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.

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Spanish practice Estudio Albar has used cork cladding to help this home near Madrid blend in with the scrub-like landscape of a neighbouring national park.

Named Casa Eñe, the home is located half an hour's drive from the Spanish capital and was designed for clients who wanted a home that would have a minimal impact both visually and environmentally.

In order to "unify the plot and the park", Estudio Albar removed a row of hedges classed as a prohibited species that previously separated the two, opening the site up to dramatic views across the landscape.

"At the north boundary of the Casa Eñe plot, beyond the great hedge barrier that had been unmaintained for decades, the natural park was located," said Estudio Albar founder Daniel Lozano.

"Hectares of holm oaks and rockroses, a place where you can cross paths with deer, wild boars, and even wolves just half an hour from Madrid," he told Dezeen. "We couldn't block those views, we had to integrate them into the project."

To allow every space to enjoy these views to the north as well as sunlight from the south, Casa Eñe is organised in a long, narrow plan measuring six by 40 metres and topped by a large rooftop terrace.

Two corridors extend down either side of the home, with living spaces and bathrooms organised in the centre. Sliding doors and curtains allow these areas to be opened up or closed off when greater privacy is required.

On the first floor, Estudio Albar has created an independent "pavilion" containing an office accessed by an external spiral staircase.

The orientation and narrow plan also make Casa Eñe easy to heat and cool, with the south-facing windows helping to warm the home during winter. These are sheltered by vegetation during summer.

While helping the home to blend with its surroundings, the cork cladding also helps to keep it warm thanks to its insulating properties. Cork is a renewable material harvested from the bark of the cork oak tree, which is biodegradable, durable and insulating.

According to Estudio Albar, the home is so well insulated that it meets the Passivhaus standard – a certification given to low-energy buildings with high levels of insulation and airtightness – and requires just three small towel radiators to keep it warm.

Casa Eñe is built from a prefabricated timber frame and finished with white-walled interiors, warmed by pale wooden frames and fittings. The interiors are kept purposefully minimal to focus attention towards the landscape views.

"We believe in simple architecture. We don't like artifices or the superfluous. If something doesn't contribute to the architecture, it should be eliminated," Lozano told Dezeen.

"The elongated shape allows us to create a fluid house. All the communications in the house are taken to the perimeters. Not even when walking around the house did we want to lose sight of the field," he added.

Other homes that have recently made use of cork cladding include a pair of apartment blocks in Belgium by Officeu Architects and a "camouflaged" home in Portugal designed by Inês Brandão Arquitectura.

The photography is by Imagen Subliminal.

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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

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UK studio Fletcher Crane Architects has completed Lowater, a house in Buckinghamshire comprising a group of red-brick forms that draw on the area's traditional architecture.

Lowater is located within a conservation area in the town of Marlow and sits alongside a church overlooking the River Thames.

This led Fletcher Crane Architects to blend forms familiar to the area with more contemporary finishes and interiors in its design.

"The home is located in the greenbelt and a conservation area," project architect Carmine Bassi told Dezeen.

"As such, there was a conscious reference to the cluster of adjacent buildings – a church and a historic home – to ensure a responsible integration into the context," he continued.

"[It] seeks to forge a relationship between the local church and a quality historic property to evolve an architecture of red brick, pitched roof forms and courtyard gardens in a relevant and respectful manner."

Entry to the site is beyond a perforated red-brick wall, where a pergola of timber, steel and zinc shelters a path bisecting the site. This path meets the home in a glazed link section before becoming a narrow pool on the other side.

This glazed entrance space connects the largest volume, which contains a living, dining and kitchen space beneath a skylit study mezzanine, with an adjacent gabled form containing a more private lounge beneath the main bedroom.

The larger form enjoys views across a small pond and the river through a fully-glazed facade shielded by metal louvres, while the opposite end features glazing behind a screen of perforated brickwork.

One end of the main bedroom also looks out to the garden and towards the river, while the other looks onto a cloister-like courtyard, partially wrapped by the covered paths that connect each of the home's distinct forms.

"One side of the house seeks to take in and accentuate fantastic river views whilst to the other, a series of cloistered spaces border a reflecting pool, all set behind a red-brick garden wall," explained Bassi.

"A perforated brick facade characterises the main gable face and creates a quiet theatricality in the way that the glazed walls, lights and life are partly concealed and reflect over the pool," he added.

To the north, a single-storey volume houses guest bedrooms and a garage, fronted by a screen of vertical wooden battens to provide privacy.

Inside Lowater, the more traditional use of red brick is contrasted by the "honest expression" of its steel and timber structure, with the exposed roof bracing bringing an almost industrial feel to the upper levels.

Fletcher Crane Architects was established in 2010 in Kingston upon Thames by Toby Fletcher and Ian Crane.

Previous projects by the studio include a compact brick home on a former garage site in London and a house built on an infill site near London's Hyde Park.

The photography is by Lorenzo Zandri.

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German studio Atelier ST has completed Duplex, a generous family house near Leipzig that was designed to look like two semi-detached properties.

Home to a family of four, the residence spreads across two matching gabled blocks. They sit side by side, although one is positioned further forward than the other.

Atelier ST founders Silvia Schellenberg-Thaut and Sebastian Thaut said the aim was to satisfy the family's requirements for space while also creating a building that looked at home in the small-scale suburban neighbourhood.

"It was clear to us from the beginning that we needed to create a building that fitted into the context in terms of its proportions and silhouette, but also radiated a certain radicalism," explained the couple.

"Only upon entering the building does the complexity reveal itself," they told Dezeen.

The starting point for the design came from a "run-down and mould-infested" house that stood on the site previously. Comprising a main house and an extension, it set a precedent for a double-peak roof.

The arrangement allows the building's interior to be more complex than it appears from the outside, with split-level floors and a range of ceiling heights.

In particular, a setback on the first floor turns the main living room into a grand double-height space.

Atelier ST's clients previously lived in the city, in a converted school auditorium with a barrel-vaulted ceiling. This led to the use of arches and circles for doorways and windows.

The most striking is the main entrance, a circular glazing reveal with timber mullions.

The building structure is primarily built from concrete, which was cast against wooden boards to create a texture that resonates with the neighbouring woodland.

"The site is directly adjacent to a forest of deciduous trees with thick trunks and rough bark," said Schellenberg-Thaut and Thaut.

"Rough-cast concrete, created with boards of different widths and depths, seemed to us a suitable response."

To improve the building's eco-credentials, the architects chose a low-cement concrete that serves as both a load-bearing structure and exterior facade. The foundations are meanwhile built from recycled concrete.

"The building is insulated with an innovative, natural hemp-lime insulation on the inside of the exterior walls," said the pair.

The split-level floors create natural divides between rooms.

On the ground floor, they allow the kitchen to sit slightly slower than the living room. Upstairs, they separate the main bedroom suite from two further bedrooms and a study.

"One of our main goals is to always generate a floor plan that is tailored to the needs of its users like a good suit," added Schellenberg-Thaut and Thaut.

"The idea here was to create generously sized rooms with a connection to nature on the ground floor and secluded, private retreat areas upstairs," they continued.

"We wanted the family to feel at home immediately and, at the same time, like they are on vacation."

Other innovative residential designs in Germany include an aluminium-clad micro home and a "crystal-like" concrete house.

The photography is by Clemens Poloczek.

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New York studio CAZA has completed a cast-concrete house in the Philippines, aiming to optimise passive cooling and natural ventilation.

FR House comprises a series of "concrete cubes" that facilitate cross-ventilation and regulate the building's temperature at the warmest times of the day.

According to Carlos Arnaiz, founder of CAZA, this is essential in a climate that is hot and humid year-round.

"Concrete was chosen for its efficiency in combining thermal mass and structural volume, allowing for effective cooling of the house while minimising the space required for the structure," he told Dezeen.

"The concrete absorbs heat during the hot, sunny days, keeping the living areas cool. When the temperature drops, the heat is released into the interiors," added Arnaiz.

FR House is located in Punta Fuego, a seaside town on the west coast of the Philippines' largest island, Luzon. CAZA, which has a satellite studio in nearby Manila, designed it as the home for a couple who had previously lived abroad.

"Upon returning to the Philippines, they wanted to create their own architectural haven for relaxation and entertainment, a personalised slice of paradise inspired by their love for innovative designs," said Arnaiz.

Set into a slope, the 660-square-metre house is laid out over two main storeys with a basement underneath.

On the ground floor, bedrooms and bathrooms are organised into four distinct quadrants. In between runs a connecting corridor, a staircase and a casual lounge.

Also on this level is a swimming pool and courtyard, flanked on the opposite side by a shaded, open-air staircase that provides a second route up to the floor above.

The upper level takes the form of a glazed box, containing a combined living room, kitchen and dining space. This opens out to a balcony with a view of the seafront.

"The clients' brief was for a house that balances reservation and self-expression," said Arnaiz.

"The emphasis was on creating a home that connects with nature, particularly an existing acacia tree on the property. Additionally, the clients sought a residence suitable for hosting large gatherings of friends and family, with a specific requirement for social spaces that offer compelling views of the ocean."

Despite the passive cooling strategies, an air conditioning system is fitted in some parts of the house.

However, thanks to the layout, its use is limited. It is only installed in the inner rooms, leaving the rest of the building naturally ventilated, and it is not required all the time.

"The passive cooling strategies have been highly effective – they led to a remarkable reduction of over 50 per cent in energy usage compared to the norm," Arnaiz claimed.

Rooms on the lower level are more private than those above. Instead of windows, light enters via angular skylights that capture different views of the ocean, sky and garden.

"The skylights serve as both optical and environmental functions, connecting each room to the sky and acting as air valves and heat extraction chimneys," added Arnaiz.

"These elements contribute to cross-ventilation within the house and minimise the need for mechanical cooling."

FR House is one of several projects that CAZA has been working on in the Philippines, including a new building for the Metropolitan Museum of Manila.

The studio's other works in the country include the 100 Walls Church in Cebu City and a proposal for a hospital that serves as a model for rural healthcare.

The photography is by Rory Gardiner.

Project credits

Architect: CAZA
Engineering consultant: RN Ferrer & Associates
Project manager: Argee Militante

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Ecuadorian architect Juan Alberto Andrade has completed an extension to a multifamily housing complex with rammed earth walls in Guayaquil.

Known as El Retiro, the nine-square metre (97-square foot) addition doubles the common space of a 305-square metre (3,282-square foot) residential complex, protruding into the front setback along the street and blurring the line between the private housing and urban realm.

Following Mexica architect Lucía Martín López's idea of "the growing house," Juan Alberto Andrade utilised a strategy for adapting housing López calls "crystallographic growth": intervening within the limits of the property and following the area and height limits of the neighbourhood.

"Architecture is a response to the continuous need for the reinvention of a habitat," the team told Dezeen. "Housing is an activity, a built process."

Completed in 2022, the simple square addition is composed of a load-bearing, 30-centimetre-thick rammed earth wall – set on top of a limestone rock base – and bahareque masonry, which is a combination of a bamboo frame and clay plaster.

Despite being a different colour than the existing structure, the shape and materiality of the addition works to blend it with the house and the neighbourhood, as does the leafy landscaping along the street.

A lightweight pine roof structure slopes from the existing exterior wall to the edge of the addition and is topped by a green metal roof.

Inside, the resin floor serves as a smooth contrast to the raw wooden ceiling and built-in millwork.

A sliding iron door opens to the compact interior, which houses a social space, library, and storage along the street and steps up to a common workspace within the existing floor plan.

A freestanding metal core was inserted into the centre of the plan, joining the addition to the existing room with a kitchenette and bathroom.

A small planted atrium allows a 25-year-old tree to rise in the centre of the plan and light to filter into the building.

A square wooden window – protected by sliding metal shutters – looks across the street to a community park. The pivoting window frame can be opened and the deep structural wall becomes a secondary desk space.

"El Retiro is a project of extension and attachment from an independent body to a multifamily housing, that serves and transforms preexistence into a productive habitat," the team said.

It was an opportunity to "build specific, viable and productive solutions that attend the progressive growth of housing, and to take advantage of the residual spaces generated by Ecuador's policies".

Maximizing small spaces is a pillar of Andrade's practice. He previously designed a flexible installation for a micro apartment in Quito and converted a 1993 Chevy van into a plywood "house-on-wheels" with María José Váscones.

The photography is by JAG Studio.

Project credits:

Architect: Juan Alberto Andrade
Team: Cuqui Rodríguez, María José Váscones, Melissa Toasa, Victoria Peralta, Duda Rodriguez
Suppliers: Baldosas del Ecuador, Acesco, Megakywi

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Clay-plaster walls, exposed brickwork and tile floors aim to evoke a feeling of a traditional Moroccan home at this London house, overhauled by local studios Merrett Houmøller Architects and All & Nxthing.

Merrett Houmøller Architects and interior designer All & Nxthing renovated and extended the Victorian home for clients who have travelled extensively to Morocco and the Mediterranean.

While the original proportions of the terraced home are largely maintained, the rear has been extended with a double-height, skylit kitchen and dining room with an angular ceiling.

Drawing on the internal courtyards commonly found in riads – traditional Moroccan houses – the dining space is overlooked by the first-floor staircase landing.

"Our clients have travelled extensively in Morocco and the Mediterranean generally, and were inspired in many ways by the architecture and climate there," said Merrett Houmøller Architects co-founder Robert Houmøller.

"Our brief was to create tall, light-filled spaces, with Moroccan riads being a big influence on the overall form," he told Dezeen.

A continuous brick-paved floor steps down from the original home into the extension, continuing into a garden with a small pool and concrete terrace.

This design is intended to blur the boundary between inside and outside while providing texture underfoot.

Continuing this theme of texture, the angled walls and ceiling of the dining area are lined with clay plaster, while the main kitchen counter is backed by exposed brickwork as a "reminder of the original fabric of the building".

The staircase has been updated with oak cladding and a steel balustrade.

"The interior materiality was also influenced by Mediterranean precedents," All & Nxthing creative director Steve Nash told Dezeen.

"Natural earth-based materials such as the handmade brick floor, clay-plaster walls, band-sawn timber joinery and patinated copper were used," he added.

At the opposite end of the home to the extension, a formal living room sits alongside a lounge space with a fireplace and an area for home working.

This has been given more minimal finishes with angled elements that reference the extension's geometry.

"We wanted to mirror the boldness of the architecture within the interior designs," Nash told Dezeen.

"We created subtle angles, such as each kitchen handle having tapered ends to match the angle of the walls, and the classic living room alcove joinery having angled base cabinets," he added.

On the first floor, the main bedroom occupies the front of the home alongside a large bathroom, while an attic extension above contains an ensuite guest bedroom and another study space.

Merrett Houmøller Architects was founded in 2014 by architects Peter Merrett and Houmøller, and All & Nxthing was established in 2015 by Nash.

