Tag Archives: glass house

Surreal glass house in Holland is ‘the designer greenhouse’ vacation home of your dreams

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Nestled in North-western Netherlands, in Venhuizen, Noord-Holland is a stunning greenhouse-style home, that is a far cry from the conventional holiday homes most of us frequent. Located forty-five minutes away from Amsterdam, the cute little glass house was designed in 2020 by a Dutch/German couple Marielle and Tobias, and was listed for rent on Airbnb. Yes, the home is available to rent! If you’re able to find a reservation spot, hopefully.

Designer: Marielle and Tobias of Familie Buitenhuys

The home was artfully designed, so that it subtly blurs and merges the boundaries between the interiors and the exteriors, hence creating a space that is highlighted by sunlight, where natural light is its best accessory. Since the transparent glass walls of the home, and the greenhouse-ish facade capture most of the attention, the designers chose to adorn the home with minimal furniture, and a neutral palette that elevates the view, while allowing the space to have an open, free-flowing and dynamic appeal. This also helps the home to seem larger than it is!

The listing includes two vacation homes, one of which is the glass house. The glass house features an open-plan bedroom that lets guests cozily sleep under the stars. It also features a vanity, washbasin, and a fireplace that keeps the space warm and comfy during the winter season. The window treatments of the home are kept to a minimum. The windows have been adorned with simple white curtains, that provide privacy to the space, while also allowing light to generously stream in through the day.

The home creates a surreal indoor-outdoor connection with its translucent walls, hence truly elevating the definition of outdoor living. In adherence to today’s trends, the vacation home is what you would call a ‘designer greenhouse’, and designer greenhouses are anticipated to be one of the most innovative and exciting garden trends of 2023. It seems like more and more people want to stay in homes equipped with modern amenities while featuring a rather outdoorsy and nature-oriented aesthetic, and this tiny glass house certainly merges these two traits magnificently! I don’t know about you, but falling asleep under the Dutch night sky, in a cozy little glass house sounds like vacation heaven to me.

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Tiny all-glass “pavilion” glows at night

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When you hear the word pavilion, you probably think about something that’s huge and grand. You get visions of big events being held inside a dome or some other interestingly shaped structure that can fit hundreds or even thousands of people. But this luminescent and “unquestionably small” structure was intentionally built to be a tiny, portable booth that can be transported wherever it is needed. Still the designers chose to name it “A Pavilion”.

Designer: Office Mi-Ji

This structure was initially built to sell bagels and condiments in Melbourne, Australia. But instead of the usual food truck booths that you see at food fairs, markets, and other places where food is sold, you instead get something that actually looks like a greenhouse, or more specifically, a glasshouse. Currently it’s being used as a storage unit but of course that’s such a waste for this carefully-designed “pavilion” so it will be used again to sell condiments but no more bagels.

The structure is made from a three-directional grid of steel T-sections but the whole thing is covered in translucent glass, hence giving it the look of a greenhouse. Even the roof is made from the same kind of glass so you get a singular space and look for the entire thing. But it does have some chamfered edges, giving off a sort-of thatched roof look. Inside it’s also a bit different as the floor is made from timber, a departure from the overall glass look of the A Pavilion.

It might seem like there’s no way in or out of this structure but there’s actually a door at the back. And of course, since it’s used for selling, there’s a square window at the front where you do your transactions with the customers. It’s only 2.7m long, 1.5m wide, and 2.3m high so it is a pretty small booth but it was really designed like that so it can be transported where it’s needed with just a small truck. It’s still pretty tricky to move though as it is made of glass mostly.

One other cool thing about the A Pavilion is that when the sun sets down, it seemingly glows because of its translucent glass skin. It probably doesn’t need outdoor lighting in order to become visible although of course, if you’re selling stuff, you need some light inside.

