Dwelling with intriguing modern design in Seattle

Beet Residence is a modern single family home nestled in Seattle, Washington designed by Chadbourne + Doss Architects. Built on an existing foundation, the design uses Corten steel clad walls to bracket two floors with views through the house from front to back. The owners love art, cooking, gardening, and rusted steel and wanted the house to celebrate those things. The interior walls are meant to provide space for a growing art collection.

A TV is hung from an overhead track allowing it to be positioned and rotated for viewing from the kitchen, dining or living spaces.

Built on an existing foundation, the Beet Residence uses Corten steel clad walls to bracket two floors with views through the house from front to back.

The upper floor has a linear skylight over a double height space to illuminate the art wall.

Two bedrooms, a shared bath, and a laundry room occupy the upper floor. The guardrail provides library shelving.

Materials are left natural and meant to be the background to art and life, such as the hand rubbed graphite casework and doors.

The owners commissioned artist Chris Buening to create a custom wall mural that will evolve and change over time.

The rear elevation extends the interior into the landscaped backyard with a stained cedar terraced deck and concrete steps.

Photos: Benjamin Benschneider

Joyce & Jeroen House renovation in The Netherlands

Joyce & Jeroen house renovation was an overhaul of a traditional townhouse in The Hague, Netherlands by Dutch studio Personal Architecture. The dilapidated state has necessitated a thorough reinforcement of the foundation and load-bearing structure of the entire house, opening up extraordinary possibilities in an otherwise commonplace apartment renovation. The combination of ambitious design visions and a large measure of trust from the client have resulted in a rigorous and uncompromising redesign, in which voids and split levels accentuate the full height of Den Haag’s typical row houses.

They added mezzanine floors, a glass elevation, a triple-height kitchen and a spiral staircase. Whilst the front half of the house retains its original facade and layout, the architects removed the brickwork garden elevation and replaced it with a steel framework and full-height glass wall, generating an optimal source of daylight.  The interplay of voids, the split-levels and the glass facade, all create a spectacular drama between interior and exterior on the one hand, and between the existing and new floors on the other.

The intervention in the back of the house can be interpreted as a three-dimensional, L-shaped element of five storeys, accessed by a new steel spiral staircase. The staircase brings a new dynamic between the different parts of the house and makes a separation between owners and guests possible. Vertically, the L-shaped element ends in a roof-terrace with jacuzzi and outer kitchen that lies far above the balconies of the lower floors.

Small sets of steps connect the four mezzanine levels with the three existing floors of the house, while the original staircases provide a link between floors at the front of the house.

Above the kitchen, a translucent polycarbonate wall lets light into the master bedroom though a walk-in wardrobe positioned at its back.

A wire-fence balustrade creates a balcony on the second floor, so residents can look down from an office to the kitchen below.

Four new mezzanines overlook the kitchen from the side of the house, providing a new bathroom, library and pantry that feature untreated pine walls and floors. A steel staircase spirals up between the levels and leads up to a rooftop terrace and hot tub.

The architects cut away sections of the first and second floors, creating a triple-height kitchen filled with natural light.

Photos: René de Wit

Rusting corrugated steel barn with African influences

Wolfe Residence was designed by Ehrlich Architects for an African art dealer/collector and big game hunter and his family in West Los Angeles, California. The 3,400 square foot sustainable residence is a rusting Cor-ten steel barn showcasing the owner’s ever-changing collection of African art and furniture, taking full advantage of Southern California’s benign climate. The Owner and the Architect share a deep love of, and a long history with Africa where the Architect lived for six years and the Owner continues to visit and engage local artists every year. Their shared connection with this continent was an instrumental influence on the architecture, landscape, and interiors.

The corrugated Cor-ten steel roof wraps continuously around the roof to the walls to the ground, showcasing the naturally weathering material. Oversized sliding glass doors open the steel structure up on two sides (sliding into wall pockets), transforming the house into an airy pavilion. The owner’s collection of African art is displayed on the large white walls of the main living area.

