Cabin on a cliff overlooking Coeur D’Alene Lake

The goal of the project was to create a modern log cabin on Coeur D’Alene Lake in North Idaho. Uptic Studios considered the combined occupancy of two families, providing separate spaces for privacy and common rooms that bring everyone together comfortably under one roof. The resulting five bedroom, four-and-a-half bathroom, 3,000-square-foot vacation home (4 pods, 750 square feet each, plus a 200-square-foot bridge) nestles into the site overlooking the lake. A delicate balance of natural materials and custom amenities fill the interior spaces with stunning views of the lake from almost every angle.

The window also acts as a serving station and bar area, allowing guests on the large ipe wood deck to engage with those in the kitchen.

The daughter and her husband and three kids occupy the bottom floor of one of the pods. It has a kitchenette, washer-dryer, dining nook, bedroom and bunk room.

Wanting to maximize outdoor space, the architects avoided using columns on the deck. Instead a steel beam system was used to support the cantilevered roof and allow windows to extend all the way to the ceiling.

Four pods — two wings with two pods each, one on top of the other — are connected by an interior bridge, creating a dog-bone shape, Collins says. One of the pods is the combined living, dining and kitchen spaces; it opens to an expansive deck. The other pods are the private bedroom areas.

A sliding door lets the owner’s close off their pod from the rest of the house.

A large cantilevered roof protects the house and its cantilevered deck spaces from sun, rain and snow, with a design philosophy that keeps the structure exposed.

Photos: Shaun Cammack

Sumptuous Vancouver home on Chilliwack Street

This stunning contemporary home was designed on Chilliwack Street in New Westminster, a suburb of Vancouver, Canada by Randy Bens Architect. The project brief was to add a new floor to an existing 1950’s split level home, which was originally designed by an architect.  However, due to some unforeseen conditions, the existing house had to be removed.  So the construction is all new, and the design retains hints of the old.

The existing house was too small for the family, so a new floor was added containing a master bedroom, en-suite bathroom, office and deck.  The new upper floor cantilevers in two directions, and compliments the lower cantilevered portion of the house.

To soften the strong geometry of the house, clear stained cedar siding was used on all surfaces to give the composition scale and warmth.  The inner face of each cube is lined with bluestone to provide contrast.

The house feels very spacious in relation to its actual size. There are three ceiling heights used throughout the house which create volume and a sense of openness. Careful window placement allows walls to be washed with light and views to be controlled.

The interior material palette is very simple – white walls, rift cut oak cabinetry, and bluestone floors (and patios). Bluestone is also featured as a cladding material around the base of the garage and at the insets of the front “boxes”.

Photos: Roger Brooks

Ultimate beachfront property: Sentosa Cove House

Sentosa Cove House is the ultimate beachfront property, designed by WOW Architecture, the home is situated on Sentosa Island, at the southernmost part of Singapore. The house’s unique location provides it with an unobstructed view of the ocean all around and is marked by the light beacon ‘Sentosa FI.R.2S3m’ immediately in front of the house in the ocean.

Here is a project description from the architects, “Conceived as a framed portal cantilevered over an open living, dining, pool and garden area, the house structure shades the pool terrace such that it is never exposed to direct sunlight. An aluminum trellis screen wraps around the frame, screening east- and west-facing walls from the intense heat of the sun as well as ensuring privacy from neighbors.

To minimize heat gain, the south-facing facade was designed to keep the house cool with the use of low-emissions glass and also to ensure resistance to gale force winds. A reflective surface on the bedroom level adds privacy. In all instances of glass usage, special attention was paid to its performance data to ensure absence of the greenhouse effect.”

To the north, the onyx facade facing the road is designed to be a lantern at night, and as a beacon marking the home, mirroring the light beacon nearby in the ocean. The facade is constructed with a stainless steel frame curtain wall with 5 mm onyx laminated with tempered glass.

Every room in the house enjoys a direct relationship with the oceanfront proximity. The kitchen and dining room can be combined to maximize family interaction, and to allow the kitchen to remain connected to the pool and the ocean view.

