Tula House Sits Lightly

Quadra Island, British Columbia – Patkau Architects Photography: James Dow and Patkau architects You’ll find this home set on a remote clifftop on Quadra Island, some six hours drive to the north of Vancouver. A home for two and the unofficial headquarters of the Tula Foundation, the home replaced an old, dilapidated cottage on the […]

Rockhouse

Rockhouse. a healing home...

British Columbia, Canada – Sandrin Leung Design Build Built area: 111.5 m2 (1,194 sq. ft.) Year built: 2009 – 2010 Photography: Ana Cristina Sandrin “The Rockhouse is a courtyard home organized around a large rock bluff in a gesture of embrace. From the first visit to the site we felt the very strong spiritual/natural presence of this rock. We […]

COTH… Cottage on the Hill

Cottage on the hill...

Michigan  USA – Zinta Aistars Lot size:     10 acres (2 hectares) Built area:   200 sq. ft. (18.5 m2) Year built:   Unknown Renovated:  2012/13 Standing on a hill in the woods of south-west Michigan is a whimsical cottage named COTH by its writer owner, Zinta Aistars.  Although the 10 acre property has […]

Daintree Dreaming

Daintree FNQ Australia  –  M3 Architecture The Daintree is one of Australia’s iconic tropical rainforest regions. It abounds with lush vegetation, cassowaries, tree kangaroos and more than a few salt-water crocodiles! The region is environmentally sensitive, sitting on a spur of the Great Dividing Range that runs down to the Coral Sea, approximately 125 kilometres (80 […]

More Bamboo Brilliance

Flamingo Dailai Resort, Vietnam – Vo Trong Nghia Architects Gross Floor Area:    1,600 sqm Photography: Hiroyuki Oki OK – so it’s not a home. But it is a wonderful example of the beauty and flexibility of the world’s most renewable timber… bamboo. Bamboo is incredibly strong due to it’s long fibres and high silica content. […]

Step Island Bach

Bay of Islands, New Zealand – Crosson, Clarke, Carnachan Architects Year: 2005 Photography: Patrick Reynolds This renovation and addition is on Motukawaiti, a privately owned island in the Cavalli group, just to the north of the New Zealand’s beautiful Bay of Islands. The project included the restoration of an existing turn-of-the-century cottage and the addition of […]

The Hanging Tea House

Washington DC  –  David Jameson Year built:     2009 Approximate Area:     16 m2 (173 sq. ft.) Photography:     Paul Warchol Bronze, timber and bamboo give this ‘me space’ the look and feel of a Japanese tea house. Suspended from a pair of steel arms, it hangs like a lantern in the […]

Tea House in a Garden

Prague Czech Republic – A1 Architects Built:    2008 Area:     7 m2  (75 sq ft) This firm of architects has a definite penchant and finesse in designing and building teahouses.  They have taken the essence of the classical Japanese concept to Europe. We’ll let the owner do the talking: The Garden At the foot of […]

Sukiya House

Sukiya House by Nauhaus Japan

Hamamatsu City, Shizuoka Prefecture  –  Yukiharu Suzuki and Associates Built are: Site area: Year built:     2007 This home and studio is located in Hamamatsu City, Shizuoka, Japan. The open plan 3-story wood frame and concrete house has an underground balcony with an amazing view. The light filled home seems to be almost anchored to […]

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 […]