Breathtakingly rustic Lakefront Mountain Cabin created by Sandbox Studio

By Courtney • Sep 2, 2019

On a stunning waterside plot in the beautifully rural cottage country around Lake Tahoe in California, creative design teams at Sandbox Studio have recently completed a stunning, sprawling family holiday home dubbed the Lakefront Mountain Cabin.

The plot itself is located on the calm, peaceful waters of a little community called Carnelian Bay. The impressive home spans 6,168 square feet and also boasts 200 feet of its very own beachfront. The property is just as impressive on the outside as it is on the inside, with a facade that looks just like a traditional, old fashioned lodge.

The mere fact that this beautiful home is made almost entirely from reclaimed materials is unique in itself, but that’s not actually the most interesting part. Much of the timber upcycled from the local area to build the structure was actually taken from cabins that once housed athletes who were cimpeting in the 1960 Winter Olympics at nearby Squaw Valley!

Primarily thanks to these reclaimed materials, the lodge harmonizes very well with its natural rustic surroundings. It was also intentionally built to take stunning advantage of nearly panoramic views of not only the lake but also the Sierra Nevada foothills. In fact, designers specifically oriented windows so that some kind of breathtaking nature view is afforded to guests from every single room in the house.

Another very intentional element of the house is how certain spaces were both sized and organized. For example, smaller social living spaces were included in the centre of the home with the intention of giving a home to intimate immediate family gatherings while much larger living spaces were built adjacent with more seating and an atmosphere of slightly increased grandeur, where larger gatherings of extended family and friends might take place.

The theme of reclaimed items continues throughout each of these social spaces and doesn’t actually stop at the timber taken from the Olympic cabins. Various items and materials were also sourced far and wide, from naval shipyards right in California to rural barns all the way across the country in Pennsylvania. Some of the heavier timbers were even imported from British Columbia in Canada!

Of course, with a natural outdoor space like this one, the house already comes with an abundance of available outdoor activities practically by default. Designers equipped the home with plenty of deck and patio space to take full advantage of the warmth and fresh air, including seats and open air lounge spaces for family bonding and hosting guests.

Naturally, if one is going to have guests, they’ll need somewhere to sleep, particularly since just about everyone who visits this gorgeous space ends up wanting to stay and enjoy it for as many days as they can. That’s why the house was specifically equipped to handle plenty of overnight visitors. On top of the primary master bedroom and a stunning room for the owners’ children, the cabin also boasts five additional guest suites that rival the master in size.

Perhaps the loveliest of the outdoor lounge spaces is the upper level sun deck, since it gets the most natural light an a gorgeous 360 view. Inside there are plenty of relaxation spaces too, built to include every member of the family no matter their age. Designers even built a kids’ lounge space and a shockingly cozy and unique reading loft with views of its own.

All of these different elements combined in one place have a very particular kind of charm to them. They might be various things ramshackled together, but that’s precisely the intent, and they’re combined in a sensical way that tells a story and has plenty of charm. Designers used the house as an opportunity to find beauty in the rough and discarded and they succeeded to such an extent that the whole place now has an aura of rustic sophistication to it!

Overall, the house welcomes people to each room, from the expansive kitchen to the kitschy guest rooms, with an air of traditional, down-home, old world Lake Tahoe warmth. Every detail is planned and executed in such detail that, even in the most haphazard and reclaimed look parts of the cabin, things fit just right as the lodge itself appears to grow right out of the land it fits so well on.

Photos by Vance Fox Photography

Brazilian Campinarana House created by Laurent Troost Architectures with the need for climate protection in mind

By Courtney • Aug 29, 2019

On a beautifully green plot of land in Manaus, Brazil, a stunning, almost treehouse-like residence was recently completed by innovative teams at Laurent Troost Architectures, dubbing it Campinarana House!

Building a home in the Amazon’s surrounding area comes with its own unique set of challenges. Firstly, it is absolutely necessary for environmental protection and climate change purposes that architects and building teams use low impact strategies in the construction processes in order to protect the crucially important natural landscapes around the plots they’re working on.

Additionally, the actual local climate present in places like Brazil, and Manaus specifically, makes it important for design teams to account for the possibility of extreme weather conditions, since the whole area sits in an equatorial zone. Impressively, the teams working on Campinarana House achieved both of these goals and prioritized all of the needs covered by these challenges!

Throughout the house, the architectural practices and building techniques used and featured are all ones geared towards effective thermal comfort and passive (and therefore “green”) sustainability. Campinarana House is built from an unique and cutting edge combination of protective eaves, cross-ventilation openings, and preservation mechanisms for the local ecological systems surrounding the house itself.

In fact, the entire house was actually inspired by, and not just named after, local environmental elements. Campinarana is actually a type of small tree found in the Amazon, known for growing in shallow, clay-like soil. The concept of preserving these trees and the soil they thrive in was central to the whole design of this housing project!

The minimization of deforestation required by building this project was absolutely paramount to both the design teams and the owners. Instead, they wanted to preserve as much of the surrounding forest as they possibly could. This is partially what determined the shape and layout of the house; designers wanted to build between, around, above, and through the trees rather than clearing them out to build in the space where they once stood. The effect was that they aimed to work with the space that was naturally provided rather than making any new space.

In practice, this resulted in a sort of “layout flip” to what’s typical, or a reversal of more classic housing typologies. Within the 20 x 40 square metre plot, the house grows upwards into the trees, rather than outwards through their trunks and roots. The private and sleeping rooms, which are more typically put upstairs, are located on the ground floor, while the shared living spaces, outdoor seating areas, kitchen, and swimming pool are all located on the upper deck, where they could be created a little more spaciously without interrupting the natural and crucial landscape.

The house, which exists as two distinct but cohesive volumes, was strategically divided to harness the power of natural heating and cooler powers offered by the climate it exists in. For example, the top portion of the house was purposely built to house functions that benefit from sun exposure, like the pool, the entryway, and the laundry. The lower volume, however, was built as a refuge for those places that would do better with protection from harsh sunlight. This keeps the bedrooms, for example, cooler, quieter, and more private.

