“If my house was burning down I would try to save my life,” said Michel Roeder, one of three partners of German architecture firm, C18. A less obvious choice for some of us. Once during an earthquake, I quickly grabbed my iPhone before running out of the office building.

Georg Spreng, one of the original founders of Frogdesign, now a jewelry designer, and C18 architects share a taste for clinical precision and pragmatic romanticism. Facing the street, the exterior of Georg Spreng’s home, near Stuttgart, in Germany, is a facade of clinical white, square tiles. It does not reveal what is inside—a great surprise. The house opens into the landscape with splashes of color, that reflects Spreng’s jewelry designs, and light-filled spaces with ultra-modern finishes. On the cooler end: flirtatious curtains and an unforgettably, glamorous lap pool.

A nostalgic mood to the minimalist affair. Can minimalism be deliberately mysterious?