Nocaima Retreat sits in the rolling hills of Nocaima, Colombia, a compact house by Obreval that revisits rural archetypes with crisp, contemporary rigor. The project channels vernacular cues—bamboo, pitched silhouettes, open corridors—into a precise structural and environmental strategy. Calm in stance and exact in detail, it reframes local building logic while addressing climate and water in one measured move.
Courtyard + Connector Residence stands in Austin, TX, United States, as a new-build house by Chioco Design. The project responds to a single-family neighborhood with an extroverted plan that reaches from the street to a sheltered pool courtyard. Designed in 2023 for a speculative builder, it borrows materials from nearby homes and gives them a crisp, contemporary reading.
Residência CV sits in Curitiba, Brazil, where Luiz Volpato Arquitetura renovates and expands a deteriorated house instead of razing it. The project keeps the structure, recalibrates the layout, and responds to a prominent position at the entrance of a consolidated condominium. It’s a house rethought for contemporary use, with new rooms, durable materials, and stronger ties to the garden and street.
La Croix unfolds along a Canadian mountainside, a house by Luc Plante architecture + design that tracks the slope with split levels and sweeping gables. The residence organizes daily life around an open living floor with a double-sided hearth and views toward the Eastern Townships. Clad in masonry and metal, it reads contemporary yet composed, with geometry tuned to light and the wooded site.
House in Jastrzębia Góra sits on a tree-framed plot in Jastrzębia Góra, Poland, where sea air and filtered light set the tone. Designed by Archmondo Piotr Kowalczyk, the house arranges two barn-like volumes into an L-shaped plan that shapes a sheltered courtyard. It’s a family house with a measured, contemporary silhouette and a restrained palette that holds steady against the Baltic climate.
Whidbey Uparati sits in Island County, WA, United States, as a house by Wittman Estes. The family retreat is designed for uparati—stillness—set lightly above a meadow. It folds a courtyard plan, cedar cladding, and wide glazing into a quiet, high-point perch with views to Useless Bay and the Olympic Mountains, aiming for connection to land and shared rituals.
EL House Itajobi sits in Itajobi, Brazil, where a 1964 farmhouse gains a careful second life. Serpa Comunicação leads a rural house refurbishment grounded in memory, material reuse, and a clear connection to the surrounding vegetation. The project weaves farm-sourced timber, reclaimed brick, and slate into a calm, practical home for a retired couple. Light, views, and a kitchen-centered plan pull daily life toward the landscape.
Salt Pan House stands on the edge of a salt pan in India, composed with quiet rigor by We Design Studio. The house sits between the Chapora River and a mangrove belt, its profile pared back to climate and context. A limited buildable area sharpened every move, turning restraint into a working method and the land into a guide.