3S Villa

The 3S villa is an example of these modern country houses. Built by an architecture studio called Love Architecture, it is located in a suburb of the Austrian city of Graz, Geifdorf. Architects themselves described the house as simple, light, optimistic, playful, as a little-big complex. The design is unconventional and unique, providing all that one needs for everyday life. An impressive roof and two wooden terraces create together a symbol of unity with nature. The interior space has enough of natural light coming through glazed facade. The predominating material is wood in combination with white color it looks very fresh and calming at the same time. The villa has a warm and cosy atmosphere.

Y House

An interesting family house has been constructed called “Y House” in a peripheral part of Beijing. It is located in a very nice area on a hill pointing south from one side and surrounded by mountains from the other. The Y house is not newly built, it is a reconstructed building with a concrete construction built five years ago. Architecture studio Beijing Matsubara and Architects have created a new flooring and by adding a new flat rook they extended the surface of the building. The existing two-storey building had a double-sloping roof and was covered with white tiles. After the reconstruction the building has three floors with a three times bigger surface than before, the white covering was replaced by grey blocks. The interior space is organized by floors, the ground-floor is the public area, it houses a living-room, kitchen etc., the first floor is the bedroom area and the top floor serves for relaxation. Communications are situated in the center of the building. The house is complemented by several functions of modern sustainable architecture. In the summer owners live mainly in the northern part of the house that provides a natural ventilation. Contrary to the winter season when they move to the south parts equipped with basic heating. The Y house provides a maximum of comfort at every weather condition.

K3 house Sydney

K3 house is a project by Bruce Stafford Architects residing in Sydney, Australia. Bruce Stafford. K3 house is a reconstruction project with a spacious inner court as a center piece. Large sliding doors are the key element of the design providing an elegant look and separating a number of open spaces allowing a flow between the interior and exterior and natural lighting. The overall appearance is a luxurious house using a balanced combination of glass, stone, wood and concrete and different shapes as well as a number of interesting interior elements. The house has a unique swimming-pool surrounding the entire house, so the owners can have a swim all around their house.

Brasilian Residence.

Grupo SP architects have constructed an impressive project located in suburbs of Sao Paolo, Brazil. This family residence built for a client that admires and collects books, his collection has more than 7500 books. The owner wanted a house where he can store and exhibit his unique book collection. Books became the most emblematic element of the residence where they occupy one entire wall. The design takes advantage of a height difference between a street and the parcel, so the living-room is situated in the lower part that provides a maximum of privacy while maintaining a contact with surrounding nature. The simple design has a simple construction of reinforced concrete and monolithic concrete floors. Walls have not been anyhow modified with one exception – the book wall. The interior space has a maximum of natural sunlight thanks to two opposing walls.

Holman House. Australia

The Holman house is located on the edge of a reef in Dover Heights, Australia. Created by Durbach Blok Architects it gained a lot of public interest. This family house provides a very modern open layout that maximizes accessibility of all rooms on both floors. Ground-floor houses a large living-room area viewing at the Pacific ocean, while the first floor is composed of a series of rooms organized in a vertical line along one of the walls. The shape of the house is a reset of more than six months long negotiations with the owner. An interesting structure was built with a part of the building laying on a number of columns allowing to construct one part on the reef. A roofed terrace reconnects exterior with interior and provides an unusual atmosphere. Interior space is composed of glazed walls, fancy wooden flooring, stone and can be described as a modern mixture of materials and textures. The house is well embedded in the surrounding area complemented by unique plants growing only on the reef. The owners have to be with their investment admiring a fabulous view at the ocean and blue sky.