The 13 foot high, white walls of the main living space display eclectic African treasures from many regions. A zebra print carpet covers the stairs leading to the upper floor and mezzanine, past a skylit moosehead hanging on the stairwell wall, continuing the African wilderness theme present throughout the house. The upstairs master bedroom suite features a balcony overlooking the backyard pool and a “his and hers” walk in closet that were customized to expresses the Hunter and the Hunted which the Owners religiously dress as. Sustainable landscaping is achieved with extensive zero-scape, native plants and bark and sand ground cover. African hardwood stools mix with found and recycled artifacts, and a basketball hoop.

Photos: Grant Mudford

The Fortress fantasy villa overlooking the Hollywood Hills

This striking, one-of-a-kind architectural masterpiece is one of the most unique villas in Los Angeles, California. Designed by David Lawrence Gray Architects, Sunset Plaza Mansion sits on a privately gated half-acre plus promontory overlooking the Hollywood Hills. Part contemporary palace, part concrete fortress, this 10,369 square foot fantasy villa is unlike anything else in the neighborhood. The home belongs to DJ and producer Val Kolton, and has been coined the “King of the Hill” and has also been referred to as “The Fortress”. Inside the elements of steel, glass and concrete have been masterfully incorporated throughout the mansion.

The home boasts floor-to-ceiling walls of glass that captures 270-degree jet liner city views from downtown to the Pacific Ocean. A glass staircase escorts you over the voluminous, 60′ grand entry and into the lavish master bedroom suite, richly appointed with burl wood details and an opulent dual master bathroom. Additional features include a professional stainless steel kitchen designed by the Porsche Design Group, five bedrooms in the main villa, and two more in the detached gate house (which also has its own living room), a large screening room with a full-sized bar, billiards table, motor court, gym, Koi pond, motor court and a private outdoor swimming pool with a 12-person spa. Stunning any time of the day or night, The Fortress is truly an unparalleled architectural trophy.

This incredible mansion can be rented with prices starting at $3,500/per night, from here.

Modern glass and steel home perched hillside

Perched on a hilltop in a suburban neighborhood of Bellevue, Washington, DeForest Architects designed this ground-up remodel to take full advantage of light and views while maintaining privacy from close-in neighbors. Transplants from Scotland by way of the east coast, these empty nesters loved the location of their home and its great views… but not the wasted space and dark awkward rooms. They boldly chose to downsize their existing home, making it friendlier for simplifying life and welcoming family from near and far. Timeless materials like oak, walnut, glass and steel combine with modern details to frame simple volumes filled with natural light.

 Photos: © Benjamin Benschneider

Fascinating modern dwelling on the San Juan Islands

Tucked between a thicket of trees and a rising bank on the San Juan Islands, Washington, Shadowboxx sits in a natural clearing created by the strong winds that force back the trees from the rocky bank. Designed by Olson Kundig Architects, the house responds to a desire to facilitate an intimate understanding of this special place and explores the tradition of gathering around a fire. The building purposely confuses the traditional boundaries between a built structure and its surroundings. Its masses are modeled by winds off the water, exterior cladding is allowed to weather and rust, and shifting doors, shutters, walls and roofs constantly modulate the threshold between inside and outside.

Here is a description of the project from the architects, “Inside the home, a gallery runs the length of the house with rooms spilling off of it. Two 15 foot by 10 foot steel clad doors slide open to reveal the main living space, named the cloud room for its ever-changing atmospherics. A glass-walled bunkroom, it contains six custom-designed rolling platforms that serve both as sofas and beds and enable the room to morph and accommodate different functions. Exterior awning shutters facing the water can be closed for protection from the elements or for security when the owner is away.”

A guest room sits at one end of the house, and the bathhouse at the other. The bathhouse is topped by a 16×20’ roof that opens the room like a cigar box at the push of a button.

Materials with a strong tactility are used throughout the house, including rammed earth floors, reclaimed oak floorplanks, unpainted gypsum board and steel walls, corrugated steel siding and roofing, and reclaimed scaffolding planks for the ceiling.

