10 house projects that will surprise you

Check out these amazing homes built by modern architects around the world. Perhaps this will inspire you to start your own project, give you ideas, or simply bring pleasure from viewing.

KODA / Kodasema

KODA by Kodasema, a mobile prefab mini-home prototype from Estonia, was shortlisted for the Small Project Prize at the 2016 World Architecture Festival. KODA is one of nine projects presented in this category. The mini-house was first presented in autumn 2015 at the Tallinn Architecture Biennale.

KODA is a sustainable and flexible mini-home with built-in information technology that allows the home to learn from and adapt to its environment. The house is being developed near Tallinn, the capital of Estonia, by a small company called Kodasema. Kodasema functions as an open platform for professionals from various fields in Estonia and abroad. More than 100 specialists helped create the prototype.

The World Architecture Festival is an annual festival and awards ceremony in the field of architecture that has been held since 2008. This year the festival takes place in Berlin, Germany, November 16-18. This year, the shortlist of the competition included 343 projects from 58 countries, competing for awards in 32 categories. One of these projects will be awarded the title of World Building of the Year.

Next to KODA Walking Concrete in the Small Project Prize category are a flood-resistant ferry terminal in Australia, residential buildings to protect against infectious diseases in Tanzania, a museum built from clay and straw in Russia, a network of pop-up public libraries in an urban space in Philippines and four others.

Back Country House / LTD Architectural Design Studio

Situated on a secluded bushland site, the house utilizes a unique rural cabin typology. Striving for simplicity, it consists of a single volume for living/cooking/eating and a canopy-style extension housing the lower floor service/sleeping areas. Spaces are open and communal rather than closed and private.

Feelings of communication with each other and of connection with the environment improve. The living area opens completely on two sides, creating the feel of an outdoor room, while the fire pit and sauna, located on the deck, bring daily activities out of the house and into the great outdoors.

Extensive use of local timber, sawn macrocarp inside and out, passive heating/ventilation and high-performance insulation make the home environmentally friendly. Roughly crafted natural materials seamlessly blend the home into its surroundings, while galvanized corrugated iron is used to enhance the cabin’s aesthetic.

The interior design juxtaposes heavily textured and knotty striped wood with flat, clean, white, sharp-edged surfaces. There are no trims or beads here - the wood intersects with the white surfaces openly and honestly - and a high level of craftsmanship was required to achieve the desired result.

Baomaru House

“Clients who were very tired from work and in an urban environment asked us to design a house surrounded by nature. They had a desire to have a unique space that would be different from the apartment where they lived” - Rieuldorang Atelier architectural bureau.

The site is a steep slope with mountains at the back. We did not want to design the correct layout of the site by cutting away the soil or building up the soil. The idea was to make active use of the surrounding natural environment and land, while respecting the slope of the site and upending the way people think about building form.

House in the earth, nature in the house. The white shell-shaped house is a space that embraces nature. The living space located below ground level allows for a varied spatial experience thanks to the skip floor layout. By changing the shape of the land and the house, we wanted to think about the relationship between house and nature and the concept of form.

The dirt flows off along with the water that falls on the façade. The Lotusan outer coating has a water-repellent surface similar to that of a lotus leaf. Its microstructure was modeled after the lotus plant to minimize the contact area between water and dirt.

Valley Villa / arches

Just a few hundred meters from the active city street, you will find yourself in the exclusive surroundings of the park. Calm and harmony of nature. This feeling is enhanced by the natural valley, Old Raguva. Sunny slope of the valley. Neighborhood. The site of a former wooden farmstead. Territory of the regional park. Regulated architectural solution. The limitations of the territory for architectural expression and the client’s desire to live in a modern house – these were the starting points.

To decorate the facades of the building, exclusively natural finishing materials were chosen. The main finishing material is pine wood, made using Kebony technology. Pine was chosen as a typical tree for the surrounding area. Thanks to the unique Kebony technology, wood acquires special strength, stability, durability and does not require additional maintenance. This is an ecological product, which becomes an important factor in the territory of the regional park. Over time, the pine wood turns gray, and the ant blends even more into the environment, fading against the background of the pine trunk.

Thanks to the exclusive properties of the Kebony technology, the manufactured wood made it possible to create visually solid volumes. Finishing is used not only for facades, but also for the changing geometry of the roof planes visible from the slope. The wood is attached to a system of stainless steel profiles in self-locking plastic holders. The precise geometry of the wood allowed the planes of the wood trim to be combined to form vertical wood blinds, creating precise graphics. The graphics are continued with natural slate finishing. Black slate "Rathscheck" is used to finish the lower parts of the volume. The slate trim is also attached to the stainless steel profile system using vertical strip locking adhesives. The graphic expression is enhanced by metal strips of railings fixed above the slate, continuing its vertical division. Various materials, various elements complement each other, creating the graphic expressiveness of the facade. It’s all about the graphic interpretation of park tree trunks.

H3 House / Luciano Kruk

Mar Azul, a seaside town in the department of Villa Gesell, adjacent to Mar de las Pampas, has a topography of sand dunes divided by a grid. Its dense pine forest gives the atmosphere of Mar Azul a pleasant peace and tranquility.

On a modest 210 square meter plot of land, located on a corner eight blocks from the sea, rises H3, a minimalist home designed to make the most of the site’s size and natural surroundings.

The materiality of the house was agreed upon by the studio and clients. H3 was built entirely from exposed concrete, which contributed to low maintenance. To minimize equipment requirements, even the furniture was conceived as part of the concrete volume.