Previous projects by Merrett Houmøller Architects include the renovation of an apartment with an exposed concrete structure, and a mobile kitchen created as a base for the Refugees and Befriending Project run by the British Red Cross in London.

The photography is by Helen Leech.

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Interiors studio YSG has upgraded a home in Sydney's Mosman suburb to feature "lavish yet tranquil" interiors that are more akin to those of a luxury hotel.

The three-storey house previously had drab grey walls and awkwardly placed partitions but now features more coherently connected rooms finished in a sumptuous mix of materials.

"Our clients wanted a home that felt like a boutique hotel with a lavish yet tranquil tonal intensity that was rich in substance, not excess trimmings," YSG explained.

"We took a deep dive, converting it into a tactile haven with nooks for respite amongst spaces that freely ebb and flow."

The studio started by reconfiguring the home's first floor to make way for more outdoor entertainment space.

A glass alcove that used to jut into the balcony was removed, allowing room for a large table where the clients can sit and take in views of the nearby harbour.

The expanded balcony means there is now less room on the interior. But YSG worked around this by removing the kitchen's cumbersome bulkhead and two partition walls that once framed its breakfast island.

The revamped kitchen now features a black counter clad with leathered marble and shimmering mosaic tiles.

Black mosaic tiles also cover a section of the floor and the chimney breast in the living room, leading the studio to nickname the project Black Diamond.

"Combined with the dark timber floors and ceiling, they provide sheltered respite from the brilliant glare and frenzied harbour activity, enabling the room to take an inward-looking approach," YSG said.

The living room was dressed with a plump cream swivel chair and an alpaca-wool sofa finished in the same lilac colour as the flowers of the Jacaranda trees that surround the home.

A custom timber table is the centrepiece of the dining area. It sits beside a partition made of smoked-glass blocks, which YSG constructed around three steel struts that now provide structural support in place of a solid wall.

A plaster-washed stairwell leads up to the home's second floor and is doused in natural light via a newly installed glass-brick facade. Some of these bricks are made from yellow glass, chosen by YSG to reflect the home's "sunny disposition".

The staircase's lower steps were ebonised to complement the black tiling that appears throughout the first floor while the upper steps are crafted from a pale timber to signal a change of space.

The home's top floor accommodates the principal bedroom, entered via a doorway lined in Rosso travertine. The bed is positioned at the centre of the room, set against a new low-lying partition.

Behind it, the studio installed extra storage and established a new entryway to the walk-in wardrobe, which could previously only be accessed from the en-suite.

Geometric raffia-weave wallpaper lines the front of all the cupboards, complementing the warm, natural hues that feature throughout the rest of the room.

The bedroom leads off to a curved nook that used to contain a jumble of furnishings but now has a wooden desk and dramatic boucle-covered banquet that winds around its outer perimeter.

The project also saw YSG decrease the size of the kids' playroom on the home's ground floor in order to enlarge the utility room.

A spare bedroom at this level was converted into a study and finished with sea-green furniture.

Outside, the studio replaced weathered decking with "crazy paving" composed of jagged slabs of pale stone and constructed a cushioned day bed that cantilevers over the pool.

Other fun elements of the home include the ground-level powder room, which is clad top-to-bottom in pinkish Tiberio marble, and the wine cellar door with its tangerine-orange porthole windows that provide a glimpse of the bottles inside.

YSG is behind the design of several residences in Sydney. There's Budge Over Dover, a tactile home decked out in brick, brass and coloured plasters, and the playful penthouse Dream Weaver, curated to suit the owner's bolder post-lockdown aesthetic.

The photography is by Anson Smart.

Project credits:

Interior design and styling: YSG
Builder: Promena Projects

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Dutch architecture studio i29 has nestled a bamboo-clad house among trees in Limburg, the Netherlands, aiming to connect its residents to the surrounding woodland.

Named Open Park Villa, the home offers multiple views of the outdoors, with extended sightlines running through the building.

According to i29, this design responds to the basis of the client's brief, which asked the studio to create a home that embraced the surrounding greenery.

"The client wanted to have a home which gives the feeling that the home is everywhere on the plot, but being present in a very honest way in relation to the green surroundings," the studio told Dezeen.

Open Park Villa is part of a wider development that has transformed the site of former military terrain into a green residential area, filled with 43 unique homes.

Clad in untreated bamboo, the house is defined by five interconnected orthogonal volumes placed around existing trees, each broken up by the large glass windows and doors.

Inside it comprises a spacious ground floor with living areas and an open-plan kitchen diner arranged around a central courtyard, while three bedrooms occupy the first floor.

Dutch studio i29 orientated the volumes to ensure natural light can move through the interior of each one during different parts of the day.

Each of Open Park Villa's living spaces is treated uniquely with different ceiling heights and finishes to create a diverse living experience. In the living area, this was achieved by sinking the room into the landscape, which i29 said creates a "surprisingly different atmosphere" from the rest of the house.

"Although it has an open connection with the kitchen, it feels like a completely different room with a different connection to the outside," said director Chris Collaris.

Throughout the home are bespoke details including built-in closets for internal storage and custom-made furniture for the outdoor dining area on the wood-decked patio.

Uncoloured bamboo is used as cladding inside and outside the building, with fastenings hidden behind the panels for a minimalist look.

This flush facade finish also helps the house blend in with its verdant surroundings, with the help of complimentary tones of sand-coloured cement flooring and stone, oak and fir detailing inside.

For the i29, this allowed it to achieve its goal of maintaining a connection to the outside, "even in the deepest point inside the home", it said.

While preserving the landscape, the positions of the orthogonal volumes between the trees also help to keep the Open Park Villa cool in the summer.

This natural cooling technique works in tandem with high-quality insulation and an air-source heat pump.

Founded by designers Jaspar Jansen and Jeroen Dellensen in 2002, i29 is a Dutch studio specialising in architecture and interior design.

Its other recent projects include a floating residence in Amsterdam and the renovation of a 17th-century canal house.

The photography is by Tim Van de Velde.

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US studio Ome Dezin has renovated a large mid-century home in Brentwood, California, using a tonal colour palette and maximising the lush hillside views.

The six-bedroom 12221 Benmore residence was designed and constructed in 1960 by notable local architects A Quincy Jones and Frederick Emmon.

When Jesse Rudolph and Joelle Kutner of Ome Dezin came to the project, it had undergone a 1990s remodel that had stripped away its character and style.

The team made it their mission to revive the home's original charm and connection to the outdoors, bringing in natural tones and materials.

"We have always been fans of A Quincy Jones and familiar with his work, which is what prompted us to see the home initially," the duo told Dezeen.

"This one did not disappoint — it had the typical Quincy atrium-like living space centered across from the exterior which includes a 40-foot (12-metre) waterfall."

Many of the existing fixtures were retained, including the fixed windows and doors, wherever possible.

To keep the focus on the views from the large windows, the interior was designed with "a more muted, streamlined aesthetic".

"We wanted to ensure the intention of Quincy was intact, so we aimed for a bit of brutalism and connection with nature," said Rudolph and Kutner. "We opted for a limited material and color palette in favour of natural tones."

The new white oak staircase designed for the three-storey atrium features rectangular forms and has an architectural presence, echoing the shape and style of the building.

It sits at the nexus of the living room, dining area, kitchen and bar, which all flow together and enjoy expansive views out the back of the house.

A den adjacent to these open spaces is furnished with a variety of midcentury pieces, in keeping with the building’s history.

Two types of stone were used throughout the home: travertine, which appears in the kitchen, bar area and powder room, and richly patterned Cipollino in the primary bathroom chosen to pick out the colours of the mountains visible through the windows.

In the lower-floor bedrooms and around the fireplace, flagstones and cobblestones were laid to create a grounding quality and to connect the spaces to the rocky landscape outside and pavers around the swimming pool.

Custom pieces designed for the project include the dining table created with furniture designer Ben Willett, which allows all of the chairs to be tucked away neatly underneath.

Two 10-foot-high (three-metre) doors were custom-built for the living space and feature Jean Prouvé-influenced circular window cutouts that allow light to shine through.

"We paid special attention to the lighting in the home, mostly sourcing vintage lights to add charm and character," the design team said.

"With such a large home, and lots of windows and tall ceilings, warm mood lighting really made the spaces feel intimate and magical, particularly in the evenings."

Rudolph and Kutner founded Ome Dezin as a design and development studio focused on residential restoration in and around Los Angeles.

California has no shortage of mid-century properties in need of revamping. Other recently completed examples include Studio Schicketanz's renovation of modernist architect Henry Hill's former seaside home, and Woods + Dangaran's overhaul of a residence that once belonged to singer Bing Crosby's manager.

The photography is by Nils Timm.

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Canadian architecture studio Williamson Williamson has designed a multi-level, brick-clad home along an alley that is meant to depart from the typical laneway house in terms of looks, size and function.

The Garden Laneway House occupies the rear of a slender, 369-square-metre parcel in Toronto's West End.

It is an example of laneway housing, a type of residence typically built in a backyard, alongside a service road.

The typology is found across Canada and in parts of the American Pacific Northwest.

Built for a family of five, the 214-square-metre home has two levels and a basement, and breaks from the norm in several ways.

While most laneway houses serve as small rental units or as accessory space for a main house – earning them the title accessory dwelling units – the Garden Laneway House is the primary residence on the property.

In turn, the building is larger than other laneway homes in the area and also looks different.

"The house was designed to feel like a primary home, not like the wood- and shingle-clad garages that are typical of the laneways," said local studio Williamson Williamson.

"This is not a utilitarian building on a laneway, but one that has presence and enlivens the laneway as a traditional home does a street."

The owners are a couple in the design and construction field – Jeff Wilkinson, principal of Wilkinson Construction, and Suzanne Wilkinson, who is a principal at Figur3, an interior design studio. The couple live in the house with their three teenage boys.

The family didn't always set out to live in the laneway dwelling.

Originally, they intended to renovate or replace the existing residence on the property – a two-storey, 203-square-metre house built between the 1930s and 1950s.

During the renovation, they planned to build a laneway dwelling they could live in during construction and later rent out.

As the project unfolded, however, the owners "began to understand that the unique quality of space possible in the laneway suite had more value than the quantity of space in the main house," the team said.

In the end, they decided to move into the laneway house and convert their original home into two rental units.

Accessed from the service road, the laneway structure has an L-shaped footprint at ground level. The front door is shaded by a carport canopy and is deeply recessed, providing distance from cars entering nearby garages.

The facades are clad in red brick. Walls facing the laneway and the original house are mostly solid to provide privacy.

To help animate the solid facades, the team rotated bricks to create patterns and shadows. Courses alternate between being flush and protruding outward.

"As the bricks are rotated out of plane, they create a triangular shadow pattern on the flat course below," the team said.

Within the dwelling, one finds a reverse floor plan, with the public space on the top level and the private areas below.

The top floor – which offers the "largest floor plate and the best light" – encompasses a living room, kitchen and dining space.

The ground level holds three bedrooms for children, while the basement contains the primary bedroom suite. A lightwell brings daylight to the sunken level.

The levels are connected by a staircase lined with a light grey balustrade and topped with a skylight. Openings between the stair treads help filter light through the house.

Interior finishes include polished concrete floors and oak cabinetry. The kitchen features a marble backsplash and a custom Scavolini kitchen system.

The Garden Laneway House joins other alleyway homes in Toronto that have emerged after the city council amended rules in 2018 to allow this type of development.

Laneway housing offers property owners the chance "to unlock hidden value in their own backyards and simultaneously enables the city to increase density in transit-accessible neighborhoods with minimal intervention," said Williamson Williamson.

Other laneway houses in Canada and beyond include a two-storey dwelling in Calgary that features a lofted niche and a fireman's pole, and a compact Seattle residence by Hybrid that is partly lifted off the ground to make way for parking.

The photography is by Scott Norsworthy.

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Czech studio Mar.s Architects drew on traditional mountain architecture when designing this house in the village of Malá Úpa, creating steep gables to help deal with heavy snowfall.

Named Family House Dolní Malá Úpa, the home is located within the mountainous Krkonoše National Park, which required Mar.s Architects to adhere to strict construction rules.

This led the Prague-based studio to reference the shapes and materiality of the area's typical stone and timber dwellings in its design.

"The main challenge was just to find a new form for a traditional local building to preserve the best of the history but at the same time maintain a high standard of 21st-century living," studio founder Martin Šenberger told Dezeen.

"In general, we think that in these historically exposed locations, this is the best way to interact with the existing environment and further develop it in a very sensitive way," he continued.

Using an approach common to the area, a plinth made from local stone creates a level base for Family House Dolní Malá Úpa on its sloping site.

The plinth is topped by a steep gabled form designed to prevent heavy snow load. While the roof is lined with black aluminium, the walls are clad in vertical wooden planks that will weather and turn a silver-grey colour over time.

Set back slightly from the road with a gravel driveway, the home's sheltered steel-box entrance leads into a small lobby flanked by a staircase, bathroom and storage area.

The centre of Family House Dolní Malá Úpa contains a living, kitchen and dining space finished in dark wood, which Mar.s Architects described as a "dignified haven" to offer comfort and warmth during storms.

To the west, the living area opens out onto an elevated lookout sheltered by wooden screens. A drop in site level means this terrace projects out over the sloped site, perched on two narrow steel columns.

"As an accent, a contemporary, fully open steel terrace extends from the veranda, hovering above the surrounding terrain, supported by a pair of splayed legs," explained Šenberger.

"During extreme weather conditions, when the surroundings blur and visibility is minimal, it becomes a commanding bridge in the middle of nothingness," he continued.

Above, the first floor of Family House Dolní Malá Úpa contains bedrooms and a secondary lounge space, illuminated by dormer windows that project from the steeply sloping roof and frame views out across the landscape.

Traditional Czech dwellings also served as a reference point for a home on a nature reserve near Prague by Studio Circle Growth, with a simple exterior contrasted internally by bright, pine-lined interiors.

Elsewhere in the Czech Republic, Byró Architekti recently completed Cabin Above the Town and RO_AR created a sweeping grass-topped home.

The photography is by BoysPlayNice.

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Architecture studio G8A has completed a series of terraced houses defined by red timber and concrete exteriors in Geneva, Switzerland, alongside local studio Collinfontaine Architectes.

Aiming to push the boundaries of typical row housing typologies, Family Fold by G8A and Collinfontaine Architectes comprises eight villas, organised in two rows on the site, fronted with a zigzagging loggia made from pre-cast concrete.

The double-height logia, which is broken by circular roof openings, shelters the home's entrances and facades that were clad in signature red timber.

The entrances lead to open-plan kitchens followed by a dining area and living space, with sliding doors at the rear opening up to a similarly designed patio and communal garden.

