Bornet House is a stunningly rustic barn turned into a beautiful little home by Savioz Fabrizzi Architectes

By Courtney • May 17, 2019

Thanks to innovative designers at Savioz Fabrizzi Architectes, a beautifully rustic and vintage original barn has been transformed in a minimalist but luxurious way and renamed Bornet House.

Located in the countryside of Ollon, Switzerland, the Bornet House is a former barn that still bears a lot of its original masonry which adds historical character despite the fact that much of it resembles stylized rubble this many years since it was first built. The barn actually sits at the centre of the tiny village of Ollon, which is quite dense in terms of where the buildings sit in reference to each other.

On the ground floor of the barn house is a singular, open concept space where all of the functional parts of the house are featured. Here, the kitchen, living room, and dining room blend together but in a way that makes sense and enables free movement. Closer to the entrance, the main bedroom actually sits on a higher level but only slightly, built up on a sort of central wooden pedestal.

The difference in levels between the bedroom and the functional and public spaces gives the sleeping space some uniquely situated privacy, as though it’s its own little escape. At the same time, the fact that it sits only slightly higher than the other rooms and isn’t closed off at the top affords the living room double the height to the ceiling, making it feel even more opening.

In terms of materiality, the inside of the house bears a sort of cohesiveness with the outside. The tones of the natural materials chosen suit the outside of the house, matching the stone of the original work quite well. Inside, the natural concrete floors match the ashy tone of the natural ceiling while the wooden walls match the bedroom platform and frame of the kitchen.

In terms of the physical structure of the building, designers opted to stay true to the history by refraining from altering the walls and openings in drastic ways. In one spot, however, the west wall needed to be rebuilt to maintain the integrity and strength of the building and preserve it for years to come.

Despite the fact that they maintained the building to its truest form as much as possible, they also accounted for the way it sits on a slope as well, particularly when it came to filling the floor on the inside. In the rebuilt wall, however, designers did take liberty in the revived space to add a window that runs the whole width of the building, harnessing the power of the slop once more to provide a breathtaking and totally unobstructed view of the Rhone Valley.

In order to keep incorporating the beautiful outdoor setting the barn house is afforded, designers also added a small terrace right off the side of the bedroom platform. This gives dwellers another way to enjoy the old fashioned setting of the tiny village, contrasting well with their experience of the freshly modern interior of their new house.

The final area of the house, not always visited by guests, is the basement. This area houses a useful home office and even a plant room, which is actually partially under ground thanks to the way the land the house sits on slopes.

Photos by Kristyna Strejcovska

Clean, bright Wye River House, set high above the water, built by MGAO to provide breathtaking Australian views

By Courtney • May 16, 2019

Located right along the river that gives it its name, the Wye River house in Australia was recently completed by design teams at MGAO to give owners unparalleled views and the brightest of naturally lit home spaces.

This particular house actually arose out of some misfortunate originally. In 2015, a bushfire became beyond control on Christmas day and swept through the little township of Wye River, leaving great damage in its wake. Over 100 homes were lost entirely and various social and housing projects have happened in the years since to replace the damaged dwellings for those families.

The Wye River house is one of those replacement projects! It is located on a plot of land that slopes quite steeply, giving it a dramatic view of the Bass Straight. Fro, below, the house looks as though it’s perched lightly on the hillside, standing tall amongst the greenery of the brush that is still growing back where a canopy of trees once stood before the fire.

In order to give it some locally referenced character and style, designers chose to model this house after the typical beach shacks that were dotted so consistently along the coastline in the area in the 1960s and 70s. This explains the boxy shape and modest material choices, and the repetition of this inspiration in other homes applies that same aesthetic to much of the village.

Besides its basic rectangular shape, the most direct references this house bears to its beach shack forefathers come in the form of the Skillion rook and the several cantilevered balconies. The way that the external cladding, which gives the house that warmly dark facade and makes it stand out against the countryside, is also an influence. This makes the building look monolithic, just like the beach shack towers it was modelled after.

Perhaps this exterior cladding and the clearly high quality glazing in the floor to ceiling windows are the most modern aspects of the Wye River house. These windows let the area’s high amounts of gorgeous natural sunlight flood into each room, practically lighting each corner, giving the interior a wide open and comforting feel and letting the greenery outside appear as though it’s part of each space.

The way the greenery and the ocean are framed by the windows was actually a very important priority to designers. After all, these trees are something the locals fought extremely hard to save, preserve, and revive during and after the devastating fire. It’s only fitting that they get their moment to shine each and every day.

In contrast with the dark exterior of the house, most of the indoor spaces are incredibly clean, bright, and near flawless looking. This, in combination with the windows, helps the space feel limitless and even bigger than its generous square footage actually is.

Photos by Paul Hermes

Yin Residence created by TACK architects to blend with historical neighbourhood despite its modern architecture

By Courtney • May 15, 2019

Just south of Omaha’s downtown core sits a brand new private residence, at the heart of a neighbourhood that’s bears historical note of its own. The Yin Residence, recently completed by TACK architects, was specifically designed to provide all of the amenities of modern living without interrupting the atmosphere of history and authenticity in the streets around it.

In fact, this house is a sort of tester building, designed with the open intention of being a prototype for ongoing residential construction. The house was meant to distinguish itself as something new but still suit the historical buildings around it, creating a blended atmosphere that feels natural and comfortable for dwellers in the area and visitors alike.

Designers were fortunate with the location because it was already afforded a stunning setting within which to work. The historical context that the new house sits in provides an already established tone that sort of set the scene for the building’s exterior, even though the interior appears much more modern then one might expect or witness in older surrounding homes.

Within the home, designers wished to give visitors a new outlook on the city. This intent is partially responsible for the pleasing minimalist aesthetic featured within the home’s walls. On the outside, the building’s exterior was created from cement board with a prettily contrasted cedar siding. Inside, the materiality is lighter and more simple, designed to mirror ideas of a contemporary lifestyle.

