House of the Week 124: Brown Residence

Architects Lake Flato completed the Brown residence a modest home located on a golf community, in Scottsdale, Arizona. The considerate design celebrates views to the desert and the mountains in the distance whilst shunning neighbouring residences. Though fairly inconspicuous in scale to the exterior, the design makes use of the sloping site allowing generous the spaces inside. The architects oeuvre of articulated details are manifested in swivel doors and windows welcoming the light and air of the environment into the home.

House of the Week 123: Laurel Residence

A single family house in Houston, Texas designed by architects StudioMET. Internally the home is designed around a open communal area containing the kitchen, dinning and living room, whilst the exterior balances a palette of low maintenance materials.

House of the Week 122: Casa HG

Designed by Guadalajara based architect Ricardo Agraz for a family of six in Zapopan, Mexico the 434m² house is spread onto three levels with an open floor plan in the middle containing the family living and entertaining areas. The dialogue of the massing, of screens and volumes, was sought to create harmonious shading throughout the day especially for the master bedroom which has the prime orientation in the house.

House of the Week 121: K3 House

Designed by architect Bruce Stafford, the K3 House in Vaucluse, Sydney Australia is a balanced combination of glass, stone, wood and concrete. Large sliding doors open reveal nature in a central courtyard filled with natural rock and lush vegetation.

House of the Week 120: Useche Residence

The house of architect Pedro Useche is located in the wealthy district of Morumbi - one of the highest points in the city of São Paulo, Brazil. Construction of the 3-storey 1,000m² residence began in 1999 and took 4 years to complete. The very simple yet contemporary design incorporates traditional and humble materials from the city of São Paulo and is finished with furniture designed by the architect.

images by Fran Parent

House of the Week 119: Containers of Hope

Images ©Benjamin Garcia Saxe

Located outside San Jose, Costa Rica this 100 sqm residential project was the result of a close collaboration between the architect Benjamin Garcia Saxe and clients Gabriela Calvo and Marco Peralta, who also acted as the contractors. The U$40,000 house is constructed of two inexpensive disregarded containers and with sections of recycled metal used to make the adjoining roof and windows. The result provides an airy openness and a passive alternative to air conditioning mitigating the intense tropical climate.

House of the Week 118: Small House

Designed by New York based architects Cooper Joseph Studio, the Small House sits amongst an orchard of newly planted olive trees on a site overlooking the Dry Creek Valley near Sonoma, California. The 80m² house embodies rich layers of detail & texture despite its small size; the simple programme - a bedroom, a kitchen and a living room are made beautiful through a reduced palette of zinc and gray stained oak.

House of the Week 117: Palácio da Alvorada

the official residence Brazil’s president, Palácio da Alvorada was designed by architect Oscar Niemeyer completed in 1958. The 7,000 m² house sits on peninsula at the margins of Lake Paranoá in Brasilia and houses not only the private residence of the president but a medical centre, building administration and a large reception area for official functions. In 2004 the residence underwent renovations at the cost of $18.4 million funded by IPHAN (Brazilian Institute for the Historic and Artistic Heritage).

house of the week 115: House on Kona

This house on the island of Kona, Hawaii by Webster Wilson architects mirrors the local custom of heavy basalt masonry walls with floating roofs. The modern interpretation is produced with black-pigmented concrete walls base and the use of a lush vegetated outdoor area covered by a timber canopy that lends way to the open floor plan and expansive use of glass.

house of the week 114: Suncrest Residence

Suncrest is a 3,000 ft² home designed by Heliotrope Architects located on a 26 acre site on San Juan Island one of a number of islands in the Salish Sea, a waterway straddling the US and Canadian border. The house is intimately connected to the landscape - curved, long and low in a way that both minimizes the impact and maximizes on the site by cradling the landscape and orient views, ultimately enriching the experience for the owners.

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house of the week 113: Goulding Summerhouse

Originally designed by Scott Tallon Walker Architects for Sir Basil Goulding in 1971 - 1973 the summerhouse is located on a manicured garden site in Enniskerry, Ireland it was restored 2002. The modern residence is delicately perched on the banks of the Dargle Valley cantilevering the remainder of the 142m² house over the river, minimally disturbing the natural vegetation.

house of the week 113: Casa em Guarujá

The 1,300m² vacation home in Sao Paulo, Brazil was designed by architects Bernardes + Jacobsen. The entry to the house has a discrete façade, that is low, horizontal and un-obstrusive from street level. Composed as a pavilion with a double height canopy supported by columns, bedrooms sit overhead public programmes all toward spectacular views of the sea of the Guarujá.

photos by Leonardo Finotti

house of the week 112: Wall House

Located in Auroville, India the residence is designed by award winning architect, researcher and writer Anupama Kundoo. The design aims for a holistic experience of the site where boundaries are blurred and the trees are considered as much of the architecture as the roof and walls. As a result playful spaces are created that overlap or spill over each other. The Wall House ultimately is an exploration into an eco-friendly and energy-efficient alternative to current construction trends, with the main building material being achakal - a locally manufactured red brick that is filled with a lime cement mortar.

wall hanging hardware

house of the week 111: Villa in Szentendre

Built for a family of three, the Villa in Szentendre, Hungary was designed by architect Lajos Kuknyó of Budapest based practice Architema. The house with panoramic views of the Danube river from its expansive deck was designed in a manner respecting of the Bauhaus tradition, with a light filled and airy interior.