The House Tours

Can a house be fun? Should architecture be an attraction? This is a house with a slide, but this slide is not there just for the attraction, it is an integral part of the architecture.

From the outside, the house looks like a modern building with white façade and with no sharp edges.  In the inside, it is a house with vertical communication all around and its turns define the outer curved corners. The actual space of the house is wrapped with staircases on one side and the slides on the other. This way, through stairs, slides and corridors that connect them, forming a tunnel by the outer wall, you can walk all around the house. Walk up the stairs and take a slide down to make a full circle by the outer wall.

And children can run all around the house, literally around. This gets us back to the fun and attraction. Owned by a family with small children this house certainly is a place that will provide many positive childhood memories. And this was the first input for the architects. The slides that may be children’s favorites but also have a functional part and they, just as stairs on the other side of the house, connect all three levels. With this functional part in mind, that can be seen in the structure of the house, we can say that this is not a house with slides – it is a real slide house. Read More

A45 is the first prototype of a tiny house that will be able to be purchased and built on any location within 6 months. This is a general design that can be customized for future owners, but it is perfect just as it is.

The design rises from a typical A-fame cabin that is remodeled in a contemporary manner. The traditional roof is twisted 45 degrees and this helped in getting bigger height for most of the cabin area providing better use for the square surface under the roof. This twisting aspect is where the redesign shows best as the house appears in a crystal shape losing the triangular view.

What is also retained as characteristic of a cabin, is the use of wood widely visible inside the house. This keeps the feeling of natural environment with the essence of Scandinavian design. Nature in the interior is emphasized in materialization using pine for exposed timber frame, cork for the walls providing natural insulation and Douglas fir floor. The house is a single space with a small bathroom, a kitchenette and features a fireplace as an essential part of a traditional house. Interior elements and furniture are created in collaboration with different designers.

The house is designed in modules that are produced in advance to be assembled on spot. Its unique design makes it applicable in any urban or natural surroundings. Design and materials are the great qualities of the house, not to mention that the owners will live in a “starchitect” signature design. Read More

Living in a cave? Only a few millenniums ago it was prestigious. So how would it be to go back to the roots? How different are prehistoric cavemen from those with smartphones?

Brick Cave is an urban cave resembling house made of bricks. Different brickwork in the walls, unexpected angles, connected different shaped spaces are main characteristic that vindicate the concept of a cave in the house design. Connection to nature and surroundings is another thing that is present all around.

The house has a double brick wall for a façade, making a corridor on the ground floor. The walls connect at the top as the outer wall leans in, in different angles. First layer wall façade openings are perforated brick wall parts through which the light comes in well enough to light the space, but they also serve as a shield from the heat. Perforations are smaller on upper floors to create more privacy, opposite to those in the ground floor living area, where they are bigger, seen as a connection to the street. On some parts, they are also designed to let the rain through, making this unusual connection with nature.

The cave effect continues inside as all interior walls are also done in brick and additional materials are wood and glass. Spaces are connected and movement through the house finishes finding an exit from the cave to the garden roof. It resembles the garden that was there before the house but also gives an illusion of going out to the natural ground exiting the cave. Read More

Social networks brought wide popularity to brutalism in the new millennium. In the era when raw concrete buildings are fighting to be saved and preserved, this house is introducing raw concrete in a contemporary manner that also deserves to be praised by all the “concrete lovers”. Joining traditional house with a modern architecture through a contemporary interpretation of landscape, architects achieved a great design value, fulfilling sustainability standards.

The house appears in three levels descending down the hill through cube volumes starting from the “traditional house”, on the top. In this rhythm, it is following the landscape embracing it rather than confronting it. With combination of raw concrete and corten panels, it is making a contrast to the surroundings, but also creating a setting for the nature to enter inside the house, as the façade concrete segments can be seen as frames of giant window surfaces that are invited the nature in.

Interior is mostly minimal and in glass and concrete, opposing the view through the windows. It is a rough contemporary ambient placed in the countryside. And while brutalist architecture concrete walls are being covered all around the world aiming to reach insulation standards, here GGBS concrete is used as a part of a contemporary insulation scheme. The house has green roofs set on flat surfaces that can be seen as garden terraces too. One courtyard garden is accessed only form the master bedroom and the office. It is another traditional element in a contemporary ambient. Read More

This Shipping Container House houses two shipping containers on both sides of the central area. Containers may seem small but they were big enough for gathering two bedrooms and a bathroom in one, and kitchen, service room and an office in the other. Living room with dining space occupies the central area that has a master bedroom in the loft second level.

The house is positioned on a cliff with entrance on the ground. It is supported with pillars on the other side, creating the impression of an observation deck. It is located in the mountains and the view from this cliff is the living room key element.

But it is not the only reason for this orientation. It follows the demands of green architecture for better insulation. The house has green roof and also cladding is applied on façade, so the insulation demands are the reason why containers are not obvious in the exterior. Solar power systems provide for electricity and heating and the house functions completely off-grid.

Even if the house is green in philosophy and technical characteristics, in the interior design it seems nearly high-tech. This is not in relation to the flat façade where the containers are entirely covered. Inside the containers are left raw and loft floor construction is visible, so as the ventilation pipes. Big living room windows are designed as garage-style doors. With industrial floor, the whole space has a cold metal appearance. In contrast with rocks and the mountains, this makes a unique joint ambient. Read More

Squeezed between two traditional houses on a residential area street, this house is nothing traditional. At the same time, it is just what it is. It accommodates all “traditional house” spaces such as living space area, bedrooms, parking lot, garden and even a pool. All that is designed on a 7x20m meters plot.

