This project is actually house design renovation project to replace a small older style single level house and had to be skilfully designed to adhere to local approving authority’s view sharing policy and ensure minimal view loss to the neighbours behind.

Mosma House Design – Corben Architects

The house design is concealed behind a timber battened garage door and entry gate to the street but then reveals itself as one enters the site and moves through the landscaped garden from the front gate to the front door. Only glimpses of the panoramic water view that lies beyond are revealed along this journey.

It is only upon entering the house and moving into the large open plan Living/Dining/Kitchen that the full impact of the stunning view is felt. The substantial living space with its large sliding windows and high ceilings flows out and becomes one with the outside encouraging the indoor/outdoor lifestyle.

The main entry, two living areas and guest wing are located on the middle level with three bedrooms on the upper level, the main one designed as a luxury suite. The lower level incorporates a large rumpus / media room and store areas.

The building is a simple rectilinear form of concrete and masonry construction, carefully layered with timber battening and sandstone cladding to present a modern home with a focus on natural materials and clear design principles.

The interior finishes incorporate American Oak timber floors to the living areas, Grey Limestone honed stone floors to the circulation areas, Walnut veneered joinery, white polyurethane cupboards, Quartz kitchen benchtops and Marble slabs in the bathrooms to create a contemporary, sophisticated interior with a warm inviting feel.

Energy saving options were adopted including an operable skylight over the central core allowing natural light and ventilation, timber slated screens provide sun control, concrete floors and roof to provide thermal mass and Energy Efficient glazing to the external windows and doors. The house design also consists of a rainwater harvesting system comprising of 30,000L rainwater tank which is used for garden irrigation and flushing of toilets.

The finished house design is a fine example of an understated but luxurious house that takes maximum advantage of a difficult site.

Here are the pictures of Mosman House Design

Visit the Corben Architects website – here or via house design

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In Seattle, many warehouses are near waterways and have territorial views of the beautiful Pacific Northwest. This project is one example of what is possible if we look at these forgotten landscapes as new opportunities. This single family residential / caretakers unit sits on the roof of the Stimson Marina in the Ballard neighborhood.

Visit Miller Hull Partnership website – here or via

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The garage nestled in the back of the house. The Architects wanted to hide the door and decided to clad the whole garage in a natural zinc finish that weathers to a subtle Grey patina. The garage door is concealed and flushed to the zinc cladding, creating a wall of cassette cladded zinc panels. The concept of not visually exposing the doors to the outside was deliberate as I wanted to emphasize the simplicity of the forms and quieten the whole structure. The architectural forms were conceived as large blocks of carved rock. windows and entrances as the carved openings.

There are numerous landscaped elements, such as the textured water wall along the steps towards the front entry, a shallow reflective pond with Gold fish and turtles, segmented raised platforms with each platform holding a different form of plant-life, and with the middle platform holding sand with a 3mx.6m old solid wood pier beam that was recycled from the docklands piers. this quietly sits on the sand as a representation of natures deterioration over time. The letterbox in itself is a sculpture and was thought of as sculptural entry lantern, the pattern was derived from vein structure of a leaf. the sculpture was created by Lump studio a renowned sculpture studio in Melbourne who have completed a number of public installations around Melbourne.

The house from the outside feels quite defensive but as soon as you enter the space it opens up and you have an internal courtyard with a lap pool and a line a bamboo running down the full length of the north boundary. The courtyard is surrounded by the living spaces and therefore you are able to enjoy the views to the courtyard no matter which room you are in. There is fireplace in one of the out rooms which is disconnected from the main building. This fireplace has a glass backing and can be viewed from the courtyard and from any other living space on the ground floor. Visual connection from all rooms but sound separation was important to create a sense of peace.

The interior finishes are quite warm and natural. The timber floor is a French smoked Oak wide board in a lime-wash finish, the grains a lime-wash and emphasized this creates texture, pattern and depth. So one side of the spine is finished in the wood and the other is finished in a Portuguese limestone. The split in finishes emphasize the spine but also reflective the different uses in the space. For instances the limestone falls in the higher traffic areas such as the kitchen, dining, laundry, powder room, corridor and study; Whereas the smoke Oak falls in the lower traffic areas, such as the lounge and family fireplace room.

The House is fully equipped with all modern appliances and technology. I purposely highlighted technology in reflective metal finishes such as polished chrome and glass to create a stark contrast between nature and man. The switches are finished in polished chrome with LED blue lights, this creates highlights and sparkle. Appliances are in metal and glass, window frames are in natural aluminum.

The house is also very energy conscious, all windows have Thermal break frames and are double glazed sealed. the floor is insulated underneath with reflective corrugated insulation paper, the house is fully insulated and is solar heated. The floor is low voltage electrically heated which maintains a steady consistent heat throughout the winter. Water tank is installed under the house and is connected to the garden, toilets and washing machine.