Photos: Jason Schmidt

Steel and glass pavilion on Ocean Beach

A translucent glass bridge connects this 1,820 square foot Corten steel and glass pavilion to a mid-century modern house, Ocean Beach Residence has been designed by San Francisco Bay Area architect Ernest Born of studio Aidlin Darling Design. Gently placed among existing trees, the addition, though physically simple, is phenomenally complex. A private cypress grove in the rear and the Pacific Ocean in front are experientially connected through a strategic layering of space, view, reflection, acoustics, and nature.

Photos: Matthew Millman & Robert Schlatter

Hilltop residence in the Blue Ridge Mountains

This hilltop residence called ‘Leicester House’ is located at the edge of a wooded knoll in the rolling foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains of Asheville, North Carolina, with expansive southern and western views. Approaching through dense woods, one arrives at a striking single story facade of corten steel in a wood frame, designed by studio SPG Architects. A hint of the views is provided through the glass door, but it is not until entry that the full impact of the hilltop views can be experienced. The rear glass walls, facing West and South, open to rolling farmland below and the mountains beyond.

The entry level serves as the primary living area, with a guest wing carved into the hilltop on a level below. Functionality and energy efficiency are achieved both by this programmatic zoning as well as the careful choice of materials, fixtures, fittings, and energy. The ‘greening’ of the house complements its visual warmth, grounding the modern structure’s rural landscape.

Photos: Daniel Levin

Striking reform of a minimalist villa in Denmark

Villa Wienberg is an addition to an existing tree house in Højbjerg, a coastal suburb of Aarhus in Denmark, designed by Wienberg Architects. There are only a few traces remaining of the old house, which is in harmony with the new addition. The coverage of the house was planned according to the potentials that were on the ground floor, which is now partly in two floors, with an open plan design. The location of the facades and windows has been planned in relation to the old trees on the property. The 936 square foot (87 square meters) minimalist home is bathed in natural light. The exterior is clad with vertical panels of wood in a black color with square window with lots of varying sizes. There is a good material consistency of the house, the old part is kept entirely in a white interior, and broken by the internal atrium covered with black wood. In the new part is the kitchen also kept in a radiant white along with steel and concrete, which creates a good contrast to design on the walls, staircase and loft.

The salon and the study are warm shelters where the uniformity of materials provides a visual peace that invites you to enjoy the views to the garden.

Photos: Courtesy of Weinberg Architects

Glass and steel collide in stunning South African property

House Ber, the latest masterpiece by Nico van der Meulen Architects and M Square Lifestyle Design is an indication of what happens when granite, steel, light and water come together. Situated in Midrand, South Africa, the residence presents itself as a sequence of irregular steel bars randomly placed creating patterned facades which initially were conceived to represent security but now have become the very feature which distinguishes this house from its surrounding.

The house simply rectangular in form is structured around the living room as the center of this home. Unimposing and nearly invisible, the frameless glass doors seamlessly separate the interior from the exterior. Thresholds’ being kept to a minimum leaves one wondering whether you have just stepped inside or outside.

Stairs disguised as Granite slabs punched with steel inserts, one cannot help but glide down the entrance hall into the living spaces. M Square Lifestyle Design’s final product presents black steel inlays that are seen throughout the house in various forms. Ensuring that each room captured a feeling of transparency, M Square Lifestyle Design demonstrated their ability to work with materials in their purest forms, making use of natural products like marble floors and Caesarstone kitchen counter tops. The illuminated ceilings highlight the contrasts between different textures and forms, leaving you in a state of anticipation as you move through this house. In keeping with the theme of randomly placed steel bars, the interior designers conceptualized a line drawn across the house linking all elements and spaces together. In doing so, they managed to create a feeling of connection that can be felt throughout the house.

M Square Lifestyle Necessities provided the final touch in furnishing this house with European furniture pieces and lighting to compliment the design, while Regardt van der Meulen’s sculpture livens up the space in its tri-dimensionality.

Photos: Barend Roberts, David Ross, Victoria Pilcher