Modern Austrian House Design | L-House | Burgenland | Austria | Architects Collective,

The two-story house is located on a southwestern slope overlooking the hilly countryside. As is typical for the region, the L-shaped structure forms a protected courtyard to the north. The end of the L-shape cantilevers up to eight meters and forms a covered carport area that allows direct access into the courtyard located behind. The 300m2 indoor area is characterized by an open staircase which connects the two floors. At the pivot point of the L-shape, there is an open area that is intended as a children's play area and library. This is also where all circulation areas and stairwells come together. From this point, the courtyard as well as the living and sleeping areas are all within view. Due to a careful building arrangement, all rooms have access to natural light and can be cross ventilated. Heating of the house is done through a biomass wood chip plant, which is operated jointly with several neighbors. The L-shaped building form is completed by a mirror-like protected square courtyard......more

Housing Estate | Tri House | Kunshan | Jiangsu | China | Atelier Deshaus

In a country housing estate beside the Dianshan Lake, a weekend retreat built for three friends is designed in a minimalist way, totally different from the surrounding villas with sloping roof. The two-story house consists of four cross walls and four longitudinal walls placed on a formal orthogonal grid. The first floor contains the public studio, the kitchen and the dinning-room, and the second floor three individual living units. The horizontal walls divide the vistas and narrow down the view available for the open and flexible ground area, while the vertical walls on the upper level lead the sight across the garden towards the Lake. As a feature of the traditional local residence, courtyards are inserted between rooms to lend sunlight to the north wings. Here, three small yards separated on the second floor form a whole large one on the ground, where dozens of bamboos are linearly planted at the side of the workshop. These bamboos are treated as important space elements to humanize the scale of the yard and create poetic atmosphere......more

Country House | The Tsai Residence | Ancram | New York | HHF architects

The Tsai Residence is a country house designed for two young art collectors. The design reflects their request for a simple and abstract looking piece, almost without scale, sitting on top of the site, which is located two hours upstate from New York City........more

Country House | La Cornette | Canton de Cleveland | Quebec | yh2

Built on the slope of a small hill, La Cornette is a country house open to the pastoral landscape that surrounds it. Under a soaring roof resembling a nun’s cornet wimple is a roomy dwelling modelled on traditional Quebec houses of old that lodged large families and their relatives. This house for celebrations and holidays, designed for two families, is set into the naturally uneven terrain in a way that brings each level into direct contact with the surrounding natural environment. It offers a resting place for all guests under its large gable in a series of bedrooms and unusual sleeping areas. 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:
o from the refectory table for meals to the day table with hideaway television set;
o from the large wraparound couch in the living room to the stainless-steel kitchen island;
o from the balustrade bookshelf along the stairway to the wall night-lights made of aluminum panels with cut-outs of fireflies, fish, and frogs;
o 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.........more

House In Swiss Countryside | FOVEA architects

Located in the swiss countryside, this small dwelling by FOVEA architects stands out with its sharply angled façade.
Facing south, the angled upper volume was developed as a way to balance the need for privacy and light.
Upon the rectangular first floor, the second level is inclined at a 40 degree angle, adding a cozier feeling to the outdoor patio below.
Filled with large windows this façade fills the interior with light and avoids facing other villas being built in the near future.The home was prefabricated and is clad in painted pine planks that allow it to blend in with the rural architecture of the area. the home’s form also borrows the image and function of the eaves found in local farmhouses.....more

Weekend Retreat | Victoria , Australia | Bellemo and Cat

This compact low budget weekender sits in its paddock and silently watches the weather roll over the distant hills. It's a house with various allusions both local (Ned Kelly) and international (burka, woolen tents of nomadic Arabic). The client as a Lebanese-Australian wanted to tie together her interest in working on peace in the Middle East and creating a home in harmony with the forces of nature on this part of the planet. The angle of the sun, the outlook to the view and the collection of water have been the determining principles in the design, as has the idea of duality; The harmony for the entire through the strategic placement of the parts. We have sought to design a building composed of two similarly shaped but distinct parts.
Completed 2007
Location: Rural Victoria
Photographers : Sonia Mangiapane /Michael Bellemo
Source:Bellemo And Cat

Home Conversion | a Home In France | South West France | Kate Hume Design

Set in the rolling hills of South West France, the interior of this 17th Century manor house has been completely re-designed to maximize space and light.
Contemporary furniture from Birdman, mixed with vintage finds and classic upholstery combine to create a relaxed holiday atmosphere and an inspiring environment.
A large kitchen and living space with an open hearth is a charming and practical setting for year-round entertaining.
Text and images from Kate Hume Design

Karim Rashid Country House | Karim Rashid

Karim Rashid Country House

The digital and capitalist ages come together in my 1956 Techbuilt prefab country house. Techbuilt houses were part of a democratic movement in home architecture that started with the "Modern Homes" kit houses from Sears in 1908. I purchased the Carl Koch-designed, yellow and blue panel system house over the Internet. Originally, this house sold for a mere $4,000 and could be built in three days, based on a panel system and post-and-beam structure. There are no first or second floors-a radical concept at the time-just a basement and an attic in a split concept on a single poured-concrete slab. Windows could be placed anywhere in the grid of panels so that each owner could customize his or her house for site-specific views, sunlight, and ventilation. My furnishings and design spirit fuse perfectly with the primary color scheme. The playful refuge is filled with one-off furniture and a custom-designed blobular pool.

Client: Karim Rashid
Images and text from Karim Rashid Website