Spread across two floors and a useable basement level, the villas have light-filled interiors with daylight drawn in from a light well that traverses the three floors.

"Allowing access to natural illumination on all levels no only improves general quality of life but also allows for spatial unison, the vertical enclosure permitting smooth communication between the programs," said the studio.

Centrally located stairs lead up to an en-suite principal bedroom along with two smaller bedrooms on the upper floor with adjacent balconies that follow the loggia's jagged shape are similarly defined by red timber and concrete.

A more refined colour palette used throughout the interior consists of bright, white walls completed with wooden or tiled flooring and expansive windows that overlook the surrounding greenery.

Downstairs, a well-lit basement level offers a more flexible space, with the possibility of operating as a workshop, office space or separate living area, and can also be accessed via an external staircase.

Also accessible from the basement of each villa is a shared car park that sits below the development. A concrete tunnel illuminated by circular skylights provides car access to the underground space.

Other residential projects in Switzerland include a blocky apartment complex by Ductus coated in a red plaster and a barn-like house formed by intersecting sculptural blocks.

The photography is by Thomas Causin.

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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.

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London studio Delve Architects has transformed a Victorian house in Camberwell with a cork-clad extension that introduces a bright open-plan kitchen and dining space for entertaining.

Appropriately named Camberwell Cork House, the 20-square-metre extension project replaces an existing kitchen and back room that the studio said was "cramped and dark".

"The kitchen was small, cramped and dark, with a small door into the garden and no visual connection between interior and exterior," Delve Architects told Dezeen.

"The intention was to maximise sight lines into the long garden and bring in light as much as possible."

Camberwell Cork House's dining room now extends out into the garden, enclosed by large triple-glazed windows and a 2.4-metre-high glass door with green-painted frames.

These large glazed areas focus attention on the outside while allowing westerly light to filter into the dining space.

According to Delve Architects, a key move to help make the space feel brighter and airier was to sink the extension, which required a step down from the main living spaces into the dining area.

"It is one of the design principles we propose for Victorian properties as it can often be achieved without major structural implications or underpinning – a simple step, but a highly beneficial one," explained the studio.

Skylights also run along the length of the extension's roof to drench the space with light from above.

Further supporting the connection between the home's interior and the garden is a stretch of brick paving that runs from the patio and into the kitchen.

Another key element of the project was the use of cork, a renewable material harvested from the bark of the cork oak tree, which is biodegradable, durable and insulating.

The natural material is used as cladding and insulation, forming part of a wider design strategy focused on minimising carbon emissions and energy bills.

However, Delve Architects aimed to ensure that its use of this contemporary material does not overshadow the existing Victorian architecture.

Cork cladding is only used on the rear side of the home, covering the facade of the extension, while internally it is only used as insulation. The extension also has a butterfly roof to echo the existing streetscape.

Delve Architects, a small studio set up in 2017 by two school friends based in south London, had not worked with the material before Camberwell Cork House.

According to the studio, by using it as both external cladding and a thermal insulator, the project aims to showcase the potential of cork beyond aesthetics.

"We want to show how decarbonising can be done at any scale and loved the challenge of working with this natural material," said co-director Alex Raher.

Cork is used as part of a palette of materials that were chosen for either their low U-values or for being environmentally friendly. Others include hard-wearing terracotta floor tiles in the kitchen and water-based paints made using clay.

As well as opening up spaces at the back of the terraced house, Delve Architects has introduced a utility room and created a snug lounge at the front of the home.

To create a feeling of warmth, the walls and ceiling of the lounge are painted in a rich Venetian red.

Cork is increasingly being selected as a material for domestic architecture projects.

Other cork-clad houses recently featured on Dezeen include a home in east London by Polysmiths and a residence by Inês Brandão Arquitectura in Portugal that uses the material to camouflage into its surrounding landscape.

The photography is by Fred Howarth.

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Reddish-brown bricks made from local stone were used for the construction of SuoiHai Villa, a low-slung home in rural Vietnam designed by local studio APDI Architecture.

Situated overlooking Suoi Hai Lake and the famous Tản Viên Peak, the dwelling is one of the only buildings in the picturesque area.

This informed its unobtrusive single-storey profile and APDI Architecture's use of local materials such as bricks made from laterite – rusty-red stone formed from the leaching of rocks and soil.

"The main desire of the client and the project is to enhance the interaction between humans and nature from various perspectives, and to judiciously use locally characteristic materials to harmonise with the environment," director Nhâm Chí Kiên told Dezeen.

"The goal was to create a vibrant living space seamlessly blending into the natural landscape," he added.

SuoiHai Villa's long, narrow plan provides almost all of its spaces with a view over the lake to the south through full-height windows. The less exposed northern side is sheltered by perforated brick walls.

In the centre of SuoiHai Villa, a living, dining and kitchen area sits beneath a large pyramid roof with a skylight at its apex, flanked by the main bedroom to the west and smaller guest rooms to the east.

Three small courtyard gardens break up the interior, providing ventilation and more intimate spaces for connection to the outdoors, in contrast to the expansive views of the lake.

"[The gardens] resemble 'fragments' of smaller natural elements that flow into the building, blurring the lines between inside and outside," explained the studio.

"Large glass panels are used to optimise the views from the inside, but climate solutions are meticulously calculated to ensure maximum energy efficiency for the structure."

A long area of bamboo decking that lines the southern edge of the building steps down to a pool and terrace, partially sheltered by a long section of wall that extends out of the home.

Dark wooden carpentry, plaster walls and grey stone floors add warmth to the interiors, while a textured laterite wall is left exposed at the centre of the living area to further blend inside and outside.

"There is a contrast between the more refined finish of the laterite and the rougher finish, creating a uniqueness in the architecture by combining sophistication with the natural essence of the material," Kiên told Dezeen.

Atop SuoHai Villa, a grass roof provides a natural form of insulation, lined by a drainage system topped by gravel.

Elsewhere in Vietnam, other homes designed to connect with nature include Labri House by Nguyen Khai Architects & Associates and De Chill House by X11 Design Studio.

The photography is by Trieu Chien.

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Interior design office PL Studio has transformed an east London townhouse using colours and graphics that take cues from the Jardin Majorelle in Marrakesh.

The three-storey, new-build house features similar shades of blue, green and yellow to the Morrocan villa that was once home to artist Jacques Majorelle.

Further green tones allude to the villa's verdant garden, while soft pink hues bring a sense of overall "warmth and joy" to the palette.

PL Studio designed the scheme for creative couple Tom Lalande and Julian-Pascal Saadi, who live in the house with their chihuahua puppy, Sasha-Lee.

The studio founders, couple Sabrina Panizza and Aude Lerin, felt the design should reflect their clients' love of colour.

"Although we admired the architecture and loved how the townhouse was beautifully filled with natural light, we felt that overall, the property was lacking character and positivity," said the pair.

"We wanted to create a home that reflected our clients' personalities and joyful spirit, a home filled with positive energy."

Lalande and Saadi had recently returned from a trip to Marrakesh, which led this to becoming the starting point for the design.

The reference is most evident in a reception room at the house's entrance, which features cobalt blue walls, a colour-block rug, plants and a Tom Dixon Etch pendant light in gold-toned brass.

The effect is heightened by paint graphics that include arched openings – both real and illusionary – and stepped blocks that create the suggestion of extra staircases.

As Saadi works as a psychologist, this room primarily serves as a waiting room for his clients.

The couple's main living space occupies the uppermost floor, where an L-shaped room gives the pair a combined kitchen, dining area and lounge.

Geometric wall graphics tie these three spaces together but also highlight the divides between them. The most striking of these is a triptych of picture-frame-style blocks that frame the dining table.

"Our clients didn't have a clear idea of what they wanted, but they had a strong desire to be surrounded by pieces of art, colours and objects that would give them good energy, which is so powerful," said Panizza and Lerin.

"They were not afraid of mixing different shades and colour combinations, so we went for bright, bold, and fearless!"

The main bedroom, located on the middle floor, uses subtly different shades of green to create colour depth. This is offset with monochrome stripes and pops of pink and blue.

Also on this floor is a guest bedroom that doubles as a dressing room, featuring a striped ceiling that looks like a market stall awning and a pink bathroom framed by black linear details.

Arches feature throughout these spaces, in the form of mirrors and wardrobes as well as wall graphics.

Saadi's ground-floor office takes the place of a third bedroom. This room has a different character from the rest of the house, with details inspired by surrealist art.

Key features include a sculptural table in the shape of a hand and ceiling wallpaper depicting a cloudy sky.

Panizza hopes the "kaleidoscopic" project can serve to inspire people who see London's new-build homes as characterless compared with the city's older properties.

"We want to show it is absolutely possible to create a home with lots of personality and character. It just takes a bit of courage," she told Dezeen.

The photography is by Taran Wilkhu unless otherwise indicated. Top image is by Aude Lerin

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Dezeen's top five houses of the month for December feature a home in Japan designed as "one big room" and a "floating treehouse" on a Norwegian hillside.

Also featured in the roundup is a wooden house that steps down a hillside in Chile and the renovation of a brutalist townhouse in London.

This is the latest in our houses of the month series, where we showcase the five most popular residences featured on Dezeen in the past month from all around the world.

Read on to find out more about Dezeen readers' favourite houses this month:

Building Frame of the House, Japan, by IGArchitects

Designed by Japanese studio IGArchitects as an adaptable space for both living and working, this house was envisioned as "one big room".

"[The clients] have a vague boundary between their private and work life, therefore they were imagining a house where they can work anywhere and where they can sense the presence of each other wherever in the house," IGArchitects founder Masato Igarashi told Dezeen.

Find out more about Building Frame of the House ›

House Dokka, Norway, by Snøhetta

Architecture studio Snøhetta and engineer Tor Helge Dokka created a mass-timber home that is supported on large wooden stilts above a hillside in Kongsberg, Norway.

Named House Dokka, the home was designed to resemble a "floating treehouse".

Find out more about House Dokka ›

Brutalist townhouse, UK, by Pricegore 

In Chelsea, London, architecture studio Pricegore renovated a four-storey modernist townhouse to create a three-bedroom home. The studio embraced the 1960 building's existing brutalist design focusing on concrete elements and exposing material finishes.

"The new works take their momentum from the existing building," Pricegore co-founder Dingle Price said. "There is no contrast, either internally or externally, between the old and the new."

Find out more about Brutalist townhouse ›

Arizona house, USA, by The Ranch Mine

Phoenix-based architecture studio The Ranch Mine was informed by a nearby 1950s, mid-century modern house called White Gates for the design of this desert house in Arizona. The house has breeze-block walls and a roof cutout for a palm tree.

"Knowing the history of this home, the architects knew immediately that they had the challenging task of creating a new neighbour that should honour the legacy of the mid-century modern icon, while adding a distinctly new chapter to the story of this unique neighbourhood," said the studio.

Find out more about Arizona house ›

 Casa Ladera, Japan, by WMR Arquitectos

In Chile, WMR Arquitectos balanced a slanted wooden house named Casa Ladera on a hillside overlooking the Pacific Ocean in the village of Matanzas

The 2,130-square foot (198-square metre) house was designed to hang onto a 45-degree slope so that it has an unobstructed view of the ocean.

Find out more about Casa Ladera ›

The post Dezeen's top five houses of December 2023 appeared first on Dezeen.

As part of our review of 2023, Dezeen readers have voted Casolare Scarani by Studio Andrew Trotter the best house of 2023.

After more than 500 votes, the renovation of an abandoned 19th-century school in Puglia was the clear winner, with a third of readers picking it from the poll that ran throughout December.

Architecture practice Studio Andrew Trotter transformed the school, which was builtin the 1880s and abandoned in the 1960s, into a home that retains many of the original building's features.

It is surrounded by a stone portico that has a vaulted ceiling and these vaults are repeated inside the home, which was finished with tactile surfaces and earth-toned furnishings.

With 18 percent of the vote, Saltviga House in Norway by Kolman Boye Architects was the readers' second favourite home this year.

The low-lying weekend retreat on the Lillesand seafront was covered in distinctive cladding made from oak offcuts that was developed after the studio discovered Danish flooring brand Dinesen had a large volume of leftover wood available for use.

Closely following, with 17 per cent of the vote was O Lofos in Crete by Block722. The stone-covered home was divided into blocks that stagger down its mountainside site.

House in Rua São Francisco de Borja by Bak Gordon Arquitectos, which is clad in handmade tree tiles was the readers' fourth pick, receiving 10 per cent of the vote.

2023 review

This article is part of Dezeen's roundup of the biggest and best news and projects in architecture, design, interior design and technology from 2023.

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Raw finishes and "as found" materials informed by brutalist architecture are used throughout this home, which Portuguese studio Atelier Local has created on a nature reserve near Porto.

Called House in Ancede, the house sits on the site of a former stone ruin that it was required to roughly match in terms of its footprint and volume.

A mismatch between the documentation of the site and the built reality allowed Atelier Local to expand the footprint of the building slightly, using the existing stones to rebuild retaining walls and make space for a bathroom and staircase.

"The house is a reconstruction of sorts," said the studio's co-founders Maria Rebelo and João Paupério. "Its proportions, the slope of the roof as well as the basis for the facade's composition was set from the beginning," they told Dezeen.

"In a way, we might say that the house was found as a ready-made and re-designed 'as found', to [refer] to Alison and Peter Smithson’s famous expression," they continued.

Stepping down the sloping site, the dwelling looks out towards a nearby woodland and the River Duoro through large rectangular and circular windows, with aluminium frames finished in a bright shade of red.

The living areas and bedrooms are organised across three floors, each finished with exposed materials and minimalist fittings. These were informed by descriptions of an old brutalist house belonging to the client's family.

"We've never actually been in this house and we've never even got to see proper images of it, but it has been described over and over again during the long discussions we had with the family," explained Rebelo and Paupério.

"Thus it began to build up in our imagination: a house where there were wide and narrow spaces, light and dark spaces, and they all seemed to be equally indispensable," they added. "Somehow, the project began and tried to reconstitute the seductive brutalism of this house."

The large openings face south, illuminating the staircase and a double-height living area, while to the west and east, smaller deep-set windows provide light to more private rooms.

While the concrete block construction is visible on the interior, it has been insulated and covered on the exterior with plaster in an ochre colour that matches the surrounding earth and the yellow shade of the existing granite walls.

Based in Valongo, Atelier Local was founded in 2019 by architects Paupério and Rebelo.

In nearby Porto, a similarly raw aesthetic was adopted by local studio Anarchlab, which designed a house covered in iron bars that will gradually be overgrown by plants.

Other recently completed Portuguese houses include an angular four-storey home formed of stacks of concrete and a green-tiled residence in Lisbon.

The photography is by Francisco Ascensão.

