A curvy canopy with a rooftop reflecting pool is among the standout features at a Long Island house designed by US studios Steven Harris Architects and Rees Roberts & Partners to embrace its sand-dune setting.

Located on a hilly site in the Hamptons, the project was created for an urban, art-loving couple who wanted a family holiday home that embraced the coastal terrain and was suitable for entertaining.

"The clients, New York executives, desired architecture in the midcentury modern tradition that showcased the dune-filled landscape and created space to enjoy time with friends and family," the team said.

The project was designed by two Manhattan studios that have worked together in the past: architectural studio Steven Harris Architects and the landscape and interiors firm Rees Roberts & Partners.

To help shape the project, the studios took cues from the site's rolling topography and views of the Atlantic Ocean.

The team also turned to the work of Roberto Burle Marx, the late Brazilian landscape architect who often incorporated organic forms into his designs.

The result is a house U-shaped in plan, with both straight and sinuous lines incorporated into the form.

"The form of the house itself was conceived of as a series of cantilevered, rectilinear volumes pivoting about solid brick masses," the team said.

"The orthogonal geometries were then offset against a series of more biomorphic forms at all scales."

For the exterior material palette, the team opted for low-maintenance and durable options that could endure the harsh marine environment, where rust and rot are common problems.

"To that end, pale stucco and Petersen Tegl brick were selected due to their resilience to heat, wind, salt and sand," the team said. "Similarly, all windows were specified to be marine stainless."

The front door is found on the north, set deep within an entry courtyard. One steps into an airy foyer punctuated with a sculptural staircase that is meant to be reminiscent of a shell.

The 12,000-square-foot (1,115-square-metre) home features an unusual floor plan, in that the kitchen, dining area and living room are located on the upper level.

"This contradicts convention, which normally holds that such public spaces be placed on the entry level," the teams said, noting that the elevated position enables views of the water.

"The public areas enjoy a panoramic vista of the ocean over the nearby dune, which would otherwise have blocked the view."

The upper floor also encompasses the primary bedroom, a sleeping and sitting area for children, two offices and a media room.

On the ground level, one finds multiple guest bedrooms, back-of-house spaces and an indoor basketball court.

There also is a gym that opens through a pneumatic door onto a garden with a private shower, enabling users to rinse off in the open air.

The home features a range of interior finishes, such as plaster, stone, walnut and teak.

Furnishings include pieces by Isamu Noguchi, Kelly Wearstler and Louise Liljencrantz, along with many custom pieces by Rees Roberts & Partners.

The extensive artwork includes a mural in the entryway by abstract artist Mig Perkins.

Throughout the home, large stretches of glass provide a connection to the coastal landscape, and roof overhangs create shade without obstructing views.

A range of outdoor spaces include an infinity-edge swimming pool and pavilion covered by a sculptural canopy inspired by the work of both Roberto Burle Marx and Oscar Niemeyer.

Atop the canopy, the team added a reflecting pool.

"The pool deck looks out at a sculptural pavilion with a curved underbelly and reflecting pool on top, reflecting the sky and accentuating the immediacy of the ocean from the home's living room," the team said.

The project also involved landscape enhancements, such as the addition of tall grasses, to help "blend the house with the dunescape".

Other projects in the upscale hamlet of Bridgehampton include a home by Young Projects that is a cluster of wood-clad, gabled volumes and a residence by Roger Ferris + Partners that consist of three distinct volumes wrapped in glass and garapa wood.

The photography is by Eric Petschek and Scott Frances.

The post Rectilinear and sculptural forms converge at Bridgehampton Beach House appeared first on Dezeen.

Guadalajara-based architect Moises Sánchez has created a stucco-clad, cube-shaped holiday home shaded by a large tree in western Mexico.

The simple, 450-square foot (42-square metre) structure, known as Tonalli House, was completed in 2023 in Jocotepec, Jalisco, minutes from Lake Chapala, the country's largest lake.

"The project arises from the pursuit of a peaceful experience, drawing inspiration from the rhythms and atmospheres of the popular architecture in Mexican villages," Sánchez told Dezeen.

From the outside, the house is a solid white cube, punctuated with strategic openings.

Using local construction systems, materials and labor, the cube is formed with brick walls plastered with a mix of sand and mortar to create two textures — a rough, stone-like base and a smooth monolithic form above.

However, Sánchez prioritised the existing landscape in his description of the project.

"The true protagonist of the project is a large tree and its relationship with the built environment," Sánchez said.

"Its roots create a natural vestibule, serving as the entrance to the volume, the trunk and leaves act as a crowning feature in the views from the interior, while its form and shade simultaneously regulate the microclimate of the surroundings."

Occupants step from the tree-formed vestibule into a double-height foyer and lounge space.

Turning to the right is a kitchen with multi-colored ceramic tiles crafted by artisans from Guadalajara "reminiscent of traditional Mexican kitchens".

Three small lights hang above the peninsula creating an offset spotlight effect in the space, which features unadorned, smooth plaster walls and grey-stone tile flooring.

The bathroom is tucked into a corner off the kitchen.

Across from the entry, lit by a square window, is a staircase that leads up to the sleeping loft, which is open to the lounge below.

"Upon reaching the upper floor, you are greeted by a beam of light penetrating the ceiling, creating a dimly lit atmosphere, at the other end of the loft, a window opens to offer a direct view of the vegetation and the large garden surrounding the villa," Sánchez said.

The limited, neutral material palette – characteristic of the nearby architecture surrounding Lake Chapa – uses light washing along the surfaces and views of the tree outside as the ornamentation.

"Perhaps the most symbolic is the relationship established by the openings in the volume," he said.

"These windows create a link between the interior and exterior, possessing a tactile quality that makes it seem as if both are touching."

In the temperate climate, the villa relies on passive systems for heating and cooling like cross-ventilation through the windows and the skylight that acts as a chimney to expel hot air.

A solar heater provides hot water for the house.

"The success lies in its simplicity; the richness of the project is not the sum of its parts but an exponential multiplication of its virtues," Sánchez said.

"From it, we learned that achieving excellence doesn't necessarily require a tremendous effort but rather finding the right solutions in the right place."

Also in Jalisco, COA Arquitectura constructed an "earth-toned" monolithic house punctuated by blocky forms and triangular cutouts and Tatiana Bilbao built a rammed earth weekend house on the shores of Lake Chapala.

The photography is by Ansatz / Fernando Sanchez.

Project credits:

Architecture: Moisés Sanchez
Ceramics: Lofa Ceramics

The post Moises Sánchez uses local construction methods for cubic Mexican house appeared first on Dezeen.

A 200-year-old stable building in the mountains of Ibiza has been converted into a vacation home by local studio Ibiza Interiors.

The Atelier is one of four dwellings that make up Campo – a group of rentable guesthouses set in a finca, or farmstead, in the island's Morna Valley.

Ibiza Interiors founder Jurjen Van Hulzen has renovated these buildings one by one to enhance their original features and create a series of tranquil getaway spots.

"Nestled between carob and orange trees, the Atelier […] appears at the end of the path as a haven of peace," said the Dutch architect, who founded the studio in 2014.

The single-storey dry-stone structure is typical of the local vernacular but now features a large retractable glass wall across its front.

A polished concrete patio continues inside, where exposed timber ceiling beams and wooden doors complement the neutral colour palette.

"Textures and styles are not afraid to cohabit and the emphasis is on the interplay between old and contemporary, elegant and rustic," said Van Hulzen.

The main space contains a small kitchenette on one side and a dining table that doubles as a workspace on the other.

A seating area comprising low, comfy sofas is positioned towards the back.

The interior is designed to be as flexible as possible, with all of the furniture except the kitchen counters moveable to provide space for exercise or meditation.

Equally, the linen curtains can be drawn and the sofas reoriented for watching movies on a projected screen.

The bedroom is minimally furnished but guests can store their belongings within built-in closets while another glass door opens to the exterior.

In the bathroom, lit from above by a skylight, a large tub made of dark stone is accented with matte black hardware.

The landscaping around the Atelier was designed by Ibiza Exteriors, a new offshoot of Ibiza Interiors created by Van Hulzen and Alicia Uldall.

The pair chose local flora attuned to the island's climate that requires minimal maintenance such as stipa grasses, aloe, rosemary and mastic trees.

Deep steps lead up to the flat roof that serves as a picnic or sunbathing spot overlooking the valley. The dining table and chairs can also be brought outside for al fresco dining among the vegetation.

"Like the Atelier, the garden preserves the wild essence of this land and its genuine beauty," Van Hulzen said.

Better known for its party scene, Ibiza is becoming ever more popular as a wellness and relaxation destination – particularly away from its coast.

Many of the island's historic fincas have been converted into secluded accommodations including the remote Aguamadera resort and the members-only retreat La Granja.

The photography is by Ariadna Puigdomenech.

The post Ibiza Interiors turns dry-stone stables into flexible guesthouse Campo Atelier appeared first on Dezeen.

Textured concrete designed to withstand the Mediterranean climate defines Shift House, a tiered holiday home by Nomo Studio on the island of Menorca.

Shift House is formed of displaced rectangular volumes built into the hillside, finished with a facade of alternating striated concrete walls and continuous window bands.

The home's rough concrete facades draw on the textural quality of local sandstone while mitigating the impact of high humidity and strong salty winds in the town of Es Mercadal where it is located.

Nomo Studio's plan is also arranged to respond to the Balearic climate and optimise views and outdoor spaces in the home, with a series of "decks" reminiscent of those found on a boat.

"The location and its direct surroundings dictate everything from shape to choice of materials, colours and textures," Nomo Studio founder Karl Johan Nyqvist told Dezeen.

"Shift House has a clear will to maximise sea views and outdoor spaces. Its facade is built to resist strong sun, wind and humidity conditions," he continued.

Interested in how the facades will age, the studio anticipates a patina that will enhance the building's aesthetic over time.

"From ancient times, plot boundaries have been demarcated with walls made of staggered formless rocks," Nyqvist explained. "This local technique called 'dry-wall', inspired the facade's roughness reinterpreted with fluted concrete blocks."

The form of Shift House was developed by the studio carrying out solar studies to determine the optimal displacement and orientation of floors to protect windows from direct sun.

It is spread across four levels, with the entrance at street level on the second floor. This is given over to the living spaces, with a generous wraparound terrace that features a swimming pool.

The first floor houses three bedrooms, whilst the basement level features a sunken patio that brings light and ventilation to the bottom three floors of the home.

Internally, the house has a palette of soft, natural materials, colours and textures, combining light wood, microcement, polished white-concrete floors and off-white plaster walls.

Shift House is crowned with a rooftop terrace that offers panoramic views of the Balearic Sea.

"In this island context, where the sea is part of the people's daily life, we also drew the analogy between the architecture and navigation," said Nyqvist.

"[We created] a 360-degree terrace that allows you to walk around the top floor as if it was the gunwale of a boat, and [connected] its rooftop viewing platform through an outdoor stair," he continued.

Nomo Studio was founded by Nyqvist with Alicia Casals, with studios in Barcelona, Madrid and Stockholm.

The studio has completed several projects in Menorca, with others including a house with stepped patios and terraces carved into it and a residence composed of stacked, angular boxes.

The post Fluted concrete encloses Menorca holiday home by Nomo Studio appeared first on Dezeen.

Architecture studios Jan Henrik Jansen Arkitekter and Studio Marshall Blecher have designed Vollerup Atrium House, a travertine holiday home that is defined by its central atrium.

Located in a pine-and-oak meadow by the coast in Sjælland, Denmark, the summerhouse was designed for a Danish couple and their family and clad in travertine.

"The site is on an exposed and windswept stretch of Danish coastline and the monolithic atrium provides a solid and unyielding refuge from the elements," Marshall Blecher, founder of the eponymous studio, told Dezeen.

"It has been designed to be a generational house and the client wanted something that would last the test of time and age gracefully."

The studio chose travertine because of how the material will change as it ages.

"We chose to use porous Italian travertine largely because of how it ages," Blecher said. "The surface is unreflective, it changes colour slightly over time and softens."

The 120-square-metre home comprises a main building, which measures 90 square metres and was designed as a "continuous pavilion-like space".

This contains a sleeping area, lounge, and dining and kitchen area.

Vollerup Atrium House also has a 30-square-metre guest wing, which has two additional guest rooms and can be closed off when not in use.

In addition, the home has a hidden garage and a covered terrace.

The volumes were arranged around the central atrium, which was designed to be a flexible space that could offer protection from the Danish weather when needed.

The stone-clad atrium features a wooden floor and houses trees and a reflection pond, around which the owners and visitors can relax on sun loungers.

Inside Vollerup Atrium House, the two studios used oak to line the walls, creating a peaceful atmosphere.

"Oak was chosen because it is a local Danish material and the rich honey tone of the oiled oak provides some warmth to contrast with the stone," Blecher said.

A raised ceiling "lantern" holds clerestory windows that provide the interior with extra light. The two studios also lined the rooms on one side of the house with glass to let in additional light.

"The clerestory windows are operated electronically, they provide passive cross ventilation and southern sun directly into the living areas," Blecher explained.

To help save space, Jan Henrik Jansen Arkitekter and Studio Marshall Blecher designed special built-in furniture for the holiday home.

"The house is quite small and by designing custom built in furniture we were able to optimise the small spaces," Blecher said.

"The table, for example, is designed to work with the island bench which provides a backrest for diners sitting on the long bench. And the bed in the master bedroom has a headrest which doubles as a work desk."

Studio Marshall Blecher and Jan Henrik Jansen Arkitekter have previously designed a weathering-steel clad home on the Danish island of Fyn and a crofters cottage in Germany that was shortlisted for a Dezeen Award in 2022.

The photography is by José Campos unless otherwise stated.

The post Vollerup Atrium House is a monolithic summerhouse on the Danish coast appeared first on Dezeen.

Japanese architect Shigeru Ban has designed Infinite Maldives, a "resort residence" in the Maldives that will feature gardens and rows of houses on the water made from timber and locally sourced materials.

The five-hectare resort will be located within the Malé Atoll and designed to "embrace the Maldivian vernacular," Shigeru Ban Architects said.

It will comprise 44 villas set on a beach and over the water, connected by a long wooden boardwalk. The houses will surround four gardens by landscape architect Michael Desvigne and be built using timber and locally sourced materials.

Ban designed the Infinite Maldives resort to blend in with the surrounding Indian Ocean.

Renders show double rows of houses facing each other across a long wooden boardwalk that leads to a plot of land with an amorphous central building.

"What makes Infinite Maldives unique is that the resort blends in with the sea and the green nature in an 'infinite' manner," Ban said.

"To minimise the amount of transport and energy for construction and material production, we use various innovative pre-fabrication methods and focus on applying lightweight materials as well as recycled materials," he added.

Ban also said the project would be a "true act of sustainability" because of its harmonious relationship with its surroundings.

"In contrast to many developments selling 'sustainability' just as a label in the commercial sense, our aim is to create a place where people can relax mentally and physically, in harmony with the environment, taking in all its value," the architect said.

"This makes the project a true act of sustainability," he continued.

Infinite Maldives is being designed for Sri Lankan developer Crystal Property Group and will have a spa, fitness centre and wellness facilities. It will also have private spaces for the resort's residents, with each house complete with its own infinity pool and outdoor lounging spaces.

"We are proud to be delivering the first resort residence and one-of-a-kind opportunity in the Maldives, which is a huge milestone for the country and a great achievement for us," said Crystal Property Group CEO Reza Magdon Ismail.

"This is an extraordinary project located in a very special part of the world and alongside its home, we believe Infinite Maldives will truly stand as a testament to the wonders of all the island has to offer," he added.

Elsewhere, Ban recently brought his Paper Log House to Morocco in the wake of the country's devastating earthquake. Earlier this year, he spoke to Dezeen about why he always "avoids designing something fashionable".

The post Shigeru Ban designs Infinite Maldives resort around landscaped gardens appeared first on Dezeen.

A cantilevered form with thatched surfaces defines Summer House, a holiday home designed by architecture studio RAPA on the shores of Lake Balaton in Hungary.

RAPA used materials sourced locally in Hungary to create the three-storey dwelling, which was commissioned by a family who wanted an intimate and cosy summer residence.

Its design reinterprets local building styles, including thatched-roofed rural longhouses, 1960s flat-roofed stone dwellings and compact summer cabins, while framing views of the nearby lake.

