Tropical modernism informed the plaster finishes of this extension in Hackney, London, which has been completed by local architecture studio Sonn.

Aptly named The Plaster House, Sonn was tasked with adding an additional bedroom to the Victorian terraced building, as well as improving its connection to a rear garden.

Looking to create a uniform, "carved-out" feeling for the space, the studio used a variety of plaster finishes in a range of pale colours both internally and externally.

"A focus on light, height and connection to the garden was key, but we also wanted the space to feel like it had been 'carved-out' of stone," Sonn founder Tim Robinson told Dezeen.

The studio created a single-storey extension containing a living, dining and kitchen space at the back of the home, which establishes a new sightline directly from the entrance to the garden.

An existing bathroom and storage area was moved to the centre of the building to allow the side return to be infilled, making space for a second bedroom.

Inside the rear extension, which the studio described as having a "monolithic and sculptural form," the floor has been lowered slightly to create a conversation pit level with the garden.

Above the kitchen, the angled plastered ceilings frame a large skylight.

"A sunken conversation pit lets the occupants sit level with the garden while increasing the feeling of height," Robinson told Dezeen. "It is an unexpected secluded oasis in an urban area."

"A clear connection to the garden is enhanced with the framing of an existing apple tree which is now visible the moment you enter from the street," he added.

A folding glass window and a rotating door open out onto a gravel patio in the garden, with the exterior of the rear extension is finished with sculptural, plaster-clad pillars and a gently curving edge to the roof.

While a palette of pale grey and cream defines the living areas, in the bedroom a pale green plaster has been used to contrast its pink and brown furnishings.

The plasterwork is complemented by wooden panelling and various stone finishes, including Rosa Tea marble in the bathrooms and terrazzo worktops in the kitchen.

"We took inspiration from 1970's tropical modernism through a mix of natural stone textures along with colourways of brown, green and beige," Robinson told Dezeen.

Previous projects by Sonn include an extension that founder Tim Robinson designed for his own garden in Hackney, with walls clad in green terrazzo to blend in with the surrounding tropical planting.

The photography is courtesy of Sonn.

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Architecture studio Celoria Architects has completed House C, a concrete home in Mendrisio, Switzerland, informed by the region's grotti– cellar-like communal spaces where local cuisine is served.

Designed for the studio's founder, Aldo Celoria, the home's foundations are formed by what was once a traditional cellar and dining area dug into the sloping site, which used to be visited by Celoria's family.

Referencing this history, the home was designed as what Celoria describes as a "massive primitive object embedded in the mountain", centred around a large kitchen and dining room.

"This was the place where we used to go as children for lunch or dinner with friends or to sit in front of the fireplace and eat chestnuts," Celoria told Dezeen.

"The project arose with the idea of maintaining this spirit of conviviality and designing a house as if it were a grotto in relation to the surrounding nature," he explained.

House C is organised around four concrete cores along the edges of its square plan, each finished with wave-like sections of concrete wall.

Acting as giant, hollowed-out columns, these concrete forms house the home's infrastructure and utilities, including a spiral staircase, bathrooms, utility rooms and a fireplace.

This frees up the rest of the floor plates to be column-free, allowing for unobstructed views through the full-height windows and glazed corners that overlook the landscape.

"The elements bend inwards, containing the infrastructure of the house and designing the central square space of each floor, which increases in size towards the upper spaces," explained Celoria.

"The structure is therefore the expression of the architectural body, conceived to promote a close dialogue between interior and exterior and between architecture and landscape," he added.

The bedrooms take advantage of the partially subterranean ground floor to provide greater privacy, with the living, dining and kitchen floor above constituting the main entrance to the home.

On the home's second floor, a single multipurpose space sits beneath a diamond-shaped skylight in the home's roof and surrounded by fully-glazed walls.

Celoria Architects kept the monolithic concrete form as visible as possible on the interiors, with wood used for the doors, staircase and kitchen counters and a fir dining table in reference to the old table the family used for dinners on the site.

"It was important to work with only one material and to express an atmosphere that was monolithic and monochromatic," Celoria told Dezeen.

Elsewhere in Switzerland, architecture studio PPAA recently completed a concrete villa overlooking Lake Zurich and Atelier Rampazzi created a trio of concrete houses with warm timber panelling.

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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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Amsterdam studio More Architecture used a large zigzagging roof to shelter Floating Hotel, which is dramatically positioned among the bamboo forests and mountains of Dachangping, China.

Located in the rural Anji region, the hotel contains 18 rooms that More Architecture said are designed to provide guests with an "immersive relationship with nature".

Floating Hotel is perched on a grid of steel columns, raised above an open ground floor containing a swimming pool and administrative spaces.

"The client had this idea of a building 'floating above the bamboo', and we took it as an inspiration to elevate the building above the mountains, and let the landscape continue under it, uninterruptedly," More Architecture partner Daan Roggeveen told Dezeen.

"We wanted to create a large roof that brings people together, and allows them to enjoy the wonderful surroundings in which the hotel is set," he added.

The studio created three different room types for Floating Hotel, each with different orientations and relationships to the landscape.

In the "corridor" rooms, extra wide spaces provide broad views over one side of the landscape, while the "gallery" rooms are oriented to give narrower, dual-aspect views.

At either end of the plan, two blocks contain suites, with those at the building's edges benefitting from panoramic views in two directions.

All these spaces have full-height glazing framed in white metal, with large doors opening onto a wood-decked terrace that wraps the entire perimeter.

On the top floor, amenities including a yoga room, breakfast space and restaurant are housed in separate glazed blocks, requiring visitors to move outside to access them from the hotel's three stair and lift cores.

"We placed these facilities in separate glass spaces so that visitors are challenged to move between the different facilities through the outdoors, engaging with the fresh air and the mountains," said Roggeveen.

Above these spaces, the zigzagging roof has been clad internally with thin wooden planks that emphasise its angular form, complemented by white walls and pale wood panelling.

Below, the ground floor rooms are finished in contrasting stone cladding, chosen to give the impression they have been "carved out of the mountain", said Roggeveen.

"To create a nice and warm atmosphere in the hotel, we used a careful selection of wood for the floors, the ceilings and the fit-out of the rooms," he explained.

"The wooden furniture, including the beds and tables, was designed by us as well, and for the desk and bars we used terrazzo."

More Architecture, which is based in Amsterdam and Shanghai, previously worked with AIM Architecture on a large clubhouse in Jiaxing, which has a fortress-like form surrounded by a small moat.

Other recently completed hotels in China include BAN Villa by BLUE Architecture Studio and Ningshan LuZhai Cottages by Kooo Architects.

The photography is by Kris Provoost. 

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Scottish practices Loader Monteith and Studio SJM have completed The Harmeny Learning Hub outside Edinburgh, which is clad in larch to blend in with its woodland surroundings.

The teaching space is located on the 35-acre estate of the charity Harmeny Education Trust, which provides specialist education for children who have experienced severe trauma.

Loader Monteith and Studio SJM won a competition to design it with their proposal to "embrace the students and the landscape" with a low-slung, L-shaped building that hugs the site's trees.

"Sited between two Category-A listed buildings and within a dense, mature woodland, the learning centre is rooted firmly in the principle of wellbeing," explained the studios.

"At the very core of the project is a desire to provide a safe place in which the children can explore, discover and reflect on their experiences in order to heal and develop skills that will support them into and throughout their adult life."

The Harmeny Learning Hub comprises two buildings set atop a paved patio. To the north, the classrooms, meditation spaces and two art workshops are housed in the main timber-framed, larch-clad structure that will silver over time to "camouflage" with the trees.

Perpendicular to this is a slightly smaller brick-clad volume, containing further teaching spaces and workshops along with offices and a reception area.

These two blocks are linked by paved walkways that wrap around and between them, dotted with areas of planting.

"This crucial access to nature – readily available from all rooms – offers students a diverse set of spaces to engage with their education and importantly, places of respite should activities become overwhelming," explained the studios.

"High-level windows and sections of overhead glazing offer a constant, relaxing visual connection to the outdoors."

The interiors of The Harmeny Learning Hub, designed by Studio SJM, prioritise both views of and access to the surrounding natural landscape.

In the classrooms, large skylights and glazed doors open onto the external patio, while the fittings and finishes have been kept deliberately simple with a neutral palette of pastel colours.

"Thresholds were carefully considered to offer a sense of welcome and create an informal, safe atmosphere from first entry," said the studios.

"The vocational spaces have been designed to mimic workshop or creative environments to familiarise the students with potential types of future workplaces," they added.

Loader Monteith is an architecture practice based in Scotland founded in 2016 by Matt Loader and Iain Monteith, and Studio SJM was established by Sarah Jane Storrie and Marianne Partyka in 2020.

Previous projects by Loader Monteith include an office for a bike tour operator in Inverness and an "invisible" restoration of Peter Womersley's High Sunderland house.

The photography is by Jim Stephenson.

Project credits:

Architects: Loader Monteith and Studio SJM
Client: Harmeny Education Trust
Main contractor: Thomas Johnstone
Project management: Faithful & Gould
Landscape architect: Wardell Armstrong
Structural engineer: Harley Haddow
M&E consultant: Harley Haddow
CDM coordinator: Principal CDM

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Concrete loggias overlook a courtyard at this social housing block in Paris, which French studios Francois Brugel Architectes Associes, H2o Architectes and Antoine Regnault Architecture have converted from offices.

Named Ilot Saint-Germain, the housing is located in two interconnected blocks previously owned by the Ministry of the Armed Forces in the city's seventh arrondissement.

To the south, a load-bearing stone building dating back to the 18th century faces the road, while to the north, an L-shaped, concrete-framed building from the 1970s hugs an internal courtyard.

Francois Brugel Architectes Associes, H2o Architectes and Antoine Regnault Architecture were tasked with transforming these former workspaces into 254 social homes, while adding a gymnasium and kindergarten for residents and the wider city.

Looking to highlight and complement the qualities of the existing buildings, the studios retained and restored their structures, drawing on their palette of pale stone and concrete for the gymnasium and kindergarten.

"The important thing was to work with the existing features, using the qualities of the original buildings and making them visible," H2o Architectes' Jean-Jacques Hubert told Dezeen.

"There is a real interest in thinking of the different ways in which these buildings, through the project, belong to the city," added François Brugel Architectes Associés's founder François Brugel.

An open courtyard space at the centre of Ilot Saint-Germain now also houses the gymnasium, which has a sunken concrete form with a wood-lined interior illuminated by clerestory windows.

On the opposite side of the central housing block, the kindergarten is contained in a matching pale concrete volume, finished with narrow vertical openings.