Beneath the curve of the attic roof, inspired by the graceful geometry of the stingray, are a study and a sitting room, oriented south with a 180-degree ocean view. A full-length timber deck flanks the southern end of the attic, cantilevered over the swimming pool and evocative of the experience of being on the deck of a ship.

Cliffside Lake House overlooking Lake Tahoe

The Cliff House project, referred to as “The Lake House” by its present owners, has been designed by San Francisco-based studio Mark Dziewulski Architect. The dramatically steep site, 150 feet above the edge of Lake Tahoe, overlooks sweeping panoramic views of the entire lake and mountains beyond on a half-acre lot in Incline Village, Crystal Bay, Nevada. Five cantilevered levels, following the slope, express the different uses and their varying forms reflect the optimum orientation and requirements of the individual spaces within.

Taking four years to complete, the 8,694 square foot house is a series of overlapping curved roofs that are fanned out towards the lake, creating a man-made rolling landscape that underlines the view of the lake and mountains beyond. The contemporary home is comprised of steel, concrete and glass featuring four bedrooms, four bathrooms, a glass elevator, a six level glass stairwell and of course a private pier.

The house is largely concealed from the road and its fragmented form, cut deep into the steep slope, reflects the geometry of the rocky hillside, allowing it to blend in with its context. The main spaces overlook the lake through an expanse of glass, which is shaded with large overhangs and is angled forwards to reduce reflections. A vertical stair tower provides a strong anchoring element for the whole composition and acts as a hinge point, organizing the main spaces.

Visit the website of Mark Dziewulski Architect here.

Photos: SkitheFuture

Modern beach house on the Brazilian coast

Two boxes of reinforced concrete, rest fixed connected on the mountainside of the Brazilian coast. The Paraty House is located between São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, on one of the islands near Paraty City, where the residence cantilevers 8-meters outward from the mountainside. The 9,041 square foot (840 square meters) house finds balance in the topography of the land where the living space is open to the untouched nature. Designed by architect Marcio Kogan, the residence rests in seclusion where the inhabitants have to arrive by boat. After stepping on the sand the residents make their way inside via a metallic bridge positioned over a crystal-lined reflecting pool. The bridge leads to stairs connecting to the lower volume. This level features huge glass windows that allow for views of the sea, hosting the living room, kitchen and service area, the upper level lodges the bedrooms. In the front part of the house, retractile panels of eucalyptus sticks protect the bedrooms from the sun. The spaces that face the mountain have small internal patios with zenital lighting and the use of exposed reinforced concrete grants a striking texture to the walls. The entire top of the house is covered with terraces, observatories for the inhabitants and gardens for sculptures, medicinal plants and edible herbs.

Visit the website of architect Marcio Kogan here.

Photos: Nelson Kon

Steel-clad cabin on stilts in the rugged wilderness

The Sol Duc Cabin has just recently been completed by Olson Kundig Architects and is located in Olympic Peninsula, Washington. Providing secure shelter for every season, this steel-clad 350 square foot fishing cabin on stilts can be completely shuttered when the owner is away. The cabin’s rugged patina and raw materiality respond to the surrounding wilderness while its verticality provides a safe haven during occasional floods from the nearby river.

Composed of two levels, the cabin’s entry, dining and kitchen areas are located on the lower floor while a sleeping loft hovers above. A cantilevered steel deck extends from the lower level, providing unimpeded views of the river. Constructed primarily of unfinished, mild steel and structural insulated panels, the cabin is supported by four steel columns and sits lightly on the site.

Most of the structure’s “steel frame and panels, the roof, shutters, and stairs” was prefabricated off-site, thereby reducing onsite waste and site disruption. Prefabrication kept typical construction wastage to a minimum. With a cantilevered roof that provides solar shading and protection from the elements. Each of the building’s shutters can be opened and closed with hand wheels that move the shutters over the glazed portions of each facade.

Visit the website of Olson Kundig Architects here.