Project credits:

Architect: Atelier Local
Team: João Paupério, Maria Rebelo, Francisco Craveiro
Contractor: Varandas & Alpendres
Carpenter: Carpimestre
Engineer: FACE, lda

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Indian studio Blurring Boundaries has used organic forms and natural materials throughout Asmalay, a curvaceous home that wraps around trees in a forest near Mumbai.

Nestled within a network of mango trees in Indian coastal town Alibag, the house was designed to showcase the connection between architecture and nature.

In response to the surrounding canopy of trees, Blurring Boundaries designed the home to have a curving form, which wraps around five of the existing mango trees on the site.

Earthy bricks and local grey stone form the walls of the home, which was topped with a sloping ferrocement roof that slants upwards to rest on one of the existing trees.

"We were captivated by the idea for the residence as a piece of sculpture rather than a mere building," studio co-founder Shriya Parasrampuria told Dezeen.

"By prioritising a seamless flow and letting the roof's form define the structure's massing, we wanted to create a truly unique and artistic living space."

A curved brick jali marks the entrance to the home, which stretches from a porch coated in blue tiles.

Inside, the undulating form creates an open-plan volume containing a series of interconnected spaces joined together by curving walls.

"The combination of a small footprint, expansive roof height, and curved corners without boundaries promises to create a sense of spaciousness and openness,"explained Parasrampuria.

Aiming to connect the interior to the surrounding nature, the studio used natural and recycled materials including locally sourced bricks, glass bottles, and stone.

"We wanted to create an earthy palette against the verdant greens of the trees in the backdrop," said Parasrampuria.

"We felt that the materiality of bricks allowed the natural light to act as a sculpting element, allowing it to create dramatic shadows and highlight the curves and contours of the building."

Beyond a winding entryway, Asmalay opens into a living and dining space topped with a blue ceiling that was designed to "draw the eye to the roof's dynamic form".

Across the walls, large oval-shaped windows help brighten the space, while grey benches that run around the edges of the room offer areas for relaxation.

Made from grey rocks and ferrocement, the benches curve up and down in places, mimicking the organic form of the building.

One bench flows into the kitchen, which is set back into one end of the home and features wooden cupboards that match the colour of the exposed brick walls.

A large glass door marks the end of the space and frames views of the gardens outside.

To the other side of the dining area, the volume branches out away from the kitchen, slimming once again to form a corridor that features a brick staircase. An organically shaped feature wall made from recycled green and orange glass bottles borders the staircase.

"The recycled glass bottle wall on the ground floor introduces a playful infusion of daylight, orchestrating an interplay of light and shadow that enriches the earthy colour palette," said the studio.

Past the circulation space, the studio added a bedroom and bathroom, aiming to create a more private area separate from the living space.

White brick walls and yellow furnishings feature in the bathroom, while the bedroom, which has a round floor plan, is finished with a yellow floor.

Additional private spaces are spread across the upper floor, which opens onto a curving balcony that wraps around a portion of the building.

Other Indian homes recently featured on Dezeen include a skylight-topped family home that doubles as an arts centre and a multi-generational home spread across four concrete volumes.

The photography is by Inclined Studio.

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Clay tiles line the front of a slender family house in San Miguel de Allende that was designed by local architect Mauricio Alonso to be in "continuous dialogue with the landscape".

Designed for a family of three, the house is located in a dense neighbourhood and occupies an oddly shaped property in a cul-de-sac. To the northeast is a city-owned park.

Providing a generous garden and a connection to the outdoors – without sacrificing privacy – were primary goals for the project.

The site conditions figured heavily into the design of the 1,948-square-foot (181-square-metre) home.

"The house proposes a way of living that starts from a continuous dialogue with the landscape in which it is located," said Mauricio Alonso, head of local studio M Aquitectura.

Just 16.4 feet wide (five metres), the house is rectangular in plan and rises two levels.

Rather than face the street, the architect rotated the home to be oriented toward a private garden, which takes up about half of the property.

Walls are made of concrete, and the side facades are lined with large windows to deliver views and daylight. Wooden louvres help mitigate heat gain and ensure privacy.

For the street-facing side of the house, the architect opted for a windowless wall.

This "blind facade" is clad in low-cost, orange clay tiles that allude to the city's historic courtyards while also giving the house a "powerful personality".

This front wall is elevated above the ground by steel columns to form a sheltered parking area. Just off this carport is a rustic staircase, which leads up to the home's main entrance.

"The access is ascending, covered with local flagstone caressing traces of the terrain that were left uncovered intentionally," the team said.

The interior features a simple and fluid layout.

The main level holds the social areas. A double-height living room occupies one side of the plan, while the kitchen and dining area are found in the centre.

The far end contains a study that doubles as guest quarters. The room can be closed off by translucent sliding doors.

An airy stairwell connects the ground level to the bedrooms on the upper floor. For a terrace adjoining the main bedroom, the architect created a distinctive trellis made of angled concrete panels.

In terms of the interior material palette, the architect focused on using concrete, steel and congona wood throughout.

"These three combined create a more welcoming, honest and versatile environment," the architect said.

"They provide a particular style to the house and express purity in a very warm way, which adapts perfectly to the conditions of the land."

Known for its colonial architecture and vibrant arts scene, San Miguel de Allende is located in Mexico's central state of Guanajuato.

Other projects there include a house with a cruciform plan and thick stone walls by HW Studio Arquitectos and a pink hotel with a lush courtyard by architect Ian Pablo Amores.

The photography is by Rafael Gamo. 

Project credits:

Architecture and landscape: Mauricio Alonso of m aquitecturA
Engineering: Arturo Gómez Villegas
Collaborators: Elias Granados, Axel Arellano, Daniel Valle

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Materials from a dismantled warehouse were used to build this courtyard house named Dailly, which local studio Mamout has nestled between two buildings in Belgium.

Dailly is arranged around two courtyards and features colourful spaces filled with reclaimed materials.

"The project stems from its urban location and the need for direct natural light in all the rooms," Mamout founder Matthieu Busana told Dezeen.

"The concept is therefore to have a low, long house lit by patios."

Dailly's exterior is kept minimal, with white-painted walls animated by large windows, portions of green tiles and exposed brickwork.

Inside, Mamout aimed to showcase a palette of reclaimed materials including brick and steel, which were sourced from a warehouse on the site that was dismantled as part of the project.

"This backyard house was built using materials reused from the dismantling of the warehouse that was on the plot," the studio explained.

"We paid particular attention to the reuse of materials on-site and off-site, including marble and glazed brick, as well as the use of natural materials such as insulation and coatings."

On the ground floor, Dailly features a double-height living room, as well as a semi-open dining space that is bordered by a wall of folding glass doors looking into the rear garden.

A large concrete archway acts as an entrance to the kitchen, which features a polished marble floor and a reflective metal island.

Accents of colour have been integrated throughout the interior, including long blue tiles that run along the bottom edge of the walls and sage-green window frames.

Above the kitchen and dining space, a fluted ceiling helps to emphasise the curving geometries across the ground floor, which frames views out to the back garden.

Beyond the kitchen, a rectangular doorway leads into a small intermediate space that runs alongside a small courtyard before opening up into the spacious, double-height living room that is decorated with blue and marble accents.

"The dual presence of arched and linear shapes stems from the choice of materials and a desire for structural authenticity," said Busana.

A sloping ceiling hangs over Dailly's living room, formed from the pitched roof that extends down to meet the neighbouring buildings on either side of the plot.

"The sloping roof considerably increases the feeling of space," said Busana.

The ceiling is finished with blue paint, while the walls are lined with reclaimed, profiled bricks. A skylight punctuates the sloping roof and lets light inside, while large windows frame views into the courtyards on either side of the living space.

A balcony with pale blue railings runs over one edge of the full-height living room, leading to a curving set of stairs that steps up to main bedroom.

Two more bedrooms and a bathroom are located on the other side of the balcony, with an additional bedroom on Dailly's top floor, where a pitched ceiling is painted pale pink.

Other Belgian homes recently featured on Dezeen include a modernist residence updated with a metal-clad extension and a 1960s woodland home restored by Mamout and Stéphanie Willocx.

The photography is by Séverin Malaud.

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Local studio 3DM Architecture has married arched volumes with a pared-back material palette to create Twentyfour, a minimalist home in Malta.

Slotted in among a series of terraced houses in Rabat, the three-storey home is designed to celebrate traditional Maltese aesthetics through modern design.

"The point of departure for this project was almost a self-awareness that we had a studio, that Malta has lost its architectural identity in the last decades, and how this could be revived," studio co-founder Maurizio Ascione told Dezeen.

3DM Architecture opted for a minimal material palette throughout the design, creating monochromatic spaces that nod to the natural colours of local stones.

"By applying minimalist principles, removing all that is unnecessary, including colour, the essence of form, material, textures, light and shadows come together to create a serene, intimate space, where the family can come together and feel one," said Ascione.

The home's exterior is animated by blocky forms and openings, as well as steps that offer access to the house from the sloping street. According to the studio, this is intended as an "evolution of terraced housing" in the area.

Set into an arched recess above the set of stairs is the front door, which is informed by traditional local archways. This leads into a dipped hallway, beyond which is an open kitchen, living and dining space.

This room extends along the length of the ground floor, lined with a marble floor and roughly textured walls and ceilings. It is filled with neutral furnishings including a wall of cupboards and a kitchen island.

The ceiling undulates over the space, mimicking the curving forms that appear throughout the project.

A gently curved sofa and a table set on three spherical marble supports in the living space are intended to evoke the shapes in traditional Maltese design.

"This synthesis between traditional Maltese architecture and a modern aesthetic is not confined to the exterior, it permeates every aspect of the residence," said the studio.

The main staircase is set to one side of the open-plan space, in front of the entrance hall. With staggered steps and a softly curved balustrade, the stairwell is topped with a circular skylight.

Across two upper levels of the home, 3DM Architecture arranged a series of bright and dark spaces designed to play with natural light. The same material palette, including hydraulic lime-plastered walls and travertine marble surfaces, continues upstairs.

The first floor features three bedrooms and two bathrooms.

On the second floor, a neutrally toned art studio borders a slim staircase, which offers access to the outdoor terrace. From the terrace, an external staircase leads to the home's rooftop.

Nestled beneath the residence, a basement level houses spaces for wellbeing and leisure, including a cave-like indoor pool and a sauna.

"A testament to minimalism, Twentyfour illuminates how architectural design can harmonise the past and the future, the traditional and the contemporary," said the studio.

Other Maltese homes recently featured on Dezeen include a contemporary residence converted from a 1995 art studio and a family home which was built into a series of heritage-listed mill buildings.

The photography is by Matthew Farrugia.

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Italian architect Antonino Cardillo has completed a house near Lake Garda featuring steep ceilings, arched doorways and a palette of textured plaster and marble.

Located in Castiglione delle Stiviere, in Italy's Lombardy region, the two-storey residence was designed by Cardillo in the spirit of "a miniature palazzo".

Called Elogio del Grigio, which means "praise of grey", the house combines classic proportions with a minimalist design aesthetic.

The building echoes the form of its red-walled neighbour, a typical northern Italian villa, but also incorporates references to traditional architecture from different parts of the Mediterranean.

The layout centres around a grand first-floor living room described as "the soul of this house".

Cardillo drew on "the rectangular cuspidate rooms of Marrakech" and "window panes somewhere between Venetian windows and the marble hammams of Istanbul" for the design.

"The project seeks to recognise and integrate some of the contributions of civilisations which are largely forgotten in Western architecture," he told Dezeen.

"It accepts Hegel's invitation to learn to see the endless greys of realities," he added, referencing the words of a 19th-century German philosopher.

Elogio del Grigio is home to a couple and their young daughter.

After visiting Cardillo's House of Dust, a Rome apartment featuring deep wall recesses and textured ceilings, the couple asked the architect to design them a family home.

The brief called for generous living and dining spaces on two levels, three bedrooms, two bathrooms, a roof terrace and a garage with space for two cars.

The building's exterior is relatively modest, with a cool grey render finish and door shutters painted in a slightly brighter green-toned grey.

Inside, the materials palette becomes more luxurious.

Slabs of Carrara marble cover the walls and floors in the first-floor living room and bathroom, with a book-matching technique to create subtle repetition within the surface patterns.

The steeply sloping ceilings are coated with a plaster mix that includes volcanic ash, which was applied with a hand trowel to create the lumpy texture.

The living room also features a custom-made granite table based on the one in House of Dust, created thanks to the support of stone contractor and previous collaborator, Daniele Ghirardi.

"Daniele had already supported my research by funding an exhibition of my sculptures at the Soane Museum in London a few years ago," Cardillo said.

Bedrooms are also located on the first floor, which is wrapped on three sides by terraces, while the lower level houses an office, the garage and the second kitchen and living space.

Other projects by Cardillo include a textured all-green gallery interior and a Sicilian grotto.

The photography is by Antonino Cardillo.

Project credits:

Architecture: Antonino Cardillo
Construction management: Giampaolo Piva
Quantity surveying: Massimo Maggi
Construction: Andrea Pennati, Giovanni Lancini, Giovanni Locatelli
Masonry: Stefano Camozzi, Marco Fontana, Osmanaj Jeton, Giuseppe Lancini, Carmelo Piterolo, Ramqaj Vehbi
Marbles and granites: Ghirardi
Windows: Wolf Fenster
Air system: Bonometti Graziano, Giacomo Averoldi

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Belgian architecture studio Mamout has refurbished a townhouse in Brussels with a series of simple alterations that "make the most of what already exists".

Located in Koekelberg, northeast of Brussels' centre, the four-storey brick townhouse had previously been given a two-storey rear extension that Mamout said had left its interior dark and "almost unusable".

Instead of reworking the entire site, Mamout opened up the centre of the home by carving out a double-height, skylit atrium. This has created the effect of two buildings, connected by a pale blue metal staircase.

The staircase links the two lower storeys containing the client's own home, while an existing staircase at the front of the home has been repurposed to provide access to a standalone apartment on the upper two levels.

In the atrium, existing openings in the walls have been reimagined as internal windows or balconies, providing views from the first-floor bedrooms onto the ground-floor living, dining and kitchen spaces.

"The building was originally an imposing eclectic-style townhouse with a large Expo 58-style extension – each has an inherent quality, but the two entities did not communicate with each other and lacked natural light," explained studio architect Sébastian Dachy.

"We tried to keep as much as possible of the existing elements in the house, turning the previous openings into interior windows or balconies, tying to blur the distinction between indoor and outdoor," he told Dezeen.

At the rear of the home, a garden room with a curved, glazed wall overlooks a patio with an outdoor seating area and a lawn leading to an existing shed.

Many of the existing internal finishes were retained but painted white, including a rough brick wall in the atrium, creating subtle contrasts in texture throughout.