Both concrete volumes are topped by garden spaces designed by landscape architecture studio Élise & Martin Hennebicque, with ramps and steps providing access to the gymnasium's roof.

Ilot Saint-Germain's apartments are organised to minimise internal corridors and their interiors are kept minimal and flexible to allow residents to adapt them to their needs.

Facing the courtyard, the 18th-century block opens up with large, arched windows, while the 1970s block has been lined internally with loggias, providing each apartment with sheltered outdoor space.

"Each building offers specific layouts [that] result in a wide variety of typologies," said Hubert.

"Each user must find their place in the daily life of their home, the garden and the amenities," he added.

The use of pale concrete at Ilot Saint-Germain was guided by the stone and concrete finishes of the existing buildings, which have been complemented by dark wood window frames and pale metal balustrades.

Recently featured in Dezeen's Social Housing Revival series was another retrofit of a former military site in Paris, The Caserne de Reuilly, which saw h2o Architectes alongside six European practices adapt a former barracks site into nearly 600 homes.

The photography is by Jared Chulski.

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Belgian studio Mamout has extended a townhouse in Brussels, adding a small garden room built from a prefabricated shell of pastel green-coloured steel.

Aiming to improve the connection between the home and its garden, Mamout drew on the form of an existing bow window on the rear facade to create a glazed seating area for the existing kitchen.

"The aim is to create the smallest possible extension, but one that offers a radically new perception of space from the inside," Mamout architect Sarah Avni told Dezeen.

"We imagine the extension as a response to the existing bow window, which is a typical element of Belgian architecture," she added.

The garden room sits slightly elevated off the ground to avoid covering the home's basement windows and is accessed from the garden patio by a small concrete stair.

While mimicking the existing windows form, Mamout opted for a steel structure that would provide a contrasting "thin and light look". This was manufactured as a single piece by a shipbuilding workshop in Liège, allowing it to be craned into place and "plugged into" the existing building.

"The intervention is integrated into the facade as a bow window should be, like a floating element, allowing the fabulous wisteria to continue spreading," said Avni.

"The tolerance for possible mistakes was very low – everything was settled and designed before it was brought on site," she added.

Inside, a full-height opening leads from the kitchen into the extension, where a contrasting stone floor finish subtly sets it apart from the rest of the room.

A built-in window bench follows the curve of the steel form, with a small table providing an area to have breakfast overlooking the garden, both finished with matching fluted wood bases.

A minimal, white finish has been given to the walls and full-height window frames, matching those already in the home while helping to focus attention towards the garden.

"We proposed a very calm and peaceful atmosphere punctuated by a curved bench that follows the steel shell," said Avni. "The position of the bench allows you to be seated in the garden."

Mamout was founded in Brussels in 2014 by Matthieu Busana and Sébastien Dachy.

Previous projects by the studio include the refurbishment of another Brussels townhouse that "makes the most of what already exists" and a courtyard house built using materials from a dismantled warehouse.

The photography is by Séverin Malaud.

Project credits:

Architect: Mamout
Structure: JZH & Partners
Energy: Earth&Bee
Furniture designer: Sébastien Caporusso
Decoration: Aurore de Borchgrave
Contractor: G-Line Construct
Steelwork: Ateliers Melens & Dejardin

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Architecture studio A6A has converted a former model-making workshop in Bordeaux into a studio for itself that is defined by pared-back materials and spaces.

Named L'Atelier, the L-shaped block was originally formed of a street-facing garage, a central garden and a large shed to the rear.

Drawn to the spatial organisation and finishes of the workshop, A6A made minimal alterations but transformed it into a series of flexible workspaces intended to "reflect the philosophy" of the studio.

"We found many resonances with our approach to the profession in this space, an ideal place to realise our vision of architecture," said A6A.

"We wanted to design a place for experimentation and meeting, which leaves room for manual work and research," it told Dezeen.

"[It's] a timeless intervention in an existing building that we will never tire of over time."

Facing the street, the existing steel door to the garage has been retained, above which a sign with the name of the original workshop owner can still be seen.

This heavy steel door leads into L'Atelier's model workshop and material library – an open, flexible space with a sanded concrete floor and a long birch storage wall.

Here, original wood and glass doors to the garden have been preserved, beyond which a series of new and existing paving stones provide access to the main studio. This is accessed by a set of double-height, glass sliding doors.

"The garden appears like a haven in the middle of the city, a plant explosion which owes a lot to its original configuration and which we have come to amplify by integrating ground covers and shade plants with a tropical look," said A6A.

In L'Atelier's main studio space, the large volume of the existing shed has been retained, with more private areas such as meeting rooms and a toilet housed in a standalone wooden volume. A small mezzanine with additional workspaces sits above it.

The shed's exterior walls and metal frame – the only elements that A6A could preserve – are complemented by a new roof of slender white-steel trusses and birch desks and bookshelves below.

"Three materials dominate the project," explained the studio.

"Each of the materials was used for its structural characteristics and the ability to do certain work ourselves: we formed and poured concrete, partly sanded the slab and entirely manufactured all the fittings in wood," it added.

A6A, which is known fully as Atelier 6 Architecture, was founded in Bordeaux in 2013 by Michel Hardoin, Roberto de Uña and Antoine Ragonneau. Previous projects by the studio include an off-grid and easily transportable cabin in Ustaritz, which is clad in charred planks of Douglas fir.

Other self-designed studios on Dezeen include Paul Westwood's office in a disused garage in London and The Act of Quad's workspace in a former library in Mumbai.

The photography is by Rory Gardiner.

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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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Architecture studio KWK Promes has converted a slaughterhouse in the Czech Republic into Plato Contemporary Art Gallery, with exhibition spaces lined with rotating concrete walls.

Located in Ostrava, the original heritage-protected slaughterhouse building dates back to the 19th century, but after decades of disuse, it had become dilapidated and partially collapsed.

Tasked with adapting the structure into an art gallery, KWK Promes added an extension and concrete infills that contrast the existing sooty brickwork but mimic its ornamentation.

These additions include six large rotating walls, three of which provide entry to Plato Contemporary Art Gallery and three that allow its exhibition spaces to be opened to the surroundings.

"We introduced a solution that makes art more democratic," explained the studio.

"The main idea of the project is based on preserving the functionality of the openings as shortcuts connecting the building to the city," it added. "This has provided artists and curators with entirely new exhibition possibilities and allows art to literally 'go out' into the space around the building."

Plato Contemporary Art Gallery's rotating walls create two entrances on either side of the building, leading into a central reception, ticket office and cafe area.

The four exhibition halls each sit on the ground floor around the edges of the building, allowing them to benefit from natural light and a connection to the surrounding park.

The new wing at the building's southern end replaces a section of the original slaughterhouse that collapsed during the renovation but was needed by the gallery to meet its spatial requirements.

Inside, it contains an additional exhibition hall with offices above, finished externally with a blind concrete facade decorated with the impressions of windows, sills and lintels to echo the rotating doors.

On the first floor, this wing connects to a small group of rooms for visiting guests and a space for the gallery's educational programme.

"Following extensive discussions, we made the decision to rebuild using new materials, mirroring the approach we took with the rotating gates," the studio told Dezeen.

"Our objective was to preserve the conceptual coherence of the entire project, clearly delineating between historical elements and contemporary interventions."

While the original brickwork has been left visible internally in the circulation areas, the galleries have been reinsulated and lined with lime plaster, with deep reveals created for the building's numerous small arched windows.

"The deteriorated bricks have been mostly replenished with those recovered from a collapsed section of the building, [and] the new glazing has a ceramic screen print, making it appear dark and dull, attenuating the light in the galleries," said KWK Promes.

Surrounding Plato Contemporary Art Gallery, KWK Promes landscaped a park with trees, flower meadows and a small pool of water, with a gravel terrace around the gallery connecting to a series of paths.

"Initially, we imagined a paved surface for artistic activities, but as we got to know Ostrava better, we realised that the place was more in need of attractive green space for residents," explained the studio.

"The contaminated soil there has been rehabilitated and replaced by a biodiverse park with water-permeable floors, flower meadows and with retention basins."

KWK Promes is a Polish architecture studio founded in Katowice in 1999 by Robert Konieczny and Marlena Wolnik. Its other recent projects include the white-concrete House on the Road and Quadrant House, which features a rotating living space.

Plato Contemporary Art Gallery was recently named one of seven finalists in this year's Mies van der Rohe Award for Europe's best new building.

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London studio Mae Architects has created Harriet Hardy House in Southwark, a block of 119 social homes complete with a community centre and cafe.

Commissioned by Southwark Council, the housing forms part of the Aylesbury estate redevelopment and is organised in a U-shape around a central courtyard.

According to Mae Architects, Harriet Hardy House is designed as a "21st-century almshouse", which is traditionally a type of low-cost sheltered housing provided by a private charity.

Among its 119 homes are 54 extra care flats – a form of specialist housing for older residents.

"[Harriet Hardy House is] planned around the idea of progressive privacy, that is of giving residents independence as well as strong connections to the support and communal facilities within the building," explained the studio.

"The horseshoe configuration around the communal garden provides repeating views from inside to outside, and is an anchor focus throughout," it continued.

The ground floor is defined by a series of double-height arches that wrap this courtyard, creating a colonnade framing communal facilities such as a tea room, lounge and dining room.

Above, in the lower portion of the U-shaped plan, flats have been positioned off short, semi-outdoor decks overlooking the communal garden, with a generous width to give residents ample space to meet and sit.

At either end of the plan, the block is bookended by general needs housing for individuals, couples and families. A tower-like volume on the site's southeastern corner is topped with a rooftop terrace.

All of the flats have been designed as "care ready" and can be fitted with telecare and assistive technology if required.

The exterior of Harriet Hardy House is enlivened with areas of textured brickwork at the ground and roof levels, while the balconies are topped by arched concrete lintels.

"[The building] is characterised by deeply articulated facades with arched balconies and a brick colonnade at ground floor level, which adds interest and positive aspect to the streetscape," said Mae Architects.

"In its treatment of decorative brickwork and bold language of double height arches, specific reference is made to the Sir John Soane's St Peter’s Church nearby, and to the brick kilns in Burgess Park," it added.

Last year Mae Architects was awarded the 2023 RIBA Stirling Prize for the John Morden Centre, a daycare centre for the residents of the Morden College retirement community that explored solutions to loneliness and social isolation.

Other recently completed social housing projects include a triangular apartment block enlivened by red accents in Barcelona and an "eclectic" housing block that draws on nearby historic villas in Paris.

The photography is by Tim Crocker.

