Their cocoon design creates a space like an art piece by translating the round shape of cocoon as an eco-structure design. This seaside condominium provides a self-sustaining creative business resort located in UNESCO Heritage Jeju Island. The volcanic island Jeju where this house is located has a unique forest called ‘Gotjawal’ with mild temperature and high humidity throughout the year that enables coexistence of diverse living things. An open air pocket pool enables swimming with the feeling of enjoying the nature of Jeju island.

The house is a high-end condominium located in ‘Gotjawal Village’, the first phase of the ‘Jeju Airest City’. ‘Jeju Airest City’ is the biggest integrated resort development in the history of Jeju island comprising various resort facilities including shopping mall, casino, hotel, medical center, and new concept of condominiums under the concept of a ‘Creative Business Leisure City’.





Via [archdaily]

The architect has preserved the wildness of the land although they have planted more than 500 trees. The walls have been doubled to help deal with the climate creating high-rise rooms and sun protection.

Three white steel frames seek the longitudinal axis of the house from the center of the field. On the right side of the Guard house, two mixed cubes are close to a totem fireplace and face a double garage. These simple elements articulate the vacuum around the development and focus the eye towards the house itself.

Via [e-architects]
photos by Jean-Marie Monthiers

Belzberg’s description:
Nestled between cooled lava flows, the Kona residence situates its axis not with the linearity of the property but rather with the axiality of predominant views available to the site. Within the dichotomy of natural elements and geometric hardscape the residence attempts to integrate both the surrounding views of volcanic mountain ranges to the east and ocean horizons westward.

The program is arranged as a series of pods distributed throughout the property, each having its own unique features and view opportunities. The pods are programmatically assigned as two sleeping pods with common areas, media, master suite and main living space.


A central axis becomes the organizational and focal feature for the entire house, connecting each of the pods through an exterior gallery corridor. To help maintain the environmental sensitivity of the house, 2 separate arrays of roof mounted photovoltaic panels offset the residence energy usage while the choice of darker lava stone help heat the pool water via solar radiation. Rain water collection and redirection to 3 drywells that replenish the aquifer are implemented throughout the property.

Reclaimed teak timber from older barns and train tracks are recycled for the exterior of the home. Together with stacked and cut lava rock, the two materials form a historically driven medium embedded in Hawaiian tradition. 3-D modeling and digital fabrication through CNC machinery was incorporated to further enhance traditional elements in a contemporary arrangement. Local basket weaving culture was the inspiration for the entry pavilion which reenacts the traditional gift upon arrival ceremony. CNC milled ceilings and screens throughout the house continue the abstract approach to traditional Hawaiian wood carving.

Instead of a typical closed gable facade, the mirrored gables creates a sympathetic transition between built and landscape and reflects the surrounding park, playground and activity. Windows and doors are integrated in the wood-clad facade behind facade shutters with varied bent mirror panel effects. At night the shutters are closed making the building anonymous. During the day the building opens up, attracting the children who enjoy seeing themselves transformed in all directions.

With simple means it has succeeded to transform an existing, sad and anonymous building to a unique and respectful installation in the newly renovated park. The roof and facade is clad with heat-modified sustainable wood and the gables and shutters are clad with mirror polished stainless steel. The Mirror House is a flexible space and restrooms, used by kindergarden classes.


Photographs by Laura Stamer

“The small house which the married couple and their child live stands at the densely populated area in Tokyo. Though the neighboring houses is very close, I aimed to design the house which exceed the physical narrowness living at the city.

I laid out the 4m×4m building that as small as I can at the center of site area 34m2 and made some space for flowing of light and wind around it. And by making the space, it’s possible to avoid setback regulation and it has the 9m high volume like a tower.

The inside is simple structure what is separated by the 4 floor boards and is jointed by spiral stairway. Especially, by making some extremely thin floor boards (thickness 70mm) , the up and down floor boards got close and connected the whole space of the house without a break.

The space of around the house is useful to let light and wind in.
The wall of the rooms borders the outside, so I put windows in the best position that harmonizing with its surroundings. And the window is so big against the small room, every time the window opens or closes, the inside view dramatically changes. Especially, at the second and third floor there is a large hinged door each room, if it is opened, the inside of the room is enveloped in light and wind as if you are outside.

By making the thin floor boards for connecting with their life and making the large windows that are opened toward the city, I aimed to exceed the segmentation, for example the up stair and the down stair, the inside and the outside, a building and the town, etc… to broaden the whole image of a house.”

Via [Home Design]
+Unemori Architects

Brick Kiln House by SPASM Design ArchitectsThe lighting is exuberant and the materials of the interior and furnishings are modern once more, with a saturation of wood and metal especially. The main aspect of the interior however, is the swimming pool.