Pine planks were used to install the formwork so that the partitions as well as the floors retain the grain of the wood in an attempt to establish a harmonious dialogue with the bark of the local trees.

The house was built in the form of a compact block. On the ground floor there is a kitchen, dining room and living room - all in one space, from which there is a staircase to the second floor. Given the scale of the house, the use of intersecting views and vanishing points was aimed at unifying and altering the spaces within the space. Rather than limiting the home’s various uses to individual spaces, they were connected to each other to create an overall sense of expanded space. As per the brief, the bedrooms and bathroom were located upstairs, but the open semi-enclosed space of the master bedroom was designed to be shared with the second bedroom. In addition, it partially served as a roof for the deck below.

TinkerBox / Studio MM Architect

Nestled in the woods of the Hudson Valley, this home was designed to be a car enthusiast’s dream retreat. The large garage is the focal point of the design, providing space for vehicle storage and servicing, as well as a spacious wine cellar and furniture workshop. Partially set into the rolling landscape, the home’s rectangular form extends from the garage on the lower level to create an open-plan living space ideal for entertaining, relaxing by the cozy fireplace, or preparing home-cooked meals.

The exterior cladding gave us a special chance to be involved in the construction process. We learned a Japanese wood charring technique called shou sugi ban and decided it was something we wanted to do ourselves. Working with premium cedar siding, we char and treat the wood before installation, giving it a unique and durable finish. Inset gutters support the sleek silhouette of your home while maintaining full functionality.

Upon approaching the home, visitors are greeted by a cantilevered entryway and an impressive twelve-foot mahogany pivot door and double-height entryway. An exposed concrete wall extends beyond the building, while a continuous timber beam structure of cantilevers draws the eye up and across the space. A solid wood tread staircase, crafted from hardwood trees formerly growing on the home’s property, draws guests to the main living level and connects the home’s private and public areas.

The open-plan living room features a wide window that opens up to a cozy reading nook next to a built-in fireplace, while a marble island with a waterfall edge adds elegance to the room. The handcrafted concept is further embodied in furniture and furnishings. The dining room table, designed by an architect and built by a craftsman in a collaboration between Studio MM and Elijah Leed, is highlighted by a brass chandelier designed by Studio MM. In the master bedroom, we built a built-in headboard and custom linen curtains.

The cantilevered roof from the front entrance extends to the rear of the house to shade the exterior deck. The cabinetry-trimmed plywood structure is supported by a single cantilever beam anchored to the outdoor fireplace. Stainless steel details adorn both fireplaces, providing storage for wood outside and additional warmth for the fireplace inside. The furnished studio, located below deck, is accessed through a custom oversized bi-fold door.

The house’s simple form and partially submerged lower level speak to its efficient design. In the summer, concrete floors and exposed concrete walls keep the ground floor cool, while a covered deck and strategically placed windows on the second floor provide passive cooling for the flexible entertaining space.

Yokouchi Residence / Kidosaki Architects Studio

On a site surrounded by deciduous forest next to a golf course in Minamigaoka Karuizawa, the building was planned to be below the treetops to coexist with neighboring buildings.

The home owner lives a busy life as a doctor and wanted a tranquil environment where he could take a moment away from everyday life and feel rejuvenated by nature. His wife also wanted the house to be tranquil from a visual perspective, with large living spaces integrated with the greenery of the forest.

A deep cornice with a depth of 1,700 mm was used to construct this living space. The comfortable middle zone created with the help of a deep cornice is also a technique that allows you to very naturally transfer the surrounding greenery into the room. The details on the edge of the eaves create a feeling of light floating of the entire roof.

You can walk through the barrier-free rooms and enjoy the view from every room, both from the picture window framed by the deep cornice and from the deck.

The fine details that we constantly strive for add dignity to buildings. This is a building where harmony with the green forest was realized without a feeling of incongruity.

Quebrada House / UNarquitectura

A secluded place located in the forest on the banks of a stream in central Chile. Situated on a creek elevated by pilotis, it is accessible via a bridge and has tree-level views.

The house “breaks”, adapting to the slope and delimiting private and public space in a single building.

Flying House / IROJE KHM Architects

The owner of this house is a young pilot and his family for their future residence, the house easily landed on a plot in a new developing city near Incheon Airport.

The architects related the traditional Korean architectural characteristic to the daily behavioral characteristic of a pilot, which is flying, and attempted to symbolically construct the cultural identity of the house. The rushing roof of the rumaru flying over the yard and the dynamic movement of the frozen house metaphorically symbolize the flight of the airline.

Also, in order to level out flight instability, we planned a sedentary form of the stone heating system, which is a Korean traditional architectural structure (the living room is in contact with the ground). In this way, they tried to give housing a routinized stability, taking into account the ecological balance between heaven and earth.

Modern Countryside Villa / Maas architecten

The villa is located in an open area and is designed in the shape of the letter "H". Like in a loft, all rooms are connected to each other. An almost transparent partition connecting two thatched volumes forms the entrance. From the street side the house is somewhat covered by a grove.

The main building, the left volume, is almost entirely made of glass. The living and dining rooms are located to the southwest and offer panoramic views. Behind the glass facing the street are the kitchen, pantry and toilet. These functions are combined in a wooden box. The master bedroom is completely private to the north.

The facade of the right volume is made of wood with some shutters. At the rear of this volume is a greenhouse that can also be used as an atelier/studio.

The H-shape creates a windless, private outdoor space to watch the sun set. Privacy is ensured despite the glass.

We thank the website Half-timbered houses (sds-dom.ru) for their help in compiling the selection.