Here’s a brief description from the architects if the curiosity kills you:

Magnificent views towards the city from atop Siglap Hill inspired the design. Master and family room are placed on the third level having the best views.

Living and Dining on the second level, connected with external verandahs / terraces that flow upwards and fold into the roof form with deep overhangs for sufficient shade and channeling the breeze through the whole house.

Two resort style ‘Cabana’ bedrooms are located on the ground level by the pool with a large open/covered terrace for poolside parties. A sculptural metal ‘drum’ anchors the ‘ship’ to the ground and houses the toilet/shower and barbeque pantry.

Roof gardens and timber decks provide added insulation from the sun.

Learn more at the Aamer Architects site – here.
Photography by Patrick Bingham – Hall

Lopez Island Residence by David Vandervort Architects

This 1800 sf home is located on a heavily wooded, medium-bank waterfront property on Lopez Island, Washington.  The house is carefully sited amidst the existing trees and the existing land form which slopes up to the bank and view.  Connections to the outdoors and other features of the property informed the arrangement of space and form.  The angle of the living wing corresponds to the bank and creates an embraced outdoor deck area.  The house reaches out to the southeast path to the beach, to the gardens further to the east and most importantly to the west and northwest views of the water.

The structure comprises the main house with an isolated upper level master and the studio which houses his and hers art spaces.  The studio is connected to the house via an arcade which also serves as the main approach to the house.  There are Asian influences to the house, particularly in the entry process – including a Tibetan prayer wheel in a special niche.  The house forms are simple, derived from the site relationships and the desire to maximize daylight.  The materials are honest and enlivening – hard vs. soft, warm vs. cool.  It is a home designed for modern island living.

From the architects:

“An out-scaled structure, like the agricultural buildings that surround it, the house is both traditional in its morphology and innovative in its use of materials. Shingled with raw fibre-cement panels on the walls and roof, it is a house beyond the domestic scale, simple and rot-proof, capable of standing the test of time.

The house is striated with bands of horizontal windows, giant louvers that cut the sun at its most powerful, with new points of view at each level. It is protected by its wimple from the hot summer sun and inundated with light in the winter, needing neither air-conditioning nor heating on sunny days.

The interior is in wood, painted or natural, in planks or panels, composed almost exclusively of made-to-measure furniture pieces:

from the refectory table for meals to the day table with hideaway television set; from the large wraparound couch in the living room to the stainless-steel kitchen island;

from the balustrade bookshelf along the stairway to the wall night-lights made of aluminum panels with cut-outs of fireflies, fish, and frogs;

from wall-to-wall beds where people sleep foot-to-foot to overhanging bunk beds floating in the landscape. It is a playground for architects, children, and adults, a vacation colony lost in the countryside.”

via moco

Atlantic Beach is an established beach community on Long Island, immediately outside of New York City.  It is filled with modest houses from the 1920’s and 30’s in Tudor, Spanish and Art Deco styles.  As real estate prices rose in the last decade, the village saw a lot of “tear-down” activity, as older houses were replaced by much larger homes.

The Kowalewski residence is an attempt to insert a distinctly modern house into the village context in a manner that is respectful of the scale and architectural traditions of the community.  The house does not maximize either the bulk or lot coverage allowed by zoning.

It is oriented with the narrow face – only slightly wider than the former house on the lot – toward the street, with the traditional side driveway and rear garage.  Siting the compact footprint at the north edge of the 85-foot-square lot preserves a wide side garden with mature trees.  In form and materials the house recalls the village’s Art Deco heritage.

The 3600 SF house was designed as the primary residence for a family with two small children.  For privacy, the street façade is nearly blank, while the principal rooms all open onto the garden to the south.

The ground floor has an open plan for casual living and maximum connection to the outdoors.

The second floor a hallway with continuous skylight leads to four bedrooms and three baths.  A sun room / guest suite on the third floor opens onto a large roof terrace with panoramic views of the island and the ocean.  The clients are collectors of contemporary art and the work of some of their artist friends – like the marble floor in the entry foyer – is incorporated into the architectural design.

The structure is steel, with light-gauge metal framed floors and walls and energy-efficient EIS envelope.  Principal exterior materials are stucco, black slate, stainless steel and glass.

