Renovated in 2023, Ivens Apartment in Lisbon, Portugal, showcases a playful fusion of contemporary and vintage styles by X Atelier. The apartment’s whimsical design instills versatility for a creative inhabitant, promoting multifaceted use throughout its lively spaces. With an emphasis on informal areas, the flat features a sculptural spiral staircase, dynamic textiles, and a concealed children’s room behind a wardrobe door, creating an aesthetically pleasing atmosphere for relaxation and entertainment.
DV House is a stone and timber-clad residence designed by MMXX architects in Bulgaria. The home’s living room features windows on two sides, opening up to nature with expansive southern views and framed backyard vistas. Ceiling heights reach up to the roof, encompassing three bedrooms, bathrooms, and a covered porch with an outdoor dining area. A lower floor houses utility spaces, a gym, and a garage, with the gym offering a sauna and bathtub overlooking a spacious courtyard.
Peter Kjær Arkitekter designed House Between the Trees in Denmark, featuring a T-shaped layout with an archetypal roof. Completed in 2022, the structure prioritizes minimal concrete usage, utilizing a wooden construction with a terrain deck and screwed pile foundation. The house includes a bedroom wing, family room, kitchen, and two terraces, surrounded by trees. Interior wooden surfaces are treated with soap, and the breathable exterior features linseed-oiled spruce facades and a spruce board roof.
The Lotus House, also known as Pedroso I House, is a single-family home in Vila Nova de Gaia, Portugal, designed by Raulino Silva in 2022. Nestled on land once part of the Pedroso Monastery, the steep plot maintains its natural vegetation and trees. A large terrace on the upper floor provides views at tree level and serves the main living spaces, while the lower floor features a granite stone facade, a patio, and an indoor pool.
Casa Suna is a beachside vacation home, designed by YDR estudio, located in La Ribera, Mexico. The villa’s local stone walls and beige concrete tones draw on the simple palette of its surroundings, from the ocean to the desert. Organised around a central circular patio, which “invites gathering and contemplation”, the open-plan living spaces enjoy a cohesive connection to the outdoors, thanks to a serene, warm-toned material selection, characterised by wooden accents and elegant travertine marble countertops.
The Pir.116 house, designed by Mardi, showcases sweeping views of Arcachon Bay from its location on a beachfront plot in France. Redesigned in 2023, the 1950s house is set into a dune and characterised by a double-pitched roof and white-plastered walls, resting on a rounded stone base. The renovation opens up the living space to the sea, maintaining the original identity of the house while enhancing its relationship with the scenic surroundings.
TAEP/AAP has updated the traditional architecture of the Northern Gulf with a cylindrical house surrounded by towering walls in Al Khiran, Kuwait. Designed in 2023, White Fortress contrasts its arid surroundings with an interior filled with spacious rooms, views of the Gulf Sea, and various oval-shaped patios and gardens. A rooftop tower acts as a “seacoast lighthouse”, framing sandy vistas.
Ignazio Mortellaro has transformed a 300-year-old Sicilian farmhouse into a sustainable, energy-efficient retreat called Casa Balat. Located in Noto, Italy, the project seamlessly integrates traditional materials with state-of-the-art green technology, like a geothermal system for air conditioning and water heating.
Casa Balat features an open-air shala for yoga, a saltwater pool, gardens, and a Bulthaup kitchen, all designed to minimize carbon footprint while providing luxurious and sustainable agriturismo accommodations.
