It is 96 sq. ft. and has a 50 sq. ft. loft where I have my bed and store my clothes. I call my house “Nido” which loosely translated into Italian means “Birds nest.” The house sits on the lakeshore and views of the lake can be seen from both the bottom floor and the loft.

The bottom floor is pretty much a lounge/living room where I lay back and enjoy the starlight along with some smooth jazz. The house is designed to maximize the allowed 96 sq. ft., acoustics and to bring in as much as possible of the natural light and nature during the night as during the day.

VillaLola by Arkis Architects is built with a frame of sustainable goal settings. Villa Lola is clad on the exterior with Larch-wood. The larch is weathered to its nature gray-ish color, forming a natural weather protection. All loadbearing members are of wood except for one concrete wall, used for stabilizing the structure, and a concrete foundation. Flooring is of robust wooden boards and concrete terrazzo.

Inner walls are gypsum surfaced stud frame walls painted with environmentally friendly paint. All windows are of wood, clad with aluminum on the exterior. During the construction process the plot was carefully protected and the working space around the building was minimized. During construction, all waste was carefully sorted and appropriate materials sent to recycling. The building is specially designed as a low maintenance structure.

The client requested the possibility to divide the house into three spaces, or apartments that could be enlarged or reduced as needed. Villa Lola is 128m² of gross floor area. Another request from the client was to use low maintenance materials and to develop an inclusive approach with regards to the site and building. Based on these requests the design process started.

The design of villa Lóla was an especially enjoyable dialogue process between client and architect. Various ideas of materials, concepts and techniques where discussed in the process. Inspirations range from Swiss mountains cabins, a sea ranch in Sonoma County in California, and Japanese solutions in spatial efficiency. Furthermore, the framing of views was an important topic of discussion.

The natural surroundings of the site and the fjord of Eyjarfjördur were key factors to address.

Via [archdaily]

Whangapoua is a Prefab Hut built by Architects Crosson Clarke Carnachan on the shore of an idyllic white sanded beach in New Zealand’s Coromandel Peninsula rests an elegant hut. Closed up, the rough macrocarpa-cladding blends into the landscape and perches quietly on the dunes, as passersby wonder how it could possibly function for a family of five.

Designed to close up against the elements, the hut measures a mere 40 square metres and rests on two thick wooden ‘sleds’ that allow it to be shifted around the beach front section. This innovative portability is a response to the ever changing landscape that line the beachfront in this coastal erosion zone.

Within the hut, the ingenuity reveals itself further as no nook or cranny is overlooked. Every available space has been utilised, right down to the secret individual cubby holes hidden in the children’s bunk room.

For these clients it was all about the real essence of the hut; small, simple and functional. The hut comes to life when the enormous shutter on the northeast façade winches open to form an awning, revealing two-storey high steel-framed glass doors that form the main entrance. The hut then transforms into a sun drenched haven, opening up to the views of the surf and the distant Mercury Islands.

The mezzanine bedroom is accessed by climbing a wall-mounted ladder through a closeable hatch, it shares the same view as downstairs through the huge glass doors. Climb the ladder again and you arrive on a roof terrace which catches rainwater for the gravity tanks behind.

From the industrial style fittings to the quirky furnishings, this whole structure plays with the idea of the most egalitarian of Kiwi recreations and embraces and challenges the image of the traditional ‘Kiwi bach’. Small, simply and elegantly self-contained, this tiny elegant hut strips holiday living right back to basics.
Via Mocoloco

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

VIA [Oddity Central]

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.

“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

Hakansson Tegman House based in the city of Höllviken, Sweden has been completed by Johan Sundberg. The clients commissioned a modern and nature-oriented one story house where sensuous qualities were the most important parameters throughout the design process.

The architects says:
“Höllviken south of Malmö was originally a seaside resort, but the forested rows of summer houses are continuously being transformed into a carpet of permanent housing. The site is a somewhat complicated corner plot with roads to the north and west.

The project was commissioned by a couple who wanted a modern and nature-oriented one-storey house where sensuous qualities were the most important parameters throughout the design process.

The contemporary house is angled around an inner garden and, much like the Bergman Werntoft house, rests on the tradition of the Danish atrium house from the 60s and 70s. Three small bedrooms crowd together in the northern wing of the house, while the western wing is a continuous sequence of spaces consisting of a kitchen, dining room, library, living area, and winter garden.

The outer walls along the streets are clad with Pedersen clay bricks working as a screen. The stucture is a steel-enforced timber frame. Windows and sliding glass doors are made from Schüco aluminum profiles. The front and garage doors are custom made from ammonium smoked oak. Images courtesy of Henrik Magnusson.”

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.”

This refreshing residence with rounded corners and an ice cube aspect is called ‘Lovelli Residence.’ The house built by Word of Mouth Studio, is 3,230 square foot two story home located in Seminyak, on the west coast of Bali.

What brings this light touch to this home are; the perfect proportions, the mix of white and green nature and the fact that all are angles rounded. Word of Mouth Studio has reached a dimension, giving this house a touch’Zen’ in all aspects, both with the layout of the rooms inside, the relationship between indoor and outdoor.


Word of Mouth Studio says;

We believe that space, volume, light and the natural flow around us have a great relevance on the way we feel and behave, so our approach to architecture is to achieve the best possible combination of these essentials in each project. Our designs in architecture are meant for greater interaction, multiple perspectives and contemporary comfort.

Our buildings are not meant to be serious nor heavy, but light and bright, with nature playing a vital role in our designs and in our lives.We are addicted to good architecture and design.

Week’nder by Lazor Office, is the sustainably designed and fabricated modern house, delivered for less. It utilizes the highest quality materials and building standards available, rendered in a casual, approachable, elegant style. Week’nder was fabricated off-site to save waste and reduce the environmental impact associated with site construction. The no-cut design, which conserves material and work, includes 2×6 framing and plywood sheets on concrete piers.

The structure was built off the ground to maintain the existing site; the site has water-permeable gravel in the driveway and irrigation-free native grasses everywhere else.

As the most ‘design flexible’ modern prefabricated home system in the world, you can see that FlatPak components are easily configured to produce unique floor plans, sections and material palettes to suit your specific site and program. Call it “user friendly.”

+ Lazor Office

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.

Although the building has no other windows, natural light enters through skylights atop each of the gables. The reinforced concrete beams funnel natural sunlight into the interior, shifting the atmosphere of the house throughout the day.

Conceived as a series of layers that gradually add more indoor elements, the rectangular layout places the private programs such as the bathroom and bedrooms to the north and communal spaces to the south.




Takeshi Hosaka Architects

Its form derives both from a wish to echo local traditions while providing something ‘refreshingly new’, and from memories of childhood holidays in England, spent in the attic bedrooms of gable-roofed B&Bs.

The upper storey is divided into four bedrooms with en-suite bathrooms, over which the orange steel-clad roof is folded in peaks, and a library space providing access to the roof terrace. Bathtubs are placed in bedrooms rather than bathrooms to take advantage of the views out.

Jarmund/Vigsnæs Architects