Wooden floors in the front of the home give way to tiling at the rear, with the atrium demarcated by a contrasting tiled finish.

"The walls have many different textures," Dachy told Dezeen. "It was decided to paint it all white to refresh the place and give some coherence – the different textures creating a subtle vibrance," he continued.

"We wanted the [blue] stair to pop up, being the new iconic element of the place," he added.

White, textured walls and pastel colours were also featured in a previous townhouse refurbishment by Mamout in collaboration with AUXAU, which involved reconfiguring the home's interiors to improve its access to natural light.

Elsewhere in Brussels, Notan Office recently created a "micro-city" of housing on an industrial site.

The photography is by Séverin Malaud.

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Japanese studio IGArchitects conceived this home in Tokyo as an adaptable space for both living and working, with stepped living areas framed by boardmarked concrete walls.

Named Building Frame of the House, the home in Saitama was designed by IGArchitects to function as "one big room".

"[The clients] have a vague boundary between their private and work life, therefore they were imagining a house where they can work anywhere and where they can sense the presence of each other wherever in the house," founder Masato Igarashi told Dezeen.

"With such lifestyle, rather than have small spaces for compact living, the house was designed to have a large volume and scale that makes various interactions between inside and outside space," he added.

To keep the central space as open as possible, IGA organised the floors of the home as irregularly stepped mezzanine levels, connected by black-metal staircases and a ladder.

The ground-floor kitchen and first-floor bathroom both sit at the rear of the home, while the bedrooms and living spaces are at the front. Here, a large bookshelf extends the height of the southern wall.

While the side walls have been left almost completely blank, sections of full-height glazing at the front of the home provide ample natural light through the depth of the plan.

"The floors are divided to make it difficult to see the interior from the outside, which is treated like a wall," Igarashi told Dezeen.

"The way the space is used overlaps, responding to the residents' lifestyle," he continued. "The floors can turn into a seat, table, shelve, ceiling or bed."

Throughout the home, the boardmarked concrete structure has been left exposed and complemented by wooden floors and shelving and metal countertops in the kitchen.

"We selected materials that would develop their own flavour as they age, and we wanted to bring out the texture and strength of the materials and their shades in the space," said Igarashi.

"Since the site is too small to create a garden, the interior and exterior are treated equally, and the materials are unified inside and out."

IGArchitects previously created a similarly flexible living space for One Legged House in Okinama, which is wrapped by sliding glass doors that open it up to the landscape.

Other Japanese homes recently featured on Dezeen include a house in Kamakura designed by Tan Yamanouchi & AWGL as "one big cat tree" and a stripped-back "warehouse villa" in Isumi by Arii Irie Architects.

The photography is by Ooki Jingu.

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Chilean studio WMR Arquitectos has balanced a slanted wooden house with open interiors on a hillside overlooking the sea in Matanzas, Chile.

Known as Casa Ladera, the 2,130-square foot (198-square metre) residence was completed in 2022 in La Vega de Pupuya along Chile's central coast, which is known for its high cliffs and windy climate.

Rather than sitting atop the cliffs like most neighbouring houses, Casa Ladera hangs onto a 45-degree slope on the south-facing site to achieve an unobstructed view of the ocean and valley, while protecting the home from wind.

WMR Arquitectos, which is based in Santiago, positioned the home to adapt itself to the natural terrain rather than changing the earth to fit the design.

"The four levels of the house are built through a system of pillars and wooden beams, creating a structural fabric that expands from the topographic line," the team told Dezeen.

"The skeleton of the house functions as a reticulated beam that rests on the most critical part of the terrain."

The dark-coloured, locally grown pine exoskeleton serves as a frame for the glass walls that run in vertical bands along the house.

Smaller natural pine members form the mullions and add repetition to the facade, while creating a warm interior.

The home functions as a large staircase, cascading down the site, separated into steps and risers along the east quarter of the rectangular house.

Walking down from parking at the top of the cliff, primary access is located on the uphill side of the third storey, which contains a secondary bedroom and bathroom.

A small central staircase leads up to the angular fourth storey with a bedroom, bathroom, and TV room.

Stepping down from the entry, the family level contains the kitchen, dining and living rooms. A terrace wraps around the southwestern side, consuming over one-third of the floor plate.

Outside the house's enclosure, a split-level deck holds an outdoor seating area, fireplace, hot tub and garden.

The lowest storey contains the primary suite with a private terrace and service spaces.

Because of the extreme angle, many of the interior spaces are double-height on one side of the room and single-height on the other side.

The materials absorb heat and the building maximises the climate for thermal controls. The house "does not need to be heated, since its transparency allows it to receive sun throughout the day and generate spaces protected from the cold," the team said.

Meanwhile, "opening the window generates natural air conditioning, because the wind in the area is quite cold."

WMR Arquitectos notes the location of the house as both the biggest challenge and biggest success of the project. Pouring the foundation and getting the materials to the site provided difficulty and the team used a winch to hoist the structure into place, but the "radical location decision results in an architectural design inspired and adapted to its context."

Nearby in Matanzas, Raimundo Gutiérrez of ERRE Arquitectos also created a pine and glass truss house, but the single-storey residence bends horizontally around vegetation rather than conforming to the slope of a site.

The photography is by Cristóbal Palma.

Project credits:

Architects: WMR Arquitectos
Collaborators: Matteo Gargallo - Emilia Lavanchy
Engineer: Alberto Ramirez
Contractor: Florent Dromard

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A green wall and a charred-timber extension define House of the Elements, a Victorian home in London renovated by local studio Neil Dusheiko Architects.

Intended to mimic a "spa-like retreat", the Peckham home was remodelled to brighten its dark, closed-off interior and help bring nature in.

While opening up its interior to the outside, Neil Dusheiko Architects added a rear extension clad in charred timber.

"We aimed to use the existing house as a found object and rework it to explore ways how we could bring the owner closer to nature through opening up the historic Victorian structure to the elements," studio founder Neil Dusheiko told Dezeen.

"We wanted to explore how the house could use natural elements to play to the senses," he continued. "We also wanted the house to feel alive by bringing the plants in as an 'occupant' of the house."

Inside, a series of skylights, voids, and openings have been added to the late-19th-century residence, including a double-height space bordered by a living wall.

"There are large open spaces which have an audible dimension, plants that play on the sense of smell, polished plaster surfaces juxtaposed with rougher brick textures dealing with the tactile and light and dark spaces that work with our visual senses," explained Dusheiko.

House of the Elements' entrance hall and front living space have been retained, with original features including plaster mouldings and a fireplace left in place.

Finished with modern furnishings, white-painted walls and wooden floors, the living room leads into a double-height void that connects the existing portion of the home to the extension.

A large living wall runs along one side of the void, which is topped with a skylight and lets light into the interior while opening it up to views of the garden.

"The client's Sri Lankan heritage, and the work of Sri Lankan architect Geoffrey Bawa, informed much of the design approach – in particular the use of plants to create a green verdant environment full of visual interest and textures, and spaces that flow into each other to provide light, natural ventilation and views," said Dusheiko.

"The green wall, placed under a large glazed skylight that offers the planted space the full spectrum of sunlight, with sun-loving species placed closer to the light and plants requiring more shade towards the bottom."

Above the retained fireplace, a sculptural artwork by Italian artist Soda stretches up the wall bordering the void.

The living wall leads into the charred-timber extension, where a kitchen with charcoal-coloured plaster walls and metal surfaces opens onto the back garden.

On the upper level, the rooms and landings that border the double-height void feature balconies and openings that overlook the ground floor.

This includes a bathroom, where a wooden tub is placed alongside a window framing the green wall.

The first-floor bedrooms and bathrooms are finished with dark-coloured walls, designed to contrast the brightness of the other spaces in the house.

"We felt that as the house had a lot of skylights and an abundance of natural light, we could work with a more tonal colour palette that could be read against the crisp detailing of the Victorian house," said Dusheiko.

Above the first floor, Neil Dusheiko Architects added a loft extension, which contains a home office and features a large window that offers views of the treetops in the garden.

Other London home renovations recently featured on Dezeen include a basement apartment designed to feel like a wooden cabin and a Victorian terrace in Hackney that was refreshed with a colourful extension informed by 1950s American kitchens.

The photography is by Jim Stephenson.

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This pine-clad home on a forested hillside was designed by US studio Robert Young Architects to provide immersive views of nature and to offer "a sense of optimism" for a family experiencing loss.

The full-time residence sits within a river valley in Virginia, just outside of Washington, DC.

Meant to embody a "sense of connectedness between architecture and landscape", the house was designed to serve as a peaceful refuge for a woman who had recently lost her husband.

She lives there with the couple's children.

To aid in her healing process, the client – Sue Deagle, who publishes a newsletter and website about grief called The Luminist – was closely involved in the design process.

"She hoped that creating a new home would help her and her family imagine a future with a sense of optimism," said Robert Young Architects, which is based in New York.

Roughly L-shaped in plan, the home is composed of rectilinear volumes clad in dark-stained pine. The home totals 5,200 square feet (483 square metres), spread across three levels and a basement.

Providing views of nature was a guiding concern, leading the architects to design the house "from the inside out".

"The interiors are configured in a way that choreographs movement through the house in relation to outside views," the team said.

"Diagonal sight lines organize the layout and dynamically connect the interior spaces with the dense and varied woodlands beyond."

The top level contains the primary bedroom suite and was envisioned as a "forest aerie, perched high in the tree canopy".

The main level encompasses the communal spaces, along with an office, mudroom and garage. Just off the living room is a furnished screened porch, which is lifted high above the ground by steel stilts.

The lower level holds two bedrooms and a laundry room, while the basement contains guest quarters, a recreation room and mechanical space.

The interior features a mix of earthy and industrial materials, including white oak, tile and concrete.

"Oak surfaces create a sense of warmth, while concrete elements authentically convey durability and strength," the team said.

Throughout the home, windows were carefully placed to offer curated views of landscape, and certain walls were kept solid to obscure views of nearby structures.

"At the bottom of the valley, the view is anchored by a floodplain and watercourse appropriately named Difficult Run for its many obstructions," the team said.

"The house was situated and designed to celebrate everything about these sensitive ecologies."

Other projects by Robert Young Architects include a weekend home in Montauk, New York, that is clad in rough-sawn cedar plants that were left untreated so they can age naturally.

The photography is by Frank Oudeman.

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Architecture studio Snøhetta and engineer Tor Helge Dokka have created House Dokka, a mass-timber home that perches on a hillside in Kongsberg, Norway.

House Dokka comprises a stack of two timber-clad volumes, supported by large wooden stilts drilled into the rocky, tree-lined landscape.

According to Snøhetta and Dokka, who was also the client for the project, it is intended to resemble a "floating treehouse".

This look is achieved by the home's upper volume, which projects out over the hill and is supported by stilts.

It is distinguished by black-timber cladding and a pitched roof lined with photovoltaic (PV) panels and sits level with the top of the hill with a bridged entrance.

A smaller, trapezoidal volume clad with brown-stained timber extends outward beneath the upper volume, providing a terrace to the upper floor.

House Dokka's structure is made predominantly from locally sourced cross-laminated timber (CLT) and glue-laminated timber (glulam).

This forms part of Snøhetta's wider ambition to ensure the 190-square-metre is low-carbon, with other strategies including the use of PV panels for energy.

"The roof's angle and direction are specially chosen to optimise solar energy harvesting," project leader and senior architect Anne Cecilie Haug told Dezeen.

"For a home, the peak hours for energy use are in the morning and around dinner time, so here, the PV panels are oriented east to west to enable direct energy use without having to store the energy," Haug explained.

According to Haug, calculations show that an energy surplus generated by the PV panels throughout the year will exceed the amount required to power the house. As a result, the panels are expected to generate enough energy in the next 10 years to offset the embodied energy associated with the materials used to build the house.

Inside, House Dokka's mass-timber structure is left exposed, teamed with an abundance of plants and expansive openings drawing in daylight.

Black window frames, furniture and light fixtures along with green-toned walls contrast the wooden finishes.

Spread across two levels, the upper volume comprises an open-plan kitchen, dining room and living area, as well as a bathroom and main bedroom. Meanwhile, an office, a second bathroom and three more bedrooms are located in the lower volume.

Wooden stairs in the entrance corridor lead up to a 12-metre-square loft with views of the surrounding woodland.

The absence of nails used in House Dokka's timber construction process enables the structure to be easily disassembled and recycled at the end of its lifecycle.

Established in 1989, Snøhetta is an architecture and design studio founded by architects Craig Dykers and Kjetil Trædal Thorsen.

Its other recently completed projects include a hexagonal paver system for urban landscapes as well as an elliptical planetarium informed by the "movement of the stars".

The photography is by Robin Hayes.

Project credits: 

Architect: Snøhetta
Project lead: Anne Cecilie Haug
Engineer: Tor Helge Dokka
Collaborators: Kongsberg prosjektservice, Splitkon

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Breeze-block walls and a roof cutout for a palm tree are among the special features at an Arizona house designed by The Ranch Mine, which took cues from a mid-century modern dwelling across the street.

Designed for a family of four, the residence is located on a cactus-dotted site in Phoenix and looks toward Camelback Mountain, one of the city's most notable landforms.

The project's design was heavily influenced by a building across the street – a famed 1950s experimental house called White Gates that was designed by mid-century modern architect Al Beadle.

Vacant for decades, the historic house has a simple, boxy shape and white exterior screens with elliptical openings.

Upon visiting the site for the first time, local architecture firm The Ranch Mine realized the house it was designing would need to respect its iconic neighbour.

"Knowing the history of this home, the architects knew immediately that they had the challenging task of creating a new neighbor that should honour the legacy of the mid-century modern icon while adding a distinctly new chapter to the story of this unique neighbourhood," said the studio.

The team conceived a single-storey residence called White Dates, a riff on White Gates and a reference to the area's date trees.

The low-lying home consists of central blocks and a rectangular wing placed at an angle.

Exterior walls are sheathed in creamy stucco, with accents made of thermally treated Nordic pine. The landscape features flagstone walkways and desert plants.

To honour the Beadle house, the team incorporated mid-century modern elements in "fresh, contemporary ways". For example, the street-facing elevation features an enclosed patio with brise-soleil-style walls.

"The front patio is perhaps the most clear mid-century connection, using breeze-block to screen the road and focus the view towards the mountain beyond," the team said.

The front of the house also features a date palm tree that grows up through a triangular opening in the roof. It alludes to a similar design element at the Palm Springs City Hall building, designed by architect Albert Frey and completed in 1952.

Within the 4,545-square-foot (422-square-metre) house, the team prioritized views of the camel-hump-shaped mountain to the north.

The public spaces were placed in the central portion of the plan. Floor-to-ceiling glazed doors are located on both sides of the great room, enabling cool breezes to pass through the space.

