This house, located in Nerima, Japan, is like a summer breeze: fresh and playful. The main elevation is divided into three blocks. Set apart, each stripe of the building volume is gradually narrower than the previous. The voids between them are also filled with the building body that is set back by a certain depth and height.

There are also large openings – the main house entrance and a balcony – in these “further set” blocks. This distinguishes them even more so from the “stripes”, which are solidly white, with playfully located windows. Continue reading →

Relaxing and enjoying the mountainous landscape through a magnificent lens…while having a cup of coffee or dinner with family and friends. That´s Passivhaus in the district of Mostelberg, Switzerland. This house stands at 1,100 meters above sea level, in a site that presents a very slight dip.

The building regulations only allowed a two-story structure, so the answer to these limitations was to extend the program for this house horizontally. And guess what? This particular option gave Passivhaus its major tone and formal shape, resulting in the characteristic projections that contain living and dining room, entrance courtyard and terrace. Continue reading →

In my opinion the attitude towards public spaces has already changed and is constantly changing. Nowadays, public areas are looked upon as places with a special level of the quality of surrounding. The surrounding (I would even say – the interior) of every single public space has to interact with people and be friendly, while presenting various possibilities for people, of different demographic groups and different social background, to socially connect with one another. Continue reading →

Sometimes I feel that we are a bit obsessed with the modernity of architecture, with the “coolness” of its design, with the philosophy of minimalistic shapes, that sometimes the true, or at least another, meaning/form of architecture is forgotten.

So, when we suddenly bump into a genuinely recognized piece of Architecture (with a capital A), it’s like a breath of fresh air. We realize over and over again: the classics are timeless. We go on admiring the old classic architects’ sense of generosity, and, while observing their work we can’t help feeling that their inner slogan must have been “beauty for beauty’s sake”.

The Sheats Goldstein Reidence is one of those masterpieces. Continue reading →

As the name of the house suggests, this place is not only for living but also for dancing. The owners requested a dancing studio to be incorporated into the planning of their home. Since the plot is really small (1,094 sq. ft.), the ground floor of the house is designed as a parking space for two cars. The staircase leads upstairs to the first floor, where there is a living/dancing room and a kitchen.

The entire story has no windows and takes light from the glass parts of the floor between the first and second stories, near the outer wall. The mirrors which cover the walls of the living-dancing floor reflect more light from the glass openings and make the space seem larger than it actually is. Cunningly designed! Continue reading →

Enjoy living above water at the Lausitz Resort…or in any another part of the world! Water is the crucial reason for the existence of the Floating House by Steeltec37. A floating prefabricated house that looks like a boat is statically positioned by a small pontoon bridge. This two-level metallic structure follows the industrial fishing boats aesthetics. Continue reading →

Le Corbusier said that a modern house should be “a machine for living”. Well, this house is a machine for sliding. And people who are able to slide from their bedroom to their breakfast table must be smiling more than people who use normal staircases. You know, going back to childhood and to doing things simply because they’re fun. (I’m sure there’s a research somewhere about this…) Continue reading →

A natural disaster often causes loss and tragedy. The C-house testifies the resurrection of a building that was a victim of three unprecedented flash floods. In Kildare, Ireland, Dot Architecture designed the walls and sloping roofs with chunky chimneys for the remaining ruins.

Re-utilization stood as the main goal for this project as much as making it safe from possible future floods. This contemporary home is an interpretation of a traditional Irish bungalow, respecting its surrounding context. Continue reading →

Designed by two Tulane University professors of architecture, the SunShower SSIP house has an interesting story behind it. The main idea of this experimental house is that it can be created easily, using the same off-the-shelf materials as a post-disaster recovery home. From this point of view, this modern prefab home, located in New Orleans, is extremely positive and joyful in its shape and color, which is just right for a physical and psychological recovery process. Continue reading →

What could be more romantic than an old*, solitary**, medium scale*** house in the country?..

* let us not go into details of the dating and imagine that old means just old.
**the way a farmhouse is usually situated.
***one and a half story.

..The one with the clay tile roof. The one with old wooden window sashes. The one surrounded by the fresh, infinite greenery everywhere your eye can see. The one with a fabulous apple tree garden… Have you already got this rurally romantic picture in your head?

And now for the last one… The one with an ultra-modern annex! Continue reading →