Effective cross-ventilation is also essential to the passive heating and cooling systems of the house. This accounts for the strategic placement of closed and open-air spaces on the top level, as well as the presence of large windows or glass walls and how they move on the lower floor. This keeps thermal elements of the house under control, which in turn keeps the house as a whole very low in its energy consumption levels, and therefore enables it to have a lower impact on the environment.

The decor scheme of the house is simple, natural, and clean. Glass is used heavily in order to create a visual blending of indoor and outdoor spaces, letting the house exist in and around the trees in a way that feels and looks impressively seamless. Polished concrete, black marble, and wood make up most of the rest of the home’s natural materiality. Decor is quite minimalist, but not in a way that feels cold or under done. Instead, it lets the lush greenery right outside the glass walls feel like a part of the home and take centre stage in establishing the colours and aesthetics of the home’s experience.

Photos by Maira Acayaba

Stunning beach house called Point Lonsdale House finished by Edition Office in Australian city of the same name

By Courtney • Aug 19, 2019

In a sunny neighbourhood, on a quiet street in Point Lonsdale, Australia, design teams at Edition Office have recently completed a beautiful beach house, aptly named Point Lonsdale House. From a distance, Point Lonsdale House looks very linear in its shape and basic structure. Perhaps the most unique aspect of the house is the way designers built it as four distinct pavilions that are all interlinked, making them simple to move between but clear and organized in overall layout.

Each pavilion is clearly defined by its own vaulted roof, each one sitting at a jaunty angle that at once keeps the attention of onlookers but also suits the natural ebb and flow of the land the house sits on. These roofs mark out the different parts of the home, each of which has a separate function of its own.

The site upon which the house sits allotted a space for it that runs east-west. The front of the house runs along and sits close to the property’s southern border in order to leave space behind for the enjoyment of the long, lush gardens that sit towards the north side. Each of the four pavilions that make up the larger house features its own in a series of private courtyards.

In these courtyards, visitors find smaller gardens and decks designed for outdoor relaxation and escape. Each of these decks is part of an extensive relationship that the house has with blended outdoor spaces; designers intentionally built several different access points to the beautiful outside environment from each pavilion, making the beach-y outdoors easily accessible at all times no matter where you are in the building.

When the beach house was first conceptualized, designers pictured it as an island in the midst of their chosen coastal landscape. From a distance, it does, indeed, look a bit like its own floating piece, elevated above most other houses in the area. Part of the house is cantilevered slightly over the ground in an effort to level out the terrain while doing minimal damage to the natural area.

Although building teams avoided clearing the local land in order to build the home, previous loss of brush and plants from weather and other changes to the area took place in a small, non-permanent way. As such, designers created the home with the expectation that, in coming years, the natural gardens from outside the plot will grow back up to its perimeter and blend visually with the gardens that belong to the actual home.

The house itself, which appears slender thanks to the way the four pavilions are situated along the linear plot, looks monolithic on first view. The use of rough timber establishes a particular aesthetic suitable to a beach house. While viewers from the street can certainly get a sense of the home’s style from the street, most of the dynamic spaces that are used by the family living there now sit amongst the gardens towards the back of the plot, hidden from view by the angled roofs we mentioned previously.

The house boasts two separate sleeping zones, each slightly removed towards the calming gardens at the back in order to establish them as places of respite. These two zones are linked by a central common area that draws owners and any overnight guests visiting into a more public living space together towards the beginning and end of each day.

This common living space is entirely covered in timber boards, continuing that monolithic sense from the exterior of the home right on inside the doors. The central placement of this room serves to spatially define the different functions of the building, besides just facilitating bonding with family and friends, helping the space make sense.

Rather than having its own deck and courtyard, like the rooms in the two sleeping zones do, the living room joins seamlessly directly into the wider back gardens through sliding glass patio doors. From there, the heart of the house has easy access to the coastal scrub and wider landscape beyond the home’s own lawn.

On the other side of the central room is another outdoor space, but one that is much different. Rather than leading straight into the gardens and greenery, the longest timber wall on the western end of the room opens right up, thanks to a pivoting wall panel, into an actual outdoor living space that’s more like an open air room than just a patio or deck.

Designers organized this space to intentionally feel like the interior of the house is spilling right out into the sunshine and towards the beach in a way that’s free flowing and informal. The aesthetic overall, both inside and out, is traditional, rugged, and suitable to a beach house, shedding most of the separations and limitations of urban housing so that it feels almost more like camping out in a tent, despite the fact that it has all the amenities of modern living.

Further down from the outdoor room is another pivoting wall that leads from the common room into a slightly more private deck than the others that sit on the edges of the house. This deck sits between the kitchen and the lounge space, providing owners and visitors with a space for shade and quiet that isn’t visible from elsewhere on the land. Throughout the house, this whole system of decks, patios, and outdoor rooms link up the four pavilions of the building.

Besides just providing great flow of movement physically from room to room, the linking of indoor and outdoor spaces also facilitates good airflow thanks to coastal breezes, as well as great flow of natural sunlight. This actually makes the home more energy efficient, eliminating the need for an air conditioning system.

Photos by Ben Hosking

Concrete and iron SB House built by Pitsou Kedem Architects as a modernist, open concept escape home

By Courtney • Aug 12, 2019

In a beautiful suburban neighbourhood on the edges of Tel Aviv in Israel, creative and modernist design teams at Pitsou Kedem Architects have recently completed an industrial inspired family home called SB House that was specifically designed to blend minimalist, contemporary living with outdoor spaces.

From its conception, the SB House was always intended to be an experience. It is a blended space that combines interior and exterior spaces, industrial materiality with natural elements, and open concept public spaces with private resting areas designed as singular places to seek peace on one’s own.

The walls of the house rise up from the ground like a concrete envelope, wrapping around the interior spaces even as those flow through the spatial delineations in a way that feels sensical and very free. On the bottom floor, you’ll find social and public spaces designed for hosting family and friends while the more meditation and rest driven areas where one might like to escape to exist upstairs.

Of course, just because a space is designed to be private doesn’t mean it has to be dark or enclosed! Privacy can be opted into in the form of lovely curtains, but otherwise the bedrooms are surrounding on at least one side each by stunning floor to ceiling windows that open entirely to lead to a concrete balcony with an iron railing for each.

Most of these balconies can be walked along from one to the other, like a series of hard stone paths in the air, looking down onto a lovely backyard that features its own swimming pool. Here, the public spaces downstairs open onto seated patio areas around the pool as well, contributing to the blending of indoor and outdoor spaces.