In terms of its layout, the house is organized into three sections, situated by function. To the north lie the master bedroom, the living room, and the kitchen, all spaces that are most regularly used by the family. Designers chose to put each of these close together to enable easy, free movement from one place to another on the inside.

Towards the south end of the house, you’ll find two additional bedrooms and a three-car garage. The guest bedrooms are spacious and friendly, giving visitors a sense of luxury and “escape from the norms of home” without being too formal or cold. They’re intended to make one feel like a guest while also feeling completely comfortable and welcome.

Between these two parts of the house lies a sort of transitional space, leading from one to the other. This is a vertical volume that extends upwards, linking modules of the building together. This linked space holds a stunning staircase that leads onto the roof, where dwellers and visitors can enjoy a beautifully sunny rooftop patio that feels fresh and open but is also high enough to remain quite private.

In terms of the decor, colour pops are quite important to the home’s atmosphere and aesthetic. In contrast with the more neutral and grounded looking exterior, the inside bears several furnishings and decor or art pieces that create an exciting burst of energy here and there, keeping the place feeling bright and modern despite its historical setting, but also without interrupting it.

Photos by Tom Kessler

Cleanly modern A5 House refurbished by Raz Melamed Architects to put a contemporary spin on an historical building

By Courtney • May 15, 2019

In the historical city of Tel Aviv-Yafo, Israel, the fresh and modern A5 House was recently completed by Raz Melamed Architects as part of an ongoing project to refurbish older buildings in the area for easier modern living without disturbing their outwards historical context.

In reality, the A5 House is a modest but still impressive 70 square metre studip apartment that has been redesigned into a modern getaway. It lies at the centre of Tel Aviv’s historic Neve Tzedek neighbourhood, which is part of the reason it was chosen for this refurbishment project. Despite the fact that designers on the project had previous experience with authentically and respectfully redoing historical buildings, this particular spot presented a unique set of challenges.

Previously to being redone, this property as derelict and abandoned for many years. When designers arrived on scene, they found what looked like a collection of ramshackle shacks, all hacked together in a way that appears shoddy and unreliable. The effect of this construction was to make an inner space that appear like a sort of dark, disjointed maze with only a hidden back patio for private outdoor space.

Additionally, a slanted wall that divided the main inner spaces presented something to think about and work with or around. In short, the space needed thorough renovation. Within that, however, it was essential that contractors remain diligent and careful, since they were, in fact, working in an historical space. The team aimed to work carefully enough to protect the building’s outer shell and preserve the home’s historical integrity.

In the early planning stages, designers came up with three distinct potential layouts that might work within the unique space. Each of these accounted for the sharply slanted wall in different ways; one tried to hide the wall to create an illusion of wide open rectangular space, a second worked it into the plan in a way that was subtle, and the third made is a central part of the layout, relying on it quite heavily.

In the end, designers went with the first plan, option for openness and free flowing space with as little slanted interruption as possible. They did this by taking advantage of both horizontal and vertical space, eventually dividing the apartment’s interior into four distinct spaces, each one rectangular in shape.

Now, the spaces are organized into a sleeping area, a living room, and kitchen, and a stunning outdoor patio. Each of these are divided by beautifully intersection vitrine windows that open from room to room or onto the patio using a Belgian style pivot door. The patio is accessible from both the living room and the bedroom, while the bedroom is separated from the two inner social spaces by an additional wall of windows.

The use of only glass walls within the apartment itself and surrounding the patio has a practical function as well as a decorative one. This way, natural light is permitted to flow freely into the rooms, reaching just about every corner. The same goes for fresh air when the windows are pivoted open. The stone wall surrounding the patio, however, keeps the inner space nice and private despite the clear line of sight from the patio inward.

In order to keep the flow of space and open concept construction of the inside rooms even and symmetrical, designers opted to hide the apartment’s bathroom behind a subtle door in the kitchen. This stops the apartment from having an uneven visual space and makes it feel like a standard modern one-bedroom, despite its old fashioned courtyard and lovely historical outer aesthetic.

On the more public side of the house, which faces the street, designers opted to glad windows with wooden shutters that are more standard of the buildings in the area. This gives the inner spaces privacy without interrupting the visual aesthetic of the local area. The effect is that the modern appearance of the apartment inside and the way it contrasts with the exterior is sort of a surprise for visitors entering for the first time.

The clean, simple layout plans might make the apartment look like it was easy to manifest, but that’s not so. First, designers had to essentially rebuild and replace the original infrastructure due to rotting beams near the roof. The original flooring, worn and unsuitable after years of both use and neglect, also needed redoing.

Each of these radical project aspects, of course, had to be completed within the parameters set out by local preservation authorities. Designers could not, for example, change the height of the building. Any changes or updates that were made to the outside fo the home were done using locally sourced supplies that would have been authentic to the area in any era.

This sense of natural, raw materiality continues on the inside of the apartment as well. A calming grey colour palette was chosen as a happy medium between old fashioned and minimalist, modern aesthetics. The bathroom features grey tiles while the kitchen and bedroom boast impressive woodworked details that have been painted a matching grey.

In contrast, the kitchen island, granite countertops, and steelwork around the pivoting glass doors were all done in black in order to ground the space and create periodic focal points. Greenery in the serene, old fashioned patio completes the space, bringing that sense of a natural escape home.

Photos by Amit Geron

Cubic looking Mariana House created by Laboratorio de Arquitectura [mk] with bright glass walls to create feelings of limitlessness

By Courtney • May 14, 2019

In a generous corner plot in the midst of a calm neighbourhood in Santiago de Querétaro, Mexico, the impressively cubic Mariana House was recently completed by Laboratorio de Arquitectura [mk] to blend stunning outward views and calming intimate spaces.

Casa Mariana, or Mariana House, is built on the corner of its street in a space that bears quite a number of strict building regulations, making it the culmination of designers having overcome several challenges and constraints. Throughout the entire building process, they found themselves juggling the two main goals of preserving the breathtaking views afforded by the location and creating a sense of relaxing intimacy and privacy within the home itself.

