Koba House #architecture Architects: Estúdio HAA! Area: 320 m² Year: 2023 Photographs: Pedro Kok Country: Brazil

Guaecá House #architecture Architects: Estúdio Rossi Arquitetos Area: 465 m² Year: 2021 Photographs: André Scarpa, Adriano Pacelli Country: Brazil

House on Deep Cove #architecture Architects: ElliottArchitects Area: 3408 ft² Year: 2019 Photographs: Shoshannah White, Tonee Harbert City: Grand Manan Country: Canada

Cake House #architecture Architects: Alexander Symes Architect Area: 215 m² Year: 2025 Photographs: Barton Taylor Country: Australia

Azur Residence #architecture Architects: Alianz Area: 15403 ft² Year: 2024 Photographs: ConeCat Country: Costa Rica

Bao Lam Retreat House #architecture Architects: 6717 Studio Area: 150 m² Year: 2023 Photographs: Hiroyuki Oki Country: Vietnam

PIR.116 House #architecture Architects: Mardi | Maison d' Architecture & Design Intérieur Area: 200 m² Year: 2023 City: Lege Cap-Ferret Country: France

Waterloo Street House #architecture Architects: SJB Area: 69 m² Year: 2022 Photographs: Anson Smart City: Surry Hills NSW 2010 Country: Australia 19 Waterloo Street is buried amongst the chaos of warehouses and terraces that once served Sydney's rag trade. A corner terrace with decades of architectural detritus had engulfed the site with a never-ending cascade of additions and lean-to's with the odd weed surviving between the cracks of the concrete path. As a butchers, a grocer, a window workshop, a hatter and finally a restaurant, each with the attached rooms above, the original building had had a checkered past. Our intent was to deliver a mixed-use house, breaking up the site to deliver more. Our ambition: a shop, a self-contained flat and a home. Three uses out of one. The new addition at the rear of the site is accommodated on just 30 sqm and has a total internal area of 69 sqm. Using a split section, the stair is the pinwheel around which the house moves. The dwelling is divided into spaces that are served or in service. The service spaces are short with 2.1m ceilings – storage, kitchen, robe and ensuite, while the served spaces are grand with 3.6m ceilings – study, living and bedroom. With a maximum depth of 3.3 meters, light and ventilation are at your fingertips, always connecting you to the energy of the day while lending the house a strong sense of urbanity – you are living in the city. Externally the house is playful and textured – riffing the motives and materiality of the suburb that surrounds it. A little like a house from a Jacques Tati film, the façade feels alive with personality. Reclaimed bricks form the canvas, discarded broken ones reflect the historic sandstone base of the surrounding streets and are cut and folded to hide openings and protect views, while the upper bricks shift in scale to frame windows and support planting. During the making of the house artists were commissioned to present a generous edge. The front gate is a cast bronze sculpture by Mika Utzon-Popov, and an all-enveloping landscape by Nicholas Harding in the living room is able to be viewed from the street.

House and Office in Hokusetsu #architecture Architects: FujiwaraMuro Architects Area: 91 m² Year: 2024 Photographs: Katsuya. Taira (studioREM) City: Osaka Country: Japan Typically, either the interior or exterior surface of an exposed concrete building is covered with insulation and is not visible. Here, we inserted the living quarters into a concrete tube to reveal both sides of the exposed concrete building. The concrete tube opens directly onto the view outside. The second-floor LDK (living, dining, and kitchen) area, wrapped in the concrete tube, is a space that opens up to the view beyond the opening. We have created a layer between the concrete tube and the walls of the private rooms on the ground floor, allowing light and breezes to pass through. There are two private rooms with windows looking out towards the street, trees, and two private rooms with windows facing the layer between the concrete tube and the walls of the private rooms, where the exposed concrete walls come into view. The ground level of the site is approximately 2 m above the street level. In this project, we removed part of the existing retaining wall to create a garage for two cars and an office room below ground level. We lifted the concrete tube off the ground to make it appear floating and light,t and covered the building underneath in aluminum panels to create a visual contrast. By nestling the living quarters, we successfully reduced the summer heat and winter cold and let in natural light and air while shielding the interior from prying eyes on the street.