Project credits:

Architect: Mae
Client: Southwark Council
Main contractor: Hill Group
Project manager/ EA services: Notting Hill Housing / Arcadis
Landscape architecture: HTA
Mechanical and electrical services: WSP, Emersons, JSW
Structural/civil engineer: Price & Myers
Cost consultant: Arcadis

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Indonesian architecture practice Dhaniē & Sal has completed Mawi Garage in South Tangerang, creating a steel structure that references the engineering of the cars and motorcycles inside.

The client, a car collector, tasked the local practice with renovating an existing 488-square-metre shed that housed his extensive fleet, as well as extending it to add a small office space and apartment.

Located on a large, one-acre estate surrounded by gardens, Dhaniē & Sal stripped back the existing building and used it as the basis for a new, "utilitarian" gabled structure of black steel columns and trusses with a corrugated metal roof.

For the exterior of Mawi Garage, the studio created walls of angled metal vents, informed by the hinged, openable windows on older cars like the Land Rover housed inside.

"We would often look for the client's automobile collections for the direction of the design," the studio told Dezeen.

"As rigid and cold as the exterior [of the cars] is, the interiors are still designed ergonomically, based on how they will be in contact with the human body."

"[The garage is] an homage to the object it shelters, a well-known utilitarian off-road automobile," it added.

In the large garage space, the black steel structure has been left entirely exposed, wrapped by high-level glazing that frames views of the trees outside.

The office and apartment occupies a separate volume at the southern end of the garage. The studio elevated it above the cars below with panoramic windows on either side that look onto the garage and the surrounding gardens.

At the southern end, this volume protrudes slightly to create a balcony for the lounge space, and to the west, a narrower section contains a small sleeping area and bathroom.

To bring a more comfortable feel to these spaces, the exposed steel of the garage was swapped for grey plaster, leather and wood finishes, and the steel-framed structure was swapped for brickwork.

"We create a detached volume where we use bricks as its walls instead of steels," the studio told Dezeen.

"The detachment has two purposes, to let the air cross, and also to break the rhythm of the living quarters from the visual rigidity of the modular steel panels."

"The bricks informed a warmer gesture for the user to touch and to lean on to, [and] we also covered the roof structure with ceilings instead of exposing it," it explained.

Based in South Tangerang, Dhaniē & Sal was founded by Dhanie Syawalia and Salman Rimaldhi.

Other projects in Indonesia recently featured on Dezeen include a skinny, 2.8-metre-wide hotel by Sahabat Selojene, designed to make the most out of an awkward, left-over urban site.

The photography is by Ernest Theofilus.

Project credits:

Principal architect: Salman Rimaldhi, Dhanie Syawalia
Architect in charge: Marsha Naufal
Team: Vania Sabrina Dara, Fery Yullianto

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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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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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Architecture studio MD41 has completed a gymnasium for a school in Merate, Italy, housed in a cubic volume clad in textured concrete panels.

Replacing a former gymnasium on the same site, the building slots in between the school to the north and a sprawling brick piazza to the south created by local studio Archea Associati in 2010.

These existing elements, as well as heritage protections in the area, left a small and constrained site that MD41 sought to optimise with a clear and "rational" building.

"The resulting rational volume has allowed it to fit perfectly into the area and to optimise the construction system, dedicating the highest volume part to the playing field with its stands, and the lower part to other functions," the studio told Dezeen.

"[It is] intended to be a landmark for the school complex, appearing as a pure and extremely simple volume, where sports areas and closed functions are located and clearly defined."

The building houses an indoor sports court with bathrooms and changing areas along its northern edge, open for use by both the school and the surrounding community.

To connect the building with the surrounding landscape, its ground floor is wrapped by large windows that overlook an adjacent outdoor basketball court and exercise park.

Above, MD41 clad the building in concrete panels with a horizontal, ribbed texture, chosen to complement the pink-brown shades of the piazza's brickwork and weathered steel accents.

"From the stands, the park thus becomes the backdrop for the sports scene, visually dilating the interior space and creating a strong relationship with the surrounding landscape," it added.

Contrasting this grey exterior, the inside of the gym has been finished with a datum of bright yellow across the ground floor level. This matches the height of the windows to help reflect sunlight throughout the interior.

Other sports facilities recently featured on Dezeen include Markolfhalle Markelfingen, a multipurpose hall that architecture studio Steimle Architekten has added to the edge of a lake in Germany.

In China, architecture studio UAD recently completed a sports centre with a rooftop football pitch, elevated on vaulted concrete supports.

The photography is by Marcello Mariana.

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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 gridded timber frame creates a flexible armature for play equipment and social spaces at the Erlebnis-Hus visitor centre in Sankt Peter-Ording, Germany, which was designed by Holzer Kobler Architekturen.

Located alongside a dyke on a coastal promenade in Sankt Peter-Ording, the centre contains event spaces, a shop and restaurant and lookout points, housed in a series of "cubes" that slot into the structure's gridded framework.

The project forms part of a wider "experience promenade" developed by landscape architect Uniola, with which Holzer Kobler Architecture won a competition to replace an aging games house in the nearby village.

Holzer Kobler Architekturen was informed by the traditional pile structures found on the nearby beach that are elevated to cope with high tides for Erlebnis-Hus's form, as well as the adaptable architecture of the 1980s Metabolism movement in Japan.

"Since the coastal area often experiences wet and windy weather, there was a need for an inclusive structure that provides an indoor program for visitors, [and] the community desired to create a new attraction as a landmark," said Holzer Kobler Architekturen director Andrea Zickhardt.

"The timber matrix seamlessly integrates into the surroundings and intertwines with them – simultaneously, and according to our metabolic approach, it could continue to expand infinitely, or additional parts could be added in the future," she told Dezeen.

"Our idea was to create a house with numerous offerings, where not only children but everyone could play or spend time – regardless of age, background, size, or physical limitations."

The building's structure consists of a 4.5 x 4.5-metre timber grid, elevated on concrete pile foundations due to the site's status as a flood protection zone.

Inserted into this grid are a series of five rectilinear volumes containing the centre's internal spaces, connected both by an internal stair and lift and an external steel stair.

Full-height, glazed ends draw light and views into these interiors, which are simply lined with wooden panelling that complements the exposed timber structure.

The roofs of these cubes have been used to create a series of elevated terraces that are dotted with various pieces of play equipment, encouraging visitors to "play in, on, under, besides, and around the house."

"The presence of people interacting with the building creates continuous movement, both on the exterior levels and inside, where glimpses are offered through the large glass fronts, whether it's summer or winter, sun or rain," Zickhardt told Dezeen.

To the east of the main building is a small skatepark and outdoor seating, while on its western side a metal slide winds through the building's grid from the roof to the ground floor.

A bridge extends southwards to connect the centre with the nearby dyke, ending in an elevated platform that provides visitors with views out across the landscape.

Other projects recently completed in Germany include a university building in Reutlingen by Allmannwappner and Menges Scheffler Architekten that is wrapped in a robotically-woven screen of glass and carbon fibres.

The photography is by Jan Bitter.

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Traditional materials and building techniques "celebrate the essence" of south Indian architecture at Telugu Medium, a restaurant in Hyderabad by local practice Sona Reddy Studio.

Telugu Medium is located in the Jubilee Hills neighbourhood and housed in a vaulted structure of exposed brick and concrete, designed to suit the area's arid climate and reference its vernacular architecture.

"The architecture engages massive brick domes, vaults, and exposed, load-bearing walls, minimising the use of concrete and steel, thereby creating a passively cooler interior environment tailored for Hyderabad's arid climate," explained Sona Reddy Studio.

Organised across two floors, the dining room is centred around a double-height, skylit atrium with a small pool and planting at its base framed by slender concrete columns.

A central staircase stands alongside this atrium, with arched openings finished with panes of fluted glass. On its opposite side, a pink-granite bar overlooks the southern end of the ground floor.

"[The atrium] provides for a moment of pause to surrender and take in the immersive design vocabulary," described Sona Reddy Studio.

"The ceiling becomes a canvas of the crafted brick domes and vaults, interacting with silhouette lighting to create an ever-changing atmospheric ambience."

To complement Telugu Medium's exposed load-bearing brick walls and concrete structure, the interiors are finished with pale pink lime-washed walls, Tandoori stone floors and dark wood window frames.

These finishes are combined with minimal furniture made of dark wood, chosen by the studio to be "timeless, simple, and evocative".

Outside, the northeastern edge of the site is wrapped by a brick-paved terrace, providing a waiting area and outdoor seating for the restaurant, partially sheltered beneath the vaulted soffit of the restaurant's first floor.

Long, concrete benches incorporating planters sit alongside the textured brick walls of the exterior, which have been enlivened with protruding concrete planters, curved brick fins and areas of projecting brickwork.

"The alfresco waiting space, entirely paved in brick, seamlessly connects the building to its surroundings," explained the studio.

"The northern edge hosts outdoor seating under sprawling canopies, creating an interplay with curved brick fins and inset portals framing views of the exterior."

To the west, Telugu Medium faces the road with a parking area and a rear service entrance that leads directly into the kitchen.

Other recently completed restaurants in India include Terttulia, which Otherworlds created in a 1980s villa in Panjim, and a lakeside eatery with a wavy tiled roof in Karnataka by Play Architecture.

The photography is by Pankaj Anand.

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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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Portuguese studio Spaceworkers has completed a geometric garden pavilion near Porto, featuring an overhanging roof and monolithic walls of concrete and green ceramic tiles.

Pavilion in the Garden is a multipurpose event space that sits on a former parking lot in the green outskirts of the Portuguese village of Sobrado.

Looking to capture the "essence" of this place, Spaceworkers created a glazed, column-free interior intended to feel like an extension of the surrounding landscape.

"The search for essence can be understood as the attempt to understand and express the true nature of something, in this case, the relationship between man, nature and architecture," Marques told Dezeen.

Pavilion in the Garden is formed of two offset concrete blocks containing visitor facilities and services. These support a large gridded canopy punctured by square skylights, which sits over a central events space.

Full-height, sliding glass doors wrap the events space, while the canopy and stone floor extend outwards to create a sheltered terrace around its edges.

"We were able to have a perception of lightness in the building, further accentuated by the apparent fragility with which the heavy slab rests on a very occasional contact with a pillar, freeing the entire room from any structural elements," Marques told Dezeen.

"This lightness and feeling of integration helps us reduce the project to its most basic essence, which in practice are two dominant materials in a volumetric composition where the balance of the elements is the dominant element," he added.

While Pavilion in the Garden's roof has an exposed, board-marked concrete finish, the supporting volumes and a slender vertical column have been clad with green, marble-effect ceramic tiles.