This is how the home’s unique L-shaped layout was conceptualized. Two main corridors help organize the home’s public and private spaces, which are joint in the centre by an impressive stairway that connects the building’s two storeys.

On the ground floor, designers sought to create a distinction between public and private spaces so that each feels easily understood and sensical to use independently of one another. At the same time, they wanted to maintain a free flow of space and establish a relationship between spaces so that the room inside don’t feel too isolated or closed off.

Part of this spatial priority was established using a sequence of sliding doors, clean glass walls, and pivoting glass partitions. These make the spaces feel adaptable depending on the situation or needs of dwellers and visitors. Rooms might be closed off for privacy and quiet or opened entirely for air flow and feelings of limitlessness.

On the home’s upper floor, the space is more classic and straight forward in that the master suite is slightly removed from the guest bedrooms to privacy. In contrast to other homes, however, this house features a common intimate living space where the family might bond or spend quiet time alone. This space overlooks the storey below, sitting under a sloped ceiling.

The materiality and aesthetic inside the house, on both floors, is quite natural and suited to the environment surrounding the house. Greenery is made a huge part of the inner decor thanks to the way large fronds rest against the glass, like the hallways are deep within a forest or jungle. This lets glass walls enable floods of sunlight while also hiding intimate spaces from view.

Wood and concrete make up most of he space where glass isn’t present. On the facade, however, an aluminum screen is featured where the house takes the brunt of the sun. This provides privacy but also helps with passive heat regulation, without blocking light from entering the spaces inside so that things can stay beautifully bright.

Photos by Alejandra Urquiza

Angular, open concept Gwaneum-Ri House completed by Architecture Studio YEIN to put a modern twist on local living styles

By Courtney • May 14, 2019

In the mountain village of Gangneung, South Korea, the Gwaneum-Ri House was created by Architecture Studio YEIN only feet from where the ice skating heats of the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics took place. Named for the Korean Buddhist term Gwaneum-bosal, the house embodies the values that the local people hold dear.

Besides being a previous Olympic site, the village was also the site of a terrible forest fire in May 2017. This rendered the area quite vulnerable thanks to dry mountain winds and harsh weather coming in off the Easy Sea. Many of the forests and high numbers of houses were damaged in the fire, including the family of home a young couple with a brand new baby. This family’s house has now been rebuilt on the same site where the ashes of their lost shelter once stood, like a symbol of hope.

The site on which the original little wooden house stood is small but held a lot of potential for innovative contemporary designers. The plot is decently sized but triangular in shape, leaving the only space that’s suitable for a yard quite narrow. Teams accounted for this by building a triangular house that nestles comfortably in the back of the plot, leaving the forward strip free for a yard.

Inside, the slightly trapezoidal house is split into two functional spaces. One is intended for the couple and their daughter for everyday use and the other is more suitable for guests and visiting family, sitting closer to the central courtyard. Between the two volumes sits a triangular transitional space that’s specifically intended for sharing and bonding.

An apple tree was planted here in this serene common space, taking advantage of the slight difference in level between the home’s two halves due to the fact that the plot sits on a bit of a slope. Designers took advantage of the land’s natural slope in another way. Ramps were built into the home’s front deck and inner space to make movement through the house friendlier for the couple’s elderly parents and even themselves as they age within the home in years to come.

To the right of the house and its entrance ramps sits a lovely garden. The roof of the house slopes towards this garden, creating a natural visual flow that’s pleasing to the eye. Close to here, the wall of the guest room has a window to keep things bright, but it is minimal in size in order to block noise from the road and keep the guest bedroom comfortable and private.

In contrast, the living room has a large window that perfectly frames stunning views visible from the home’s slope. This window is set right into a corner, accounting for the house’s triangular shape. This corner is also situated such that it becomes a kind of vestibule between the kitchen and the living room.

From the kitchen, the central garden is clearly visible. This was specifically placed so that the owning couple, whose favourite things are gardening and cooking, can enjoy the flowers growing in the garden while they cook together. Their bedroom is located at the furthest back point of the plot so as to block out noise from the road but still provide it with a view of the central garden too.

Between the bedroom and the public spaces sit the master bathroom and a dressing room. An impressive staircase leads upwards from this dressing room into a sunny, quiet loft that might be used as a diverse space depending on the family’s needs. The materiality of this and each of the other rooms in the house reflect their mountainous setting, using a neutral colour palette and placing locally sourced stonework detailing at the forefront of decorative built-in features.

Photos by Joonhwan Yoon

Waterside South lake House refurbished by Estúdio Cláudio Resmini from a 1980s residence

By Courtney • May 10, 2019

In the sunny Brazilian city of Brasilia, the South lake House was recently completed by Estúdio Cláudio Resmini as part of a refurbishment project based around updating old local residences from the 1980s.

The uniquely shaped residential structure that spans 950 square metres is a mixed functional structure that was originally built in the 1980s. Inside, in the original building and the updated version, the service based rooms sit on the lowest lake level, while the social spaces are located accessibly on street level, leaving private spaces to nestle intimately at the top of the three storey dwelling.

The upper floor we’ve just mentioned is arranged according to a triangular floor plan, partially suspended as though it’s almost an independent structure from the rest of the house. This floor is where most of the rebuilding had to be done after the house was acquired for refurbishment in 2017, since its supporting structures had begun to degrade due to a severe lack of maintenance.

Despite its wear and tear, the structure was clearly sound and quite formidable, so designers opted to keep its overall shape and exterior layout, avoiding most intervention that wasn’t absolutely necessary for preservation. Instead of redoing it, they opted to simply adapt and update the look of the building from its original geometric red exterior to a subtler, clean white. This theme continues throughout much of the house in terms of new materiality and changes made in furnishing and decor.