Visit Hirsch Bedner Associates website – Here or Via

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Because the other existing houses in the area sit closer to the street, the current zoning allowed this new design to be built in the front portion of the site. This allowed the architecture to have a dramatic, modern expression while mitigating the sloping front yard and maximizing the private rear yard. A new entrance, placed at an intermediate level, connects the renovated garage to the new living room with a new staircase. This new living room serves as the main viewing platform in the house. Frameless glass walls soar to 12 feet (3.7 m), wrapping the room on three sides, taking in the expansive views of the lush foliage in the neighborhood. A sleek, wood paneled ceiling hovers over the living room and the kitchen, connecting the spaces architecturally, while containing the crucial recessed lighting and ventilation ducts. The centrally located kitchen overlooks the main living room and is able to take advantage of the views to the south while maintaining a degree of privacy with a change in level.

Ascending to the main level, one is greeted with an expansive view to the rear yard. Glass doors slide away to seamlessly integrate the living spaces with outdoors. A generous patio space under the master bedroom provides a cool place to relax in the shade while taking in the California sun. The glass walls at both ends of the house are designed to be open to the gentle sea breezes, allowing the house to naturally ventilated most days of the year.

In order to preserve the views to the rear yard, an open steel staircase drips down from the upper level, inviting visitors to come upstairs. The cantilevered treads are clad in solid walnut, matched to the kitchen cabinets. The stair leads past the double height glass wall, allowing one to take in the view of the minimalist landscape in the rear courtyard. At the top, the master suite moves into the rear yard. This private retreat features a generous open plan with free-standing closets and private balcony.

The master bath is a minimalist expression in marble and glass. North-facing windows over the two-seater tub allow soothing light to enter, but are placed high enough to maintain privacy. An upper level media room spills out with a large balcony over the living room below. This balcony connects across the front of the house to two of the bedrooms. Deep overhangs shade these southern-facing windows, keeping the house cool.

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Monk’s Shadow residence is located in Paradise Valley, Arizona. Designed by Kendle Design Collaborative, this house become the answer of pragmatic response to an challenging site. Why it’s challenging? Because this house should be built on a narrow lot with 60’ of vertical elevation combined with a restrictive Hillside Zoning Ordinance. It seems impossible to built on it. But with the creative design ideas from Kendle Design Collaborative, Monk’s Shadow become luxury house in dry and hilly location.

The house is divided into three main space;
1. Parents zone including master suite, primary family and entertainment functions
2. The teenager zone including bedrooms, game room, pool access and one of two garages
3. Guest zone including a bed/bath suite and small great room that doubles as the owner’s home office.
These zones are stair stepped up the narrow site such that each zone has commanding views of the mountain which embraces them, the valley floor and the distant mountain ranges.

The owner of this house want to make their house become no boundaries with the surrounding. They desire to wake up each morning and see the monk without leaving their bed. Many more decisions would be based on views to the Praying Monk including slot windows above the art gallery allowing the 6’-6” inhabitants to see the Monk as they traversed past their art collection, views to the Monk as they stretched out in the pool or flipped burgers at the BBQ just to name a few. They also wanted every guest to have the Monk be their last view before departing the property.

This relationship with the Monk, and more importantly the site specific, became invaluable in the design of the home. The Owners understood where the shadows of the surrounding mountain fell throughout the year allowing the best placement possible for the pool. They understood that even during the hottest months of the year that at some point during the evening the temperature of the air at the top of the mountain would drop and a cooling breeze would fall down the mountain across their site. They understood that the surrounding mountains blocked many of the lowest sun angles at the end of the day and provided the most amazing sunsets.

As a result the home is designed to breath – to funnel the natural air currents through the home allowing the home to be enjoyed without mechanical air conditioning throughout much of the year. The placement of the “secret garden” further adds to the cooling effect, cooling the air before it is drawn through the primary living areas of the home.

The “Secret Garden”. The home is approached via a somewhat formal car court, devoid of views into or through the home. This provides the owners of this largely glass house a great degree of privacy. Upon passage through an over sized frosted glass pivot door guests are greeted by a linear gallery space with a completely transparent facade facing the Secret Garden, a lush oasis in the desert made up of colorful desert appropriate plantings of a softer nature along with a judicious use of turf. The turf, kept to a minimum, acts as a soft extension of the interior floor area – a turf terrace so to speak. This turf and the water used to feed it, along with the other planting chosen for their ability to hold moisture, actively cool the breezes that are drawn across them before being drawn like a horizontal chimney through the home.

Like many of my projects the roof is celebrated and articulated to form a pavilion, sheltering the interior and exterior spaces below and providing those spaces the freedom to take on what ever shape their function dictates with out interruption from columns and supporting walls. The form of the roof is a direct response to the views, raising up to capture the view up the mountain and reaching out to carry the eye out to the Valley views to the north. The butterfly shape also acts to direct precious rain water to supplement the watering of the surrounding xeriscape landscaping.

