According to architect Jacopo Mascheroni, people from the village of Brusino Arsizio, Switzerland (population 475), have been trying to get a glimpse of the house he designed for Nicoletta Messina, a financial consultant, and her family. The 3,700-square-foot polygonal glass pavilion and garden above a partially buried lower level is almost hidden behind walls on a hill. An engineering feat resulting in an innovative modern artifact, it is unlike any other house in the village.

Mascheroni, who worked for Stanley Saitowitz/Natoma Architects in San Francisco and Richard Meier & Partners in New York City before founding JM Architecture in 2005 in Milan, admits that his client was brave. “I asked him for a house with many large windows,” says Messina, “and then I gave him carte blanche.”