The founders of Spanish studio Masquespacio have transformed a traditional Valencian farmhouse into their self-designed home and studio, with maximalist interiors that nod to the Memphis movement.

Creative and life partners Ana Milena Hernández Palacios and Christophe Penasse renovated the 1920s villa, which was once a farmhouse on the outskirts of Valencia, to create a hybrid home and studio that reflects their maximalist approach to interiors.

"Everything revolves around the concept of play," explained Hernández Palacios, who co-founded Masquespacio with Penasse in 2010.

"We've been influenced by many styles over the last decade, from New Memphis to art deco and futurism," Penasse added. "We can say that our private home is a mix of it all."

The duo maintained the building's original timber front door and white facade decorated with light-blue window frames and ornate grilles.

Inside, the ground floor was reserved for their studio, spread across several interconnected meeting rooms in the former farmstead, known locally as an alquería.

Here, Masquespacio restored the building's decoratively patterned hydraulic floor tiles alongside its traditional doors and windows.

Painted in bright hues, they help to colour-code the different office spaces, filled with the studio's characteristic chunky, lumpy and latticed furniture.

"As always, the project includes a mix of colours, textures and forms – one of the main aspects of all our designs, no matter what aesthetic we're working with," Penasse told Dezeen.

At the centre of the home is a double-height interior courtyard illuminated by skylights, with exposed-brick walls painted in lilac surrounded by wiggly flowerbeds with lush statement cheese plants.

From the courtyard, visitors can see up to an interior balcony on the first floor, which is accessed via a purple concrete staircase and contains the living spaces.

The balcony reveals two sculptural objects – a giant green dome that conceals the couple's bed and a curved hot-pink screen that hides a seating booth.

This immersive furniture – Penasse's favourite part of the project – creates a focal point that connects both levels of the house but also provides more private quarters for the couple despite the open nature of the overall plan.

"There are no wall partitions to hide our home [from downstairs] but it's kept private by the bed's form and a semi-transparent green curtain that allows us to take advantage of the natural light almost everywhere on the upper floor," explained Penasse.

The sleeping area is connected to the main living space via a tunnel-like corridor, which includes an all-yellow bathroom with triangular cabinets and walls clad with a mosaic of handmade ceramic tiles.

Opposite the bathroom is a colourful open-air terrace featuring circular windows and similar built-in seating to Bun Turin – an Italian burger joint designed by Masquespacio with boxy blue-tiled tables created to look like swimming pools.

"Geometry can be found all over our house," explained Hernández Palacios. "Everything is a game of circles and triangles."

The light blue kitchen includes large, triangular alcoves and cupboards finished in natural stone and aluminium, designed to conceal utilities.

There is also an island made from veiny marble and petite glazed tiles. Bespoke Masquespacio bar stools were wrapped in matching pale blue fabric.

Next to the open-plan kitchen, the living and dining spaces include more brightly coloured furniture from the studio's Mas Creations collection, which features the same twisted and angular shapes and soft upholstery as the pieces downstairs.

Floor-to-ceiling curtains form a backdrop for a snaking lime green sofa, while dark green dining chairs with pyramidal backrests were positioned around a jewel-like glass table.

"Ninety-five per cent of the furniture and objects in our house are part of our Mas Creations collection, locally designed and produced by our studio," said Penasse.

Similarly bold projects from Masquespacio include a restaurant in Milan, Italy, with interiors that take cues from futuristic spaceships and the first Mango Teen store in Barcelona featuring vivid graphic shapes.

The photography is courtesy of Masquespacio. 

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A series of "monumental" concrete columns frame views across a large garden at this house in Dulwich, London, extended by local studio Proctor & Shaw.

Tasked with refurbishing and extending the existing terraced home, named Dulwich House, Proctor & Shaw focused on improving its connection to a 57-metre-long garden at its rear.

As a result, the studio focused its attention on the back of the home, adding a sequence of family spaces framed by a minimal, exposed concrete structure.

"The project was all about transforming the home's relationship with the westerly garden," founder John Proctor told Dezeen.

"The new extension and principal internal retrofit were all designed with this in mind."

Previously, the rear of the home sat 1.5 metres above the garden. Proctor & Shaw lowered this by two steps to create more generous ceiling heights and a closer connection to the outdoors.

Three sequential spaces – a boot room, a kitchen and a living space – connected by wooden steps overlook a five-metre-deep terrace at the rear of Dulwich House.

"The ground floor is reconfigured and extended to provide a series of 'broken-plan' family spaces whose architecture is defined with a series of monumental columns and beams," said the studio.

A short, thick wall with a bio-ethanol fireplace at its base divides the dining and living areas, while the kitchen is centred around a large concrete island.

In the living area, a large bi-fold window is positioned alongside a seat, while in the adjacent dining area, full-height sliding glass doors lead onto the patio.

"The bi-fold window seat experience captures the essence of the scheme," said Proctor.

"It's a beautiful spot to enjoy the garden as a visual amenity in the colder months, perhaps with the fire burning, but then can transform, with doors open, into a completely different experience in the summer," he continued.

"It was this transformational seasonal connection from home to garden that we wanted to create, and the architecture cleverly supports this."

At the centre of Dulwich House, an oak-lined staircase has been added to lead up to a newly-created loft space providing two additional bedrooms.

The existing bedrooms of the home on the first floor have been minimally altered, with the remaining budget being used to improve the bathrooms, one of which is finished in pink-toned plaster.

Other residential projects in London by Proctor & Shaw include an extension topped by a large zinc-clad roof and a townhouse expanded by a series of glazed volumes that draw in daylight.

The photography is by Ståle Eriksen.

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Peach-toned walls and arched openings define Baia Villas, a set of six holiday homes in Goa that Mumbai studio Jugal Mistri Architects has designed to evoke local vernacular.

Located in Mandrem, a small town in the north of the state, the homes are intended to mirror the character of the local area, including its colourful architecture and landscapes.

"Baia Villas started with an intimate understanding of the site and the small town of Mandrem in north Goa, which boasts remarkable beaches and heightened spirits," said Jugal Mistri Architects founder Jugal Mistri.

"[It] has a rich mix of local tradition and international appeal, boosting the senses with colourful textures, landscapes and water bodies," he told Dezeen.

Arranged in a uniform grid within a densely forested area, the holiday homes each feature a U-shaped plan that wraps around an individual courtyard.

Each villa has an identical design, containing three bedrooms and private outdoor space with a pool, jacuzzi and small garden.

The two-storey, peach-toned volumes are topped with sloping roofs coated in locally sourced tiles and punctuated by bright blue-painted arched windows. Several walls are finished with fluted plastering and "reverse buttresses" that create shaded walkways.

"The project's bold arched windows and the side streets filled with reverse fins curving out to offer shade stimulate the imagination," said Mistri.

A large veranda sits in front of the pool at the centre of each home, dividing them into two wings.

Triangular black and white tiles form a chequered pattern on the floors of this covered space, separated from the pool by a wide arched doorway, while dark-painted beams support the sloping ceiling overhead.

"The chequered veranda is an incredibly versatile space within the house," said the studio. "Upon entering through that main door, it welcomes you and then it connects the living room to the kitchen," it continued.

"It also acts as an entry point into the pool, and finally, it deconstructs the notion of open space against closed space as it straddles multiple identities."

On the ground floor of the Baia Villas, one wing contains an open living and dining area finished with neutrally toned furnishings.

To the other side of the plan, a kitchen overlooks the swimming pool, while an ensuite bedroom with large windows takes up the rest of the wing.

Behind the veranda, a staircase finished in the same peach tone as the outer walls leads to the home's upper level.

Here, an ensuite bedroom branches from either side of the central circulation space, with a large balcony bookending each room.

Steeply-pitched wooden ceilings feature in the bedrooms and the outside walls are perforated with large curved openings framing views of the surrounding trees.

Other Indian holiday homes recently featured on Dezeen include a hillside dwelling topped with two gabled timber structures and a home camouflaged by gabion walls.

The photography is by Ekansh Goel.

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Architecture studio Unknown Works has renovated a terraced London house called Oasis, adding a side and rear extension to create a flexible interior and maximise natural light.

The Victorian home in Kentish Town is owned by Unknown Works' co-founder Theo Games Petrohilos, who wanted to update its interior with a large open-plan living area suitable for cooking, working and entertaining guests.

Extensions to the side and rear mean that the home now occupies the site's full width, with large sliding glass doors opening directly onto the rear courtyard garden.

This maximises light and space while establishing a better connection with the garden where large fig and bay trees have been retained.

"The old spaces were dark and didn't make anything of the connection to the garden," Petrohilos told Dezeen.

"I think the previous owners weren't big cooks because they left the kitchen in a cramped setup as a galley with the dining table set to the end," he explained.

"You couldn't feed more than two or three in that space, while the main living space prioritised a big sofa and a TV, which seemed a little sad," added Petrohilos. "I swapped it up with a massive dining table in the main space."

To the front of Oasis, the original bedroom and ensuite bathroom have been updated with bespoke birch-plywood furniture. This includes a bed with integrated storage and floor-to-ceiling wardrobes on wheels that double as adaptable partitions.

At the centre of the plan, Unknown Works has placed a small internal courtyard inspired by Japanese stone gardens to provide cross ventilation through the home and access to natural light for the reconfigured bedroom.

The stainless steel and plywood kitchen is complemented by concrete flooring that runs into the garden, designed to "give a feeling of al fresco dining experience year-round".

Bespoke timber joinery and custom-made furniture feature throughout Oasis, including a 16-seater, stainless-steel dining table set on castor wheels to maximise adaptability.

"I want to allow for the different possibilities in terms of the way we live," said Petrohilos.

"In the kitchen, the flexibility in the space allows the big stainless steel table to be spun around, moved to each side of the room or rolled outside into the garden."

With the client for Oasis being the studio's co-founder, the project was also used as an opportunity for Unknown Works to develop and test new ideas.

"This project seeks to maximise light, space and a connection to nature – we've done this with a materiality that expresses the way things are made," concluded Petrohilos.

"For most architects, the opportunity to live in one of our own buildings is a real privilege, after the design and making process, every day you're able to learn so much."

Unknown Works is a London studio founded by Ben Hayes, Kaowen Ho and Petrohilos in 2017.

Its other recent projects include CLT House, which also features modular furniture on wheels, and an "otherworldly" music studio in a garden.

The photography is by Lorenzo Zandri unless stated otherwise.

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Including a skinny house in Japan, a home in Canada that is deliberately unfinished and a lonely cottage in the Outer Hebrides, here are Dezeen's houses of the month for April.

Also featured are a villa in suburban London and a two-in-one holiday home on the Finnish coast.

Read on to find out more about the most-read houses on Dezeen this month:

Unfinished House, Canada, by Workshop Architecture Inc

The most popular house featured on Dezeen this month is a prefabricated home in Ontario by Toronto studio Workshop Architecture Inc.

Inside, the house has been left incomplete with an exposed structure – which the architects said was the result of "an aesthetic attitude, an approach to material reduction, and budget restraint".

Find out more about Unfinished House ›

Caochan na Creige, Scotland, by Izat Arundell

The modest Caochan na Creige sits on the eastern coast of Scotland's Outer Hebrides.

To help the home blend in with the dramatic landscape, architecture studio Izat Arundell used a timber-frame structure and thick blocks of local stone.

Find out more about Caochan na Creige ›

2700, Japan, by IGArchitects

Physically constrained Japanese houses are a perennial favourite on Dezeen, so it's unsurprising that this home in Saitama, which is just 2.7 metres wide, made the top five most-read for April.

Local studio IGArchitects arranged a series of layered living spaces over two stories, with exposed concrete featuring prominently inside and out.

Find out more about 2700 ›

Kingston Villa, UK, by Fletcher Crane Architects

Kingston Villa was conceived by UK studio Fletcher Crane Architects as a contemporary evolution of the typical suburban architecture in south-west London.

It has a simple, gabled form with a bronzed metal canopy above its entrance and pale textured brickwork on the facade, in a style that the architects described as "heavy, yet quiet".

Find out more about Kingston Villa ›

Two Sisters, Finland, by MNY Arkitekter

Finnish studio MNY Arkitekter designed this timber holiday home in Salo to enable two sisters to live together but in separate units.

Two standalone blocks are joined by a central terrace and have large windows at the western end looking out towards the sea.

Find out more about Two Sisters ›

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Local studio Valbæk Brørup Architects drew on the principles of Danish functionalism for Kildeskovsvej, a red-brick house outside Copenhagen with a blocky form broken up by large corner windows.

Located on a gently sloping site in the city's northern suburbs and named after the street on which it sits, Kildeskovsvej has a deliberately simple form that references the typical two-storey brick homes in the area.

These neighbouring residences were constructed during the era of Danish functionalism, which Valbæk Brørup Architects said prioritised "simplicity and purposeful design".

"[These homes] were all constructed between 1900 and the 1950s, during the period when modern Danish houses were being developed," Valbæk Brørup Architects' partner Stefan Valbæk told Dezeen.

"They have inspired our approach to the project, where we wanted to create a hyper-modern residence, but with clear references to the old villas and the context in which the project is situated," he added.

Thanks to its T-shaped plan, Kildeskovsvej has two gardens on either side. The one facing north is more private, while the other facing the road to the south is more open.

A kitchen and dining room at the heart of the home benefit from dual-aspect views over both of these gardens, opening onto a patio to the north.

The slope of the site enabled the studio to sink the living room slightly, creating a feeling of spaciousness that is enhanced by a fully glazed corner incorporating a door to another patio.

This is contrasted by the narrower end of the home, where a corridor leads to a small seating area. Above, the bedrooms overlook the garden with a row of large windows.

"The house's open glass entrance towards the road welcomes the inhabitant – through a dark corridor, one moves further into the house from here," said Valbæk.

"The movement through the house is a spatially contrasting narrative, with different moods tailored to the functions of the rooms and the unique character of the plot," he added.

Kildeskovsvej's exterior is clad in red brickwork, complemented by copper-coloured metal window frames and parapets.

Inside, this minimalist approach is continued, with white walls, paved and wooden floors and ceilings clad in cement-bonded wood wool to dampen reverberations.

"The choice of material inside is simple and calm, allowing the highly tactile red bricks on the facade, the windows and the landscape to remain in focus," said Valbæk.

Copenhagen-based studio Valbæk Brørup Architects was established by Valbæk and Eva Kristine Brørup in 2005. Previous projects by the studio include a barrel-vaulted summer retreat in a Danish forest that is reminiscent of agricultural structures.

Other Danish houses recently featured on Dezeen include a cedar-clad summerhouse by Norm Architects and Villa E in Aarhus by CF Møller.

The photography is by Peter Kragballe.

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London practice Tuckey Design Studio has revamped a house in a converted chapel in Devon, England, revealing and restoring the building's original features.

To celebrate its ecclesiastic history, the Old Chapel house has been reworked to reverse "characterless" alterations made during its conversion in the 1970s and later in the 1990s.

This involved stripping back walls, reorganising the ground-floor bedrooms and creating a "grand main hall" on the first floor with an open-plan living, dining and kitchen area, Tuckey Design Studio said.

"When we first stepped foot on site we were greeted by a characterless and muted interior that deceived the rich history and beautiful rural context," Tuckey Design Studio told Dezeen.

"White plasterboard covered the walls and ceiling, and carpeted floors smothered the first-floor nave, with crude interventions from the '90s haphazardly altering the building use into a compromised family home," it explained.

"We enhanced the open-plan character of the nave by cutting to reveal, accentuating the drama by exposing existing joists, repointing stone arches and uncovering existing floorboards."

To improve the home's circulation and connection between living spaces on both floors, a mezzanine level has been removed and the old north entrance to the chapel has been restored as the main entry hall.