"Lake Balaton holds a special place in the hearts of Hungarians, often referred to as the Hungarian Sea," studio founder Ádám Reisz told Dezeen.

"The design of the building itself responds dynamically and aesthetically to the stunning views of Lake Balaton, translating them into a visually impressive architectural statement."

Summer House has been shortlisted in the rural house category of the Dezeen Awards.

Summer House's layered design is built into the hillside. The lower storey is informed by local 1960s flat-roofed architecture and clad in stone that is mined locally in Tihany.

Its upper storey is a play on the traditional, farmhouse-style buildings found on Lake Balaton's northern shore, which typically have thatched roofs made from reeds harvested from the banks of the lake.

Reed covers all surfaces of the upper storey, including the underside of the cantilever, celebrating the area's centuries-old tradition of applying it as a building material.

The compact concrete middle storey has a sauna and bathing facilities. It connects to a generous outdoor terrace nestled under the overhang of the storey above and to a pool beyond.

"The middle level is designed to create a cosy indoor space that seamlessly extends into the outdoor environment," explained Reisz. "It aims to capture the essence of those small vacation homes on the southern shore."

Inside the house, bedrooms on the lower storey open up onto the garden. Stairs clad in wooden panels lead to the upper storey, where there is an open-plan living area.

"The interior staircase boasts slatted railings, reminiscent of the striped panels seen in those 1960s interiors but presented in a modern, contemporary style," said Reisz.

A highlight of the interior is the large picture window in the upper storey that opens up onto a balcony. Taking up the entirety of the southeast facade, it gives panoramic views across the lake.

RAPA is a Hungarian studio founded by Reisz in 2018.

Elsewhere in Hungary, Kontextus Architecture Studio has completed a holiday home with a monolithic limestone-clad plinth and Béres Architects has used stilts to create an isolated cabin that hides amongst the trees in the Alpokalja forest.

The photography is by Tamas Bujnovszky.

Project credits:

Architect: RAPA
Team: Adam Reisz, Levente Arató, Janka Juhász, Krisztián Varga-Koritár
Interior: Adam Reisz, Levente Arató, Dóra Jakab
Structural engineer: Zoltán V. Nagy (Lapidarium)
Building engineering: Hano-Plan
Building electrics: Vrabély Engineering Office

The post RAPA combines thatch and stone at lakeside holiday home in Hungary appeared first on Dezeen.

Indian studio Architecture Brio has created a holiday home topped with two gabled, timber structures perched on a hillside overlooking Mumbai Bay in India.

Named The Ray, the 1,800-square-metre holiday home in Alibag was designed by Architecture Brio to take advantage of the site's prominent, hillside location.

"We knew at the outset this house would have a strong presence due to its large program and the fact that it was sitting atop a hill that is visible from afar," said Architecture Brio founder Shefali Balwani.

"Rather than fighting this we tried to find alternative ways to settle into the landscape," Balwani told Dezeen.

"We worked with the idea of terracing and wrapping both the building and landscape with stone walls that emerged from the land, the walls being shorter or taller as the program demands," he continued.

"This gave the home the feeling of being a lost and found ruin."

The home was embedded into the hillside with natural stone visible on the lower floors. A stone base built from hand-cut limestone stands on top of the natural base, which supports the two gabled pavilions.

One pavilion was enclosed in louvred facades, while the other was made from stone.

"The site offers truly spectacular views, providing a panoramic vista of Bombay Bay and the vast ocean beyond," explained Balwani. "But we wanted to avoid making this house all about a single mega-panoramic gaze."

"When envisioning our design, we saw the two linear forms as akin to telescopes, expertly framing these breathtaking views."

The timber-clad pavilion contains the holiday home's main living space, which opens out onto a sheltered terrace that is surrounded by a swimming pool. The stone block contains a series of bedrooms topped with a principal suite with views across the bay.

Throughout the home, the studio aimed to utilise local materials and craftspeople.

"In this project, apart from the core structure and the striking metal standing seam roof, virtually every element of the home has been meticulously handcrafted," said Balwani.

"This dedication to craftsmanship is evident in the intricately hand-cut limestone walls, the expansive sliding steel windows, the reflexology pebble bathroom floor, and even the boulders discovered on-site, transformed into distinctive bathroom basins by skilled Rajasthani artisans," he continued.

"These elements have been integrated with a contemporary sensibility, departing from the traditional context in which these artisans typically work."

The studio also reused and repurposed numerous boulders found on the site, some of which were left in situ, while others were repurposed as basins.

"The hill upon which the house is situated is naturally rugged and rocky, and we anticipated encountering numerous boulders during the excavation for the foundation," said Balwani.

"Some of these boulders we deliberately chose to leave exposed in their natural state, carefully smoothing and finishing their surfaces, while others were thoughtfully repositioned and repurposed, such as the one near the pool, which now serves as a basin to collect rainwater."

Although the holiday home is large, the studio aimed to differentiate it from other nearby homes that it described as "self-important villas".

"We embrace an architecture characterised by humility," he explained. "This is an architecture that doesn't seek the spotlight but rather values its integration into a broader context, where it becomes an integral part, shaped and enriched by its surroundings."

"In this project, we have meticulously planned most of the aspects. However, we've also intentionally introduced an element of unpredictability in the interplay between architecture and the surrounding landscape," he continued.

"While we guide this process, we like to envision that over time, nature and architecture will become increasingly intertwined in their coexistence."

Based in Mumbai, Architecture Brio was founded by Balwani and Robert Verrijt in 2006. Previous projects by the studio include a concrete weekend retreat that straddles a stream in Alibag and an artist's cabin on stilts.

The photography is by Ashish Sahi.

The post Architecture Brio creates holiday home with "strong presence" on hillside above Mumbai Bay appeared first on Dezeen.

Rental website Airbnb has designed Shrek's Swamp, a grass-and-mud-covered hut underneath a tree in the Scottish Highlands.

The small house, which has a bare-earth floor, is described as "a stumpy, secluded haven fit for a solitude-seeking ogre".

It is being hosted by Donkey, Shrek's best friend, who is swamp-sitting while Shrek himself is away for Halloween, according to an Airbnb description written as if by Donkey himself.

In it, he says: "I love everything about the swamp: the boulder out front, the modest interiors, the seclusion (ideal for singing karaoke late into the night), you get the picture".

The holiday home, which sleeps up to three guests, has an open-plan design, with a sturdy wooden bed leaning against one wall.

A matching table and two wooden chairs sit in front of an open fire on the opposite side of the house, which is held up by large tree trunks.

Shrek's Swamp Airbnb also features decorative touches, including a green "earwax candle" – a nod to a scene in which Shrek pulls out a stick of earwax from his ear and lights it.

It also has a bedside lamp that looks like a stuffed pufferfish.

Visitors can also make use of Shrek's outhouse, a well-known location from multiple Shrek films, which is located about 20 metres away from the swamp itself.

Located in a forest in the Scottish Highlands, the hut is surrounded by signs reading "Stay out", "Beware Ogre" and "Danger!" though these are "probably for decoration", according to Donkey.

The home will be available to book from 13 October for a two-night stay between 27 and 29 October and comes with an on-site concierge who will arrange meals for the guests – including morning waffles and parfaits.

"This mud-laden, moss-covered, murky-watered oasis is a perfectly snug spot to escape from village life and embrace the beauty of nature," Airbnb said.

The company will make a one-time donation to the HopScotch Children's Charity as part of the project.

Airbnb also recently helped Ken rent out Barbie's Malibu Dreamhouse and listed a 1970s wood cabin located in the iconic Sea Ranch development in California.

The photography is courtesy of Alix McIntosh.

The post Shrek and Donkey invite guests to stay in mud-laden Shrek's Swamp appeared first on Dezeen.

Dark timber and stone feature throughout Dalarö House, a summer holiday home that US studio Olson Kundig has added to a rocky waterside site in Sweden.

Designed to blend in with the landscape, the home is built around rocks and features exposed natural materials that reference the surrounding stones and pine trees.

"Dalarö House was an opportunity to create a building that is responsive to its surroundings and encourages its occupants to interact with that environment," said Olson Kundig design principal Tom Kundig.

"Throughout the design process, we wanted to maintain a sensitivity to this special place and create a home that is quiet and deferential to the context," he told Dezeen.

Drawing on the simple dwellings found in the local area, Olson Kundig designed Dalarö House with a blocky form that is composed of interconnected rectangular volumes topped by overhanging roofs.

It is elevated on a concrete base, which incorporates a pair of elongated steps that extend into a rocky outcrop in front of the home.

"The form is a response to the context of simple vernacular homes, and serves as a counterpoint to the beautiful and rugged natural landscape," said Kundig.

Extending beyond the house and down to the water below is a curving stone path, which also bends up around the front of the home to connect with the stepped porch.

Inside, a roughly textured concrete accent wall stretches throughout, framing the different spaces and extending to the front porch. Here, it has been punctured with a rectangular opening to create an outdoor fireplace.

The majority of the external walls are glazed, punctuated by black frames that match the dark timber used throughout the building.

While almost all the water-facing walls are fully glazed, the back of the home that opens onto a sloping hill has glazed portions as well as black and red-toned walls that respond to the colours of the neighbouring cottage.

"Known as falun red, the local pigment is used throughout the region’s villages and homes," said the studio.

Inside, the studio continued to incorporate dark colours, opting for dark timbers and finishes that offer a contrast to the brightness of the summer months.

"Because the house was intended for use primarily in the summer, we moved away from the lighter palettes that are traditional to Scandinavian architecture, and instead use darker materials as a refuge from the light," said Kundig.

The main volume of the home contains an open kitchen and living space with a full wall of glazing that offers views of the water below. Bordered on one side by the long concrete feature wall, the living space is filled with light furnishings that match the tone of the concrete, chosen in collaboration with interior designer Louise Liljencrantz Design.

Darker tones feature in the adjacent kitchen and dining area, where there is an oak ceiling, flooring and joinery to create a space with a contrasting feel.

The oak floor stretches through the rest of the rooms in the home, which include a bathroom as well as bedrooms that sit to either side of the main living space.

Throughout the bedrooms, the studio paired deep-toned timber walls with portions of glazing, while textural tiled walls and black flooring feature in the bathroom.

Other Swedish homes recently featured on Dezeen include a house entirely clad in red-painted local pine and a villa set within an apple orchard that has been refreshed with a larch-clad extension.

The photography is by Magnus Mårding.

The post Olson Kundig references natural surroundings for Swedish holiday home appeared first on Dezeen.

US architecture studio The Ranch Mine has completed a holiday home in northern Arizona consisting of black, gabled forms that "burst vertically from the ground".

Rising up from a grassy, high-altitude plateau, the Noir Peaks house is located in the northern Arizona town of Flagstaff, known for its mountains, aspen stands and pine forests.

The area sits within a vast volcanic field, where the last eruption occurred about 1,000 years ago.

Emerging from "the harsh yet beautiful landscape", the vacation home has a form and materiality influenced by the surrounding terrain, said Phoenix-based architectural studio, The Ranch Mine.

Situated on a two-acre (0.8-hectare) site, the home comprises a cluster of gabled forms, which sit atop a two-foot-high concrete base.

"Three gabled forms burst vertically from the ground to form the massing of the home, echoing the volcanic mountains dotting the plateau," the team said.

Exterior walls are clad in fibre-cement, board-and-batten siding, painted to match the lava rocks that dot the site.

The battens' spacing is intentionally varied to evoke the scattered positioning of nearby aspen trees.

"We wanted to use a simple, cost-effective material that could hold up to the harsh environment but elevate the look by doing a unique batten pattern," the team said. "The house was built very economically."

Encompassing 2,405 square feet (223 square metres), the home holds communal spaces, a primary suite, three bedrooms, a mudroom, a laundry room and a spacious garage.

The layout prioritises views of the San Francisco Peaks, and rooms feature neutral colours and earthy materials such as wood and stone.

Tongue-and-groove hemlock, for instance, was used to clad ceilings in the great room and primary bedroom. Fireplaces are faced with Texas Crème limestone.

Overall, the interior atmosphere is meant to feel cosy and restful.

"The interiors were inspired by the Danish concept of hygge – creating a refuge to recover, rest, reflect and re-energize before heading out on the next adventure," the team said.

"Radiant heated concrete floors run throughout the house for a cosy daily sensation in the winter months," the team added.

The Ranch Mine has completed a range of projects in Arizona, including a low-slung, minimalist house in Paradise Valley and a series of Phoenix townhomes clad in brick, stucco and weathering steel.

The photography is by Roehner + Ryan.

Project credits:

Architect: The Ranch Mine
Interiors (furnitures, fixtures and equipment): Studio V
Builder: J Rio Management LLC

The post Volcanic terrain informs design of Noir Peaks house by The Ranch Mine appeared first on Dezeen.

Casa Soleto, a 17th-century house in Puglia, Italy, has been carefully renovated using lime plaster, terrazzo and furniture salvaged from a monastery.

The four-bedroom house, parts of which are over 400 years old, was given a refresh by its owners – architecture firm Studio Andrew Trotter and its studio manager Marcelo Martínez.

While no structural changes were made, the designers redid some of the building's roofs, which were falling apart, added two bathrooms and powder rooms, and swapped the living and dining spaces around.

"The street front had all the baroque details of a small palazzo and inside it was like time stood still," Studio Andrew Trotter founder Andrew Trotter said of the house.

None of its walls were straight and the layout was designed for the needs of past occupants, with a chapel located behind the kitchen so that the family did not need to leave the house to pray.

This place of worship was transformed into a media room and a powder room with an outdoor shower, creating a space that can be used as an extra guestroom if needed.

Trotter and Martínez aimed for the renovation of Casa Soleto to resemble the original building as much as possible and the team preserved much of its original flooring.

"We tried to use natural materials as much as possible," Martínez told Dezeen.

"We used lime plasters to give a natural and raw feeling to the walls, terrazzo floors – battuto alla veneziana – in the areas where new floors had to be made, wooden windows and doors seeking to imitate the original ones, cast iron hardware and linen sofas."

The designers also chose a discrete colour palette for the lime plaster used on the walls of the house, which on the ground floor culminate in five-metre-high ceilings.

"We chose subtle earthy and greeny colours," Martínez said. "Colours played a central role, as some make spaces feel light, others moody."

Studio Andrew Trotter kept the house's original kitchen and commissioned local woodworkers from the city of Lecce to recreate the home's original wooden doors.

To add to the natural feel of the interior, the team used jute rugs to cover the stone floors and sourced linen upholstery and curtains from local artisans.

Furniture and accessories by Danish brand Frama were juxtaposed with antique furniture pieces including an 18th-century dining table that was salvaged from an Abruzzo monastery.

The studio also sourced a late 18th- early 19th-century wardrobe from Lombardy for one of the bedrooms in Casa Soleto, which can only be accessed by going through the front patio and up an outside staircase.

Studio Andrew Trotter, which has worked on a number of projects in Puglia, plans to use Casa Soleto as a rental property.

"We purchased and restored it mainly to rent it out, and also to invite creative minds that we appreciate, make gatherings and exhibitions," Martínez said.

Previous projects the studio has completed in the area include a 19th-century school that was turned into a family home and an earth-toned villa made from local sandstone.

The photography is by Salva López.

Project credits:

Interior design: Andrew Trotter and Marcelo Martínez
Plaster application: Tullio Cardinale and team
Woodwork: Alba Falegnameria

The post Andrew Trotter and Marcelo Martínez refresh 17th-century home where time "stood still" appeared first on Dezeen.

The latest edition of our weekly Dezeen Agenda newsletter features the launch of a campaign to prevent the demolition of Marcel Breuer's holiday home. Subscribe to Dezeen Agenda now.

Non-profit organisation Cape Cod Modern House Trust initiated a campaign to raise $1.2 million so it can purchase Breuer's holiday home in Cape Cod, USA, to save it from being demolished.

This week's newsletter also included renderings of this year's Burning Man temple, a minimalist retreat in South Africa by Chris Van Niekerk and prosthetic nipples made from human hair.

Dezeen Agenda

Dezeen Agenda is a curated newsletter sent every Tuesday containing the most important news highlights from Dezeen. Read the latest edition of Dezeen Agenda or subscribe here.

