House B&R by ECOING

The design concept is based on the premise that each room offers a unique experience, while at the same time the spaces create an integrated whole merging with the environment, ensuring a vacation stay in a natural seaside and Mediterranean ambience. The surrounding autochtonous vegetation further contribute to such an atmosphere. The villa’s architecture is presented as a playful white block opened by large glass walls with magnificent vistas and contact with the environment.

House B&R, Sevid, Croatia, by ECOING
Photography by Marko Ercegović, Vojo Bašić

Wadi Penthouse by platau

Located in Wadi Abu Jamil at the Beirut central district, the project is an interior refurbishment of a two-floor penthouse completed by Lebanese design studio platau for a family of four. the original arrangement of the penthouse presented a fragmented circulation between both levels, with poor spatial interaction and a narrow main foyer. During its development and execution phases, the project became centered around creating architecture in the light of local craftsmanship constraints.

Wadi Penthouse, Beirut, Lebanon, by platau

House Rheder by Falkenberg Innenarchitektur

The floating spacial sculpture in the park In a time when there are more questions than answers, more choice than decisions and more opportunities than hours per day, there is a great risk to succumb to haste. The new challenge of our everyday lives today is to omit the unimportant and give the essential more space. To feel connected with nature is an integral part of our lives. It gives us peace and support, space for thoughts and grounding in the hectic pace of our age. Through simple observations and the mechanisms of action the old but newly rediscovered human desire for naturalness, simplicity and clarity has been embraced in the architecture of House Rheder. The perceptibility of different lighting scenes, the visualization of natural colours, shapes and movements in the design of the house is simultaneously the means and the intent of our design.

House Rheder, by Falkenberg Innenarchitektur

F House by Pitsou Kedem

Since the dawn of history, ‘public’ architecture – the architecture constructed by institutions of church and state, served as a tool in shaping the consciousness of the masses. Its massive dimensions, layout of spaces, and choice of materials, were all done with the objective of creating in the viewer and visitor a sense of moving between dimensions – from the day-to-day, the simple and the often inferior – to a place that is sublime, inspiring and of awesome majesty – homes to those among the people raised to privilege- the representatives of God on earth.

The Pharaohs in Ancient Egypt, influenced by the Nile which flows in linear manner, designed their temples as a voluminous physical experience. En route, temple visitors move over long stretches that become more convoluted and ever deeper, passing through spaces where each exposes a clue to the next, and where each transition appears to take you closer to the exalted and the shocking, which only the favored will get to see.

Western modern architecture sought to break free of its propaganda-based foundations and serve as a reflection of the values of a society, its culture, and its technological capabilities. It is intended to serve the public and the objectives of a nation’s government – no longer in the form of holy places, but as functional public buildings that are welcoming and democratic in nature. Accordingly, the importance of changing the mind-set of the visitor has been almost entirely absent from the design discourse in recent centuries.

When it comes to ‘grassroots architecture’ – namely, the architecture used in planning private residences – the experience of a change in consciousness upon entering a house is hardly ever thought of nowadays in the design process, having lost its importance quite some time ago. The living spaces and the living room are thus made as one piece, separated from the street by nothing more than a door, both physically and metaphorically.

The house under discussion here is about this experience. It is this dynamic that is generated in its design, explaining it to the visitor simply by placing him or her at its center from the first moment they stand in front of the facade facing the street — an opaque monolithic slab, covered in dark stone. The impermeability of the wall is softened by an avenue of young trees directing the visitor along the length of the paved footpath, directly into an inner courtyard surrounded by a semi-opaque stretch of wood, the first in a series of internal courtyards that form a key principle in the design of the house.

Walking along the path, as indeed the entry into the enclosed grounds, is part of the process of separating from the outside world and contemplating the present moment more deeply. Full attention can now be given to the structure, captured in its spaces like a prisoner – as we stand in front of a large, transparent curtain wall on which we can observe what is going on in the house in absolute transparency, something reserved for visitors invited because they appreciate such loveliness.