Accessed through the garden, this entrance area leads visitors through the sleeping quarters and up to the main living area that is framed by a repointed stone arch and exposed timber joists.

At the centre of the main living space, a woodburning stove denotes the distinction between the lounging and dining zones.

A timber box reminiscent of a wooden pulpit has been tucked into the eaves of the kitchen to create space for an additional ensuite bedroom.

Replacing an existing extension that Tuckey Design Studio said had no "historic or architectural value" is a small courtyard on the ground floor, which offers access from two of the double bedrooms and improves cross ventilation.

A single-storey extension has been added to the southwest corner of Old Chapel to enlarge the ground-floor space for a generous family bathroom and small study.

The extension is topped by a roof accessible from the first floor's living space, providing views across the surrounding landscape.

Old Chapel's interior material and colour palette is defined by timber joists and flooring, exposed stone walls and plaster intended to create a calm atmosphere.

Many of these materials are reclaimed, including wooden floorboards and terracotta tiles, sourced from local construction sites and reclamation yards.

According to Tuckey Design Studio, the interior design is also designed to be sympathetic to the chapel's architecture, complementing and drawing on its historic building details.

"The home is self-referential in its historic function and appearance," said the studio.

"We implemented subtle details that nod to the building's heritage, such as carved niches recessed into the walls and cradling light fixtures alongside crafted arches, bows, and pitches, reminiscent of this period of sacral architecture."

Old Chapel is the latest retrofit undertaken by Tuckey Design Studio, the practice previously known as Jonathan Tuckey Design, which was founded in 2000.

Its other recent projects include the conversion of a former factory in Norway into a hotel and wellness centre and the restoration and extension of a traditional stone farmstead in Italy.

The photography is by James Brittain.

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Canadian studio Omar Gandhi Architects has completed a cedar-wrapped house "inspired by the scattered boulders" that trail down the seaside property in Hubbards, Nova Scotia.

Known as Rockbound, the 4100-square foot (380-square metre) home sits on a rocky, sloped three-acre site overlooking a bay that connects the property to Peggy's Cove, a national historic site that can be seen across the water.

Omar Gandhi Architects (OGA) completed the three-bedroom house in 2023 for a couple, incorporating additional space for an ageing parent.

The house presents as two interlocked, stacking boxes – that are meant to weather over time to match the pale grey of the sky – perched on a hillside.

"The exterior is extremely minimal in its massing," said OGA principal Omar Gandhi.

"It was important that if we were going to veer from the more traditional homes of the area, we maintain a simple and quiet modernist language."

Naturally weathering cedar boards were interspersed with detail elements of Corten steel to form picture frame hoops around the windows.

"Approaching the building from the public side, a sense of privacy and shelter welcomes visitors," the team said.

"The front door, carefully positioned within the foyer, tantalizes with hints of what lies beyond. Stepping around the corner, the space opens up, revealing breathtaking vistas of the water."

The linear house was organized to place social areas facing the rocky coastline, service areas were placed facing the hillside.

The dining and living rooms have walls of windows looking east and lead to a large, semi-covered deck, "which harnesses the full impact of the weather".

Upstairs, the primary suite faces the sea with a large balcony – which cantilevers over the ground floor, passively shading the large amounts of glazing – while the bathrooms are tucked on the western side.

On the interior, white oak, tile in muted tones, and natural woods provide a pale, neutral palette juxtaposed by raw steel that creates focal points at the staircase and fireplace.

"Warm tones of tile and millwork create a harmonious counterbalance to the cool greys and blues of the bay, enveloping occupants in a serene and inviting atmosphere," the team said, noting the restrained interior that allows attention to shift to the dramatic view of the coastline.

According to Gandhi, the biggest challenge of the design was navigating the intricate rocky subterranean soil conditions, which required the house to bridge seam in the bedrock.

In the end, the house was designed to bridge a gap between two massive rocky conditions.

"Beyond its visually striking exterior, the true innovation of Rockbound lies in the unseen engineering," the team explained, lauding the collaboration with Blackwell Structural Engineers to redistribute the structural loads through a system of micro-piles.

The system ensured stability and structural integrity, while the graceful steel-and-wood frame was designed to resist hurricane-force winds.

Also in Nova Scotia, Omar Gandhi Architects recently lifted a Corten steel cabin on a forested hillside and mixed two types of cedar to cantilever boxes off of an expansive home overlooking the sea.

The photography is by Ema Peter.

Project credits:

Design and landscape design: Omar Gandhi Architects (Omar Gandhi, Jordan Rice)
Builders: MRB Contracting
Structural engineering: Blackwell Structural Engineers
Civil engineering: Stantec & Harbourside Geotechnical Consultants

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British studio Mole Architects has created Alde Valley Barn, a brick-clad holiday home on a farmyard in Suffolk that dates back to the 17th century.

The four-bedroom house replaces a steel-framed barn, which was added to the farm in the English town of Aldeburgh in the 20th century.

Mole Architects' design is deliberately simple, referencing the architecture of the barn it replaced while respecting the main 17th-century farmhouse beside it.

"The new building is designed as one of the barn structures that are subservient to the main historic farmhouse, retaining the sense of a collection of simple buildings and their associated outdoor spaces," the studio told Dezeen.

Alde Valley Barn has a timber structure and traditional gabled form wrapped in brick cladding, broken up by sliding doors, large picture windows and black wooden panels.

Mole Architects left the structure exposed internally but concealed it externally with the brick cladding, which was chosen to echo the surrounding structures at the farmyard.

Inside, Alde Valley Barn's ground floor contains four bedrooms, while a living area, snug and open-plan kitchen and dining room occupy the floor above. They are connected by both a lift and a staircase.

The top level opens up to a balcony on two sides to capture the morning and evening sun, allowing occupants to "experience the house at different times during the day".

"The morning terrace overlooking the pond is next to the kitchen and dining room, which open up to the sun and views," said Mole Architects.

"The west terrace allows access at the end of the day to a small enclosed garden next to the field that gets late evening summer sun."

As part of a strategy to minimise the carbon footprint of Alde Valley Barn, wood fibre is used as insulation and photovoltaic panels on the roof generate electricity that contributes to its energy supply.

Other homes created by Mole Architects include the Freeholders house in Wells-next-the-Sea and Fijal House in Cambridgeshire.

The photography by Nick Guttridge and Rachael Smith.

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Planted balconies surround open living spaces at this house in Bangalore, designed by Indian studio 4site Architects for a nature-loving family.

Named House of Greens, the four-bedroom home is informed by Bangalore's history of green spaces and parks, which have earned it the moniker of the "garden city" of India.

"As a tribute to Bangalore, the theme of the house is to reflect the garden and abundance of green spaces," 4site Architect's founder Chandrakant Kanthigavi told Dezeen.

"The concept of the house was carefully conceived to offer a garden experience in every space," he added.

The rectilinear volume of House of Greens is defined by its oversized floor plates, which extend outwards to provide space for large garden terraces edged with trailing plants.

Entering via a parking space and porch sheltered by one of these floor plates, a paved path leads into the home's entrance area. Beyond this is a large L-shaped living, dining and kitchen space, which hugs the rear garden.

In this living space, a double-height space has been carved out and lined with folding, wood-framed glass doors that open onto the rear garden.

On the opposite side of the home, a prayer room sits alongside a smaller, more private garden with a paved path leading past the main bedroom to a seating area at the front of the home.

Above, a more private family lounge is flanked by two additional bedrooms and a study, and on the second floor, another bedroom sits alongside a gym that opens onto the House of Greens' large rooftop terrace.

The home's external finishes are pared back to create a plain backdrop for the extensive planting. On the first floor and eastern facade, a wall of textured, brown laterite stone is punctured by narrow openings.

For the interiors, more contemporary finishes are combined with the work of local artists and craftspeople, including a butterfly chandelier in the living room and bird murals on the first floor.

"We wanted to create a 'pavilion-like' setting for all common spaces, [and] we have weaved a common theme of a biophilic material palette that enhances the outdoor atmosphere," said Kanthigavi.

Other homes recently completed in India include The Infinite Rise by Earthscape Studio and a skylit home by A Threshold that offers a "seamless transition between indoor and outdoor living".

The photography is by Ekansh Goel of Studio Recall.

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A gridded facade of fibre cement, glass and large blinds defines this house in western Slovakia, designed by local studio Beef Architekti.

Called House of Grid, the single-storey home in the city of Trnava is designed to offer a seamless connection between its interior and exterior spaces.

Beef Architekti has lined the colonnaded facade with large blinds, which open up the spaces behind them into "outdoor rooms" for use in the hot summer months while providing solar shading.

Between them, pale fibre cement clads the load-bearing walls and columns, designed for a pared-back look that stands out within its surroundings.

"The intention was to create a generous spatial framework with a seamless visual axis, which runs from the entrance right through to the garden," the studio told Dezeen.

"The house stands out in its local context for its austerity and purity," it continued.

Inside, House of Grid contains a living, dining and kitchen space and two bedrooms. These are positioned around a courtyard with a mature tree and stepping stones, reminiscent of a Japanese rock garden.

On entering, the hallway leads directly to the open-plan living space and the colonnade beyond, emphasising the visual and physical connection between the interior and the garden.

The interior is finished with varying textures of marble, oak, and painted and milled MDF, providing a warm and natural look to all spaces.

"Extensive wall surfaces, floors, and built-in furniture are articulated through a play of material textures," said Beef Architekti. "Smooth surfaces alternate with textured finishes, creating an interplay of contrasts."

Beef Architekti is a Slovakian architectural studio founded by Rado Buzinkay and Andrej Ferenčík.

Other Slovakian homes featured on Dezeen include an old mill and farm conversion by RDTH Architekti and a trapezoidal building framing views of a forest by Ksa Studený.

The photography is by Matej Hakár.

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Unprotected modernist houses are at risk of demolition as land often holds greater value than architectural heritage, says conservation group Docomomo US in response to actor Chris Pratt tearing down a home by architect Craig Ellwood.

Pratt and his wife Katherine Schwarzenegger drew attention online when news broke that the couple had begun work on a 15,000-square-foot home in place of the Zimmerman House by Ellwood, who designed buildings in Los Angeles from the early 1950s to the mid-1970s.

Located in the Brentwood area, across the street from a house owned by Schwarzenegger's mother, the Zimmerman House was completed in 1950 and was one of Ellwood's earliest projects.

It was demolished by Pratt and Schwarzenegger, who wanted to make use of the land for a sprawling mansion.

Docomomo US executive director Liz Waytkus claims the demolition of the mid-century home is part of a wider issue of sought-after land and location taking priority over the significance of historic homes.

"The problem is systemic," she told Dezeen. "Older mid-century homes are smaller and underbuilt for their plots of land."

"The land has become more valuable than the house, and even if people understand the value of such a home, location and land value often trump architectural significance."

The Zimmerman House was a one-storey home with original landscaping by Garrett Eckbo, which was also destroyed in the demolition.

The house was sold to Pratt at the end of last year. In a video taken at the home's estate sale in 2020, which was recently shared on Tiktok, its structure and original fixtures appeared to be in good condition.

Waytkus likened the Zimmerman House demolition to the loss of the Geller I house in Long Island by modernist architect Marcel Breuer, which was torn down in January 2022.

She stressed that Docomomo US works to educate people on the history of homes like these, striving for the best outcomes for historic homes without treading on individual private property rights.

The group is currently working with the Southampton Village Board of Architectural Review and Historic Preservation on the protection of five homes in Southampton, Long Island, including a 1979 house designed by architect Norman Jaffe, which the original owner plans to demolish.

Waytkus expressed that conversations with property owners are important to protect the legacy of historic homes and at the very least, have them properly documented.

"We are reasonable people and would have appreciated the property owners having a conversation with community leaders such as Docomomo US/SoCal and the Los Angeles Conservancy in [the Zimmerman House] case, before pulling the demolition permit," Waytkus said.

"At a minimum, some elements could have been retained or reused and the property should have been documented."

"The homeowners also could have avoided this negative publicity by extending the opportunity for communication and collaboration with our community," she added. "We are always open to having those conversations."

Non-profit preservation group Los Angeles Conservancy flagged the planned demolition of the Zimmerman House in January, but no protections were made.

In 2022, Waytkus wrote that the demolition of Breuer's Geller I house should be a wake-up call to protect modern buildings, which was followed up by Docomomo's selection of 11 significant 20th-century buildings at risk of demolition in the US.

The photography is by Julius Shulman via Paul Getty Trust, Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles.

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Slovenian studio OFIS Arhitekti has completed Frame House, a family home in Ljubljana clad in red-brick tiles that play on the area's pitched-roof buildings.

Frame House is located in the city's suburbs and designed by OFIS Arhitekti with a footprint of 200 square metres so as not to intrude on the site's large rear garden.

The home has a geometric form, fronted by a large canopy with pitched sides. This shelters a paved entrance patio intended as a place for the client's children to play.

OFIS Arhitekti placed a hole in the canopy to provide an existing tree with light and space to grow.

"As the client loves gardening the idea was to place the house in a way that keeps the back garden as large as possible," OFIS Arhitekti co-founder Rok Oman told Dezeen.

"Therefore the back of the house is flat and simple, while the entrance yard provides sufficient space for cars and is partly covered with a canopy also creates space for kids to play," he added.

Frame House's cut-out on the front elevation contains the entrance and access to a single-storey storage area, both clad in blackened timber.

Inside, OFIS Arhitekti has created a ground-floor living, dining and kitchen space with views of the garden through large sliding glass doors that open onto a stone-paved terrace.

On the home's northwestern side, the kitchen is lined by full-height windows and perforated metal screens to provide greater privacy.

Three bedrooms are located on the first floor, which leads onto a rooftop terrace to the north. This is sheltered by a sloping parapet created by the canopy at the front of the home.

Frame House's exterior is deliberately simple, clad entirely in red-brick tiles typically used on roofs, with areas of perforation made to offer glimpses into and out of the interiors.

"Red brick is traditional material for the pitched 45 degrees-roof residential houses that mostly surrounds the area," said Oman.

"However the main volume of Frame House has a flat roof so in a way the red-brick envelope creates a sort of play with the idea of a traditional red-brick pitched roof," he added.

Inside, this reddish-brown exterior is contrasted by exposed concrete walls and ceilings and pale wooden floors, chosen to create "cosy and comfy" spaces that provide a minimal backdrop to the garden.

OFIS Arhiteki is led by Oman and Spela Videcnik. Previous projects by the studio include a glazed star-gazing retreat in Andalusia and a prototype house built from adaptable modules.

The photography is by Tomaz Gregoric.

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Shades of green, red and yellow run throughout this lookbook, which collects nine home interiors enlivened by colourful window frames.

Whether painted wood, plastic or metal, opting for colourful window frames is an easy way to brighten a residential interior.

The examples in this lookbook demonstrate how they can be used to create a focal point in a pared-back space, draw attention to a view or simply help establish a colour theme.

This is the latest in our lookbooks series, which provides visual inspiration from Dezeen's archive. For more inspiration, see previous lookbooks featuring organic modern interiors, eclectic hotels and flooring that enhances the connection between indoors and outdoors.

Camberwell Cork House, UK, by Delve Architects

A bright forest green paint lines the window frames at Camberwell Cork House, helping to draw focus to the lush planting outside.

The paint juxtaposes the deliberately simple, white-walled interiors of the house extension, while outside it pops from against walls of tactile cork cladding.

Find out more about Camberwell Cork House ›

House 669, Sweden, by HelgessonGonzaga Arkitekter

HelgessonGonzaga Arkitekter incorporated sunny yellow frames throughout House 669, a prefabricated home it created in Stockholm.