Holon- Museum of Design

Museum of Design Holon is a new educational and cultural center in Israel. Municipal authorities have chosen architect Ron Arad to construct a building that will attract the interest worldwide. They asked for an architect that would know and understand their original cultural heritage. Museum of design Holon or DMH serves to promote the Israel`s architecture and design. With its surface of 3700 square meters it houses a main gallery of 500 square meters taking advantage of natural lighting coming from roof skylights and a room with a mysterious name „Blackbox“ of 200 square meters that is lightened only by aritificial light, contrastingly with the main gallery. Topography of the build-up area is expressed in the layout of the two-storey building. Both floors are connected by a number of outside halls furnished by sculptural pieces. Wandering through inner court of the museum a visitor can always discover something new. As an alternative, museum galleries are accessible by a series of closed halls. One of the most original element is the facade made from corten in warm tones of orange, red and brown. Entire outside covering looks very dynamic, assembled from a series of circles creating the building`s spine what accentuates its horizontal line.

Ultra narrow house, Tokyo

Japanese architecture studio Jo Nagasaka + Schemata Architecture Office have created a real wonder. They have constructed an unbelievably thin family house in the peripheral part of the capital Tokyo reminding of today’s flat screen TVs. Their aim was to create for their client a house that would satisfy all their needs. The challenge was to design something suitable for a small parcel very close to a street. Architects have exceeded expectations by designing a house with a facade built in an angle of 63,02 degree. They have created a very new view at the street from the inside and maximized the inner space. The building itself is minimalistic from the outside as from the inside. The facade is painted white while the predominated element of the interior is concrete contrasting with furniture.

Star house, Kuwait

The Star house in the city of Bnaider in Kuwait has been designed by AGI Architects group. The name describes its ground-plan in the shape of a star. The house is located on the coastline and its owners have a direct access to the sea. Entering the house one can glance the sea and continue the house tour.

Private parts of the house as bedrooms and other private rooms are separated from the others by bamboo walls, isolated from everyday activities. A massive staircase made from dark wood is a center-piece of the building organizing the space for family, friends and guests.

Owners as well as any guest have a great view at the sea. In the initial concept architects were thinking of building three self-standing buildings, but the client wanted just one house where each part is separated from the other while communicating with the rest of the house. To the main building, two bungalows and a ship-yard were attached. The owner plans to extend the residence in the future.

D-17 Sarah Oppenheimer

Prizewinner Roma Prize 2010-2011, Sarah Oppenheimer well-known for elegant, aesthetic but surprising installations of a changing gallery or museum space. She exceeds barriers and destroys the frontier between the possible and impossible. Her last project D-17, situated in the Art Gallery of Rice University, is reminding of a levitating wing that is flying out of the building breaking through a glazed wall of the gallery, as deliberating from tentacles of closed gallery space. The installation looks surreal.

Throughout the day the sculpture changes thanks to a showy lighting. The light does not changes only the element itself but it influences the surrounding space where the sculpture is located as well. The sunlight transforms the translucent glazed wall of the gallery to a mirror. From the technical point of view, the construction of the D-17 demanded several processes as CNC milling, structural engineering, metal production or even a safety and fire inspection, not to forget the final installation by a construction team.

Social Housing.

Recently, a new social housing has been constructed in a peripheral part Poljane of a Slovenian city of Maribor. The complex was created by Architectural studio Bevk Perović Architects. The housing is composed by four buildings. Two of them are looking like planks, so the horizontal line is accentuated, the other two are more vertical reminding of towers. The housing complex offers up to 130 social apartments. The project had to take into account the existing build-up area and municipal regulations concerning area planning. Missing outside public areas were replaced by common inner spaces. There public roofed areas are embedded in the interior of the building and meant to serve inhabitants as children playgrounds or gardens. Apartments are organized around a communication center core with a standard typology. Each of them has its own individuality expressed with coloured balconies situated in different heights what creates a dynamic element. Chosen materials and the dynamic facade have been inspired by mainly industrial character of the surroundings