"The choice of materials was based on two aspects, the first related to the reduction of long-term maintenance – the raw materials, such as concrete and the ceramic coating of the facade, do not require much maintenance beyond their spot cleaning," said Marques.

"The second aspect is related to the attempt to integrate the built mass into the natural context, so that the building blends in with the surroundings, thus reducing its impact despite its scale," he added.

A bar stands at the southern side of the central area, while to the east a recessed serving counter with a pizza oven is lined in matt gold-coloured panels.

Spaceworkers was established by Rui Dinis, Henrique Marques and Carla Duarte in 2007. Previous projects by the studio include a blocky concrete home in Sobrado punctured by deep window reveals and a museum in Lousada dedicated to the history of Romanesque architecture.

The photography is by Fernando Guerra.

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Movable metal shutters reveal bright red balconies at this social housing block in Barcelona, created by local architecture studios MIAS and Coll-Leclerc Architects.

Located on a triangular plot to the south of the city, the building provides 72 apartments across seven storeys and is clad with vertical panels of terracotta-coloured glass-reinforced concrete.

MIAS and Coll-Leclerc Architects' distinctive use of colour for the development references the area's history in textile manufacturing where fabrics used to be dyed red and dried in the sun, giving the neighbourhood its name Marina del Prat Vermell, or Red Meadow Marina.

To maximise the number of units that could be fit on the site, MIAS filled its maintained outline and prow-like edges. Two large cuts divide the housing into three smaller, "porous" blocks with planted pathways in between.

"Porosity refers to the permeability of the building, allowing air to flow through both the structure and the streets intersecting the main volume," MIAS founder Josep Miàs told Dezeen.

"I am particularly interested in architecture that does not confine, that does not precisely define its physical limits, but instead creates spaces for the gaze to extend beyond the confines of the container," he added.

Splitting the project into smaller blocks avoided the creation of large corridors, instead creating corner apartments with equal access to light, air and views.

While the layout of the apartments in the centre has been kept consistent, the two prow-like corners to the east and the west of the site contain unique spaces tailored to their more angular and narrow floor plans.

"I think the main achievement is that while being in a multi-family building, you have the sensation of being in a detached single-family home as if you do not belong to a residential building with seven floors," explained Miàs.

"The interior spaces flow, relate to each other easily, and connect with the exterior, with distant views, so that the interior spaces expand to the outside through the terraces."

Each apartment has access to its own covered terrace offering views over the city and sea, sheltered from the sun by folding metal shutters that animate the facades and are lined internally with bright red finishes.

Inside, this red has been carried through to the doors, window frames and furniture, providing contrast to the otherwise minimal white walls and exposed concrete ceilings.

The roofs of the blocks are finished with a combination of planting and photovoltaic panels that cover around half of the building's energy consumption, according to MIAS.

Dezeen's Social Housing Revival series recently highlighted the rapid ramping up of social housing provision in Barcelona, as part of a series of measures by the city to tackle issues of housing affordability.

Other social housing projects recently featured on Dezeen include a Parisian estate by SOA Architectes with arched windows and sloping roofs and La Brea Affordable Housing in West Hollywood, designed by Patrick Tighe and John Mutlow as a contemporary take on art deco.

The photography is by Adrià Goula.

Project credits:

Architect: MIAS Architects, Coll-Leclerc
Client: IMHAB Municipal Institute of Housing and Renovation of Barcelona
Collaborators: Carla Blanch, Marc Subirana, Mar Genovés, Manuel Giró, Mauro Soro, Maria Chiara Ziliani, Marta Casas, Anna Massana

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Large mirrors frame the tree-planted interiors of this cafe and seating area beside a park in Jakarta, Indonesia, completed by local studio Research Artistic Design + architecture.

Called Frame Garden, the project is designed to enable the local community to make better use of the neglected park, providing a cafe operated by coffee chain Tanatap, visitor facilities and a small gallery beneath a semi-outdoor tropical garden.

"The site is adjacent to an abandoned public park boasting vast greenery with ironically zero facilities," said Research Artistic Design + architecture (RAD+ar) principal Antonius Richard Rusli.

"Consequently, nobody would pay attention to how much positive impact the park has and can contribute to not only the environment but also to the surrounding communities," he told Dezeen.

The stage-like Frame Garden incorporates an amphitheatre-style seating area for up to 300 people, which winds between lush planters and trees as it steps down from the entrance towards a large opening overlooking the park.

Designed to be "facadeless", this open space is framed by alternating mirrored and glazed panels, which reflect the plants and trees and offer glimpses of the surrounding park. Twisting, trunk-like sculptures made of fibreglass also animate the walls.

"Frame Garden celebrates its porosity being as open as possible as a contribution to the cityscape," explained the studio.

"Without a front or back, the building is free to be approached from all directions while taking advantage of the surrounding landscape," it added.

Beneath Frame Garden's upper level, the partially subterranean ground floor contains the cafe and gallery, illuminated by skylights that reveal the garden above.

A stepped ceiling – the inverse of the seating space above – covers the cafe and is fitted with concealed lighting, while a wall of full-height glazing looks onto a covered garden and outdoor seating area.

"Upon entering the building, [visitors] walk underneath a very low ceiling 2.2 metres in height that slowly increases the height of space into 7.5 metres as the visitor walks from the front garden to the back garden on the ground floor," said RAD+ar.

"[They] are teased by what appears to be sliced skylight and people activities in the garden above."

The gallery sits on the other side of the rear covered garden, which it also looks onto through a wall of full-height glazing.

Frame Garden's service areas for the kitchen and toilets have been organised along the edges of the site, leading to a parking area at the rear of the building that sits beneath its large opening.

Other projects recently completed in Jakarta include a family home topped by an angled, tiled roof and a bamboo extension to a studio.

The photography is by Mario Wibowo.

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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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Spanish architecture practice Kauh has completed the renovation of La Hoya Park in the historical centre of Almería, restoring a series of stepped, dry stone terraces on the site of a 13th-century town.

Located at the base of a gorge surrounded by Almería's 11th-century Jayrán Wall, Kauh won a 2019 competition to reimagine the historic plot, which had been used for growing grapes before falling into disuse and becoming overgrown.

Stripping away later additions in order to "reclaim" the original space, the Granada-based studio looked to retain as many of the site's historical features as possible, creating a "palimpsest of its evolution."

"This place became the forgotten backyard of the city, serving as an uncontrolled dump harbouring irregular activities and as a vacant lot used, from time to time, as the setting for movies," explained the studio.

"The goal was to turn La Hoya into a space shared by agents, a habitat with no other added program than the mere enjoyment of such an exceptional place," it added.

The existing stone walls or "balate" that define the stepped agricultural terraces have been retained and restored, with the addition of new steps, ramps and balustrades to create a variety of accessible routes down from the top of the site.

Once home to a neighbourhood in the 13th century, parts of the park are part of an archaeological reserve, and Kauh incorporated any historical materials found during construction into its new design.

Catapult stones from medieval sieges were stacked next to the gate in the Wall of Jayrán, and historic blocks of rammed earth and concrete from previous structures and restoration on the site have been integrated into the park's new planting areas.

"The design was already there; in the hills that embrace this place, the wall that outlines its concave shape, the fortresses that guard it, the valley that widens it, agricultural terraces that geometrize it and the network of channels that irrigates them," explained the studio.

Also restored as part of the project was an irrigation network of water basins and channels that runs down the site, newly finished in smooth, pale concrete to provide a subtle contemporary contrast to the historic stone walls.

For the planting, protected species found on the site were maintained and accompanied by new fruit and mulberry trees.

At the base of the stepped terraces, the large, flat expanse at the southern end of the site has been finished with small, curved areas of planting that define winding paths between, dotted with concrete block seating.

"The plant palette comprises trees used traditionally in the agriculture of the area, along with native shrubs and herbaceous plants as well as cosmopolitan species also from the semi-arid Mediterranean spectrum," said the studio.

A historic stepped stone vineyard was also the focus of a recent project by Greek practice K-studio, which created a visitor centre for drinks company Metaxa on the island of Samos.

Also in Spain, Madrid's Zooco Estudio created a restaurant within a museum that celebrates its brutalist architecture.

The photography is by Fernando Alda.

Project credits: 

Architect: Kauh Arquitectura y Paisajismo (Vincent Morales Garoffolo and Juan Antonio Sánchez Muñoz)
Client: Ayuntamiento de Almería
Contractor: UTE Jarquil (Grupo Copsa)

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Students from London's Architectural Association have used timber battens and foraged waste wood to build a demountable forest pavilion called Field Station.

Located within the school's satellite campus, the 4046-square-metre Hooke Park forest, the pavilion is intended as an "open-air laboratory for long-term ecological studies" that is easy to dismantle and relocate when necessary.

While the wooden frame is built from ash battens connected with steel plates and tension rods, its diagonal bracing and column-like supports are formed from lengths of foraged roundwood and forked trunks, making each piece unique.

"Students harvested this material by searching the forest floor of recently thinned compartments for branches of suitable shape, thickness, and integrity, echoing historical practices like estover – the tradition of collecting firewood," explained the team.

"By utilising round timber in place of processed lumber, the Field Station required 30 per cent less timber per tree felled, reducing its material footprint by two mature trees," it added.

The students constructed Field Station as part of the Architectural Association's Design + Make Programme, which also saw the construction of Sawmill Shelter in 2017.

Working with engineering firm Arup, the students used computer-aided design to incorporate these irregular wooden components into the structure.

Each component was scanned and placed into a computer model before areas for each connection were cut using a robotic arm.

The canopy's tension rods hold the truss structure in compression, allowing the roof to cantilever outwards by three metres on all sides.

"This technological innovation accommodates material eccentricities, and showcases how advanced manufacturing techniques can be harmonised with natural, irregular materials to create scalable architectural solutions," said the team.

"Field Station stands as an aspirational model, demonstrating the potential of modern architecture to contribute positively to woodland management and carbon sequestration."

The foraged components of the structure are combined with prefabricated elements that were flat-packed and brought to site, enabling Field Station to be constructed in just 10 days.

This design is also intended to make the pavilion flexible and relocatable, able to adapt to the forest's periodic felling cycles.

The roof of the pavilion is finished with corrugated metal sheets and a central corrugated plastic skylight, while an area of spruce decking was created for the floor, which stands on a foundation of steel piles.

Other wooden pavilions featured on Dezeen include Craft Not Carbon by Studio Saar and Webb Yates Engineers and Growing Up by New Office Works.

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Mushroom columns made of latticed steel support the large canopy above the Metropolitan Station in Lublin, Poland, completed by architecture studio Tremend.