“Located in Khadakvasla, near Pune: on the leeward side of the Western Ghats…

In the vast openness of the surroundings, it made sense to trap a mysterious forest of dense green by stringing the rooms around it, as a Shangri-La against the infinite. This courtyard allows for a private dip in the thicket of the lush vegetation.
The verandah, with its timber lattice, sets a backdrop that negotiates between the enclosures and the central courtyard. This transitional space op dappled shade promotes a lifestyle in close connection with the outdoors.

The living room, a counterpoint in the house, is a tall glass box which will throb with the flickering of the fireplace on cold evenings and will frame the changing hues of the sky as the sun sets.”

Via [Contemporist]

The project area is of about 370 square meters, which have been efficiently divided into four separate homes: the first floor with its 80 square meters can comfortably host a small family of three, the two smaller studios on the intermediate level are ideal for young couples while the last and most spacious floor of 115 square meters is a stylish and sophisticated duplex, perfect for tenants with extravagant tastes.

The choice of materials contributes to the final sculpture-like character intended for the edifice: by using a black reflective metal to cover the external facade, an intense contrast with the adjacent houses was produced.

Live Work Home, a winning design proposal from Cook+Fox Architects in the From the Ground Up Competition in Syracuse, New York, has been awarded LEED-NC (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design for New Construction) Platinum certification, the highest possible rating by the United States Green Building Council (USGBC). On Friday, November 11, Rick Fedrizzi, President, CEO and Founding Chair of the USGBC, recognized this notable achievement by presenting the LEED Platinum certificate to architect Richard Cook in Syracuse.

Completed in late 2010, the Live Work Home considers the longevity and livelihood of the Near West Side of Syracuse, NY, a shrinking city affected by the migration of significant industry throughout the 20th century. Today, the neighborhood faces high unemployment rates and lacks space for creative industry. Affordable housing alone does not respond to the needs of the neighborhood; its vitality as a community is a question of sustaining livelihoods and the social diversity. Just as pockets of extreme blight and vacant lots can weaken a neighborhood, adding density to the small-lot patterns of Near West Side with mixed social and economic activity will re-energize the community.

Inspired by the legend of the Three Sisters, a lesson in strengthening agricultural biodiversity, the flexible home “seeds” the neighborhood with many different building types, driving a positive cycle of long-term investment. Essentially a small modern loft, the simple and flexible construction of Live Work Home–a column-free structure with sliding doors and mobile partitions–was designed to address a range of uses over time and allows for a lifetime of waste-free remodeling. This 1,400 square foot project reconsiders the understood definition of “home” for a new, urban context- and demonstrates how small-scale sustainable architecture can be delivered at the highest level.

“Our beds are empty two-thirds of the time. Our living rooms are empty seven-eighths of the time. Our office buildings are empty one-half of the time. It’s time we gave this some thought.” -Buckminster Fuller, I Seem to Be a Verb, 1970

Grounded in ideas of healthy living and biophilia–our innate human need to connect with the natural world–the home is also a response to Syracuse’s climate and ecology. The city’s long, light-starved winters make daylighting a top priority, thus the house is placed to maximize solar exposure, lit with direct and diffused daylight from skylight tubes penetrating the roof. A perforated screen wrapping the western and northern facades bounces daylight into the house and filters light through adjustable rotating screens along the western side. Inspired by the natural beauty the pattern of dappled light filtering through a tree canopy, the custom-designed screen draws from Janine Benyus’ research on biomimicry, which teaches about taking design cues from nature. The screen also features a large, garage-type front door, which can fold down to create an open-air anteroom of “prospect and refuge.” Acting as a front porch, this space creates an ethic of “eyes on the street” that helps residents feel safe and engaged with the sidewalk and street.

The long, narrow site suggested an exploration of linear archetypes including the Haudenosaunee longhouse, Syracuse’s original vernacular form, which is easily lengthened or shortened with changing family dynamics. An open, linear plan was chosen to achieve the greatest possible flexibility at the least expense and to allow residents to “age in place,” which encourages long-term residence and intergenerational living.

It was especially important to consider long-term operational affordability during the design-process when addressing the needs of a diverse population of potential occupants, including students and aging residents, and low-tech passive strategies became the foundation of the home’s green design concept and affordability. A high-performance building envelope constructed of Structural Insulated Panels (SIPs) saves energy, improves comfort, and reduces both construction waste and on-going costs of ownership. A heat recovery ventilator circulates healthy, filtered air year-round. During hot summer evenings, the garage door can be closed, allowing front doors to remain open for natural cooling while maintaining privacy and security. Efficient, hot water-based heating is delivered through a radiant floor, which also allows maximum flexibility in room planning when compared to standard forced-air systems.

