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Snøhetta Designs A Suspended Off-Grid Treetop House With A Serene Connection To Nature In Norway

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Designed by Norwegian architectural firm Snøhetta in collaboration with engineer Tor Helge Dokka, this off-grid three-bedroom family home in Kongsberg, Norway is called House Dokka. It occupies 2045 square meters and is inspired by treehouse architecture. The home was created to share a serene connection with nature, allowing both to embrace one another. The house is also called Column House, and it was awarded the Architecture Prize for 2023 by the Kongsberg municipality.

Designer: Snøhetta x Tor Helge Dokka

The quaint House Dokka is deftly suspended over the stunning Norwegian landscape, as it is perched on large wooden columns, that have been firmly grounded into the rock, to minimize any kind of interference or disturbance to the surrounding environment. House Dokka was built using locally produced cross-laminated timber, and glue-laminated timber. Both the timbers ensure that the home can be easily deconstructed with minimal climate costs, whenever the life cycle of the home comes to an end. No nails were used in the construction of the home, which allows the materials to be easily sorted and recycled in the future.

Snøhetta’s goal of sustainability for the home is seen throughout the structure in the form of the large photovoltaic panels on the roof, superior insulation as well as a waterborne heat system that is linked to the ground via a source heart pump. In turn, the home produces more energy than it consumes in less than a decade! Besides generating energy for the house itself, energy is also generated for charging the family’s electric car, almost 75% of it.

The home has an eye-catching and appealing exterior which is accentuated by the black-stained timber paneling that clads it. The interiors of the home feature warm timber paneling and polished concrete flooring, which are paired up with massive black-framed windows that provide access to stunning views. The home contains two levels, with the upper floor housing an open-plan living and dining area, kitchen, master bedroom, hidden bathroom, and a timber outdoor terrace. The lower level accommodates two more bedrooms, as well as a home office, guest suite, lounge, laundry space, and a central shared bathroom.

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This Adaptable Studio Apartment In Japan Is Designed As “One Big Room” For Living & Working

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Dubbed the Building Frame of the House, this home in Tokyo is a unique adaptable space for both living and working. It features stepped living areas framed by boardmarked concrete walls. It is designed by IGArchitects to function as “one big room”.

“[The clients] have a vague boundary between their private and work life, they were imagining a house where they can work anywhere and where they can sense the presence of each other wherever in the house,” said founder Masato Igarashi. “With such lifestyle, rather than have small spaces for compact living, the house was designed to have a large volume and scale that makes various interactions between inside and outside space,” he added.

Designer: IGArchitects

The home’s central space is designed to be as open as possible, with the studio organizing the home’s floors as irregularly stepped mezzanine layers. The various floors are connected via a black-metal staircase and a ladder. At the rear of the home, there is a ground-floor kitchen and first-floor bathroom. The bedrooms and the living spaces are located at the front. A massive bookcase is nestled against the southern wall.

The side walls of the home have been left quite blank, with sections of full-height glazing located at the front of the home, which offer a generous amount of natural light. “The floors are divided to make it difficult to see the interior from the outside, which is treated like a wall,” said Igarashi. “The way the space is used overlaps, responding to the residents’ lifestyle,” he continued. “The floors can turn into a seat, table, shelf, ceiling, or bed.”

The boardmarked concrete structures within the home are exposed, which are teamed up with wooden floors and shelving, and metal countertops in the kitchen, creating an interesting contrast. “We selected materials that would develop their own flavor as they age, and we wanted to bring out the texture and strength of the materials and their shades in the space,” said Igarashi. “Since the site is too small to create a garden, the interior and exterior are treated equally, and the materials are unified inside and out.”

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The Sakura Tiny House With An Ingenious Transforming Interior Is A Game Changer In The Architecture World

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Dubbed the Sakura Tiny home, and designed by Canada-based Acorn Tiny Homes, this quaint little house is designed to be a game-changer as compared to typical homes. It breaks the norm of traditional tiny homes, and although it doesn’t feature wheels, it is equipped with an innovative space-saving interior consisting of a transforming kitchen and bedroom. In an era, where tiny homes are the most popular housing style out there, the Sakura tiny home takes this genre to a whole new and interesting level.

Designer: Acorn Tiny Homes 

The Sakura tiny home is inspired by popular Japanese design trends. Sakura means cherry blossom in Japanese, showcasing an overall Japanese influence on the structure. The roof is built from metal, and the siding is available in varied finishes such as wood, metal, and faux stone. The home will occupy 21.5 x 10.5 ft, and it isn’t as large as North American tiny homes and is quite similar to European models. The interior has a floorspace of 225 square feet and can accommodate two people, as well as a pair of guests, although it may be a tight fit.

The layout and interior of this home are quite unlike other homes. As you enter the home, you are welcomed by a flexible multipurpose space that occupies a lot of the floor space. This main living space transforms into a bedroom, when you slide out the double bed from underneath the nearby living room floor. The cabinetry conceals a fully functional kitchen, and it consists of an induction stove, microwave, oven, fridge/freezer, dishwasher, and a washer/dryer/. The kitchen also features a pull-out kitchen counter that provides some extra prep space.

This multipurpose kitchen/entrance/bedroom is connected to other rooms in the house. One room is the bathroom, which will hold a wet room, shower, skylight, and a novel toilet with an integrated sink that is supplied by greywater. The other room is the living room, which will be elevated to make space for the sliding bed, and will include a pull-out desk area, sofa bed, and a massive entertainment center.

The post The Sakura Tiny House With An Ingenious Transforming Interior Is A Game Changer In The Architecture World first appeared on Yanko Design.

Casa GE Is A Low-Energy Home In Spain With A Minimum Footprint But Maximum Functionality & Comfort

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Dubbed Casa GE, this newly built low-energy house in the town of Seva, nestled in the middle of Monstseny Natural Park, north of Barcelona was designed by Alventosa Morell Arquitectes. The home is located on a sloping triangular plot, tucked between two streets, and is designed to be a simple and minimal family home that has minimum energy requirements while maintaining a serene and solid connection to the garden. The home is quite modest and perfect for a close-knit family.

Designer: Alventosa Morell Arquitectes

The studio had a unique strategy for designing the home. They created a strategy with two approaches. At first, they surveyed the site and then selected the best spot to construct the home which was the highest and flattest point. This minimized earthworks and protected the pre-existing trees, while also maximizing the views. They also developed a brand-new construction system that can support a complete shift in the organization of the internal space, allowing it to transform from an open plan to a more intimate and conventionally designed space. It is a single-story home with a linear plan. The bedroom is connected to an office, and then a living room, kitchen-diner, and terrace.

The main rooms have a stunning view of the garden. They are amped with sliding glass walls which are teamed up with patterned brickwork. A large terrace opens up to the kitchen which is sheltered with an oversailing pitched roof. A simple porch features a solitary column and flat roof, which perfectly contrasts the terrace. The entire house is designed to be simple and low maintenance. The windows on the southern side offer solar heat in the winter while providing shade during the summer season. Skylights and sliding doors offer cross-ventilation during the hotter parts of the year, while excellent insulation enables the house to be heated via a single pellet-burning stove.

Casa GE is a prime example of excellent low-energy construction which is the specialty of the architects – Marc Alventosa and Xavier Morell. The architects make an effort to ensure that all their projects are “socially, economically and environmentally responsible”, and Casa GE is certainly no exception.

The post Casa GE Is A Low-Energy Home In Spain With A Minimum Footprint But Maximum Functionality & Comfort first appeared on Yanko Design.