Inside, a little more intervention into the layout of the inside of the house took place, where the lowest floor slopes to meet the lakeside. Here, all walls were removed to create a sense of open concept movement between the kitchen, dining room, living room, and cheerful playroom and toy library. On one slightly detached side, space is delineated more concretely for a laundry room and on-site staff suite.

The intention in the way this part of the house was drastically opened was to integrate the lake and its surroundings more cohesively into the home. Designers aimed to create a bond with the natural environment here, particularly where the home’s floor slops towards a brand new pool area, the shape of which was updated from the original circular pool that was built in the 80s.

Surrounding the pool, a wooden desk provides dwellers with a relaxing, sunny place to sit. Besides affording visitors a view of the pool and lake, this area also presents a clear connection to a lovely table-shaped garden where grass grows in abundance and overflowing fresh flower pots of different heights are scattered throughout.

Continuing the theme of integrating indoor and outdoor spaces, we move onto the “gourmet space”, which is a box-like concrete spot near the pool that features a barbecue grill. This space can actually be fully integrated into the main kitchen thanks to sliding glass panels, giving great access to refrigerators during outdoor cooking sessions.

Close by, a curved wall leads to a staircase, which in turn leads to a calm atrium that serves as another social space with its own suspended garden. This garden mimics the more natural materiality of the upper floor, which has several details that hearken back to the house’s original aesthetic, as can be seen in the wood0heavy master bathroom.

The way that certain small details have been preserved from the original home inside creates a stunning sense of contrast with how the house’s geometrically shaped volume has been modernized. Another example of this is how a black metal privacy structure was affixed to the home’s exterior near the master suite for privacy, but angled such that it doesn’t block out the stunning lake view that inspired the original builders to choose that location for a house in the first place.

Photos by Evelyn Muller

Scandinavian inspired Scandi House created by Lifespaces Group to harness minimalist and scaled back beauty of the style in Australia

By Courtney • May 9, 2019

In the rolling green grasses of Barwon Heads, Australia, innovative designers at Lifespaces Group recently completed a stunningly wooden minimalist dwelling dubbed Scandi House for its clear Scandinavian influenced style, aesthetic, and layout.

In true Scandinavian style, the house is exemplary in its simple geometric shapes and pared back decor schemes and colour palettes. The gabled roofline might be typically Scandinavian in shape, but designers also blended a sense of local architecture into the building by constructing that shape from Australian timber, creating a facade that suits the surrounding natural scene beautifully.

The structure of the house is extremely unique in the way it features over hangs at the end but also fully glass walls that extend floor to ceiling. The tall windows let lots of natural light in while the overhangs give the patio spots created by the inset window alcoves some shade and provide a solid sense of privacy, show almost nothing of the inner house to the public area outside.

In the private entry courtyard, which runs the entire length of the house, dwellers are afforded a space of lush greenery that bears a rather serene atmosphere. This is where much of the daylight that naturally and passively brightens and warms the inner spaces flows in front, as well as the breezes that access the rooms when the large windows are slid open.

Inside the house, cathedral ceilings make both the social and private spaces feel tall and spacious. This suits well with the modernity and clear functionality of the service spaces inside, particularly in the kitchen. Here, materiality changes a little from the lovely stained wood for a bit of natural stonework contrast. The layout of the rest of the social spaces is just as open concept as the high ceilings, fostering a good space for family bonding.

In the private volume of the house, four very large bedrooms are nestled together, each one featuring its own built-in wardrobe. This is a clear example of the value of good storage in a Scandinavian family home. That theme is continued throughout the house, with subtle cupboards and storage solutions secrete throughout social and transitional spaces as well.

Under one of the wooden overhangs at the back, you’ll find more than just a pleasant patio to sit on. Here, designers built an actual outdoor living space designed to be enjoyed all year round, no matter the weather. This, along with the free-standing limestone bath and the impressive formal guest powder room, give the house a unique sense of near novelty that guests will always appreciate.

Photos by Stefani Driscoll

Concrete, cubic Cientocinco House create by JAMStudio arquitectos + Ivanna Cresta with a stunning blend of modernist looking and natural materials

By Courtney • May 7, 2019

Near the San Martin Nature Reserve and a series of ravines in Cordoba, Argentina, the Cientocinco House was recently finished by JAMStudio arquitectos + Ivanna Cresta. This house, built primarily from concrete, is cubic in shape and combines it’s hard materiality with sleek, natural wood for a modernist but relaxing aesthetic.

The house is located in the northwest part of the city, which is partially responsible for its stunning views of the reserve and the nearby ravines. These natural features of the landscape appear to add breadth and charm to the surrounding area extending beyond the house, giving it an increased sense of character before other, manmade elements are even considered.

While designers were planning the home, there were several elements of the plot’s natural land that they were determined not to alter or interfere with if possible. They wished to build a house that had a foundation that worked with the land, rather than cutting into and disturbing the ground on which the house sits.

Building a foundation of cast concrete let it mould to the land in a way that could be built upon sturdily without vastly changing the overall landscape surrounding the house. Designers opted to continue these concrete themed further until it become the majority of the structure. Its natural beauty once it was polished was so immense that they kept it as a main element and embellished it with softer accents to create the bulk of their modernist aesthetic.

This is how smoothed wood became the secondary element of the impressively stacked looking, cubic inspired house. Doors, window castings, ceilings, and furnishings all bear a wooden nature that adds a sense of warmth to the concrete and steel found elsewhere in the home’s interior and exterior.

Inside the house, the home continues the same straight edged, cubic inspired shaping as can be seen in its actual shape from the street. Furniture is boxy and pleasantly symmetrical. Stairs are solid and made of concrete blocks. Windows are neat and even (though big enough to let in wondrous amounts of natural light, which also assists in warming the concrete spaces).

Even the relaxation and leisure elements of the house follow that same cubic shaping. The patio where outdoor lounge chairs sit has a curtain frame that forms a steel cube around it. The patio itself even possesses a grid texture with greenery sprouting from each squared off space. Even the pool itself has a right-angle in its angular L-shape!