The irregularly placed windows help enliven the otherwise neutral finishes to the home while adding a sense of "individuality" to its uniform structure, the studio said.

Find out more about House 669 ›

Cork House, UK, by Nimtim Architects

Another studio to have married bright window frames with cork cladding is Nimtim Architects. At this extension in London, the studio punctured the cork-lined walls with Barbie pink timber frames, offering a contemporary counterpoint to the Victorian house to which it is attached.

The windows are complemented by more subtle pops of pink inside, including the kitchen splashback and metal legs of the dining chairs.

Find out more about Cork House ›

Bouça Family House, Portugal, by Fahr 021.3

Turquoise accents feature throughout this family home by Fahr 021.3 in Porto, including its window frames and doors.

The colour was intended to help liven up the interiors, which are finished with white walls, wooden floorboards and wall panelling, while also giving the home "an element of distinction", the studio said.

Find out more about Bouça Family House ›

Valetta House, UK, by Office S&M

Among the distinguishing features of the Valetta House loft extension in London are its yellow-framed arch windows, three of which feature in one of the bedrooms.

Office S&M modelled these on the arched sash windows found in neighbouring Victorian residences but gave them a vivid yellow finish to appeal to the client's children. The colour was based on a light fitting the client had picked for the kitchen.

Find out more about Valetta House ›

Dailly, Belgium, by Mamout

Slender sage-green frames trim the window openings in Dailly, a courtyard house nestled between two buildings in Belgium.

It is among the pastel tones that its architect Mamout has used to bring character to the home, in addition to an array of reclaimed materials sourced from a warehouse that previously occupied the site.

Find out more about Dailly ›

Ugly House, UK, by Lipton Plant Architects

Ugly House is a 1970s house in Berkshire that Lipton Plant Architects expanded with a contrasting two-storey extension.

A bright orange finish was chosen for the windows, including the large garden-facing opening in the kitchen that juxtaposes pastel-blue cabinetry and wooden floorboards.

Find out more about Ugly House ›

House in Ancede, Portugal, by Atelier Local

Large rectangular and circular windows bring light inside House in Ancede, which Atelier Local completed on a sloped site in a nature reserve near Porto.

The openings are outlined with bright red aluminium, brightening the cool-toned interiors that are defined by exposed blockwork and concrete to evoke brutalist architecture.

Find out more about House in Ancede ›

Yellow House, UK, by Nimtim Architects

Another project on the list by Nimtim Architects is Yellow House, named after the spectrum of yellow-green hues that run throughout its interior.

This includes the buttercup-coloured wooden frames of the rear picture window and three skylights in the living room, which stand out against a backdrop of white walls and neutral furnishings.

Find out more about Yellow House ›

This is the latest in our lookbooks series, which provides visual inspiration from Dezeen's archive. For more inspiration, see previous lookbooks featuring tactile organic modern interiors, eclectic hotels and flooring that enhances the connection between indoors and outdoors. 

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A dwelling with a "tin hat" by Nimtim Architects and a colourful extension by Charles Holland are among the 16 London homes named on the shortlist for this year's Don't Move, Improve! competition.

A triangular house in a former garage by studio Brown Urbanism is also on the shortlist, alongside an extension by Cairn that is the first structure in the UK to be built from a low-carbon cement called LC3.

It is the fourteenth edition of the annual awards programme, hosted by New London Architecture (NLA), which aims to celebrate "the diversity of homes across the capital" – specifically those that have been renovated or extended.

NLA's head of content Federico Ortiz hopes that the 2024 shortlist will become a useful resource for people in the city looking to improve their homes.

"The shortlist for Don't Move, Improve! 2024 is an extraordinary showcase of innovation and creativity, offering a unique resource for Londoners who want to reimagine their living spaces and keep calling their neighbourhoods home," said Ortiz.

Other projects on the list include the pink-hued Aden Grove by Emil Eve, the light-filled Apartment with a Mezzanine by Office Ten Architecture and the renovation of the 1960s Chelsea Brut by Pricegore.

Whittaker Parsons' wood-lined Flitch Cottage extension also made the cut, alongside The Green Machine by Suprblk Studio and Heyford Avenue by Manuel Urbina Studio.

Other extensions up for the prize include one in Stoke Newington by VATRAA and the Perforated House by Novak Hiles Architects in Wandsworth, which is named after its perforated brickwork.

The final four projects competing this year are Two-Up Two-Down House by Khan Bonshek, Wimbledon Villa by Gundry + Ducker, Jacob's Flat by Paul Archer Design and Hillside House by Mike Tuck Studio.

The projects were shortlisted from over 150 entries by a jury made up of urban design manager at London Borough of Camden Ed Jarvis, architecture director of Wallpaper* magazine Ellie Stathaki, David Kohn Architects associate Jennifer Dyne and Hilson Moran sustainability director Marie-Louise Schembri.

The jury highlighted the standout trends for 2024 as the use of sustainable materials, bold colour palettes and cost-efficient solutions.

This year's overall winner will be revealed at a ceremony on 14 May at The London Centre, alongside other prizes including the People's Choice Award, which is now open for voting.

Last year's overall winner was The Secret Garden Flat, designed by Nic Howett Architect to feel "like an oasis" in the city.

Other winners included Low Energy House by Architecture for London, which took home the Environmental Leadership Prize, and CLT House by Unknown Works, which received the Unique Character Prize.

Scroll down to see all 16 shortlisted projects:

Aden Grove by Emil Eve

Apartment with a Mezzanine by Office Ten Architecture

Chelsea Brut by Pricegore

Flitch Cottage by Whittaker Parsons

The Green Machine by Suprblk Studio

Heyford Avenue by Manuel Urbina Studio

Hillside House by Mike Tuck Studio

House extension in Stoke Newington by VATRAA

A House in East London by Charles Holland Architects

House Made by Many Hands by Cairn

Jacob's Flat by Paul Archer Design

Perforated House by Novak Hiles Architects

Tin Hat by Nimtim Architects

Triangle House by Brown Urbanism

Two-Up Two-Down House by Khan Bonshek

Wimbledon Villa by Gundry + Ducker

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French studio Barrault Pressacco has completed the 102LET house outside Montpellier, mimicking the area's suburban architecture to conceal an interior defined by bright, open spaces.

Positioned on a sloping site in the village of Pradez-le-Lez, the single-family home aims to challenge the typical standards of suburban housing, proposing a "new model" for the area.

"Urban development zones are invested in by private developers who propose identical, copy-and-paste houses," Barrault Pressacco told Dezeen.

"Architects have the skills needed to reinvent this model, to inject contemporary lifestyles into it, to propose virtuous construction methods and local materials, to work on the quality of spaces, while keeping the economy in check," it continued.

According to Barrault Pressacco, the floor plan was developed to create a "fluid lifestyle between indoor and outdoors", while local planning regulations required the building to match the colours and finishes of the area's existing "Mediterranean-style" homes.

The home's more private spaces, such as its bedroom and bathrooms, occupy the partially-sunken back of the building, allowing the front to be used as an open-plan living, dining and kitchen area.

Partially double-height, a focal point of this living area is a large staircase finished in exposed wood and black metal, leading to an additional two rooms on the home's first floor.

At the front of 102LET, a wall of sliding glass doors opens onto a covered patio, sheltered by a tiled pitched roof, typical of the area. This roof is supported by a row of slender concrete columns framing the garden beyond.

"Within the building envelope, the boundaries between inside and outside are blurred, but the limit between the landscape and architecture is sharp," explained Barrault Pressacco.

"In a landscape often devastated by fences and palisades, we choose to address privacy through architecture," it continued.

Internally, the studio prioritised deliberately simple, economical finishes, leaving much of 102LET's concrete structure and wooden roof exposed and complemented by white plasterwork.

"Inside the house, we opened up as much as possible and freed up the floor plan to encourage communal living," explained the studio. "The form and the materials are simple, the concrete visible. The choice of the structure of the house made this possible."

Paris-based Barrault Pressacco was founded in 2009 by Thibaut Barrault and Cyril Pressacco. Previous projects by the studio include a mixed-use block that referenced typical Parisian apartments but was constructed using biomaterials.

Other recently completed houses in France include the old farmhouse in Normandy overhauled by Studio Guma and the tiled Maison Jericho by Olivia Fauvelle Architecture.

The photography is by Severin Malaud unless stated.

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A green-steel structure and walls of exposed blockwork and plywood feature inside this house and artist's studio in Paris by local practice Jean Benoît Vétillard Architecture.

Named Maison Nana, the home is located on a dense urban plot in Bagnolet and provides a series of flexible spaces organised around a central skylit atrium.

Maison Nana is accessed by a paved garden, which Jean Benoît Vétillard Architecture has placed across half of the site.

It is fronted by a glazed garden room, sheltered by a gently undulating awning and animated by oversized red steps that provide seating and space for plants.

"Following the volumes of the adjacent dwellings the land is divided into two parts," said Jean Benoît Vétillard Architecture.

"The built volume is placed in the southern part, where the volumes of the buildings adjacent are higher, [and] the northern part is converted into a full garden," it continued.

From the garden room, glass doors lead into the open-plan ground floor. Here, a living, dining and kitchen space is wrapped by exposed blockwork walls and framed by slender steel columns in a pale shade of green.

Overlooking this space is a skylit, wood-lined atrium that extends vertically through the entire home, punctured by openings in the living areas above and glass brick windows on the exterior wall.

Bedrooms, bathrooms and a studio space are organised in a U-shape around this atrium, with a finish of plywood panelling and deliberately simple fittings to allow them to be easily adapted to different uses by the inhabitants.

"The ground floor is left raw, and the more intimate [upper] floors are treated in wood, a more noble material," said the studio's founder Jean Benoît Vétillard.

"The idea was to remove any form of hierarchy and scale in the rooms on the upper floors, through a complete treatment in wood and a minimum of details," he told Dezeen.

The rear facade of Maison Nana is largely enclosed due to the height of the adjacent buildings but the front elevation overlooks the garden with a symmetrical arrangement of square windows and a cladding of blackened timber planks.

Other homes recently completed in Paris include an apartment in a converted textile warehouse by Isabelle Heilmann and a revamped Haussmann-era residence for an art collector by Hauvette & Madani.

The photography is by Giaime Meloni.

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Finnish studio MNY Arkitekter has completed Two Sisters, a timber holiday home in Salo that is designed to allow two siblings to live "together separately".

To create a dedicated space for each of the two sisters, MNY Arkitekter divided the home into two standalone units joined by a central terrace overlooking the surrounding rocks and pine trees on Finland's west coast.

"In many ways the site is one of typical Finnish inner archipelago terrain and vegetation, and one of the main goals was to preserve as many trees and visible rocks as possible," MNY Arkitekter founder Mathias Nyström told Dezeen.

"Equality of the views from the two units was also important and had a significant impact on the layout."

The home's two units "fan out" to provide privacy and avoid the surrounding trees, while making space for an existing sauna, utility room and overnight shelter on the site.

Each block features large windows at its western end, looking towards the sea and pine trees to the west. Openings facing the central terrace have been placed to minimise overlooking.

"Being in one of the units you can only see the other from certain points, otherwise you mostly sense the existence of the other part," said Nyström.

"You are on your own, but feel part of a bigger entity," he added.

Each living space at Two Sisters has been finished with black kitchen counters, a dining table and a large freestanding fireplace. Built-in bench seating provides space to sit and look out over the landscape.

In the northern block, a bed is housed in a small nook off this living space backed by a full-height window, while to the south the slightly larger unit provides a double bedroom and two single bedrooms alongside the living space.

Two Sisters has a prefabricated structure of glue-laminated timber, finished externally with vertical planks of spruce. Internally, pale timber walls, floors and ceilings are treated with lye.

"The aim for the atmosphere was to create a uniform, serene space where nature plays a big part - the end result is very uplifting," said Nyström.

"The weathered silver-grey wood will fuse the building in the landscape with rocks and pines. All in all it is a down to earth and subtle building," he added.

Elsewhere in Finland, MNY Arkitekter created a home on the shoreline of a small lake in Tenala using seven different varieties of timber.

Other recent projects in the country include a sauna and restaurant on the edge of Lake Saimaa by Studio Puisto and the steel-clad Dance House by JKMM and ILO architects in Helsinki.

The photography is by Multifoto Ab unless otherwise stated.

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A minimalist exterior of white render and local stone paving reference the traditional architecture of Italy's Salento region at Casa Ulìa, a villa by local architecture studio Margine.

Named Casa Ulìa, or Olive House, after the trees on the site, the 480-square-metre dwelling near Lecce was completed for a couple who wanted an "oasis of peace" away from city life.

To reduce the home's visual impact on the site, Margine limited it to a single storey above ground containing the living spaces and bedrooms and created a basement for an events space, spa and garage.

Carefully positioned openings in its pared-back exterior frame the rural landscape, while perforated brick screens filter light down into the home's lower level.

"Discreetly, as if hiding behind centuries-old olive trees, Casa Ulìa leverages an underground space to maintain a purely horizontal development on two levels," explained Margine.

Casa Ulìa is divided into two blocks. To the east, a rectilinear volume contains a living, dining and kitchen space and to the west, a square block has three bedrooms and bathrooms.

A fireplace raised on a marble-tiled plinth provides a focal point for the living area, which sits between a wood-lined kitchen and a separate study space.

Above the kitchen counter, a horizontal window frames a view of the landscape, while in the living area, a sliding glass door opens onto a patio sheltered beneath a concrete pergola.

For the paving of this terrace, Margine used local Leccese stone. Along with the minimalist white exterior, this "echoes the region's vernacular tradition" the studio said. 

"A large central fireplace, the beating heart of the villa, unites the dining and living areas, completing the living room by enveloping guests in a cosy and convivial atmosphere," said the studio.

"A glass window etched into the panelling, framing the landscape, giving the feeling of cooking outdoors," it added.

Three routes lead to the basement level spaces – a ramp and garage for vehicle access at the rear of the home, a curved external stair and an internal stair at the centre of the plan.

The minimal, clean lines of the exterior are carried through to Casa Ulìa's interiors, with plain white walls and grooved wooden panelling in the bedrooms.

"The house stands out for its essential lines and refined use of materials, with white plaster and stone-effect stoneware floors that also cover the bathroom," said the studio.

"The use of large formats brings continuity to the surfaces, fueling the overall minimalism of the design."

Elsewhere in Italy, UK studio Jonathan Tuckey Design recently restored and extended a historic farmhouse to create a family home and JM Architecture used glossy white-concrete panels to clad a holiday home with a pentagonal plan.

The photography is by Marcello Mariana.

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Mexican studio PPAA has completed a concrete villa beside Lake Zurich in Switzerland, fronted by a long water feature that helps to illuminate the interior.

Stepping down a sloping site in Uetikon to the west of Zurich, the home is designed by PPAA to "blend into the terrain" with a pale concrete exterior and full-height glazing.

"The house is part of an area that is currently being regenerated with many new buildings," PPAA founder Pablo Pérez Palacios told Dezeen.

"Our proposal was therefore to create a timeless house, using natural materials: wood and concrete, to harmonise as much as possible with its surroundings," he added.

Approaching from the road to the north, the home appears as a single-storey volume. A wood-lined section of the facade demarcates its entrance and conceals a garage door.

The home opens to a large L-shaped living, dining and kitchen space with a ceiling that slopes upwards to a row of south-facing windows with panoramic views over the lake and a water feature that resembles an infinity pool.

Described by PPAA as a "water mirror", this pool is designed to reflect the landscape and light into the villa."The idea was to reflect and emphasise the lake by raising it to the house and framing the views over the landscape," explained Palacios.

