Welcome to the 2018 edition of Record Houses, a perennial favorite among readers. Custom houses are the most personal forms of architecture, obviously, reflecting an intimate collaboration between architect and client (and occasional tension between artistic expression and the desires of the person writing the checks). This year’s winning houses all have powerful stories to tell, from the discovery of the perfect site to unexpected challenges of construction to the transformation of design ideas into habitable space.
A magical setting plays a lead role in the tale of High Horse Ranch in the mountains of northern California, where modules constructed off-site were craned in to minimize disturbing the land and the trees. Meanwhile, a house in Tokyo turns its back to its urban street to create its own scenario as a temple-like enclave in a garden. The designs of other houses are strongly driven by narrative concepts: a weekend place outside São Paulo, Brazil, and a home in Toulouse, France, are designed with a sequence of spaces—compressed and expansive—that create an experience that is almost cinematic.
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