A Barn Conversion and Extension

Good for another century or two!

Lesponne, France – PPA Built area:      70 sqm Year built:      2010 Photography:      Philippe Ruault A vacation home that started as a barn conversion in a verdant valley of the Adour de Lesponne river, in the mountainous region of the Hautes-Pyrénées. But as lovely as it was, it lacked light and […]

A House Among and Within the Loblolly Pines

 Loblolly House – Kieran Timberlake Location: Taylors Island, Maryland, USA Built area:    2,200 sq ft  (204 m2) Named after the tall pines that characterize its site on the Chesapeake Bay, this home “seeks to deeply fuse the natural elements of this barrier island to architectural form.” Positioned between a dense grove of loblolly pines […]

Casa Chipicas

Valle de Bravo, México  –   Alejandro Sanchez Garcia Arquitectos Total Built Area:     720 m2  (7,776 sq. ft.) Unit size:     180 m2  (1,944 sq. ft) Year built:    2009 Photography:    Jaime Navarro Soto The land was a well established garden, subdivided off an existing home.  The brief was to make […]

Bamboo Courtyard Teahouse

ShiQiao, Yangzhou China  –  World Consulting & Design (HWCD) Building Area:     400m2 Completed:     May 2012 Yangzhou is a city located to the north-west of Shanghai. It is home to Huaiyang-style cuisine which ranks as the top of all eight famous Chinese cuisine styles. Focussed on pastries and snacks as the key components, […]

Hillside Bound

Design: Gavin Scott, collaboration in part with ISD architects Builder: Earthbound d+c Area: 170 sqm   Click on any image to start lightbox display. Use your Esc key to close the lightbox.

A box in a box!

Tasmania, Australia – Misho + Associates Year built:      2011-2013 Photography:      Peter Whyte Photography   The site is a low rise on a treed site on the Tasman Peninsula to the south-east of Hobart. The aspect is north with views out to Norfolk Bay. Tasmania sits in the Southern Ocean that often delivers cold, salty winds to the […]

Sonnenschiff… a solar village to work, rest and play!

  Australia gets more sunshine than any other country on Earth. It is, and always has been a pioneer in solar energy developments. Yet it is Germany, not Australia, that leads the world in solar energy production. Sun Ship (Sonnenschiff) and the integated Solar Village (Solarsiedlung) in the city of Frieburg is a leading example […]

The Great Wall of WA

North Western Australia – Luigi Rosselli Architects Design Architect: Luigi Rosselli Builder: Jaxon Construction Photography: Edward Birch       Click on any image to start lightbox display. Use your Esc key to close the lightbox. Another interesting rammed earth home is Lake Chapala Rammed Earth Home…

The Ryan Residence

King Scrub (near Brisbane) Australia  WD architects Cooran Queensland In the words of architect, Andrew Webb: The Ryan residence pushes the boundaries of sustainable design while being an inspiring, comfortable and innately functional place to for the family to live together and grow. The house is highly energy-efficient and employs a range of innovative sustainable materials, […]

Menlo Passive

San Mateo County Menlo Park, California – Clarum Homes Year built: 2011 Passive Home (PassivHaus) is a design and build exercise that delivers an extremely comfortable, healthy, economical and sustainable home. Passive homes offer numerous benefits over conventional building including up to a 90% reduction in energy consumption at very little additional cost,.And while some […]