You can also subscribe to our other newsletters; Dezeen Debate is sent every Thursday and features the hottest reader comments and most-debated stories, Dezeen Daily is our daily bulletin that contains every story published in the preceding 24 hours and Dezeen In Depth is sent on the last Friday of every month and delves deeper into the major stories shaping architecture and design. 

The post Dezeen Agenda features campaign to save Marcel Breuer's holiday home from demolition appeared first on Dezeen.

A monolithic limestone-clad plinth supports the lightweight steel-framed structure of The Clifftop House, a holiday home in Hungary by Budapest practice Kontextus Architecture Studio.

Located on a limestone cliff, the home is designed by Kontextus Architecture Studio as a simple, "naturalistic" retreat that prioritises its dramatic surroundings and views of Lake Balaton.

The plinth is intended to appear as a natural part of the cliff, conceived by the studio as a "leftover monolith" left as-found on the site.

"Initially, in collaboration with the client, we strived to incorporate the natural limestone cliff into the design concept, so that the 'monolith' design would appear as a continuation of this limestone cliff," Kontextus founder Gabor Kovacs told Dezeen.

Inside, the single-storey plinth contains four bedrooms. It extends out above a basement garage space to form a raised stone terrace with a swimming pool.

Wide stone steps lead to the upper level of The Clifftop House, where the main bedroom and living, dining and kitchen area occupy a lightweight steel "pavilion" supported by the plinth.

Facing west, this pavilion is fitted with full-height glazing, including sliding doors that connect the main bedroom and living area to a raised veranda overlooking the pool.

The steel frame of the lighter upper floor is clad with anodised aluminium panels, intended to provide a slight reflection that helps the building blend into the surrounding trees and sky.

"I tried to design the upper floor with a 'pavilion' concept in mind to include a more lightweight shape and design, in order to contrast with the first-floor limestone-clad 'monolith'," explained Kovacs.

"The slightly reflective aluminium cladding gives a more luminous appearance reflecting the sky, trees, lake, and natural environment," he continued.

Minimal finishes define the interiors, with the limestone of the plinth left exposed for the floors, becoming a focal point against the white walls and simple furniture and fittings.

"I strived to use similar materials to the external design in the interior design too to achieve a seamless flow," said Kovacs.

Other homes in Hungary featured on Dezeen include an isolated cabin perched on stilts in a forest by Béres Architects and Long Brick House by Foldes Architects that has a 17-metre-long bookshelf.

The photography is by Mátyás Borsos.

The post Limestone plinth supports Hungarian holiday home by Kontextus Architecture Studio appeared first on Dezeen.

Tokyo studio Arii Irie Architects created this warehouse to double as a storage unit and a holiday home for its client in Isumi, Japan.

Named Warehouse Villa, the building is designed by Arii Irie Architects as a "primitive shelter" with a minimal and industrial aesthetic.

After originally planning on purchasing a prefabricated warehouse to hold equipment for his restaurant business, Warehouse Villa's client approached the studio with an "unusual request" to combine a storage unit with living spaces for family and friends.

The resulting project sees roughly a third of the ground floor occupied by a storage unit, wrapped by double-height living spaces and topped by a mezzanine for sleeping.

Rather than differentiate between these functions, the architectural language of a warehouse has been used throughout, with steelwork, corrugated polycarbonate and metal sheets left exposed.

Furniture and fittings are deliberately simple, with a standalone steel kitchen unit in the centre of the ground floor that is flanked by a concrete fireplace and a seating area.

"Our idea was to use the economic, rational and generic language of the warehouse, lightweight metal channels as structure and corrugated metal as skin, for a residential space," studio co-founder Atsuo Arii told Dezeen.

"'Warehouse as house' was an exciting image for us because although it may be brutal, it has a sense of freedom in contrast with the highly commercialised housing industry," added Arii.

A white metal stair leads up to the mezzanine level above the storage unit, offering a more private area that can be used for sleeping.

To open up Warehouse Villa to the yard in summer, Arii Irie Architects added a series of hinged openings, sliding doors and mosquito net curtains to the exterior.

"The reason we designed several types of swinging and sliding doors and windows is to provide ventilation and natural light to this space," said Arii.

"When all the doors and windows are open, the interior feels almost like a covered outdoor space. Therefore, one of the key aspects of the project is a dynamic, changing space behind the seemingly static facade."

The walls of Warehouse Villa are thin and uninsulated, purposefully making the conditions inside highly dependant on the weather outside.

"We see it as a sort of intermediate condition between a tent and a house," explained Arii.

"A building with no insulation may seem irresponsible amidst climate change. However, in this house-warehouse, the consumption of energy is actually very small because there is no air conditioning and there is only minimal artificial lighting," he continued.

"It is dependent upon natural ventilation and natural light, completely connected to the surrounding natural environment," he continued.

While Warehouse Villa was built from scratch, many other warehouses are given a new lease of life as homes with an industrial character, as featured in a previous Dezeen lookbook.

Another project by Arii Irie Architects is a Japanese house extension in Hamamatsu that has angled windows and tilted roofs.

The photography is by Kai Nakamura.

The post Arii Irie Architects completes stripped-back Warehouse Villa in Japan appeared first on Dezeen.

Local architecture studio Romero de la Mora has created an expansive concrete and wood holiday home with a protected courtyard in Tepeji del Río, just outside Mexico City.

Casa Camelia was completed in 2021 at the Amanali Country Club and Nautica in Tepeji del Río by Romero de la Mora Architecture and Development.

The shallow 455-square-metre, U-shaped house was arranged so that all of the recreational areas are along the perimeter and the house can be opened in four cardinal directions to bring in light, air and views of the surrounding golf course.

"The general inspiration was to create open spaces connected with nature and the environment from architectural elements in a material mixture with Mexican craftsmanship," the studio told Dezeen.

The two-storey home was constructed with light-coloured, flat-finished concrete – referencing the mud and earth of the site – with large warm wooden beams that run across the ceilings of each space and draw attention to the scale of several double-height spaces.

Selected for durability and low maintenance, the home's material palette also includes sand-coloured chukum and stone cladding.

Floor-to-ceiling windows and sliding glass walls are framed in thin black metal, which reappears in the delicate metal railings of the bedroom balconies.

Within the warm, neutral interior, the living space is sunken, allowing residents to sit on benches the level of the floor, while surrounded by windows.

A continuation of ceiling beams past the sliding glass walls of the kitchen dissolves the transition between the interior and exterior.

Some of the terraces are open to the outdoors, while the expansive northern outdoor area is walled for privacy.

The open eastern terrace was positioned to act as a thermal buffer to mitigate temperature inside the house and, combined with the parallel layout for cross ventilation, negates the need for mechanical air conditioning and heating.

A solar-heated rectangular pool in the north yard is flanked by a patio space. The ventilated living spaces on the ground level feature double-height ceilings in certain areas that are topped by clerestory windows, some of which have concrete louvres.

The second level steps back from the perimeter of the house and the centre of the plan is recessed here, forming a deeper U-shape.

Inside, a corridor contains a bridge between the primary suite and the secondary suite, running parallel with the louvred window. The beams of the sloping roof are exposed in the bedrooms, which have private terraces and built-in furniture.

Planted roofs top either end of the first level while solar panels are arranged on top of the shed-like second level, located next to the skylights that illuminate the double-height staircase.

The team aimed to "make a restful home that fulfils the function of generating peace through quality spaces and natural textures, colors, lots of light and fresh air".

Nearby, architecture studio PPAA also used a concrete and wood mass in a Mexico City home, with a board-formed finish that provides texture and detail to the facade.

Other projects that include chukum include a museum outside of Mérida by Estudio MMX.

The photography is by Ariadna Polo.

Project credits:

Architect: Romero de la Mora Architecture and Development
Project team: Rodrigo Romero de la Mora, Edgar Fonsseca, Alan Islas

The post Romero de la Mora includes sunken living room in airy Mexico City house appeared first on Dezeen.

Dark-coloured concrete characterises Jae Haala, an angular holiday home that Java studio Wiyoga Nurdiansyah Architects has created in a forested valley in Indonesia.

The villa is designed by Wiyoga Nurdiansyah Architects as a retreat for couples visiting the Lembang area of West Bandung, which is popular with tourists.

Positioned to one side of a similarly angular building, the one-bedroom home features corrugated black-concrete walls and is topped with a pitched roof punctuated with a circular skylight.

A stepped landscape and a series of concrete walls are built into the site to help the holiday home sit comfortably in its surroundings, while the boxy form provides privacy to guests.

"The main aim of the design was to build an intimate atmosphere and a respite from the surroundings inside an enclosed, monolithic box-like design," studio founder Wiyoga Nurdiansyah told Dezeen.

"We used corrugated concrete with a dark finish for the outer walls to create that boxy and mysterious look from the outside while being light and warm on the inside."

Jae Haala's main entrance connects a front courtyard to the upper level of the home with a walkway, which is bordered on either side by tall black walls with timber accents.

Located on one side of the home, the walkway extends along the length of the building and is gently sloped to connect its two levels.

On Jae Haala's upper level, the studio has created an open arrangement of living and dining spaces, which are linked to a covered terrace and a balcony on either end.

Glass walls set in timber frames offer views of the surrounding valley from both ends, while a mirror on the ceiling gives the illusion of a larger space.

"We used a stainless steel mirror for the ceiling in the dining room to broaden the narrow interior," said Nurdiansyah.

Overlooked by a seating area at one end of the living space is a covered garden, filled with plants and topped with a circular void that lets in natural light.

The lower level of the holiday home is designed to feel more private. It features a bedroom and bathroom that open onto outdoor spaces including a swimming pool and terrace.

The bedroom features sliding doors that open directly onto a rectangular infinity pool and is lined with dark walls and a timber ceiling.

Across both levels of Jae Haala, Wiyoga Nurdiansyah Architects used timber surfaces and furnishings to create a sense of warmth and offer a contrast to the dark concrete walls.

"We want to create an intimate and warm ambience on the inside, which is why we chose birch plywood as the main material for the interior," said Nurdiansyah.

Elsewhere in Indonesia, a facade made from recycled plastic bottles has been added to an existing building in Bali while RAW Architecture has completed a home and community space made almost entirely from bamboo.

The photography is by Asita Yulia.

The post "Boxy and mysterious" villa nestles into forested valley in Indonesia appeared first on Dezeen.

US studio Olson Kundig Architects has utilised a variety of wooden storm shutters and deep roof overhangs for a Hawaiian holiday home called Hale Napo'o.

Hale Napo'o, which translates to Sunset House, is located on the northern coast of Kauai, an island in the Hawaiian archipelago.

The clients desired a family retreat that opened up to the landscape and ushered in breezes from Hanalei Bay.

"The result is a functional island retreat that caters to the family's casual barefoot lifestyle, while providing a sense of scalability to accommodate both large and intimate gatherings," said Seattle-based Olson Kundig Architects.

The two-storey dwelling consists of rectilinear volumes arranged in a U-shape around a central courtyard.

Topping the home are overhanging roofs lined with corrugated copper.

The roof design is meant to pay homage to a style of hipped roof popularised by local architect CW "Pop" Dickey in the 1920s and 1930s.

The facades consist of glass and horizontal cedar siding.

The home is wrapped in a series of operable wooden screens that are opened and closed in different ways. Some lift up and down, some pivot, and some slide from side to side.

The screens provide storm protection and security. They also allow breezes to flow into the house, negating the need for mechanical air conditioning.

"The home is unconditioned, relying on passive ventilation from the beach winds through a series of operable shutter screens that wrap most of the building facade," the firm said.

The home is entered through a shutter-style gate, which leads to an open-air corridor lined with tall screens that pivot open and closed.

The ground level holds an open-plan kitchen, dining area and living room. Just off the cooking and dining space is a lanai with views of the water and three prominent mountain peaks – Hihimanu, Namolokama and Mamalahoa.

The communal area is wrapped in screens that lift upward. Wooden flooring extends from the living space to the terrace, helping diminish the distinction between inside and out.

Also found on the ground level are a garage, library and guest bedroom suite. The latter two spaces have sliding screens that enable them to be open to the courtyard.

The upper level encompasses the main bedroom suite, a bunk room and a den. A cantilevering terrace shades the ground-level lanai.

The interior design was overseen by California-based Shawback Design.

Overall, Hale Napo'o provides a relaxed atmosphere and "blurs the lines between indoor and outdoor living", the team said.

Other Hawaiian homes by Olson Kundig include Hale Lana, a residence composed of five pavilions that are lifted slightly above the ground. The building features glass walls, open walkways and corrugated metal roofing.

The photography is by Aaron Leitz. 

The post Operable screens wrap beachfront house in Hawaii by Olson Kundig appeared first on Dezeen.

UK studio Corstorphine & Wright has converted a world war two bunker in Dorset, UK, into a holiday home with a blast-shaped window cut in its front.

Overlooking the English Channel near the village of Ringstead, the two-bedroom holiday home occupies a bunker built as part of the Chain Home radar detection system in 1939.

Corstorphine & Wright worked with structural engineer Symmetrys to maintain a sense of history by retaining almost all of the existing structure.

"We wanted to repurpose the derelict structure as a holiday home, but do so in such a way that allows the history and historical significance of the building to be read and experienced by anybody staying in the building," Corstorphine & Wright director Jonny Plant told Dezeen.

"Despite the physical challenges, the most important thing for us as designers was to tell the story of the bunker. Had we plastered and painted the walls, installed standard fittings and timber floors, all sense of the original building would have been lost," he continued.

"It is imperative that when you stay in the bunker, you are aware that you are staying in a bunker, not any other holiday home and that you are experiencing history."

While the majority of the structure of the 76-square-metre bunker was retained and left exposed, the studio cut a large hole in the front wall to act as a window.

As a playful nod towards the building's wartime history, Corstorphine & Wright shaped this hole to appear like a bomb blast.

"The opening was expressed in a playful design solution referencing a wartime vernacular of a blast opening," explained Plant.

"The blast opening is a playful solution, technically challenging and is a real talking point. Our proposals were strongly supported by stakeholders who, like us, appreciated that such a unique structure with a rich wartime history required a bold approach."

Within the bunker, rooms are arranged around the central living space, which contains a log-burning stove, seating and a dining table.

The main bedroom is separated from the living room by a glass door, while the kitchen, second bedroom and bathroom were placed in the rooms either side. A second, smaller bomb-blast opening was created to allow light into the second bedroom.

Corstorphine & Wright wanted the interiors to retain the character of the building while making it comfortable to guests. The concrete walls were left exposed and a polished concrete floor was laid throughout the holiday home.

"By not applying any finishes to the inside of the structural concrete, we were able to retain the feeling of a bunker," said Plant.

"This meant waterproofing and insulating the building from the outside. A new insulated, polished concrete floor with underfloor heating throughout provides a comfortable environment along with the new furniture and joinery," he continued.

"The concrete has a naturally warm hue, likely due to the local Portland stone quarries, which combined with the new lighting and log burner provide a welcoming warmth to the spaces."

The project was originally designed by UK studio Lipton Plant, which has since merged with Corstorphine & Wright.

Other bunkers that have been converted into holiday homes include this one in the Netherlands, while Petr Hájek Architekti created a pet crematorium within a Cold War bunker in the Czech Republic and South Korean studio CoRe Architects transformed a tank bunker near Seoul into a creative hub.

The photography is by Will Scott.

Project credits:

Architect: Corstorphine & Wright
Contractor: Eastments
Structural engineer: Symmetrys
Quantity surveyor: Tim Richards

The post "Bomb blast" window cut into world war two bunker holiday home appeared first on Dezeen.

Glossy white-concrete panels clad this holiday home with a pentagonal plan in Italy, which has been designed by Milan studio JM Architecture.

The dwelling is named Pinwheel after its distinctive shape, which was JM Architecture's solution for the client's "only request" – that it offers views of both the nearby Lake Maggiore and surrounding alpine valleys.

"While exploring several design options for a compact house to fit on this small plot, we realised that the building constraints and the client's requirements resulted in the simple geometry of a pentagon shape," said JM Architecture founder Jacopo Mascheroni.

"The five building corners have been rounded to soften the presence on the terrain and to emphasize the continuity of the envelope.  The only interruption is given by the perpendicular fins of each façade opening, giving the pavilion a pinwheel shape," he told Dezeen.

A concrete basement level supports the upper timber structure of Pinwheel, which was prefabricated to minimise maintenance and construction time due to the site's remote location.

