Italy
Oasi
This family home designed by Busto Arsizio-based architects Oasi is an exercise in subtle concrete architecture. Named FGN House, the building is composed of three simple volumes which interlock in different ways, creating a variety of spaces, both inside and out. The structure sits on the grounds of an old fruit orchard. Its layout is simple; a generous main ground level houses the open-plan living, dining and kitchen areas.
Photography: Laura Cavelli
FGN House, Fagnano Olon, Italy
Oasi
The ground level remains in constant dialogue with the outdoors, through large openings that look out towards the garden and the different courtyards formed by the concrete formations – there’s a main entrance patio and a further two terraces in different parts of the house. The architects worked with concrete as their main material of choice, adding wooden details where needed, creating a sense of clean, sharp minimalism and gentle refinement.
Photography: Laura Cavelli
Grigio, Tokyo, Japan
Apollo Architects & Associates
This house in Tokyo is designed by Japanese practice Apollo Architects & Associates, headed by Satoshi Kurosaki. Featuring raw concrete inside and out, the house, called Grigio, was created as a simple box. It may appear closed off but the architect has cleverly carved out parts to make it light and open inside. Decorative elements were kept to a minimum throughout to create a streamlined, minimalist appearance. At the same time, the refined colour palette features a simple grey scheme that helps create a sophisticated, gallery-like feel, perfect for art display.
Photography: Masao Nishikawa
Grigio, Tokyo, Japan
Apollo Architects & Associates
Two levels above ground and a sunken basement floor contain a spacious arrangement that comprises the master bedroom suite, children’s room, the family sitting room and an open-plan living, dining and kitchen area. The courtyard sits at the volume’s heart, centering the design.
Photography: Masao Nishikawa
Yamaguchi Sake Brewery, Kurume, Japan
Case Real
Design studio Case Real renovated this Yamaguchi Sake Brewery based in Kurume city. A traditional, cedar-beam property was constructed on the site in the early 1800s by Yamaguchi family ancestors. The renovation pivots around a new connective courtyard and a secret garden sparsely ornamented with slim native trees and off-white pebbles. It offers a distinct, meditative area for brewers to unwind mid-shift.
Photography: Hiroshi Mizusaki
Yamaguchi Sake Brewery, Kurume, Japan
Case Real
The dedicated lounge space is a zen environment. Walls are rendered in sweet-chestnut shades and vast windows fill the space with light. A characterful, polished stone flow recalls the structure’s early days, and original beams stand sturdy overhead; a reminder of the family’s longstanding sake brewing heritage.
Photography: Hiroshi Mizusaki
Gable House, San Francisco, US
Edmonds + Lee Architects
This redesign of a Victorian townhouse involved a 3,000 sq ft renovation and extension that embraced the character of the original house, adding a Scandinavian aesthetic. The floor is lined with extra long, Dinesen Douglas Fir planks, creating a seamless interior, complemented by pieces by Arne Jacobsen, Carl Hansen and B&B Italia.
Photography: Joe Fletcher
Gable House, San Francisco, US
Edmonds + Lee Architects
The main living level is the raised ground floor, with a basement below hosting the garage and auxiliary spaces. The living room and kitchen/dining area (with cabinetry designed by Sozo Studio) sit separately, lit brightly by large openings towards the landscaped garden by Garden Route Company. The three bedrooms with en-suite bathrooms occupy the top two floors.
Photography: Joe Fletcher
Cannon Lane House, London, UK
Claudio Silvestrin
London-based architect Claudio Silvestrin has the minimalist approach down to a T. This single-family house in Hampstead Village in London is located within a picturesque conservation area. The client was after a property of significant quality and size; the architect duly obliged, balancing this with an understated exterior appearance that is quiet and unobtrusive within the residential street.
Photography: James Morris
Cannon Lane House, London, UK
Claudio Silvestrin
Inside, austere, minimalist lines are matched by luxury touches, such as yellow-ochre porphyry stone from the Italian Dolomites on the walls, oxidised brass with a bronze finish on handles, surfaces and railings, yellow-ochre porphyry, and oak flooring. Curved lines create interesting light play, geometrical compositions and vistas inside, while maintaining an air of simplicity and openness. The lack of excessive ornamentation also works towards that.
Photography: James Morris
La Jolla Guesthouse, California, US
Gluckman Tang
This low scale, single-storey structure references modernist gems, such as the iconic Case Study Houses of the 1950s and 1960s found in California. The guesthouse, which also serves as a pool house, is part of the grounds of a larger spec residence. Elegant and small-scale, the building features strong geometry and clean, minimalist lines, which make for suitably subtle drama and confident architecture. Board-formed concrete on the outside creates a warm, tactile feel and visually links the guest house to the main house’s stuccoed facade.
Photography: Joe Dodd
La Jolla Guesthouse, California, US
Gluckman Tang
The structure was created using poured in-situ concrete, featuring large openings that seamlessly merge inside and out. Inside, the flowing space includes an open-plan kitchen and living space, flanked by a bedroom on one side, and a bathroom on the other. The surrounding open spaces have been designed by Carson Douglas Landscape Architecture.
Photography: Joe Dodd
House MM, Mallorca, Spain
Ohlab
House MM is designed by local Mallorcan firm Ohlab, headed by Paloma Hernaiz and Jaime Oliver. It is gently nestled within a hillside in Palma, yet its modern white form creates a clean contrast to the natural, rocky and verdant surroundings. Ohlab organised the interior programme as a cluster of four ‘boxes’, which contain the kitchen, living and dining area, main bedroom and guest bedrooms. Each of these ‘boxes’ was meticulously placed within the plot and carefully rotated so as to ensure the best possible views and functionality for each of the rooms.