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Kinetic glasshouse is a jewel and crown in the middle of the Silk Route Garden

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When you visit special gardens when you’re traveling, you expect to see not just amazing flowers and plants but also extraordinary structures built to house them or around them. The Woolbeding Gardens in West Sussex is one such place where you can now see the Silk Route Garden, a 12-step journey celebrating the ancient trading route between Asia and Europe during the 2nd century BC. And on the edge of that garden, you’ll see a jewel-like structure that will open up as a crown but is actually a glasshouse.

Designer: Heatherwick Studio

The kinetic Heatherwick Glasshouse is the focal point of the Silk Route Garden with its ten steel sepals and its glass and aluminum facade. During the summer, the glasshouse will open up through its hydraulic mechanism which takes four minutes to be fully open. This allows the plants inside to be exposed to the sun and to natural ventilation and also for the visitors to see the various subtropical trees and shrubs inside. But during winters or colder weather, the Glasshouse will remain closed to protect the subtropical species inside.

The design is inspired by ornamental Victorian terrariums or sealable containers with soil and plants. These were often made of glass hence the material chosen for this structure. The ten steel sepals support the angled glass planes. They were inspired by actual sepals found on flowers, which are basically the leaves that encase a developing flower. The hydraulic mechanism meanwhile was developed using liquid under pressure that moves in a confined space.

Inside the Glasshouse, you’ll see the rare specimen of Aralia Vietnamensis, a tree specie that has self-supporting growth form and provides shade for the tender ferns that grow with the umbrella trees, magnolias, and bananas. Aside from being a “crowning achievement” in design and engineering, it also restores part of the history of both the Silk Road and the entire beautiful and historic Woolbeding estate. When it is closed, the glasshouse looks like an undiscovered jewel in the middle of the garden but as it slowly unfurls, you’ll see it’s a majestic crown, the crowning jewel so to speak of the Silk Route Garden.

Having a contemporary piece in the midst of all these historic plants, flowers, and flora shows that these two settings can still speak to each other and are of course connected. Around the Heatherwick Glasshouse, you’ll see a winding path with more than 300 species of plants that were found in the twelve distinct regions of the Silk Road.

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This geometric glass cabin’s layout was defined by the fjords and rock formations that surround it

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The Efjord Cabin is a triple-glazed glass cabin that one newlywed couple calls home on the Hallvardøy Island in northern Norway.

When you’d rather spend your honeymoon in your own home than in a luxe hotel somewhere on the beach, you know you did something right. When Frode Danielsen and Tone Beathe Øvrevoll went on a holiday to Hallvardøy Island in northern Norway, the couple spent the next two years there designing their dream home where they’d soon spend their honeymoon and the rest of their lives together. The couple looked no further than the internationally renowned architecture studio Snorre Stinessen Architecture for help in building their dream home, The Efjord Cabin.

Designer: Snorre Stinessen Architecture

Before getting their plans off the ground, Danielsen and Beathe Øvrevoll had to work with the Ballangen municipality to develop a new zoning plan for the undeveloped plot of land. Settling on a naturally flat area to give rise to their new home, the couple chose it to keep the site disturbance to a minimum.

In good company, Snorre Stinessen also takes land disturbance seriously as the architects at the studio are “committed to developing projects that are conscious of our surroundings.” Stinessen goes on to say, “The shape of the building is both a dialogue with the close natural formations, but also with the larger landscape. Its functional aspects create privacy and indoor/outdoor connections to different zones around the building.”

The Efjord Cabin is propped up on a concrete slab and stationed between two rock formations which influenced the overall layout of the home. Split between two volumes, the larger of the two comprises two floors harbors the sleeping accommodations and spacious sauna.

Connected next door is a similarly angular structure that houses the home’s open-plan living room. Each volume is topped off with an inclined roof that offers lofty interior ceiling heights and unobstructed views of the snow-covered hills outside.

Defined by its triple-glazed glass facades, the Efjord Cabin finds thick insulation through 14-tons of glass to reduce energy demands. The home is also strategically configured on the site’s sloped hill to passively collect the available solar energy.

