A lake house, after purchuasing it and then designed by American architect Richard Meier, a retired couple launches into the home’s second renovation in 35 years. It took nine months before Michael McCarthy and Marcia Myers fully realised what they actually purchase in Harbour Springs, Michigan.

” We saw this white house listed on the Internet with a lot of glass looking out the lake. ” says Myers, who, along with her husband, had searched for years for a waterfront property. They scouted waterfront houses and talk about beach properties in New Jersey, “but we kept going back to the Harbour Springs house”, she recalls. The price kept going down where prices everywhere else going up. So they travelled to Lake Michigan to see it in person.

They knew about the basis of architecture and modernism, but they were only vaguely aware of Richard Meier. All they really knew, was how deeply they wanted the house. At 3,200 square feet, it was set among the trees on the step side of a cliff comanding views over a turquoise lake and 970 feet of private beach. However the 1973 home had issues, but McCarthy, an engeener by training cataloged them all and used the information to negotiate a lower price. The house had been renovated once, in 1988, but it was structurally sound.

When the new owners, visited the house in 2007, they hardely shared a Miller’s impression. It was obvious that the property had been on the market for years. There were dead bugs, a musty smell, a collapsing ceilling in the kitchen, fogged glass, and sagging bridge.  The steel windows were rusted; the floor had water damage and some buckling.

Once they’d bought it, they called Meier’s office in New York. The architect suggested that if they intended to modify the building they might consider hiring his firm. “But he said if we were going to restore it, we’d be better off using local engineers,” says McCarthy, who did a bit of both by assembling a team to move forward while at the same time striking up an informal relationship with then Meier employee and Michigan native Michael Trudeau.

Forty years after its creation, the Douglas House has returned to its original intent—an architectural experience that moves the visitor through an exploration of inside and outside spaces. “The same is true in the Farnsworth House and Fallingwater,” says Meier. “The idea was there from the beginning—it’s about the making of space and how to articulate it.” Today the house looks spectacular with breathtaking views over the lake and over the forest at its backside, giving its owners peace, love and tranquility.

Neighbours are few out here in the high desert of Nevada, where Fabrizio Rondolino, an Italian journalist, built his dream home. There was a fellow one lot over who, after reportedly hearing instructions from above, built a chapel. But possibly the voice subsequently hollered down, “Just kidding!” There is also the Shady Lady Ranch, a bordello (legal in these parts) about seven miles down the road. A few years ago Mr. Rondolino took his wife and two daughters, both under 21 at the time, to say hello, soon after they bought their land. 

Nye County, where Mr. Rondolino and Ms. Ercolani built their house, is so wide open that driving along Highway 95 from Las Vegas one can easily find oneself doing 90 miles an hour.

In Beatty, some 30 miles away, there are a number of intriguing characters: a cowboy re-enactor at the Sourdough Saloon who will tell you about his favorite hat and the days he really did cowboy (that’s a verb in these parts); the auto engineers and drivers testing prototype vehicles in Death Valley, which are often covered in plastic camouflage to hide their design from snooping photographers; the owners of the Shady Lady Ranch, who brought in a man for their female customers, after successfully challenging the Nevada law forbidding male prostitution (the man, who gave an interview to The New York Post in which he compared himself to Rosa Parks and Mahatma Gandhi, is no longer there).

Then there is the story of Mr. Rondolino and Ms. Ercolani, aficionados of the American desert. On this summer afternoon, they are playing Johnny Cash and Bob Dylan, and welcoming guests, as the temperature in their house, which has no air-conditioning, tops out at 94 degrees.

However, the whole concept of the house was inspired of the work of Peter Strzebniok (pronounced Cheb-nee-ah), a young German architect living in San Francisco, whose firm, nottoscale, had created an affordable prefabricated house. Architect and client never met or even spoke on the phone during the planning, construction and furnishing of the desert home — all the planning was done by e-mail. Mr. Rondolino and Ms. Ercolani visited the site only once during construction, when the interiors were not yet finished.