Although the decor is intentionally minimal, which was a choice made to let the wonderfully simplistic materiality of the house stand out, there are several details inside that are both functional and eye catching. The bright red side tables and shelves dotted throughout the space are a great example.

Elsewhere in the house, wooden surfaces and furnishings are used to sort of ground and create contrast with the concrete and iron that generally rules the space. This wood is stained slightly darker than its natural finish to keep the colour palette consistent in a way that is earthy and comforting. This can be seen in in the floors, coffee tables, and many window shutters.

All together, the slightly industrial and slightly open concept style dotted with contemporarily shaped furniture takes on a rather mod feeling. The spaces looks as though the 1950s underwent a suburban modernizing of some kind, but in a way that is more organized, typical of more contemporary buildings and homes.

Photos by Amit Geron

Wuehrer House in rural New York built by Jerome Engelking in the midst of peaceful nature reserves

By Courtney • Aug 8, 2019

On a peacefully secluded site in Amagansett, in the United States, creative and building teams at Jerome Engelking have recently completed the Wuehrer House; an impressively sized residential home that is surrounded on most sides by stunning nature preserves. Nestled into a clearing in the small Stony Hill Forest, sat away from view of the street, is a large house that can only be accessed by a private gravel path. The plot on which the building sits has a slight natural incline that slopes gently downward. This entire slope, and most of the land at any height surrounding the house, is covered in tall white oaks. The area also, however, features a number of eastern red cedars and even some pines.

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In an attempt to pay homage to the area surrounding the house, rather than cutting into it or making the presence of the building look like it interrupts the landscape, designers aimed to conceptualize and build a house that works with the land and suits its immediate context and landscape instead.

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To do this, they used locally sourced materials that make sense with the land, creating a sense of communication between the trees and the building rather than a stark, unappealing contrast. The house is interestingly shaped and contemporary looking in its layout, but the use of wooden slats as a sort of masking blind makes it blend in with the terrain in a way that somehow makes it appear soft and subtle despite its straight edges.

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The very thing that makes the house unique, which is its shape, is actually also the thing that helps it blend right into the landscape in a way that suits its natural context. The framing and structure of the house are repetitive and modular, making it look minimalist and stylishly reduced; truly a frame providing shelter amidst the trees rather than a hulking form taking up space between them.

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The materiality of the house plays just as huge a role in how well the building fits its natural context as the shape of the frame does. The use of glass, untreated and very natural looking wood, and concrete keep the house natural like its location, amplifying the goal to make it simple and minimalist.

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Besides the way it looks, one of the best parts of the structure and shape of the house is the way it lets in so much natural sunlight. This makes the house not only more energy efficient thanks to passive heating and cooling, but also more cheerful and airier feeling on the inside. Light floods into the open concept spaces, helping define parts of the house in a way that a slightly more closed off home layout doesn’t get to experience.

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Inside the house, the same wood that was used in the exterior slats follows you through the front door and ground the inner spaces into that same pleasant and natural but minimalist aesthetic as you saw from the doorstep. This souther yellow pine lines the inner frames, most of the floors, all up the walls, and all across the ceilings, creating a calming and rather beautiful monochrome effect that’s just as bright and appealing as the level of natural sunlight in each room.

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In an attempt to keep things minimalist, designers chose very mod looking and uniquely shaped furnishings that speak for themselves and draw attention with their mere form. The fact that they very pieces providing surface and comfort in each room are eye catching in themselves makes the need for other decor nearly extraneous.

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The panels on the outside of the building do more than just block or welcome light and camouflage the house as though it grew right from the forest ground. When the panels are closed or opened, it also shifts heat levels and therefore energy usage in the house, making the whole structure lower impact on the environment in the way it runs.

Photos by Nic Lehoux

Angular Bentes House built by CoDA arquitetos to take unique advantage of all of its spaces in creative ways

By Courtney • Aug 5, 2019

In a quiet and sunny neighbourhood in Para, Brazil, innovative design teams at CoDA arquitetos have recently finished a uniquely contemporary family home called the Bentes House that aims to take advantage of every little inch of space it was afforded in unique and pleasant ways.

Besides the goal of giving the family wide spaces in which to enjoy time together, as well as with extended family and friends, designers also built this house with the goal of integrating it into the suburban landscape. The location they were afforded was subtly unique in that it appears strangely natural despite technically existing in an urban space.

Besides being built like a modern looking house, the space was also designed in terms of its layout to feel social, alive, and full of references to local art and culture. Between that and the materiality choices that were intentionally made to blend the building with its terrain, the house has this overall sense that it is simply supposed to be there.

Part of the reason designers aimed to take advantage of all possible space was precisely because the family they were building the house for is so young. This means their needs and numbers might change over time based on whether or not they choose to have more kids and what their interests become as they grow.

Within their aims to make a diverse and adaptable space, designers created a single family home that is so well organized in terms of space that it almost resembles a condominium in the way the spacial flow makes complete and natural sense. At the same time, the open concepts of those same spaces and the fact even the top of one roof is put to good use makes the home feel free, open, and part of its surrounding area right to its very essence.

From almost anywhere in the house, residents and visitors are afforded stunning views of the nearby valley that sits to the north of the plot. Nowhere is this more true, however, than on the rooftop terrace, where the second floor of the house leads clear onto the extended roof of the bottom floor like a secondary patio.

Perhaps the next most notable feature of the house besides the rooftop is the way that greenery is incorporated into just about every room in unique ways. For example, rather than just potting some plants on the ground floor patio, designers surrounded the space in a concrete cubby wall that gives some privacy but also creates a perfect opportunity for a plant wall.

This cubby plant wall surrounds a small gravel yard that leads to a back lawn with its own swimming pool. The space with the rocks, despite not looking like a comfortable place at face value, has actually been catered to form a relaxing outdoor space. It features a nest of cushions in the centre and two hammock style seat swings placed perfectly together for conversing.

This green theme follows you inside the house as well. In one transitionary space, there is actually a “living wall”, or vertical garden that entirely spans the space from floor to ceiling. This, in combination with the open concept layout and open air feel when all window walls are slid back, contributes once more to the blending of interior and exterior spaces.

