For the expansion of a 1970s-era kit house on the East End of Long Island in Southampton, New York, architect Paul Masi looked to the structure's muscular prefabricated components for design cues—a choice that ultimately informed the look and feel of the addition’s bold new kitchen, completed last year.
Site size: 3.5 acres Project size: 2,400 square feet Program: Bud and Colleen Konheim asked Specht Harpman Architects to design a light-filled, yet private modern cottage on a wooded site adjacent to the Saugatuck River in southwestern Connecticut. Location: The house is in a river valley, a steep 80-foot drop from the main road along the ridgeline. Solution: The architects immersed the concrete and glass house in the landscape so that a series of green rooftop terraces gently step down from the street to the river below. The house, T-shaped in plan, consists of two perpendicular rectilinear volumes: The first,
Project size: Covered space 2,260 square feet; Terrace 5,600 square feet Program: A family living in Taiwan wanted to give new life to a crumbling, redbrick farmhouse on their lush, tropical property. In 2009 they commissioned Finnish'based firm Casagrande Laboratory to design the project. Location: The property is located on a hilly site in Yangmingshan National Park outside Taipei, where jungle encroaches upon the house. Solution: Completed in 2013, the renovation and addition, dubbed 'Ultra-Ruin,' melds jungle, decay, and new construction. The new building envelops the old farmhouse in a horseshoe-shaped series of rooms, terraces, and porches, creating what the
Site size: 19,042 square feet Project size: 7,500 square feet Program: When the clients, Thom and Sarah McElroy, purchased a half-acre wedge-shaped lot overlooking the Pacific Ocean in coastal California, they asked Ehrlich Architects to design a contemporary house for indoor-outdoor living. The clients, who swim or surf daily, wanted panoramic views of the water, sustainable materials requiring little maintenance in the salty air, and a design that adhered to a strict 11-foot height limit set to preserve views throughout the gated community. Solution: The house, a series of rectangular volumes united by a flat roof, is organized around a
Project Size: 1,290 square feet Program: Architect Johan Selbing and landscape architect Anouk Vogel conceived the Mirror House in 2006 as a winning entry in a competition to design experimental single-family houses for a new housing development. The brief for the competition, titled De Eenvoud ('simplicity'), called for designs with a strong relationship to the site. After winning the competition, the designers then had to find a client themselves, and construction began in 2012. Location: The house is located in a clearing in the Noorderplassen-West forest outside Almere, a city east of Amsterdam known for experimental residential projects. Solution: The
Project size: 6,383 square feet Program: The clients asked the architects to design a new beach house on a steep site that would maximize sightlines to the sea and surrounding landscape. Location: The house is located in Zapallar, an upscale beach resort town on the Chilean coast. Solution: The house, composed of two levels of overlapping rectilinear bars, capitalizes on views, sunlight, and wind exposure. The upper level is bent at an obtuse angle, and rests partially on the lower level at the south end, while braced against a rock at the north end. Because the upper level straddles a
Site size: 60 acres Project size: 1,400 square feet Program: When architect Brian MacKay-Lyons heard that a 180-year-old schoolhouse from his childhood hometown in Nova Scotia was in dire condition, he intervened. The architect and his wife, Marilyn, decided to purchase the schoolhouse and convert it into a charming winter home for their family. Location: Mackay-Lyons, principal at MacKay-Lyons Sweetapple Architects, dismantled and transported the schoolhouse from its original site in the middle of a pasture in Chebogue, Nova Scotia to the architect's farm in Kingsburg, nearly 200 miles away. In its new location, the schoolhouse is part of a
Tatiana Bilbao encloses each programmatic area of Casa Ventura in connected pentagonal volumes that sit high above Monterrey, Mexico. The mountains outside Monterrey, Mexico, offer city views and forested vistas, but the terrain ruled out the one thing that the clients, a couple with six children, had their hearts set on: a house all on one level.
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