Above ground, a study, kitchen and living space are flanked by two bedrooms and bathrooms. A staircase illuminated by a circular skylight at the centre of the home leads down to a basement movie room and storage spaces.

Each room is provided with a unique view of the surrounding landscape through windows on four out of the five sides of the pentagonal plan, which are shielded from glare by projecting aluminium fins.

The sleek, white finish of the exterior is carried through to Pinwheel's interior, with curving white-plastered walls separating the bedrooms from the living space and kitchen where there are white cabinets and furniture.

"After we reached the pentagon shape as a synthesis of restraints and requirements, we believed that a light, pure and simple finish strengthened the clean geometrical form," explained Mascheroni.

"[It is] a white pebble lying in the landscape, that fits in and stands out," he continued.

A sliding door in the study opens to a white-gravel patio planted with a tree, illuminated at night by uplighters and a strip of lights that wraps the home's perimeter.

Pinwheel's heating and hot water are provided via a heat pump system, powered by a small photovoltaic farm nearby.

JM Architecture was founded by Mascheroni in 2005. Previous projects by the studio include a house in the Swiss Alps designed to look like a "stone in the landscape".

Elsewhere in Italy, Studio Andrew Trotter recently transformed a 19th-century school into a family home in Puglia with vaulted ceilings and earth-toned furnishings.

The photography is by Mascheroni.

The post Pinwheel house by JM Architecture resembles "a white pebble in the landscape" appeared first on Dezeen.

Lisbon studio Falcão de Campos has completed Pura Comporta, a minimalist holiday home with a triple-pitched roof near one of Portugal's most idyllic beaches.

The office, led by architect João Pedro Falcão de Campos, designed the three-bedroom vacation villa on a site close to Praia do Pego, one of the most popular beaches in the Comporta area, south of Lisbon.

Pura Comporta has a relaxed Mediterranean-style feel, with white walls, minimal detailing and light-filled interiors.

The zigzagging facade and roof divide the building up into three volumes, making it look like a trio of modest homes rather than a single property.

Inside, this dictates the layout. Bedrooms are located in half volumes at each end, while a series of living spaces occupy the central section of the floor plan.

There is also a mezzanine slotted above one of the bedrooms, which can serve as an extra sleeping space.

The building was raised off the sloping ground, creating space for parking underneath.

This provides an elevated terrace at the front, while the rear opens out to a large deck and swimming pool.

The owners commissioned Falcão de Campos for Pura Comporta after previously working with the studio on other projects, including their own home in Lisbon.

"We believe that we managed to develop a relationship of mutual confidence with them, which we consider very important for a positive outcome," João Pedro Falcão de Campos told Dezeen.

The brief called for a rental home in keeping with the local architectural vernacular.

This led the architect to incorporate traditional clay roof tiles and shading devices made from cane reeds.

"The choice of bright colours and the use of cane reed shading for the south facade, executed by local workers, were important construction decisions that relate to the typical houses in the area," he said.

Generous glazing frames views of nearby rice fields, while an internal courtyard creates an outdoor dining room on the most private part of the site.

The materials palette includes birch plywood and Estremoz marble, a Portuguese stone that forms the kitchen island.

Furnishings include beds and chairs designed by Álvaro Siza, as well as pieces from furniture brands Federicia and Living Divani, while the lighting was sourced from Flos and Davide Groppi.

"The challenges faced in this project are the same that we face in the majority of the projects developed in our office, which is to build well, making use of quality materials," said Falcão de Campos.

"Thankfully, the confidence we had with the client allowed us to build with quality and we are confident that the house is the demonstration of our belief."

Other recently completed vacation villas in Portugal include the Pateos holiday homes near Melides, designed by Manuel Aires Mateus, and Casa Azul in Alentejo, designed by Bak Gordon Arquitectos.

The photography is by Fernando Guerra.

The post Falcão de Campos designs zigzagging vacation villa at Comporta beach appeared first on Dezeen.

Sports car brand Lamborghini and developer Dar Global have unveiled 53 villas that will overlook the Mediterranean near Marbella on the south coast of Spain.

Named Tierra Viva, the development will consist of 53 two-storey villas on a hillside in the town of Behanavís near Marbella.

Announced as the car brand's first residential project in Europe, the villas were designed to reflect the ethos of the sports car brand.

"[The] design is directly inspired by the brand's supercars, with interiors enriched by sophisticated finishes inspired by the Lamborghini style," said the brand.

Created by developer Dar Global, each of the villas, which will have either four, five and six bedrooms, will have two floors of accommodation placed above a basement or garage.

They will all have a pair of swimming pools with views of the Mediterranean, along with multiple terraces. The villas will have floor-to-ceiling glazing and be finished with marble floors.

"Like precious stones the 53 exclusive villas at Tierra Viva rise gently from the land," said Dar Global.

"They are carefully constructed at different levels on the hills to ensure every villa enjoys endless panoramas of the Mediterranean Sea."

The development is the latest in a succession of residential properties being created by luxury car brands.

"This partnership represents the merging of Lamborghini's luxury supercar essence and Dar Global's expertise in real estate," said Lamborghini CEO Stephan Winkelmann.

"Tierra Viva embodies the essence and power of Lamborghini and its unrestricted nature, interpreted into an architectural masterpiece."

Last month Bugatti unveiled its first residential development in Dubai, while Bentley is designing a skyscraper in Miami and Aston Martin has created a Galleries and Lairs service to develop car-centric homes.

The post Lamborghini unveils luxury villas "directly inspired by the brand's supercars" appeared first on Dezeen.

Australian interiors studio YSG has updated a holiday home in Sydney's Palm Beach suburb, layering it with a maximalist mix of colours, patterns and textures.

The 400-square-metre house belongs to a young family who wanted a place to escape during the holidays while still providing space for remote working.

The home's original furnishings were included in the sale but the clients were less than enthused by the nautical colour palette, seashells and model yachts.

"The weathered features and cliched seaside tropes, amongst other things, deterred their visits," said Yasmine Ghoniem, founder and director of YSG.

YSG took cues from the rustic beach clubs of Ibiza and Cancun for the revamp, with a touch of French Riviera refinement to create "a palpably playful mood for entertaining".

The house was given a full overhaul, with worn floorboards sanded back to reveal warmer timber accents while windows and doors were replaced with more slimline versions.

In the sunroom, tongue-and-groove panelling was removed for a more contemporary look while a mirrored wall was taken out because it caused the room to overheat.

A new rose-tinted marble floor extends to skirting height, amplifying the sense of space while helping to keep the room cool. In the kitchen, YSG added a stone island "that recalls the ombre shades of a freshly poured tequila sunrise".

The couple also asked for a second master suite, so that they could each have their own retreat while working remotely.

"We designed integrated marble and timber desks, enabling both to simultaneously work privately from their rooms whilst enjoying views from the upper level," Ghoniem said.

For the all-important exterior areas, which wrap around the house on each level, YSG provided a material refresh by removing the old heavy paving and weathered grey timber as they distracted from the views.

The pool area now features a chequerboard pattern of tumbled marble cobblestones while the dark blue pool tiles were replaced with a lighter finish and the chrome fence posts were powder-coated in a soft white tone to prevent glaring reflections.

YSG added a playful painting in the living room that acted as a starting point for the home's entire interior scheme, including the colour palette of ochres, yellows, and reds.

Its motifs such as palm trees and fruit are repeated throughout the house across prints and cushions, as well as being hand-painted onto walls and doors.

Even the painting's chequered top border is continued as a hand-painted datum line across the living room to enliven the otherwise plain walls.

Ghoniem also repeated the same device on the side of the raised step that lead to the dining area, "artistically acknowledging a trip hazard".

In the sunroom, hand-painted swirls soften the beams while in one of the master bedrooms, the vertical red lines of a nude painting were playfully continued onto the wall above the artwork.

The rich material palette features many types of marble, including Giallo, Toledo and Tiberio along with honed travertine and French wash walls, while the textiles include linen and kimono silk.

YSG has completed a number of projects across Sydney, including another house in a coastal suburb with tactile finishes and a penthouse for a couple of empty nesters.

The photography is by Prue Ruscoe.

The post YSG draws on beach clubs of Ibiza and Cancun for redesign of Sydney coastal home appeared first on Dezeen.

Local architect Tomás de Iruarrizaga has designed Casa Granic, a holiday home located on a hillside by Riñihue Lake in Chile that is meant for "year-round living".

Iruarrizaga designed the 500-square-metre house with a timber-clad upper level that bridges two rectangular concrete structures.

Large windows on all sides of the upper level provide views of the surrounding landscape, including the lake, mountains and nearby Mocho Choshuenco volcano.

Bedrooms and en-suite bathrooms are located in the two concrete structures, which are separated by a covered outdoor space leading to a decked patio overlooking the lake.

A wood-clad structure containing the kitchen, open-plan living and dining room, and additional bedrooms, extends across the concrete volumes and open space below.

The home's laminated wood structure was left exposed and interior spaces were finished with wood cladding.

The open-plan living and dining room is finished with wooden furniture, a wood-burning fireplace, and floor-to-ceiling glazed doors that open onto a patio.

In the kitchen, wooden units are arranged in a U shape with windows above looking out to the landscape.

One side of the pitched roof extends over the other to create a series of high-level windows that can be opened for ventilation.

"This home is designed for year-round living and features ample covered areas for work, storage and recreation," said Tomás de Iruarrizaga.

"It also provides environments with different orientations and views that change radically with the seasons, so you can enjoy both the rainy winter and the intense summer sun," the architect continued.

Tomás de Iruarrizaga is an architect and designer who specialises in designing homes and shelters in extreme or remote places.

Other Chilean houses that have recently been published on Dezeen include a U-shaped beach house by ERRE Arquitectos and a round lakeside home with cantilevering wood-clad boxes by Izquierdo Lehmann.

The photography is by Cristóbal Palma.

Project credits:
Architect: Tomás de Iruarrizaga
Structural engineer: Cristián Sepúlveda
Builder: Mauricio Urzúa

The post Tomás de Iruarrizaga bridges concrete forms with wooden structure for Chile holiday home appeared first on Dezeen.

Earthy tones and natural textures feature in this nature-informed holiday home, which Athens studio Block722 has arranged down a mountainside in Crete.

Named O Lofos, or The Hill, the holiday home is located in the foothills of Mount Thryptis, a mountain on the eastern side of the Greek island, and is designed by Block722 to blend in with the surrounding landscape.

"The mountain and the sea are such strong elements of this place," creative director Katja Margaritoglou told Dezeen.

"They are very dominating and you understand that you have to respect them and intervene in a humble way," she continued. "So our design of this house is an ode to this reverent relationship between nature and architecture."

Comprising a main residence along with two guesthouses and large outdoor spaces, O Lofos is arranged across four interconnected volumes topped with roof gardens that help the home disappear into the hillside.

In response to the site's steep slope, the blocks of the home sit on two different levels set within a staggered outdoor space.

"The inspiration behind the many levels derived from our strong desire to create something discreet and respectful to its surroundings," said design director Francesca Balfoussia.

"We had to deal with an extremely steep terrain, located at the top of a hill, and the only way to negotiate the angle of the site and have minimal impact on the natural landscape was through the levels."

A stepped landscape made from marble slabs sits at the front of the site and extends through voids around the home, acting as planters and stepping stones. This marble landscaping also leads to an angular infinity pool at the other end of the site that is overlooked by a veranda.

Connecting the exterior levels, a marble staircase runs between the two guesthouses and provides access to the main holiday home.

At the top of the staircase, the main residence at O Lofos is split across two buildings connected by a semi-outdoor space. It contains a bedroom, living room, dining room and bathroom, and features large windows that frame generous views of the surrounding nature.

"The fact that the house is built on the mountainside led us to orient the different parts of the house towards either the protective and dramatic vertical mountain or towards the horizontal opening towards the sea," added Balfoussia.

Neutral and nature-informed finishes and furnishings, including beige plaster and wooden cabinets, are used in both the interior and exterior spaces, along with exposed materials that showcase natural textures. Most of the furniture is custom-made by local craftsmen using marble, wood, terrazzo and stone – forming a bespoke collection that Block722 has named Anata.

Artworks and sculptures are also dotted throughout, including a plaster sculpture by Greek artist Pantelis Chandris that sits within the living room wall and was informed by the Cretan landscape.

Based in Athens, architecture studio Block722 was founded in 2009 by architect Sotiris Tsergas and interior designer Katja Margaritoglou.

Other Greek holiday homes recently featured on Dezeen include a monolithic Santorini villa designed by Kapsimalis Architects and a whitewashed stone home on Mykonos by K-studio.

The photography is by Ana Santl.

The post Block722 nestles O Lofos house into Crete mountainside appeared first on Dezeen.

Mexican practice Espacio 18 Arquitectura has designed a concrete holiday home in Tulum with a circular window in one of the ceilings that reveals a swimming pool.

Villa Cava is a fortress-like house that takes cues from brutalism and is surrounded by lush vegetation in Tulum's Aldea Zamá neighbourhood.

Clad in board-formed concrete, the home is split between two levels and also features a rooftop garden.

Espacio 18 was informed by cenotes when designing the house – ancient sunken water-filled limestone pits and caves found in Mexico's Yucatán Peninsula.

"The concrete was the result of a search to maintain a timeless architecture without maintenance that would adapt to the humid environment of Tulum, as well as hurricanes," explained architects Carla Osorio and Mario Ávila.

Described as a "habitable sculpture", visitors enter Villa Cava through a geometric double-height entrance that was constructed around two existing trees and leads to a staircase.

This hallway is illuminated by a striking circular window in the ceiling that reveals a rooftop swimming pool from below. Blue-hued light filters through the opening and reinforces the cavernous atmosphere.

"It represents a cenote, and there is something amazing about the reflections on the walls that the water creates," Osorio and Ávila told Dezeen.

An open-plan kitchen, a study and an airy living space feature on the first floor, which also includes another swim-up pool.

Private bedrooms and bathrooms are contained on the second level where nine-metre-tall ceilings and a selection of skylights cast an abundance of natural light on the interiors.

Throughout these spaces, interior designer Kayla Pongrac opted for light timber accents and neutrally toned furniture while smooth concrete floors and walls echo the home's facade.

The rooftop provides additional outdoor seating and presents views of the surrounding trees.

Chunky, zigzagged concrete shapes that contain internal staircases protrude from various areas of the facade, enhancing its striking outward appearance.

Espacio 18 designed the villa in collaboration with a young couple from Canada who were drawn to Mexico.

"The inspiration came from the magical Cenote Suytun in Yucatán, which captured [the couple's] hearts, and they decided to create a home that embodied the natural beauty and spatial quality of the region," said Osorio and Ávila.

Based in Oaxaca, Espacio 18 previously designed a townhouse with an internal courtyard in Puebla and a seafront Oaxacan home with two wings oriented to follow the rising and setting of the sun.

The photography is by César Béjar. 

The post Brutalist-style villa by Espacio 18 embodies "natural beauty" of Yucatán Peninsula caves appeared first on Dezeen.

Mexico City-based architect Ludwig Godefroy designed a brutalist concrete holiday home in a Mexican pine forest called Casa Alférez.

Completed in 2023 in the Alférez region, about an hour outside of Mexico City, sits a stark two-bedroom weekend home with whimsical forms and details.

"The origin of the concept of Alferez house comes from the idea of a cabin in the woods and its romantic feeling of ​​a protective shelter in the middle of the forest," Godefroy said. "I wanted the house to look like a cube that crashed on the floor among the trees."

From the outside, the cube looks impenetrable, a solid board-formed mass with mismatched ornamentations.

An angled wall creates a barrier along the entry walkway in front of the door and a heavy, swooping awning tips up on the corner of the house, while pencil-thin vertical windows and petal-shaped openings puncture the facade.

The house was designed like a vault – isolated from the rest of the world in a remote forest landscape – with a sense of security and brutalist protection through the solidity of the concrete that protects and cares for its inhabitants.

The ground floor has high windows that keep sightlines and access away from the ground-floor perimeter of the house. The interior spaces are all oriented upwards to the sky and surrounding treetops.

The poured-in-place concrete structure is balanced playfully on the sloping topography, balancing the weight of the material with the weightlessness of the spaces.

"The house seems dropped like an unstable box on top of the natural slope of the land, cantilevered on its south corner, and sunken on the opposite north corner," said Godefroy.

