House of Ruins, Latvia

The House of Ruins is situated on the coast of the Baltic Sea in Latvia. It is a single family house built inside the ruins of a traditional 19th century Latvian barn. The architects have used the idea of contrast, cold wind from the Baltic sea is opposed with the warmth of the family, rough surface of the old stone is set against perfection of glass. The house provides quietness of the nature and modern life comfort.

Architecture: NRJA

Beautiful cob cottage design, Oregon, USA

Environmentally friendly and affordable building material - mixture of clay, straw and sand was used to build the walls of the beautiful cob cottage (Oregon, USA). The thermal mass of cob around the wood stove allows save a comfortable warm temperature inside the house for a long time.

Cob cottage design and photography: Artisan Builders Collective

Limestone home, Antilles islands (Caribbees), France

This beautiful limestone home (Antilles islands (Caribbees), France) is situated on a thin, high peninsula of the St. Barthelemy island. The facades are sliding glass panels. This creates a seamless connection between the exterior spaces and the main living space.

Architecture: Barnes Coy Architects
Photography: Robert Moore Brown

Beautiful green roof garden home, Singapore

Each floor of this beautiful green roof garden home has a separate garden, located on the landscaped roof of the lower floor. Thus achieved a feeling that each level represents a single-storey home, situated in a green garden.

Architecture: Guz Architects
Project: Meera Sky Garden House
Area: 852 кв.м.
Year: 2010
Photography: Patrick Bingham Hall

Luxury vacation house, Guaruja, Sao Paulo, Brazil

Luxury vacation house (Guaruja, Sao Paulo, Brazil) designed to be supported by five pillars, with living rooms/dining rooms/sitting rooms, balconies, en-suites bedrooms and a pool facing the beautiful sight of ocean beach. Preserved vegetation and terrain.

Architecture: Bernardes Jacobsen Architecture
Photography: Leonardo Finotti

Corten steel and wood facade house, Leyden, Netherlands

The plot on which the corten steel and wood facade house (Leyden, Netherlands) is located, is rather narrow and limited to neighboring buildings. Therefore, to ensure effective inner space lighting with sunlight, inside the house was constructed the "canyon", whereby during the day, natural light penetrates into the inner rooms of the lower level.

Design: 24H > architecture
Photos: Boris Zeisser 24H

St. Joseph’s media company office design, Toronto, Canada

This beautiful office area of 3200 sq. m. is designed for 250 employees St. Joseph’s media company, which produces popular Canadian magazines.

Design: Teeple Architects
Photographs: Tom Arban

Black and white cube house, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

The architect of the avant-garde mind black and white cube house (Toronto, Ontario, Canada) compares it with "coconut", hard and black outside, delicious and white inside.

Architecture: Reza Aliabadi [rzlbd]
Photography: borXu Design

Villa Nyberg - Round Passive House, Sweden

Villa Nyberg - round passive house is the first eco friendly home designed and built as type house in Sweden. This is the first attempt to make passive house technology available for all. The house is situated near a fur forest and the kitchen and living room open up towards the superior views of the beautiful lake. The architectural plan is designed in accordance with the movement of the sun over the day and the walls have round shape to eliminate the risk of heat losses through cold bridges. Passive houses are largely heated by the energy present in the building – household equipment and people generate a lot of energy. This well-insulated house has only 25 kWh/sqm of annual energy consumption for heating.

Design and photos: Kjellgren Kaminsky Architecture
Area: 156 sqm
Year: 2010

Luxury house in West Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA

The Nightingale luxury house in West Hollywood (Los Angeles, California, USA) is a focus of luxury, situated in a picturesque area of surrounding hills. The house has five bedrooms, a cinema, swimming pool with stunning views of the city and outdoor fireplace for chilly evenings.

Architecture: Marc Canadell

One storey courtyard house, Sweden

The design of the one storey courtyard house (Sweden) is based on the atrium house typology popular in Denmark in the 60s and 70s years and has an outer gas concrete wall and an inner glazed facade. Living area is in the eastern wing; bathrooms and sleeping quarters are in the northern wing. Several lightwells allow sunlight to penetrate into the house.

Architecture: Johan Sundberg
Photography: Henrik Magnusson

Louvre Museum, Louvre Pyramid, Paris, France (+plan)

The monumental appearance of the steel and glass pyramid fixed in the middle of the Cour Napoleon provides a focal point that compliments the design and scale of the Louvre. The scale of the large glass pyramid, which is designed to the proportions of the Pyramid of Giza, does not detract from the historical architecture of Louvre rather the juxtaposition of the modern construction and the French Renaissance style of Louvre creates a complimentary effect that increases beauty and each of the design’s details.

Architecture: I.M. Pei
Photography: Greg Kristo, Flavio Bragaia, Reji K. A

Luxury oceanfront beach house, California, USA

A beautiful airy design of the luxury oceanfront beach house (California, USA) makes it a very comfortable place to spend time. The main characteristics of the project, according to the author, are openness and clarity, which are designed to inspire, encourage spirit and feed mind and body.

Architecture: Richard Meier, Michael Palladino
Photographs: Scott Frances/Esto

Architectural mimicry in rustic log cabin design

The design of the facade of this rustic log cabin is an example of mimicry in architecture, in this case, imitation of a pile of logs. With built-in wheels, this house, which is a recording studio, can easily be moved to any convenient place.

Design: Piet Hein Eek

Little summer house, Gotland, Sweden

The little summer house (Gotland, Sweden) designed as simple as possible. In one space is placed everything you need: a place to sleep, a kitchen in the middle, there is a shower outside. Walls are made of lightweight concrete blocks, and a simple roof structure covered with corrugated steel sheet.

Architecture: DinellJohansson - Morten Johansson
Photography: Elisabeth Toll

Villa Dali, Hague, Netherlands

The design of Villa Dali (Hague, Netherlands) reflected the client`s fascination with art of Salvador Dali.

Architecture: 123DV Architecture & Consult
Photography: Christiaan de Bruijne

Residential house, United States

This residential house is situated on the ocean coast in Mauntok, United States. Building the house was carried on wood frame technology erection of walls and used green roof.

Architecture: Maziar Behrooz

Dutch floating houses district, Amsterdam, Holland

History of the Netherlands is closely related to influence of water on people`s life, who build dams to protect their land from water. In recent years, floating houses have become one of the solutions to contemporary housing needs. Channels with floating houses look familiar today in the Dutch cities and floating hotel or restaurant can be easily found. These individual modules are generally more similar to boats than homes.

In recent years there has been an increase in the number of floating homes, which have more features similar to land-based housing. Floating homes classified as real property and compete with land-based homes living space and comfort level.

Architecture: Architectenbureau Marlies Rohmer
Photography: Marcel van der Burg, Roos Aldershoff, Luuk, Kramer

WikiLeaks computer center, Stockholm, Sweden

WikiLeaks сomputer сenter (Stockholm, Sweden) is located at a depth of 30 meters in the rock bunker, which was used during the Cold War. On the area of 1200 sq. m. are two servers and equipment, providing independent power supply for operation of the center.

Architecture: Albert France-Lanord Architects
Photography: Ake E:son Lindman

Zen water house design, China

Zen water house design (China) combines the use of natural materials with simplicity of forms. Stone, water and wood are designed to create a meditative sense of serenity, peace, and bring a contemplative attitude to the environment.

Architecture and photographs: Li Xiaodong Atelier