Tunquen House by Mas Fernandez Arquitectos. A terrace offering impressive views across the South Pacific is encased within the exposed structural ribs of this cliff-top house in Chile by Mas Fernandez Arquitectos (+ movie). Santiago studio Mas Fernandez Arquitectos designed Tunquen House as a quiet retreat for a 50-year-old mother. It sits within the seaside community of Tunquen – a remote location where homes are dotted across the landscape. The shape and orientation of the building were dictated by the rocky plant-covered terrain and the dramatic sea views. It was also positioned to offer shelter from the strong coastal winds. "The design arose from the need to create some kind of shelter," studio co-founder Cristobal Fernandez told Dezeen.
"The landscape is quite rugged, the wind and the proximity to maritime forest required that the house had this skin system that generates a feeling of being covered or sheltered. " Fifteen wooden ribs form an exposed exoskeleton around the house. Photography and movie are by Nico Saieh. Timber House M-M by Tuomas Siitonen wraps around a sheltered garden. This wooden home in Helsinki by Finnish architect Tuomas Siitonen has a roof that dips in the middle to allow views across it and a kinked plan that wraps around a secluded garden (+ slideshow).
Constructed on a sloping plot in the garden of a house occupied by the client's parents, the building was designed by Siitonen to provide two separate apartments - one for a couple and their two children, and another for the children's great-grandmother. The ground floor contains an accessible apartment for the great-grandmother, while a larger apartment for the family occupies the two upper storeys.
"The brief was to design an inspiring and environmentally sensible house incorporating a separate flat for a grandmother, or for example to be used by one of the children in the future," Siitonen told Dezeen. On the other side, the building presents a closed facade to a nearby road and railway, while its height allows views from the upper floors and balcony. Exterior photography is by Tuomas Uusheimo. Villa Plus by Waldemarson Berglund. This idyllic pine house by the sea outside Stockholm has a glass-fronted lookout loft on its roof.
Completed in 2008 by Swedish architects Waldemarson Berglund, the two-storey Villa Plus is clad entirely in roughly cut Swedish pine that will grey with age. Only one room occupies the rectangular first-floor loft, while bedrooms are on the ground floor alongside bathrooms and a large open-plan living room. A separate bedroom is located at the back of the house and can only be accessed by crossing the wooden outdoor deck. Timber feet raise the building and deck above the ground to prevent flooding when the tide is high. Some other Swedish houses from our archive include a house with glazing that is flush with the ground and an island cottage with a raw timber interior - see more projects in Sweden here. Photography is by Åke E:son Lindman. The following information is from Waldemarson Berglund: The surroundings are simply water with some rocks and little islands cutting through the surface.
Concrete house by Architecture Brio that bridges a stream in India. A bridge over a stream connects the two sides of this concrete house in India by Mumbai firm Architecture Brio (+ slideshow). House on a Stream was designed by Architecture Brio as a weekend retreat near the town of Alibag, on a site with a stream meandering through it. The architects chose to separate the master bedroom from the main part of the house containing the kitchen, dining room, living room and guest bedroom by arranging them on either side of the stream. Monolithic concrete boxes containing the various rooms rest on the uneven ground and cantilever over the water, while trees grow in the gaps between. "Like an organism trying to make most use of its resources and surroundings, the house with its several limbs reaches out into the landscape, making full use of the views within the site and dramatises special moments: a beautiful tree, a view of the mountains beyond or the cascading stream during the monsoon rains," said the architects.
Photography is by Sebastian Zachariah. Program. Holiday House Vindö by Max Holst Arkitektkontor. This wooden holiday house by Swedish studio Strömma Projekt Max Holst Arkitektkontor is perched on the edge of a gorge in Vindö, an island on the Stockholm archipelago (+ slideshow). Strömma Projekt Max Holst Arkitektkontor designed the single-storey house on a series of black concrete plinths, elevating it above the gorge so that surrounding trees appear at eye level from the windows. The dark timber exterior is surrounded by a sheltered deck, leading into a combined kitchen, living and dining room, while two children's bedrooms are connected to a playroom and sit adjacent to a bathroom and sauna.
Large windows offer views out into the woodland from all four sides of the house, while wooden ceiling beams are left exposed beneath the gabled rooftops. Timber lines the walls, ceilings and floors throughout the house, complemented by wooden furniture and kitchen units. "The material palette is simple and essentially rooted in local building traditions," said the architects. Vega Cottage by Kolman Boye Architects references weathered boathouses. This solitary wooden cottage on the Norwegian island of Vega was designed by Swedish studio Kolman Boye Architects to resemble the weather-beaten boathouses that are dotted along the island's coastline (+ slideshow). The traditional sheds, known as Naust, are common to Norway's seaside towns and villages, so architects Erik Kolman Janouch and Victor Boye Julebäk decided to pay tribute by creating a small residence that resembles a pair of cabins.
"We have aimed to build a contemporary Naust with an unpretentious presence and a distinctive character, developing themes from the vernacular architecture," they said, referencing the simple materials and gabled profiles. Vega Cottage was built over the uneven terrain of a rocky outcrop near the coastline. "The site is distinctive for its grand and harsh northern landscape with wide panoramas of the Norwegian Sea and the jagged mountains rising from it," said the architects. Other spaces on this floor include a lobby with a wall of storage.