Photos: Benjamin Benschneider & Courtesy of Olson Kundig Architects

Underground building: House in Nicolas’ Hill

House 02 has been designed by Moscow-based architectural studio Za Bor Architects and is located on a steep hillside not far from Moscow, Russia. The inclinated terrain has been minimally transformed; in fact, it is a 2,906 square foot (270 square meters) building built-in to the hill. The upper level is a separate white cube, cantilevering over a big span. Here you find the main entrance to this cube, and also a spacious living room with fireplace, a cabinet and a large terrace. The lower level is designed for private zones; it is almost entirely going into the hill. Only one wall has a lot of glazing, looking to the meadows and the nearby river. The inevitable sunlight problem was solved with the help of an inclined clerestory. Via

Visit the website of Za Bor Architects here.

Photos: Peter Zaitsev

Lighthouse 65 by AR Design Studio

This spectacular contemporary residence has just recently been designed by the Winchester-based architecture firm AR Design Studio, who sent us photos of this amazing development. The 2,000 square foot property is located in Hill Head along the south coast of England in the United Kingdom. From the architects: “This super insulated, luxury 3 bedroom house sits in a beautiful water side location on the South Coast, enjoying stunning views of the Solent and the Isle of Wight. The design concept was to maximize the building’s width, so every key room enjoys expansive views of the vista; all bathrooms and utility spaces run at the rear of the property, allowing this.

The house sits 7 meters below road level with the roof acting as a parking deck for 3 cars. The house is accessed via an illuminated glass cube that tops a concrete stair core; the ‘lighthouse’ that gives the house its name. At night the lit glass glows to indicate local weather conditions: green when weather is fair and red when atmospheric pressure drops, warning passing yachtsmen of possible stormy conditions.

Visually the roof and floor decks are hung from the central concrete core, terminating in large cantilevers that provide shade and open-air shelter to the ground floor.”

Visit the website of AR Design Studio here.

Photos: Courtesy of AR Design Studio

House nestled in a wooded nature reserve

The Portuguese firm Correia Ragazzi has completed the building “Casa no Geres’ in Canicada, Portugal in 2006. The existing ruins on the site were reconstructed for a couple and their grown up children and extended for use as a weekend retreat. The 1,614 square foot (150 square meters) residence is located on a 4,060 square meters plot with special morphological features.

The home is nestled in the middle of a wooded nature reserve directly on the Cavado River, an exceptional location with wonderful views from the interior. The architects were careful not to cut down any trees during the construction process. The elongated building is built as a “weightless intervention enhanced by the overhanging part that shoots off the riverbank cliff maximizes the transparent appearance from the main river, on the other hand, from the main access it appears diminished as its half buried.”

Block-like steps lead up to the glass entrance of the concrete house. Numerous windows flank the sides of the home, a link between the living quarters and the surrounding nature is created through this transparency. The living room leads to a small terrace, with views out onto the river, the main draw for this retreat. Via

Visit the website of architecture firm Correia Ragazzi here.

Photos: Luis Ferreira Alves, Juan Rodriguez

Treehouse perched on a forested hillside

The treehouse by architecture firm Jackson Clements Burrows is sited in the bush fringe of Separation Creek perched on a steep forested hillside above the Great Ocean Road and Bass Strait in Victoria, Australia. It is a site that enjoys a unique combination of bush environment with intimate views of Separation Creek, the beach and the Wye River Peninsula to beyond. The steepness of the site, landscape controls and landslip potential resulted in a limited building envelope to work within. These constraints led the architects to explore a sensitive yet sculptural response that minimized footprint by echoing in form a tree with branches, with rooms branching and cantilevering in all directions of a central trunk to take advantage of views, access and aspect.

The three bedroom residence features 2,368 square feet (220 square meters) of living space. Upper level projections include an entry branch with study, a sunroom to the west, and a living area and deck cantilevering some 6m meters from the core overlooking the ocean and beach below. At a half level lower, the master bedroom wing springs from the stair landing into the bush to the east. A dining room and kitchen make up the upper level core of the building, whilst two further bedrooms, bathroom and laundry complete the lower level accommodation.

The treehouse draws inspiration from the modest local vernacular of 1950′s painted fibro shacks. The cement sheet panels used on the treehouse are painted in 2 tons of green that help merge the building with the vegetation on the hillside in which it sits and reinforce its relationship with the landscape. The vertical timber battens on the building are a naturally stained timber, which will silver over time like the branches and trunks of trees within the bush. Via

Visit the website of architecture firm Jackson Clements Burrows here.

Photos: John Gollings