To the west of the central volume is a bar that contains the primary bedroom suite. To the east is the angled wing, which holds bedrooms, an office, a den, a laundry room and a garage.

The interior design was meant to be somewhat subdued.

"The interior palette is restrained to let the mountain and mid-century design elements come to the forefront," the team said.

Finishes include concrete flooring, plaster in the main bathroom, and millwork made of walnut and white oak.

The kitchen is fitted with black-matte cabinetry and a granite island and backsplash.

The fronds of a date palm tree inspired certain details, such as the wood patterning behind the bar and a wooden screen wall that separates the kitchen from a sitting area.

Other projects by The Ranch Mine include a board-marked concrete home in Phoenix that was designed for a ceramicist and a black, multi-gabled house in northern Arizona that appears to "burst vertically from the ground".

The photography is by Dan Ryan Studio.

Project credits:

Architect: The Ranch Mine
Builder: Minnewaska

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The polycarbonate-lined Green House that architecture studio Hayhurst & Co slotted into a tight site in London has been named the RIBA's House of the Year for 2023.

Replacing an existing home in an alleyway in Tottenham, the plant and light-filled residence is modelled on a riad – a type of traditional Moroccan house built around a central courtyard.

It was hailed by the jury of this year's RIBA House of the Year prize as "a true oasis within the city".

"Green House, affectionately known as the 'Tottenham Riad', is a true oasis within the city," said jury chair Dido Milne, who is also director of Eton studio CSK Architects.

"It is both airy and cosy, bold yet respectful of its neighbours. Your eye is simultaneously drawn upwards to open sky and down and out across the living room to verdant greenery," she continued.

The House of the Year prize is awarded annually by the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) to the best one-off, architect-designed house in the UK.

Milne added that Green House was also chosen as the 2023 winner for the clients' and studio's joint ambition to "deliver a truly sustainable home", which "is evident in all of the design decisions and detailing" despite a tight budget.

"Nowhere do you feel the site or budget was restricted," she explained. "It feels both luxurious, homely, deeply private and relaxing. It's an extraordinary ordinary house and a remarkable collaboration."

Designed for a growing family, Green House comprises five bedrooms arranged around a skylit atrium. With views of gardens and a roof terrace, it is designed to maximise their connection to the outside and access to nature.

Standout details include the sliding polycarbonate screens across the exterior, which enable the family to adjust both the levels of privacy and ventilation.

Its material palette includes exposed cross-laminated timber (CLT) walls, reclaimed concrete blocks and recycled cork rubber flooring, while air-source heat pumps and solar panels are used for energy.

Green House came out top in a longlist of 20, whittled down to a shortlist of six that included Cowshed by David Kohn Architects – the studio that won last year's RIBA House of the Year.

Hundred Acre Wood by Denizen Works, Made of Sand by Studio Weave, Middle Avenue by Rural Office and Saltmarsh House by Niall McLaughlin Architects were also shortlisted.

This year's jury was made up of Milne alongside the co-founder of the architecture studio Coppin Dockray Architects, Bev Dockray, the co-founder of the architecture studio Al-Jawad Pike, Jessam Al-Jawad, and the co-founder of design-led estate agent The Modern House, Albert Hill.

"Built on a very tight budget, this generous five-bedroom family home in the Clyde Circus Conservation Area of Tottenham is an inspiring example of what can be achieved with a creative and ambitious approach to design," read their citation.

Previous winners of the RIBA House of the Year award include House on the Hill by Alison Brooks Architects and Caring Wood by architects James Macdonald Wright and Niall Maxwell.

The photography is by Kilian O'Sullivan.

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Geometric shapes, fossilised stone and English cherry wood characterise this house in Wimbledon, London, overhauled by local architecture studio Gundry & Ducker.

Named Wimbledon Villa, the studio renovated and extended the detached early 2000s property with the aim of making it feel like "a country house in miniature".

Studio co-founder Christian Ducker told Dezeen that "the existing house was of a very thin appearance and had little presence on the street". To overcome this, Gundry & Ducker extended to the side and rear of the house, added a new entrance porch and constructed a brickwork facade at the front which combines "a mixture of symmetry and asymmetry."

"This area around Wimbledon Common is home to the Edwardian Villa, and the new facade is designed to be a contemporary interpretation of this form whilst having a relationship with an adjacent listed building," he explained.

On the ground floor, the layout was adapted from one singular barn-like area into a combination of cellular and open-plan spaces.

"The house faces a busy road and communal parking area," Ducker said. "So the main living spaces were previously affected by traffic and lack of privacy, and the centre of the house by lack of light," he explained.

"The new interior layout is based on issues of orientation, daylight, sociability and privacy," said Ducker.

"You now enter through a small porch which leads to a contrasting double-height space that sits at the centre of the house, with rooflights above," he described.

Pale stone and white painted walls contrast against the rich cherry wood staircase and matching bannister. The hallway branches off to functional spaces including a storage room, cloakroom and downstairs bathroom.

"The internal plan is based on the arts and crafts layout of a central double-height hallway from which rooms are oriented to the north or south according to their use – social to the south and private to the north," Ducker explained.

Painted in pastel yellow, the ground-floor "library" features a circular porthole window at the centre of the bookshelves.

A wooden surface runs along the adjacent wall to provide a workspace with inbuilt storage below.

To the south, an open-plan kitchen, living and dining room has a material palette combination of English cherry wood and fossilised stone, which is continued from the hallway.

Kitchen cabinets were picked out in olive green against the white walls and worktops.

Geometric shapes are a repeated motif found throughout the property, including a semi-circular viewing balcony above the hallway and two circular skylights designed to allow natural light into the space.

The idea of a country house in miniature is manifested by "replicating elements of a much larger house into a 200-square-metre house," Ducker explained.

Upstairs, the balcony curves around to a "bridge" corridor, which runs perpendicular to the hallway.

This balcony connects a master bedroom with an en-suite and two dressing rooms on one side to an additional two bedrooms and two bathrooms on the other.

Gundry & Ducker was founded by Ducker and Tyeth Gundry in 2007. Other London projects by the studio include the Camden Town Brewery and a 1970s home featuring green hues and checkerboard terrazzo.

The photography is by Andrew Meredith.

Project credits:

Architect: Gundry & Ducker
Structural engineer: Feres
Contractor: Martins Builders

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Architecture studio Natura Futura Arquitectura and architect Juan Carlos Bamba have created a floating house along the Babahoyo River in Ecuador.

Situated within a centuries-old floating village at risk of disappearing, La Balsanera is designed as a model for the preservation and sustainable redevelopment of the river's depleting community.

Following the river's current closure as a commercial fluvial route, the community saw the number of floating structures decrease from 200 to 25.

La Balsanera is hoped to help revive "the tradition of living on the river", according to Natura Futura Arquitectura and Bamba.

Built for a family of three, whose livelihoods include selling food to the local community and repairing wooden boats, the 70-square-metre design highlights the river as a vital socio-economic resource.

A two-metre-wide extension to an existing platform provides terraces for them to use as "productive environments", such as a cafe seating area or anchor point for tourist boats.

"La Balsanera explores possible floating solutions that recover local artisan techniques while promoting the active and productive participation of the occupants in vulnerable communities," Bamba told Dezeen.

The home is built from wooden porticos constructed every two metres to form a gabled truss structure. This is topped by a corrugated roof that shelters the outdoor terraces and a colourful hammock.

A central space hosts a shared living room, dining area and kitchen along with two bedrooms, while two external strips at either end provide a toilet, shower, laundry space and boat workshop.

Slatted openings, known locally as "chazas", have been made from recycled wood and help naturally ventilate and cool the interior.

A bridge made from bamboo and planks of wood provides a walkway between the floating home and the mainland.

Meanwhile, shutter doors used throughout the design link the living spaces to the surrounding terraces.

Natura Futura Arquitectura and Bamba are based in Ecuador and Spain respectively.

Other projects completed by Natura Futura Arquitectura include a fitness centre featuring giant shutters and a mirrored viewing platform in the Ecuadorean countryside.

The photography is by Francesco Russo.

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A converted school in Puglia and a mountainside dwelling in Crete are among the top 10 houses to turn Dezeen readers' heads in 2023, but which is your favourite? It's time to vote!

As part of our review of 2023, we have rounded up 10 of Dezeen's most popular houses from the year and are inviting you to vote for your favourite, with the winner set to be revealed on 29 December.

Read on for the top 10, then vote here or by using the form at the bottom of the article.

A Japanese Manga Artist's House, Japan, by Tan Yamanouchi & AWGL

A Japanese Manga Artist's House is arguably the most unusual home to have been featured on Dezeen this year. Animated by a sweeping facade, the residence is intended to give the impression of earth rising from the ground.

Inside, its rooms are arranged with a split-level plan designed to maximise the space and flexibility despite the narrowness of its plot in Tokyo.

Find out more about A Japanese Manga Artist's House ›

Casolare Scarani, Italy, by Studio Andrew Trotter

The only dwelling on the list to incorporate an existing structure is Casolare Scarani, which Studio Andrew Trotter crafted from the bones of an abandoned 19th-century school in Puglia.

It is defined by tactile surfaces, earth-toned furnishings and vaulted ceilings – one of the many original features that the studio preserved in its design.

Find out more about Casolare Scarani ›

House in Quang Yen, Vietnam, by Ra.atelier and Ngo + Pasierbinski

An oversized tiled roof shelters House in Quang Yen, which received more views than any other house published on Dezeen this year.

The Vietnamese home was designed by local studios Ra.atelier and Ngo + Pasierbinski to transform a family's existing garden into a space suitable for large gatherings and sleeping.

Among its stand-out features is a double-height living room that sits directly beside a pond, partly shaded by the overhang of the roof.

Find out more about House in Quang Yen ›

Saltviga House, Norway, by Kolman Boye Architects

Oak offcuts cover the exterior of Saltviga House, a low-lying weekend retreat created by Kolman Boye Architects on the Lillesand seafront.

This distinctive cladding was developed after the studio discovered Danish flooring brand Dinesen had a large volume 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," the studio's co-founded Victor Boye told Dezeen.

Find out more about Saltviga House ›

Casa Alférez, Mexico, by Ludwig Godefroy

This sculptural home in Mexico is described by its architect Ludwig Godefroy as "a cube that crashed on the floor among the trees".

It has a monolithic, impenetrable-looking form achieved with the use of concrete, but unusual details such as a projecting walkway, a subtle cantilever and irregularly sized windows help to soften its visual impact.

Find out more about Casa Alférez ›

House in Rua São Francisco de Borja, Portugal, by Bak Gordon Arquitectos

Handmade green tiles line the upper storeys of this home, which Bak Gordon Arquitectos wedged into a row of buildings in Lisbon.

While drawing on details of its neighbours, the tiles are hoped to disguise the concrete used for the structure and help the home blend in.

"Despite some minor variations, most of the buildings keep the Portuguese 'traditional' plastered or tiled facade with openings," said the studio. "The tiles attenuate the concrete presence and act on continuity with the surroundings."

Find out more about House in Rua São Francisco de Borja ›

Devils Glen House, Canada, by StudioAC

StudioAC aimed to disguise this Canadian house as an agricultural building by cladding it in corrugated metal.

It is also distinguished by its steep pointed roof, designed to shed the large amounts of snowfall it experiences in the Bruce Peninsula winter.

Find out more about Devils Glen House ›

Spruce House & Studio, UK, by Ao-ft

Named the urban house of the year at the Dezeen Awards 2023, this residence occupies an infill site in a row of terraced houses in London.

It is crafted from cross-laminated timber (CLT) and covered in timber battens, which architect Ao-ft said aims to simultaneously fit in with the streetscape while adding "interest and delight".

Find out more about Spruce House & Studio ›

Wooden House by the Lake, Germany, by Appels Architekten

CLT was also used to create this German house by Appels Architekten, which is characterised by its boxy forms and a staggered, single-pitched roof.

A cloak of black-stained spruce contrasts with its bright interior, where the wooden structure has been painted white and is illuminated by large windows.

Find out more about Wooden House by the Lake ›

O Lofos, Greece, by Block722

Designing a home that was "discreet and respectful to its surroundings" was the goal for O Lofos, which Block722 completed in Crete this year.

To achieve this, the stone-covered home is divided into blocks that are staggered down its mountainside site and topped with green roofs to help it blend in.

Find out more about O Lofos ›

2023 review

This article is part of Dezeen's roundup of the biggest and best news and projects in architecture, design, interior design and technology from 2023.

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From a sprawling concrete villa in California with interiors by designer Kelly Wearstler to a timber-framed cottage within a Scottish ruin, here are Dezeen's top five houses of November 2023.

Our latest roundup of the five most popular residences featured on Dezeen in the last month also includes a hexagonal home in Amsterdam, a playful Sydney townhouse and the renovation of a 1960s house in rural Belgium.

Read on to find out more about Dezeen readers' favourite houses from November:

Cuddymoss, Scotland, by Ann Nisbet Studio

Architecture practice Ann Nisbet Studio inserted an insulated timber frame into a stone ruin in Ayrshire, adding a timber-clad extension to form two gabled structures connected by a glass corridor.

The resulting project was yesterday named Scotland's best new building.

Find out more about Cuddymoss ›

19 Waterloo Street, Australia, by SJB

Informed by the playful houses featured in the films of French director Jacques Tati, 19 Waterloo Street is characterised by a patchwork facade of differently shaped windows and patterned brickwork.

Australian studio SJB squeezed the structure onto a tight plot in Sydney's Surry Hills suburb, with a shop and a flat also contained within the building.

Find out more about 19 Waterloo Street ›

California concrete house, USA, by Masastudio and Kelly Wearstler

With architecture by luxury specialists Masastudio and interiors by Wearstler, this large white concrete house in California was designed to feel like a "modern ruin" reminiscent of ancient Greek buildings.

At the centre of the home is a glass-wrapped oval courtyard featuring an aged olive tree, its curving perimeter creating a gallery area for the owner's extensive art collection.

Find out more about this Californian house ›

Edge House, Netherlands, by Studio Prototype

Built in an area of Amsterdam with relaxed planning regulations, Edge House features a hexagonal footprint as a response to the triangular shape of the plot.

Dutch practice Studio Prototype gave the home a utilitarian feel, combining floor-to-ceiling glazing with stucco surfaces, stone cladding and iroko timber frames.

Find out more about Edge House ›

Kelleveld, Belgium, by Mamout and Stéphanie Willocx

Belgian architecture studios Mamout and Stéphanie Willocx stripped away previous extensions in their overhaul of this 1960s house on a sloping, wooded site.

The original frontage was restored, with full-height, sliding glass doors now opening onto a terrace that extends to form the roof of the former garage below, which was turned into a bedroom and bathroom.