From the street, the house looks like a group of terraces one on top of the other. And they are filled with plants. This first impression does describe the house. It was supposed to provide a natural environment with lots of green open space. The design is a floating space of open and closed areas in a continuing garden. Its track starts from the entrance gate and ends on the roof terrace. It goes through terraces and different closed space volumes connected with a central staircase.

Instead of a garden on the ground or roof, the garden is all-around. It gives an image of a vertical garden with plants appearing on different levels terraces. The plants are also technically contributing to the house as shades and insulation and more importantly providing a desired natural environment that puts a house inside a garden and not a garden around a house.

This garden doesn’t stop at the entrance door. It engages the whole house. Interior surfaces are done in wood, concrete and mostly in local brick, chosen to cut the expenses. But also this gives an “outside feeling “ inside, and with indoor plants and those seen through big window surfaces a complete impression of living in a garden is accomplished. Read More

Red house is a red cube within green trees. It is implemented inside the surrounding that is a characteristic landscape of New Zealand. Making a deep contrast to this landscape, it also fits in it in all its redness, nearly as an attraction.

In terms of form, the house is an abstract cube with staircase attached on the back side. This cube is breaking the woods, it is leaning on the woods, it is coexisting with the woods. It stands out in the woods with its intense red color.

Vast flat red iron façade surfaces are broken in a rhythm of lines as the sheets of corrugated iron are appearing horizontal and vertical in random order. Openings, including skylights, are big enough for bringing lots of light inside. Trees that are so close the windows become a part of the interior through the glass.

In contrast to the container impression from the outside, the house is a complete opposite in the inside. Interior is completely done in wood, in deep relation to the surroundings. Living area is on the second floor and organized as an open space with lots of lighting. Enjoyment in the woods continues on the roof terrace that becomes the highlight during summer with lots of sunshine through the trees. To keep this environment untouched around the house, the architect created an access pathway through the trees.

Considering limited funds for the project, this house once again proves that valuable architecture is not equal to a huge investment.  Read More

What is the world’s narrowest house? In case you wondered, yes you can find the answer listed in Guinness World Records. Keret House is officially for the City of Warsaw an art installation because it does not meet local standards for built objects.

In practice, it is both. It is a piece of architecture, a house for living, but also a piece of art. It was initially the artistic concept of the architect questioning the limits and demands of living space in terms of dimensions. Also, having in mind its location it is questioning the urban structure of Warsaw after all the postwar constructions and reconstructions. It is built between two buildings from two periods.

The house joins a work of art and a work of architecture in one, if, ironically, anyone ever for any reason tries to see these two separately.

It is a temporary living and working space for artists in a residency program and it covers all the needs. Some are very limited such as a table for two maximum and a fridge for two drinks. The space is very vertical with a triangular section and there are two levels connected through a ladder.

The narrowest house in the world measures 92 cm on the narrower and 152 cm on the less narrow side. It is accessed through stairs that become part of the living space floor. It has two small windows and lateral light over translucent panels. Interior is all white, ideal for a small scale. Its name is after Etgar Keret, Israeli writer and the first inhabitant. Read More

What is the central part of a house? The roof is the right answer for the Roof House. This particular family had a special joy in spending time together on the roof, and that was the first input for the architect in the process of design.

The roof has its own table, chairs, kitchen, shower, and a stove. This makes it comfortable and an equal part of the house comparing to the inside spaces. It is accessible from every room in the house through the skylights. Every skylight becomes an access point to the roof through a ladder, and each family member has one of their own. This describes a clear concept of the Roof House and the importance of the roof for every family member so as the family by itself.

Even if the roof is a central gathering place of the house it is also the continuing part of the living room. They share the simplicity in design and also have in common the fact that they are both accessible from any other room. This provides full freedom of movement through the house.

Wooden minimalist interior design follows the Japanese philosophy about living space environment and connection to nature, also through the roof. What separates this roof form any other roof terrace is that it is not plain. It is a “proper roof” without parapets. This is another thing that underlines the clear design concept of the architect. Read More

Living on a tree comes from a distant past and still may be a vivid fantasy of a child. That people came from nature describes this house. Although not resembling a tree itself, a tree was a pure inspiration written in its concept.

Without proper floors, stairs and walls, mostly all wrapped in transparent glass, the house stands out in a residential street nearly as an experiment of modern urban society. The 21 levels are in different sizes and heights, allowing users to see them as parts of floor, benches, tables, beds. Their use is mostly not determined in advance and this structure of a house in levels allows full freedom of movement and enjoyment in company or privacy. That privacy is rather spiritual than physical, just as staying on different branches of a tree.

Construction in thin white steel frames allows full transparency that is seen as the advantage, considering the overall light and unusual appearance on the street. In an eccentric way, this transparency becomes a disadvantage for conservative views regarding housing, surely not the owners, a young couple.

The transparency “issue” is being solved during the night using curtains, visually determining private space from the public. This doesn’t change the fact that the interior stays public to its users as the whole house, even closed outside, can be seen as one single space. This is the main advantage and characteristic of the concept of a house as a tree allowing full freedom in using the space without boundaries, just like in nature. Read More