Now, sitting in one of the bedrooms, the couple acknowledge that this is unusual, but they say they had no fears. The architect was European, and they had a shared sensibility. The notion of a totally prefabricated home was considered but rejected — it would have been too expensive to transport. Instead, sections of the house were manufactured five hours away, in Reno, and brought to the site.

The original estimate of $250,000 for the approximately 1,200-square-foot, three-bedroom, two-bathroom house, with an office and a spring-fed hot tub on the deck, proved to be too low. The final cost was $290,000.

Color is used sparingly here, as accents: green bathroom tiles that recall the surrounding sagebrush, touches of red from the bar stools to suggest the heat of the desert. Mr. Strzebniok furnished the house down to the salt shakers, relying heavily on Ikea in the bedrooms and on CB2 (the table) and Design Within Reach (the chairs) in the dining room.

“When you stay here in the night, you can see the stars move,” Ms. Ercolani says, referring to the experience of sleeping in a bedroom with a floor-to-ceiling glass corner and a skylight.

Setsumasa and Mami Kobayashi’s weekend retreat, two and a half hours northwest of Tokyo, is “an arresting concept,” photographer Dean Kaufman says, who documented the singular refuge in the Chichibu mountain range. “It’s finely balanced between rustic camping and feeling like the Farnsworth House.”

The house is designed by Shin Ohori of General Design Co., the structure—Setsumasa bristles at the word “house,” since his desire was for something that “was not a residence”—and its wooded surroundings serve as a testing ground for the Kobayashis, who design outdoor clothing and gear (as well as many other products) for their company, …….Research. The shelter is constructed from locally harvested larch wood and removable fiberplastic walls and is crowned with two yellow dome tents used as year-round bedrooms.

Still, this is no primitive lean-to. There’s electricity, hot water, and a kitchen—not to mention iPads, Internet, and a clawfoot tub. By day, the couple trims trees and chops firewood. At night, they sit around a campfire and eat Japanese curry, listen to Phish, and balance their laptops on their knees. This is what a modern back-to-the-land effort looks like.

The long, lean Kobayashi complex includes a bathroom and storage room in the structure on the far right.

Setsumasa and Mami Kobayashi are ready for adventure. Mami and Ishii Hideaki also prepare lunch in the cozy main building. The room is rustic and utilitarian, with a double-decker wood-burning stove, tons of open storage, and a sink fashioned from galvanized buckets. But there’s an underlying high-design ethos: The wire baskets are handmade classics from Korbo, a Swedish company, and what looks like a paper-wrapped box in front of the stove is actually a leather cushion by Japanese artist Nakano.

The picture displays Inside one of the Kobayashis’ North Face tents.

Scenes from a weekend a weekend in the woods feature many …….Research products, including camping cookware and striped wool blankets.

Designed by Shin Ohori of General Design Co., the structure—Setsumasa bristles at the word “house,” since his desire was for something that “was not a residence”

A stockpile of wood sheltered from the elements.

Mami and Goo the Kishu dog return from a frolic in the forest, which the couple, along with Hideaki, has thinned and trimmed back over many weekends. It’s an idyllic escape and a world away from the concrete expanse of Tokyo.

Even in cold weather, they open the sliding doors to let the fresh air in.

The ultimate luxury: a hot bath in the clawfoot tub, with the fiberglass door open wide to the woods. I love this retreat….I wish one day everyone of us to make their dreams come true, because such a place is a dream one, and those people are completely free and have great spirtuality, that’s why they can use it and that’s why they deserve it….

This quirky building is one of the latest project by Frank Gehry and is supported by Keep Memory Alive, planned to become a national resource for the most current research and scientific information for the treatment of Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, Huntington ‘s Diseases, and ALS (Lou Gehrig’s Disease) as well as focusing on prevention, early detection and education.

The center features three main spaces: – Medical building for patient care and research. Featuring simple, functional interiors and a lego like exterior of slightly disorderly blocks. – A breezeway between the medical building and the higher profile stainless steel Life Activity Center. The breezeway provides a shaded seated area to enjoy the Las Vegas weather while avoiding direct sunlight. There is also a small cafe and it is method to experiencing the reflection garden to the east.