Inside, the ground floor of the house features all of the public, social, and common spaces, just like a condominium building might. This is where you’ll find the kitchen, dining room, living room, and even a home theatre, making this floor all about family bonding and hosting extended family or friends, depending on the day.

On the upper floor, bedrooms, bathrooms, and resting spaces are laid out in a way that feels slightly removed and private without being cut off or sequestered, which is once again thanks primarily to the open concept layout we mentioned before. This space was imagined like units in a condo as well, but with a slightly less harsh delineation of space since it is, in fact, a private family home that is not shared with strangers.

What really makes a distinction between the upper and lower volumes is that outdoor rooftop space itself. It is left intentionally empty and open in order to make it feel like a diverse activities space, intended for use however the family prefers in the moment. Sometimes it is a place to sit with friends and others it is a quiet, solitary place for one to seek solace and read.

Photos by Joana Franca

Stunning Freestanding Pool House designed by DAG Design using shades of blue to reflect its beautiful surroundings

By Courtney • Aug 2, 2019

The city of Boston, Massachusetts might not be a seaside or sit along a coastline, but that doesn’t mean the homes there can’t or don’t have their own water features! One design team from DAG Design decided that the luxurious swimming pool they planned to build in the backyard of their latest home was such a draw, in fact, that the rest of the house might as well complement it. That’s how the wonderful and thoroughly blue aesthetic of the Freestanding Pool House came to be!

The Freestanding Pool House might not actually be the main house in the plot itself, but it’s certainly stunning enough that you might actually think it was if we never told you that it was actually only a secondary building to an entirely separate Bostonian family home. In reality, this gorgeous space is designed specifically to be enjoyed by pool bathers on sunny days.

Despite the rather upscale aesthetic of the pool house, it was actually designed with a young family dynamic in mind. Created for a family of four with two small boys, designers kept fun, versatility, and an ease in use and cleaning at the forefront of their actual material and structural choices, keeping the decorative elements a little more pretty and adult for some balance.

At the time that the pool house was conceptualized, the main house and pool were already existent and the family wanted a useful space close by that would stop the kids from tracking water through the house, but that would still suit the luxurious home they spent so much time building a comfortable and beautiful aesthetic for.

The base idea for the overall style of the pool house came from the desire to have it feel like an extension of their home. The goal was undoubtedly lovely but also casual and comfortable to spend time in. They wanted it to be more than just a place where kids might throw their towels down or change their clothes; it should also be a place where the family might entertain friends and family on warm evenings where the sun stays out later than usual.

Undoubtedly our favourite part of the space is its colour scheme. White and creamy in most spaces with natural and reclaimed wooden beams, the spaces is not without visual appeal and balance. Designers made sure to create a sense of contrast by adding some pops of colour in red and blue. Light grey tile flooring suits both the neutral and bright elements for cohesiveness.

While certain bits of bright red are certainly integral to the appeal of the rooms, those are in the minority, reserved mainly for throw pillows in the living room. For the most part, shades of watery blue are allowed to take centre stage from room to room. These vary slightly in shade just like actual rippling water does, suiting well in each place but also adding depth.

In some rooms, blue is dominant and quite permanent in features like patterned blue and white wallpaper. Elsewhere, light blue pendant lights keep the room looking light and airy looking, contrasting off cushions, chairs, and rugs below. In the main room, the blue here appears to bounce right off the water right outside the large windows and sliding glass patio doors, creating a unique blending of indoor and outdoor spaces not only in lacking boundaries and open air spaces, but also in the way colours pick each other up visually across short distances.

Photos provided by the designers.

Luxury oceanfront home Villa Helios created by Long Bay Beach Club to complement turquoise views

By Courtney • Jul 31, 2019

In a stunning village, nestled in the heart of the Long Bay Beach Club in the Turks and Caicos, a vacation home called Villa Helios was recently refurbished as the ultimate escape to paradise.

Every aspect of the beach house is bathed in luxury, both inside and outside the house. Because the villa is oceanfront, designers made the choice to feature turquoise heavily in the colour scheme in terms of art, furnishings, and other decor. This was intended, and perhaps even prioritized, to play off the stunning blues and teals of the water that splashes right outside the doors.

Thanks to the way that breathtaking views within the space were also highly prioritized in the house, there is a clear visual connection between that water and those colours in a way that is steady, as though the water itself is actually flowing through the house from room to open concept room.

In fact, just about everything in the house flows nicely. This is partially thanks to the open concept layout of most of the rooms, which are delineated more by visuals than actual limits that close rooms off. What makes things feel even more free flowing, however, is the fact that the house was intentionally constructed to blend indoor and outdoor spaces.

In nearly every room of the house, designers gave prime real estate to sliding glazed glass doors that provide a floor to ceiling view all the way down the beach and back. These also give residents and visitors what feels like nearly limitless access to the fresh air, beautiful patio seating, and even a stunning pool area that lets visitors enjoy water and sun in a way that’s slightly more private than the shared beach below.

Perhaps the best part of the private pool area is that it sits on a raised deck. This affords it an unparalleled view thanks to its vantage point that sits a little more forward from the rest of the house, down towards the beach. The view is free of obstruction, free of distraction, and simply full of sunlight and turquoise water so clear it hardly looks real.

The shades we’ve mentioned so much of sit against creamy neutral colours in each space, but designers made sure to use shades and hues in that same range to add dimensions, rather than getting stuck in an overly simplified dual colour scheme. The colours of the accent pieces dotted around the house vary around that same turquoise of the water, ranging green to blue in different pieces of furniture, art, and detail.

In terms of organization, the house is laid out in a way that makes complete sense. Sure, it’s intended to be a holiday home that people can escape to, but that doesn’t mean designers didn’t want to provide every amenity that a regular house in the city might have. The public and social spaces like the kitchen, living room, and a media space make up the ground floor, while the master suite, guest bedrooms, and master bathroom can be found upstairs.

This is where the best access to the outdoor deck and pool can be found. Of course, there are wooden stairs that leads from the ground floor to the deck and then down to the beach, but there’s something freeing and relaxing about being able to wander straight from one’s comfortable bed to an absolutely perfect sunrise view over the water in just a few easy steps.