"On the other hand, if you look at the house from the outside, everything seems to be on the same floor, so you can't see the water feature, making it a subtle touch," he continued.

"The water feature also acts as a mirror reflecting the sky and the daylight, illuminating the interiors."

A straight wooden stair lined by thin sheets of metal leads down to the lower level, which contains bedrooms, bathrooms and a small gym.

Dug into the landscape on one side, the lower level is lit by small openings at the rear of the home covered by slatted wooden screens, contrasting the more exposed upper level.

Glass doors lead out to the home's rear garden, where a grass area steps down to a swimming pool and terrace to the southwest.

Designed by PPAA to be "timeless", the interiors are an extension of the pared-back exterior finishes with white walls, pale wooden floors and exposed concrete ceilings.

PPAA, known fully as Pérez Palacios Arquitectos Asociados, was founded in 2018.

Previous projects by the studio include a home in a forested area outside Mexico City with an A-frame and a house with bedrooms submerged within the surrounding stony terrain.

The photography is by Rafael Gamo unless otherwise stated.

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Belgian studio Ae-Architecten has used glazed yellow bricks and concrete-lined living spaces to renovate SL House, a detached home in Ghent, Belgium.

Ae-Architecten was tasked with converting the home back into a single-family dwelling after it had been subdivided into two flats in the 1980s.

The studio stripped away its later additions and opened up the home's interior with an exposed concrete framework to create a flexible, "future-oriented" living space, it said.

"The construction looked quite solid at first glance, but it was a lot worse than we initially thought, and spatially a lot of quality had probably been lost in the division into apartments," Ae-Architecten co-founder Jan Baes told Dezeen.

"The new in-situ concrete structure, made using rough-sawn timber formwork, allows for greater flexibility and relationships between spaces," he added.

Instead of a complete overhaul, the studio viewed the renovation as a new "layer" to the home, retaining existing elements and complementing them with contemporary additions.

This is particularly evident in the brick exterior, where the existing masonry sits alongside glazed yellow bricks that Ae-Architecten used to infill old openings.

"Of all the elements already present in the existing house, the brickwork was perhaps the most valuable to preserve – there were already two types of masonry present and these gave a vertical rhythm and refinement to the house," Baes said.

"This gave rise to the idea of adding a third type of masonry that could give the house a more contemporary character by interacting with the existing masonry, so we chose a glazed yellow brick," Baes added.

"We consider the house as a palimpsest in which we preserved the qualities in the existing fabric."

SL House is organised across two storeys. The ground floor contains an L-shaped living, dining and kitchen area alongside a study and bathroom.

A wooden bookshelf, counter, curving bench and window seat help to subdivide this larger space, while a corner formed of glass sliding doors opens onto the garden.

"We tried to create a large living space with different zones," explained Baes.

"On the one hand, we tried to precise and define the spaces with the furniture and, on the other hand, we tried to optimise the links to the different parts of the garden through new cut-outs."

Above, the first floor contains the bedrooms and a terrace with an outdoor shower, topped by a high parapet that follows the slope of the roof.

The primarily neutral palette throughout the home is punctuated by green accents, with a bathroom lined entirely in green plaster and the full-height bedroom cupboards also finished in green.

Based in Ghent, Ae-Architecten was founded in 2005 by Baes and Petra Decouttere.

Previous renovations in Belgium featured on Dezeen include the refurbishment of a 1960s home Hoeilaart by Mamout and Stéphanie Willocx and Madam Architectuur's addition of a green-tiled home to a home in Dilbeek.

The photography is by Tim Van De Velde.

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Amsterdam studio Woonpioniers has used natural materials and prefabricated elements throughout the Sprout Ruben & Marjolein house, which includes an open, greenhouse-like volume.

Built as a prototype for the studio's Sprout concept, the Netherlands home was designed to feature as many bio-based materials as possible, including a wooden frame structure and hemp insulation.

Designed by Woonpioniers, the home is based around a modular form which is intended to be transportable and adaptable, comprising partially prefabricated units that can be lengthened or shortened as well as linked and stacked.

For this prototype, which is located in Olst, Woonpioniers created a small house comprising a two-storey volume topped with a mono-pitched roof.

Delivered as a design and build project, the home was designed in collaboration with its residents and features a minimal arrangement of spaces and a pared back, natural material palette.

"It was interesting to go deep about what we thought was truly important to us and therefore how we wanted to live," Ruben Stellingwerf, who was one of the clients, told Dezeen.

"We live a lot smaller, but it doesn't feel cramped or confined at all."

Most of the home was clad in silver-toned timber battens, excluding a semi-outdoors living area and terrace at one end of the house. Glass infills the timber structure around the top edges of the space to create a clerestory window, while glass sliding doors set in wooden frames sit underneath.

Inside the greenhouse-like volume, the studio added a dining area designed to be open to the outdoor space, as well as a more private office, which is separated from the dining room by wooden panel-lined walls.

"In winter you 'harvest' a lot of heat, which reduces your heating costs," studio architect Leen Bogerd told Dezeen. "When it gets warmer, you open all the doors and you actually have a fantastic veranda."

On the other wall, an additional sliding glass door in a timber frame leads to a kitchen decorated with wooden and yellow-painted joinery and a honeycomb-patterned backsplash.

Beyond the kitchen, a timber staircase was located across the corridor from a downstairs bathroom with wooden cupboards.

On the upper level a terrace area was topped with a low, sloping ceiling. Acting as a mezzanine level in the greenhouse-like portion of the home, the terrace offers views into the dining area below, as well as framing views of the sky through a glass roof.

A skylight can be opened up as part of the roof to provide unrestricted views out from the upper floor.

"In addition to the greenhouse, the terrace is our favourite place in the house," the other client Marjolein Bartels told Dezeen. "With a little sunshine you can already bathe in the sun there very cosily, and you can also go stargazing there in the evening".

The terrace is connected to a bedroom, where the ceiling slopes up to create the feeling of a more spacious room.

"We built the house as a prototype, but for actual clients," the studio explained. "Therefore it also has highly personalised interiors and a personalised main configuration that puts a twist on our flexible concept."

"After this and one other ‘prototype', we've developed the detailing of Sprout in such a way that we're able to build more custom projects," it continued. "We believe Sprout could be the next step towards tiny housing in Europe."

Other homes in the Netherlands recently featured on Dezeen include a refurbished compact apartment filled with flexible spaces and a raised woodlands holiday home designed to reference birdhouses.

The photography is by Jonah Samyn.

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Canadian studio Reflect Architecture has renovated a home in Toronto for a new generation of the same family, while incorporating an extensive art collection.

North Drive House was the childhood home of one of the owners. After stints living abroad and in Downtown Toronto, the couple were lured back to the two-acre property for the space to raise their young family.

However, the residence's traditional interiors were not to their taste, so Reflect Architecture principal Trevor Wallace was called in to undertake an extensive renovation.

His approach was to create a deliberate "tension" between the need to display an extensive contemporary art collection – which includes pieces by Robert Mapplethorpe and Erik Madigan Heck – and fulfilling the needs of a family home.

"The idea of living in a gallery was always important to the owners, but the critical distinction is that they didn't want to live in a museum," said Wallace.

"This is a family home above all. The owners have always imagined that their kids would one day look back on living here and think it was pretty cool that they were playing soccer or running around inside what felt like an art gallery."

The team retained the existing layout and circulation while updating the spaces with fresh materials, colours and forms.

Most in line with the gallery-like aesthetic, the living spaces, hallways and corridors feature stark white walls and minimalist detailing such as flush doors and entryways.

At the centre of the home is a staircase designed as if a piece of sculpture itself, comprising layered bannisters, stepped profiles and curvaceous forms.

A similarly playful tactic was applied in the living room, which features a rippling, ribbon-like fireplace designed by Brooklyn-based designer Leyden Lewis.

"We had a lot of fun exploring and playing with the staircase's shapes and orientations," Wallace said. "We wanted it to feel organic and fluid, and that required being playful. That was true for the entire house from start to finish, it was important that we didn't take the whole thing too seriously."

The spareness of these spaces is swapped in the cooking and eating areas, which feature darker, richer colours like the teal dining room.

A knotted light fixture by Lindsey Adelman hangs over the large stone dining table, accompanied by chairs with ochre velvet upholstery.

In the kitchen, tone-on-tone travertine cabinetry and surfaces include a new 15-foot-long (4.5-metre) kitchen island.

An existing gabled skylight overhead was maintained, but its beams were updated with a copper hue to "complement the travertine".

The room is oriented towards a glass wall facing a Japanese maple tree in the garden, under which sits a large dining table by local furniture designer Mary Ratcliffe.

Wallace founded Reflect Architecture in 2016, and the studio's previous work includes a Toronto home renovation with a blue slide as its centrepiece.

Other recently completed residential overhauls in the city include a residence connected by asymmetric brass-lined portals and a house where built-in storage volumes were added.

The photography is by Doublespace Photography.

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Architecture studio Wallmakers has repurposed approximately 6,200 discarded toys to construct the walls of Toy Storey, a circular home in Kerala, India.

The aptly named residence by Wallmakers uses toys discarded in the area, which are unsuitable for recycling, as structural components and decoration within the external walls.

"The main concept of Toy Storey revolves around the idea of using discarded toys and effectively conveying a message through this," studio founder Vinu Daniel told Dezeen.

"By repurposing around 6,200 discarded toys, the residence in Kerala becomes a living monument to nostalgia and childhood, while addressing environmental concerns," he added.

Toy Storey is wrapped by perforated, curved walls composed of compressed stabilised earth blocks, Mangalore tiles and toys, designed to draw in light and enable cross ventilation through the home. A ferrocement roof sits on top.

Four evenly-spaced entrances puncture the facade, which is wrapped by a cantilevered verandah offering outdoor space overlooking the surrounding greenery.

Inside, the home's first floor is divided into public and private segments. The public half is defined by a large living room while the private half contains an open-plan kitchen and dining area flanked by bedrooms.

"One of the things that the client mentioned was they often host their neighbours and members of the community, which means there are often many people in the house," Daniel said.

"Hence we decided to make the area the people frequented separate from that of the client’s family’s personal spaces," he continued.

Japanese-style shoji screens are used as partitions throughout the interior to enable light into each space and connectivity between the private and public areas.

The site's topography enabled the addition of a secluded basement level containing a library and bedroom, accessed from the upper floor by a central staircase.

An internal courtyard topped with a glass ceiling slices through the building providing additional daylight for the interior.

Wallmakers is an architecture studio established by Daniel in 2007. Elsewhere in India, Wallmakers has also recently completed an arts centre with rooftop seating and a house that resembles "snake curling up under a rock".

Last year, Daniel faced criticism on social media for his studio's use of unpaid internships, which he claims have an important educational benefit.

The photography is by Syam Sreesylam and Althaf Rasheed.

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London studio Alexander Hills Architects has transformed Old Rectory Farm, a house in Norfolk, into an accessible residence with level-access living spaces.

Old Rectory Farm has been extended and adapted to enable the family's father, who uses a wheelchair for mobility, to continue living in the home "with ease and dignity".

Alexander Hills Architects has created level access throughout the ground floor plan while adding two extensions and converting the neighbouring stables to accommodate additional living spaces and bedrooms at this level.

"The house and farm have been part of the family for three generations and the father, now a wheelchair user, needed help to remain living in his home," studio founder Alexander Hills told Dezeen.

"The project came about by making a specific space for him and a carer," he continued. "As part of this main requirement, we looked at the wider plan, rejigging the existing stables, garage and farm office to make this happen."

A kitchen sits at the heart of the house and adjoins a large open-plan living and dining space offering views through the large rear windows down Glaven Valley.

Off from this central family living space are the former stables, which have been updated to create two ensuite bedrooms for the father and a live-in carer.

The father's bedroom sits beside the main driveway, ensuring "a car can be parked directly outside" for maximum accessibility while providing views out to a swimming pool.

"We arranged the plan so his rooms were aligned with the main access to the house, as well as overlooked the swimming pool so he could visually participate with the family spaces outside," the studio explained.

Throughout, extra large doors are used to ensure sufficient room for the wheelchair and carer, and the level thresholds enable access to the outside patio.

One of the extensions to the home expands the living area while the other contains a utility block. They are designed to be architecturally distinct.

In the utility block, timber, brick and flint are used to reflect the 19th-century vernacular and "textural richness" of the farmstead.

Contrastingly, the extension to the main living space has been designed with a more contemporary feel. A sweeping curved roof clad in patinated zinc sits on oak columns.

Other accessible homes featured on Dezeen include the timber-clad Butterfly House in Surrey, designed as a future-proof home for the client's elderly mother.

In Hampshire, Ayre Chamberlain Gaunt completed the Claywood as an accessible and functional home for a retiree who became a wheelchair user after suffering a spinal cord injury.

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Thick walls of local stone shelter Caochan na Creige, a home in Scotland's Outer Hebrides by local practice Izat Arundell designed to "sit respectfully in the landscape".

Caochan na Creige – which means 'little quiet one by the rock' – is a small home perched in a sheltered inlet on the eastern coast of the islands, in an area called the Bay of Harris.

Looking to blend the home in with its dramatic surroundings, Izat Arundell finished the simple, timber-frame structure with blocks of local stone called Lewisian Gneiss.

"The Outer Hebrides are an incredibly remote and exposed environment, probably one of the wildest in Europe," explained Izat Arundell director Eilidh Izat.

"The decision to work with Lewisian Gneiss seems like an obvious one and was naturally influenced by a desire for the house to sit respectfully in the landscape but also by the opportunity to collaborate with our friend and stonemason, Dan Macaulay," she added.

Caochan na Creige features an irregular, angled plan, which was the result of "working with the landscape rather than against it," ensuring that the building's foundations avoided areas of incredibly hard rock on the site.

An entrance porch, utility area and skylit bathroom sit in the centre of the plan, with a bedroom protruding slightly to the northwest and a living room and kitchen occupying the entire eastern half of the home.

Designed to follow the sun throughout the day, full-height windows in the living area and dining room look southwards towards the island of Rùm, while narrow openings looking west capture the setting sun.

"The shape of the house was discovered through the building of a cardboard model and moving forms around the protruding rock: this is how the 135-degree-angle used was realised," explains Izat.

"We then used this angle throughout the layout in different ways which demonstrates the strength of site-specific architecture and how it can be used to solve difficulties but also enhance the design," she added.

Creating a warm contrast, wooden panelling lines the interiors, for which Eilidh's brother, furniture maker Alastair Izat, helped create bespoke cabinets and shelving.

The site's remote nature informed the simple material choices, as well as making it more viable to construct the timber frame on-site rather than prefabricating it.

Based in the Outer Hebrides, Izat Arundell was established in 2017 by Eilidh Izat and Jack Arundell following the completion of their first project, the conversion of a former blacksmith's workshop in Edinburgh into a compact apartment.

The photography is by Richard Gaston.

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New York studio Leong Leong has renovated a 1970s ranch house in Los Angeles by adding a large wall, outdoor spaces and a polycarbonate panel-wrapped second storey.

Completed in LA's Hancock Park neighbourhood in 2023, the 6,000-square foot (558-square metre) the house combines domestic settings with a place for institutional programming and social gatherings.

Located at the end of a cul-de-sac, the 13,534-square foot (1,257-square metre) lot was walled off along the perimeter, providing privacy in one of the city's oldest and most well-preserved neighbourhoods that boasts wide, tree-lined streets and grand Spanish Revival and English Tudor homes.

Due to local historic preservation guidelines, the team only renovated 50 per cent of the existing house. The team opted to reorient the entry around the back, revising the suburban typology to connect with the Southern California climate through courtyards, a pool area, and a rock garden.