Due to the tricky terrain, the plan prioritizes height over width, opting for a compact, stacked footprint measuring 81 square meters (870 square feet) rather than an expensive and invasive sprawling foundation.

Godefroy decided to "grow the height of the house to create a second ground floor on top of the house, the suspended rooftop terrace in the middle of the trees."

Built on a square plant, the spaces are configured "in half levels organized around a double height, giving the house this cathedral feeling and proportion on the inside, with light entering everywhere from the top, through those very high windows and skylights in the ceiling," he continued.

Light diffuses down the concrete walls through the double-height living room, illuminating the spaces without windows on the ground floor.

Composed of five half-levels the rooms act as a series of mezzanine levels, with built-in concrete furniture and wooden finished floors, whose thin profile is visible on the edge of the stair treads.

The fenestrations are reminiscent of Swiss-French architect Le Corbusier's Notre Dame du Haut with seemingly unrelated shapes and scales that contradict the depth of the concrete mass.

The rooftop terrace – intended as the morning space – has a mix of geometries with a round protruding skylight and an angled ramping form that caps the interior staircase.

In 2018, Godefroy created another fortress-like home for an oceanside retreat in Oaxaca – and in 2020, he completed a fractured concrete home inspired by sacred Mayan roads in Mérida, Mexico.

The photography is by Rory Gardiner.

The post Ludwig Godefroy creates brutalist cube-shaped home in Mexico appeared first on Dezeen.

Chilean studio ERRE Arquitectos has constructed Casa Ferran, a low-profile holiday house in Matanzas on the coast of Chile.

Raimundo Gutiérrez of ERRE Arquitectos designed the 240-square-metre (2,580-square-foot) residence as a U-shape on the edge of a cliff that limits the buildable area of the 2,200-square-metre site, as it drops steeply down to the Pacific Ocean.

Gutiérrez considered three main factors when laying out the plan: creating an exterior zone that is protected from the prevailing southwestern wind, maintaining privacy on the north and south sides, and taking full advantage of the sea views.

To accomplish this, the U-shaped plan points away from the ocean with a protected central courtyard on the high side of the slope, which connects to the sea through the fully glazed common area.

"What the project seeks is to generate a transversal and permeable axis in the east-west direction, which connects two exterior areas with dissimilar characteristics through the interior common area," the studio told Dezeen.

"The rest of the program is arranged to contain and give shape to this axis."

Two wings are located on either side of the central volume – one containing three bedrooms and two planted atriums, the other angled outwards to catch the covered parking area that feeds into the service zones and guest bedroom.

The central volume containing the kitchen, dining, and living spaces is see-through and light-filled, with floor-to-ceiling windows on both sides and sliding glass doors that extend the space onto a covered patio that runs parallel to the sea.

Set on a board-formed concrete foundation, the house is primarily constructed out of black-coloured steel, creating strong framing lines along the form and around the expansive glazing.

The exterior cladding is vertical one-inch by two-inch pine boards that provide a tonal variation along the north and south facades – which are a cut-off diamond shape as the house accommodates the sloped site – and transitions into a lattice for the parking area.

On the interior, a soft white palette and warm wood flooring amplify the scale of the rooms and allow the surrounding sea view to be the focal point of each space.

The home's arrangement brings sunlight into each room, maximizing passive heating from the coastal climate in both the summer and winter.

"To complement and achieve higher temperatures during the coldest days, there is a wood-burning fireplace in the common space and central heating radiators throughout the house," the studio said.

The end of each wing has a planted green roof.

"The design responds to elements of organic architecture," the studio said. "However, formally rigid features appear, which are the result of several variables, conditions and demands that were presented."

Similar to Casa Ferran, Chilean architect Juan Pablo Ureta designed a beach house on Chile's northern coast that is oriented around a central courtyard, however, this one opens toward the sea.

In El Pangue, architecture studios Combeau Arquitectura and Andrea Murtagh designed an ocean getaway with clustered gabled forms.

The photography is by Nicolás Saieh.

Project credits:

Architect and constructor: Raimundo Gutiérrez
Structure: Joaquin Valenzuela
Project Manager and carpenter: Guillermo Chamorro

The post ERRE Arquitectos designs U-shaped Chilean beach house overlooking the Pacific Ocean appeared first on Dezeen.

An elevator is found within a multi-level house in Michigan by DMAC Architecture & Interiors, which was designed to accommodate "people of all ages and mobilities".

Located in the small beach town of Union Pier, the Lake House sits on a dune overlooking Lake Michigan.

The holiday house was designed by DMAC Architecture & Interiors – which is based in Evanston, Illinois – to serve as a nature retreat for a multi-generational family.

"The inspiration for this house was shaped by the client's passion for the arts and design, as well as aspirations for a lake home where generations can stay, engage and make memories," said studio founder and principal Dwayne MacEwen.

"The idea was to create a simple house connecting nature and family."

Encompassing 6,000 square feet (557 square metres), the three-storey house comprises rectilinear volumes interspersed with outdoor spaces. A steel structural frame enables volumes to overlap and cantilever, helping break up the building's massing.

"The house is scaled and oriented to be nearly hidden amongst the grass and trees, blending in with the natural landscape and offering total privacy," the team said.

Exterior walls are clad in thermally modified ash, along with hand-troweled, acrylic-polymer panels that are meant to resemble concrete.

Large expanses of glass offer immersive views of the water and wooded landscape. In the rear of the house, a footpath winds through dune grasses and leads down to the lake.

The front door is found on the southeast and is set back far from the street. Special attention was paid to the home's entry sequence.

"The approach to the house is a series of zen-like moments that quietly crescendo upon arrival," the team said.

A pathway leads from the street and past a privacy screen with angled wooden slats. Behind the screen is an entry courtyard, where a small, native tree serves as a focal point.

Within the home, there is a division between the public and private areas.

Communal spaces are found on the ground floor, while the first floor contains bedrooms. The top floor, which is referred to as "the treehouse", holds an entertainment space for the whole family.

"An interior stairwell and elevator connect the floors to accommodate people of all ages and mobilities," the team said.

Rooms feature earthy materials and neutral colours.

Finishes include European oak flooring, American walnut casework and black-velour brick walls. A wood-burning fireplace has a surround made of hot-rolled steel.

The kitchen is fitted with countertops made of Dekton, a composite material that is highly resistant to scratching. Large-format porcelain tiles are found in the bathrooms.

Other Michigan homes include a dwelling by Iannuzzi Studio that takes ideas from Harry Potter books, and an isolated retreat by Snow Kreilich that is X-shaped in plan, allowing for a variety of views.

The photography is by Anthony Tahlier Photography.

The post DMAC creates Michigan Lake House with cantilevered ash-clad volumes appeared first on Dezeen.

The latest edition of our weekly Dezeen Agenda newsletter features a weekend retreat with a facade made from wooden flooring material. Subscribe to Dezeen Agenda now.

Stockholm-based studio Kolman Boye Architects has designed a weekend retreat in Lillesand, Norway, with an exterior made from offcuts of wooden floor material.

Studio founders Erik Kolman and Victor Boye came up with the concept after they learned that Danish floor brand Dinesen had a large haul of leftover wood available for use.

"It's about using what's available, of trying to find beautiful materials without clicking 'order' on a computer," said Boye.

This week's newsletter also included a minimalist renovation of a mews house in London by Trewhela Williams, an interview with the "grandfather of mass timber" Hermann Kaufmann and the passing of Uruguayan architect Rafael Viñoly.

Dezeen Agenda

Dezeen Agenda is a curated newsletter sent every Tuesday containing the most important news highlights from Dezeen. Read the latest edition of Dezeen Agenda or subscribe here.

You can also subscribe to our other newsletters; Dezeen Debate is sent every Thursday and features the hottest reader comments and most-debated stories, Dezeen Daily is our daily bulletin that contains every story published in the preceding 24 hours and Dezeen In Depth is sent on the last Friday of every month and delves deeper into the major stories shaping architecture and design. 

The post Dezeen Agenda features Norwegian cabin clad with 12,000 offcuts appeared first on Dezeen.

Vancouver-based studio BattersbyHowat Architects has completed a parallelogram-shaped, mountainside home clad in standing seam metal that includes a detached sauna structure in Whistler, British Columbia.

Named Ambassador Crescent, the 3,130-square foot (290-square metre) house is tucked into a steep hillside near the popular ski resort town, so the three-storey house and garage had to be embedded into the earth.

The house – a vacation home for clients who have previously worked with the studio on their Vancouver home and office interiors – slants toward the top of the mountain, diminishing its form and allowing it to disappear into the scenery.

"It was a simple way to deal with two issues," David Battersby, co-founder of BattersbyHowat, told Dezeen.

It creates a passive response to the landscape and provides a covered outdoor space for the rear terrace, creating an intimate space sheltered by a finished wall rather than a soffit.

The excavated concrete ground floor is topped by a dark mass clad in irregular standing seam metal along the front and rear and durable Hardiplank along the sides.

The dark walls turn the edge to red cedar fenestration alcoves and western hemlock soffits that carry through to the inside. A cylindrical custom chimney stretches toward the sky along one side.

The interior – with communal spaces on the primary level and private spaces on the top floor – incorporates a simple palette that creates a warm environment for year-round use, according to co-founder Heather Howat.

White oak comprises most of the surfaces, accented by crisp white walls, while a grey stone fireplace wall provides an accent in the main room.

The home's texture is created by a custom staircase that serves as a screen between the circulation and seating spaces.

"An exercise in precision," the screen is more of a piece of exact furniture than an architectural feature.

Created by the millwork subcontractor, half of the vertical elements rise up from the floor while the other half is suspended from the upper level.

The treads lock into the screens rather than a stringer.

The rest of the interior is outfitted with playful, informal touches like wooden accents in the kitchen cabinetry and a suspended light fixture in the dining area that accent the expansive glazing that looks out to the surrounding mountain range.

Further up the hill lies an even more remote destination – a small sauna that looks like a mini version of the house.

The design serves as a contemporary reflection on vernacular cabin architecture, levelling up modest forms and materials while maintaining a sense of nostalgia, the team said.

Nearby, Scott and Scott's A-frame snowboarding cabin follows the same thinking, disappearing into the mountainside, and Burgers Architecture's light-filled residence provides an escape tucked into the trees.

The photography is by Ema Peter.

Project credits:

Architect: BattersbyHowat
Builders: Adisa Homes
Structural engineers: Aspect Structural Engineers
Millworker: Morrison Woodwork Ltd.
Furniture: let me know if you want specifics: mostly from Inform and Livingspace
Landscape installation: Cyan Horticulture

The post BattersbyHowat balances metal-clad cabin on a mountainside appeared first on Dezeen.

The designers at Mexican studio Direccion had "monastic sanctuary" in mind when revamping this weekend retreat in Valle de Bravo.

The two-storey Casa Tres Árboles is designed to celebrate light and shadow contrasts, natural materials and calming colour tones.

"The goal of this project was to create a space in natural and warm tones, to convey a sense of refuge and retreat, of monastic sanctuary," said designer Mariana Morales, founder of Direccion.

Casa Tres Árboles was first built 25 years ago in the popular lakeside location, which is located two hours drive west of Mexico City, but the original design had become outdated.

"The client's directive was to give the house a refreshed style, with updated finishes to accommodate more frequent visits, while maintaining the weekend getaway feel of the place," said Morales.

The renovation centred around opening up the interior, creating a more natural flow of light and movement through the different living spaces.

This was achieved by not only removing walls, but also by adjusting the split-level floor so that the social spaces feel more connected.

Key to the design was the entrance sequence. From the street, a staircase descends, leading around a tree and into a small sunken courtyard.

Direccion's design enhances the sense of drama to this arrival. A former bathroom was removed to make space for a planter filled with leafy shrubs and ferns.

From here, a pivoting door leads through to a double-height entrance hall topped by a glass dome and features a high-contrast floor-combing wood and black microcement.

The space is framed by a new wall that hides away the previously open stairwell. An arched doorway leads through to a bedroom, while an aged wooden table presents a display of sculptural vases.

"This decidedly sculptured hall is the prime space to pause and become surrounded by the material serenity of the house," said Morales.

The kitchen, dining room and lounge space are all located beyond the hall, one step down, and now connect with a sundeck thanks to sliding glass doors.

This open-plan layout was made possible by the addition of two structural columns, which take the place of load-bearing walls that previously divided the space.

Casa Tres Árboles contains three en-suite bedrooms on the upper level, along with a small snug.

Both these rooms and those on the ground floor are painted in dark shades that offer a natural counterpoint to the warm tones of the exposed wooden ceiling beams.

A soft-red sofa located in the main living space is one of few splashes of colour.

Artworks are dotted throughout, including a painting by Mexican artist Beatriz Zamora, while dark crockery by artisanal craft makers Colectivo 1050 is displayed openly in the kitchen.

"The colour palette integrates the flow of the elements and, with every piece and material carefully curated, creates a space for repose, meditation and balance," added Morales.

Valle de Bravo is home to some of Mexico's best examples of housing design.

Other memorable examples include the Y-shaped Casa de la Roca by Cadaval & Solà-Morales and the secluded Santana House by CC Arquitectos.

The photography is by Fabian Martinez.

The post Direccion brings sense of tranquility to Casa Tres Árboles in Valle de Bravo appeared first on Dezeen.

Leckie Studio has completed Camera House in the mountains of British Columbia with dramatic windows and skylights that are meant to frame the surrounding landscape like a camera lens.

The single-storey house is clad in dark timber boards, which the studio said helps it blend into its lush forest setting.

The building's steep roofline is strategically oriented for skylights that frame different views of the surrounding mountains.

The remote structure is located in the Pemberton Valley, roughly three hours away from Vancouver. The area is near Whistler, a popular ski resort.

Leckie Studio, an architecture and interior studio based in Vancouver, was commissioned by a young family to create a secondary home away from the city.

"The program called for two bedrooms and a flex room, with the understanding that the family will be spending long periods of time living at the house during the summer months," Leckie Studio explained.

"The views through the clerestories alternate between being specific (Owl Ridge) and abstract (treetops/sky)," Leckie Studio explained.

"The interior spaces have been sculpted with sloping ceilings to channel both light and view lines."

The home is separated into public and private rooms by a long, central corridor.

"The program is organized linearly along the fall line of the slope across two levels, with private spaces situated against the densely forested high side of the slope and public spaces running parallel below," said Leckie Studio.

The communal areas, including the kitchen and dining room, are accessed via a short flight of steps. A monolithic concrete fireplace separates these spaces from the living room.

At the end of the kitchen, full-height sliding glass doors open onto a terrace and swimming pool.

Three bedrooms are laid out along the corridor in the elevated part of the home. In addition to the primary suite and two children's bedrooms, there is a flex space that can accommodate houseguests.

Leckie Studio chose a bright palette for the interiors, with polished concrete floors playing up the abundant natural light coming in from the home's skylights and clerestory windows.

The same material is found in other accents such as the textured fireplace and a long bench in the kitchen. This contrasts with the darker exterior material.

"The majority of the project is clad in a flat sawn and brushed Western Red Cedar finished with a dark stain," said Leckie Studio.

"The dark tone of the cladding allows the architecture to recede into the landscape."

Leckie studio was founded by Michael Leckie in 2015. It has completed several residential projects in Vancouver and the surrounding areas, including a courtyard house that was clad in pale wood siding, and a penthouse apartment in BIG's Vancouver skyscraper.

The photography is by Ema Peter.

The post Leckie Studio creates timber-clad house to frame mountain views appeared first on Dezeen.

Interior architect Hanna Karits used natural materials throughout this holiday home in Estonia's Moonsund archipelago to create a soothing environment that references the surrounding forest.

Drawing influences from the work of one of her favourite architects, Frank Lloyd Wright, Tallinn-based Karits created an interior that combines clean lines with warm wooden surfaces and carefully crafted cabinetry.

"I decided to use wood in many different ways but give extra care to the details and connections between different materials," the designer told Dezeen.

Karits' design was guided by a basic brief given by the client, who asked her to create an interior featuring wood as the dominant material. Construction was carried out by building contractor Happy Home.

While referencing the work of Wright, her design is also informed by mid-century modernist summer houses, which feature bright and minimal wood-lined living spaces.

"I have always felt comfort in these buildings," added Karits. "So my idea was to blend these emotions together and create something airy and spacious but at the same time really human-friendly, safe and relaxing."