The bus and rail hub is located alongside Lublin's 19th-century Central Railway Station and designed by Tremend as a modern contrast to this historic structure.

"[The] simple, modernist pavilion is intended to contrast with the eclectic, historical style of the Central Railway Station while remaining unchallenging of it, thanks to its clearly different architectural language," said the studio.

Metropolitan Station in Lublin forms part of a wider development called the Integrated Transportation Centre that will connect the city's urban, regional and national transport systems.

The building is housed in a glazed volume, surrounded by the large steel columns that support the overhanging canopy.

Within this glazed volume sits a second, described by the studio as a "box in a box", containing further waiting rooms and cafe spaces.

The interstitial space between these two boxes contains seating areas, as well as escalators and a block of toilets at either end of the building.

Together, the largely glazed structure and open latticework of its columns is intended to create an "air of lightness" for the building.

"The distinct openwork pillars that are part of the steel structure of the railway station and the platform canopy roofs that also serve a decorative function give it its unique architectural expression," said the studio.

"Their linear, somewhat organic forms are reminiscent of intertwined tree trunks, giving an air of lightness to the entire edifice," it added.

The overhanging roof shelters a drop-off area at the front of the station, while a series of steel canopies with butterfly roofs provide cover for 43 bus stands.

As part of the project, the nearby city square was also updated with green spaces and connecting roads to improve traffic flow.

The Integrated Transportation Centre project is intended to be one of the most sustainable of its kind in Poland, which led to the introduction of several strategies for the Metropolitan Station.

Its glass structure and canopies incorporate photovoltaic cells, while a greywater system harvests rainwater to be used for irrigation of the surrounding landscaping and in the station's toilets.

Other stations featured on Dezeen include the sunken Train Station in the Forest by MAD and Zaha Hadid Architects' sinuous metro station in Riyadh.

The photography is by Rafal Chojnacki unless stated otherwise.

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UK studio Fletcher Crane Architects has completed Kingston Villa in Richmond, London, offering a contemporary "evolution" of the area's typical suburban architecture in pale brick and metal.

Tasked with turning a dilapidated bungalow on the edge of Richmond Park into a new family home, the Surrey-based studio drew on its neighbouring buildings to create a simple, gabled form.

"This new family villa bordering Richmond Park seeks to evolve the historic villa typology and inject character and quality into a typical suburban streetscape architecture," explained Fletcher Crane Architects.

"The resultant detached home has been inspired by the varying historic features within the quality built environment; friezes, bays, entrance porticos and construction methodology – represented into an architecture of its day," it continued.

Facing the street, Kingston Villa is fronted by a metal canopy that shelters its entrance. This sits beneath a gable end that has been finished in pale textured brickwork.

The entrance route leads past two smaller lounge and study spaces into a living, dining and kitchen space, centred around a double-height seating area and fireplace overlooked by a metal and timber stair.

In these living and circulation areas, the internal finishes mirror those of the outside, with exposed brickwork, tiled floors and dark wooden carpentry bringing a "heavy, yet quiet" quality to the spaces.

At the rear of the home, full-height windows look out towards the park, finished with alternating deep-set and projecting metal reveals that subtly animate the facade.

On the ground floor, sliding glass doors provide access to a sunken paved patio that steps up to the garden beyond.

"Bold white brickwork is contrasted by bronzed window frames, metalwork panels and arboreal planting," explained the studio.

"The architecture is heavy, yet quiet with a focus on emphasising the fabulous location and aspect with panoramic views of the park," it added.

The home's bedrooms are organised across its first and second floors, overlooking the front of the home through a metal-framed corner window and illuminated by a rooftop skylight.

In these areas, the heavily textured finish of the living space was swapped for simple white walls and wood floors, contrasted by bedrooms finished with red and green tiles.

Fletcher Crane Architects was established in 2010 in Kingston upon Thames by Toby Fletcher and Ian Crane.

The studio often looks to create contemporary interpretations of traditional British architecture, previously drawing on a nearby church and historic home for a dwelling overlooking the River Thames in Buckinghamshire.

The photography is by Lorenzo Zandri.

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A series of circular voids and "halo" skylights create spaces for trees to grow through this home in Semarang, Indonesia, which has been completed by local studio Tamara Wibowo Architects.

Named Halo House, the dwelling comprises two gabled, barn-like forms clad in charred wood flanking a central strip of internal and external spaces that sit beneath a flat concrete roof.

A series of circular cut-outs define this central roof. Above the external spaces, large voids open to the elements have been created, forming a canopy for the areas below.

Inside, above the living room and bedroom, only the edges of these circles have been left open to create halo-like skylights.

"These circular voids – or as we call it "halos" – give a strong characteristic to the architecture and spatial experience in the house," explained the studio.

"The halo allows light to penetrate in an interesting form into the house throughout the days and gives shape to the falling rainwater."

At the front of the site, a large paved driveway leads onto a carport between a garage in the single-storey eastern wing and a fully glazed office space in the two-storey wing opposite.

The entrance into the home is tucked between this glazed office and a latticed wooden screen, which gives glimpses of the home's central courtyard while shielding its more private spaces from view.

At the heart of the home is a large dining area, which is lined by full-height, pivoting glass doors to the north and south that open onto courtyards and a swimming pool, providing ventilation through the home and a visual layering of spaces.

"The house is arranged in a way that it creates multiple layers of indoors and outdoors so each room has access to air and light on two sides of the room," said the studio.

"One will experience the swimming pool being in between indoor and outdoor space, as the haloed concrete canopy shelters half of it while the rest is completely open."

Alongside the central dining space is a more intimate living area and guest bedroom, while the main bedroom is afforded the most privacy at the end of the site, where it sits alongside the rear garden.

A staircase in the living area leads up to the second storey of Halo House's western volume, where the children's bedrooms sit shielded by an external cladding of narrow wooden slats.

This second storey opens out onto the central concrete roof, where the enclosed "halos" have been topped with small, circular areas of wild grass.

The eastern block houses the home's service areas, including a wet kitchen and a separate bathroom that is directly accessible from the pool.

Tamara Wibowo founded her eponymous practice in 2015. Previous projects by the studio include a home for Wibowo's own family, also in Semarang, which can be opened to the elements using pivoting glass doors.

The photography is by Andreaswidi. 

Project credits: 

Architect: Tamara Wibowo Architects
Principal architect: Tamara Wibowo
Project architect: Adi Iman Wicaksono
Project designer: Rieza Amalia
General contractor: RAH Contractor
Interior contractor: Ideaform
Electrical subcontractor: Kencana Elektrindo
Lighting solution: H+Works
Pool contractor: Bluepool
Plumbing subcontractor: Rejo Makmur
Steel subcontractor: Metalindo
Airconditioning: Arviatech
Wood contractor: Handpicked by Hend
Aluminium door and window systems: Astral Aluminium and MiLL Aluminium
Concrete flooring: Radja Finishing
Gypsum ceiling: Gypsum Classic
Terazzo flooring: Reflecto
Porcelain tile: Phillip Lakeman
Granite tile: Wisma Sehati and Venustiles
Marble: Stone Gallery
Wood parquette and ceiling: Teka Parquet
Window covering: Prima Jaya Interior
Sanitary fixtures: Kohler, Toto, Hansgrohe
Furniture: Forme Furniture, Fritz Hansen, Knoll, Hay Design, Ethnicraft, Santai Furniture
Lighting: Louis Poulsen, &Tradition, Luceplan, Tom Dixon

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A clash of old and new surfaces, geometries and colours defines this conversion of a warehouse and office in Porto into a home by local studio Fala Atelier.

Called House of Many Faces, the dwelling is tucked on a long, narrow site between largely abandoned industrial spaces overlooking the River Duoro.

"The very long narrow plot used to accommodate shabby offices and a spacious warehouse," said the studio.

"A fearless client aimed at transforming this clutter into a home - a soon-to-be living room could easily have a dozen of cars parked in there."

Fala Atelier inserted a cactus-planted courtyard at the eastern end of the site to divide it into two buildings, each of which is fronted by a facade finished with a geometric pattern and glass bricks.

At the front of the site, a smaller building contains four studio apartments for guests, while the much larger rear building contains a two-bedroom house with a vast living space beneath the rough wooden beams of a former storage area.

The concrete, stone and timber structures of these buildings has been left exposed and contrasted with new additions in metal, fabric, stone and wood, creating a rich variety of textures, patterns and colours.

"Reoccurring pairs of windows, yellow doors, green shutters and surfaces of glass brick correspond to intricate rooms, devise tense compositions and charismatic personas," said the studio.

"The project has many faces literally, but also conceptually. and many readings, we hope."

In the living area, the ceiling above the wooden beams has been wrapped in white fabric, and the stone walls painted white, save for a single square area where the original finish has been left exposed.

A board-marked concrete fireplace, stainless steel kitchen counter and extraction funnel and irregular wooden cupboards constituting "the only hints of uncertain domesticity."

"The furniture controls the scale and manages the distribution of functions in the big room," the studio told Dezeen.

"They couldn't be normal sized, otherwise they would disappear - they are projects within the project, quite autonomous," it explained.

A single curved wall at the end of this space divides it from the two-storey bedroom area, which is connected by a staircase with a geometric metal balustrade.

Fala Atelier was founded in 2013 by Filipe Magalhães, Ana Luisa Soares and Ahmed Belkhodja, and an idiosyncratic use of geometry, colour and texture is characteristic of the studio's work across Porto.

Previous projects by the practice include a garden apartment topped by a "concrete crown", and a cluster of six micro-homes created by renovating a pair of granite buildings.

The photography is by Rory Gardiner unless otherwise stated.

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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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Danish architect Sigurd Larsen has refurbished the Michelberger Farm in Spreewald, Germany, creating a new wing of guest rooms that reinterprets the redbrick style of the 19th-century complex.

Having already worked on the refurbishment of the Michelberger hotel in Berlin in collaboration with Jonathan Tuckey, Larsen was tasked with replacing a ruin on the site to the west of Berlin with a new building.

Michelberger acquired the site in 2018, with a view to creating a "agricultural and holistic ecosystem" that would both supply ingredients to the brand's Berlin hotel and provide new spaces for guests to stay and dine.

"The farm, as it was taken over by the Michelberger team a few year ago, consisted of four wings around an inner court, with all the buildings finished in red bricks," Larsen told Dezeen.

"The three other buildings were made in red bricks in the 19th century, all with slightly different red tiles on the pitched roofs," he continued.

"We decided to make a contemporary translation of this building typology leaving the ground floor transparent towards both the inner court and open green fields."

The glazed ground floor contains a large communal dining area, with a long dining table made using recovered wooden beams from the former building and a brick counter and preparation area.