- The Life Activity Center – this is the portion of the project that has and will receive most of the attention. It is also the most misunderstood. Patients are not treated in the space, nor do they ever really interact with it except for the facade.

The LAC is simply an event space meant to host all sorts of events and occasions. Profits from these events help fund additional research in the medical building. The interior features normal lighting and also LED lights that can provide dramatic lighting both for the interior and for those seeing the LAC from the exterior or the high profile cross roads in Las Vegas.

By the japanese coast, this building includes a private museum, a guest house and a resort. It is thought as a wide free organic space in which rooms can be closed or in continuity to each other around a patio. The round shape is the best to cover the beautifull view around as well as to resist and glide in the strongs thyphons winds. The building itself seems to grow from an hill in which air system circulate to ventilate permanently the house.

Everything is thought for the best thermic natural ratio with a double facade for protecting from winds and sun, as well as the roof is covered by 30cm of earth ncluding a watering system.

The building takes the same color from the rocks as it was emerging in the green. Inside it is thought as all the rooms are connecting with each others and making like a huge gallery or a wandering house.

Windows looks like holes used to focus the importants points of the landscape and to keep the space privacy.

“Operation Rainbow” expands at the entrance to the neighborhood of Grand Park, corner of Portmann Huyard street and Emile Counord Avenue in Bordeaux, France. The building, unusual in the neighborhood by its curved shape and colorful facade comprises of forty homes and offices.

Positioned at an intersection and near a mall (which is part of a renovation project), it must manage its urban context, the flow of cars, light rail flows and thus feed pedestrians. This concentration has led to the creation of a square mineral easing movement and allowing the building to sit in the continuity of the public domain.

Fogo Island lies outside of Newfoundland, Canada and is home to a gentle, independent people who have lived for centuries between wind and waves in pursuit of fish.  Fogo Islanders live in the untamed landscape of the North Atlantic.  The people are subtle and unpretentious yet have seen their traditional way of life by threatened by forces largely beyond their control.

The island is an elemental place of subtle and abiding beauty – a place where time is not obliterated by the circulation of everything. Its people are inextricably bound to this place where they belong. They are a culturally rich and resourceful people who live in close connection with each other and with their people who have come before.

The Shorefast Foundation works with the people of Fogo Island to find ways to preserve this special place and this special culture.

The three structure are a selection of six artist studios, designed for the Shorefast Foundation on Fogo Island, Newfoundland, Canada. The project is the basis for an Arts Residency Program starting in 2010. Studios will be built in remote settings on Fogo Island and traditional Newfoundland homes in various communities will be restored to become artists’ residences. Artists will come from around the world to live and work in the area for months at a time.

The idea behind the forms of the various studios was to create a bold geometric structure to starkly contrast, yet lay silently in the striking natural environment.

The main concept behind the layout of the artist studios was to observe the surrounding environment during its transition through the various seasons in which the studios will be in use: spring, summer and fall.

The studios are all oriented towards the sea and elevated above the ground to provide the resident artist with a feeling of being unobstructed and unbound.

The materials and construction methods chosen reflect that of the local architecture of Fogo Island. The environment will leave its marks on the studios by weathering the structures over time.

All studio are 100% off-the-grid and produce their own power and recycle of of their own waste. The 3 studios are: 1) The Long Studio, 2) The Tower Studio, and 3) The Bridge Studio all to be located on various dramatic sites.

Imagine a place surrounded by nature with pure air and sounds of birds…. every morning blessed with a sun ray. A vision of a hut everyday. There’s something about the proportions that make it appear heavenly. The hut is the butterfly-roof-adorned tea and meditation structure perched above a pond on their 14 acres in Champaign, Illinois.

The owner of the hut is Mary Kalanzis who wanted a quiet space to observe the surrounding nature and have a cup of tea. The hut, which was completed in 2010, measures in at just 97 square feet and sits along the north edge of a pond.

The location allowed the development of several effluvial sensations. Throughout the day water reflections are projected onto the soffit. Here the low, horizontal window in the main space “frames a meditative fragment of water.