Find out more about Kelleveld ›

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Informed by the greenhouses that once occupied the site, local architecture studio Hayhurst and Co added bamboo planting behind polycarbonate screens to the facade of a family home in London.

Named Green House, Hayhurst and Co created the home as an example of low-cost, low-energy housing, with a cross-laminated timber (CLT) structure and repurposed materials used for cladding and flooring.

"The design for Green House draws on the natural history and verdant character of the site, providing a contemporary and low-energy reimagining of a domestic-scale greenhouse – a family home that blurs the boundaries between inside and outside spaces and creates a bold re-greening of a once unloved site," studio director Jonathan Nicholls told Dezeen.

"Green House provides a prototype for an affordable and sustainable family home that could be replicated on other constrained urban sites or on a larger scale as terrace dwellings."

Located between two brick houses built in the 2000s, Green House was built on an unused site in Tottenham's Clyde Circus conservation area that formerly accommodated orchards, greenhouses and market gardens.

According to Hayhurst and Co, the home is fossil fuel-free, with an air-source heat pump providing its heating and solar panels on the roof generating electricity.

An atrium at the centre of the home lets natural light into the interior and naturally cools the house by stack ventilation.

The home's south-facing front elevation is clad in polycarbonate screens with bamboo planted behind, referencing the greenhouses that once stood on the site and filtering natural light into the home.

"The plants and screens softly filter the daylight whilst maintaining privacy and provide solar shading on hot summer days," said Nicholls.

Repurposed agricultural roofing sheets clad the rear elevation, which backs onto a garden. Hayhurst and Co also used reclaimed concrete breeze blocks for outdoor paving and recycled cork rubber on the internal floors to keep within a budget of £550,000.

Communal spaces on the ground floor are open-plan, with the living room at the front of the home, the dining room under the central atrium, and the kitchen at the rear opening onto the back garden.

"The rooms in the house are arranged so that all spaces have views out to greenery," said Nicholls. "Long views are created through the house, from the north to south garden and through the planted facade."

An acoustic curtain wrapping the atrium can be drawn to separate the dining area from the kitchen and living room on either side.

A CLT structure was chosen for its negative carbon footprint and left exposed to add warmth and texture to the interior, while the home's simple cuboid form was designed for cost and energy efficiency.

"The material palette of the house was kept to a minimum, with a carbon-sequestering CLT superstructure and all primary structures exposed throughout, avoiding any additional carbon-heavy and costly plasterboard linings or paint finishes," said Nicholls.

"The rational block form of the house was chosen for its material and constructional efficiencies, as well as for providing the most efficient form factor possible to minimise heat loss, energy use, and costs."

Other projects completed by Hayhurst and Co include a London flat extension clad in charred timber and a primary school with landscaped play spaces enclosed by a white aluminium mesh screen.

The photography is by Kilian O'Sullivan.

Project credits:

Client: Tom Van Schelven
Architect: Hayhurst and Co
Structures: Iain Wright Associates
M&E energy consultants: Mesh Energy
CLT contractor: Eurban
Contractor: Rebuild London

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A remote house by architecture practice Ann Nisbet Studio that is "close to perfection" has been named the winner of the RIAS Andrew Doolan Best Building in Scotland Award for 2023.

Named Cuddymoss, the home in Ayrshire is the first one-off residence to ever win the award since it was founded in 2002 by the Royal Incorporation of Architects in Scotland (RIAS).

Cuddymoss was selected as this year's Andrew Doolan Best Building in Scotland Award winner after leaving the 2023 jury "lost for words".

The home by Ann Nisbet Studio is defined by two low-lying volumes, one of which is clad in timber and another that is formed from the ruin of a stone agricultural building in Ayrshire. There is also a matching gabled outbuilding on site.

"It's a project that the jury felt came as close to perfection for its typology as we've seen," said jury chair Tracy Meller, who is a senior partner at British studio RSHP.

"[It's] an extraordinary exercise in modesty and restraint. It's a beautifully detailed building," she continued. "We were slightly lost for words."

Inside, the renovated ruin contains a double-height living space, kitchen and dining area, with bedrooms at each end, while the adjoining second building houses a separate living room.

Locally sourced Ayrshire brick was used to repair the existing structure, while reclaimed Scottish slate – some of which was sourced on-site – was used for the roofing.

The Andrew Doolan Best Building in Scotland Award is named after Scottish architect Andrew Doolan who passed away in 2004. It is awarded annually to buildings of all typologies and has a cash prize of £10,000.

Cuddymoss was chosen as this year's winner ahead of three other shortlisted projects. These have each been featured in a series of videos produced by Stephenson& and published by Dezeen and RIAS to showcase the shortlist this month.

The other three projects were a university building by architecture studio Page\Park, Laidlaw Music Centre by Flanagan Lawrence and a castle-like house by Denizen Works.

Last year's winner was a small office and cafe that Scottish studio Moxon Architects nestled within the Cairngorms National Park. Other winning projects include ​​The Macallan Distillery and Visitor Experience by Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners and the Maggie's Cancer Care Centre in Glasgow by OMA.

The photography and videography are by Stephenson&.

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Local architecture firm La Base Studio has renovated a glass and concrete home, wrapping it in a delicate privacy and shading screen on a lush site in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Known as Casa Mendoza, the 2,150-square foot (200-square metre) residence was completed in 2022 on a 3,350-square foot (330-square metre) lot at the connection of an urban grid and private neighbourhood.

The site falls at an intersection of a busy cosmopolitan street and an elevated railway infrastructure where the roads dead end into green slopes. The location exposes the home to onlookers, so the design responds to views differently between the levels.

The home was first constructed in the mid-1970s by a civil engineer, and La Base Studio demolished part of it for its current iteration.

Originally enclosed in traditional masonry walls, the team stripped the house back to its structure and preserved only the reinforced concrete slabs, columns, and beams.

The existing service space was also demolished and rebuilt underground – within a 430-square-foot (40-square metre) subterranean library and study.

The underground storey also features a half-level patio with mirror-coated walls that reflect the Japanese cherry tree and ferns above.

The ground floor – open to the garden with 360-degrees of floor-to-ceiling glazing – contains the entry, kitchen, dining space, and living room in different quadrants.

The sliding glass doors open to the garden and pool deck, blurring the interior and exterior relationship.

"These decisions reinforce the desire to convert this space into a large semi-covered space, almost as a gallery, where the true visual and physical limits are the wooden planks of the fence or the walls vegetated by native species," the studio told Dezeen.

The kitchen walls float like wooden objects in the space, holding up marble counters and sink. Speckled granite floors are juxtaposed by white ceilings.

"All materials are shown in raw finish, without coatings or paints."

A delicate, suspended staircase with open wooden treads rises to the upper level, which prioritizes privacy and seclusion in an environment that protects from sight and sound.

A lounge space comprises half of the floor plate, while three bedrooms and a bathroom are stacked on the other side.

Set in from the perimeter of the house, the upper story has a wraparound patio that serves as a transitional space with a light wood, lattice-like screen.

"It is an abstraction of the context, an idealisation of nature, a contained universe," the team said. "Almost like a nest or a basket, which allows sunlight and wind to pass through, but also protects from direct contact with the surroundings."

The bedrooms are housed in a mid-toned wooden box.

They pass from the lounge space to the patio that ends in a white tiled wall that bounces light back into the space.

Residents can see out of the upper level, but no one can see in, and vegetation planted between the glazed enclosure and the screen helps isolate the house at night.

"The opposition of exposure and protection is the common thread of the entire project."

Other recent renovations in Buenos Aires include a modernist white house by Adamo Faiden and a 1930s brick home by Torrado Arquitectos.

The photography is by Cristóbal Palma.

Project credits:

Architecture: La Base Studio
Collaborators: Ceclia huberman, Sol Barcan, Lilian Kartashian, Camila Moncarz
Furniture: La Base Studio
Landscape: Per Estudio
Equipment: Helmut Muebles, Huup Iluminación, Awanay Rugs
Art: Luna Paiva, Amour Leopard, Michelle Dabul, Nahuel Vacino

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Indonesian studio Ismail Solehudin Architecture has playfully adapted the forms and materials found in traditional Javanese homes for Distracted House, a family residence in Jakarta.

Distracted House is finished in a mix of concrete, brick and plaster and topped by an angular clay-tile roof based on those of traditional houses in the area called joglo.

The distinctive intersecting forms of the home are the result of a large communal space at its centre, which has been "twisted" so that the family can face the qibla – the direction of the Kaaba in Mecca – when praying.

"This house has been distracted because of one action of rotating one of the rooms so that it can face towards the qibla, a design action that is our solution to the needs of the residents," said Ismail Solehudin Architecture principal Ismail Solehudin.

"The character of the space obtained is a sense of spatial experience in the communal area and spatial disorientation from the existing landforms, causing a 'messy' impression," he told Dezeen.

The irregular spaces formed by the angular room at the home's centre have been used to create small lightwells and green areas, with large folding doors and perforated concrete walls providing light and ventilation.

To the west, a rectilinear block contains the home's bedrooms across two storeys. They are connected by a skylit spiral staircase, while a corridor leads to the central communal area.

Reflecting the interior organisation, the projecting rectangular cones of Distracted House's roof are also placed at different angles. This traditional joglo roof form is also updated with projecting elements such as window boxes.

The large overhang of the roof extends northwards to shelter a parking area at the front of the home, and an external terrace overlooking a swimming pool at the rear.

Internally, spaces have been finished with dark wooden floors and exposed concrete, brick and tile walls. Internal openings create a layering of views as well as ample access to light and air.

"Our efforts for this building are that it can still blend in with the environment but have its own character with the use of vernacular Indonesian roofs, transformed to be more contemporary but still reminiscent of the original form," explained Solehudin.

On the roof, paved walkways connect a series of terraces sheltered by the roof sections. One of these contains a hammock-like area above a lightwell that cuts through the home.

Other homes on Dezeen with distinctive tile roofs include House in Quang Yen that Ra.atelier and Ngo + Pasierbinski arranged around a central courtyard and Tile House by The Bloom Architects.

The photography is by Andhy Prayitno of Mario Wibowo Photography.

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Architecture studio Wallmakers has reimagined a traditional roof by adding skylights that double as seating for an arts centre and home in Kerala, India.

Established by a family of musicians, Nisarga Art Hub is both a private residence and arts centre designed as a space for the community to congregate and engage with art and cultural events under one large roof.

Indian studio Wallmakers punctured skylights into the roof to draw natural light into the communal space below.

"Even though these traditional roofs are famous for being the ideal insulators and temperature regulators , it's a waning feature in contemporary architecture today," the studio explained.

Working with the roof's 35-degree angle, the studio utilised the skylights to create seating that overlooks a performance space formed by wooden planks across a linear pool.

An external staircase leads out from the central living area to provide public access to the roof and performance space.

The hub was organised around a double-height, communal living area with built-in seating that provides views over the neighbouring paddy field.

Two bedrooms on the ground floor are situated off the main space, while a third bedroom and recording studio occupy the upper floor.

"Nisarga is a residential space that transcends the traditional boundaries of a home, providing a space for art and culture for the community," the studio told Dezeen.

"Blending traditional architectural elements with some new design aspects, this residence is a dynamic space for artistic expression."

Monolithic, angular walls define the residence, forming sheltered entrances on the facade as well as dividing the interior living spaces.

Built using construction debris and site soil, these walls are load-bearing, and support a four-metre cantilever on the upper floor.

According to the studio, laterite blocks reclaimed from demolition sites used to form the verandah were intended to evoke the "charm of the traditional Kerala homes".

The roof was made using tiles reclaimed from a local school, while discarded racks sourced from a scrapyard were used as shading on the openings creating dimly lit bedroom interiors complemented by a dark wooden material palette.

The communal areas, which are used for hosting visitors and dining, operate as "open flexible spaces", with a lack of walls and partitions enabling versatile use of the space.

Wallmakers is an architecture studio established by Vinu Daniel in 2007. Along with Nisarga Art Hub, other projects completed by the studio include a spiralling house with snake-like walls in Shoolagiri and a residence featuring curved brick walls in Trivandrum.

Earlier this year, following criticism on social media, Daniel defended his studio's use of unpaid internships, which he claims have an important educational benefit.

The photography is by Syam Sreesylam.

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Blocky forms and triangular cutouts intersect to form Casa Cielo, a monolithic house that Mexican studio COA Arquitectura has added to a forest in Jalisco.

Nestled among trees on the triangular site, the Mexican home is coated in textural, earth-toned plaster and punctured by angular openings, balconies, and semi-outdoor spaces.

"Our aim was to create one monolithic piece of one earth-toned material in the forest using the least possible elements," said COA Arquitectura architect Tania Robles.

"We sought for a peaceful integration with the landscape," Robles told Dezeen.

Responding to the site's position on the border between a dense forest and a residential area, COA Arquitectura designed the home with ranging levels of privacy.

"On the sides where we had a very tight side yard with very close neighbours, all the apertures had to be small," it explained. "And on the rear yard, which is the least occupied side, we aimed for a full aperture to the dense forest, to have a direct connection, where there are no neighbours."

Casa Cielo's entrance is marked by a large rotating wooden door, which is set beyond a series of stone steps that stretch through a gap between the home's textural walls.

"The house is both a transitional space between the street, city and the forest and a refuge from both," it added. "Hence the emphasis on the entry experience, to leave behind the outside so that the foyer and the murmur of water welcome us."

Beyond the entrance is an open space that extends the length of the home. Here there is a stair to the home's upper floors and a large opening that connects to the living and dining area.

On the other side of the staircase is a kitchen with wooden cupboards and a worktop that wraps around the edges of the room.

Bordered by a wall of sliding glass doors, the open-plan living and dining space is fitted with a granite bar and casual seating areas. The glass doors follow the inverted, triangular opening that cuts into the room, leading onto a raised patio with steps to the forest.

The middle floor is filled with an arrangement of living spaces. Texturally plastered walls and wooden joinery are paired with grey tiled floors throughout the interior, maintaining the home's minimal material palette.

On the top floor, the main bedroom and bathroom also feature large openings that look out onto the forest, while two additional bedrooms open onto semi-outdoor spaces.

"We thought that on the rear side, where we could open the most, is where the public program should be, to be able to engage more with the forest," said Robles.

"On the front, we decided to place the kitchen and the two guest bedrooms, the latter of which have cornered patios that allow a full opening to the side but at the same time protect them from the close neighbours," added the studio.

Other Mexican homes recently featured on Dezeen include a residence centred around a tile-clad bar and a minimal pink dwelling sandwiched between two buildings.

The photography is by César Béjar Studio.

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Australian architect John Ellway has renovated an early 20th-century cottage in Queensland into an open family home intended to encourage indoor-outdoor living.

Named Cascade House, the residence in Paddington required minimal renovations but was overhauled by Ellway to create more playful spaces for the family's three children.