Beyond affordability, the concern to build for longevity and sustainability necessitated the healthiest possible indoor environment for the homeowners. Materials were chosen to protect the indoor air quality by reducing the risk of moisture, mold, and the off-gassing of harmful chemicals. Following the deconstruction of the original home sitting on the lot as well as a nearby warehouse, old-growth pine and hemlock were salvaged and repurposed into the floors and cabinets, part of a broader ethic of waste-free modeling and re-use for Live Work Home. To address stormwater issues, the functional landscape design includes low-maintenance, drought-tolerant native grasses and rain-barrels.

Local nonprofit Home HeadQuarters managed the construction process, which included training for a team of construction apprentices, cultivating a workforce for future sustainable building projects, and creating much-needed green-collar jobs. Homeowners John and Kathy Miranda moved into the home in November 2010 with the intention to fulfill the home’s flexible layout to house an environmental consulting business, a small office space, and personal living space for the couple.

Following the From the Ground Up jury process, longtime Near West Side resident and juror Carol Horan said, “I went back to the neighborhood where I’ve been living for 37 years and looked at it with new eyes, paying more attention to details that I had never noticed before. My fondest wish for this neighborhood, and indeed, the whole community, is that we all look with new eyes.”

http://cubeme.com/blog/?s=NendoTo express the original brand concept of “becoming beautiful through movement”, we chose the theme “rock-climbing in Omotesando” and developed a design that uses the mismatch between a rugged outdoor sport and Tokyo’s fashion district to its advantage. Instead of the usual rough and outdoorsy climbing wall, we came up with the idea of using interior design elements like picture frames, mirrors, deer heads, bird cages and flower vases to create a challenging wall with hard-to-find holds and unusual finger grips. We hope that our uniquely Omotesando-style climbing wall inspires newcomers to try out the sport, and starts a new wave in fitness with style.

With an ideal climate for much of the year, a primary design driver was to create a seamless connection between inside and outside, while eliminating the need for air conditioning. To this end, a central sculptural staircase links the ground floor with the rooftop deck, while doubling as a chimney to draw cooling breezes through the house. On the main floor, a sequence of pivoting doors opens the house to the courtyard, while on the second floor, windows fold back and full-height exterior panels slide into walls. A system of cedar battens serve as a shading device along much of the addition.

The volume of the new master bedroom extends out from the second story, creating a carport below. Its exterior is clad with a living wall system on three sides, visually tying together the courtyard greenery with the planted roof. All landscaping is fed with a combination of captured rainwater and recycled domestic greywater. The roof’s softscape is divided between a highly productive vegetable garden and indigenous, low-maintenance grasses and shrubs. The roof also supports a solar panel array that is sufficient to meet household needs.

The house features a high-efficiency combination boiler, which supplies both radiant in-floor heating and domestic hot water. A hot water recirculation loop makes hot water available “on demand,” while reducing consumption. Other features include low-flush toilets and non-toxic, low-VOC finishes, which are used throughout the house.

Bricault Design

Gehry has accomplished: the finest skyscraper to rise in New York since Eero Saarinen’s CBS building went up 46 years ago. At 870 feet tall, New York by Gehry is the tallest residential tower in the Western Hemisphere and a singular addition to the iconic Manhattan skyline. For his first residential commission in New York City, master architect Frank Gehry has reinterpreted the design language of the classic Manhattan high-rise with undulating waves of stainless steel that reflect the changing light, transforming the appearance of the building throughout the day.

The Panteón Nube located in Murcia, Spain and built by studio Clavel Arquitectos is a modern tomb, which features an asymmetrical design and ambient and an ambient light provided by the onyx stone. The tomb’s entrance can only be opened by turning its four doors in a certain way.

Clavel Arquitectos say:
‘In this project we worked with two images.The first one was the medieval unfoldable boards, which used to work as removable façades or altarpieces, and now get remade in the zigzag façade. Death inspires human beings with something between mystery and fear. To die means a transition between this world and others that nobody knows. The tomb is where this transition takes place. In this project we worked with two images.

The first one was the medieval unfoldable boards, which used to work as removable façades or altarpieces, and now get remade in the zigzag façade. Death inspires human beings with something between mystery and fear. To die means a transition between this world and others that nobody knows. The tomb is where this transition takes place. In this project we worked with two images.

The first one was the medieval unfoldable boards, which used to work as removable façades or altarpieces, and now get remade in the zigzag façade. Death inspires human beings with something between mystery and fear. To die means a transition between this world and others that nobody knows. The tomb is where this transition takes place.’