Glass Roof House by Sambuichi Architects
The Base Valley House, designed by Japanese architect Hiroshi Sambuichi, was constructed with its natural context acting as a guiding principle. Sambuichi strives to extensively analyze the site of his projects, ensuring that they respond as sensitively as possible to their environment. Consequently, the Base Valley House is located primarily underground, where the existing mass of a hillside provides passive climate control. Augmenting the thermal qualities of the earth, a “wind street” is cut through the center of the hill to provide natural ventilation. The most visible portion of the house is its angular glass roof, which allows generous amounts of daylight into the interior and covers an outdoor deck, where the family that inhabits the home can enjoy views of the adjacent river and mountains.
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Dancing Living House by Junichi Sampei
Designing and building a new house on the urban outskirts of Tokyo is a daunting task, and the owners of the Dancing and Living House proposed an especially difficult project to Japanese architect Junichi Sampei. They requested that a full dance studio be incorporated into the design of their home. From the exterior, passing pedestrians are provided with little indication of the house’s interior content. An imposing white cube floats above a covered parking spot, with a lone window in the uppermost corner providing the only fenestration. Upon entering however, a unique juxtaposition is revealed. One level above the street, a single open room houses the kitchen, dining area, living area, and dance studio. Furniture is repositionable depending upon room usage, and the requisite floor to ceiling mirrors of the dance studio serve to visually enlarge the space. A level above the studio houses bedrooms, which incorporate large windows and skylights paired with glass floor panels to bring light down into the lower levels. A stark white color scheme also helps to keep the interior bright and open.
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Max Ernst Museum by Smo Architektur
At the former Brühl Pavilion, a museum has been opened in memory of surrealist painter Max Ernst, 33 years after his death. The new museum includes a remodel of the neoclassical pavilion as well as a thoroughly modern addition. From the exterior, the pavilion itself remains largely unaltered, save for some restorative efforts. The addition, however, is a steel framed glass volume that abruptly intersects the center of the original building. Despite the odd exterior coupling of styles, modernism becomes the cohesive theme once inside. Extensive subterranean display spaces stretch beneath the site, utilizing tall concrete walls, glass railings, and steel detailing to create a vault-like atmosphere. Given Ernst’s surrealist roots, the union of old and new is quite appropriate.
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The Wolfback Ridge FlatPak House
Architect Charlie Lazor has been at the forefront of prefabricated architecture in recent years with his creation of the FlatPak system. Designs are based on eight foot wide, one story tall wall panels, and size and configuration are otherwise limited only by the imagination and budget of the client. Lazor also created a series of kitchen and bath components and storage solutions that integrate directly into the system. The Wolfback FlatPak house was recently completed in Sausalito, California. At 4200 square feet, it is a particularly large example of a FlatPak home, complete with five bedrooms and a view of the San Francisco Bay. Like most homes created with Lazor’s system, the Wolfback house is dictated by relative linearity. Exterior walls are mostly glass, with dark wood siding separating the first and second floor. Inside, spaces are expansive and undivided. The first floor employs a black, polished concrete floor to minimize the inevitable maintenance that comes with the large sliding glass doors that open the interior to the environment. Elsewhere, a material palette of wood and stone reflects the home’s natural surroundings.
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Modern Mexican Homes by Dellekamp Arquitectos
Faced with a challenging hillside site and a budget of only $60,000, Dellekamp Arquitectos managed to design and build this striking modern home in Mexico City. The structure is composed of two rectangular volumes partially embedded into the hill. Three sides of the cubes are stucco walls, punctuated by only a few small windows. The fourth side, however, is composed entirely of glass. The home effectively has two opposite fascias, depending upon where it is being viewed from. The interior uses concrete floors throughout and rooftop terraces expand the living areas exponentially. The architects chose to emphasize the diagonal nature of the site with a unique paint scheme on the exterior. The square façades are divided into gray and white triangles, clearly reflecting the surrounding hillside.
Four-to-One Table by Leon Fitzpatrick
The low slung Four-to-One table is a new product recently released by Leon Fitzpatrick. The dining table and matching chairs draw inspiration from both Asian design (its low seating position) and mid-century Scandinavian design (use of bent plywood). The table is easily disassembled and reassembled, making it an ideal candidate for transitional duty between interior and exterior spaces. A sense of intimacy is forged among the table’s patrons with a flush center insert that is softly lit.
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Cascade House by Paul Raff Studio
Located in Toronto’s Forest Hill, the Cascade House by Paul Raff Studio is a dramatic departure from the surrounding built environment. The home’s straight-edged façade, composed of black slate and glass, was designed to reflect the owners’ love of modern art and allow copious daylight to flood the interior. The 3500 square foot home is spread over three levels, the lowest of which is partially sunken into the earth. In addition to designing in accordance with the owners’ modern preferences, the architects also emphasized energy efficiency as a foremost issue. Consequently, several basic but effective design strategies are incorporated into the design. For instance, the slate that adorns the exterior is carried into the interior on both floors and a central “spine.” During Toronto’s cold winter months, sunlight enters through the large windows during the day and is absorbed by the slate, effectively warming the house through the night. During summer months, automated shades and passive ventilation keep the home naturally cool. Despite its aesthetic departure from tradition, the Cascade house employs environmentally conscious design principles that can be adapted to any home.
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Hind House by John Pardey Architects
On the banks of the River London, John Pardey Architects designed and built the Hind House, which responds dramatically to its context. Erected upon a plot of land prone to frequent flooding, the home stands upon coated steel columns, safely hovering above the river when it exceeds its banks. The juxtaposition of a home surrounded on all sides by water is surreal, but tranquil. There are no nearby neighbors and a stairway from the elevated living areas disappears into the river at its base. The home itself is composed of three primary rectilinear volumes. Clad in zinc and cedar siding, they cantilever over the river from a central core, supported by exposed I-beams. Interior spaces take full advantage of the unique site with floor to ceiling windows. The cedar exterior siding is continued inside on floors, walls, and ceilings. Accessibility issues aside, the Hind House is a dramatic demonstration of contextually appropriate architecture, and it allows its occupants to live in an area previously deemed uninhabitable.
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Renovated Church Home in Kyloe, Northumberland
A nondescript exterior and a yard dominated by headstones give no indication of the residential nature of this historic church in Kyloe, Northumberland. A couple decided to purchase and readapt the structure, investing nearly three times the purchase price into renovations over the course of several years. The exterior remains mostly untouched, save for skylights running the length of the roof. Inside, the owners took a similar approach. Restoration is more prevalent than renovation, with original stained glass windows throughout, and repurposed church fixtures abounding. Much of the original seating in the church was refinished and placed throughout the home, and unused wood and building materials were fashioned into a dramatic staircase leading from the main living space to an upper level library. The choice to live in a church is an unorthodox one, but this home’s owners managed to salvage a structure that might have otherwise been doomed to deterioration.
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The Camouflage House by Johnsen Schmaling Architects
The Camouflage House sits atop a bluff overlooking a lake in Green Lake, Wisconsin. The house’s name is derived from its inherent ability to blend into the surrounding landscape. Johnsen Schmaling Architects had exactly that in mind when they designed the home. Its low profile and dark vertical structural members are combined with unfinished cedar panels and bright veneer panels to mimic the natural palette of the surrounding forest. The result is a home that, especially during the fall months, appears to be a naturally occurring part of the environment. The house expands to two levels at the rear, with expansive glazing and a terrace to take advantage of the lake views. Inside, the material and color selections continue, along with the juxtaposition of vertical and horizontal elements.
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