Villa A “Santa” is a house in Italy by Selina Bertola, designed in 2025 with a measured approach to reworking a coastal home. The project concentrates on materials, light, and a sculptural hearth to reset identity without changing the plan, favoring warm neutrals and tactile finishes that echo the shoreline. Calm guides the brief.
Studio House sits in Costa Rica as a private house shaped by slope, jungle, and Pacific light. Designed by Formafatal founder Dagmar Štěpánová for herself and partner Karel Vančura, it pairs porous living with quiet refuge. The two-level villa near Uvita trades a conventional façade for exposure to air and ocean, threading terraces, a pool, and a rooftop into the site’s fall. It lives outdoors as much as in.
Northern Writing Studio lands in Northport, MI, United States, as a compact house-scale retreat by Mathison Mathison Architects. The project replaces an aging garage beside a turn-of-the-century farmhouse, giving the owner a place for writing, rest, and time with family. Plainspoken in form and tuned to daily use, it folds a small sitting room, galley kitchen, and lofted sleeping quarters into a durable, modern shell.
Villa Above the Water sits in the Czech Republic as a family house shaped by anticipation. Designed by 3AE, the low-slung home turns inward toward a private garden rather than outward to a landscape destined to develop. The L-shaped property uses the site’s gentle slope and a swimming pond to build its own world at the edge of a village near Prague.
Villa Serennia sits in Masal, Iran, a house by Padideh Kohan Boom that leans into broad horizontals, open rooms, and water’s steady calm. The project arranges life across three levels with terraces, balconies, and an infinity pool, drawing daylight deep inside while staying close to the landscape. It reads quiet and deliberate. Each floor sets a different pace, moving from communal life to private retreat with a measured, contemporary sensibility.
Casa PYE Cuernavaca lands in Cuernavaca, Mexico, as a grounded study in renewal by Lopez Duplan Arquitectos. The 1990s house becomes a generous family retreat with refreshed rooms, larger social areas, and a tighter bond to its shared garden. Designed in 2024, it balances continuity and change through a simplified palette, smart systems, and playful bedrooms that invite children to make lasting memories.
Stealth House lands in Austin, TX, United States as a compact house by Specht Novak that hides its life within. The 2024 ADU turns its back to the street with corrugated Cor-Ten cladding, then opens to courtyards and full-height glazing that soak interiors in daylight. Privacy drives the parti, yet the plan feels effortless and bright.
Carcassonne reshapes a heritage-listed house in Melbourne’s leafy south-east into a family home by FMD Architects. The project relocates daily life to a stepped, north-facing addition and reopens the original fabric to light and garden views. Across the lot, rooms now connect with both a public front garden and a private rear yard and pool, drawing a clear line between arrival, shared living, and quiet retreat.