Wisteria House #architecture Architects: Carter Williamson Architects Area: 304 m² Year: 2023 Photographs: Pablo Veiga City: Summer Hill Country: Australia Wisteria is a dramatic timber expression of simplicity and purity. A contemporary addition to a fully restored Federation bungalow in Sydney’s inner west, its expansive form soaks up the sunshine and fosters a deep connection with the outdoors. Located in a heritage conservation area, its airy new volume unfolds in a delicate manifestation of a brief that asked for an open, warm home in which a family could truly gather, one that respected the home’s history while adding thoughtful contemporary layers. A light, airy pavilion is rhythmically expressed in Victorian ash. Within, a double-height void opens up the living space to sunlight and air, deepening the links between the private upstairs spaces and the downstairs spots in which the family comes together. A fireplace divides the open-plan living, kitchen, and dining spaces, which flow serenely onto the east-facing deck covered by a wisteria-clad pergola that frames the garden view. It is a home perfectly suited to entertaining and elevating the simple daily ritual of a meal in the sun. The addition unfolds from a distinct junction between old and new that helps the home negotiate its sloping site. A wide stair combines concrete and timber to create a processional entry down into the new space, doubling as seating. To one side, a white steel plate staircase rises to the first floor, with the whole space wrapped in a combination of timber, fixed glazing, and adjustable louvers for cross-ventilation. A dramatic vertical expansion from the existing corridor, it announces the intention of the addition as a bright, spacious, double-height volume, open to the landscape, artfully exploiting the change in level to allow the house to nestle gently into the landscape and the new roofline to merge with the old. Keeping the original home and the contemporary addition separate are small gardens flanking the stairwell. Pockets of opportunity, light wells sandwiched between new and old, these gardens encourage light and breezes throughout the design. Structured with intention, this carefully organized plan maintains a bright, lofty spatial quality that offers endless potential for informal interaction within defined spaces. Serving a brief that called for light, air, and an unobstructed connection to the outdoors, the deep window reveals at the rear of the home are equipped with timber blades and shutters that maximize the building’s openness while defending against harsh summer heat, giving the clients control over sunshine and breezes. These reveal frames frame the view of the garden in a mesmerizing, rhythmic fashion, adding an additional layer of utility in the form of desks, window seats, and storage. Rhythmic brickwork, polished concrete, timber framing, and eye-catching moments expressed in steel and marble represent a palette of material and visual simplicity; a clean, sophisticated interior that feels warm, bright, and calm. It is an addition that complements the beautiful existing garden, resplendent with wisteria and jacaranda purples, and understands that a deep connection to these outdoor spaces transforms a house into a home, a vessel for genuine human experience and deep family relationships.