"We were inspired by the client's desire to rethink cliches of contemporary domesticity and create a home to live with art but not be saturated by it," co-founder Dominic Leong told Dezeen.

"Rather than erasing the DNA of the existing ranch-style house, we were more interested in transforming it into a suburban, energy-efficient sanctuary with distinct realms for different aspects of their family's lifestyle."

The team added a continuous wall that inverts the home's relationship between inside and outside, old and new and public and private, and the home is meant to be a "serene indoor-outdoor suburban sanctuary for living with art".

The wall is angular on the south side of the house with a set of steps leading up to an entry courtyard. On the north side, the wall forms a semicircle, dividing the rock garden from the pool.

Leong Leong also added a second level above the kitchen that holds a dedicated playroom, topped with a roof deck that affords views of the skyline. Additionally, the team added a 24-kilowatt Tesla solar roof array that powers the home, bringing it to a net-zero energy structure.

"Our approach was also informed by artists like Dan Graham and Mike Kelly, whose work explores how suburban architecture shapes our social experience and the complexities that underlie its conventional façade," the team said.

"We found that embracing the contradictions between historic preservation guidelines, a family's unconventional lifestyle, and reducing environmental impact, was equally rewarding as trying to find perfect alignments."

"In fact, the confluence of these factors sparked a kind of alchemy that makes the house feel contemporary but also contextual, familiar but also unexpected."

The design employs a vernacular material palette with sand-coloured stucco walls, precast concrete, and a large, translucent polycarbonate second-storey facade. The team also played with off-the-shelf products in various uses.

For example, ceramic tiles in a soft peach hue spread across the floor, transitioning in the kitchen to Forbo, a rubberized flooring material that wraps up the stairs and across the counters, backsplash, and walls of the children's rooms.

"The material exemplifies the Hancock Park House's play between austerity and softness," Leong said.

Wrapped in anodized aluminium extrusions, a media room floats like an object in the centre of the plan, doubling as a black box screening room and a family room.

In addition to sustainable material choices, all gas fixtures were replaced with electric-only appliances.

To reduce water usage, the landscaping is drought tolerant "xeriscape." A plant-free rock garden with locally sourced boulders replaced the grass yard, and drought-tolerant plants like aloes, euphorbia and ocotillo are fed by a weather-aware HydroWise drip irrigation system.

Led by Chris and Dominic Leong, the studio recently completed the Hollywood campus for the LGBT+ Centre with Killefer Flammang Architects (KFA) and a permanent store for online fashion brand Everlane in Soho in Manhattan.

The photography is by Naho Kubota.

Project credits:

Design architect: Leong Leong
Executive architect: Leong Architects Inc.
Lighting design: Leong Leong
Interior design: Leong Leong
Contractor: Uhles Construction
Civil engineering: Delane Engineering
Structure: Workpoint
Landscape/hardscape/pool design: Leong Leong in collaboration with Johnston Vidal Projects
Landscape/hardscape contractor: Johnston Vidal Projects
Pool and water features contractor: Johnston Vidal Projects
Theater contractor: Fantastic Theaters
Kitchen cabinetry: bulthaup
Solar/battery: Tesla Energy

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Dezeen's top five houses of the month for March include a timber and concrete residence that is "designed to be overlooked" and a copper-clad home in Colorado that creates "semi-reflections" of the landscape.

Also on the list is a converted pig shed, a low-lying white-and-black home informed by mid-century modernism and a dark-stained cedar dwelling that frames views of sloping terrain.

This is our latest roundup of the five most popular residences featured on Dezeen from the past month.

Read on for Dezeen's top five houses of March 2024:

House in the Fields, Belgium, by Stef Claes

This low-lying Belgian home by Geneva-based architect Stef Claes draws upon North American mid-century modernism and is encased by white-painted walls with black accents.

"The time I spent working in California on conversions and restorations of mid-century modern houses planted the seeds for the design of this home," Claes told Dezeen.

The home is organised around two linear wings bounded by large windows that follow the flatness of the landscape, with bedrooms on one side and communal spaces on the other.

Find out more about House in the Fields ›

The Maker's Barn, UK, by Hutch Design

This rural holiday home on the outskirts of London was originally a pig shed that has been converted by Hutch Design to create a dwelling informed by the local vernacular.

The Maker's Barn is organised around a single interconnected space that aims to maximise views of the landscape with floor-to-ceiling glazing, paired against a "natural and honest" material palette of rough plaster walls and timber.

Find out more about The Maker's Barn ›

Heatherhill Beach House, Denmark, by Norm Architects

This wooden holiday home on the Danish coast was designed by local studio Norm Architects as "a getaway from everyday life" that reinterprets a traditional barn typology.

The studio topped Heatherhill Beach House's gabled volumes with a sedum roof and wrapped the facade with cedar panels to gently weather over time.

"The colour and qualities of the cedar wood complement the raw nature in which the house is located," architect Sophie Bak told Dezeen. "Moreover, it's going to take on a silvery colour as it patinates – that is not only beautiful but also corresponding to the colours of the nearby ocean."

Find out more about Heatherhill Beach House ›

Longbranch, USA, by MW Works

Another coastal residence on the list is Longbranch in Washington State, designed by Seattle-based MW Works.

Positioned on a downward slope to connect each room to forest views, the studio said the rectilinear home is "designed to be overlooked".

Earthy-toned materials of dark-stained cedar, concrete and rough-sawn timber were selected to blend the volumes into the terrain.

Find out more about Longbranch ›

DNA Alpine, USA, by CCY Architects

In Colorado, CCY Architects designed a home that is clad in patinated copper panels tilted at different angles to create "semi-reflections" of the surroundings and disappear into the landscape.

"The siding's shifting pattern creates an interactive experience on the site – a dynamic camouflage in changing daylight, which will continue to patina with each passing season," explained CCY Architects associate Jenny Trumble.

"This DNA sequence, ever-present and unseen, underscores the subtleties of the landscape and the beauty of deferring to it."

Find out more about DNA Alpine ›

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Oozing mortar joints create a "crusty crown" for The Brick House, a family home in Perth, Australia that has recently been completed by local practice Studio Roam.

Located in the suburb of Highgate, the home replaces an existing cottage on the site that had been occupied by the clients for several years.

Tasked with creating a new home while also allowing for future development, Studio Roam divided the site in half along its length, placing a skinny brick home on one side and a garden and garage on the other that could easily be dismantled to make way for an extension.

"With the demolition of the existing cottage, the lot was reconfigured with a life-long masterplan in mind," explained the studio.

"The project is the first of two terrace houses envisaged for the site, with the second a mirror image in plan."

"Inbuilt in the project is wealth creation, financial security, and a family legacy to eventually be passed to the clients’ two children," it continued.

Organisationally, the plan of the home has been flipped, with the bedrooms on the ground floor and the living, dining and kitchen and office spaces above, maximising the availability of daylight on the narrow site.

Large window boxes face the street in front and the rear garden, while along the eastern elevation sliding glass doors open onto a wooden terrace beneath steel beams to enjoy the garden prior to its future conversion.

At the front of the eastern portion of the site, the garage is housed in a lightweight metal structure clad with translucent panels.

The exterior of the home is finished in red brick, with the upper level treated with oozing mortar joints to create a "crusty crown" that will crumble and weather over time.

The brick of the exterior is carried through the interior, given a whitewash finish and complemented by concrete floors, white-painted timber ceilings and plywood cabinetry.

"It was always very important to the clients that there was an authenticity in the material language and there was an honesty in the application and detailing of every material," Studio Roam director Sally Weerts told Dezeen.

"The oozy mortar was something that the clients were instantly on board with which was a lot of fun for us - it’s proven to be one of the more divisive features of the project that people either love or hate."

"We really liked the idea that over time this relatively simple brick building would weather and settle into its landscape, collecting sap and insects from the nearby tree canopies," she added.

Elsewhere in Perth, Australian practice Grotto Studio recently extended a historic cottage with a charred-timber extension.

The photography is by Jack Lovel.

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Brass ribbons line the asymmetric portals that connect the kitchen and dining room of this Toronto residence, renovated by local architecture and art studio Svima.

The Portal House was designed for a couple who had wanted to refresh their home for 10 years, but have very different aesthetic tastes.

Toronto-based studio Svima found a compromise by combining his desire for "tenebrous minimalism" and her love of "bright French country kitchens" into the design.

The resulting "denlike cosiness" pairs dark oak across the lower half of the ground-floor spaces and clean white surfaces on the upper half.

The snaked kitchen layout is tight, so Svima curved the corners of cabinetry and counter surfaces to steal extra space for circulation.

This theme continues to the living room millwork: a bookcase is filleted at the corner and meets the wall at an angle, while a built-in sofa beneath the window also softly angles inward.

"The design hinges on 'ribbons' flowing through the space, guiding the motion through the rooms," said Svima.

"The ribbons curve in areas where sharp corners would not fit, or would stop the flow of movement."

In the kitchen, the curved oak doors were handmade by a cabinetmaker who created a special jig to kerf-bend the oak into a radius.

Tiles that offer a contemporary take on Dutch Delft porcelain form the backsplash, adding small touches of blue to the otherwise neutral space.

Two portals provide connections between the kitchen and adjacent dining room, both with a mirrored asymmetric shape and edged in brass.

One acts as a doorway, while the other over the deep counter is used as a pass-through for food, drinks and tableware.

"It was an artful process for the contractor to lay the brass into the wall, as it had to fit into the curved drywall perfectly with no tolerance for error," the architects said.

The living room, located at the front of the house, was furnished with mid-century pieces such as a chair, a coffee table and a media console.

The closed and open shelving unit organises the family's books and possessions, and its shape allows more light to enter from a side window.

Opposite, the built-in sofa helps to resolve an awkward space under a bay window and orients the sitter towards the TV to one side.

"The custom sofa sweeps into the space to provide seating at precisely the right sideways angle for viewing the media unit, for lounge reading, and for gathering," Svima said.

The floors throughout the home match the other millwork, grounding the spaces with a rich dark hue.

Svima, founded by architects Anamarija Korolj and Leon Lai, is not the only studio that's had to get creative with a tight Toronto floor plan.

When Studio Vaaro overhauled a house in the city, the firm created a series of volumes with minimally detailed millwork to form kitchen cabinetry, the staircase and a feature bookcase in the living room.

The photography is by Scott Norsworthy.

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US studio Michael Hennessey Architecture has revitalised an ageing suburban house near San Francisco, adding black cladding and bright finishes to form a family home that bridges the past, present and future.

The residence is located in Mill Valley, a town just north of San Francisco that is known for its natural terrain and cultural offerings.

Designed for a couple with two young children, the budget-conscious project involved the renovation of a suburban-style house that was "in sore need of upgrades".

The aim was to create a dwelling that supported the family's current needs while being mindful of what might be needed in the future.

"The home was thought not only as a shelter, but also as a bridge: from past to present, from one landscape condition to another, and from what a family wanted to what they could have," said Michael Hennessey Architecture, which is based in San Francisco.

Built into a hillside, the home is U-shaped in plan, with gabled volumes organised around a central courtyard.

The team opted to preserve certain elements while adding contemporary interventions.

The building's beige exterior was replaced with black, vertical cedar siding that adds a sense of gravitas, the studio said. The roof is covered in standing-seam metal.

Inside, the 1,870-square-foot (174-square-metre) house features a clear division between public and private zones.

On the main level, one side holds an open-concept kitchen, dining area, and living room, while the other encompasses three bedrooms. The ground level contains a family room and a garage.

"Clearly delineated programmatic areas work in harmony with each other, the outside and the family's needs," the team said.

Interior finishes include ash cabinetry, large-format porcelain floor tiles, and ceramic tiles around the fireplace. Lofty ceilings and large stretches of glass provide an airy feel.

The outdoor spaces include a spacious, south-facing deck that receives bright sunlight. Softer light flows in through the courtyard on the north.

Proving a connection to the forested, hilly landscape was a guiding concern for the team.

"Every part of the house is oriented towards the landscape thanks to carefully framed views of the lush immediate vegetation, as well as the more distant valleys, resulting in a comprehensive, thoughtful and sensitive approach to creating an extraordinary daily life," the team said.

Other projects by Michael Hennessey Architecture include a townhouse with modern bay windows that was designed to offer alternatives to "conventional building strategies" and the refurbishment of a 1960s house that was originally built by Joseph Eichler, known for his modernist housing subdivisions.

The photography is by Adam Rouse.

Project credits:

Architect: Michael Hennessey Architecture
Architecture team: Michael Hennessey, Claudia Merzario, Jason Laudat
Contractor: New Dimension Builders (Dirk Von Rueben)
Structural engineer: Berkeley Structural Design (Bill Lynch)
Landscape architect: George Loew
Title 24 consultant: EnergySoft, LLC (Hayley Monahan)
Sustainability consultant: Arcturus HD (Jeff Aalfs)

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Norwegian studio Gartnerfuglen Arkitekter has completed a home named Årestua in a remote area of Telemark, referencing traditional log cabins to create a feeling of "natural minimalism".

Årestua stands on a small, sloped forest clearing and takes its name from the Norwegian word for a log cabin that would historically be organised around an open fire.

Drawing on these cabins, Gartnerfuglen Arkitekter split the home into five volumes, giving rise to four "outhouses" organised around a skylit central living area with a fireplace.

Between the volumes, the studio has placed small outdoor spaces with benches to provide views of the surrounding landscape.

"The way the volumes of the cabin are arranged provides different sheltered spaces on all sides, each with its own qualities," studio co-founder Astrid Rohde Wang told Dezeen.

"We wanted the central space to have a sort of grandeur with the high ceiling height of about four metres and a roof light," she continued. "It is an open, sacred room where the extended family can meet and interact for generations to come."

Årestua's organisation provides separation between this central living area and the more private bedroom and study spaces, which step down in level and are shielded by slatted wooden screens.

In the tallest volume is a small lookout-style mezzanine with a large window, accessed by a ladder.

"The organisation reduces the need for designated circulation space, as all rooms are connected to the central room – the 'bonfire' of the home," explained Wang.

The home's walls are made using large sections of sawn logs, positioned on a concrete base that is left exposed throughout to offer the look of what the studio calls "natural minimalism".

Large wooden cabinets, some of which also serve as room dividers, help to compartmentalise the home, while different-sized windows frame views of the landscape, including an area of corner glazing.

"Although minimalism maybe isn't what strikes you in the photos of the spaces, it is there in the simplicity of the log construction with an ancient history, in the natural surfaces and the windows just being left as cut logs," Wang told Dezeen.

Based in Oslo, Gartnerfuglen Arkitekter was founded by Wang with Olav Lunde Arneberg and Ole Larsen. Its previous projects include another cabin in Telemark topped by a sloping roof that can double as a ski ramp when covered in snow.

Another recent home with a blocky form similar to Årestua is Hallen, a white-rendered residence in southern Sweden completed by Åsa Hjort Architects.

The photography is by Ivar Kvaal.

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Spanish architecture studios SelgasCano and Diego Cano used multi-coloured tubes made from recycled aluminium to clad a house on a steep site in Los Angeles.

Set on a steep hill in Mount Washington, a suburb northeast of Los Angeles, the home for SelgasCano founders Lucía Cano and José Selgas was designed in collaboration with Diego Cano, an architect who is the nephew of Lucía Cano.

The two-storey home protrudes from the slope, set back from the street and a large retaining wall at the top of the property.

It is clad in a distinct lattice of painted tubes of recycled aluminium that give the home a colourful, distinct appearance and lend to its name, La Canaria or the Canary.

"We designed an outdoor envelopment that veils all the interior and exterior spaces, an independent device that provides shelter from the sun and frames the views," said SelgasCano.

