Category: House

House in Koamicho

This house in Hiroshima, Japan was designed by Suppose Design Office. The house experiments with the boundaries of inside and outside; some of the rooms are inclosed, while others act as “garden rooms” and are exposed to the elements. The design allows the inhabitants to experience interior and exterior as a continuous flow of space, blurring the traditional distinctions between the two.

Two children’s bedrooms and the master bedroom are on the main floor, along with three garden spaces which are accessible from each room. The second floor holds the living spaces and looks down into the gardens on the lower level. The house is quite small, only six rooms in total. Nonetheless, it serves as an elegant living space for this young family.

I am a huge fan of the layout of the rooms and the materials. The staggering of the garden spaces with the interior spaces gives the house an airy feel and allows for tons of natural light. The lightness of the gardens is contrasted with the heavy concrete walls, which have been left bare to preserve the integrity of the material. This is a house full of opposites: heavy and light, inside and outside, wide and narrow. The contrasting elements come together for a beautiful experience which proves the saying: opposites attract.

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Long Tall House

Located in Tokyo, Japan, the Long Tall House is designed by the Japanese architecture firm SPACESPACE. The home is sandwiched between two traditional residential buildings in a busy neighborhood. This home acts as a clean white escape from the chaos of the big city.

As the name suggests, the house is long and tall. Five stories span across the 4 x 16 meter site. The home is partially built into a retaining wall, creating the condition for two floors of basement. The basement levels are made from concrete, while the upper levels are clad in white timber. The north and south facades are covered with aluminum panels that can be raised or lowered to shade the street-adjacent windows. The interior is elegant and functional. A narrow spiral staircase provides the circulation between floors. White walls and hardwood floors provide a lightness and livability to the space. All of the storage is hidden within or behind the walls.

This house truly illustrates how to make the most out of tight spaces. The architects took an unusually shaped lot and turned it into a wonderful family residence. This house is both simple and complicated: simple because of the calming materials and clean functionality, and complicated because of the unique solutions to a restrictive space. This home is a design oasis I would love to return to each day.

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Finnon Glen House

Bringing slightly different layer to today’s post with the Finnon Glen house in VIC, Australia designed by Doherty Lynch. Shortlisted for the Australian Interior Design Awards this year (among other excellent projects), I was mostly attracted to the balanced combination between architectural clarity and the ease of the furnishings.

The result seems like a natural gesture by the designer without forced and unnecessary design features but with just enough visual interest  to please the eye. Moreover, this type of design allows flexibility and opportunity for the clients in their day-to-day lifestyle.

Would love to hear your thoughts.

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Studio GT SP

Remodeled by Brazilian architect Guilherme Torres, this building is originally a 1940′s construction and the former home to Victor Brecheret, famed Italian-Brazilian artist and sculptor. After his death in the 1950′s, for decades it served as a foundation of part of his collection and a deposit, being then acquired and re-designed by Torres as his own home and work space.

The premise was to update the building, reflecting Torres’ contemporary language and preserving the basic structure. The floor plan hasn’t suffered many changes, mainly openings and finishing materials. The addition of a retractable glass roof, to be opened on summer days, helps to maintain a mild climate. The latticed wooden structure, descendant of the arabic mashrabiya, is an element often used in contemporary Brazilian architecture to assuage the strong sunlight. It follows the same pattern of the doorway structure, a striking element in the building’s composition. High in the façade, there is a neon piece by artist Pinky Wainer that reads: Land of the free, home of the brave.

The combination of latticed structures and simple, geometric architecture is a very particular feature of contemporary Brazilian architecture, one I always enjoy finding. All the natural light filtering into the house gives it a light and airy feel… I’m particularly fond of that kitchen!

Photography by Denilson Machado.

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House with Slide

House with Slide is a minimalist and fun project developed by LEVEL Architects who thought primarily of the children during its design. This three floor residence is situated in Tokyo and its main characteristic is a continuous circulation route with stairs in one side and a slide in the other side to connect the different floors with access points throughout.

