1. The Bourellec Brothers Floating House:
This experimental floating house (a studio for resident artists and authors invited by French art centre Cneai) proves the genre-swapping Bouroullecs are up for larger-scale architectural work. A collaboration with architects Jean-Marie Finot and Denis Daversin, the playful aluminium and wood structure, moored off an island in the Seine, can be reproduced to different scales.
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2. Ring House, Karuizawa, japan by TNA:
When architects Makoto Takei and Chie Nabeshima (TNA) were asked to design a weekend house 185 miles from Tokyo, they came up with an ethereal, glass and wood mini-tower. Standing three storeys tall amid thick vegetation, it offers uninterrupted 360-degree views, its transparent skin flooded with light during the day and glowing at night when lit from within.
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3. St. Andrews Beach House, Australia by Sean Godsell:
On Victoria's Mornington Peninsula, this retreat is right on the seashore. An outer skin of oxidised steel grating acts a brise-soleil, while the simple design incorporates an unusual feature requested by the client, who wanted to be in constant dialogue with the outdoors: the interior spaces are linked by an exterior veranda, so to move between them, one must exit the house.
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4. Villa Chabrey, Chabrey, Switzerland by Geninasca Delefortrie:
This low-lying, expansive house in Chabrey encompasses two bedrooms, a garage and an indoor pool in a single volume. Reminiscent of an agricultural building or a hangar, its material simplicity allows it to blend into the rural landscape. The external walls and roof are clad in thin slats of wood, and the roof oversails the walls to create a covered walkway.
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5. Villa NM, New York State, US by UN Studio:
These days, UN Studio is better known for its galleries than its houses, but this new Villa harks back to an earlier European project: Mobius House. Set on a sloping site in upstate New York, the house is an extruded box, with two protruding levels forming the upstairs bedrooms. Curved surfaces create cave-like spaces that break open into expansive walls of glass.
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More to come.