House Mokusei #architecture Architects: atelier yoo Area: 175 m² Year: 2025 Photographs: Kazuoki Yasugi, Song Gao City: Kyoto Country: Japan Over Kyoto's 1,200-year history, the jōbō grid system—introduced from Tang dynasty Chang'an—has shaped its urban fabric since the founding of Heian-kyō. By the Edo period, the "shop-front, residence-rear" machiya had become the normative urban housing type. Fire regulations and property taxes based on street frontage helped maintain the characteristically narrow façades of these homes, often likened to "eel's beds" (unagi no nedoko) for their long, slender proportions. A typical Kyo-machiya is defined by this front-to-back spatial sequence. Street-facing units are usually divided lengthwise into a doma (earthen-floored passage) and a raised timber-floored zone. The doma, often paved in packed earth or stone, runs from the entrance toward the interior and commonly contains the kitchen stove beneath a hibukuro, or smoke chimney. The raised zone is divided laterally into sequential rooms: shop (mise), family kitchen (daidoko), and rear tatami rooms (oku-no-ma), separated by sliding partitions. This layout reveals a transition from public to private, embedded in both form and function. The house we renovated consists of two separate two-story volumes connected by a corridor. The original façade and mise space had been removed; the doma and hibukuro were disrupted by a raised kitchen platform; and a ceiling had been installed where the vertical void once stood. The house's original spatial order had been replaced by a fragmented, compressed, and incoherent composition. Our design approach unfolded in two phases: first, to reconstruct a spatial layout appropriate to the typology in order to extract its structural logic; and second, to accommodate modern programmatic needs within that reestablished framework. 1. Using interior columns as reference, we pulled back the current facade to its presumed original position, reestablishing the mise boundary and creating a front garden between house and street; 2. We removed the raised platform occupying the doma, restoring a continuous longitudinal flow from entrance inward; 3. The mise and daidoko were combined into an open-plan living space, with adjusted floor heights; 4. Some of the essential elements—kitchen stove, dining table, air conditioning—were consolidated into a core "device" composed of fixed furniture, wall planes, and a suspended ceiling. Relocated from the perimeter to the threshold between doma and living area, this intervention created a spatial transition articulated through three distinct horizontal planes; 5. The hibukuro was restored as a source of light and ventilation, with all wiring, ducts, and exhaust lines routed visibly through this vertical shaft. Throughout the renovation, we established spatial relationships—both parallel and contrasting—to connect nature and artifice, past and present. We hoped that the permeability of space would offer guests subtle moments of temporal resonance, revealing the cultural landscape of Kyoto through lived experience. To accommodate a range of guest preferences, we designed four room types: traditional Japanese (washitsu), modern washitsu, Western-style, and suite. The washitsu rooms allow for flexible bedding arrangements on tatami, while Western rooms and suites feature standard beds and furnishings. This project reaffirmed for us the value of typological study in guiding architectural design. As Aldo Rossi once stated: "The study of the city must be concerned not only with its physical form and its development, but also with the values that this form expresses."

PetrA Home #architecture Architects: React Architects Area: 250 m² Year: 2022 Photographs: Panagiotis Voumvakis City: Paros Country: Greece The vacation home, accommodating five bedrooms and a central living area, is in Kakapetra, on Paros Island; its location features a westward orientation that enjoys panoramic views over Parikia Bay and the open sea. The design drew inspiration from the dry-stone walls and geological formations of the area, seamlessly blending into the landscape like a stone structure that harmonizes with its surroundings. The site is marked by clusters of rocks and preeminent geological formations; its byname, "Kakapetra," etymologically translates to "rugged stone" or a place marked by the prominence of stone concentrations. The rocky terrain hindered agricultural cultivation, leading these regions to be primarily utilized for animal herding, allowing livestock to be contained and roam away from cultivable lands. In such a context, the residence takes shape and evolves, utilizing the excavation's stone. Traverse walls that face towards the view create passages, entry stairs, longitudinal vistas, and living spaces. These walls mold the building adjacent to the landscape, the place, the stone. While traditional retaining walls, the "pezoules," evolve in parallel with the topography and elevation relief, the residence's walls penetrate the ground, emerge from it, and subsequently shape living spaces. The entrance is located on the eastern side of the plot, at its highest point. As the walls traverse and intersect the dwelling, enclosed courtyards are formed on the western side to protect the bedrooms and establish areas of privacy. The roof slab, made of visible concrete, rests upon the stone walls and shelters the living space. The rock, the landscape, permeates the interior and then turns toward the view and the sea. The expansive pergola, as an extension of the reinforced concrete covering, merges the interior and the exterior, unifying the rock, the living room, the courtyard, the view, and the sea into a single sequence. Roofs are complemented with soil for planting, allowing the local flora to continue its journey downhill through and over the building. A spatial interplay, a succession of events, shapes a contemporary living experience. The building, as a material entity, takes on a secondary significance in relation to the movement, circulation, passages, and room created for human dwelling. The residence serves as a continuation of the natural terrain, declaring its presence through the simplest form of stone walls that demarcate human intervention. These walls, expanding across the plot, invite residents to enter the structure from various points, disregarding conventional pathways in a typical rural dwelling. The architecture, adopting a modest and reverent approach, doesn't clearly define the space but extends its boundaries, without overshadowing the arid, rocky environment. The relationship between humans and the stone, as well as nature, constitutes the rationale behind this architectural endeavor. The imprint remains minimal, celebrating the singular Cycladic location. The Nobel laureate Greek poet, Odysseas Elytis, in "Genesis," delves into the creation of the world, particularly the Greek landscape. He commences by asserting that the genesis is the light that inundates the Greek archipelago. Proceeding through cosmogony, he speaks about the stone, from which this specific work draws inspiration. The sanctity of this place, which encompasses millennia of civilization, guides the architectural intervention, imposing a humble yet simultaneously sincere approach to the Landscape, through a personal interpretation.

