“I’m happy with my wife,” says Dutch architect Wiel Arets, “because we are comfortable together and yet she still challenges me. Every day we discover something different about each other. This is how architecture should be.”

The two-story house opens out to views and light by the careful placement of thick, UV-resistant, double-paned transparent glass walls alternating with translucent and opaque glazing. The skin encloses irregularly shaped volumes where a poured-in-place concrete structure of columns and slabs allows spaces to have an open plan. Since Arets placed the columns to be as unobtrusive as possible, the central staircase, made of Corian-covered plywood and suspended from the second floor, provides a dramatic sculptural element.