The house is situated on an island in the archipelago off Estonia's west coast, where the local landscape consists of limestone cliffs, beaches and dense forests.

It is intended as a relaxing getaway where its owners can enjoy peace and fresh air in natural surroundings. The interior design aims to immerse them in the woodland setting, creating a place that feels warm and comforting during the long, cold winters.

The building is constructed from a wooden frame and cross-laminated timber panels, with thermally-treated ash wood chosen to line the internal surfaces.

Complementing the wooden elements, the other main material used inside the house is Estonian limestone, which is applied on the floors of the kitchen, dining area and circulation spaces.

The single-storey building is entered via a central porch that connects with a corridor spanning the full width of the house. This hallway provides access to a row of bedrooms at the front and the living spaces towards the rear.

A courtyard between the corridor and the lounge area is lined with full-height glazing that allows plenty of daylight to enter the interior.

The open-plan living, dining and kitchen area incorporates large windows that look out onto the forest, with sliding doors providing access to a generous decked terrace.

A wood-clad ceiling in the living room creates a cosy and intimate feel despite its large volume. Wooden ceilings can also be found in the bedrooms.

Bespoke cabinetry developed in collaboration with local craftspeople is integrated throughout the home.

Careful attention was paid to elements such as the wooden door handles to ensure they are ergonomic and pleasing to touch, while maintaining a simple and minimal aesthetic.

Carpets originally created in the 1930s by Estonian designers including Adamson Erik, Kaarin Luts and Viida Pääbo are placed throughout to add colour and texture while celebrating the country's lesser-known design heritage.

Karits has been working as an interior architect in Estonia for more than a decade.

Her previous projects include a summer retreat on Estonia's Matsi Beach comprising a pair of gabled black cabins surrounded by old fishing sheds.

The photography is by Tõnu Tunnel.

The post Hanna Karits uses wood to create "airy and spacious" interior for Estonian holiday home appeared first on Dezeen.

Architect Manuel Aires Mateus has completed the Pateos holiday homes in Portugal, which look the same but are actually all different.

The family of four vacation houses near the popular seaside village of Melides each has a similar facade – a minimalist concrete gable punctured by large openings that share the same house-shaped outline.

But behind the exterior walls, Aires Mateus gave each property a different arrangement of indoor and outdoor spaces.

"We were interested in creating a family of spaces that allow different experiences," Aires Mateus told Dezeen. "The spaces are always unique, distinguished by the way they open to the outside and how they protect different living experiences."

The design concept was initiated by owners Sofia and Miguel Charters, who wanted to reinterpret Alentejo's architectural vernacular to support a modern vision of hospitality.

As a starting point, the couple asked Aires Mateus to explore different ways of integrating the patio – an element that is believed to have been introduced to the region during Moorish occupation centuries earlier.

The architect did this by giving each home a unique layout.

In each, the patio offers a different way of connecting the indoor living spaces with an experience of the natural landscape.

"We wanted these interior spaces to always extend outside," Aires Mateus explained.

"In a logical continuity, some spaces open onto patios that relate to the view, while others open onto private patios."

The first of the four single-storey houses has two bedrooms organised in a L-shape. The living spaces wrap around one large courtyard with a cutaway opening in its corner.

There are two one-bedroom houses. One is very linear, with two open yards on either side, while the other features a diagonally projecting bedroom wing and three largely private patios.

The fourth house has three bedrooms arranged in a cross-shaped plan that integrates a mix of open and enclosed patios in its four corners.

The houses are deliberately minimalist both inside and out, combining surfaces of bare concrete, unpainted plaster and natural wood.

The gable-shaped windows, as well as the slanted ceilings, help to direct focus out towards the countryside scenery.

All four houses feature living rooms equipped with wood-burners and outdoor showers, and the largest house also contains fully equipped kitchen.

Aires Mateus and his brother, Francisco Aires Mateus, are among Portugal's most highly revered residential architects.

Although the brothers have their own Lisbon-based studios, they share a website and often collaborate on projects under the shared Aires Mateus moniker.

Recent projects include the curved concrete House in Monsaraz, also in Alentejo, and the new architecture faculty building at the Université Catholique de Louvain in Belgium.

Sofia and Miguel chose to work with Manuel because, as well as being a long-standing friend, he shares the couple love of "the beauty of simple things".

The four properties they have created are available for rent either individually or together, for up to 14 guests. An infinity pool was built alongside the homes.

"We want our guests to see, understand and feel the truth in this project," said the owners.

"With no hidden tricks, Pateos reflect the authenticity of materials without disregarding comfort and function, with the purpose of offering a genuine sensory experience."

The photography is by Francisco Nogueira.

Project credits

Developer: Primosfera
Architects: Aires Mateus (Manuel Aires Mateus, João Esteves)
Interior design: Aires Mateus (Maria Rebelo Pinto)
Landscape: FC Landscape Architecture (Filipa Cardoso de Menezes, Catarina Assis Pacheco)
Project management: Fasquia

The post Manuel Aires Mateus builds minimalist concrete holiday homes with matching cutaways appeared first on Dezeen.

Stockholm studio HelgessonGonzaga has completed a dark timber cabin in the coastal nature reserve Tjurpannan in west Sweden and coated it in tar to reference the nearby boathouses and jetties.

Aptly named House Tjurpannan, the cabin is designed by architecture and design studio HelgessonGonzaga as a simple, open and flexible holiday home for its clients to use on weekends.

It can also be used as a base for outdoor activities at the nature reserve.

The design of the 90-square-metre House Tjurpannan is informed both by the exposed nature of its site and the many boathouses in the area, which are perched above the ground to mitigate the risk of flooding and coated in black tar for protection from the harsh weather.

"The spatial structure suggests the possibility of spontaneous and unexpected use, hence the house could be seen as a luxurious way of camping," he continued.

A natural path that passes an old stone wall leads to the home, meeting a wooden ramp that gives access up onto its raised floor plate.

Both of the long edges of the cabin feature large, full-height glazing, providing the living spaces and bedroom with double-aspect views of the landscape and access to narrow wooden terraces sheltered beneath slatted canopies.

Simple partition walls in the centre of House Tjurpannan allow each of the rooms to flow into one another, with only the bathroom being more contained in its own space.

The structural grid of the house, which is based on standardised lengths, has been left exposed inside.

This exposed structure is teamed with ceilings lined with planks of pale timber and walls finished in panels of dark-stained wood that echo the tar-treated exterior.

Dark, minimal fittings and furniture complement these wooden interiors, which are intended to focus attention towards the surrounding landscape.

"The overall volume of the house is typical and the structural grid is largely defined by standard wooden elements in the local hardware store," explained Gonzaga.

"We wanted a dark interior to frame nature outside. By drawing attention to nature in this way, we expand the spatial boundary and connect the house to its specific exterior context," he continued.

HelgessonGonzaga was founded in 2012 by Gonzaga and Isabell Gonzaga.

The post Tar-coated timber lines House Tjurpannan in Sweden by HelgessonGonzaga appeared first on Dezeen.

German architecture office AMUNT has created a new version of the humble timber holiday cabin, featuring raised floors, split-level living spaces and a huge sloping roof.

Haus am Hang – which translates as House on a Hill – is a family holiday home in Menzenschwand, in the south of Germany's Black Forest.

The design is by AMUNT's Stuttgart studio, which is led by architects Sonja Nagel and Jan Theissen.

With its cross-laminated timber (CLT) frame and steep-pitched roof, the building has a lot in common with other houses in the region, but there is nothing traditional about its form.

Beneath a single roof, two overlapping blocks contain a complex, multi-level interior that is raised up from the sloping landscape on slender columns.

"The slender roof shell is placed protectively over the two building volumes, which are angled at 45 degrees to the slope," said Nagel and Theissen.

"The resulting floor plan organisation appears abstract, but its intention is to enable a variety of relations to the site without coming too close to the neighbouring buildings."

Haus am Hang's owners intend to use the building themselves, share it with family and also rent it out to guests.

At a time when the number of vacationers in the region is declining, due in part to "increasingly warm, snowless winters without skiing options", they hope they support local tourism.

"Sustainable travel is on everyone's lips, against the backdrop of climate change," said the architects.

"Our clients, who spend their vacations exclusively in Germany, approached us and wanted exactly that: a sustainable vacation home with quality architectural design, and to share it with many."

The building is primarily built from wood. It has a CLT frame, left exposed internally, while the facade and many of the interior surfaces are formed of Douglas fir.

The internal layout is organised to take advantage of sunlight. By splitting the building across two volumes, it was possible for most windows to face either southwest or southeast.

The entrance leads into the highest of three levels that form Haus am Hang's ground floor. A kitchen and dining space are both located on the mid-level, while the lowest level provides a lounge.

Bedrooms include an accessible ground-floor suite, a first-floor bunk room, a first-floor double room with a skylight offering a view of the stars, and a cosy attic room.

Built-in furniture features throughout, with elements including a bookshelf that doubles as a partition wall, and a sofa with storage slotted in underneath.

Surfaces and joinery are finished in shades of green inspired by local tree species, while the staircase features a more vibrant emerald tone.

Doors, window frames and gridded metal staircase balustrades are picked out in yellow.

"The window frames pick up on the blossom colour of the maple in front of the house, and the furniture and panelling are reminiscent of green loden," said the architects.

"In contrast, the petrol-coloured staircase body and sun blinds add accents of colour."

An east-facing balcony terrace slots into the gap between the building's two volumes, while the space underneath the building can be either storage space or a sheltered outdoor room.

The south-facing side of the roof is covered with photovoltaic panels, revealing the building's sustainability ambitions.

These panels provide the building with electricity, while heating comes from infrared panels and a wood-burning stove. Window seam ventilation is also integrated.

AMUNT formed in 2009 by Nagel, Theissen and Björn Martenson. Among the studio's first projects were Just K, a Passivhaus built from CLT and clad in rubber, and a cafe pavilion in a cemetery in Germany.

The architects hope Haus am Hang will promote sustainable construction in a similar way.

"It is a joyful house with echoes to traditional building forms and building types – a new, casual Black Forest type," they added.

The photography is by Rasmus Norlander.

Project credits

Architect: AMUNT Nagel Theissen
Structural engineer: Felix Mildner
Construction supervisor: Rolf Haselwander
Cabinet maker: Markus Stoll

The post AMUNT creates staggered geometry for Black Forest holiday cabin appeared first on Dezeen.

Arched openings create a sense of fluidity inside a holiday home by Mexican studio CO-LAB Design Office, which was designed to encourage occupants to feel connected to the lush surroundings.

Villa Petricor sits on a slender, angled site with tropical vegetation in the beach town of Tulum. The 300-square-metre house is oriented to take advantage of prevailing winds.

Named after the "earthy scent produced when rain falls on dry soil", the dwelling is meant to evoke feelings of renewal and stillness.

"Villa Petricor connects us to the natural world by providing spaces that encourage us to slow down and marvel in the beauty of the present moment," said local studio CO-LAB Design Office.

The concrete house was built around several clusters of trees, and windows were carefully positioned to provide "green views". The glazing also ushers in daylight and enables shadows to dance across the walls.

"Projected shadows cast by the surrounding vegetation extend the presence of nature in all the rooms of the house," the team said.

On the entrance facade, the team created a distinctive brise-soleil made of concrete blocks. The screen offers glimpses of within while providing privacy.

A walkway to the front door is topped with a canopy punctured with circular holes, allowing trees to grow upward.

The interior features many arched openings and niches, which create a sense of fluidity between rooms, and between the interior and exterior.

The ground level holds two bedrooms, along with an open space for lounging, cooking and dining. Large pivot doors open onto a terrace and a small swimming pool.

"Built-in furniture such as the platform bed and benches merges with the walls, floor and vaulted ceiling, creating a continuous, seamless space," the studio said.

Custom finishes in the home were carefully considered and contribute to the serene atmosphere and "sculpted monolithic interior".

Pivoting windows were fabricated from rolled, stainless-steel tube frames with recessed frames.

Walls are made of polished cement, and floors are covered with terrazzo. Both materials were coloured with a mineral pigment that was mixed on-site.

Four skylights bring daylight deep within the home and accentuate the surfaces.

"The washed light on the walls and floors enhances the texture of the polished cement interiors, revealing the perfectly imperfect handwork of local artisans," the studio said.

Rooms are fitted with bespoke furnishings and lighting fixtures designed by CO-LAB Design Office.

Santo Tomás marble, which is quarried in Mexico, was used for kitchen countertops and bathroom elements. The same marble was used for a dining table designed by the architects and largely built on-site.

Founded in 2010, CO-LAB has completed a number of projects in Tulum. Others include a yoga pavilion made of bamboo and holiday home with large openings and a backyard wall made of rustic, excavated stone.

The photography is by César Béjar.

Project credits:

Architecture, interiors and landscape: CO-LAB Design Office
Design team: Joshua Beck, Joana Gomes, Alberto Avilés, Adolfo Arriaga, Lucia Altieri, Alejandro Nieto, Elzbieta Gracia, Gerardo Dominguez
Construction: CO-LAB Design Office

The post Villa Petricor sits within a tropical garden in Tulum appeared first on Dezeen.

London-based studio Clementine Blakemore Architects has renovated a series of derelict 19th-century agricultural buildings in Dorset to create the Wraxall Yard holiday homes.

The Wraxall Yard complex, which also features a community space and a workshop, is part of a wider project by the owners of the site to provide universal access to the landscape and enhance the area's biodiversity.

Converted from 19th-century stone and brick barns, the holiday homes were designed by Clementine Blakemore Architects to reflect the site's agricultural character.

"The existing buildings were completely derelict and on the brink of collapse, with substantial decay to the timber roof trusses and collapsing stone walls," studio director Clementine Blakemore told Dezeen.

"The ambition was to restore and renovate the buildings in such a way that allowed an entirely new use, but retained the agricultural character of the existing site, enhancing its ecology and biodiversity."

The accommodation is accessed by a curved pathway that passes through a covered passage in one barn before leading to a planted courtyard, gently sloped to provide access to wheelchair users.

A boardwalk extending from this enclosed space leads to the surrounding landscape, which has been planted with only native species.

Five holiday homes are arranged around Wraxall Yard's courtyard, with rooms spread across one level and generous turning circles to allow for accessible circulation.

Each cottage features a bathroom, kitchen and dining space, along with one or two bedrooms.

The interiors were designed to feel homely rather than clinical, with features that accommodate guests with varying forms of disabilities.

"Whilst a lot of the accessible features support wheelchair use, such as wetrooms with grab handles and kitchens with height-adjustable worktops and a shallow, insulated sink so that guests can slide underneath without the risk of scalding their legs, we also wanted to provide for other forms of disability, including visual and hearing impairments," said Blakemore.

"The colour of all door handles contrasts strongly with the surrounding material, for example, and vibrating fire alarms can be provided on request. We worked hard to ensure all accessible features were carefully specified and detailed to be well-integrated into the overall design and as attractive and elegant as possible," she continued.

The bedrooms each feature profiling, height-adjustable beds, while one bedroom also offers hoisted access to an en-suite bathroom via a track along the bottom of an exposed timber truss. The system uses a detachable motor, making it barely visible while not in use.

Accessible features in Wraxall Yard's kitchens and bathrooms include sinks with integrated grab handles and adjustable worktops that offer enough space for a wheelchair to sit underneath.

Extending from the south of the courtyard, other buildings on the site were converted into a workshop and a community space. The interiors have been clad in timber to reflect the architecture of the restored Dutch barn that sits opposite the spaces.

An open farm yard, bordered by these rooms and one edge of the accommodation block, acts as both a community facility and a space where holiday guests can engage with the animals on the farm.

Since its opening, the community space has hosted events for local people free of charge, while the holiday homes will be used over the next year to accommodate supported holidays for local people living with disabilities.

Other accessible buildings featured on Dezeen include a wheelchair-accessible home in Argentina and a house for a wheelchair user in Hampshire.

The photography is by Lorenzo Zandri unless stated otherwise.

Project credits:

Architect: Clementine Blakemore Architects
Client: Wraxall Yard CIC
Structural engineer: Structure Workshop
Services engineer: Ritchie+Daffin
Landscape designer: Hortus Collective
Below ground drainage designer: Genever & Partners
Quantity surveyor: Align Property Consultants
Accessibility consultant: Center for Accessible Environments
Interior designer: Clementine Blakemore Architects
Wayfinding: Smiths Studio
Main contractor: Stonewood Builder

The post Clementine Blakemore Architects transforms stone barns into accessible holiday homes appeared first on Dezeen.

