There are trees living on a rooftop in Echo Park… A tight plot, in a neighborhood in Los Angeles, California, determined the vertical development of this contemporary American house: Eels Nest is a three-story home, with a total floor area of 960sqm, cleverly placed in a dense urban environment. Continue reading →

Tasting a good wine among the finest vineyards of Chile… could it get any better than this? Mirador House fulfills these requirements in a very inventive way. Casablanca Valley is a wine region in Central Chile in Valparaiso Region. The coastal cool climate provides a considerable concentration of Chile’s Chardonnay plantations. Mirador House functions as a wine tasting pavilion where visitors can appreciate the exquisite taste of the fruit in the same spot where it grows every passing year. Continue reading →

The Sonoran Desert is one of the largest and hottest deserts in North America, covering large parts of Southwestern Arizona, California, and Mexico. It’s now also a home for a special building: Desert Courtyard House. A close relation was conquered between land and architecture in this unique landscape, where Cacti and stones are the main characters as far as the eye can see. Continue reading →

The process of fragmentation is often developed in architecture. A single family residence in Portugal exemplifies how a contemporary home can be efficiently dispersed through several volumes without compromising its main purpose.

A total floor area of 350sqm stands ingeniously distributed in five different volumes all similar in formal appearance: a clear reinterpretation of a traditional Portuguese house. In fact, once inside the site one can experience a sense of being close to a small community – like a tiny white village – where each one of the single-story volumes assumes a distinctive orientation and proportion. Continue reading →

Terraced vineyards are always an excellent company when it comes to choose a surrounding landscape. In Montagna, Italy DMB House stands as one of these lucky cases of such an inspirational sightseeing… A two-story volume with basement encloses a conventional domestic program distributed in a logical deep relation with the rural context. Continue reading →

A black pearl enhances the grounds of a golf course in Melbourne, Australia. Ridge Road Residence is a rural house located on a sloping site full of trees and stones. Its dark silhouette emerges from this green blanket as a form of manifest, almost claiming the necessary attention for its mysterious presence. Continue reading →

The common definition of a wall takes to the most basic principles of architecture: a vertical structure that defines space and areas. There are – conventionally speaking – three types of structural walls: building walls, exterior boundary walls and retaining walls. In Chiang Mai, Thailand, there´s an enigmatic fourth type that is now revealed to the world: a wonder wall. Continue reading →

Sometimes architecture establishes a close relation with the universe of fashion…Casa K in Sao Paulo, Brazil testifies this special type of connection. Fashion often refers to a distinct trend in the style with which a person dresses. Well, the client was a stylist and a built structure was already erected. The conceptual approach to this project was quite obvious: to dress an existing body. Continue reading →

Here’s something a bit different – a new take on food, photography and design, that is both wonderful and refreshing. It was created by the Stockholm-based Art Director of PJADAD, Petter Johansson, for Atelier Food. Continue reading →

A contemporary house standing right next to a medieval market square…What a great challenge for an architect, don’t you agree? In Metzingen, Germany there’s a really good example of how to respond wisely and peacefully to such a challenge – Haus e17. A three-story building with a total floor area of 200sqm was conceived as a reinterpretation of traditional houses with a pitched roof. In fact, this special detail was required by the town hall authorities in order to assure that new architecture can stay tuned with the old historical buildings. However, Haus e17 answers the needs of 21th century living. Continue reading →