Located on a third of an acre facing a golf course outside Valencia, Spain, the Balint House proves that the most unexpected designs can arise from confronting obstacles. In this case, the problem was a municipal ordinance that limited new houses to one story and a sloping roof. Seeking to squeeze more square footage out of the small site for his clients, a couple with two children, local architect Fran Silvestre came up with the idea of an arched roof, rising high enough to include a full 'attic' floor of bedrooms while still satisfying code. 'We rounded off the shape a little, and everything started coming together,' says Silvestre.

The resulting elliptical structure, with a swooping roof and deep cantilevers over its two symmetrical ends'one facing the street, the other overlooking a pool terrace and the golf greens'could not be more elegant or succinct. It is a solution to which nothing can be added or taken away. The cantilevers protect the large glazed openings below them from the strong Mediterranean sun and provide balconies for the bedrooms, while the curving walls pull the house away from the side yards so it won't crowd the lot. 'It's a kind of streamlining,' Silvestre suggests.