At its eastern end, the building has been intersected by a square viewing tower, rotated so that one of its corners protrudes out of the main building's roof.

A cut-out for a fireplace has been made at the base of this tower, where it is surrounded by a raised seating area. Inside the tower, a metal staircase leads to the roof, where guests can enjoy views out over the landscape and an outdoor bathtub.

"The tower is the element that connects all levels in a vertical tube," said Larsen. "Apart from a sculptural staircase it contains all the infrastructure of water, electricity and heating from the open fireplace."

"The elevated platform is a reference to the many stork nests you see when you visit the area," he continued. "A stork nest for humans."

On the first floor, a series of bedrooms have been inserted beneath the building's steeply pitched roof "like cells in a monastery", with only the essentials of a bed, lamp and space for a bag.

A balcony hallway alongside the rooms includes desks for working that overlook the communal dining area below, and connects to two shared bathrooms organised around the viewing tower.

Larsen is an architect who previously worked at architecture firms including OMA, MVRDV and COBE before founding his studio in 2010.

The architect's previous projects include a woodland cabin for hospitality start-up Raus, and a treetop cabin for Danish hotel Løvtag.

The photography is by Kkrom Services.

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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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The 19th-century villas in the suburbs of Paris informed the arched windows and sloping roofs of this social housing block in France, completed by local studio SOA Architectes.

SOA Architectes was tasked with creating 24 social housing units and two affordable units at Parc Princesse – the site of a former hospital in Vésinet that is being developed into housing and an urban park.

The studio drew from the historic villas found nearby to create a structure that would "stand out" while also respecting its parkland setting.

"The town of Vésinet includes numerous parks dotted with villas, most of them built in the 19th century," explained SOA Architectes.

"The styles are eclectic, readily combining architectural devices borrowed from different eras," it continued.

"The watchword seems to have been expressive richness and the desire to stand out, [and] this double constraint constitutes a contradictory injunction: blend in and show yourself," it continued.

SOA Architectes divided the apartments across three volumes. To the west, the two smallest blocks sit at an angle on either side of a central circulation space and bike parking area topped by garden terraces.

To the northeast, the largest block connects to the central space via a small link bridge on the first floor, with an angled spiral staircase leading back down to ground level.

A landscaped path provides routes between and around each of these blocks and to the adjacent housing developments on the site.

SOA Architectes decided to break up the mass of the building in an effort to "not monopolise the park".

The apartments themselves are organised as duplexes, allowing for the creation of double-height living rooms on the ground floor that overlook the park through large, wood-framed arches.

Balconies cut out of the corners of each block create covered terraces for the upper levels of the apartments.

"To disappear at eye level and blend into the plant masses, the bases of the buildings are treated with large double-height arches," explained SOA Architectes.

"Their proportion reflects the size and shape of the gaps left between the trees."

Externally, a cladding of concrete panels is enlivened by thin metallic strips, intended to help break down the mass of each of the apartment blocks by reflecting the trees and sky.

"This hybrid material, both concrete and evanescent, anchors the construction as much as it melts it in the kinetic reflection of its reflective lines," said the studio

Each block is topped by a butterfly roof, another strategy to reduce the visual dominance of the buildings and "increase the feeling of intimacy".

Previous projects by SOA Architectes include the 21-storey mixed use Aya Tower in Beirut, for which the studio drew on traditional Arabian houses.

Other social housing blocks featured on Dezeen include La Brea Affordable Housing in West Hollywood and The Caserne de Reuilly in Paris, which were featured as part of Dezeen's Social Housing Revival series.

The photography is by Camille Gharbi.

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Architecture practice Studio Locomotive has completed Tree O'Clock, a "communal hub" topped by rooftop gardens for an upcoming housing development in Thailand.

Located in Phuket City, the centre provides the Villa Qabalah housing – which is due to complete at the end of 2024 – with a restaurant, bar, gallery, workshop, health studio and gardens, open to residents and the surrounding community.

"The venue design challenges the conventional value quality of housing development, often gated and self-contained," said Studio Locomotive.

Tree O'Clock comprises three blocks that intersect at their corners, with the L-shaped spaces where they meet used to shelter gardens, raised terraces and areas of stepped seating.

Inside, the central block contains a sculptural, ziggurat-like staircase, mirroring the external forms and lit by high-level windows and a skylight that look out to the rooftop planting.

A bar is tucked behind this staircase, framed by the inverse of its stepped form, and on either side sits a small gallery space and additional seating area.

In addition to providing an amphitheatre-style seating area, the central staircase leads up to a rooftop terrace and a yoga studio, offering views out over the development and a nearby forest.

While the internal spaces were conceived with certain functions in mind, Studio Locomotive designed the centre to be easily adaptable according to the community's changing needs over time.

"Alternative entryways and paths, amphitheater staircases, divisible space, and furniture arrangements favour Tree O’Clock’s regular use and productive repurposing," explained Studio Locomotive.

"Programming for indoor-outdoor interactions sparks social connectivity and enriches a sense of belonging."

Externally, the three blocks are enlivened by a variety of finishes, with a base of rough stone and white render and upper levels clad in vertical planks of black timber.

Inside, the space's intended flexibility is echoed in the simple, white-wall finishes and wood-lined ceilings, with full-height windows providing views out across the surrounding gardens.

In line with plans for the rest of the Villa Qabalah development, Tree O'Clock is topped by numerous planters and trees, for which residents will manage the upkeep.

"Rooftop planters perform as the organic insulation and solar filter, benefiting from year-round tropical rain while providing green shading, evapotranspiration cooling, and moisture storage," said the studio.

Elsewhere in Thailand, IDIN Architects recently completed Harudot, a cafe with open-topped gabled forms, and Looklen Architects has createn a sunken glass cafe surrounded by a stepped circular landscape.

The photography is by Beer Singnoi.

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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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Hungarian practices Hetedik Műterem and Studio Konstella have revamped and extended the Normafa Ski Lodge restaurant in Budapest with the shingle-clad pavilion, which aims to evoke "the purity of a mountain hut".

Located in Normafa Park to the west of the Hungarian capital, the heritage-protected lodge, which now contains a restaurant, dates back to the 1930s.

Hetedik Műterem and Studio Konstella were tasked with improving its public access and facilities after years of modifications while expanding it with a multipurpose structure.

"The building itself was aggregating many layers of different modifications throughout the decades, making it less and less open to public access," project architect András Bartha told Dezeen.

"We found a very rational and elegant space structure at its core, which was easy to follow, and restore," he continued.

"The biggest challenge was to remove all the unwanted clutter from the building, while preserving the essence of the place."

The original layout of Normafa Ski Lodge has been maintained. The central restaurant and bar space has been revamped, flanked by two wings of visitor facilities.

At the back of the existing lodge, a glazed link connects to the extension, defining a paved courtyard space between the two that provides outdoor seating.

The timber and steel structure of the new building, which is named Forest Pavilion, has been left exposed internally to frame the single, open space.

This is intended to be used as an additional dining space for the restaurant, as well as for conferences, workshops or weddings.

To the east, the curved edge of the pavilion has been finished with a glazed corner that can be fully opened out onto the adjacent courtyard in summer. To the west, an almost fully-glazed wall looks out over the forest.

While the lower level of the pavilion is largely glazed or clad with vertical timber planks, its upper level has been wrapped with timber shingles that will slowly weather and turn grey over time.

"For the pavilion – as a reference to the original setting – we aimed for the purity of a mountain hut, featuring bare timber surfaces and load-bearing structure elements as protagonists in the space," explained Bartha.

Other projects recently completed in Budapest include the House of Music by Sou Fujimoto, a museum topped by an undulating roof punctured by numerous holes, and the W Budapest hotel, which occupies 19th-century Drechsler Palace.

The photography is by Balázs Danyi.

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Architecture studio Buzz has transformed three sunken courtyards created for an underground car park into gallery, event and activity spaces for Beijing MAHA Arts Centre in China.

Collectively named the Hermit Space, the three venues are each designed with a distinct atmosphere and intended to "seamlessly integrate" with the parkland surroundings.

"We attempt to investigate whether other spatial categories can be inspired or filled by art and content to further extend the new forms of art space," explained Buzz.

"[The project] aims to connect art spaces with nature, communities, and commuting routes, creating links between two points," it added.

The largest and most central venue is Islet Space. It is enclosed with a sloping grass roof surrounded by a ring of skylights that illuminate the main gallery space and cafe below.

A staircase framed by stone-clad walls surrounds its roof, leading down into the white-walled interior where sliding glass doors connect the gallery and cafe.

"Standing inside, one can see a large open void space illuminated by natural light, creating the impression of a floating metal island in a halo of light, hence its name," said the studio.

"The central design of the main exhibition hall echoes the design of the top, creating an exhibition scene with a similar sense of floating," it added.

The second courtyard, named Cave Space, has been topped by a curving concrete roof that blends in with the park to create a small hill, with a glazed cut-out bringing light into the installation and media art space below.

Inside, the white walls of the Islet Space have been swapped for continuous, curving surfaces of exposed concrete, intended to evoke a cave.

"Its form originates from a smooth curve, as if splitting open a gap in the ground, and the entrance naturally winds its way down into the building," explained Buzz.

"In the afternoon, sunlight filters through the surrounding buildings, shining into the gap in the ground, leaving behind swaying tree shadows."

The smallest of the three Hermit Space venues, the Ravine Space, is topped by a skateboard area and contains an indoor climbing wall and activity room below.

Surrounding a square in the centre of the park, each space is designed for visitors to encounter as they stroll through the park, or can be accessed more directly via the car park beside which they sit.

"The underground parking lot is traditionally seen as a building's negative entrance," said the studio.

"However, today, the underground garage has become an unavoidable path for people's comings and goings, even serving as a crucial interface for entering communities," it added.

Buzz was founded by Ziyu Zhuang in 2016 and has offices in Beijing, Shanghai and Berlin.

Other re-use projects recently completed in Beijing include FOG Architecture's transformation of a historic courtyard house into a flagship store for a fragrance brand and Approach Design's retrofit of a former police station into an office and urban park.

The photography is by Yumeng Zhu unless otherwise stated.

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UK practice Levitt Bernstein has completed its refurbishment of the Grade II-listed Bristol Beacon, creating new interiors for the "grand and impressive" historic concert venue.

The new spaces mark the second and final phase of the project, which began in 2009 with the creation of a new foyer building for the venue containing cafés, bars and improved access to venues.

Levitt Bernstein was tasked with an extensive programme, which included renewing the existing music halls and backstage spaces, remodelling underused cellar spaces to create a club-style venue and the insertion of a new restaurant.