House MM, Mallorca, Spain
Ohlab
The interior of the 200 sq m home is clean and refined, using a simple, yet rich material palette. The white walls were paired with oak wood panels, seen on the doors and closets. Ohlab opted for locally produced green and beige hydraulic tiles to line the floor throughout, the traditional material integrating a touch of colour within their minimalist, contemporary design.
Fonte Boa House, Portugal
João Mendes Ribeiro Arquitecto
Bound by the picturesque Jerumelo, Sicó and Espinhal mountains and the green Rabaçal valley in central Portugal, this 180 sq m single family home was designed by Coimbra based João Mendes Ribeiro Arquitecto. The gleaming white rectangular volume draws on traditional Portuguese dwellings, with a playful pattern of picture frame windows and a streamlined zinc roof.
Photography: José Campos
Fonte Boa House, Portugal
João Mendes Ribeiro Arquitecto
A simple palette of white walls and timber floors is used throughout the bright interior, with key features of the internal layout determining the position of the abstract window openings. Low level windows cleverly emphasise critical junctions, however the pièce de résistance is the living room’s glazed wall, seamlessly slotted into a deep reveal, framing dramatic views out over the valley.
Photography: José Campos
Remember House, San Francisco, US
Edmonds + Lee
Located on a sloping parcel of land in San Francisco’s Noe Valley, this house was designed by Edmonds + Lee Architects for a tight-knit family of three. The atmosphere inside the Remember House is ethereal: an immersive all-white interior palette. The white, which could easily read as stark and anonymous in a property market seemingly saturated with this aesthetic, instead comes across as uniquely striking and warm.
Photography: Joe Fletcher
Remember House, San Francisco, US
Edmonds + Lee
White Douglas fir flooring, two inches thick, runs through the entire house. The architects call the interior ‘seamless’ and procession through it a ‘continuous thread of inhabitation’. The home is notable in its extreme purity of design, with every detail taken to its conceptual conclusion.
Photography: Joe Fletcher
Aga Khan Museum, Toronto, Canada
Fumihiko Maki
Every monumental museum is inspired by a great collection. In the case of the sparkling white-stone Aga Khan Museum on the outskirts of Toronto, it’s the 1,000 Muslim texts, architectural elements, fountains, crystal, paintings and shahnameh. Fumihiko Maki drew up 10,000 sq m of towering gallery spaces housed within a minimalist angular form, assembled on a precise grid of 1m Brazilian granite slabs.
Aga Khan Museum, Toronto, Canada
Fumihiko Maki
The angled facades were designed to play with the arc of the sun, throwing light and shadow onto the surrounding terraces and reflecting pools. The light effects continue inside, where a small stone courtyard is enclosed in glass etched with a mashrabiya pattern, an ancient Islamic motif reinterpreted by Maki.
Victorian House, London, UK
Lydia Xynogala
This listed Victorian house in the upmarket Knightsbridge area of the British capital was renovated by architect Lydia Xynogala who meticulously removed all the unnecessary ornamentation and existing details. She revealed a lighter, cleaner space that focuses towards the entrance and the gardens. The original staircase was replaced with a new version made from streamlined, white perforated steel plate. This allowed plenty of light to flow through and into the compact kitchen behind it; when the light shines through the perforation, the stairs appear delicate and almost ethereal.
Photography: Nicholas Worley
Victorian House, London, UK
Lydia Xynogala
Xynogala refreshed and lifted the interior using subtle moves that opened up spaces, tidied up corners and smartened details, using bespoke fittings, streamlined cabinetry and a new, soft colour palette. The result? An interior beaming with cleverly designed details that coexist comfortably within their Victorian shell as a coherent, contemporary whole.
Photography: Nicholas Worley
Wood Prefab, Bourgogne, France
Atelier ordinaire and Stattmann Neue Moebel
Architecture studio Atelier ordinaire and designers Stattmann Neue Moebel created a sustainable and minimalist prefab wood house together in Bourgogne in France. The furniture pieces chosen for the project from Stattmann Neue Moebel’s vast collection are perfectly paired with the simple internal architecture.
Photography: Julien Renault
Wood Prefab, Bourgogne, France
Atelier ordinaire and Stattmann Neue Moebel
Spread sparsely across the angular walls of the building are Brussels-based designer Sylvain Willenz’s Profile series of highly crafted oak and ash products that create a pleasing sense of continuity throughout. Clusters of Add stools by German designer Steffen Kehrle also pepper the space alongside his Plug shelves.
Photography: Julien Renault
Micasa, São Paulo, Brazil
Studio MK27
Floating among the dense tree canopy of São Paulo’s leafy Jardins suburb is architect Marcio Kogan’s artfully created box named Volume C. It is the second space the Brazilian architect has created for furniture and design store Micasa. Completing Micasa’s corner-site complex, Volume C is a pavilion for new retail concepts, events and designers in residence. The design blends new timber construction techniques with influences from Japan in a lightweight wood-framed structure that features two wide openings.
Photography: Fernando Guerra
George Clemenceau Pavilion, Saint-Vincent Sur Jard, France
Titan
In celebration of French journalist and politician George Clemenceau, Nantes-based architecture studio Titan designed a low, concrete pavilion that is a visitor centre for the politician’s former residence, which is preserved as a National Monument.
Photography: Julien Lanoo
George Clemenceau Pavilion, Saint-Vincent Sur Jard, France
Titan
The visitor’s centre exterior of sandy coloured concrete is continued inside, albeit in a more robust texture with a grey colour palette. Timber details and cabinetry complement the polished material within this functional and warm design.
Photography: Julien Lanoo