Never Never Land House
Andres Jaque Arquitectos
Xanadu of Sedona
Easter eggs in Arizona – Monolithic Domes Year built: 2011 Site area: 3.63 acres (1.47 hectares) Built area: 5865 sq. ft. (543 m2) eclectic (ɪˈklɛktɪk/) – deriving ideas, style, or taste from a broad and diverse range of sources. To most people a dome home is going to seem unusual. They […]
Dick Clark’s Flintstone House
Malibu California USA – Architect unknown Emmys, Grammys, induction into the Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame, a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, 7,500 hours of television time! An amazing legacy that all added up to make Dick Clark one of the richest men in Hollywood, with interests in a wide range of […]
Shell House
Kitasaku, Nagano, Japan – ARTechnic architects Site Area: 1,711 m2 (18,417 sq. ft.) Built Area: 329 m2 (3,541 sq. ft.) Year Built: 2008 Photography: Nacasa & Partners Inc. This innovative vacation home sits in the woods of Karuizawa, Japan. Designed by architect, Kotaro Ide, of ARTechnic, the house was designed […]
On the Corner – Eastern Design Office
Shiga Japan – Eastern Design Office Lot size: 261 m2 (2,818 sq. ft.) Built area: 567 m2 (6,123 sq. ft.) Built: 2011 Photography: Koichi Torimura Perhaps we have a penchant for Japanese architecture because we certainly feature a lot of it. But, we’d like to think it’s […]
The Stair House
Daejeon City, Shimane Japan – y+M Design Office Built area: 143 m2 (1,550 sq. ft.) Take two teachers, two young children, a seaside position with harsh winters and a strong desire to interact with family and students in a casual surrounding. The House of Stairs is the innovative and visually stimulating result. Externally, the […]
Horizontal House – EASTERN Design Office
Life in a Fishbowl
Roppongi (Tokyo) Japan – Mejiro Studios Built area: 87.5m2 (945 sq. ft.) This is definitely a home for very confident people. The entire focus of the home is the bathroom (or wash-room) as they are thought of in Japan. Fully walled in glass, the bathroom sits in the centre of the home which is itself, a single […]
Rounded in every sense…
Anywhere you’d like it – Domespace France More years ago than I care to remember, I bought my first Citroën car, a DS21 Goddess. The innovation was mind-boggling. In following years I owned various French cars finding them all idiosyncratic but delightful to drive. But over time, global conformity set in and the innovation died. […]
The Garden Tree House
The Garden Tree House – Hironaka Ogawa and Associates Kagawa, Japan Build area: 50.9 m2 Year: 2010 The Garden Tree House is not your usual tree house or home. If most tree houses are built around a tree, this one had not just one but two trees built into it. It was built as an […]
Room Room – Takeshi Hosaka Architects
Room Room – Takeshi Hosaka Architects Itabashi, Tokyo Area: 72m2 Talk about a room with a view – well, this one has many! At first it looks like a house with many randomly placed windows. But the windows are anything but random. They are meant for a specific function – the couple who owns the house are […]
Amida House – Interesting on many levels
Gotenba, Shizuoka Japan – Kochi Architect’s Studio Built area: 115.5 m2 (1,247 sq. ft.) Year Built: 2011 Photography: Daici Ano This is one of the more ‘out there’ designs we have come across. There are nine distinct levels in this small home. While our initial reaction was muted, our enthusiasm grew as we read […]
Base Valley House
Near Hiroshima Japan – Hiroshi Sambuichi Site area: 12,000 m2 Built area: 100 m2 Photography: Katsuhisa Kida / FOTOTECA Gabion walls made from local stone and a glass roof tell you that this is no ordinary home. Hiroshi Sambuichi is an architect who appears to have little time or patience for […]
The Jenga House
Final Wooden House – Sou Fujimoto Architects Architects: Sou Fujimoto Architects Location: Kumamoto, Japan Built: 2007 Site Area: 89.3m2 Constructed Area: 15.13m2 So, what inspires an architect to create an unusual space like The Final Wooden House? In the words of the architect: “I thought of making an ultimate wooden architecture. It was conceived by just mindlessly stacking 350mm square. Lumber […]
Edgeland House – healing the land
Austin TX USA – Bercy Chen Studio LP Built area: 130 m2 (1,400 sq. ft.) Year built: 2012 Photography: Paul Bardagjy In many areas of the western world, industry has come and gone, more often than not leaving a badly scarred landscape in it’s wake. This was such a site. We’ll leave the telling of the tale to the architects: “Edgeland House […]
The Hive Apartments – street art in concrete
Carlton (Melbourne) Australia – ITN Architects Photography: Patrick Rodriguez A four metre high, 14 tonne, pre-cast concrete graffiti panel forms the structural backbone of this innovative development. The graffiti relief panel spells HIVE and the style of the lettering geometries directly determine the interior and wall shapes of the homes allowing for unusual windows […]
Stoned and Green in Vietnam
Dong Trieu, Quang Ninh Province, Vietnam – Vo Trong Nghia Architects Built: 2011 Photography: Hiroyuki Oki If you have looked at ‘Wind and Water’, you’ll know why we really like the work of this firm of architects. Their use of natural materials makes every building both unique and immensely habitable. The wonderful green […]
18.36.54 House
Rural Connecticut USA – Daniel Libeskind Built area: 185 m2 (2,000 sq. ft.) Year: 2010 Let’s not pretend here… we’re fairly certain that Daniel Libeskind’s starting fee is more than most of us will spend on our whole house. In the past 15 years, he’s moved from relative obscurity as an academic, […]
Santa Elena House
Medellin, Colombia – Antonio Sofan Photography: Carlos Tobon Built Area: 106 m2 (1.145 sq. ft.) Situated high in the hills to the east of Medellin is a pristine area called Arvi Natural Park. It is state owned and fully protected against development. Surrounding areas also have strict building regulations. It’s an area where temperatures vary little year […]
The Sliding House
Suffolk, UK – Ross Russell and Sally Morris Consulting architect: Alex de Rijke This home is unquestionably, one of the most innovative and demanding residential projects ever undertaken. Concept to practical completion was a five year event. Along the way, the home gained international recognition and many well deserved awards. What you see here is just a […]
Conch Shell House
Isla Mujeres – Mexico Owner designed and built Built area: 460 m2 (5,000 sq. ft.) When art meets function, it sometimes has surprising results. The home shown here is the work of well known Mexican artist, Octavio Ocampo and his architect brother, Eduardo. It sits on a thin peninsula on Isla Mujeres, (The […]
Two Houses – minimal impact architecture
Luque, Paraguay – BAUEN Architects Built: 2012 Built Area – combined: 600 m2 (6,480 sq ft) Photography: Mónica Matiauda This is a development for two families sharing a common lot. The homes are designed to retain as much green space as possible. The architect state in their notes: “In this project the search for a […]
Malator House – aka Tellytubby House
Druidston South-West Wales UK – Future Systems Built in 1998, this cutting-edge contemporary home won world-wide acclaim and has since become one of Wales’ architectural treasures. The basic design of Malator is very simple – it’s essentially one room, divided by prefabricated coloured pods. Externally, the ‘earth home’ melts into the surrounding landscape. Architectural critic, […]
Aloni – Underground in Greece an Unusual Home
Antiparos Island Greece – DECA Architecture Built: 2005 – 2008Area: 237 m2 (2,560 sq. ft.) We can’t help but get excited when we see an innovative design. Sometimes it works out, and sometimes it doesn’t. But either way, we admire the effort that went into creating something new. Both types provide opportunities to […]