High Desert House #architecture Architects: Ryan Leidner Architecture Area: 1900 ft² Year: 2023 Photographs: Joe Fletcher Photography Lead Architects: Ryan Leidner City: Joshua Tree Country: United States

Roost Platform #architecture Architects: Furman + Keil Architects Area: 928 ft² Year: 2023 Photographs: Leonid Furmansky City: Austin Country: United States Nestled across the water from a nature preserve, this 928-square-foot project sits just minutes from downtown Austin. At the bottom of a bluff, fifty feet below the surrounding neighborhood, the project is sheltered by large trees along the secluded waterway that is only navigable by canoes and kayaks. Reaching the site is a journey descending an extensive staircase, passing through a natural stone grotto, down into the wetland habitat. Conceived as an elevated platform to allow the owners to inhabit nature, the platform floats over the water, providing views into the trees and down the slough. While the screened porch is a protected space for lounging and birdwatching, the area below the platform serves as a boat launch and provides access to the shoreline. The structure expands the living area of the Owner's home without adding any additional conditioned square footage. The site presented many challenges. The project sits on an environmentally sensitive wetland that is only accessible by small boat or via a long, tight staircase that was unsuitable for construction access. To decrease the impact on the wetlands, the design team developed a strategy to lift the habitable spaces of the project to a second level and provide access via a bridge. This minimized construction at the ground plane while giving the occupants a perch from which to observe local flora and fauna. The new structure has even become a roost for owls in the evening as they hunt along the water's edge. In addition to a comfortable perch for birdwatching, the owners desired a durable and resilient structure. The previous structure on the site had experienced flooding, common along the slough during long periods of rain. The Owners wanted to build a structure that would be able to withstand the inevitable flooding and that had a minimal impact on the habitat and ecosystems of the surrounding site. The owner challenged the design team to develop a design that would exist in harmony with the site and minimize its impact in terms of the final design and construction methods.  Project goals included reducing the footprint, minimizing the impact on the waterway, and limiting construction impacts by reusing the existing superstructure of steel piers. The biggest design challenge was taking the existing structure and reappropriating it to minimize site impacts while meeting the owners' goals in a cohesive design that integrates into its natural setting.  By using and extending the existing piers, a framework for the secondary wood structure was created.  Materials and finishes were chosen not only to be resilient in flooding situations, a program requirement, but to create a light, airy structure that dissolves into its environment. All materials had to be brought to the site via a small barge, emphasizing the importance of not only durable materials but also timeless and resilient design & construction strategies. The minimal area of the lower-level deck allows native plantings to reclaim the natural wetland area. The replacement of the existing structure with this new elevated dock has also allowed for the restoration of natural hydrology.