Photos by Provo Pictures

Cubic, aptly named Black Villa created by ARCHSLON to suit the forests surrounding it

By Courtney • Jul 31, 2019

In the lush forests right outside of Moscow, Russia, creative designers at ARCHSLON have recently created a contemporary and uniquely shaped but natural looking cubic residence called the Black Villa.

As its name suggests, the villa is made with an entirely black facade that at once makes the house stand out but also blends it right into the trees in certain lighting, preventing it from really interrupting the scenery around it. In fact, the distinct Russian landscape is actually what provided the direct inspiration for the designers’ original conceptualization of the house.

The house was made with the intention of integrating it right into its natural surroundings. In the process of building it, they also wanted to make sure it had the smallest impact on the environment within the plot as possible. The trees around the building’s perimeter were preserved throughout building, contrasting well with the home’s modern shape, which appears to add depth to the forest.

In terms of its structure and decor, the building is quite intentionally minimalist. It consists of two blocks, which function as separate but cohesive volumes according to what the rooms are used for. The halves of the home are linked by a beautiful terrace and a rooftop space that provides delineation without interrupting flow or making any part of the house feel closed off.

Despite the dark colour scheme of the home’s facade, it’s actually quite bright and cheerful on the inside. This is thanks to a system of windows, skylights, and double storey columns that let light pass through the house from space to space with a natural ease and a sunny atmosphere. The windows are large and strategically placed such that they provide almost every room in the house with a nearly panoramic view of the forest beyond the plot.

In shape, decor, and layout, the whole house was specifically created to look and feel simple, clean, and concise. The main living area is shaped longitudinally, like a sort of art gallery featuring locally made pieces and furnishings of natural materiality. At the far end, the master bedroom features its own spacious study, both of which flood with sunlight in the afternoons (without overheating thanks to double paned glazed glass). The kitchen and comforting, welcoming living room sit opposite.

The outdoor spaces that complement the comforting interior of the home are just as stunning and pleasant to spend time in. Between the volumes, for example, there is a stunning courtyard heavy in natural greenery that was preserved during the building process and has thrived since. To one side of the courtyard, a glass wall leads to the master bedroom, as though the greenery is actually a part of the bedroom’s peaceful atmosphere, integrating the experience.

Photos provided by the designer.

Canadian Dessier Residence transformed by NatureHumaine from a duplex building into a single-family home

By Courtney • Jul 29, 2019

Located in a stunning looking and historical borough of Montreal called the Plateau-Mont-Royal, in the French province of Canada, design and architectural teams at NatureHumaine have created the impressively shaped and sized Dessier Residence.

This project was one of both transformation and expansion. The new owners of what used to be a duplex building contracted the team to turn it into a single family home which required a lot of restructuring of the inside areas and the way they’re defined. Originally two completely separate volumes, the new space has blended both and centred the functional spaces of the new house in the heart of the building where there previously would have been a split.

This spatial tactic leaves the corners, edges, and interestingly shaped parts of the house for more unique rooms and functions; those spaces that actually suit existing in an unconventional geometric shape. At the back of the house, a mezzanine has been added to give easy access to a rooftop terrace that towers above the trees and provides a stunning view of the surrounding landscape.

To balance the addition added at the top of the house, a small extension has been added to the back of the ground floor as well. It is just as angular as those that already existed, suiting the original structure seamlessly. From this extension, a beautiful private patio space can be accessed through two large panes of glass that fold back to connect the inner space with the outdoors.

The way that limits between indoor and outdoor spaces can be folded so simply away on both the ground and upper floors creates an almost constant visual connection between the comfortable seating spaces inside the house and the stunning garden sitting out back in the private space and down below the terrace.

In terms of decor, the interior spaces are quite monochrome in a way that is stylish and nearly minimalist. Colour pops provide some personality and dimension, but the scheme is intentionally centred on white, black, and wooden finishes all throughout to ground the very contemporary shape of the house and its new additions.

In the centre of the house, right at the heart where things would have previously been separated, is a stunning staircase that spirals upwards in a squared off fashion. Above this, a beautifully large skylight lets natural sunlight pour downwards, turning the very centre of the house into a column of light that touches nearly every room in the house and keeps them feeling cheerful and spacious.

This staircase physically connects the whole house in the same way that the sunlight pouring in from above it visually connects each floor and volume. These stairs provide access to every floor and room like a central vein, all the way from the ground floor up to the very top of the house at the rooftop terrace, which is intended to be an urban but peaceful escape for contemplation.

Photos by Adrien Williams

Dreamy Brazilian House in Correas created by Rodrigo Simão Arquitetura as a beautiful escape home

By Courtney • Jul 22, 2019

Outside the metropolitan area of Petrópolis in Brazil, creative designers at Rodrigo Simão Arquitetura have recently completed an absolutely dreamy family sunshine home called the House in Correas.

This stunning house was designed to be horizontal and sprawling rather than towering and tall. The intent here was to make it feel like a cozy escape, keeping everything low and nestled amongst the lush greenery in the surrounding area. Rather than being made of one monolithic volume containing many rooms, designers chose to create a number of buildings featuring separate suites; one for the owners, a married couple, and one each for a son in his 20s and a daughter just turned 30.

Inspired by prairie houses of previous decades, the house features traditional looking stone walls, steel frames, and wooden furnishings and details all around. It sits in a forested area and is flanked on all sides by lovely, lush gardens that provide each patio (of which there are several) a lovely floral view.

The first and largest suite of this impressive house features the master bedroom first and foremost. This is a stunning space centred on the idea of relaxation and meditation, with a beautiful view when the doors are flung open. This volume also features the living, dining, and playing rooms at one end and, towards the other end where a transitionary space to the other two suites sit, the volume has a fully equipped kitchen, a home theatre, and a stunning indoor-outdoor verandah.

The dining room is perhaps the first and most stunning example of the intentional materiality chosen by designers for the overall home scheme. Here, glazed but naturally coloured wood is used in a way that is nothing short of picturesque. Where the verandah begins, a beautiful home bad is covered like a pavilion and is fully equipped with its own barbecue and pizza oven.

The process of collecting the materials to build this house was an ongoing thing rather than a bulk haul. Designers began collecting local and authentic pieces of stone, reused wood, and even classic home pieces from demolitions in the area, like doors and windows. These lend a slightly rustic chic aesthetic, as though the home is a mosaic of beautiful elements that have been pieced together.