"This covering makes a powerful impact on the house, wraps completely around it, and frames the view in the large terrace."

The covering wraps the whole home, protruding out from the face of the structure to act as a roofing and siding from the semi-enclosed deck.

The home has a relatively simple layout, with two rectangular floors set on top of each other and a two-car garage embedded into an embankment where the lot meets the street. The colourful lattice was used to clad the garage door.

An outdoor staircase wraps around the garage from the street and provides access to both of the house's levels as well as the roof-top patio at the top of the site.

Both floors have similar setups, with bedrooms and bathrooms pushed to each side and common areas in the middle of the plan.

The first floor has a small deck that is sheltered by the larger one above.

Interior elements were mostly clad in Oregon Pine on the walls with Chestnut Pine used for the flooring.

Throughout, the ceilings were created by placing wooden slats next to each other, creating a texture that mirrors the aluminium lattice on the exterior.

Playful and minimal furnishings were used throughout with the first-floor common area featuring a large boulder as a coffee table. Other natural elements were incorporated directly into the design – the second-floor balcony has been built around palm trees that extend through holes cut in its flooring.

"It has been made from tubes of recycled aluminium painted in different colours, but the intention now is for this 'wrapper' to be embraced by nature," said the studio.

"[Nature] will change the image of the house over time, with various creepers, bushes and trees, and especially 10 palm trees of three different varieties planted inside it, poking through and colonizing the Canary-yellow shading device as the real residents of it."

The studio also noted that much of the material was chosen to be inexpensive and lightweight and much of it was fabricated off-site.

SelgasCano has utilised extremely colourful schemas in its previous designs, perhaps most notably in its 2015 design for the Serpentine Pavilion in the UK. The studio works with Diego Cano on many of its Los Angeles projects, including a sprawling Second Home coworking space with yellow canopies.

The photography is by Iwan Baan.

Project credits:

Architects: SelgasCano (José Selgas, Lucía Cano), Diego Cano
Collaborators: Paolo Tringali
Builder: Juan Santiago
Woodwork: Laimar
Joinery: Talleres Cejuela

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Local firm Studio VARA has completed Fire Country Lookout, a rural retreat in northern California that is wrapped in a protective shell made of standing-seam metal and is equipped to operate off the grid.

Located near the town of Healdsburg in Sonoma County, the house sits on a hilltop dotted with oak trees.

A long, winding gravel road provides access to the dwelling, which was designed for a couple with three young children who desired a remote retreat.

The design was influenced by the husband's upbringing in Johannesburg, South Africa, where his father ran a construction company and instilled in his son a love of "being out on the bush".

"This legacy was top of mind when the couple visited the seemingly undisturbed lands of Healdsburg, which served as a reminder of the rolling hills of his childhood days," said Studio VARA, an architectural firm based in San Francisco.

The team embarked on designing a sustainable and contextually sensitive house, a process that involved hiking the 15-acre (six-hectare) site and camping out there.

"Observing solar and wind patterns and daily habits of local wildlife, the team collected data and first-hand experiences that would inform the nature of the design," said the architects.

The team conceived a 3,896-square-foot (362-square-metre) home that stretches east to west along a ridge and is composed of two volumes separated by a breezeway.

The home's "prismatic form" is kinked at the centre to maximise views.

To the north of the main dwelling is an infinity swimming pool, a pool house and a carport.

The home has a concrete base and a structural frame made of glue-laminated timber.

Standing-seam zinc panels wrap the walls and roof, forming a tough shell that helps protect the home from the bright sun and the wildfires that erupt in the area.

Within the home, one finds a clear and fluid layout, with the breezeway demarcating the public and private areas.

The western half of the home holds an open-plan kitchen, dining area and living room.

An angled, high ceiling and exposed wooden beams help create a feeling of "spaciousness and grandeur".

The eastern side encompasses four bedrooms and a primary suite, all of which are arrayed along a single-loaded corridor.

The interior layout "sets the rhythm of the fenestration". Covered terraces are lined with screens made of vertical cedar slats, which provide shade and privacy.

The home is designed to operate off the grid. A photovoltaic array generates energy, and solar panels heat water for daily use and the swimming pool. The house has its own septic system, water well, and supply of propane gas.

Other projects in Sonoma County include a house by Field Architecture that consists of three pavilions clad in copper, and a horizontally oriented residence by Klopf Architecture that takes cues from mid-century modern architecture.

The photography is by Matthew Millman.

Project credits:

Architecture, interior design, landscape: Studio VARA
Studio VARA team (architecture): Chris Roach, Maura Fernández Abernethy, Andy Drake, Nick Brown, Luis Tilano
Studio VARA team (interior design): Maura Abernethy, Zoe Hsu, Jacqueline Lytle, Yennifer Pedraza, Gail Avila
Studio VARA team (landscape): Graham Quinn
Lighting design: Tucci Lighting
Structural engineering: Strandberg Engineering
Contractor: Fairweather and Associates
Pool contractor: Blue Revolution
Civil engineer: Adobe Associates
Mechanical engineer: Monterey Energy Group
Audio visual design: Audio Visual Engineering

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Czech studio RDTH Architekti has transformed an old mill and farm in Slovakia into a family home, introducing a series of timber structures that reference its former sheds and chicken coops.

Aptly named New House with Old Mill, the home sits alongside a small stream in Trenčín on a site occupied by the former mill and several agricultural structures.

While RDTH Architekti has restored and extended the masonry mill, many of the farm buildings could not be retained and have been replaced with cross-laminated timber (CLT) structures that draw on their former appearances.

"We created a concept with certain a volumetric and material nostalgia of the given site and original building," RDTH co-founder René Dlesk told Dezeen.

"We wanted to somehow transform it with a more contemporary, formal vocabulary, yet still understandable by those that are more familiar with the old language."

Organised in a V-shape, the plan of the home creates a central garden, flanked by the old mill to the south and a new timber structure housing living spaces to the north.

The mill has been converted into an area for large gatherings, with its existing masonry structure restored and exposed. New additions, such as a CLT roof and stair, are left exposed to provide a contemporary contrast.

"In the original mill, it was about preserving the character of the original," said Dlesk.

"Therefore old construction like oak trusses, thick peripheral walls as well as fragments of the originally used technologies or the mill are still very present, just more exposed," added Dlesk.

"All new interventions as well as old imperfections are clearly visible here."

To the east, the mill abuts a long, covered parking and storage space, following the form of a demolished structure on the site.

Finished with large sliding doors in slatted wood, this structure is intended to be easily adaptable should the clients want to change its use in the future.

"One of the original buildings did not suit the new use at all, but its original shape was so important for the overall character of the place that we replaced it with a new building in exactly the same shape and volume," explained Dlesk

"It became a hollowed, empty space covered by a gable roof. It is an empty, cathedral-like space, just pure structure – a hybrid of modern wooden and steel constructions in combination with very classic carpentry," he added.

The home itself is organised across a two-storey timber volume topped by a zigzagging roof and clad in narrow wooden planks.

Sliding glass doors in the ground floor living, dining and kitchen space open onto the central courtyard, looking towards the old mill from a wood-decked terrace.

Inside, a minimal finish of white walls and pale wooden ceilings focuses attention on the views out from the home, ensuring that the courtyard and old mill "are always there as part of the interior decoration," said Dlesk.

Other projects recently completed in Slovakia include a trapezoidal concrete home overlooking a forest by Ksa Studený and a cultural centre in a former heating plant.

The photography is by Filip Beranek unless stated otherwise.

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Lviv studios Sanina Arch Club and Gubar Architects used a "combination of modern and local traditions" for Krasnyk House, a holiday cabin in the Carpathian mountains in Ukraine.

Krasnyk House's form mimics the typical architecture of the Hutsuls – an ethnic group from the mountains of western Ukraine – and blends it with contemporary materials and finishes.

"During the project, we have researched the origins of local architecture, Hutsul customs and the culture of the region," said Sanina Arch Club founder Alina Sanina.

"Our aim was to build that kind of cottage, which could fit harmoniously into the local style – that is why the cottage looks like it already was in the village a hundred years ago," she told Dezeen.

Sanina Arch Club and its sister studio Gubar Architects set Krasnyk House on a concrete plinth at the top of a steeply sloping site.

It looks south towards the village of Krasynk from a terrace elevated on slender black-steel columns and sheltered by the large angular roof.

Krasnyk House's exterior and roof have been clad with black-metal panels with standing seams, offering a contemporary take on the wooden planks that would typically wrap the area's cabins while contrasting the surrounding landscape.

Entering from the more enclosed northern side, an entrance hall leads into a large living, dining and kitchen space with a glazed corner that slides open to the terrace.

A freestanding fireplace, roughly plastered grey walls and dark wooden ceiling are intended to create the feeling of a "cosy retreat" for this living area, as well as being a nod to the timber structures of traditional mountain cabins.

A central wooden staircase separates the living space from a bedroom to the east and leads up to an attic bedroom. Here, a panoramic triangular window provides views out across the landscape.

"When you enter the house, you immediately feel comfort and peace. This is the perfect place to relax from the hustle and bustle of the noisy city," Gubar Architects founder Sergii Gubar told Dezeen.

"In the interior, we combined traditions with modern life – comfortable living conditions and luxury design are only two features which remind you about city life."

Sanina Arch Club and Gubar Architects are based in Lviv. The ongoing Russian invasion caused their operations to come to a halt in 2022, but they are now continuing to work while living "under the missile strikes and air raid sirens".

The teams completed Krasnyk House in 2020 but recently decided to publicise the project in light of the war.

"We think that this project is still very important to share," they told Dezeen. "During Russian aggression, Ukrainians have to defend not only our land but also our culture and traditions."

Other mountain cabins featured on Dezeen include a project by Heliotrope Design perched on a rocky outcrop in Washington State and a red timber-clad structure by Byró Architekti.

The photography is by Andrii Shustykevych.

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US studio CCY Architects has clad a mountainside house in patinated copper panels and tilted the roof to adhere with the topography of its site in Colorado.

Known as DNA Alpine, the 4,000-square foot (372-square metre) home was completed in 2022 and designed to "disappear into or somehow become" the 75-acre site in San Miguel County.

"Our inspiration for DNA Alpine residence stemmed from the breathtaking natural landscape," CCY Architects principal Todd Kennedy told Dezeen. "We aimed to defer to the site’s surroundings, offering ample indoor-outdoor spaces for gathering and reflection."

Settled on the edge of a meadow surrounded by spruce trees, the massing of the two-bedroom, rectangular house follows the natural grade, never rising more than 15 feet (4.5 meters) above ground level.

When the site slopes upwards, so does the roofline, tipping towards the sky and sheltering the upstairs bedroom.

The house – and separated sauna and garage – are clad in copper panels in four metal profiles "arranged in a non-repetitive pattern derived from the DNA sequence of the site's surrounding Engelmann Spruce trees," Jenny Trumble, an associate at CCY Architects, said.

Informed by the landscape of the site and contemporary artists Jeppe Hein and Zander Olsen, the team titled the angle of each copper profile to create semi-reflections of the surroundings.

"The siding’s shifting pattern creates an interactive experience on the site – a dynamic camouflage in changing daylight, which will continue to patina with each passing season," Trumble explained.

"This DNA sequence, ever-present and unseen, underscores the subtleties of the landscape and the beauty of deferring to it."

The 30 per cent recycled copper facade was selected for its low maintenance, fire resistance, and ability to hold up to the high altitude and extreme weather of the alpine site.

The material patinas to a dark grey colour over time, but sometimes takes on a purple hue, highlighting the colours of the surrounding Rocky Mountains.

Entering on the centre of the northwest facade, the residents pass through a full-height door – which hinges up into the sloped roof to frame the entrance or can be secured against heavy snowfall.

To contrast the cool tones of the exterior, the team selected warm oak panelling for the interior walls and durable concrete floors that provide a thermal mass for the residence, in addition to embedded radiant heating.

The public areas sit in the center of the floor plan with the dining and living spaces wrapped in floor-to-ceiling windows that look out to a wrapping porch and the mountains beyond.

The deep overhang provides optimal solar exposure, minimising heat gain in the summer and providing an indoor-outdoor living space.

"To the north and east, vertical ribbon windows frame views to the surroundings and mimic the sightlines in a forest," the team said.

Working within a tight buildable area that preserved existing trees, the house was designed with multiple flexible spaces.

The office can double as a sleeping space and an interior staircase climbs the grade change to a sleeping loft tucked under the slanted roof.

In addition to permeable paving and onsite stormwater management, the team selected all native landscaping that would only require irrigation during its early growth, reducing water usage.

"Two water tanks are buried underneath the auto court and are fed by seasonal surface flow that the owners have rights to," Trumble said. "This water is filtered and used domestically, and the tanks serve as a reserve in the event of a fire."

Other Colorado residences recently completed by CCY Architects include a house built below grade and clad in black wooden siding; and an extension to a Victorian house with a music-inspired façade, both in Aspen.

The photography is by Jeremy Bittermann.

Project credits:

Architect: CCY Architects | Todd Kennedy, Jenny Trumble, John Cottle
Contractor: Dave Gerber Construction
Mechanical engineer: Resource Engineering Group
Structural engineer: Resource Engineering Group
Civil engineer: Dave Ballode
Lighting consultant: Dru Wallon, LD8
Landscape: Kristin Undhjem
Interiors: Arnelle Kase

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A sedum roof designed to "change colours with the seasons" tops Heatherhill Beach House, a wooden holiday home burrowed among the hills on the Danish coast by local studio Norm Architects.

The 232-square-metre house will be used by its owners as "a getaway from everyday life in Copenhagen," according to Norm Architects.

Heatherhill Beach House comprises two volumes and is designed to reference traditional Danish barns but with a twist.

"We started from the traditional barn typology," architect Sophie Bak told Dezeen. "This traditional structure we then 'pulled' apart and moved around to create a space in-between serving as a nod to the traditional courtyard."

The gabled Heatherhill Beach House has a linear silhouette, with a covered walkway flanked by wooden pillars leading up to its entrance. The pillared design is repeated inside, adding a classical touch.

Entirely clad in cedar, the home – which contains four bedrooms and two bathrooms – was designed to eventually blend in with its coastal surroundings.

"The colour and qualities of the cedar wood complement the raw nature in which the house is located," Bak said.

"Moreover, it's going to take on a silvery colour as it patinates – that is not only beautiful but also corresponding to the colours of the nearby ocean," she added.

"Together with the sedum roof, the house will change its colours as the seasons pass, being one with its surroundings."

The house's green sedum roof adds to its natural feel and matches the heather-covered hills leading down to a nearby beach. The decision to add sedum was made by the house's owner, who had a personal attachment to this type of design.

"Regarding maintenance, the sedum roof has great advantages," Bak said.

"Being located this close to the salty sea, some materials were ruled out from the beginning. Moreover, the owner grew up in a home with sedum roof and wanted to recreate this sense of home – in this way, it's a nod to a personal history as well as ancient building traditions – with a twist."

Similar to how the cedar wood will weather, the sedum roof will also adapt to the seasons.

"The roof will change colours with the seasons, allowing the house to blend in and be one with its surroundings, while allowing the structure to have an almost dynamic expression – just like nature," Bak said.

Heatherhill Beach House is also designed to optimise views of the nearby ocean, with its central line leading towards the beach.

"As you enter the site by a smaller shed, you can already catch a glimpse of the ocean, and as you approach the home, walking on a covered pathway, you only get closer," Bak explained. "This way, the architecture makes the most of the beautiful surroundings."

"You could say that the house is made up of two sections divided by an outdoor courtyard," she added.

"The living room and kitchen are both facing the ocean, but are separated by a few steps as the spaces are placed on different levels, dictated by the sloping site."