All of this was to be achieved while retaining and reinstating the historic, heritage-listed character of the building, which dates back to 1867 and is known for its Bristol Byzantine styling – a form of Byzantine revival architecture popular in Bristol.

"Much of the finest original fabric and character remained behind and within later alterations, and we were able to conserve and uncover it, or reinstate it accurately from onsite evidence where it had been lost," associate director Mark Lewis told Dezeen.

On the ground floor, the former box office space has been replaced by a new restaurant and bar, on view to the city behind a newly glazed "shopfront" created by stripping away previous additions to reinstate the hall's Colston Street facade.

This leads through to the Lantern Atrium, a new centrepiece for the building organised around a steel and glass staircase that provides clearer orientation through the building.

"When first built the public areas were very grand and impressive, but this had been diluted over time by later structural and decorative alterations," Lewis told Dezeen.

"This part of the building has been dramatically open-up and flooded with daylight, allowing views from the street through the restaurant and up into the Lantern Bar and Atrium," he added.

In Bristol Beacon's largest hall, Beacon Hall, Levitt Bernstein introduced a new timber-lined interior within the existing masonry walls, with balconies shaped to optimise acoustics and removable seating for flexibility.

Alongside the Lantern Atrium, the smaller Lantern Hall has also been updated, intended for use for more intimate concerts and events.

In the cellars, space has been made beneath the brick arches for a suite of music education spaces and an intimate venue for 100-250 people that can double as a rehearsal or break-out space.

The new spaces contain a series of commissioned artworks that reference the history of the building, including ceramic tile murals by artist Giles Round in the foyer and an ash wood sculpture in the basement by artist Frankie Boyle.

Levitt Bernstein is a London and Manchester-based landscape and architecture practice that was founded in 1968.

Previous projects by the studio include a perforated metal-clad science facility in France designed in collaboration with TKMT Architects and an aluminium-clad energy centre for the University of Liverpool.

The photography is by Tim Crocker.

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The rough finishes of an existing concrete and brick structure are contrasted by white exhibition spaces at Arario Gallery in Seoul, completed by Japanese studio Schemata Architects.

The gallery is located at the rear of the Space Group Building, a modernist icon in South Korea that houses the Arario Museum.

Designed by architect Kim Swoo-geun, the grey-brick, heritage-listed building was completed in the 1970s and converted into the museum in 2014.

Alongside this building is a glazed extension from the 1990s by architect Jang Se-yang, a student of Swoo-geun, as well as a traditional South Korean home, or hanok, which was relocated to the site when it reopened in 2014.

Amid this architectural backdrop is a brick and concrete structure added to the site in the 1980s, which Schemata Architects was tasked with converting into the Arario Gallery.

"It was a great challenge for me, a Japanese architect, to work on the third building – excluding the hanok – especially after seeing the perfect contrast between the two buildings already created by the master and the disciple," said Schemata Architects Principal Jo Nagasaka.

Looking to create a space that "looks unchanged on the outside", the studio retained the building's structural frame and dark brickwork, originally chosen to complement the Space Group Building.

"In this context, we thought that inserting another unique feature into the landscape would not be appropriate," explained Nagasaka.

Organised across four floors and a basement level, the white-walled gallery spaces sit alongside the existing staircase, lift, service and storage areas, where the structure's rough material finishes have been left exposed.

In these more industrial-feeling spaces, walls have been made using plywood on metal frames. Teamed with metal doors and white metal balustrades, they deliberately stand out against the "skeleton" of the existing building.

In the basement, the dark grey brickwork of the adjacent museum is mirrored in a brick floor that extends throughout the space.

On the third floor, sections of the exterior wall were removed to create a full-height glass wall in the VIP area. This looks out towards the nearby Changdeokgung Palace and a surrounding park, also visible through windows in the stairwell.

"In this way, we established repetitive patterns where visitors would emerge from the white cube into a skeleton space and see the palace beyond as they ascend to the upper floors," said Nagasaka.

Schemata Architects is a Tokyo-based studio, Founded in 1998 by Nagasaka after he graduated from Tokyo University of the Arts.

Its previous projects include a public bathhouse in Tokyo finished with turquoise tiles and a hillside guesthouse and bar for a home on the coast of an island in the Seto Inland Sea.

The photography is by Yongjoon Choi.

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Architecture studio Gurea Arquitectura Cooperativa has completed The Cork and Wood House, a home in Spain that is finished with a raw palette of materials.

Located in the farming hamlet of Navajeda, the 175-square-metre home was designed by Gurea Arquitectura Cooperativa to have a minimal impact on its rural surroundings, both visually and in terms of its construction materials.

It has a prefabricated frame of laminated wood and is clad almost entirely in cork panels that echo the colours and textures of the area's traditional stone buildings.

"It is a small village with a strong rural character, with small houses made of stone, and at the same time with a close relationship with the natural landscape," architect Darío Cobo Calvo told Dezeen.

"With the same contemporary attitude, we wanted to be careful in the way housing was inserted in the village, concerning the proportions, the position of the buildings, the size, the materials or leaving the terrain unaltered, as if the house was carefully perched on the site," Calvo continued.

"It is important to emphasise that this is a home to inhabit permanently, not a holiday house to be isolated – there is a desire to be part of a community."

To "let nature in", The Cork and Wood House's single-storey gabled form is bisected by a kitchen and dining area with a double skin of sliding doors. These lead onto a concrete patio at either side, allowing the level of exposure to the outside to be controlled.

The first set of doors opens onto interstitial, semi-outdoor areas, while the outer doors, finished with corrugated plastic and metal for an industrial feel, lead to the external patios.

Above the dining area, a section of the corrugated metal roof of the home has been swapped for the same corrugated plastic as the doors to act as a large skylight. The adjacent kitchen is more enclosed.

"One of the major challenges was how to design, within a simple volume, with very strict proportions and apparently closed, a house that was the opposite – complex, permeable, generous, open to nature," said Calvo.

"On the one hand, the materials are rough and natural, which give an interior atmosphere of shelter," Calvo continued.

"On the other hand, light and transparent materials let nature enter in every space, so everyday experiences are intensified, such as looking at the sky, listening to the rain and looking at the big trees and mountains on the horizon."

To the east of the central area is a more enclosed lounge with a mezzanine library area accessed via a spiral steel stair, and to the west are two bedrooms.

The Cork and Wood House's interior spaces are finished with concrete floors and plywood panels on the walls and ceilings. In the kitchen, blue-green coloured cabinets are complete with grey-stone tops.

Other projects that have recently made use of cork cladding include a home bordering a national park near Madrid by Estudio Albar and an extension to a home in London by Delve Architects.

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Our next Social Housing Revival series case study looks at the development of a series of favelas in São Paulo by Brazilian studio Boldarini Arquitetura e Urbanismo that take a new approach to informal settlements by prioritising social, communal spaces.

Beginning in 2008 and still ongoing, this project seeks to address the issues of displacement and forced eviction that plague Brazil's unplanned neighbourhoods by going beyond structural or infrastructural improvements.

Named Cantinho do Céu – "A Place in Heaven" – the complex is comprised of three informal neighbourhoods bordering São Paulo's Billings Reservoir.

The area grew in the 1970s when developers illegally sold the land to those who could not afford to live in central São Paulo, and today it is home to some 70,000 people.

Despite the launch of the ambitious Minha Casa, Minha Vida (My House, My Life) social-housing programme in 2009, informal settlements like these continue to fulfil a vital need for affordable housing for millions of Brazilians.

A lack of land rights mean favela communities are vulnerable to eviction and so many fight for regularisation but this also risks increasing the threat of gentrification and drawing these settlements into the same land and property systems that caused their existence in the first place.

At the Cantinho do Céu Complex, the Municipal Housing Secretariat of São Paulo (SEHAB) decided to take action in the face of a public civil action that would have led to residents being evicted from the area.

Using studies and guidelines developed by the SEHAB, Boldarini Arquitectura e Urbanismo was tasked with upgrading the area so that its residents could remain safely and with formalised land titles.

In particular, the municipality wanted to redevelop the reservoir waterfront – with the area not only at high risk of flooding but at also in danger of contaminating one of São Paulo's key fresh water supplies and nature reserves due to a lack of basic sanitation.

Boldarini looked to not only provide infrastructural improvements but also to consider how the complex might be better integrated with the surrounding city on its own terms, rather than forcing a model of "normal" urbanity onto it.

"Faced with the challenge of intervening in this area, which is a target for public civil action, consolidated, densely occupied, environmentally fragile, with large territorial dimensions and direct access to the Billings Dam, new, experimental projects were necessary," explained the studio.

"Against the current of what has been occurring with new private developments, these interventions seek to highlight the importance of public, collective space both to the city and to society," it added.

"This is guiding thread of the Cantinho do Céu urbanisation project: to reveal the importance of public and community space to the local population, transforming it into the main instrument for qualification of the neighbourhood."

The scheme is focused around the most vulnerable area of the complex at the reservoir's edge. Due to the risks of flooding and being unable to integrate into a new sanitation system, the buildings that sat directly on this bank were demolished and their residents rehoused.

Using the space created, Boldarini created a vast, linear park that would both help restore some of the ecological balance to the area and also provide all residents with a social space fostering a closer connection to the waterfront.

This stretch of park was split into two categories – preservation and conservation and leisure and recreation – with the creation of a wooden jetty enabling residents to swim and sit by the water as well as areas of stepped concrete seating, winding paths and decked activity spaces.

"There was a certain surprise in witnessing the beautiful scenery of the reservoir, contrasting with the precariousness of the settlements and the limited leisure opportunities established between the local population and the water," studio founder Marcos Boldarini told Dezeen.

"The opportunity presented itself in the possibility of leveraging the proximity to water to create leisure and recreational spaces, promoting greater interaction of the population with the water."

Moving further inland, new roads, alleyways and stairways were introduced to provide better access throughout the complex and between its outer edges and the new reservoir park, based on the routes that already existed rather than relying on alterations to the layout or organisation of the site.

For areas of heavy traffic, asphalt was used to create more hardwearing roads, while more pedestrian routes were paved with concrete with a drainage system in the middle so as not to disrupt the doorsteps of the adjacent homes.

Gestures such as this were an important part of the studio's recognition of these infrastructural elements as not just circulation but as important social and gathering spaces.

"This valuation of public space, understood here as the set of elements capable of supporting the widest range of collective daily manifestations – streets, alleys, squares, parks – tries to rescue the sense of belonging to the city as a basic condition for the development of future generations," said the studio.

"The Cantinho do Céu intervention has thus been working based on an understanding of the importance of this settlement by virtue of its scale and location in an area which is environmentally strategic for the city of São Paulo," it added.