The steel and wood stair floats in a tower glazed in shingled panels of frosted glass, like an over-scaled jalousie window.
Visit the Belmont Freeman Architects website – here.

Photographs by Christopher Wesnofske

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The 2200 sq ft house was created by Rick Berry, from Scott Edwards Architecture, is in the heart of the coastal community of Manzanita, Oregon. The composition illustrates the northwest vernacular, including large overhangs and expanses of glass walls, natural indigenous materials for example concrete, and cedar, and multiple opportunities to enjoy the open floor plan both inside and out.

Visit the Scott Edwards Architecture official website HERE.

Courtesy of L.E.FT

The Baabdat Residence is surely an inversion design of the traditional agricultural terracing. This results in stunning 180 degree views out to the mountains beyond, and a camouflaged home from above.

Architects: L.E.FT
Location: Baabdat, Lebanon
Team: Daniel Colvard, Makram el Kadi, Ziad Jamaleddine, Mahdi Sabbagh, Karie Titus, Karine Yassine
Client: P.Baadarani
Project Area: 500 sqm
Renderings: Courtesy of L.E.FT

This program for the home is composed of garage, library, kitchen, dining and living area, and a number of bedrooms.

The cover sweep transforms the house from one floor to 2 floors. Made terracotta fins interlaced with greenery suggest the combining of architecture and landscape. A roundabout fall off is incorporated within its round form.

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Description made by architects:

A house, south of Munich, in a traditionally grown, 100-year-old garden suburb. The plot was large and it was possible to spread out. A totally transparent ground floor with a clearly protruding upper level. The view is focussed on the garden, not the neighbours. The upper storey is a simple white tube with a saddle roof built without disturbing flashings and a flush roof covering made of white fibrous concrete.

The official website of  Bembé Dellinger Architects – here.

Sagan Piechota Architecture have crafted the Otter Cove residence in Carmel, California. Here’s a glimpse on what the house offers.

From the Authors:

Perched atop a rocky outcrop overlooking the ocean, this Carmel residence strives to appear as a natural extension of the landscape while resolving competing private and public concerns.

The large area of the house was disguised by splitting the house into two wings, recessing the house into the site and locating nearly half of the space partially underground. The plan-split created a courtyard, the eastern wing providing privacy from Highway One and the western wing buffering the ocean wind.  Secondary spaces are located on the lower floor and borrow light from above through three staircases. These spaces provide respite from the panoramic drama on the upper floor.

Walls are located only where absolutely necessary for privacy or structure and treated as monolithic elements.  Stone cladding predominates, rooting the house in the site and visually connecting with the rocky cove.

Official website– here.

Photography by Joe Fletcher

Fincube | Studio Aisslinger

German Architecture Studio Aisslinger, comes with a new modular housing prototype, sustainable and transportable.  The low energy house, named ‘Fincube’,  is comprised of thin horizontal “ledges” of locally grown wood that wrap the slightly bulging form.

Fincube | Studio Aisslinger

You can only find this concept cool and interesting, although made out with simple lines and shapes.

What is actually an interesting touch is the  second facade layer, because it provides privacy for the inhabitants and fuses the man-made structure with its natural surroundings.   The home provides 47 sqm of living space with a minimal CO2 footprint,  and can also be easily dismantled and rebuilt on a different site.

The supporting structure is made of local larch and the interior is a combination of larch and stone-pine.  Organized in a helical structure, the entrance area blends into a generous open kitchen with an adjacent living space, and around the corner rests the bedroom.

So tell us your opinion about this house, do you find this sustainable?

You like courtyards, huh? Bet you do, they’re intimate, and have lots of light and atmosphere.

The design we’re talking about has the access to the house through a series of excavated exterior terraces and stairways, across water features and bridges, then down another stairway, finally arriving at a small exterior glass-enclosed courtyard in the center of the residence.

This entry sequence informed the shape of the wood volume as well as the placement and configuration of the concrete retaining walls. Horizontal wood siding assembled with members of alternating depth enhance the notions of texture, shadow and perspective; contrast with the smooth concrete site walls; and ultimately heighten the journey from driveway to center of house.