Like the exterior, the interior has a heavy focus on wood. Wooden panelling is featured throughout and 15-metre-long Douglas fir planks cover the floors.

"[It] was quite the challenge to install, but it was worth it as the planks now stretch the entire room, resulting in a seamless and minimal appearance," Bak said.

To give the communal spaces in the home a different feel, the studio used brick for the flooring, but aimed for it to look contemporary rather than traditional.

"The choice of traditional brick flooring was another way of twisting tradition," Bak said. "Just like the use of wood in the home, we've opted for integrating traditional materials in a contemporary way."

"The bricks are placed side by side instead of in the traditional pattern and have minimal cuts – instead, the grout size changes minimally to achieve a homogenous and harmonious look," she added.

Bricks also clad the floor in the bathroom, which features a built-in bath with a striking view and chalky walls in a tranquil natural hue.

"Creating the bathrooms we found great inspiration from Japanese traditions as the spaces are rather small and should still feel comfortable and spacious," Bak said.

Other recent projects by Norm Architects include a retreat in Sweden that was informed by Japanese temples and an interior for The Office Group in London that features natural forms and steel details.

The photography is by Jonas Bjerre-Poulsen.

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Architecture practice Studio Guma has overhauled an old farmhouse in Normandy, retaining its stone and timber structure to "evoke the rural history" of the site.

Located in the village of Hécourt, the farmhouse and two outbuildings have been adapted to create a "family sanctuary" suitable for gatherings.

"The main ambition of the landowner was to create a place that could be shared by his relatives, or people who wanted to take a break from the city," explained Studio Guma.

"[It is] a place that could become a family sanctuary where individuals could reconnect with nature. A space for gathering with loved ones, preserving an ambience of calm and privacy. An architectural experience that could merge modernity within a rural canvas," it continued.

Studio Guma has preserved the farmhouse's existing structure and complemented it with subtle contrasts in concrete and steel.

The original divisions between the buildings have also been retained and used to help organise the home's reinvigorated spaces.

At the northern end of the site, the kitchen has been introduced into the former cart shed, taking advantage of the space's high ceilings. It opens out onto a paved patio through large sliding glass doors.

A new concrete floor is stepped at one edge to create bench-like seating, while a kitchen counter and island have been cast in pale pink concrete in a nod to the rough stonework of the existing walls.

"The kitchen-dining area, located in the former cart shed, serves as the central living space where various flows intersect, offering views of both interior and exterior spaces," explained Studio Guma.

"In summer, this area merges with the outdoors, becoming a crossroads of external and internal activity. In winter, the space is heated by the morning sun and provides a comfortable nest open to the surrounding nature."

The former stable now contains the living room, which features a fireplace on the ground floor. A mezzanine reading area above has been created by removing a section of an existing first floor.

"The [stable] typology, less open to the exterior, gave us the possibility to provide a more intimate experience," described the studio.

Where new openings have been introduced, they are framed by concrete sills, pale steel lintels and aluminium frames that complement the existing stonework, while pared-back interior finishes allow the exposed timber structure to come to the fore.

"We chose concrete, steel, and lacquered aluminium as the main materials of our intervention," explained Studio Guma. "Their textures subtly contrast with the mineral essence of the original structure, while their tones seek to harmonise with the existing colour palette."

At the opposite end of the building, a games room occupies a portion of the farmhouse that is yet to be refurbished, with plans to develop it in the future.

Other farmhouse renovations recently featured on Dezeen include a contemporary extension in Portugal by Atelier Data and the conversion of a 500-year-old building in Mallorca into a hotel by interior designer Pilar García-Nieto.

The photography is by Maxime Delvaux.

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Mexican architecture practice FMT Estudio has renovated and extended a 1980s house adding clean white facades accented by wooden and wrought iron details in Mérida on the Yucatán peninsula.

Completed in April 2023, La Posmoderna measures 350 square metres (3,767 square feet) on a square, walled 630-square metre (6,781-square foot) property.

The private, internally focused home features a warm, neutral palette, protected from the street by a dark green metal fence.

The single-family residence was transformed to simplify the complex, outdated floor plan and incorporate tropical elements.

"La Posmoderna is an expression of adaptation to the environment, offering a visual and sensory engaging experience," the FMT Estudio team told Dezeen. "Its focus on family interaction transforms it into a home where architecture and life merge."

The layout was reorganized to prioritize spaciousness, illumination and ventilation.

On the ground floor, the original kitchen was expanded into the central core of the house.

Pale green wrought iron French doors and framed windows provide a connection to the terrace and pool, bringing more natural light and airflow into the heart of the home.

The former foyer is now a pantry and wine cellar.

The living and dining rooms open to contained outdoor gardens, creating a harmonious transition between interior and exterior. The double-height dining space features wooden louvres with mosquito screens for ventilation and tropical breezes.

The program of the open-plan interior is divided by double concrete columns with rounded corners.

The team modified the central staircase with an open metal-strut railing that embeds in the side of the concrete stringer, adding visual space downstairs and an open landing with a linen closet upstairs. The bedrooms were reconfigured to include ensuite bathrooms and closets.

Outside the ground-floor dining room, an exterior staircase connects to the newly constructed addition, with a sloping roof that mirrors the architectural language of the house and contains two studio spaces.

A third studio is located at the rear of the property in the former service space overlooking the pool.

"Respecting the residence's original character, certain architectural elements, such as some ironwork windows and doors, entrance columns, and concrete cubes on the terrace were preserved, uniting the old with the new," the team said.

In terms of sustainability, FMT Estudio prioritised minimal interventions – maintaining the original finish and repainting most walls – and eco-friendly materials like clay bricks for the exterior walls and clay tiles for the kitchen.

"The material choices throughout the residence create a harmonious blend of practicality and environmental consciousness," the team said, noting the marble in the bathrooms, quartz in the kitchen and polished concrete walls.

In the multiple gardens, the team planted native trees to enrich the environment, add shade and increase privacy. The green plantings complement the natural wood doors and green metal.

Previously, FMT Estudio, which is based in Mérida, designed two concrete homes connected by a courtyard with a swimming pool. Nearby, Workshop Architects renovated and expanded a Spanish colonial house, painted lilac with mosaic floors.

The photography is by Amy Bello.

Project credits:

Studio: FMT Estudio
Lead architect: Zaida Briceño & Orlando Franco
Design team: Gerardo Vázquez

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Danish studio Norm Architects has created a retreat for gastro-tourists on an old farm in Sweden, positioning seven wooden villas around a lake and using glass corridors to amplify "connections with the surroundings".

Sjöparken is designed to accommodate the rise in gastro-tourists visiting the area, following the transformation of the farm into one of Sweden's largest producers of sparkling wine with a Michelin-starred restaurant.

Positioned around a lake, Norm Architects' design is intended to resemble a "floating" village that takes cues from Nordic and traditional Japanese architecture.

The villas are accessed by glass corridors that aim to maximise the relationship with water, drawing specifically on "Japanese temples and gardens where the approach to the shrine is staged", the studio said.

"The glass corridors on water are just that – a very special feeling of walking on water, changing the experience of arriving at your room," Norm Architects told Dezeen.

"Transportation spaces in architecture is often a very overlooked element," it continued. "It is often reduced to a purely functional element, that is not getting the same attention as the main spaces. But often the approach, the access or the transition can be an equally exciting spatial and phenomenological experience."

Serving as covered walkways between the hotel rooms, the corridors link the scheme together and provide uninterrupted views of the lake.

The lake is artificial, filled around blocks of concrete on top of which the individual buildings are elevated to create the illusion that the villas are floating.

Each villa hosts a private pool hidden below the lake's surface, accessed from wooden decking that leads into the main bedroom and lounge area.

The suites also contain stone ensuites and, at the water's edge, a wooden sauna with the stove lowered into the floor.

Balancing the need for privacy with the desire to maximise light and the relationship with the surrounding nature, wooden shutters and lattices are used throughout the guest rooms, filtering daylight and reflections from the water.

"The spaces are constantly changing due to the reflections and filtering of light," said Norm Architects.

"The reflection of the movement of water on ceilings and walls and the striped light moving through the lattice screens makes the spaces very visual stimulation and super calming at the same time."

In the glass corridors, wooden pillars are also designed with privacy in mind, with the studio manipulating their depth to prevent guests from being able to see into neighbouring rooms whilst moving through the space.

Inside, the hotel rooms are designed with warm materials and finishes, including oak cladding, soft furnishings and ceramic pieces.

"The material palette is crafted to interact harmoniously with the ever-changing Swedish nature just beyond the windows," said Norm Architects' interior designer Hedda Klar.

"Rather than competing with the external landscape, it serves as a balanced foundation, offering warmth and coolness, softness and hardness, tactility and smoothness."

Sjöparken is complete with greenery and green roofs, which are designed to visually soften the development and help it blend in over time.

While visiting the vineyards and villas, visitors to the site can enjoy the Michelin-starred restaurant also designed by Norm Architects.

Norm Architects was founded in 2008 by Kasper Rønn Von Lotzbeck and Jonas Bjerre-Poulsen.

Sjöparken is not the first time the studio has referenced Japanese design, with its previous projects including the Trunk Hotel in the heart of Tokyo, which features rattan partition walls and accents.

The photography is by Jonas Bjerre-Poulsen.

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Large rocks from the surrounding area are suspended in a gabion wall around The Infinite Rise, a holiday home in southern India by local architecture practice Earthscape Studio.

The Infinite Rise is located near the village of Anaikatti on an elevated, rocky site that provides expansive views across the surrounding mountain ranges.

Looking to disrupt the site as little as possible, Earthscape Studio dug into the land to create a partially sunken, semicircular home, wrapped by a gabion wall to help it blend in.

"When we first visited the site, there was already a man-made contour in the site," senior architect Shivani Saran S K told Dezeen.

"Since we did not want to disturb the natural landform, we utilised the space and made it camouflage with the existing landscape," he continued.

The Infinite Rise is organised radially around a stepped, sunken pool at its centre, left exposed to the elements through a large opening in the roof that also provides ventilation.

Each room faces northwards across the landscape through full-height windows, which are shaded from the sun and heavy winds by the external gabion wall.

Between these two external layers, a thin strip contains planting and a shallow pool of water to provide further shading and protection.

"The site has a deep valley on the opposite side, causing heavy wind flow which would make the glass wobble," explained Saran.

"To avoid this and not to disturb the beautiful view of the mountain ranges, we proposed the gabion wall where stones are suspended," he added.

While gabion cages are usually packed with stones to provide stability, here they are organised in a more open pattern that varies in density depending on the light level and privacy required in the rooms behind them.

Along the more enclosed back of the home to the south is a retaining wall, which is also built using stones sourced from the site and left exposed.

"We sourced two to three types of rocks in each layer of the contour where the stronger ones were used for the stone retaining wall and others were used for the gabion wall," Saran told Dezeen.

Internally, the home's inner concrete walls have been left exposed and the floors are finished with green oxide paint, with furniture crafted from scrap wood.

Sliding glass doors open the living spaces out onto a north-facing concrete terrace, where an infinity pool is intended as as "a connecting bridge between the human and nature".

Previous projects by Earthscape Studio include a home in Kerala built from locally produced bricks and recycled materials.

Other recently completed holiday homes include a concrete pig shed transformed into a rural retreat on the outskirts of London and a holiday home stacked with wooden screens on a site outside of São Paulo.

The photography is by Studio IKSHA.

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US studio Boyd Architects has wrapped a house in standing seam metal and pine boards and articulated each form with a vernacular hip roof in Summerville, South Carolina.

Based in Charleston, Boyd Architects completed the 3,611-square foot (335-square metre) Summerville House in 2023, as a "process of form-making".

"This inspiration for the project was the hipped roofs of the Lowcountry, which are both familiar and abundant in this area," the studio told Dezeen.

"The silhouette created by the asymmetrical roofs in this project animate the otherwise unremarkable street."

Located in the town's historic district, the sculptural design stands out in its neighbourhood, while still being a "good neighbour" with a modest scale and restrained material palette.

Centred internally on a rectangular pool with an integrated hot tub, the massing of the house is composed of three single-storey buildings that are viewed as four volumes.

The main L-shaped house measures 2,400 square feet (223 square metres) and is split into two roof forms. Balancing the opposite edge of the property are a 900-square foot (84-square metre) garage and lounge and a 350-square foot (33-square metre) square pool house.

"The scale of both the volumes and the space between them create an appropriate level of intimacy within this courtyard that allows it to feel like an extension of the interior spaces," the team said, noting that the majority of the interior spaces look out to the courtyard.

On the main house, one roof form runs parallel to the street, rising over the public zones of the living, kitchen and dining areas with high vaulted ceilings. A linear entry porch is also tucked under this form.

Turning perpendicular to the street, the private areas are aligned along a glazed corridor with the primary suite in the front of the house and media and lounge spaces filling in the voids.

A large central covered porch holds the centre of the plan, expanding the living area through a "zero-threshold 3-panel sliding glass door that effectively eliminates the boundary between interior and exterior space."

"The interior palette is intentionally simple and rather conventional," the team said. "This was both a function of cost and a desire to let the shape of the vaulted ceilings be the main attraction."

Contrasting the white interior, the exterior is clad in dark-coloured standing seam metal panels, selected for their low maintenance and ability to be used as both walls and roofs. The roofs have no overhang.

Meanwhile, the porch walls and soffits are wrapped with warm-toned stained pine siding that "plugs in" to highlight where the residents interact with the building. The wood species was selected to nod to Summerville's moniker – "Flower Town in the Pines."

Large glazing is reserved for the internal courtyard facades, keeping the street-facing elevations opaque and private.

"This dynamic establishes the dual personalities of the residence: The interior character is one of transparency and daylight, while the exterior persona is defined by the sculptural silhouettes of the volumes."

Other projects recently completed in South Carolina include the lifted International African American Museum in Charleston by Pei Cobb Freed & Partners and Moody Nolan and the Greenville County Administration building with a winged roof and skybridge in Greenville by Foster + Partners.

The photography is by Reagen Taylor Photography.

Project credits:

Architect: Boyd Architects
Landscape architect: Remark Studio
Structural engineer: K.M. Powell Engineering
General contractor: C.B. Elrod Co

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The latest edition of our Dezeen Debate newsletter features House in the Fields, a rural home in the Belgian countryside. Subscribe to Dezeen Debate now.

Geneva-based architect Stef Claes looked to mid-century and local architecture to create the low-lying home in Belgium. The residence, named House in the Fields, features white-painted walls and black accents.

Readers discussed the project, with one commending the architects for achieving "such a clean result" and another agreeing, claiming that they "could quite happily live there".

Other stories in this week's newsletter that fired up the comments section included the findings of a report by the Royal Insitute of British Architects which found that close to half of UK architects are now using AI for their projects, the announcement that Foster + Partners is designing a two-kilometre-high skyscraper in Saudi Arabia and an opinion piece by Catherine Slessor about architects working into their older years.

Dezeen Debate

Dezeen Debate is sent every Thursday and features a selection of the best reader comments and most talked-about stories. Read the latest edition of Dezeen Debate or subscribe here.

You can also subscribe to our other newsletters; Dezeen Agenda is sent every Tuesday containing a selection of the most important news highlights from the week, Dezeen Daily is our daily bulletin that contains every story published in the preceding 24 hours and Dezeen In Depth is sent on the last Friday of every month and delves deeper into the major stories shaping architecture and design.

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Japanese studio Akio Isshiki Architects has updated a house in Osaka by adding a multi-level void designed to maximise light and encourage play.

Named House in Hattori-Tenjin, the 30-year-old dwelling is located on a dense residential street in the port city and previously had a dark, "standardised" interior.