Besides the wooden and stone elements, the house deploys a calming colour of green to balance the breathtaking scenery surrounding the house. This shade is called “English green” and it creates a look that makes the areas in which it is included look as though they might have grown right up from the ground. Upon first glance they appear perhaps moss covered.

The direction in which the house and each of its suites were situated was highly dependent on the view. Designers wanted to ensure that residents and visitors truly get a chance to soap up the sight of the awe inspiring mountains looming in the distance from just about anywhere they might choose to spend time in the house or outside in the grounds.

From there, towards the other bedroom suites, the home features a fitness room under another pavilion, from which one can see a workshop and barn, two beautiful pools with naturally running water, and even a river that has always naturally flowed through the land, passing by the gardens and adding a calming trickling sound to the whole outdoor space.

Inside the guest bedroom suites, beautiful sliding wooden doors lead right into the sleeping area, each of which features a colour scheme of bright pops against neutral and coherently green backgrounds. These spaces are quite spa-like, set aside like their own little home pavilions where visitors might seek solace and thorough rest.

Perhaps one of our favourite features on the entire plot is the use of stone in the yard to create stunning decorative paths and walkways. These move in lovely patterns across and through the lush, green grass, occasionally leading to matching stone staircases that account for changes in terrain across softly sloping hills.

Photos by Andre Nazareth

Wellington’s Ostrich House completed by Parsonson Architects as a hybrid country-city living experience

By Courtney • Jul 18, 2019

On a hill outside of New Zealand’s notable city of Wellington, Parsonson Architects have recently finished a residential project that blends the beauty of living in the country with the convenience of living right on the edges of an urban space. The uniquely shaped Ostrich House sits atop a hill of its own and provides a comfortable escape for a young family.

View in gallery

Thanks to its place at the top of its own gentle roll, Ostrich House is afforded a panoramic view. This lets dwellers and guests see not just the city of Wellington in its entirety but also the countryside past and around it. The house sits about 15 minutes from the city limits, giving it all the convenience of urban spaces close by while still affording it the atmosphere of a retreat.

View in gallery

The unique appearance of the home’s exterior is partially practical because its sheltered nature over the entrance and courtyard helps provide protection against weathering. At the same time, it was a purposeful aesthetic choice designed to reflect the look of the home’s rugged hilltop landscape. The site itself was partially levelled by a previous owner so any prospective house could sit a little straighter and be afforded a better view.

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On this straightened area, the house is positioned to face the best view from is levelled spot, but it was also strategically angled so that from a distance, the sloping roof form seems to complete the visual line of the hill sloping upwards. This angled covering also provides protection from occasionally harsh North Western winds, as well as Southern winds from Cook Straight below the slope.

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On the inside of the house, the angled of this ceiling piece is mirrored in the shape of the interior, which makes the common living space feel dynamic and unique but also spacious. The ceiling is covered in Okoume plywood all the way from the tops of the walls to the wind and sun screens in high windows and skylights.

View in gallery

View in gallery

When it comes to layouts of the bedrooms, designers actually allotted parents and kids alike their own wings. These extend from the public common spaces, which open, thanks to sliding doors, out onto a central courtyard that features a deck and rolling lawns. Cedar cladding helps blend the indoor and outdoor spaces even further because the same wood continues onto the deck.

View in gallery

View in gallery

In addition to being efficient in the way the sloped roof protects the inner spaces of the house, its structures were also designed to be sustainable thanks to passive heating and cooling systems that control the temperature in the summer and winter alike. These systems are helped by pieces of exposed concrete floor and internal block walls, as well as double glazing in thermal window frames.

View in gallery

View in gallery

Like the exterior, the inside of the house is a unique and balanced blend of materials that reflect the landscape. Following wooden themed and slate grey colours on both accounts, the entire home thoroughly suits its surroundings. Where concrete and stained wood aren’t owning the aesthetic, black surfaces and details ground the scheme in a way that feels comfortable and warm.

Photos by Paul McCredie

Rectangular JY House created by Studio Arthur Casas as an indoor-outdoor family vacation home

By Courtney • Jul 16, 2019

In a quiet, sunny neighbourhood in São Paulo, Brazil, creative design teams from Studio Arthur Casas have recently completed a beautifully contemporary and nearly open air vacation home for a family of four with adult kids. The beautifully rectangular JY House stands high above a golf course with impressive gravity.

The home’s nearly blockish contemporary shape isn’t actually the only very interesting thing about the way the house is built. Rather than being one monolithic piece, the house is actually divided into two connected but distinct volumes that are slightly displayed from one another on the hill the house was erected on.

The first volume, which sits a little lower down on the hill towards the golf course, houses all of the home’s common areas. This part of the house includes social areas like the foyer, living room, family room, and kitchen, which are almost entirely blended with an outdoor porch area that feels more like yet another room.

This impressive blending of spaces is possible thanks to a fully retractable glass wall that provides a beautiful window view when it’s closed and a feeling of boundary-less living when it’s slid fully open. For privacy, a decorative screen wall with a swooping curved shape is built where the eye line from the golf course might otherwise see right into the home. This feature avoids making the home feel closed off, as it has no sealed edges and looks more like a piece of art than an actual room boundary.

In the higher volume of the house one finds the private and sleeping spaces which, despite still being fresh and quite open air, are built like more sheltered suites. They are decorated and positioned to be afforded a beautiful view of the golf course down the hill but they’re also intentionally more closed off to make them feel like each person’s own little escape.

At the other side of the house, where guest bedrooms and bathrooms lie, as well as some storage space, the house is absolutely more closed off. This is the part of the house that faces the street. It presents an impressive facade in its rectangular shape made of metal and stone, with a cobbled walk up from the drive, but it masks the relaxing spaces just behind.

In the upper floor’s master suites, an antechamber sits off to one side. This is a multi-purpose space that, depending on their needs, the owners might use in different ways; say, as an office or a private, intimately sized living room, for example. Past the bedrooms suites, the upper floor volume is also home to a fully equipped gym, as well as a games room.

One of the biggest challenges designers face in building this house was the way it inherently had to account for the slope on which it sits. They chose to use tactics that worked with the hill, rather than building against or cutting into it. Supporting inverted beams make each of the home’s volumes more solid by spanning the space between the floors.