Although the facade facing the street is designed as an opaque mass and seems to hold an enigmatic secret, as soon as one crosses the line of the wooden ‘arbours’, the spaces of the house are suddenly visible in all their simplicity. The process of stepping into opaqueness and then catching sight of the private interior as it emerges from the sealed, the hidden, and the monolithic, into an open and light-filled space, would almost seem to confirm that you have entered the place now exposed – the private parts of the house. Here the geometry is simple and minimalist, and is clean and transparent in its form and materials, almost as if it were someone that had turned all his cards face up on the table.

The other internal courtyards, as well as the glass balustrade that encloses the swimming pool, separating it from the other outside spaces, seemingly bring together all the visitor’s experiences into a focused and penetrating experience, one that clearly spells out the boundaries of what is permitted and possible, and defines the house as a private and intimate experience.

F House, by Pitsou Kedem

Residence VDB by Govaert & Vanhoutte Architects

Residence VDB, by Govaert & Vanhoutte Architects

The Junsei House by Suyama Peterson Deguchi

At the water’s edge a structure stands properly. In the periphery, a ferry landing and the echoes of extinct maritime sheds,
it nestles in respectful and appropriately, embracing it’s context. Genuine materials, precise details, a place personified by purity. Slowly unveiling itself, it defies definition of program and typology. Respectful, timeless.

The Junsei House, by Suyama Peterson Deguchi
Photography by Charlie Schuck

The Quest by Ström Architects

The site is heavily wooded and enjoys a beautiful southerly aspect with a view over the Durlston Country Park. Early on, we established the advantages of a single-storey building; it would suit the retired clients’ future needs, give an elegant solution to the steeply sloped site and allow a simple arrangement of spaces. At the same time, the design reduces the visual impact from across the valley when looking back towards the house and helped the scheme from a planning point of view.

The sloping site – with protected mature trees – very much dictated the positioning of the dwelling. Access is via the front of the property, so we made use of a retaining wall, faced in local Purbeck stone, to define different levels and visually mask the vehicular route, maintaining a clear view from the living spaces across the valley.

The single-storey house cantilevers over the retaining wall to deal with the level changes and views. The large cantilever has been achieved through two concrete planes: the floor and roof acting together like a space beam. The concrete structure is then in-filled with simple timber dry-lining, leaving the concrete frame visible externally.

The house exemplifies our belief that simplicity and honesty of construction underlie good design. The initial concept and design drivers are instantly recognisable in the building, and we strive to retain this clarity of intent without adding anything unnecessary to the building. We think carefully about how we build our buildings and work closely with our engineers to ensure an architecture founded in such basic things such as structure, details, materials and order.

The Quest, Swanage, UK, by Ström Architects
Photography by Martin Gardner

QL House by Visioarq Arquitectos

The QL House is located in one of the most exclusive areas of Algarve, on the Portuguese southern coast, a singular presence in an essentially residential neighbourhood. From where it was erected it is possible to see captivating surroundings: golf courses, residences, the estuary and, dominating the background, the Atlantic Ocean.

The QL House project was an exercise in balancing spaces and landscape integration. The articulation of two overlapping and perpendicular spaces generated not only a particular spacial dynamic, but also different visual relations between full and empty, light and dark – caused by the dynamic of shadows – between private areas, semi-private areas and the view of the surrounding landscape. Two stories and a basement encapsulate a precise functional program: garden, swimming pool, sun room, living and dining room, bathrooms, a regular kitchen and a summer kitchen, four bedrooms, an office and space for a playroom. Circulation takes place through a continuous stairway along the indoor garden, which illuminates all the indoor spaces in this home. This nuclear garden structures the direct interaction between the entire indoors and the outdoors, gifting all spaces of the QL House with the luxury of natural lighting.

QL House, Faro, Portugal, by Visioarq Arquitectos
Photography by Fernando Guerra | FG+SG

Casa na Mata by Studio MK27

Casa na Mata, Guarujá, Brazil, by Studio MK27

Ikema Island House by 1100 Architect

This beachside house on Japan’s Ikema Island is perched on a concrete base to ensure the living spaces inside enjoy an optimal view of the East China Sea.

Ikema Island House, Japan, by 1100 Architect