There’s a new floating house on Lake Union, Seattle. This contemporary three-story home has a total floor area of 262sqm perfectly settled in the heart of the city. The volume appears to be hanging over a glazed pedestal that reflects its perimeter on the water, almost suggesting an absence of foundations. Continue reading →

From private to public buildings, sustainability should always be present in all types of architecture. + Energy House testifies how to achieve the maximum ecological performance with a minimum effort. In Kasel, Germany there’s a two-story building that blends traditional values with the ultimate techniques in passive housing. Moreover, its flexibility of use is also interesting: today it’s an office…tomorrow can be converted to a residence. How? Because of the ingenious system used to divide an interior floor area of 339sqm. Continue reading →

When prefab architecture and sustainability values are melted in the same jar, the result can only be a successful project: Shed. In California, a prefab building with a built area of 1003sqm was conceived to shelter a platform for a sustainable farming and wine making community. This huge metal structure houses two stories of flexible space for commercial and meeting purposes. Continue reading →

A brilliant fusion was developed in order to create a house made out of local resources in the Western Ghats, India. A building workshop has been conceived to introduce Eco-tourism to the area, while creating a complete off-the-grid self-sustainable construction, that could benefit the local population by emphasizing their specific natural context. Continue reading →

Sometimes architecture uses the most unexpected references as a starting point. In this project the fictional film Alien was used as an inspiration for a house renovation in Alicante, Spain. As well as the eight passenger of the film, the new house emerges from within the perimeter of an old structure. We’re talking about a modern two-story coastal home with a total floor area of 278sqm facing the Mediterranean Sea. Continue reading →

Energy Haus is a two-story contemporary home located on a sloped site in the magnificent rural landscape of Farschweiler, Germany. A mixed-construction system was developed for the two floors: concrete walls for the ground floor while solid wood elements compose the first floor. The shape of local buildings determined the silhouette of this passive house resulting in a pitched roof covering the entire volume. Continue reading →

In London there’s an old Victorian building that shelters a private school in a dense urban context. A new extension on top of the existing brick volume was needed in order to respond to the increasing number of students and lack of empty spaces around the site. Continue reading →

Don’t be deceived by its appearance: Two in One Villa is exactly what its name defines. A concrete volume with a pitched roof shelters two distinct homes in Geneva, Switzerland. A partition wall separates a pair of three story apartments and each one has its own front door. The question is: how can a solid concrete block unite, in such an unpredictable way, two different houses? Continue reading →

It’s been some time now that I’ve been having an official crush on summer cabins located up in the Northern part of Europe, such as the Scandinavian countries. The modular cottages for summer living shared here today are created by the Danish architectural firm Lykke + Nielsen, who launched this idea as a side business. I think they’ve done a fabulous job. These architect-designed holiday homes are made from a prefabricated modular template and can be delivered in six months from the day of ordering. So, let’s say a cabin is ordered as a Christmas present at the end of the year and then as soon as summer season begins, one could be ready to move in. Splendid! Continue reading →

A diamond-shaped building gently rests in Sentosa, Singapore… This enigmatic volume with a huge total floor area of 464sqm seems to unleash a certain sense of curiosity for its original shape. Sloping walls and roofs contribute to obtain this kind of feeling while expanding the spatial volume inside the house. Also a glazed entryway marks a profound impact in the front facade of this three-story building, separating the main living and dining spaces on either side. This powerful slice in the diamond-shaped volume defines the conceptual strategy behind the project: spatial tension can be a helpful tool to attain a bigger sense of space in small sites as this one. Continue reading →