The other notable characteristic is the large empty rooms to allow the children lots of clear space to play and enjoy without too many elements, avoiding any potential danger for the them. For this reason, many of the shapes of the house also are rounded.

No doubt, I really enjoy the result of this original, well considered and bright project.

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House for a Photographer

Barcelona based architect Carlos Ferrater has built this stunner of a house for his brother, José Manuel Ferrater, in Alcanar, Spain. The building is placed in the area filled with gardens, orchards, and rice fields. The lot itself is a formal garden, the nod to which is seen in the landscaping techniques. Due to frequent floods in the area, the structure rests on a platform 20 inches above the ground. The low concrete walls, surrounding the house, serve as an additional protection from occasional floodwaters, allowing the full view of the beautiful mediterranean landscape.

The composition of the house is made up of three pavilions: living-dining-kitchen area, master bedroom and an artists’s studio with an alcove bedroom for guests.  The position and shape of the pavilions direct the views between them, creating a sculptural effect. The large openings offer alternative glimpses through the complex and inside the living structures. Interestingly enough, all interior pieces in the house were collected by the owners during travels - sofas from Indonesia, fabrics from Thailand, and miniature benches and chairs from Africa. No designer furniture…

Ferrater worked on this project in collaboration with Carlos Escura.

Photography by Alejo Bagué.

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T-House by Katsufumi Kubota

Today we’re taking a small trip to Japan, to meet the work of a great minimalist Japanese architect Katsufumi Kubota and more precisely the T-House, a housing project located in Kanagawa prefecture southwest of Tokyo.

It is a monolithic, two-storey reinforced concrete construction, built on the slope of a hill, which takes great advantage of the surrounding view through a wide opening on the first floor. I love the contrast between the clean and crisp atmosphere of the interior and the natural environment. And what could be more impressive than a swimming pool at the house entrance?

The project was awarded the Dedalo Minosse International Prize 2007/2008 Special Prize.

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Olnick Spanu House

This small home by Alberto Campo Baeza is situated in Garrison, New York. The white and glass exterior looms above the surrounding landscape, allowing the structure feeling like a horizontal monolith in an alien land. Similar to Mies van der Rohe’s Farnsworth House, this home both embraces and contrasts with the landscape.

The living areas of the home look inward and outward, creating a series of soft spaces that are secluded from the exterior yet draw it in. A gallery for Italian art composes the centermost part of the house. The arrangement of the house around the gallery symbolizes the central place art holds in the resident’s lives. The tall windows on the ground floor bring the outdoors in, allowing the exterior to decorate the interior spaces. On the lowest level are the bedrooms, dark and private.

To me, this house is the archetype of minimalist design. The architecture speaks with pure clarity; it is dramatic and emotional using only the most precise design features.

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Catskill Mountain House

Introducing Catskill Mountain House in Catskill Mountains, New York by Audrey Matlock. Built based on simple forms and applying fluidity within spaces, the home becomes a retreat where architecture and nature become one.

Some of the interesting architectural features are the white framework and a large cast concrete wall that protects the terrace, pool, and outdoor fireplace from a rocky slope. Full height windows allow for maximum light and expanding views of the Catskill Mountains. Interiors consists mostly of a monochromatic palette of black, white, and gray with the addition of blue and green coming in from the outside in a form of skies and nature. It would be difficult to compete with such beautiful views, don’t you think? Other features include heated and polished concrete floors, slate accent walls and ebony stained ash cabinetry.

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Villa Roces

In the area of Bruges in Belgium, the local architects Benny Govaert & Damiaan Vanhoutte designed Villa Roces, a family house and a conceptual home. The oblong terrain and the wooded surroundings led the architects to the designing solution of a wide glass box with a high degree of transparency in order to provide a response to the minimum light. A big wall along the house was also built for the same reason: the intention to reflect the light and the presence of the forest.

The design of the interior follows the overall visual pavilion impression too. The two levels of the house are developed in such a way to maintain and intensify the idea of the box while white, clearly defined boxes form the interior space, incorporating the structure elements and reflecting the light.

Photography: Tim Van de Velde

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