The facade, which provides shade when the building is slid fully and solidly closed, was actually originally chosen by designers in order to meet the owner’s goals of building a house that differentiates itself in style from the rest of the dwellings in the neighbourhood in a big but pleasing way. It is made from grey leaded aluminum that is easy to maintain.

The the outdoor spaces, which were a huge priority to everyone involved, two extremely unique features set the house into a league of its own. The first is the way the roof of the lower level is situated right below the upper floor’s open wall, stretching across like a raised lawn thanks to the way it’s actually covered in lush green grass.

The second fantastic novelty feature is the gleaming swimming pool. This sits at the bottom of the house, down in the main yard where it can easily be accessed from the shared public and common spaces. The pool’s position makes the open-air structure of these spaces even more enticing.

Photos by Fernando Guerrera

1926 Georgian Revival house transformed by Sarah Bartholomew Designs from a childhood home to a dream escape for a grown family

By Courtney • Jul 15, 2019

In a beautifully sprawling neighbourhood in Nashville, Tennessee, experts at Sarah Bartholomew Designs have recently refurbished an old house called the 1926 Georgian Revival for a family that has lived there for many years indeed with one primary goal in mind- to transform it from a childhood home into a dream home fit for an adult family.

Within this transformation, it was incredibly important to both owners and designers that the original style and integrity of the old home despite the modernizations being made. That doesn’t mean, however, that they didn’t still make the place look quite contemporary, particularly thanks to their choices in colour and patterning.

Designers chose intentionally cheerful, bright, and eye catching shades and hues for the decorative elements of the home, set against creamy, neutral backgrounds. At the same time, an emphasis on fantastic, visually textured patterns partners up with those bright colours to really add some modern personality to the mix.

The kitchen is a perfect example of the way traditional shapes and neutral base colours preserve the classic style of the house while brighter colours add a modern pop to the space. We adore the way the bright blue topped stools and matching pendant light fixtures, which resemble old lanterns in their shape, create a stunning blend of contemporary and vintage within the room.

Moving through to the dining room, the location of the colour pops shift. This is to say that, rather than neutral walls and bright furniture, this room has simple, creamy furniture and bright walls! This is all thanks to visually exciting patterned wallpaper that involves intricate designs featuring the same blue you saw in the kitchen, just for a bit of cohesiveness.

In some spaces, design teams actually chose to use the owners’ own stunning belongings, which have been carefully chosen and accumulated over the years, as inspiration for some of the rooms, since the aesthetic fit the classic shapes and architecture so well. Their large collection of porcelain vases, for example, informed the way some of the transitionary hallways were decorated in terms of their patterning.

In other rooms, the blue that’s continued so heavily throughout the house is pared back slightly in order to let another colour take centre stage. The formal living room is the perfect example of what we mean! Here, a bright green throw pillow and coordinated piece of wall art, as well as several other details, create a whole different modern and classic aesthetic blend.

Elsewhere in the house, that same pretty eggshell blue continues from space to space, standing out or lying back in different ways depending on which other shades are present. A daughter’s bedroom, for example, features that blue with an exciting bright pink in the details, while an office and hallway feature the blue set against a cheerful, sunny yellow.

The outside of the house is perhaps the most traditional looking aspect of the house in terms of what was preserved. Having been refurbished entirely to counteract years of weathering, the house still features its original columns and entryway canopy, on top of which a stunning balcony stems off the spacious master bedroom.

The contrast between the beautifully traditional brickwork on the home’s exterior and its clearly maintained architectural shape with the bright, playful patterns and colours make the space feel dynamic and full of life.

Photos by Traditional Home Magazine

Stunning turquoise home called Acorn Falls Cottage built in the mountains by Ballard Design

By Courtney • Jul 9, 2019

If there ever was a space that perfectly combined elements of vintage, rustic, stylish, weathered, and colour popping, then it’s absolutely the recently made over Acorn Falls Cottage by Ballard Design.

Located in Highlands, North Carolina, this mountain home is positively infused with colour in a way that follows contemporary decor trends at the exact same time as it harnesses natural and rustic aesthetics to suit the woodland surroundings designers nestled it comfortably into.

Originally built in the early 1900s, the cottage has long been an historic vacation spot, with countless families renting it out over the years to enjoy the mountain air and benefit from a relaxing escape while still remaining close enough to the town of Highlands to be convenient and not isolated.

Missy Woolf, an iconic designer famous for her cottage renovations, is responsible for the slightly modernized but still undoubtedly weathered vintage chic aesthetic of the newly overhauled cottage. Her aim was to preserve as much of the building’s original charm as possible while still giving it an update that looks and feels fresh and perhaps even luxurious, in a grounded sort of way.

This mixed atmosphere was achieved partially through the use of a combination of furnishing choices ranging from high end and designer to locally made artisan pieces that are natural in their materiality. Local artwork is also a large part of the cottage’s revamping, giving it a newfound charm and character while still tying it to its place right there on the mountain.

Besides these design choices, the element of the newly redone house that is perhaps the most important is the way the space now plays with colour, particularly turquoise. Besides being very trendy in fashion and design right now, turquoise is a colour that invokes calm, cheeriness, and an upbeat attitude. In the particular muted shade you see in these photos, however, it stirs the same feelings but suits the landscape without seeming to scream too bright against all that natural wood and rock.

To incorporate the use of so much turquoise into the house more thoroughly rather than just having the exterior and a few painted pieces bear all the weight of eye catching on their own, we appreciate the way the designer chose to balance the colour with other fun, colourful fabrics that contribute to the sense of having a “pop” where there isn’t just natural wood and plain white.

On the porch, which features a failing made entirely from branches, a shaded but warm and comfortable seating area has been built. The cottage still has its original layout, which is slightly more traditional than the open concept homes you see more commonly now that usually feature blended indoor-outdoor spaces, so the establishment of a good, solid outdoor place to sit combats the cottage feeling closed off from its beautiful outdoor surroundings.

White and turquoise follow you throughout the house, from the wicker swing seats on the porch, through the kitchen and living room and on into the bedrooms. Rather than using precisely the same muted turquoise as you see on the cottage’s fashionably faded exterior, however, you’ll notice that some pieces feature a deeper shade of the colour, bordering almost into teal. This grounds the aesthetic and makes it feel more dynamic.