Wine Store

Recently a new Albert Reichmuth wine store has been opened in Zurich, Switzerland. The interior was designed by Swiss design company OOS. This well-known mark of wine has opened for the first time its showroom accessible to the public on Feldestrasse 62 in Zurich. “La galerie du vin” is not only shop but a place where customer can taste wine or attend a lecture. Its aim is to attract not only existing customers but new passing by customers as well. Design by OOS reminds of traditional storage spaces with wine while the product is still the predominating element. The concept is based on a presentation of different types of wine as one can see in a museum or gallery. Wooden crates become architectural piece and a piece of furniture as well. They are put in a crosshatch layout that serves as a platform for more than 570 wines and books about wine of course and provides a sitting space and show-cases. The reception desk is situated right in the middle of the interior. Colour in purple it contrasts with wooden interior. On the other side of the front section a living room with a kitchenette is situated where lectures for up to 15 persons are organized

Church in Tampa

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Alfonso Architects have accepted a challenging project to renovate and extend an existing church in Tampa, Florida. The initial idea of the design should be a sequence generating proportions by Fibonacci. As the result a brand new church was build, it is connected to two existing building that were renovated and also reconnected to the outside court. Beside the church building designated to host holly ceremonies, it houses a number of office and study rooms. Architects were supposed to create not only a number of individual buildings and their renovations but to design the surrounding area as well – a parking, green. A lot of architectural elements in the interior of exterior have biblical or numeric meaning, for example 3 olive trees or 7 candles etc. The overall design of the complex is very simple and minimalistic. Architects have accentuated details, not only shapes but materials and symbolic meaning of each element. As a church is very unique space, connected mostly with faith, it have to have a peaceful but still magic atmosphere. The interesting fact is a noose on the church bell

Ecological house Renovation.

Footprints looking like a flooring, stairs leading nowhere or impossible angles and routes that go up and down at the same time – these are characteristics of architectural drawings of well-known artist MC Escher. Who could know that we can see something like this in real life? Studio Rolf.fr`s together with Zecc Architects have been inspired by this particular artist. Their renovation of an old city house in unusual. All surfaces in the house mix with each other, so it is hard to recognize what is what. As the result of this crazy renovation the “Black Pearl”, as the architects call this house, was created. The house is located in the city of Rotterdam, Netherlands having a unique program when one can buy an old inhabited house at a very low price with just one condition – to renovate it. The founder of Studio Rolf.fr`s has decided to buy a house like this and create not only his new home but work place as well. The existing house is more than 100 year old and was seriously damaged. It is called “Black Pearl” for its black facade. The lower floor houses only owner`s studio while the other floors provide space for a kitchen, living room and bedrooms on the top floor. On the rooftop one can enjoy a hot-tub and a beautiful view at the entire city

Grand Opera

Zaha Hadid is a woman architect awarded by Pirtzker award. She signed a contract to design the Grand Opera in Morocco in the city of Rabat. The building should become an important monument not only of the city but of the entire country. It should be unique for its original, dynamic and innovative design and near-by infrastructure. Zaha Hadid is collaboration with Lemghari Essakl from a development agency MD Bougreg. They signed the cooperation on the 5Th of November 2010. With a surface of 27000 square meters, the Rabat`s Grand Theatre is designed to become a luxurious cultural crossroad. It could host 2050 visitors in the big hall and 520 in the small hall. The outside amphitheatre has a capacity of 7000 people. Planned expenses on this project are quite big, estimated 100 million pounds or 160 million euro. The big theater will be situated in a valley called Bouregreg. This area will be urbanized till 2014, new housings, store and restaurant buildings will be constructed. The location should become one of the most attractive ones in Morocco.

Aquarium of San Sebastian.

Aquarium of San Sebastian was situated on the top of Mount Urgli for hundred years, in a popular area of La Concha Bay. The old existing building was suitable not for an aquarium anymore. In the last years a number of new building were created on both sides. While the existing exhibition building was in intensive contact with the sea Hoz Fontan Arquitectos have come with a wise solution. They have linked all existing buildings, so that visitors can pass from one part to another without noticing it. The concept is taking advantage of peripheral components in order to optimize the internal functioning. The complex houses a restaurant that became a heart of the building. These individual buildings have a terrace shape so it communicates with a near-by square where people love to sit down, relax and chat. Architects chose materials that are more conservative. The predominating color of the interior is white, some elements are made from wood but the most of them by glass.