It has been updated with a staggered interior arrangement defined by level changes and open spaces that aim to evoke the feeling of living in a garden.

"The stepping plan allows the living spaces to open onto grass and across the pool, creating an uninterrupted connection to the garden," Ellway told Dezeen.

"The addition creates a place to gather for conversation, meals and games."

Ellway's goal for Cascade House was to keep alterations as light-touch as possible, updating the home with improved insulation, freshly painted walls and a lean-to extension at the back that contains two bathrooms and a laundry room.

"The existing cottage received minimal intervention," said Ellway. "Really only having its floors sanded, walls painted, insulation added and electrical replaced," he continued.

"This was partly to manage cost, but mainly because its original hardwood structure and wall linings were still in great condition as they were protected from rain and sun by deep verandahs which had extended its life."

Cascade House's updated entrance leads onto a long open-plan kitchen and dining space with grey cement-coated walls. Here, a series of birch-plywood units topped with a granite worktop wrap around the end of the room and overlook an outdoor swimming pool.

Set into the lowest level of the site, this open space also features a wall of folding glass doors that allow it to open up to a tree-lined courtyard outside.

"The choice of interior finishes, particularly with the kitchen and bathroom cabinetry, ended up as a collaboration with my client and designer Jacqueline Kaytar," said Ellway. "The birch plywood was a direction she wanted to head in from the very start."

A set of concrete steps leads up to the next level of the house, where a living space fitted with a built-in corner sofa offers views over the rooms and pool nestled a metre below.

"With a four-metre level change across the site, breaking up the sequence into a series of split levels mediated this topography creating spaces to pause as you move higher," said Ellway.

"Changes in level manage privacy, with the cottage being the most private. Bedrooms within can be left messy," he explained. "There is an implied permission to be sought before a visitor is invited to continue stepping up further."

Stepped up from the living area, a porch that opens onto an L-shaped veranda connects the more communal side of the home to the private spaces. These are contained within the cottage's main volume, bordering the opposite edge of the central courtyard.

Four bedrooms branch from the hallway, each featuring white-painted timber surfaces and high ceilings that help to brighten them.

Cascade House is complete with a playroom, laundry room and a pair of bathrooms coated in white tiles at the other end of the cottage.

Other Australian houses recently featured on Dezeen include a Melbourne home that uses perforated brickwork to create private spaces and a cottage extension fully coated in Australian hardwood.

The photography is by Toby Scott.

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Mexican architecture studio Lucio Muniain has created Casa HMZ, a brutalist house with raw board-formed concrete walls in San Luis Potosí, Mexico.

Completed in January 2023, the 8,600-square foot (800-square metre) house – known as Casa HMZ – was designed as a sculpture that you can live in, and follows Mexican architect Luis Barragán's approach of creating moments of mystery and discovery in addition to the traditional living spaces.

"The house is based on that unique theme: creating spaces that dramatize the path in-between typical domestic spaces," architect Lucio Muniain told Dezeen.

"Mass, volume, textures and light are key elements that define it."

The heavy rectangular house sits on a golf course, where its solid appearance contrasts with its surroundings.

However, its recessed windows – tucked into niches of varying depth – offer the interior spaces wide views of the surrounding landscape.

Entirely constructed in raw gray concrete poured into handmade wooden formwork, both the interior and exterior rely on light, shadow, height and compression.

On the interior, the floors are covered in tropical Tzalam hardwood and travertine stone.

White plaster ceilings lighten the spaces, while steel and glass serve as accents to the heavy concrete.

The ground floor contains the public spaces: a living and dining room, a kitchen and a library that open up like terraces and allow wind to blow through the interior spaces.

The northwestern edge of Casa HMZ holds the primary suite. A three-car garage is located on the eastern corner of the house, while a double-height exterior patio space sits in the southern corner, where it is shaded by deep concrete beams.

"The use of the house maintains an informal and comfortable concept that brings an aspect of comfortable dwelling being a dramatic sculpturesque architectural piece," the studio said.

Two spiral staircases rise up to the second storey, which contains three large suites, two small suites, a central lounge and a walkway that overlooks the patio through a glass wall.

In the future, the two upstairs bedrooms, which are currently used as children's bedrooms, could be used as guest rooms or studios.

"Corridors, patios, double heights, paths, dramatic changes of scale, and other rhythms define this habitable sculpture," Muniain said. "These 'new' proposed spaces are the ones that create the magic of routes and paths towards basic needs."

Muniain noted that the biggest challenge of the project was constructing an all-concrete form — but believes that the material's imperfection adds to the design's beauty.

Other recent brutalist projects constructed in Mexico include a breezy hotel designed by Seattle-based Hybrid and Mexico City-based Palma and a cube-shaped vacation home designed by Mexico City-based Ludwig Godefroy.

The photography is by Edmund Sumner.

Project credits:

Architect: Lucio Muniain
Project development: Juan Carlos García, Michel Hernández, Gustavo Morales, Jose Luis Arroyo

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Belgian architecture studios Mamout and Stéphanie Willocx have refurbished a 1960s home in Hoeilaart, stripping away previous extensions to celebrate the "spirit and quality" of its original design.

Located in a wooded area, the Belgian home was originally designed in 1962 for a group of musicians.

It comprises a brick and glass pavilion and a concrete blockwork garage, which step down its gently sloping site.

Over time, numerous additions to the home and its garden had distracted from its original structures and their relationship to the landscape, and so its new owners tasked Mamout and Stéphanie Willocx with restoring this condition.

"The house was originally a cabin fully glazed and nested in nature," Mamout founder Sébastien Dachy told Dezeen.

"With time, the previous owners have added many elements such as extra veranda, extra walls, and terraces, until it was unrecognisable," he continued.

"We tried to get back to the fully-glazed house and we replanted nature just next to the house, so it feels like it is surrounded by vegetation, blurring again the distinction between inside and outside," added Dachy.

By removing extensions to the home, the original frontage was restored with full-height, sliding glass doors. These open onto a terrace extending onto the roof of the former garage below.

A living, dining and kitchen area occupies the upper building, alongside the main bedroom and a study. Here, the original brick walls have been painted white and the wooden ceiling restored.

Metal kitchen counters, linoleum flooring and a curved wooden staircase in the dining area have been introduced, but chosen to echo the home's original character.

"We highlighted the existing elements such as the wooden structure, the wooden ceiling, the brick walls, the doors," Dachy told Dezeen.

"New elements, such as flooring in rosemary-green linoleum, the small round plywood staircase and the kitchen, were designed to integrate to the existing while subtly asserting their identity as new objects," he continued.

The partially sunken concrete garage has been turned into a bedroom and bathroom for the client's children, with a "stair tunnel" connecting it to the main home.

Its original garage doors have been removed and four tall windows now overlook the garden, which was curated by landscape architect Hélène Mariage to be a "naturalist punk garden" planted with a wide variety of species.

Mamout previously worked alongside Stéphanie Willocx, as well as local studio LD2 Architecture, to convert a former cigarette factory in Brussels into a council office.

Elsewhere in Belgium, architecture studio ISM Architecten also recently completed a mid-century house renovation. Named Beev, it was carried out to improve space efficiency.

The photography is by Séverin Malaud.

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Architect Tariq Khayyat has designed The Fold, a sculptural housing development in Dubai that features curved facades and aims to create a "communal oasis" behind a main road.

The Fold, which comprises 28 terraced townhouses, is located along the large Al Wasl Road in Dubai's Jumeirah district and was designed to have a more organic feel than neighbouring developments.

"We wanted to plant a tulip field on the Al Wasl Road," Tariq Khayyat Design Partners founder Khayyat told Dezeen.

"So when you drive along, suddenly you have this tulip field. Each base has a single-stem tulip."

Tariq Khayyat Design Partners (TKDP) used glass-reinforced plastic (GRP) to create a twisting, abstract "tulip" shape on each facade, which gives the buildings a sculptural look.

"The bespoke 12-metre double-curved GRP components of the villas' envelope are not a mere aesthetic addition, yet serve as connecting points coherently adjoining the volumes, giving continuity to the overall ensemble," the studio said.

The homes all have three to four bedrooms and back onto each other along a 200-metre plot of land, a layout that also affected the studio's design decisions.

"We stepped the buildings so there's a bit of privacy as well, there's balconies," Khayyat said.

"We had to work closely with the contractors on the interfaces because the white part of the facade is GRP. The brown at the back is glass fibre-reinforced concrete (GRC) and the louvres are powder-coated aluminium."

TKDP also aimed to create the shape of the development as a "linear spine".

"It's repetitive but if you come during the day at certain times, the shading casting on the tulips is beautiful," Khayyat said.

To Khayyat, it was important for The Fold to become its own, quieter space behind the busy Al Wasl Road.

"For any piece of architecture, we are placemakers; as architects, we have a responsibility," he explained. "So we wanted to make this project as a kind of communal oasis apart from the main road."

The intention was also to create a different kind of architecture than that, which people often associate with Dubai.

"I think people are sick of going vertical in Dubai and skyscrapers," Khayyat said. "I think people are looking for a bit of an experience and identity."

The client was initially worried that the renders would be unrealistic but Khayyat says the end result ended up being very close to the original visuals.

"The client was scared – rightly," Khayyat said. "They're beautiful renders but quite often architects do fantastic renders and then you see the final quality..."

"The best compliment I received when I presented this project to potential clients was when they asked me 'So, where are the actual photos?' and I said 'These are the actual photos'."

The Fold was unveiled during Dubai Design Week, which also featured a number of biomaterial installations, including this year's Abwab pavilion Of Palm by Abdalla Almulla.

The photography is by Luke Hayes.

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US architecture firm Olson Kundig and Canadian designer Erica Colpitts have renovated a mid-century house near Vancouver, warming the modernist structure with natural materials and neutral colours.

The residence is surrounded by tall cedar trees on a quiet plot in Edgemont, a village-like neighbourhood of North Vancouver, across the water from the Canadian metropolis.

Its new owners are a family of four who relocated to the West Coast from New York City, looking for a community to put down roots.

Olson Kundig, which has an office in nearby Seattle, was asked to update and slightly expand the building to meet the owners' needs while respecting the original design.

Locally based Erica Colpitts was brought on to complete the interiors with a softer, warmer feeling than typical mid-century designs.

"The pure challenge of this home completely appealed to me," said Colpitts. "My task was to meld Olson Kundig's overall design for the home with an ever so slightly soft and romantic interior."

Like many homes from the period, the building has a low-slung form, a shallow roof pitch and large expanses of glass across its facades.

Blackened steel structural elements were highlighted throughout the interior, and their dark colour is repeated across several other elements.

These range from the guardrails and supports for the staircase unit, which connects the home's multiple split levels, to a custom hood and shelving in the kitchen.

The staircase is separated from the lounge by a huge bookcase that is original to the house, along with a red-brick fireplace on the other side.

All of the primary living spaces run along the back of the home, in the single-storey portion, facing the landscaped garden and a plunge pool through huge windows.

Wide-plank flooring and a wood-covered ceiling connect the open-plan areas, which culminate at the dark-stained kitchen.

The hues and materials chosen for the these spaces are warm and inviting, such as cream surfaces and heathered oatmeal textiles paired with cognac-coloured leather, dark flax, and deep grey.

"This home has a decidedly neutral colour palette to go with the natural materials selected; however, it is warmly neutral and texturally layered," said Colpitts.

"Where colour was used, we wanted those colours and their textures to be reminiscent of a gentleman's library," she added.

The bedrooms, bathrooms, and additional living areas are organised within the two-storey side of the house, where the same design aesthetic continues.

On the exterior, weathered ebony siding and a Corten steel front door were added in keeping with the building's modern-industrial appearance.

"This home is a juxtaposition of all good things," Colpitts said. "Dramatic and serene. Rustic and refined. Industrial and romantic. Exquisite and comfortable."

The mid-century architecture style remains incredibly popular with homebuyers across the US and Canada, which has led to many renovations that align these residences with contemporary living.

Recent examples include a Hamptons home that owner Timothy Godbold transformed to resemble a lair from a James Bond movie, and the former seaside home of modernist architect Henry Hill respectfully overhauled by Studio Schicketanz.

The photography is by Ema Peter.

Project credits:

Architect: Olson Kundig
Interior design: Erica Colpitts Interior Design
Contractor: Brent Braybrook / Braybrook Projects
Millwork: Robin Woronko / Intempo Interiors
Landscape architect: Amelia Sullivan
Metalwork: Drabek Technologies

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Birds, butterflies and trees are considered co-owners of Labri, a glass house in Vietnam designed by local studio Nguyen Khai Architects & Associates.

The 55-square-metre home, which is shortlisted in the Urban house category of the Dezeen Awards, was commissioned by a couple for a site beside a large pond in the city of Hue.

Nguyen Khai Architects & Associates (NKAA) was given a simple brief that only requested one floor of living space and the inclusion of lots of outdoor areas.

The studio took this as an opportunity to design a home that is as much for the client as it is for local wildlife and plants, which it said now make up "the majority of the living members".

"We asked ourselves what it would feel like to live under one roof with our botanic friends," the studio told Dezeen.

"It was our wish to create a deeper connection between humans and nature in this modern and technological world."

Labri's living spaces are divided into four staggered blocks connected by pathways and formed of a mix of glass and concrete. Each one is covered in sprawling vines and is home to its own large rooftop frangipani tree.

NKAA "randomly" placed the different-sized blocks on just over half of the 100-square-metre site, giving up the rest of the plot to a series of gardens and inner courtyards to encourage local wildlife.

The roofs, which are accessible by fixed ladders, are intended to emulate the feeling of walking over a mountain while the four blocks are intended to evoke caves inside.

"Taking a walk on the top of the house is like walking through the rolling mountain range. Under the mountains, there are caves that are cool and safe," said NKAA.

Inside Labri, one of the blocks contains a living and dining space, while another contains a kitchen. The other two comprise a bathroom and sleeping area.

The blocks are unified by their deliberately simple designs, free of internal partitions and solid walls allowing residents to "see through every space". However, some privacy is provided to the outside by the vines and greenery.

NKAA's combination of concrete and glass throughout the home was chosen to achieve a minimalist look, which it said was suited to the "concept of Labri, in which everything is just bare, simple and original".

To prevent overheating, several openable doors and windows were used to facilitate natural ventilation, while the greenery helps to shade the interiors. Labri's proximity to the pond also helps cool the air during the summer months, NKAA said.

Greenery is a popular feature in many Vietnamese houses. In Ho Chi Minh City, MIA Design Studio recently created a concrete home with protruding cuboid planters.

Another Vietnamese studio that often combines plants with architecture is Vo Trong Nghia Architects, with recent examples including the Bat Trang House and Ha Long Villa.

The photography is by Hiroyuki Oki.

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