The grass growing from the grid-like patio isn’t the only greenery involved in the house. Decor teams made sure to incorporate plants throughout, which brightens the place even further than the high windows already did and adds a sense of nature and cohesiveness with the environment surrounding the plot. Towards the back of the house, on the opposite side of the pool and patio, sits a row of lush trees, providing a fresh, relaxing atmosphere and shade from the summer sun.

Overall, between its sturdy frame and inclusion of greenery, this cubic house has a sense of privacy and tranquility despite its close proximity to a busy city street.

Photos by Gonzalo Viramonte

The Ibiza Campo Loft created from an old, transformed warehouse by The Nieuw + ibiza interiors in Spain

By Courtney • May 6, 2019

In the rolling hills of San Juan Bautista, Spain, The Ibiza Campo Loft was recently completed by The Nieuw + ibiza interiors as part of a transformation and upgrading project in the local area. What was once an abandoned warehouse is now a beautiful contemporary home.

The house sits on a remote mountain towering from the centre of an island. The rugged landscape was once home to workshops and storage warehouses but these structures were long ago abandoned and left to degrade and become dilapidated. This particular warehouse was actually 100 years old before it was even scouted to be turned into a stunning modern guesthouse.

Although designers were intent on updating the space, certain aspects were actually preserved as they are in order to keep some of the original industrial integrity. Some of the concrete columns and steel beams that supported a typically Ibizan ‘sabina beam’ roof, for example, were deemed solid even after all that time and were incorporated right into the new home’s design.

The home’s unique mix of industrial framing and rustic detailing provides a comforting and authentic feeling character and atmosphere that can be seen in countless places throughout the house. This contrast is how the guesthouse was afforded its name, which essentially translates to “industrial open living space on the field”.

Although they changed certain aspects of the inside, designers really strove to keep as much of the outside fo the building as unchanged as possible in order to stay true to the typical character of Ibizan architecture. Most materials used in the creation of new spaces and renovation of old ones were locally sourced whenever possible to keep things authentic.

Even some authentic building techniques that are typical of the local area were used. The walls, for example, are chalk and mud plastered stone. This contrasts beautifully with more modern elements like a powder coated steel around the windows and a custom raw steel kitchen.

In the original building, electricity, water, and sewage systems were not present, so these were all added new upon redesign in order to make sure the new building has all the amenities of a contemporary home. Now, the water coming into the house comes from a private well. Much of the electricity, on the other hand, is sourced by solar panels that also contribute to water and floor heating.

The beauty of these new systems is that they were installed in efficient ways that make the house independent of the main grid like houses in cities would be attached too. This makes the house not only low impact on the environment, but also a lot more sustainable and self powering.

Working within the directions that were already already established by the building’s original floor plan, designers aimed to harness as much of the stunning view afforded by how the building is situated as possible. part of their efforts culminated in the building of a big, stunning private terrace where the sun hits and spills into the main living space.

In contrast to this, the bedrooms are situated in the north side corner of the building in order to keep hem as dark and cool as possible, since the local weather is so bright and hot year round. The bedrooms become a relaxing, cool escape. In the dining room, however, light is allowed to spill in to its full capability thanks to a skylight that sits level with an upper loft.

In the bathroom, guests are usually thrilled to find a a freestanding stone bath with low windows that preserve one’s privacy while still providing a breathtaking view of the nature surrounding the house while bathing. The bath is also cozily close to a fireplace. on the floor, the bathroom features a herringbone pattern constructed in terra cotta tiles, which is a contemporary interpretation of traditional Spanish floor designs.

In the loft, comfortability and modern living are prioritized explicitly. At the same time, local materiality that provides a serene, almost rustic atmosphere is found throughout every room right down to the beds. This, combined with the presence of art pieces created by local artists, fills the house with character. The effect is the contrast of old and new, light and dark, and so on.

As if the atmosphere of the whole house has been building up to it, visitors can climb to the highest point in the house and discover that the roof actually features its own yoga platform! Between that, the stunning pool below, and the yard’s many fruit trees, accompanied by a whole vegetable garden, the whole place bears the air of a small paradise.

Photos by On a Hazy Morning

Colonial style De La Huella House created almost entirely from recycled materials by NBBO Arquitectos

By Courtney • May 6, 2019

In the neighbourhood of Parque Leloir, deep in the city of Udaondo, Argentina, innovative designers at NBBO Arquitectos have finished the De La Huella House, an updating project that involved creating a stunning new colonial style house from the recycled parts of an older home that previously stood in its place.

The new home sits on a large expanse of land that was recently declared to be ecologically protected by the local environmental authorities. The vegetation in this part of the city is valuable to the area’s plant life ecosystems and efforts are being made to preserve it. This meant that designers were tasked with taking its protection into consideration wherever possible within the renovation process of this house.

On the ground floor of the well contrasted, stacked style house, visitors encounter a living room, dining space, and kitchen not far from the door and spacious entryway. Just beyond that sits a large games room designed for more active friend and family bonding than the cozier interactions one might have on the living room couch.

The first floor is also home to a generous guest bedroom, a laundry room, and even the home’s own art gallery! Two bathrooms are available on this floor as well for convenience, since it is quite spacious. The aesthetic in these spaces is a mixture of smooth wooden facades and furniture with white base features and shining marble floors, all appearing quite sophisticated in combination.

On its upper floor, which sits slightly higher than the average home measures, this house boasts a stunning master bedroom with an expanded closet and its own en suite bathroom. There are three other bedrooms for the family’s children down the hall, a full sized shared bathroom for the kids, and a work study space that’s fully equipped for home office use.

Although this house has been changed and built upon, designers set one main goal right from the outset: to preserve as much of the original house as possible in their updates. Besides the removal of unnecessary walls to open up and expand some interior spaces, the only larger structural changes that took place involved adding more windows in order to increase the home’s view of the stunning preservation park just beyond its plot borders.