Working within a tight budget, Akio Isshiki Architects brightened and enlivened the home by preserving the majority of the existing building and introducing a void within its front portion.

"The existing house had a two-dimensional impression, with a standardised facade and floor plan," studio founder Akio Isshiki told Dezeen.

"By inserting a blank space, we thought of transforming the space into an unrestricted residential space that goes beyond a two-dimensional drawing," Isshiki explained.

"The inspiration came from watching the client's children play with toy houses. I felt that the way children perceive space may be free and unrestricted by floor plans or facades," he continued.

Akio Isshiki Architects has stretched the void between all the floors of the house, with the home's red steel structure left exposed within it.

It provides the family with a multi-purpose circulation space that allows light and ventilation deep into the plan.

The studio hopes that the addition of the versatile triple-height space will encourage the residents' children to engage in creative play.

"The way children perceive space may be slightly different from how we adults perceive it," said Isshiki. "I hope that this reborn house will create a free space for the family that cannot be envisioned in two-dimensional blueprints," he continued.

House in Hattori-Tenjin's exterior and outdoor space remain the same, excluding the addition of a sloping translucent canopy that shelters a bike storage area in the front garden.

This canopy, which is designed to mimic the translucent walls that border the void, sits to the side of the front door, which opens onto a dipped entrance hall with a concrete floor.

At the bottom of the triple-height space, a casual seating area decorated with plants and wall-mounted bicycles offers views up to the exposed red steel frame.

Beyond it, a curving timber step leads to an open kitchen, living and dining space. Sliding doors with translucent screens and timber frames can be pulled across to separate them from the void.

Throughout the ground floor living spaces, timber floors are paired with neutral walls and warm-coloured finishes.

On the upper levels, balcony-like rooms overlook the void, including a home office on the first floor and a sunroom on the top level.

Set at the first-floor level, a steel staircase with a pale orange finish spans the void, connecting the two upper levels of the home.

Netting lines some edges of the void, while other spaces are connected to it by openings and glazing. Across the existing spaces, a series of blue steel columns have been kept exposed.

Other Japanese homes recently featured on Dezeen include a home clad in corrugated metal and framed by slender timber columns and a traditional timber home restored to celebrate the "passage of time".

The photography is by Yosuke Ohtake.

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Dublin studio Kingston Lafferty Design has transformed the architecture and interiors of this family home in Cork, Ireland, which features 1970s-style shapes and colours informed by the work of designer Verner Panton.

Positioned on Lovers Walk hill overlooking the city of Cork, the townhouse – called Lovers Walk – was renovated by Kingston Lafferty Design.

The studio originally planned to just update the interiors, but decided that a more extensive architectural transformation was needed after discovering structural instabilities in the home.

Kingston Lafferty Design removed all of the floors, which lacked foundations and insulation in their concrete slab, and completely reconfigured the two-storey property's layout.

"As the building was originally built in the 1970s, we wanted to return to its roots," studio founder Róisín Lafferty told Dezeen.

"We thrived on inspiration from Verner Panton with his use of strong clashing colour, playful shapes and oversized elements," she added.

The ground floor was adapted to include an open-plan kitchen defined by a counter, island and splashback finished in veiny red quartzite.

Ruby-toned timber was used to create the geometric cabinets. When layered with the quartzite, "it sounds like a disaster, but it's a delight," said the designer.

The space, described by the studio as a "sensual red-toned jewel kitchen", is one of several rooms on the ground floor of Lovers Walk that were designed around the central, oak-lined hallway.

"We used the hallway as the core of the house, which grounded the space with pops of colour stemming from it. Each room leading from the core appears like a framed view or window of colour," explained Lafferty.

The living room includes blue velvet sofas and a green feature wall clad in swirly book-matched marble, which was fitted with an alcove reserved for a subtle fireplace.

When creating the polished stone wall, the studio took cues from the seminal Barcelona Pavilion, completed in 1929 by modernist architect Mies van der Rohe.

"We used green as an overall thread throughout the house, inspired by the surrounding landscape," added Lafferty.

"Although depending on the time of year, the colours tend to change and so we were able to add in other rich colours that anchor the green such as burgundies and bright oranges," she added.

"One would assume this mix of colours would clash, but we choose the tones and textures of each to ensure that all of them would blend harmoniously," Lafferty said.

Upstairs, the main bedroom and en-suite bathroom were dressed in the same eclectic interiors as the communal spaces. A floor-to-ceiling headboard, finished in diamond-shaped green tiles originally designed by 20th-century architect Gio Ponti, frames the bed.

Balloon-like coloured glass vases were positioned on two bedside tables, which were topped with the same slabs of Rosso Levanto marble as the geometric vanity desk.

The bedroom designed for the occupants' child features an alternative bed – a playful green structure with two stacked levels and half-moon openings that reveal a cosy sleeping area on the bottom level.

Other accents featured throughout the home include burl wood, terrazzo, plaster and brass. The repetition of 1970s-style thick pile carpets emphasises the dwelling's textured material palette.

Lovers Walk is the studio's "closest nod" to the work of Panton, explained Lafferty – "down to the selection of every tile, light fitting and exquisite piece of designer furniture".

"Although there is such an array of materiality, it is balanced by repeated colour, shape and form," she said.

"Every space in this house is an assault on the senses, in the best way possible."

Founded in 2010, Kingston Lafferty Design has completed projects ranging from a Dublin restaurant with oversized lollipop-like lamps and a co-working office in Belfast that includes a yoga studio.

The photography is by Ruth Maria Murphy. 

Project credits:

Interior architecture and design: Kingston Lafferty Design
Woodwork: DFL
Stonework: Miller Brothers

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Architecture studio Hutch Design has created The Maker's Barn, a holiday home on the outskirts of London that is finished with a palette of "natural and honest" materials.

Set among wild grassland bordered by a forest, the 65-square-metre holiday rental was originally a concrete pig shed and has been transformed with materials that are hoped to weather and blend in with the surrounding landscape over time.

This includes thick plaster walls, timber columns and a larch-plank roof that Hutch Design modelled on the area's local architecture.

The project's name, The Maker's Barn, references this use of "natural and honest" materials as well as the bespoke fittings inside, including handmade furniture, ceramics, kitchenware and light shades.

"Rather than simply replicating the surrounding buildings we designed it as a contemporary reinterpretation of the local vernacular," studio founder Craig Hutchinson told Dezeen.

"This interpretation pays homage to the local architectural style – drawing inspiration from thatched Tudor cottages in the surrounding area and locality that had visually heavy roofs, pronounced chimneys and wattle and daub walls in between a distinct timber structure," he continued.

Organised across one storey, The Maker's Barn is a single open space, with a bedroom and study to the southeast separated from a living, dining and kitchen area to the northwest by a central concrete fireplace and chimney.

Along the southern edge of the home, service areas are enclosed by rough plaster walls, while the north side is lined with full-height glazing and sliding doors. Framed by thick timber columns, these open the home onto the landscape.

"We designed a single interconnected space so that from every position and point in the building there is a framed view of the stunning hills and landscape – framed by the bespoke timber sliding doors and timber columns," said Hutchinson.

In the bedroom, a skylit shower area sits alongside a sunken bath, which looks out across the landscape and back into the living room through a low gap beneath a dividing bookshelf.

"With openings at either side and at low and high level, the angled concrete chimney frames glimpses between the living and bedroom areas," explained Hutchinson.

"We maximised every possible space, even putting the windows and doors on the outer edge of the walls, giving larger internal cills, shelving areas and more space internally."

For the kitchen, the parquet wooden floor of the living area is seamlessly swapped for tiles, with the back wall lined in glossy tiles illuminated by a large skylight.

Hutchinson founded Hutch Design in 2017. Its previous projects include the extension and renovation of a mews house in Hackney, maximising a small space with folding walls and hidden storage.

Other rural holiday homes on Dezeen include the stilted Buitenverblijf Nest retreat in the Netherlands and the I/O Cabin summer house in Norway.

The photography is by Helen Cathcart.

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A renovated 1970s bungalow with "kitsch character" and a greenhouse that doubles as a living room feature in Casamontesa – a weekend home designed by Spanish studio Lucas y Hernández Gil.

The project began when a couple asked the studio to overhaul a single-storey house that was once part of a hotel complex on the outskirts of Madrid.

The brief later expanded to include a multifunctional greenhouse that can be used as a workspace, a guest bedroom, a gym or simply as a garden room.

Lucas y Hernández Gil, led by architects Cristina Domínguez Lucas and Fernando Hernández-Gil Ruano, developed a distinct character for each building.

Casamontesa's renovated bungalow has a warm, playful style that draws on the 1970s aesthetic while the garden pavilion has a more utilitarian feel.

"The owners, a young urban couple who love design and live and work in the centre of Madrid, were looking for a functional and compact getaway within a fantastic garden," Lucas told Dezeen.

"They wanted a very comfortable and flexible home that would be useful for both working and getting together with friends."

The bungalow renovation involved simplifying the interior layout to create a combined kitchen, dining room and living room, with a bedroom and bathroom off to one side.

"The house, in addition to being small, was very compartmentalised," explained Lucas.

To unify the newly open-plan living space, the designers installed an island that serves as a worktop, dining table and social gathering place.

This island features a countertop made from Portuguese pink marble while its sides are covered in the same handmade burgundy tiles that line an adjacent window recess.

"The rest of the surfaces – Campaspero stone floors and waxed tinted plaster walls – establish a dialogue by contrast with the colourful and shiny surface of the tiles," added Lucas.

Key details in the living room include an arched fireplace and a tadelakt plaster coffee table, while the bedroom features semi-circular marble nightstands.

For Casamontesa's garden room, the design team customised a prefabricated greenhouse.

A pergola extends the building volume outwards in a bid to blur the boundary between inside and out, and is topped with wooden blinds to provide shade.

A wooden box on wheels provides an additional bedroom, described as a "small Shigeru Ban-style mobile room".

Other additions include thermal curtains and an automatic shading and ventilation system, which allow for versatile use of the space throughout the year.

"By complementing the programme of the original bungalow, a more complete and flexible program is achieved, overcoming the limitations of a weekend house," added Lucas.

Other recent projects by Lucas y Hernández Gil include a bar featuring extreme colour blocking and an apartment with a hidden closet.

The photography is by José Hevia.

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Prague studio Byró Architekti has renovated a 19th-century house in the Czech town of Kutná Hora, adding unexpected openings and colourful joinery that create a playful contrast with the original interior.

The studio was tasked with restoring the character of the existing house, which had been compromised by a previous programme of renovations in the 1970s.

The project improves the connection between the home's internal spaces by introducing new windows and openings while aiming to seamlessly layer new elements on top of the original built fabric.

"Our main goal was to rediscover the house's memory and original layers, which were actually quite rare, and seamlessly blend them with new layers to create a cohesive whole," Byró Architekti explained.

"We aimed to blur the boundary between the old and the new rather than highlighting it," the studio added.

The house's main feature is a spiral staircase that forms a vertical circulation core at the centre of the plan. Internal windows and glass-block walls were added on each level to provide a visual connection to the living spaces.

An original stone staircase links the ground floor and first floor, while a new stair leading to the attic has floating steel treads that allow light from a skylight to reach the lower level.

A spacious entrance hall on the ground floor connects with a music room and a bathroom on one side of the staircase, while utility areas and an artist's studio face onto a courtyard at the rear.

The main living space containing the kitchen is housed on the first floor along with the principal bedroom and a home office. The attic contains two bedrooms for the children as well as a bathroom.

Light and colour are used throughout the project to create spaces with different atmospheres. While the building's exterior is decorated modestly to fit into the streetscape, a more expressive colour palette is applied internally.

"Overall, muted shades are chosen combined with more pronounced colour surfaces or accents in several specific situations," Byró Architekti said.

The entrance hall features chequerboard floor tiles in a pastel-green hue that matches the painted joinery of the surrounding doors and windows. The balustrade and the treads of the new staircase are also finished in the same colour.

Byró Architekti designed various pieces of custom furniture for the project, including a plywood shelving unit with a bright-red metal structure that extends along one wall of the ground-floor studio space.

The playroom also features plywood cabinetry and wall panelling, inset with an internal clerestory window that lets light into the adjoining bathroom.

The main living area features a vaulted ceiling lined with plywood. A concrete bench is positioned along one wall to support a tile-clad fireplace while a window behind looks onto the stairwell.

The kitchen has cabinets and internal doors painted in a pale blue colour. A porthole window in this space also offers a glimpse of the spiral stair.

The courtyard and garden at the rear of the building were also renovated as part of the project. This outdoor space can be accessed from the lower floor or via a new terrace outside the main living area.

Byró Architekti was founded by Tomáš Hanus and Jan Holub, who studied at the Czech Technical University in Prague and worked in various practices before setting up their studio.

Previously, the duo completed a cabin with a sweeping roof and red timber cladding in the Šumava mountains.

Other renovations in the Czech Republic that have recently been featured on Dezeen include a 500-year-old home filled with contemporary furniture and a 1920s villa in Prague that was revamped by No Architects.

The photography is by Alex Shoots Buildings.

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US studio Tall Architects has created a cabin that has two stacked gabled forms that are rotated into an X-shape and clad in corrugated metal near a river in southern Alabama.

Known as Fowl River Cabin, the 2,100-square foot (195-square metre) residence was completed in 2023 in Theodore, Alabama – a small community along the coast of the Gulf of Mexico.

"When looking at the site and analysing the client's goals for the project, we knew that the siting of the building and the way it interacted with the river and trees was going to be just as crucial as the design itself," the Tall Architects team told Dezeen.

The studio – run by partners Madison and Mark Talley in Ocean Springs, Mississippi – carefully analysed the site to accommodate existing trees, views of the river, access to the water and nearby buildings and to create a residence that respects the site and its natural features.

The house is elevated four feet above the ground – as mandated by local codes and flood elevation regulations – on six-inch round steel columns.

Atop the supports sit two gabled forms clad in black corrugated metal, which was selected to help the building "disappear within the landscape while providing a connection to nature at every turn."

The exterior cladding was selected for its cost efficiency, ease of installation, and ability to withstand hurricane-force winds and rain, which are common in the area.

Made from recycled material, the cladding can also be unscrewed for repair or reuse.

"To clad a building in a single material, the form needed to be strong enough so that the end product didn't read as one-note," the team noted.

"We believe that by creating unique angles and shadows, the building feels dynamic from every angle."

"The building, while not large, offers complex spaces both inside and out that allow the owners to flow from interior to exterior seamlessly throughout the day," the studio said.

The lower bar holds the public areas of the house with an open-plan living, dining, and kitchen taking up most of the area. A suite comprises the northwest end of the bar.

A central core and staircase sit within the crossing of the X. Meanwhile, the off-centred upper storey contains two suites and a porch.

The upstairs cantilever creates an enclosed porch on the north side of the house that connects to an angular deck that wraps around existing trees.

On the interior, the material selection was driven by the owner Jill Dupre, who selected a palette that was light, bright and airy with natural wood flooring, white paint and metallic details to contrast the moody exterior.

In terms of thermal cooling, the arrangement of the spaces and windows allows for natural cross-ventilation, and the elevated foundation allows cool air to flow underneath the building, as well as around it.

Additionally, solar panels are mounted on a portion of the southern-facing roof on the first floor and the western-facing roof of the second floor.

Other black-clad cabins completed recently include a gabled woodland cabin in the Basque Country by BABELstudio and a linear cabin for three families in Oklahoma by Far + Dang.

The photography is by Andrew Welch.

Project credits:

Architecture: Tall Architects
Interiors: Jill Dupre
Structural engineer: Simpkins & Costelli, Inc.
Contractor: C. Roberds General Contractors

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