Luis Fernández-Galiano   Nothing is more natural than artifice. On the one hand, and no matter how much they may appear opposed, nature and artifact need and strengthen one another through their mutual presence: the natural landscape is enhanced by contrast with the geometry

James S. Russell   As soon as I entered the Kaufmann house, I had to stop. Designed by Richard Neutra, and finished in 1946, the horizontal plane of its ceiling drew my eye outward, through an invisible veil of glass to the swimming pool’s blue rectangle, set in a dese

TNA / Takei Nabeshima architects   Japan   Less than an hour from the hustle and bustle of a large city like Tokyo, the small town of Karuizawa offers the natural calm of its dense forests. To adapt to its site, a precipitous terrain colonized by tall trees, the house concentrates its footpri

Pezo von Ellrichshausen   Chile   A couple decided to leave the capital and settle in the slope of a hill covered by a dense jungle of native species. After the first meetings it became clear that the couple’s romantic decision was being replaced by a slight, though persistent, appre

Andrade Morettin Arquitetos   Brazil   Surrounded by the dense vegetation of tropical areas, the summer shelter is close to the northern coast of the State of São Paulo. The building is configured as a shelter from the intense sun and the heavy rains, which however is not incompatible her

Nitsche Arquitetos   Brazil   In the middle of a landscape dotted with summer residences along the coast of São Paulo, Iporanga House is surrounded by a well-preserved and protected extension of Atlantic tropical forest. The exuberant vegetation urged the client to demand a struc

NO.MAD   Spain   To make the most of the qualities of the natural environment whilst minimizing the impact on it was the starting point for the design of this house. To begin with, the volumetric line of the building adjusts to the existing vegetation, permitting the

Durbach Block Architects   Australia   Overlooking the edge of a seventy-meter cliff over the east coast of Sydney, the floor plan of the Holman House spreads its free-flowing forms – which recall the Picasso painting Swimmer – over the boundaries of Dover Heights. Its zigzagging perimete

Tham & Videgård   Sweden   Connected to its environment through a unifying platform, this summer house is located in the furthermost area of the archipelago of the Swedish capital, prompting different interpretations of the relationship between space and natural environment. T

O’Donnell + Tuomey Architects   Ireland   High on a hill in Killiney, dotted with distinctive outcrops of granite, the house opens up to the views southwards of Dublin Bay and the Sugarloaf in the distance. The organization of the house responds to the topography of the site, configuring a s

Álvaro Siza   Spain   Taking inspiration from the precipitous surrounding landscape, on a hillside of the island of Mallorca, the summer house is split up into a composition of volumes that unfurls as one descends towards the coast of the Mediterranean Sea. The house is r

Irisarri + Piñera   Spain   On a deep and narrow plot located in Redondela, a town northeast of the city of Vigo, the single-family house yields before the strong slope of the terrain to look out onto the river, extending its views towards the faraway sea horizon. The layout of

Sou Fujimoto Architects   Japan   The building is located in a privileged site: the southern side of a mountain overlooking the sea in Hokkaido, at the northern end of Japan. The rectangular volume contains two semi-detached dwellings topped with seven sloping pitched roofs whose for

David Patricio Barragán Andrade, José María Sáez Vaquero   Ecuador   In the heart of a mountainous area east of Quito, a concrete platform adapts to the unevenness of the terrain to perform as superficial foundation, also incorporating the trees into the project. The architecture blends into the natural landscape, and

Valdimar Harðarson   Iceland   This house, the owner of which is also its designer, sits on the western side of Midfell mountain, in the southern area of Iceland. Aiming to blend the volume with the intact natural landscape of the surroundings, to minimize its presence and to prot

Architects Bates Maher   Ireland   The three retreat houses or Poustinia (Russian word for desert) are located in a valley between Comeragh Mountains and Slievenamon, in the northern incline of the site. Each residence is orientated to capture different views over the surrounding coun

ARX Portugal   Portugal   The house is located in Sagres, next to Cape San Vicente in the Algarve, in the southeast extreme of Portugal. With a long maritime tradition, the town was chosen by the Infante Don Henrique in the 15th century as seat of the School of Navigation, an

FAR frohn&rojas   Chile   This single-family house goes up on the outskirts of Santiago de Chile. A house that tries to escape the noise from the busy Panamerican Highway to embrace the slow pace of the rural paths, delimited by tall trees that endow it with a more isolated c

HMA Hanrahan Meyers Architects   United States   The 650 square meter house in the town of Garrison, New York, is planned around the contrasting spatial experiences of landscape walls and horizontal decks and roofs. Two parallel walls extend in the direction of the access path and separate the two

Thomas Phifer   United States   Carefully sited to take advantage of the prevailing summer breezes of New York’s Hudson Valley, the house – with a footprint measuring no more than 200 square meters –, is designed as a compact rectangular volume on a meadow with views to a small pri

Hertl Architekten   Austria   The rural areas east of Linz, the capital of the state of Upper Austria, provide the site, delimited by masses of woods, where this cuboid with quadrate floor plan of 15 x15 meter rests. The house is enclosed with copper sheets pierced by openings pl

Ensamble Studio   Spain   Trying to escape the hustle and bustle of the Spanish capital, the house seeks shelter on the outskirts, in the town of Las Rozas. The very name of the house, Hemeroscopium – place where the sun sets –, makes reference to the horizontality underlying

Sean Godsell   Australia   Glenburn is located northeast of Melbourne in the rolling foothills of the Yarra Valley. The site is 20 hectares of farmland with a national forest abutting the north boundary. The house is located at the top of a hill and enjoys panoramic views of q

Terroir   Australia   Located in the rural subdivision of the island of Tasmania, the house in Acton Park explores the relationship between architecture and place by proposing a global answer that integrates both the social and cultural aspects and the characteristics of

Smiljan Radic   Chile   The residence is located between the precipitous mountain ranges parallel to the coast and the Andes, close to the Chilean town of Talca. The copper sheet covering the roof and the exterior walls – this is the second experiment carried out by the arc

Rick Joy Architects   United States   Surrounded by the Saguaro cacti and the ocotillo of the Sonoran Desert, the house is nestled in a secluded bowl-like formation in the land, striving for an equilibrium and for a low impact on the intact natural landscape. After studying the views of

Zenkaya   South Africa   The dry south African plateau of Highveld, which evens out the surroundings of the city of Pretoria, was the site chosen to build the first prefabricated residence carried out by the firm Zenkaya, also the name given to the house. Contained in a slen