These windows can be seen in the primary living space, which is now wonderfully open and double height thanks to the removal of an unnecessary central slab that closed its ceiling off originally but served little other structural purpose. Now, there is plenty of room for tall indoor plants to adorn the ground floor while light and air circulation spill through the floor to ceiling glazed walls in the summertime.

Besides the white and wood finishes, a series of light colours have been chosen as accents and pops in the living spaces throughout the house. These were chosen carefully to work with the natural sunlight and give clarity to the spaces they’re present in. The stairway, which acts like a transitionary space between house functions, is the only place clad in a wood that’s slightly darker, making it feel like a sort of central anchor within the home’s interior.

Things are kept as light looking as possible on the outside of the house as well, despite the fact that blending the new pieces added on like extensions was a high priority. Designers chose to add unique character and increase a sense of lightness around the new upper volume by cladding it entirely in sheet metal that glints prettily in the sun.

One of the more practical changes that took place within the house is the adjustment of heating and cooling capabilities to updated, more eco-friendly systems than were available when the original house was first built. Now, the house is much more sustainable and features thermal insulation that works to reduce energy consumption while heating and cooling the house.

Photos by Javier Agustin Rojas

Concrete Bielmann House created by Rob Dubois as a modernist, sunny getaway with incredible unobstructed views

By Courtney • May 3, 2019

The Casa Bielmann, or the Bielmann House, is a iconic look single family dwelling located in Santa Maria de Palautordera, Spain. Visually, it catches attention from passersby on the street for its uniquely blended materiality that makes it look, all at once, both solid and light or limitless.

This innovatively built house sits on a sloping land plot of about 700 square metres not far from the city borders of Barcelona. It boats two above ground floors and a large basement, as well as a sunny outdoor pool on its south side. From the outside, the ground floor makes the upper volume appear almost as though it’s floating thanks to the completely glass walls surrounding it.

These walls are partially for impressive aesthetic, but they also bear several functional purposes as well. Besides just providing views that are practically unparalleled for their lack of limit and obstruction even from inside the house, the floor to ceiling glazed glass windows that stand in place of traditional walls help keep the house lit in a more efficient way as sunlight pours into every corner.

The glass walls of the home’s ground floor also contribute to its eco-friendly heating and cooling systems. The house is built with systems that are passive and self sufficient, saving owners money and creating less waste or energy use as a result of running the house like a functional family home year round.

The views that we’ve spoken so highly of surrounding this house are both near and far. In the distance, a clear view of the Montseny can be appreciated from almost anywhere in the house thanks to the way the ground floor’s perimeter feels limitless. Closer to home, the plot’s own garden right outside the windows gives the place a feeling of serenity and green tranquility.

The fully windowed volume of the house is actually record setting in its beauty and construction; to the designers’ knowledge, it was the house to possess the most possible glass surfacing in a facade of any house documented and recorded at the time that it was finished. This is part of what makes it so impressive! The fact that it makes the living spaces feel spacious and nearly boundery-less certainly doesn’t hurt either.

Continuing that sense of extreme spaciousness despite the house not being one that physically sprawls is the double height section of the main living room. This space faces the home’s own garden, extending up past the higher floor of the house for a certain width. The ceiling, like a concrete overhang that makes space for the upper rooms to sit on, provides inner spaces that have a little more shade and privacy, in case one prefers a quieter, cozy spots away from bright, open windows.

The higher floor of the house, which sits on this shading interior concrete we’ve just described, is home to the more private and intimate areas of the home. This is where the master suite and bathroom, as well as guest bedrooms and a guest bathroom, all sit. This level of the house is encased in a layer of concrete similar to that on which it sits.

Like the interior concrete, this layer has a functional purpose on top of being a decorative facade for the building’s exterior. The way the top floor is folded over into the same material actually protects the inner area from the summer heat. This is bolstered by overhangs at the edges of the building that protect the windows from getting too much heat as well, despite still letting all the light the interior could possibly want in.

Inside the house, in its actual construction, designers built a geothermal energy system and heat pump under the floors, behind the stunning minimalist furnishings and decor schemes that feature neutral tones and pops of red and blue hues. These systems heat the house thoroughly from the ground up in the winter time and keep it passively cool in the summer.

All the while subtle solar panels installed on the roof keep the house powered with electricity in a way that is low impact on the surrounding environment. This also gives the house an electric network that is independent from its municipal power grid. Besides providing electricity, the roof also collects rain water. This is collected in a tank that is buried in the garden and used for irrigation there.

Photos by Jordi Miralles

House MP of Riñihue Lake created on a slope by a lakeby Del Campo – Labbe

By Courtney • May 1, 2019

On the Northern slope of a lake in Rinihue, Chile, is the recently finished House MP of Rinihue Lake, designed and created by Del Campo – Labbe. This house sits on a remote road that starts right at the mouth of the San Pedro River. The house bears a stunningly wooden interior that contrasts well with its darker metal facade.

Building a house on this particular plot of land was desirable because of its beauty but challenging for several reasons. The first was that the best view the land provides is to the south but the best light pours in from the north, making angles and window placements require special consideration.

The second challenge the plot presented comes in the form of its sizeable slope. Where the land slopes downward, it also features two incredibly large and extremely old oak trees. Designers chose to respect this space as much as possible, avoiding building too close to it by marking it out specifically as a place for outdoor activities and relaxation.

In addition to these special considerations related to the land, designers wanted to take the owners’ priorities into account throughout their whole process planning process as well. The owners made it known from the beginning that they wanted to designate equal space in their home’s interior for hosting guests (the public and common spaces) and for enjoying time to themselves (the private spaces).

The intention here was to give themselves a home that feels equally social and serene, with free connection between the two spaces but also enough delineation that a true sense of collective or relaxation can be achieved whenever it’s needed. The house spans 160 square metres with the private areas raised slightly, accessible by stairs both inside and outside.

From those outdoor staircases to the private spaces, owners can also access a stunning outdoor space that gives them a lovely view of greenery surrounding the house and its land. This space is a sort of covered patio that is created entirely from the same smoothed wood that the floor, walls, and most of the furnishings and surfaces are also made from.