The roof of the lowest level forms the deck of the main public/family level. This deck is divided in to a kitchen and dining side that bridges to the main living area deck. All materials are chosen to be in harmony with the natural surrounding. Hard scape, including the concrete pavers on the deck, resemble the finish and color of the natural desert floor. Copper accents weather to a natural patina complimenting the iron rich strata found in the surrounding rock formations. Integral colored hard troweled synthetic plaster is colored to compliment the indigenous creosote, Palo Verde, mesquite and ironwood found on site.

Sustainable features include low-e glazing throughout, zoned high efficiency climate control systems, ample daylighting reducing need for electric light, expanded cell foam insulation providing extraordinary r-values and reduced air infiltration and acoustic benefits, cross air ventilation reducing need for mechanical conditioning, mechanized window shading and deep overhangs to shade and protect openings, exposed concrete floors reducing floor coverings and adhesives, and xeriscape landscaping designed to assist with interior cooling.

The result is a home that unlike many of its more attention grabbing neighbors quietly rests within its natural setting, interwoven with nature, only revealing its most precious gifts to those living within and those fortunate enough to be their guests.

Visit KENDLE DESIGN COLLABORATIVE here or Via

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CS house is a master piece of Pitagoras Architects from Portugal. This project is located in Guimarães, Portugal. The architects choose minimalist style for this CS House, but you can see here that this house looks so luxury. Consists of three level, Pitagoras has success to combine spaces with different size. Like arranging box by box and make it unsymmetrical, become a strong point of CS house.

A large yard exist in the front of this house and the other side we can find swimming pool. Pitagoras know how to make a strong connection between indoor and exterior of CS house. And this purpose become a foundation to design this house. CS house is good for your reference when you want to built minimalist house with unleveled site available.

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The rooftop of this villa is using for sun bathing and offer a greatest view from this villa because we can see wonderful scenery of this location. This villa also completed by swimming pool that works its way through the first volume, across the open space and to the second volume.

The basement of this villa offers other atmosphere to the people inside. The architect incorporated a glass wall that floods interiors with natural light with one reason; to remove dark nuance which usually exist in the basement. Architekt DI Johann Lettner or Via.

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Every volumes of this house is quite simple, and the connection between them allows for a wide spatial variety experiences. When we see this house for first time, we imagine about two ” shadow boxes” connected by a “bird cage”. But this impression will be disappear as soon as you enter this house.

From the interior, the cage is no longer a figure, but rather a looking glass to the outside. The single storied master suite becomes an intimate walnut valise, retreating from the exposed glass living room. A dramatic perforated steel bridge passing through a two-storied screened porch reaches the guest suite. The northern end of the house has a private balcony looking down to the lap pool set into the woods.

Visit Koko Architecture + Design Here or Via

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Description from the architect:
The house is built between two narrow streets in the old part of the town of Lemesos, about 50m from one of the most popular stretches of sandy beach in Cyprus, and just down the road from the house I grew up. The site was previously occupied by an old carob mill that burnt down in a fire in 1989, leaving only the ruins of the stone walls.

The aim was to create a family home for me, my wife, and our four boys. For convenience and privacy, we wanted our place of work to be within the same plot but to have a separate entrance. The building had to fit into it’s surrounding environment of both traditional two storey stone and adobe single family dwellings, and some small old industrial buildings. At the same time it had to be modern, learning from traditional architecture but not copying it. Towards my aim of creating a coherent and safe environment for my family, I drew ideas from my own childhood memories of playing under huge plane trees in a house next to a mountain stream.

Last but not least, I wanted to apply ecological solutions to heating, cooling, lighting and water management.Most rooms in the house face the partly covered internal courtyard. This is a traditional way of building in Cyprus helping to keep the family together and safeguard the privacy of the occupants. A neoclassical proportional system that relates to human scale, is applied to both interior and exterior surfaces and can be seen in plan, elevation and section. (source:contemporist)

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Gebhartstrasse Wooden Apartment is master piece of Halle 58 Architects. This small apartment is located in Liebefeld, Switzerland. Completed with sustainable features, this apartment offer something different with the other. Even We can easily find green space around this building and fell like stay in private residence. The most used materials in this project is wood and glass for the windows make this apartment’s interior warm.

The boat-shaped ground plan of the new wooden house was determined by the shape of the property. The ground plan and elevation show the layout: Three apartments of equal size entirely built in wood, accessible via the concrete staircase,, are perched slightly above the level of the site. The concentration of sanitation and technology services into a compact core, plus a load-bearing facade frees up the interior design of the apartments. On each floor the facade is composed of a combination of wooden framework elements, glazing and entrance doors. What appears at first glance to be concrete cooling fins are in reality made of wood, derived timber sheets and Duri panel particle board.

The building was able to fulfill Minergie-P-Eco standard thanks to minimal thermal bridges, large windows to the southwest, sufficient thermal mass, good daylight utilization and consistent use of ecological materials.

Visit Halle 58 Architects Website – Here

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