Two New York artists, seeking a respite from city life, had lofty energy-saving goals for the renovation of a modest house, built in 1975, on a jagged bluff overlooking Long Island Sound.
A family in Mill Valley, California had Japanese firm Koji Tsutsui & Associates design a structure that would function as both an office and a home so the family could spend more time together.
Site Size: 5,225 square feet Project Size: 1,104.4 square feet Program: The clients—a family with two children—asked Austrian firm Marte.Marte Architects to build a minimal alpine vacation house. Solution: The architects designed Mountain Cabin, a poured-in-place concrete four-story structure in the Laternser Valley in western Austria, which sits on a sloping ravine near a convent near the edge of a forest. Reminiscent of a medieval fortress, the house is a small monolithic tower with a square floor plan. Irregularly placed windows puncture the thick, rough walls and spaces appear to be carved from a solid block, especially at the midsection
After purchasing a picturesque property on Salt Spring Island, British Columbia, Landscape Architect Nancy Krieg commissioned a permanent dwelling by Norwegian firm Saunders Architecture.
“On the first day on the project, we decided to fly it off a cliff,” says Brian MacKay-Lyons, describing the simple wood and steel–frame residence his firm designed.
In Catalonia, architect Ferran Lopez Roca dramatically transformed an ancient farm into a contemporary house for a family, while preserving the structure's historic integrity.