This patio, like the house at large, is clad in dark metal on its outside, like it’s been fully wrapped in something almost protective. This overhang structure gives the patio seats a comfortable shade that can still be reached by the warmth and breeze on a pleasant summer day.

The outer stairs that don’t lead to outdoor patio spaces like the one we’ve described or outer access doors for the private space lead to the parts of the land near the ground floor that are level, making the slope easier to climb so that the leisure space near the trees can be accessed more safely.

Overall, the house is decorated in a way that’s intended to emanate warmth. This is perfectly depicted in the main living room, where mid-century inspired seating is covered in throw pillows and faux furs, surrounding my smooth wood, and situated perfectly for socializing, all centred around a fantastically rustic influenced but modernly shaped wood burning stove.

Photos by Francisco Delpiano

1960s social housing project Virginia House reinvented by 2712 asociados to mirror the neighbourhood’s economic growth

By Courtney • Apr 26, 2019

Located in Vitacura, Chile, the Virginia House update was recently completed by 271 asociados to ensure that the structure, which has stood in the neighbourhood since the 1960s, keeps up with the impressive economic growth of its surrounding area.

Standing proud in a social housing neighbourhood, the building was originally constructed using prefabricated panels of concrete and saddle roofs featuring large wooden trusses. Since it was build, however, the area of the city it calls home as undergone continuous change for the better, leaving Virginia House as one of the only dwellings left in its original condition.

Upon decided to update the space, contractors carefully considered how they might expand Virginia House. They opted a horizontal expansion that adjoins the eastern and western edges of the building’s plot, and then moved on to plans for a vertical expansion. The latter part they chose to do in light steel to avoid adding more heavy wood and concrete to the already extremely solid aesthetic of the structure.

Despite their desire to expand, design teams also made explicit efforts to maintain space in the front and back of the newly updated structure. This gives dwellers simple access to parking on the back side of the building and makes room for a wide, stunning garden around the other side, offsetting the heavy city look that was there previously.

Inside the building, interior rooms were redesigned holding feelings of expansiveness and access to natural light as the utmost important priorities. Part of this open concept aspect is achieved through the way double story vertical spaces are included in the main social rooms, connecting the two levels of the house visually. A light, open step staircase connects the two floors physically, with light wood keeping colour schemes just as airy as the atmosphere the stairs are situated in.

The besides opening up the main social spaces for more natural lighting from large surrounding windows, the empty vertical space we’ve described also helps communicate the different volumes of the house to visitors. It articulates the rooms of the first floor, presenting them in a nice, blended way that gives dwellers free movement while also setting the upstairs rooms off to one side above, giving them an increased sense of privacy or intimacy.

Throughout the entire house, materials have been chosen and blended together strategically to give a good variance or texture within a relatively neutral but pleasantly friendly colour scheme. Light woods used in surfaces and panelling contrast well with black steel braces and frames, while bright yellow doors throughout the whole space give things a personality-filled pop of colour.

Besides being cheerful and sunny, the house’s update is also energy efficient. Windows are featured liberally, but only towards the north side, whereas the west side of the house is more closed off. This enables good passive heat control and works in partnership with strategically placed ventilators that help regulate the temperature based on where the sunlight falls most.

Speaking of energy efficiency, even the wooden cladding you see on the home’s exterior is actually a ventilated wall system! It both gives the home an elegant outer finish and stops loss of heat from the home’s exterior on colder days. The overall effect is cost effective and quite sophisticated looking.

In short, the updated house communicates much more cohesively with its surrounding neighbourhood visually than it did before the designers’ intervention, providing dwellers with a space that’s both sustainable and fitting of its immediate urban context!

Photos by Pablo Casals Aguirre

Angular House GM in Chile designed by EXTCO to work with the local topography, instead of against it

By Courtney • Apr 24, 2019

In the rolling rural area of Puerto Varas, Chile, the stunning House GM, which is just as angular and decorative as it is solid and comfortable, was recently completed by cutting edge design teams at EXTCO.

Technically, the area that the house actually sits in is part of a city. Because it sits on the outskirts, however, the atmosphere is a little more rural and country inspired, which is part of the reason for the home’s unique shape and foundation. The land rolls and dips in several places but designers wanted to build something that interrupted the natural habitats there as little as possible, so they chose a structure that works with the landscape instead of digging into it.

The shape and materiality of House GM was also chosen in part to account for the fact that it is located in an area know for being quite rainy and humid in terms of climate for most of the year. This particular spot also typically experiences high winds, so there was quite a large need for a solid foundation and strong material choices. Making these decisions as also influenced by the fact that the project had a relatively low budget and required cost efficient choices wherever possible.

To keep the house level across uneven land, it was built raised slightly on stilts, like a wooden deck but all throughout. In some places the stilts are very short and the house sits low to the ground, while in others it looks as though it is raised very high up. This keeps the interior floors and the deck space surrounding the outside of the exterior even for walking on and furnishing, while letting the land slope below the only available spot to fit an entire house relatively uninterrupted.

In this way, the structure of the house provides quite a lot of visual appeal without even really trying to be decorative. So does the way floor to ceiling windows are featured in each end of the house to keep it well and naturally lit with sunlight, but decks and those same windows are simultaneously shaded from wind and rain by large alcove style overhands in the peaked roof.

The way the roof itself peaks upward, standing so tall in its solid frame made of reclaimed local wood throughout the interior and exterior, is more than just nice to look at; it’s also an homage to the typical architectural style of the area. Designers added a few extra, super fun touches to the outside to make it stand out, though. For example, a kids’ slide hooks to the edge of the deck at one end, letting dwellers slid down from the raised portion of the house rather than just using the stairs. These neat, modern details create a cool contrast with the seemingly rural wooden style and cultural shape of the rest of the house.