The kitchen and its accompanying dining room are perhaps the part of the house that feature the most delicious blend of rustic and modern. All of the essentials and amenities are modern and gleaming new, but the use of reclaimed local wood is still heavy in many large features, like the island and the high bar style table, keeping that rustic feel that’s so essential to a mountain cottage.

Of course, the kitchen isn’t the only place that boasts impressive rustic features built in natural materials. We’re also in awe at how much we adore the way the fireplace in the central living room look as thought it has been pieced together right there in the heart of the home, stone by stone. In the winter, this becomes one of the coziest places to gather with loved ones.

Of course, the outside of the cottage is a wonderful space to enjoy as well, beyond just the deck and porch swings! Designers also incorporated a firepit area nestled in the leaves on the lawn, with a safe place to relax in large wooden chairs while the embers glow and the kids roast marshmallows.

Photos by Sarah Ingram

Pike Properties build stunning Modern Farmhouse in the sprawling countrysides of North Carolina

By Courtney • Jul 8, 2019

On a breathtaking wooden plot in Charlotte, North Carolina, creative designers at Pike Properties have recently finished an expansive and truly stunning residential project aptly named the Modern Farmhouse.

In a small community on the borders of Charlotte, a beautiful countryside plot boasts its own cluster of trees like a miniature forest. The new house built there spans an impressive 4,315 square feet of combined living space. Boasting a total of five bedrooms and four and a half bathrooms, it’s perfect for a sizeable family and also their guests.

As guests approach the house, they’re greeted by a classic country home style porch that wraps all the way around the house. Here, you’ll encounter the inviting seating of an outdoor social space used for bonding with family and friends. This is the first place where, despite the clear and obvious style influences of the countryside setting, a modern twist has been added in the finer details of the furnishing and decor; the porch furniture is very clearly newly designed.

Inside the home, this blend of original rustic features and modern details and amenities continues in a way that provides lovely contrast and unique style. The floor is white oak and most of the trim is made of locally sourced and upcycled cedar beams, while the tiles and lighting fixtures are all new and high-end.

The layout of the actual living spaces themselves are open concept and free flowing in terms of movement, energy, and also light. In fact, the flooding of natural light into each room was an intentional priority. Thanks to glass walls and floor to ceiling windows, natural sunlight flows freely through the living room and kitchen, past its multi-use island, and on into a cozy breakfast nook.

Besides these social spaces, the ground floor of the Modern Farmhouse also boasts a beautiful home office, as well as the master bedroom, set aside for some quiet. This bedroom has a vaulted ceiling, two walk-in closets, a spa bathroom, and a quiet reading nook of its own. It is specifically designed with escape and tranquility in mind. Kids’ and guest bedrooms sit upstairs on the second storey.

This impressive house doesn’t stop at only these two floors! Designers face the family a third floor to use as a diverse and flexible space for whatever their needs are in the moment. Off to one side of this space is a small but fully equipped additional bathroom and powder room.

In both the home’s interior and exterior, a sense of balance and contrast is present in the way the colour schemes and materiality play off each other. Nowhere in the house could be described as dark by any means, but the exterior is slightly deeper and rich in tone than that found inside. In both places, however, painted walls and wooden details create a sense of light and dark in terms of their colour and stain. Outside, darker walls are anchored by lighter wooden features while, on the inside, lighter walls and contrasting stained wooden sidings create balance.

Photos provided by designer.

L House by Juri Troy Architects

By Courtney • Jul 4, 2019

On a lovely corner lot in a neighbourhood in Purkersdorf, Australia, the space and bright family dwelling called L House has received its finishing touches by designers and architects at Juri Troy Architects.

Located on a southern facing slope, the house looks out over the village, giving visitors a breathtaking view of the Vienna Woods surrounding the area. This unparalleled view can actually be seen from almost anywhere in the house thanks to the emphasis on large floor to ceiling windows, which was an intentional goal of the designers from the earliest stages of planning.

In an attempt to blend the dwelling smoothly with its natural surroundings and make it appear as though it really does belong right there on the hillside, designers chose to construct the entire upper floor, both in its exterior and full interior, entirely out of stunning light wood timber. To do this, they used locally sourced whited fir.

This lovely upper floor features its own sprawling terrace that gets plenty of sun all year round, enhancing the cheerful brightness of the whole plot and inside the house itself. The wooden portion also creates a cozy enclosed space around a courtyard and joins into the hillside on one end where a calming natural pool sits.

To create the wooden facade, designers chose to situate the smoothed board vertically, establishing an almost striped effect all around the outside. The boards that make up parts of the facade turn sideways to become slats that will let in sunlight and fresh air, closing again to provide those areas with privacy whenever it’s needed.

Inside the house, the white fir materiality continues. In fact, the entire interior is clad in white fir, from the floors to the furnished features, walls, and ceilings! The effect is a calming monochromatic aesthetic that travels right down the staircase from the wooden encased top floor and down into most aspects of the bottom floor as well. Here, some cupboards and storage features vary, but white fir is still the most prominent feature.

On the side of the house that extends to naturally merged with, or at least sit near, the hill’s natural slope sit the sleeping areas. This location in the house provides them with the most privacy from the driveway and public access spaces and lets them open into the fresh air without losing any of the relaxing solitude found within the lovely wooden rooms.

Extending from the sleeping areas (in particular the master bedroom) is a lovely covered terrace. This space lets dwellers and guests wander right from their beds into the fresh air and sunshine, but still seek the solace of a bit of shade. This terrace leads directly into a lovely green garden. Both of these outdoor spaces are barrier free, adding to the sense of nature blending.

Besides being quite innovative in the materiality and aesthetic aspects of its design, L House is also quite cutting edge in the systems that run it. For its main heating source, the building features a pump rooted in geothermal energy sources. This contributes to its green nature along with the fact that it was constructed almost entirely from raw and recycled materials.

The stunning patch of green lawn you see on the extended part of the roof contributes to those green systems as well! This space buffers rainfall, using that water source to provide temperature regulation in hot summers. The ventilation provided by the turning wooden slats in the facade also helps with regulation and avoiding over heating in the summers.

Photos provided by architects

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