The Nook Residence is a chameleon designed to disappear into the snowy landscape it rests in. A thick white cloak is interrupted only by sweeping panes of taught glass and the warm yellow light that permeates through. MU Architecture took setting to heart when they designed this snow-covered home in southeastern Canada, turning its back to the street in favor of the breathtaking mountain scenery behind it. It’s a unique modern masterpiece with a welcoming winter home wrapped in a stunning architectural shell. Continue reading →

The Enclosed Open house makes no mistake about what lies at the essence of its design: an introverted central courtyard that opens to all sides creating an oasis for light, air and views to the sky. Wallflower Architecture designed a modern day mansion – a sprawling collection of rooms and halls that terminates from all directions at the structure’s center oculus. The owners wanted a contemporary home with an emphasis on security and protection without sacrificing light, view and landscape. A contradictory set of criteria, to be sure. Continue reading →

The Twins represent a playful homage to traditional architecture in the form of two stripped down volumes that separately embody the 6 year old crayon drawing with a red chimney with squiggly smoke pouring out of it. Set in Caraquet, New Brunswick, Canada, together they form a contemporary beach house designed by YH2 that nods to the past while creating something entirely new. Continue reading →

As an ode – and perhaps out of respect – to Frank Lloyd Wright’s storied mid-century “prairie style” home – this modern renovation retains the character and formal expression of the existing house while performing on it the modern facelift it deserves. Architecture Open Form lead a team of designers keyed in on preservation and modernization, resulting in a stunning transformation of a historic 60 year old home. Continue reading →

The KL house embodies a quintessential architectural dichotomy: design something bold and interesting without sacrificing formal and cultural tradition. The clients wanted a house that, put bluntly, looked like a house. Bourgeois / Lechasseur Architects succeeded in establishing a firm compliment of old forms and new ideas. It is a house with character, functional logic and a stern sense of place. It is a house that looks like a house, but also shows what’s possible when you teach an old dog new tricks. Continue reading →

The Riverview House by Studio Dwell jumps off the page – not because it does any one thing the best, but because the perfectly crafted sum of its parts results in a modern masterpiece that embraces its surroundings and defines what it means to live in comfort. The home sits neatly on a low ridge that overlooks a grassy slope down to the Fox River in Wayne, Illinois. Views and transparency are central to the design, but what happens within the walls is what sets this project apart from other contemporary homes. Continue reading →

The Seed of Time gives us a bizarre look at what happens when architecture meets science fiction. It’s an experiment in materiality, light, space and color and presents something utterly otherworldly and unconventionally exciting. Designer GG-loop went beyond tradition with this refurbishment project in Altamura, South of Italy. The exterior and interior tell two separate stories: the former about street presence and urban interaction, and the later about sensory inhibition and spatial perception. Continue reading →

As part of a massive urban revitalization undertaking in suburban Paris, Macro Lot A5 is the first of a handful of new structures to be built over the next decade. Macro Lot A5 is one of three sectors that occupy land formerly home to a Renault manufacturing factory, and are to be developed with housing, schools, and commercial structures. The multi-family complex, designed by Tetrarc, consists of four stark white apartment buildings with an obvious flair for the unconventional. Continue reading →

From afar, the Skywalk looks more like an abandoned winter waterslide than something conceived inside an architecture office. Towering high above the snowy peaks overlooking a mountainous region in the Czech Republic, the structure is designed by Franek Architects, and is a study in human procession, structural expression, and preservation of both view and landscape. It is a whimsical manifestation of an adolescent imagination, complete with a 101 meter long stainless steel slide for those who are not faint of heart. Continue reading →

THAT House by Maynard Architects embodies the cheekiness of its name with a unique and stunning modern design unlike anything you’ve seen before. It’s comprised of three primary cubic volumes, all of which open to the entry facade with wall to wall panes of taught glass. The house isn’t exactly huge by luxury standards, but what it lacks in size it more than makes up for in style. The focus was to provide the clients with ‘just the right amount of space’ – a goal achieved with just a little of this and a little of THAT. Continue reading →