Because the house was built for a busy young family, the layout of its interior was pegged as needing free flow and open spaces that are good for moving between rooms, communicating, and bonding. The light shades (primarily white and light, natural wooden colours) of the interior decor scheme contrast well with the darker wood of the facade outside, making the rooms feel like and airy in combination with those lovely big windows we mentioned earlier. This helps the atmosphere stay cheerful during long, grey days of rain during certain seasons.

At the same time as the light interior benefits the family, the dark exterior does as well! In certain places, black plates have been place to absorb as much heat as possible from the day’s sunlight in order to keep the house’s temperature regulated as well as possible, making the house more green and less reliant on mechanical heating and cooling systems.

In the event that a chilly day means the black insulation plates aren’t enough, the family can gather around the central wood burning stove that sits in the middle of the primary social space. Besides looking fantastically decorative in a sort of locally rustic way (you might notice the lumber piled on the deck to keep the stove running adding a particular character to the outdoor space as well), this piece also heats the inside from the centre outward whenever necessary.

Photos by Marcos Zegers

House SJ, designed by STAARC, provides an innovative, vertically structured home for a small family

By Courtney • Apr 19, 2019

On a quiet, rural street in Belgium, STAARC ingenieurs en architecten has completed a unique housing project that was designed to give a young family lots of space despite their limited land plot by using open concepts and working vertically!

Besides concentrating on providing the owners and their kids with open but cozy spaces, designers also aimed to build them a house that is affordable up front thanks to materiality, but also affordable down the road thanks to energy efficiency. Careful plans were laid and that precise goal was achieved, much to everyone’s delight!

Because the area of land that was most suitable to build the house on within the family’s plot was quite small, it was paramount that designers work carefully with the space they did have to make something quite space efficient and compact. To make this happen, they created a dynamic structure that feels spacious thanks to its open concept but that also takes up a small square footage thanks to the way it grows vertically rather than sprawling wide.

This open concept layout does more than just help the space seem a little bigger and free flowing! Lack of solid barriers between rooms and spaces means that airflow is simpler, which in turn means that the entire house is easier and more affordable to heat in the winter and cool in the summer. Besides that, it means all rooms have lovely views out the windows, which can be seen from basically anywhere in the house!

The primary technique for making the house feel open and breathable was to build all of the private rooms around a central open space that extends from the ground floor all the way upwards to the very top ceiling above the second floor. Close rooms like washrooms and bedrooms are arranged around the outside of this open space like a border, so no privacy is lost despite the fact that so much open social and bonding space exists.

To achieve this wide open structure in the centre but still build a vertically extending house, split levels were employed! This breaks down traditional boundaries between different rooms and floors and lets sunlight and sound use space that might otherwise be unnecessarily filled or wasted. The act of climbing the ladder-like stairs and walking the ramp from one split level of the upstairs space to the other, passing the empty area in between, feels almost like you’re in a treehouse!

Within this very open house, there’s actually quite a careful system of insulation in place to make sure it’s not actually left open to the elements of the seasonal weather. A great deal of attention was paid to air sealing and air tightness, particularly where things like the sprawling windows we just described were installed. An air-to-water heat pump also provides floor heating, while solar panels on the roof put the cherry on top of the energy efficient cake.

You’ll notice an emphasis on natural materials the moment you walk through the door; this comes partially in the form of light wooden details and is partially created by the concrete floors that give things an ever so slight industrial feel without sacrificing a homey atmosphere.

Outside, a red brick exterior provides character similar to that of a farmhouse of one of the traditional cottages of the area, but with a heightened, modern twist. Red isn’t the only colour pop the house is afforded; bright green tiles, fittings, and details can be found throughout the home in all different rooms, from the ground floor to the upper bathroom. This creates a consistent theme and ties the different rooms together in a way that feels cohesive.

Photos by Bam Track

Publishing house IMQ Editorial created by KLM Arquitectos reflects its multifaceted neighbourhood and diverse urban setting

By Courtney • Apr 17, 2019

In the city centre of Buenos Aires, Argentina, innovative design teams at KLM Arquitectos have recently renovated the publishing house IMQ Editorial, giving it a modernized feel much more suited to its urban location and diverse neighbourhood.

Though wildly successful, this publishing house is small and specialized. It primarily publishes kids’ books that have some kind of scientific content! The functional needs of the company are quite simple, which worked well with the slight limitations of small urban office spaces typical to the area. Besides a reception area and some small offices, the company also needed a reading area, a kitchen, some meeting rooms, and an accessible terrace for staff and industry client use.

The update for the publishing house was a long time coming but was perfectly timed, as the mixed-use neighbourhood it currently sits in has hit a period of transformation and change. The streets surrounding it are home to light industrial warehouses, diverse housing types, commercial spaces, and even some mechanical repair shops.

On the exterior, the building is a concrete cube that has been hollowed out to provide the publishing space on the inside. Rather than looking cold, however, the light concrete picks up the sun and looks stylishly industrial. It stands quite high, which designers took full advantage of on the inside, organizing offices and workspaces between three separate floors.

To keep things bright and feeling airy, an empty column of space extends up the centre of the entire building, with the offices placed around it like a border on each floor. This space spans from the ground floor all the way up to the ceiling, with a staircase winding upwards in the same fashion from floor to floor as well. The cubic shape you see on the outside is preserved here.

On the inside, the decor scheme doesn’t have much relationship with the streetscape outside its walls. That’s okay, though, because the effect is a transformational one! Rather than seeing urban textures and styles reflected in the interiors, you experience a shift into light woods, white surfaces, shining glass, and natural light bathing all of it thoroughly. The effect is comforting and quite playful, particularly in contrast to the slightly more stern exterior facade.

The very materiality of the interior decor scheme creates contrast with the bustling city outside the building’s doors as well! Nearly all materials you’ll find inside are very natural (and were even sourced and reclaimed locally), so the atmosphere inside contrasts well with the industrial street life just a few feet away on the sidewalk.

Photos by Javier Agustin Rojas

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