Inside, a large window opposite the main door frames a view of mature trees. The main interior spaces is the raised platform supporting three tatami mats. The floor of glossy ebonized birch has the sensation of a deep, still pond. The grass tatami mats become an island within an island.

A simple walkway leads to the unassuming entrance. It’s obscured, detailed like the cedar walls. The roof has a V-shape which dominates the structure’s silhouette, channels rainwater to a central spout then into the pond—for most of the year.

The deep-V, butterfly roof characterizes the hut on the outside and defines the interior as well. It was a consequence of several experiments to maximize the reflective light effects, channel the rainwater into the pond, and capture a view of the sky. During the winter the hut instead of floating over the pond, the hut sits lightly above the snow. It’s protected and serene but alive with subtle energy. Photos by: Phillip Kalantzis-Cope

Building on the water is a different story….. water is not land – a different character – tradition – romanticism – invention – libertarian – system – space – pioneering – adventure – risk – leisure – views – movement – sky and water – individualism – wind and clouds – flouting the rules – contact with the elements – feeding swans from the kitchen window – ice-skating around the house.

Is it a boat? Is it a house? Is it romantic or is it pragmatic? It is a hybrid. It is not what you think it is. Seventy-five floating homes and waterside dyke houses in the private sector.

The Netherlands has a history of living close to water and of coping with its caprices. That means living on land protected by dykes, on mounds, on shore or floating. Only recently have floating homes been eligible as a significant solution to Holland’s modern housing needs. Canals with houseboats are of course a familiar sight in Dutch cities and one may find the occasional floating hotel or restaurant. In recent years, however, there has been an increase in the number of water-based housing developments that share more characteristics with land-based housing.

These floating dwellings form part of an urban design. They are financially classified as immovable properties, and compete with land-based accommodation in their interior volume and comfort level.

The growing enthusiasm for living on the water has two motives. The first one is the rising sea levels and increased precipitation will make it necessary to dedicate ever larger areas of land to water storage basins and peak overflow zones. The second one, some hold that there is already a crucial shortage of new building land. Not everyone shares that view, however: the strategic consolidation of existing towns produces a sharper urban/rural contrast, making many greenfield developments superfluous or even detrimental.

Living on the water is that it fosters a feeling of liberty and of closeness to nature. Living – and working – on the water is in effect the multiple utilization of space. It is also a way of redeveloping obsolete dockland areas and flooded quarries.

Location: Steigereiland is located in the IJmeer between Zeeburgereiland and Haveneiland. It is the first in a series of islands that form the new urban district of IJburg. The “water neighbourhood”, Waterbuurt West, lies along IJburglaan, the main access road to IJburg which passes over the Enneus Heerma Bridge. On Steigereiland, water, quays and jetties form the framework of public space. The island’s inner basin contains two neighbourhoods with floating homes and dyke houses. Waterbuurt West is a compact urban development with a density of 100 homes per hectare. The floating houses are accessed by jetties. Furthermore, a row of dyke houses have been built along Haringbuisdijk. The movable bridges are marked by “follies” in the form of pile dwellings.

The building is located in a landscape of unique beauty, the result of a natural and evident growth. The mountain, topped by a castle, is covered by a blanket housing through a system of aggregation by simple juxtaposition of pieces generated fragmented target tissue that adapts to the topography.

The house is conceived as a piece placed on the ground, joining in the gap. A piece built on the same white lime, the same primacy of the massif on the opening, which takes the edge of the site to have their holes and integrated into the fragmentation of the environment.

The indoor space is divided by the void that is the core of communication cut parallel disposition of the mountain without touching it. On the ground floor are the garage and cellar, on a volume it has two floors with four rooms.

Two of them, the rooms at the intermediate level are open to the private street, the other two on the upper level overlook above the houses opposite, the Valley of Ayora. One of them, the study is opened in turn to the central double height, incorporating it into their space.

Across the gap, and on the mountain, are the areas facing the garden day illuminated by light reflected on the south slope of the castle oxidized. Location: Ayora, Spain. A project by: Fran Silvestre Arquitectos.