Pyramid Hut #architecture Architects: IGArchitects Area: 83 m² Year: 2024 Photographs: Ooki Jingu City: Okinawa Country: Japan This residence was designed for a married couple. It is on a long, narrow site that slopes gently toward the back, and its three sides are surrounded by apartments and a cemetery, so the location feels like the bottom of a valley. The adjacent cemetery was like a forest, with plants crossing over into the site and blurring the boundary, making the site itself look like part of the cemetery. Having these site features, an "Okinawa-like" building style with large openings seemed somehow inappropriate for this location. Here, we envisioned a bright, open architecture while keeping a distance from its surroundings. We envisioned a building with a dignified appearance with a bright and austere interior free from external influences. Such architecture has the power and the quality of space that architecture possesses even after its original purpose ends and can remain there for a long time. For this project too, we wanted to build an architecture that will be loved and used over time, even after the owner or its function changes. The gently sloped site was organized into three levels for the living platform, the stepped earth retaining walls were used as two rows of foundation lining, and a square pyramid was placed reminiscent of a portable shrine. The square pyramid lifted from the hard Ryukyu limestone layer has a powerful form that will continue to stand there as if it were perched on clogs, even if the surrounding earth were to erode. The closed pyramid is not only structurally stable but also private and dignified. While providing functional support points in response to the site, opening the foundation and roof surface was to a limited extent, creating a peaceful space without losing the stable form. The interior space has a simple composition. The first level consists of a bathroom and entrance to efficiently gather plumbing, the next level which is stepped 1m down is a living/dining room and a study, and the third level at the back has a bedroom and other private spaces. The house was designed to create a living space within easy reach of wooden material under a skylight inside a concrete mass like a ruin. Old tombs in Okinawa are very splendid. They are designed to withstand Okinawa's harsh climate and endure for generations. They provide a function as places of gathering, celebration, and reverence and a "home" for the ancestors, with the ancient wisdom, will and culture to be able to use them for a long time. The building that we designed and completed came out looking somewhat like a pyramid or a tomb. The shape of the building was derived from considerations of Okinawa's climate, wind and rain, the surrounding environment, and the budget. However, when I saw the completed structure, it felt as though it was imbued with the sense of permanence and festivity that Okinawa's ancestors instilled in their tombs. Although the form may seem bizarre, this concrete house resulted in a graceful Okinawan character.

Solai House #architecture Architects: Studio Saxe Year: 2024 Photographs: Alvaro Fonseca Architecture And Interior Design: Studio Saxe Country: Costa Rica