Michael Kendrick Architects has completed a woodland retreat and holiday let in East Sussex, England, featuring timber-clad facades and large windows that allow views right through the building.

Looking Glass Lodge is situated within the High Weald Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and was developed for a client whose parents established a nature reserve there in the 1960s.

The client and his wife wanted to be able to share the location with guests and commissioned architect Michael Kendrick to design a low-impact and sustainable lodge that would allow visitors to feel immersed in the forest.

The building is set on a sloping site in the grounds of the client's family home. It was constructed without felling any existing trees in a natural clearing that is hidden deep in the woodland.

"For us, the sloping topography of the site offered an exciting opportunity to create an immersive holiday let," Kendrick told Dezeen.

"As the lodge sits over a natural embankment, we were able to create a design that offers guests a real sense of elevated living, high amongst the trees."

The project brief stated that the lodge should respect the existing fauna and ecology, so the architects proposed a modestly sized structure that is clad in timber to echo the surrounding trees.

"Though our design for the lodge is subtle and simple in many ways, the uniqueness of its architecture is most evident in its respect for its setting," Kendrick pointed out.

"From the outset, it was important to preserve as much of the site's character and tree line as possible," he added.

"We designed the lodge to sit comfortably around the neighbouring trees and their roots, with particular consideration given to the ancient redwood that the living space looks out upon."

The use of glass also aims to enhance the building's connection with its site, with large picture windows providing expansive views of the woodland in two directions.

"It was important to us that both main facades featured generous, seamless glazing, to give the lodge a sense of transparency and belonging within its setting," Kendrick explained.

The glass allows natural light to flood into the building during the day. Electrochromic glass was used which tints when an electrical charge is passed through it, providing enhanced privacy without compromising the views from inside.

The electrochromic function is triggered by external light sensors when dusk falls, causing the glass to darken. The use of this glass limits the spill of artificial light at nighttime, which minimises disruption to the protected bats found on the site.

The lodge is reached on foot by a narrow path that leads to the large terrace on its south side. Internally, the open-plan layout is configured to make the most of the views.

An L-shaped sofa and armchair at one end are arranged around a suspended wood-burning stove that uses timber sourced from fallen trees around the site.

A compact kitchen is positioned at the heart of the plan on one side of a full-height partition that separates the living spaces from a sleeping area with a freestanding bath.

The lodge was built by local craftsmen in the nearby town of Hastings and features a limited palette of materials intended to complement the natural surroundings.

Western red cedar is used for the external cladding and interior lining. The wood applied to the exterior will weather over time to a silver-grey colour that will echo the nearby tree trunks.

The internal timber will retain its warm hue and is complemented by birch plywood used for the partition wall and for cabinetry that provides plenty of storage throughout the space.

A hybrid steel and timber structure was developed to overcome problems posed by the tricky site, which had limited vehicular access, restrictions on crane use and tree root protection areas to work around.

Looking Glass Lodge prioritised off-site construction to overcome these issues. The structure was erected on screw pile foundations that avoid tree roots and raise the structure above the ground, allowing unobstructed access for wildlife crossing the site.

Kendrick founded his practice in 2018 with contemporary design, creativity and sustainability as its core values. The studio looks to create simple, well-crafted buildings informed by the principles of passive environmental design.

Other recent woodland projects include a cedar-clad hideaway by Ménard Dworkind and Cadaval & Solà-Morales' black-painted Casa de la Roca in Mexico.

The photography is by Tom Bird.

The post Looking Glass Lodge features glass facades that reflect the surrounding woodland appeared first on Dezeen.

A spiral staircase made from plywood is the showpiece of this thatched barn in Gelderland, the Netherlands, which architectural designer Julia van Beuningen has converted into a residence.

Van Beuningen has overseen a complete transformation of the late 19th-century building, named Barn at the Ahof, turning it into a rental home with four bedrooms and a large open-plan living space.

The plywood staircase, produced by manufacturer EeStairs, sits at the heart of the floor plan. With its precise curved geometry and slender components, it offers a playful contrast with the barn's rustic wooden columns and beams.

"We thought, if we're going to do something, we have to do it properly," Van Beuningen told Dezeen.

"This is very different and very unusual in a barn like this," Van Beuningen added. "It's something you either love or hate, but it's definitely a statement."

Barn at the Ahof is one of several buildings on an ancient farming estate named Landgoed Appel that Van Beuningen inherited from her family.

She is planning to overhaul the entire site through a mix of rebuilds and refurbishments and create a series of low-energy houses that can be used for either long-term or holiday rentals.

As the barn had been previously renovated approximately 10 years ago, it didn't require as much work as some of the other properties on the estate.

Van Beuningen is not a qualified architect – she is primarily a cellist and works in architecture part-time – so she enlisted local studio Flip Wentink Architecten to oversee the planning stages.

However, she decided to manage the detailed-design phase herself, adding in extra details like the spiral staircase and some built-in joinery elements.

On the ground floor, the staircase creates a divide between a dining area and a lounge with a wood-burning stove. A minimal steel kitchen island runs along the side of this space.

Also on this storey is an accessible bedroom and bathroom suite.

The newly added first floor, which is much smaller in size, accommodates two additional bedrooms and bathrooms.

Van Beuningen tried to use simple natural materials wherever possible.

As well as the plywood staircase and joinery, the renovated barn features walls of flax and lime plaster.

"It's quite a proud building," said the designer, "and it's quite strong and industrial."

"I wanted to respect this industrial nature, which is not easy when adding in a new floor that is quite a heavy element. So I thought we should be quite humble in terms of materials."

Clever glazing details help to elevate the design.

Highlights include large glass doors that can be concealed behind stable-style shutters, tall and slender skylights, and a narrow strip of glazing that skirts the edge of the first floor.

Externally, the building has a more traditional appearance thanks to its thatched roof and red brick walls.

Barn at the Ahof is the second completed building at the Landgoed Appel estate, following the refurbishment of the former bakehouse. Still to come is the overhauled farmhouse, revamped sheep shed and a new-build barn.

Environmental sustainability is a key concern for Van Beuningen, so all of the buildings are being designed to incorporate solar panels and ground-source heat pumps.

Some sections of the estate have been rewilded, while ancient wetlands have been reinstated.

Van Beuningen hopes the project can pave the way for more sustainable tourism in Dutch rural communities. At a time when the government is restricting the farming industry, in order to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, she hopes to show farmers can explore other revenue streams.

"It's really a long-term project in that sense," she added.

Other recent barn conversions featured on Dezeen include the stone Woodthorpe Stables in Surrey by Delve Architects and North River Architecture's extension of an 18th-century farm building in New York.

The photography is by Alex Baxter.

Project credits

Client: Landgoed Appel
Architect: Flip Wentink Architecten
Interior architect: Julia van Beuningen
Structural engineer: Peter Rommers/Luuk van Doeveren Architektuur
M&E consultant: Peter Rommers
Quantity surveyor: Peter Rommers
Lighting consultant: Julia van Beuningen
Staircase engineering/fabrication: EeStairs

The post Julia van Beuningen adds spiral stair in Dutch barn conversion appeared first on Dezeen.

Architect Marta Brandão has adopted a "rustic minimalism" style to create a two-bedroom mountain retreat in Arouca, Portugal.

Granary House is a two-storey guesthouse featuring a slate roof, a roof terrace and a slatted timber facade that integrates sliding panels.

Owned by Brandão's mother-in-law, the 110-square-metre property offers short-stay rentals to those looking to explore the mountainous landscape of the region.

The architecture and interior design of Granary House was overseen by MIMA Housing, the modular housing company Brandão co-founded with Mário Sousa.

The building doesn't use MIMA's prefab construction system; instead, it features a traditional timber post-and-beam framework that is celebrated in exposed details both inside and out.

Brandão's aim was to create a building that felt modern but also related to the local vernacular. The slate roof tiles are recycled, sourced from local ruins, but applied in a contemporary, minimal way.

"I wanted to try a rustic minimalism style," the architect told Dezeen.

For the exterior, the wooden slats have been heat-treated to give them a darker tone. They conceal a wall of sliding glass doors, allowing the building to take on different levels of transparency and openness.

"The house becomes almost a living organism – it always looks different," said Brandão. "You can choose to close the slats to create protection or open to let nature in."

Granary House was built close to a river, replacing an old granary building that was close to collapse.

The new building matches the height, shape and footprint of its predecessor. This allowed enough space inside for a living space and en-suite bedroom on the ground floor, and a large bedroom and bathroom upstairs.

Interior details follow the rustic minimal aesthetic.

The exposed ceiling beams and joists are matched by wooden partition walls, joinery and furniture, while outer walls are finished in a soft-beige micro-cement.

"You feel visual comfort inside, because of the sand tones of the micro-cement and the amount of wood," said Brandão.

"The house smells like wood a lot," she continued. "You can listen to the river rushing, even with the windows closed, which is quite relaxing."

"Then you have a green background that makes you feel like you're immersed in nature."

A minimal spiral staircase links Granary House's two floors, while a first-floor balcony slots in behind the slats, linking up with the roof terrace that includes built in sofas and a bath.

Brandão hopes the building offers a sense of "poetry and coherence", creating the ideal base from which to explore local attractions like the eight-kilometre-long Paiva Walkways.

"The region of Arouca is becoming increasingly popular in Portugal for its stunning mountains, which become pink and yellow in spring," added Brandão.

"It was a great opportunity to build a special project."

The photography is by José Campos.

Project credits

Author: Marta Brandão, Mimahousing
Collaboration: João Pereira, Miguel Menezes, Maria João Santana
Contractor: Castelo Soberano

The post Sliding screens front Granary House guesthouse by MIMA Housing appeared first on Dezeen.

The stone walls of a 16th-century clergy house have been restored and contrasted with new, white concrete elements to create El Priorato, a holiday home in Burgos, Spain, designed by local practice Atienza Maure Arquitectos.

The project has both restored and extended the original building, which had recently burnt down leaving only its stone arches and walls intact.

Using a simple palette of materials and forms that are contemporary but sensitive to the building's heritage, Madrid and Barcelona-based Atienza Maure Arquitectos created an eight-bedroom holiday home called El Priorato, or The Priory.

"Unfortunately no one seems to have photos of the interiors before the structure collapsed, so we had to gather the information almost like at an archaeological site," Atienza Maure Arquitectos co-founder Alonso Atienza told Dezeen.

"The dichotomy between old and new is solved with an ambiguity and subtle differentiation in the use of materials and the spaces," he continued.

Due to the building's steeply sloping site, the ground floor was formerly a darker basement level used for storage, which informed the practice's approach of introducing as much natural light as possible.

As the existing walls were heritage-protected, five skylights were created in the new timber roof, above triangular light wells and walk-on glass floors that draw light deep into the building's three storeys.

"Everything revolves around the attempt to introduce light into the rooms and on the ground floor, as in John Soane's house museum or in the Rascainfiernos of Fernando Higueras," said Atienza.

Underneath both the original stone vaults and new concrete vaults, the ground floor contains a series of living areas, a kitchen and a fireplace, with a series of small openings connecting to the garden to the south.

The ceiling above the ground floor is formed of vaulted concrete, which was chosen based on sections of brick ceiling found in the remains of the ruined building.

Seven bedrooms are organised on the first floor, with those in the building's eastern end cut through by light wells in their corners.

While some of these light wells incorporate glass floors, others feature balconies overlooking the ground floor that can be closed off with wooden shutters for greater privacy.

A spiralling metal stair leads to the second floor, where another living, dining and kitchen area opens onto an external terrace with expansive views of the landscape, framed by preserved sections of the original pillars restored using matching stone.

New areas of white-painted wall sit against the original whitewashed stonework, with minimal light fittings, metal mesh balustrades and wooden kitchen units bringing a subtly contemporary contrast.

Other residential restorations recently completed in Spain include a renovation in Tarragona by Nua Arquitectures, which contrasted the building's original stonework with pastel-coloured steel elements.

Elsewhere in Spain, architecture studio Laura Álvarez Architecture built a holiday home from the walls of a stone ruin, which was designed to have minimal impact on its environment.

The photography is by Simone Bossi.

The post Stone ruins turned into Spanish holiday home by Atienza Maure Arquitectos appeared first on Dezeen.

CF Taller de Arquitectura and Merodio Arquitectos have completed a vacation home in Mexico's Valle de Bravo using glue-laminated timber beams to create bright and spacious rooms that open out to the surrounding forest.

The 430 square-metre Casa El Pinar is sited on a steep plot in Valle de Bravo, a vacation destination on lake Avándaro, roughly 150 km from Mexico City.

The design makes the most of the lot's steep topography by creating a basement that houses the support spaces and building the main level of the home above it.

This ensures that the living spaces can open out to the home's backyard without any elevation change.

"The constant visual connection with the forest, as well as the quiet it provides, contributes to the tranquil atmosphere of the space," said CF Taller de Arquitectura and Merodio Arquitectos.

Rough-cut stone was used to clad the plinth of the house, which contrasts with the concrete construction of the main level.

Access to the home is via a staircase that is sheltered from the area's heavy rainfall by the upstairs floor, which hangs over the driveway.

"A stone staircase, almost hiding in plain sight against the basement wall, leads to the main door," said the team.

From here, the access leads to the living and dining rooms, which are separated by an interior courtyard that encloses a sweetgum tree.

"A glass-enclosed central courtyard physically separates the main public areas while maintaining a visual connection, creating a sense of flowing spaciousness," the architecture studios explained.

Each of the residents' three bedrooms is located along a corridor that culminates in the living room. The elevation difference on the site allows each room to open onto the backyard via full-height glass walls.

"Floor-to-ceiling windows let in the warmth of the sunlight," said CF Taller de Arquitectura and Merodio Arquitectos.

"The luxury of the spatial quality of each of the rooms lies in the subtlety of the design and the constant view of the forest," the team added.

At the opposite end of the home, there is a standalone structure for guests.

This separate volume was also built using wood, steel, and concrete, and contains its own lounge area downstairs and a bedroom that is elevated above the rest of the home.

The home's pitched roof is supported by glue-laminated pine beams.

The architects chose to leave this material exposed and to line the underside of the roof in plywood to highlight the material's use.

"The sloped roof responds both to the heavy rains in the area and the desire to capture sunlight," said the design team.

The architects sought to use a limited palette, leaving most materials exposed. The main finishes found throughout the house include polished concrete, wood, and black metal accents at the doors and windows.

"The project is simple and honest in essence. Instead of existing separately, the structure and the finishes mimic each other; they are one and the same," said CF Taller de Arquitectura and Merodio Arquitectos.

Casa El Pinar was completed last year by the two studios, which are based in Mexico City. CF Taller de Arquitectura is led by Cesar Flores, while Merodio Arquitectos was founded by Mikel Merodio.

Other properties in the surrounding area include a home topped by four intersecting gabled roofs that was designed to comply with strict local building regulations while still offering a contemporary design and a home with an oversized top floor clad in corrugated metal.

The photography is by Rafael Gamo.

Architects: César Flores (CF Taller de Arquitectura) and Mikel Merodio (Merodio Arquitectos)
Design team: Jessica Cano, Ana Voeguelin, Nadia Martinez, Bruno Huerta, David Gordillo
Lighting: ILWT
Water collection system: SPL Sistemas Pluviales
Water treatment system: TIM Tecnologías Integrales Medioambientales

The post Forest retreat in Valle de Bravo includes stone and laminated timber appeared first on Dezeen.

Resolution 4 Architecture stacked a modular beach house above sand dunes for an unencumbered view of the Atlantic Ocean in Lido Beach, New York.

The prefabricated coastal house – known as Lido Beach House II – was completed in 2021 as a summer house for a professor and her family. The 2,625-square foot (244-square metre) home has a rectilinear form and clean lines.

Two wood-framed prefabricated forms sit atop a poured-in-place concrete and steel storage base with a carport, sitting area and outdoor shower.

The modular boxes – prefabricated by Simplex Homes in Scranton, Pennsylvania – are wrapped in tongue-and-groove Western Red cedar that was bleached to accelerate the natural greying process evenly.

“The muted cedar typically harmonizes well within beach communities,” said Resolution 4 Architecture, a Manhattan-based studio known as RES4.