As a visual signifier of the area's transformation, the facades of the buildings looking out towards the reservoir have been painted in solid colours and striped patterns.

The project is being completed in six phases, with phases three, four and six currently in progress. More than 10,000 families have reportedly benefited from improved living conditions so far.

Social Housing Revival

This article is part of Dezeen's Social Housing Revival series exploring the new wave of quality social housing being built around the world, and asking whether a return to social house-building at scale can help solve affordability issues and homelessness in our major cities.

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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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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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We continue our Social Housing Revival series with a look at the Caserne de Reuilly, the transformation of a 19th-century barracks in Paris into hundreds of affordable homes that is emblematic of the city's effective approach to retrofit housing.

Located in the 12th arrondissement of Paris, the project was completed in 2020 for the country's largest social landlord, Paris Habitat, which manages some 124,000 homes in and around the city.

The Caserne de Reuilly now provides nearly 600 homes – half social and student housing and the remainder a mix of assisted and rent‑controlled housing – alongside a nursery, artist's studios, shops and community spaces, all organised around a public courtyard at its centre.

Led by French studio H2o Architectes, six European teams were invited to contribute to the project: LIN Architects, Agencie Anyoji-Beltrando, Charles-Henri Tachon, Office Kersten Geers David Van Severen with NP2F, MIR and Lacroix Chessex.

The recent history of housing in Paris is one familiar to many European cities: soaring rents and land prices have long been forcing residents into the suburbs, while the blocks built during the postwar period suffer from poor maintenance and standards.

In Paris, the concentration of affordable and social housing in its urban peripheries and suburban "grands ensembles" has historically made the divide between the centre and its edges especially pronounced.

In 2022, Paris set a target for 40 per cent of homes in the city to be affordable housing by 2035 – 30 per cent of which is to be socially rented – set to be achieved through the retrofit of disused offices, hotels, garages and schools.

This goal is highly ambitious, but over the past two decades the city has been home to some to the most effective examples of housing refurbishment and retrofit, spearheaded by the likes of Pritzker Prize-winning studio Lacaton & Vassal.

It is this recent legacy that the Caserne de Reuilly continues, tackling a complex site that was not only home to heritage structures but suffered, due to its history as a military site, from an insular, closed-off layout that needed stitching back into the city.

"It was an inward-looking, impassable site – a break in the dense Parisian urban fabric," explained Office Kersten Geers David Van Severen associate Justine Rossillion.

Eschewing the design of large, monotonous blocks, H2o Architectes tasked the team of architects with creating what it termed "autonomous ensembles," recognising that there was no single type of apartment to be provided but rather a diverse range of needs and desires.

To allow for the creation of these ensembles, the site was divided into six lots – one for each team, labelled A to F – that either involved the renovation of one of the site's existing structures, a new build, or in several cases a combination of the two.

In order to establish a common language and set out a series of guidelines, all of the practices involved took part in an extensive series of workshops.

In the words of Lacroix Chessex director Hiéronyme Lacroix, "[The lots] were like a hollow tooth that we had to fill. This supra-order was stronger for us than the envy to shine as an object."

In addition to the new buildings, a landscape strategy was developed by D&H Paysages, which saw the site's central courtyard transformed into a large urban park opened up to the surrounding city with a series of new through-routes and paved squares.

At the original entrance to the barracks along the site's eastern edge, comprising lots D and E, two historic gatehouses were retained and refurbished by MIR to house shops and spaces for local events. 

Setting the tone for much of the work at the Caserne de Reuilly, MIR's approach was characterised by a blend of careful restoration with simple, volumetric additions.

Two concrete, arcade-like additions overlook the courtyard, each comprised of eight bays that match the existing building's eight windows and topped by a public roof terrace.

"The extensions are designed as two prisms respecting the symmetrical system of the barracks," described the studio. "These two prisms have an identical purity but they offer a subtle variation in terms of concrete shades."

Looking across the central courtyard to plot B, the long, western wing of the barracks was restored and extended by Agencie Anyoji Beltrando.

Much like the entrance pavilions, the studio kept one original facade facing inwards towards the courtyard but created a new elevation of zig-zagging concrete and steel balconies at the rear, overlooking a new paved route along the site's edge.

"To avoid the effects of facadism – indiscriminately merging contemporary interventions and heritage actions – we proposed a contrasting intervention clearly separating restoration and contemporary interventions," the studio said.

The western route below these balconies is bookended by two new entrance squares, overlooked by the pink-toned lot B1 by Charles-Henri Tachon to the north and the more angular, stacked form of Lacroix Chessex's lot F to the south.

Responding to the mixed context of both new and old found on the site, Lacroix Chessex looked to create a building that was "deliberately not standardised", with each level or facade featuring different sized windows or cut-outs for terraces. 

Inside, apartments were organised on the corners of the plan to maximise natural light and the need for corridors, with large double entrance doors intended to give the homes a similar luxurious feel to bourgeois Parisian apartments.

"For us, the construction of social housing should make you forget that it's social housing," Lacroix told Dezeen.

"The solid concrete of the facades was sandblasted to give a stone aspect to the prefab, giving them the appearance of granite construction."

"To give to this architecture the sensation of a certain nobility and perennity is a social gain," he added.

At the northern wing of the barracks on lot A, Office Kersten Geers David Van Severen and NP2F added two simple volumes raised atop concrete bases on either side of the existing building.

The simple facades of these blocks feature oversized openings that align with slightly higher ceiling heights for the apartments in a focus on interior generosity rather than external expression.

"The rough-cast concrete plinth stopped by a long balcony refers to the composition of Haussmann facades, comprising a ground floor with a 'bel étage' below the long balcony on the second floor, but it also echoes the base of the existing Caserne building," Office Kersten Geers David Van Severen's Rossillion told Dezeen.

Lastly, on plot A to the south, LIN Architects flanked a wing of the existing barracks with two blocks, one stretching to create a new street front with deep-set window reveals, and the other smaller and wrapped by balconies.

Each of the new buildings is topped by a green space, combining open terraces for residence with spaces for growing vegetables and fruit.

The top photo is by David Boureau.

Social Housing Revival

This article is part of Dezeen's Social Housing Revival series exploring the new wave of quality social housing being built around the world, and asking whether a return to social house-building at scale can help solve affordability issues and homelessness in our major cities.

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Terracotta-coloured render made from local soil covers the curving, concrete structure of Hampi Art Labs, an arts centre in Karnataka by architecture studio Sameep Padora & Associates.

Hampi Art Labs is designed by Sameep Padora & Associates to appear as though it was "born from its surroundings" near the village of Hampi, a UNESCO World Heritage Site in India known for its historic Hindu temples.

To achieve this, the studio took cues from the area's topography and history, as well as its modern condition as a more industrialised area.

Hampi Art Labs' undulating form references the nearby Tungabhadra River, while its distinctive colour was achieved using iron oxide sourced from the nearby JSW Vijayangar Works – one of the largest steel and cement-producing facilities in India. Earth excavated from this facility was also used as concrete formwork.

"The incredible riverine landscape of the Tungabhadra river and her gentle sculpting of the surrounding hills was the inspiration for Hampi Art Labs," studio founder Sameep Padora told Dezeen.

"With the JSW industry plant nearby, we had access to steel and cement for the building, and we used the excavated earth from the site itself to make formwork for the casting of the building’s fluid forms," he added.

Hampi Art Labs was commissioned by the JSW Foundation – the social arm of Indian conglomerate JSW Group – for both the production and display of artwork.

It provides workshops for printmaking and sculpting in stone and metal alongside galleries and educational spaces for schools and the local community.

Smooth white-plastered walls inside the centre mirror the curving form of the exterior, while full-height glazing overlooks small courtyard gardens created by the snaking shape of the building's plan.

"The form of the building is an abstract 'space of flows' through which people move," said Padora.

"The gallery spaces are atypical, punctuated by courtyards bringing natural light into the interiors of what would have been otherwise standard linear black box spaces," added Padora.

Hampi Art Labs opened to the public on 6 February 2024 with Right Foot First, an exhibition of work from the Sangita Jindal Collection, and its first cycle of artist residencies.

Padora established his Mumbai-based practice in 2007.

Previous projects by the studio include a stepped Hindu temple complex in Andhra Pradesh and a school library in Kopargaon that is topped by an undulating brick roof.

The photography is courtesy of JSW Foundation.

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Chinese studio Wutopia Lab has used wave-shaped roofs of blue aluminium and translucent fabric to transform an industrial yard in Shanghai into a mixed-use cultural space.

Named Klein Blue Hills and White Cliff after its distinctive roofs, the project is part of a wider initiative to turn the former campus of the Shanghai Marine Instrument General Factory in Pudong District into a creative industry park.

Wutopia Lab focused on a former service yard and duty office at the site, transforming it into a multipurpose square with bold red concrete surfaces.

"I conceived the plot through symbols, metaphors, mythology, charms, history, and spontaneous ideas," said chief architect of Wutopia Lab Ting Yu,

"The knowledge I gained in selecting structures, materials, site analysis, and historical typologies served as a secondary framework between the plot and the design," he continued.

Wutopia Lab's design involved the introduction of two pavilions on either side of an existing brick chimney, which has been repurposed to house a skylit cigar lounge that will act as a signpost or "lighthouse" for the area.

To the north is Klein Blue Hills, topped by an undulating roof covered with aluminium scales in a vibrant shade of blue, informed by the signature colour of French artist Yves Klein.

A fully glazed wall with a wave-like pattern fronts this space, overlooking the red-coloured square onto which it opens through golden doors.

Inside, Wutopia Lab left the steel structure of the building exposed and painted it white. A large circular window is positioned at the rear.

"I designed the roof of the architecture as an undulating mountain shape, resembling a tent settling on the site," explained Yu. "Special structure and curtain wall consultant FLO suggested arranging aluminium panels in a pattern of fish skin to conform to the undulating shape."

Opposite, the smaller White Cliff building is positioned over a circular pool of water. It has a solid gabled form, surrounded by translucent polyvinyl chloride (PVC) plastic for a tent-like look, and will be used as a whiskey bar.

"A translucent PVC fabric curtain wall outlines the white cliffs whereas the interior is a solid geometric form," said Yu.

This space has also been finished with a simple, white interior, contrasted by a bold, tiger-print floor and a gold metal-framed glass door.

Wutopia Lab was founded by Yu with Min Erni in 2013. Nearby, it also recently completed the Copper Blockhouse, another multi-functional creative space designed as part of the former industrial park's transformation.

Its other recent projects include Shanghai Book City and The White Section Homestay.

The photography is by CreatAR Images. 

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