The House at Lizard Island #architecture Architects: JDA Co. Area: 260 m² Year: 2022 Photographs: Peter Bennetts City: Lizard Country: Australia Crystal clear waters, white sandy beaches, and the tropical sting of heat and sweat on your skin. It’s Lizard Island. – 240 kilometers north of Cairns on the fringes of the World Heritage-listed Great Barrier Reef. Home to unparalleled natural beauty and now ‘The House’ – new architecturally designed accommodation deeply inspired by its place. The House, designed by architects JDA Co., is a true passion project of owners Steve and Jane Wilson, borne from years of planning and a desire to create the greatest ‘reef house’ in the world, on a site Steve refers to as the “Bennelong Point of the Great Barrier Reef”. Steve says the Island holds a special place in his family’s history, as his father developed the original Lodge. “The first time I visited Lizard Island when I was younger is an experience I still rank as the best holiday of my life,” Steve says. I grew up with a love of fishing and snorkeling and it was taken to a new level for me on the Great Barrier Reef. It’s truly a wonderland.” The geology and marine life of this incredible reef location provided rich inspiration for the design. JDA Co. Director Dr James Davidson says the design is entirely grounded in its connection to the reef and its place, which he became deeply familiar with while camping under the stars onsite. “Every detail in The House ties back to its magical setting,” James says. “The site itself is so incredibly beautiful and The House is there to act as a frame to its surroundings.” The architectural plan is reminiscent of the stingrays that swim mere meters away. Narrow slit windows to the south and west act as ‘gills’ and are perfectly placed to direct prevailing breezes and allow The House to breathe on hot days. On the Ground Floor, a Garden Room seamlessly unites the indoors and outdoors through stone flooring. Meanwhile, upstairs, a burnished, polished concrete floor pays homage to the monumental granite shelf beneath The House.  A central, curved stairwell acts as the heart of The House and provides a seamless connection between levels. Gaze skywards as you climb the stairs and you’ll spy an Oculus for tracking the patterns of the sun and the moon. A roof terrace and spa cap off The House and offer 360-degree views of the landscape. Internally, all three bedrooms come complete with ensuites and have been individually designed to frame vistas to nearby and distant places of significance. The top-floor bedroom frames views of Cooks Look, while bedrooms on the ground level look towards Hibiscus and Attenborough Beach respectively. Rosewood timber and copper materials bring warmth to The House and serve as a canvas for the vibrant colors of the spectacular natural environment. A large curving Emerald Quartzite kitchen bench echoes a conch, with subtle green tones that compliment the hues of the landscape and reef beyond The House. James says the material selection is intentionally restrained. “It’s an incredibly important site and The House allows you to be there in nature, in the elements,” James says. “The exterior finish is deliberately the same as the indoors, so it feels as though the outdoors have come inside.” The design welcomes the elements in, all the while acting as a sanctuary from the goannas and geckos outdoors – of which there are many. It was aptly named Lizard Island by Captain James Cook when he passed it in 1770, after noting its large population of monitor lizards. The site also has a rich Indigenous history. Dyiigurra (Lizard Island) is the traditional Country of the Dingaal people and is regarded as a sacred space. The House takes on the persona of a sort of ‘ruin’ in the past, which prompted design details like the use of stone and concrete materials. But the robust, board-formed concrete shell isn’t purely for aesthetics – it’s highly functional. The striking and rugged landscape lends itself to cyclonic winds and harsh weather conditions. As a result, The House is designed and built to shelter and protect when needed. Perforated copper blades lining the exterior are visually beautiful and act as debris shields that can withstand cyclonic winds intrinsic to this reef. The House’s remote and highly environmentally sensitive location called for serious ingenuity when it came to the build. The architect and builder had to work closely to achieve a balance between touching the earth lightly with minimal disturbance and building a robust place that’s built to last and built for use – sandy feet and all. Steve says he wants to share the beauty of the place with people from across the world. “The House is beautifully designed, but it’s still ruggedly Australian,” Steve says. “We’re blessed by the greatest natural wonder of the world and I want people to have the opportunity to visit and experience it for themselves.”                                                   The House is available for bookings and is the final piece of a master-planned site on Lizard Island, which includes The Cottage nearby.

Dragon House #architecture Architects: no.ma architecten Area: 234 m² Year: 2023 Photographs: Stijn Knapen Country: Belgium

Refugio Calfuco #architecture Architects: Tomás de Iruarrizaga Year: 2022 Photographs: Federico Cairoli Lead Architect: Tomás de Iruarrizaga City: Valdivia Country: Chile This small refuge of about 50 m² is located near Valdivia, on the Pacific coast. It sits in the middle of the dense and humid Valdivian rainforest. The client wanted a small cabin to spend holidays, and the main challenge was to reinterpret the deeply rooted concept of the traditional cabin. We proposed a very narrow tower, raised above the ground on concrete supports, that seeks northern light and uses the minimum possible ground surface. On plan, the small rectangle measures four meters wide by seven meters long and fits perfectly between a group of trees, rising ten meters above ground level to reach their treetops. The construction is divided into two very compact floors: the first level features a small entryway that doubles as a corridor connecting the bedrooms, the only bathroom, and the staircase. The second level consists of an open-plan space with a living area and a kitchen, which together feel like a noble and generous space opening to the landscape. The interior dimensions range from the minimum heights required to move comfortably to those that respond to the scale of the surrounding landscape. The form is conceived as a compact and sharply defined volume — a prism with acute angles that contrasts strongly with its surroundings. Its interiors, made of laurel wood, are warm and tactile; everything feels like part of a built-in furnishing, much like the interiors of boats, where ribs and keels are exposed. The roof is gabled, but with a ridge beam placed diagonally across the volume, resembling a fishbone structure. The entire structure was cut and assembled on site, using only traditional carpentry tools and techniques, without any advanced technology.

G House #architecture Architects: PIN Architects Area: 125 m² Year: 2021 Photographs: İbrahim Özbunar Country: Türkiye