Lifting the living spaces out of the floodplain – per FEMA resilience requirements – raised the house above the surrounding homes, “so there was a balance of trying to be respectful of the context and neighbors, while maintaining privacy and maximizing view,” the studio continued.

The exterior is characterized by slatted trellises and white PVC sheet materials that allow the windows to be grouped compositionally.

The private main floor includes an entryway, master suite, second bedroom and bathroom, laundry room and flex room.

“Windows are carefully located on the street side to allow for sufficient daylight and natural ventilation while providing privacy," the studio noted.

"Along the west side of the home, windows are more expansive providing views to the dunes and beach.”

The floors are connected by a corner stair that is half-concealed by a wooden slat screen.

The top floor contains the public living spaces, a partially site-built office space and a kitchen with white Ceasarstone waterfall counters, custom white oak cabinetry and solid white oak flooring.

The neutral colour palette defers to seaside views through floor-to-ceiling windows and sliding glass doors that open to screened porches with glass railings.

“Corners are carved out on both levels to create different types of exterior spaces within the allowed footprint on the small lot,” the studio said.

The street-side screened porch faces north, so RES4 cut a round oculus through the roof deck to bring more daylight into the exterior seating space.

The house is topped by a roof deck with a garden, fire pit and offers 360-degree views.

The use of modular construction allowed the studio more control over the construction schedule.

The house was set in a single day, but on-site construction continued for a few months following. Site-built finishes included the front entry stair, exterior decking and siding, interior flooring and detailing.

RES4 completed a similar prefabricated home in Long Island.

Other modular homes include one Knox Bhavan lifted above the River Thames floodplain in Buckinghamshire, England.

Photography is by Resolution 4 Architecture.

Project credits:
Architect: Resolution 4 Architecture
Structural engineers: Dominick R. Pilla Associates, PC
General contractor: A&E Builders
Modular manufacturer: Simplex Homes
HVAC consultant: High Velocity Helper, LLC
Cabinetry: Kountry Kraft
Windows: Andersen

The post RES4 designs modular house for Lido Beach in New York appeared first on Dezeen.

US studio Deegan-Day Design & Architecture has designed a California weekend home to hold strong against wildfire and capitalise on views.

Located near the city of Malibu, the 4/Way House sits on a southeast-facing ridge in the Santa Monica Mountains, in a community called Topanga.

Joe Day – a founder of local studio Deegan-Day Design & Architecture – bought the property with his wife, Nina Hachigian, in the 1990s following a devastating wildfire in the area that destroyed 20,000 acres of land. The disaster led to a drop in property values, which made buying a 2.5-acre site there feasible for the young couple.

Construction didn't begin until 2008, and work happened incrementally over the years. The project was finally completed last year.

The design not only makes the most of the rolling landscape and scenic views, it takes a defensive stance against the threat of wildfire.

"The retreat mediates between competing topography and sight lines, and between the allure and danger of life in Topanga," said the studio.

In plan, the home consists of two offset bars that are nudged into the hillside and encircled by terraces.

"Surrounding terraces act as both fire buffer and a complement of outdoor rooms," the team said.

The bars are covered with an irregularly shaped zinc roof that folds over the side walls and acts as a "fire blanket".

Structurally, the house is supported by a complex web of steel trusses. The base is made of concrete.

The home's low position on its street, makes it one of the first structures that will confront a wildfire racing up the ridge – a consideration that emerged early in the design process.

"We assessed first what would be left to rebuild if 4/Way did burn, and how the site might shield other homes and safely serve firefighters," the team said.

Within the home, large stretches of glass offer views of the landscape, yet the two-storey house sits low enough to preserve views for upslope neighbours.

The upper level contains the primary bedroom suite and a study, while the lower floor holds a living room with a "conversation pit", a kitchen and dining area, and a guest room. The house totals 2,250 square feet (209 square metres).

Interior finishes include raw concrete and birch plywood.

The team designed most of the interior fittings and decor, including an angular table in the conversation pit, a stair railing that doubles as shelving and built-in bedroom furnishings.

The project's name, 4/Way House, was inspired by four "rotations" that were integrated into the design.

One entailed shifting the house to offer a view of Santa Monica Bay, and another involved configuring trusses to support the angular roof.

A third rotation concerns the layout of cabinetry and the transition between levels in the house.

The fourth refers to the home's detached carport, which sits downhill from the main residence and has a roof that lifts upward, enabling it to double as a movie screen.

While currently used as a weekend retreat, there are plans to make 4/Way House a full-time residence.

Other California homes designed with wildfires in mind include a house near Lake Tahoe by Faulkner Architects that is clad in non-combustible materials and a Sonoma County house by Mork-Ulnes Architects that features fire-resistant materials and access for fire trucks.

The photography is by Taiyo Watanabe.

Project credits:

Architect and interior designer: Deegan Day Design & Architecture
Design team: Joe Day, Yo Oshima, Taiyo Watanabe, Sonali Patel, Bonnie Solmssen, Mark Lyons, Felicia Martin, Jakub Tejchman, Tanja Werner, Eva Fernandez-Villegas, Michelle Paul Toney, Noel Williams
Mechanical engineer: CW Howe Partners
Structural engineer: Gordon L Polon Structural Engineering
Construction manager: Chris Riley
General contractor: Kent Snyder Construction
Landscape architect: Dry Design
Other consultants: Bank Welding (metal fabricator), Chris Sheppard and Michele Liu (custom furniture fabricators), Ninotchka Regets (graphic design)

The post 4/Way House by Deegan-Day responds to "allure and danger" of LA site appeared first on Dezeen.

Caleb Johnson Studio has created a timber-clad family home in Otisfield, Maine that has no primary bedroom in order to "reinforce familial bonds".

Caleb Johnson Studio — an architecture office based in Portland, Maine — sought to reenvision local cabin vernacular with Pieri Pines.

Commissioned by three brothers, the two-storey house references traditional Maine camps and provides a simple, functional refuge that serves as a familial gathering space.

Locally sourced Eastern white cedar clads the entirety of the exterior. It was stained to resemble the textures of the surrounding trees and stones, according to the studio.

"A view from the lake presents a house that both recedes while voicing an opinion; the house stands out while blending into the landscape," the studio said.

The house's sharp angles stand out when seen up close, but when viewed from the adjacent dock, it blends into the treeline due to the wooden siding and the trees' reflection in the glazing.

"This building, first and foremost, is about relating to the land," the studio said. "The earth is never far away, and your access to it, visually and physically, is always present."

The home slopes down with the site, connecting the living spaces with the environment at multiple points. The roof slopes away from the lake, leaving plenty of room on the lake-facing facade for large windows.

"This allows all the entry points to have a casual and gentle relationship to the exterior grade," the studio continued.

The site is occupied by a large glacial boulder, and instead of removing it, the architects opted to work with it. The home's deck wraps around the boulder, the living space looks out toward it and the second floor cantilevers over it.

"The boulder is an ever-present contributor to the human experience of this site," the studio said. "It reminds us that we are the visitors and that this site has been evolving for thousands of years."

Inside, the living spaces are organised in a split-level configuration.

One enters the home through a central access point that steps down to the main living space and kitchen. From here a set of stairs climbs up to three equal bedrooms – none of which are the "primary" bedroom.

"The communal spaces were prioritized to reinforce familial bonds," the studio said.

The shared living spaces are partially separated by wooden beams and railing, which give the interiors a stacked effect.

Window-seat nooks, slat railings and step ladders create a sense of separation and allow for privacy within the relatively small home.

The wood used throughout was juxtaposed with metallic details including rustic, red window frames and a black wood-burning stove.

Picture windows with minimal framing allow for uninterrupted views of the scenery beyond.

A lakeside deck serves as an extension of the living areas.

"The deck provides gentle access to a rear lawn before a meandering path leads you to the water," the studio said.

Completed in 2022, Pieri Pines is set to receive an architecture award from AIA New England in October.

Other wood-wrapped designs by Caleb Johnson Studio include In the Dunes House, which stands on stilts and opens to the New England coast. Other homes that have tree-house-like qualities include Whitten Architects' Caterpillar Hill in Penobscot Bay, Maine.

The photography is by Trent Bell. 

The post Caleb Johnson Studio clads Pieri Pines lake house in Maine with local cedar appeared first on Dezeen.

US studio Fuse Architects added cedar cladding, expanded the windows and brightened the interiors of the Plover House on the coast of California.

The weekend home is located in Pajaro Dunes, a resort community that lies just south of Santa Cruz. The community sits along the shoreline of Monterey Bay.

The three-bedroom house was designed for a Silicon Valley couple and their three children.

"Their desire was to have a vacation home, as well as a place to host friends for beach gatherings and to explore all the benefits of the seaside community," said Fuse Architects, which is based in the nearby town of Capitola.

The project entailed the remodel of a beachfront home dating to 1968 and designed by architect George Cody.

Totalling 1,500 square feet (139 square metres), the house came with an irregular, pyramid-like roof and cedar-shingle cladding, both inside and out. The interior was dark, outdated and closed off to the beach.

"Inside, it felt like a dark bunker that was very much separated from the outside, not to mention the view of the nearby Pacific," the team said.

Working closely with the clients, the architects set out to brighten up the interior and improve the views. The studio retained the original home's footprint but made significant changes overhead.

The team raised the roofline along the living room, dining area and main bedroom, allowing for larger windows and more expansive vistas. In the dining room, a new window offers a "portrait view" of the oceanscape.

Over the kitchen, where the roof's highest point is located, the team reworked the ceiling lines to make better use of an existing skylight.

Durable finishes were used throughout.

"Light plaster walls, white ceilings and oak flooring create a space that is airy yet comfortable – and durable for a beach lifestyle," the team said.

In contrast to the interior, the home's exterior was kept dark.

The original shingles were removed and replaced with linear strips of dark cedar – a cladding that emphasizes the contrast between the "flowy grasses, the dunes and the ocean with the angular building lines", the team said.

On the roof, wooden shingles were replaced with black standing-seam metal. In the northeast corner, where the roof is cut away, the team clad walls in clear cedar to accentuate the main entrance.

Overall, the house is meant to exhibit a heightened level of craftsmanship and careful attention to detail.

"The high level of detailing and craftsmanship, both on the exterior and interior, captures a simple yet complex design," the team said.

Other coastal California homes include a cedar-siding house by Malcolm Davis Architecture that is located in the famed Sea Ranch community, and a cypress-clad beachfront dwelling by Feldman Architecture that is meant to balance "high design and a casual Californian aesthetic".

The photography is by Joe Fletcher.

Project credits:

Architects: Fuse Architects
Builder: Hagen and Colbert
Interiors: Owners

The post Fuse Architects renovates pyramidal 1960s coastal house in California appeared first on Dezeen.

No Architecture arranged pavilions around a hexagonal courtyard to form a family nature retreat in rural Massachusetts that "reinterprets and expands on the glass house typology".

The Flower House is located in the Berkshires, a scenic region known for its forested hills, rich farmland and cultural venues.

The holiday home – which served as a full-time residence during the coronavirus pandemic – was created for a married couple with two children in their 20s and one teenage son. The house sits on a property shared with the husband's parents, whose barn-shaped weekend home is up the road.

Providing a connection to nature was a guiding concern for the project team from No Architecture, a New York studio founded by architect Andrew Heid.

Drawing inspiration from the terrain, along with modern glass houses, the team conceived a series of rectangular volumes with overlapping roofs that are organized around a central, hexagonal courtyard.

From above, the house resembles the outline of a flower, hence the project's name.

"The project reinterprets and expands on the glass house typology through its dynamic relationship to the native landscape and a plan configuration that organizes the six interlocking pavilions into 'petals' around a central, open courtyard," the studio said.

Exterior walls consist of large panes of glass set within load-bearing window frames. The abundant glazing offers views and a connection to the landscape.

A portion of the 3,512-square-foot (326-square-metre) home is embedded into a berm – a condition that offers thermal insulation while also "modulating the interior spaces along spectrums of open to closed, public to private, above and below grade," the team said.

The layout provides a clear division between private and public spaces.

On the west, where the home sits partly below grade, the team placed bedrooms and bathrooms. Clerestory-style windows provide natural illumination.

Downhill to the east, one finds the shared areas – a living room in one pavilion, and a dining space and kitchen in an adjoining volume.

Beyond the contours of the site, the pavilions' orientation was informed by sun exposure. Roof overhangs help protect against inclement weather and provide shade on warm days.

Structurally, the home is vertically supported by its window frames, with lateral stabilization provided by T- and L-shaped cores that conceal shear walls.

"Structurally, each pavilion operates like a Miesian umbrella diagram – a canopy open to all sides – with an exposed concrete slab-on-grade below," the team said.

Bathrooms, storage and mechanical space are housed within the structural cores. The rest of the interior consists of column-free rooms offering clear sight lines and freedom of movement.

"In striving to clarify and reduce the profile of architectural components, we find a balance for the structure's spatial exuberance, while foregrounding the landscape and program," the team said.

Other homes in the Berkshires include a geodesic dome with triangular windows that was renovated by Jess Cooney Interiors and a white, sculptural home by Taylor and Miller that features protrusions that gesture toward a lake and the sky.

The photography is by No Architecture unless otherwise stated. 

Project credits:

Architect: No Architecture
Team: Dana AlMathkoor, Maria Carriero, Yan Chen, Jennifer Diep, Sbrissa Eleonora, Andrew Heid, Yawen Jin, James Kubiniec, Chung Ming Lam, Jean Lien, Naifei Liu, Alberto Andrés Silva Olivo, Jie Xie, Jialin Yuan, Daniel Zuvia
Collaborators: Quadresign Inc, Madden & Baughman Engineering, Inc, Patrick Cullina Horticultural Design

The post No Architecture arranges Flower House in the Berkshires around hexagonal courtyard appeared first on Dezeen.

Zinc cladding and large stretches of glass feature in a holiday home bridging a creek that was remodelled and enlarged by American studio Fougeron Architecture.

The Suspension House serves as a weekend dwelling for a couple and their child. The project entailed the update and expansion of a 1970s, two-storey house that sits between two hills in an undisclosed location in California.

While conceiving the revamp, San Francisco's Fougeron Architecture set out to strengthen the home's connection to the landscape and reduce its impact on the creek.

"A man-made object in nature may exist in harmony or disparity," the studio said.

"The goal was to reconnect this structure into the environment while best utilising the exceptional site for the clients."

In California, it is no longer legal to build homes that span a creek, and existing homes over creeks are subject to stringent rules, which presented the architecture studio with significant challenges.

"There were strict guidelines on how to use the existing structure as the basis for design," the studio said. "Most importantly, the new home had to follow the exact outline of the existing house and decks."

In turn, the architects kept the footprint of the bottom level and upper floor and added a third level that has a different orientation.

"The new third floor rotates 90 degrees to better relate to the site," the team said.

"This shift breaks up the mass of the structure, giving some levity and height while differentiating itself from the lower floors."

Previous structural columns that extended to the creek were removed, and a new structural system was added to minimise disturbances to the creek, including the insertion of steel supports under the existing floors.

"The new structural system has been anchored to the bedrock within the flanks of the hill, suspending the home completely over the water," the team said.

Exterior walls feature zinc cladding, along with large stretches of glass that open up sight lines.

Within the 2,500-square-foot (232-square-metre) dwelling, there is a division between public and private areas.

The bottom level contains a guest room and utility space, while the middle level encompasses the shared areas – a kitchen, dining area and living room. The top floor holds a master suite, bedroom and flex room.

A black-and-white colour scheme was used indoors. Rooms feature stone flooring, contemporary decor and exposed columns and beams.

Levels are connected by both interior and outdoor staircases, and several glass-lined terraces are found on the perimeter.

The house has a thin, sloped roof that is lifted above the upper level and is topped with photovoltaic panels.

"The roof – like the home itself – hovers, creating a dynamic space with lots of natural light," the team said.

The project also involved the design and construction of a guest cottage near the main home. The two-storey dwelling features brownish zinc cladding, a tall clerestory and a sloped roof.

Fougeron Architecture was founded in 1985 by architect Anne Fougeron.

Other projects by the studio include a renovated San Francisco townhouse that features a canted glass facade and bright orange stairwell and an urban residential building that has faceted exterior walls covered with grey rods.

The photography is by Joe Fletcher.

The post Suspension House by Fougeron Architecture spans a California creek appeared first on Dezeen.