Stinessen also took to locally sourced timber to clad the exterior and interior of the Efjord Cabin. On the outside, core pine treated with iron sulfate provides the home’s exterior with a glossy sheen. Inside, birch veneer gives the home a warm, Scandinavian appeal.

Birch veneer frame the glass windows of the Efjord Cabin to balance the wild views with Scandinavian refinement.

The angular, geometric look follows through from the outside to the inside, with clean, neutral lines defining the inteiror.

Gray carpeting and tile flooring help cool down the inside and gives the home a darker appeal.

An in-home sauna can be found in the larger of the two structural volumes. 

Positioned on a sloped hill, the Efjord Cabin takes full advantage of the passive solar conditions.

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This half-glass, half-steel cabin is designed with naturally insulating material to brace all elements

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The Metal Lark is a half-steel, half-glass residence designed and built by Sala Architects as a multi-generational family holiday retreat.

In Northern Wisconsin, positioned somewhere on 140-acres of former farming fields, the Metal Lark is home to a multi-generational family looking for a holiday retreat. Designed and built by Sala Architects, the Metal Lark sits on a rugged plot of woodlands that were recently replanted with native prairie grasses by the home’s owners.

Designer: Sala Architects

Positioned downslope on a slight hillside, the Metal Lark’s location was chosen specifically for its overlook of a small, nearby lake, as well as the shade provided by the preexisting treeline that partially conceals the home from view in the gravel driveway.

From the gravel driveway, owners and guests can stroll over a wooden footbridge that leads right to the home’s entryway. Continuing through the home’s ground floor, the bridge leads guests to the home’s transparent backend, where floor-to-ceiling windows and doors open up to a spacious deck that cantilevers above the hillside.

Through the door, guests are welcomed with a mudroom within the ground floor’s 20’x20’ footprint, where they can shrug off the outdoor’s grime and remove their shoes. From there, a bedroom and bathroom can also be found on the ground level, while additional sleeping accommodations are located upstairs.

Ascending the wood-lined staircase to the home’s upper floor, the home’s residents can entertain guests in the glass-paned living room where the views are unmatched. A small, but mighty kitchen leaves room for simple meals and plenty of storage space integrated into the walls. Then, a writing desk provides a tiny space for quiet working or a reading nook.

On the home’s front facade, a raw, uncoated, corrugated steel wall conceals the home’s interior and rear views and offers plenty of insulation. Shielding the home from winds and unpredictable elements that come from northwest winter storms, the thick steel wall maximizes insulation all around.

In hopes of maintaining a small, overall carbon footprint, Sala Architects oriented the Metal Lark to optimize the intake of passive solar heating, incorporated summer shading via roof overhangs, and embraced natural cross-ventilation through triple-pane, operable windows.

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A tiny glass cabin lets you enjoy Finnish nature in warmth and safety

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For those who dream of living with nature but worry they might not have the stomach for it, this cabin in Finland might have the perfect answer.

Congested cities, crowded spaces, and COVID-19 may have had some people thinking about escaping to the great outdoors. Even the biggest technophiles will probably admit to being in awe in the face of the splendor of nature. Few, however, might have the heart to really camp out and give up on modern amenities for even just a day. An architectural firm in Finland has thought of the perfect solution, presuming you have no qualms about living in a tiny cabin that has glass for its roof and walls.

Designer: Luauri Solo/Pirinen Salo Oy

The Smart Lucia gives a whole new meaning to “living in a glass house,” though the glass, in this case, is far from the fragile material that the idiom implies. The glass here serves as more than just a safe viewing window into Finland’s majestic greenery. The thermal glass, along with glass and floor heating, will save you from frostbite during the country’s notoriously unforgiving winters. Then again, there might not be much to see during that season anyway, unless you’re the type that does enjoy frozen sceneries.

The glass allows natural light, be it from the sun or stars, to be the main lighting source for the cabin, though artificial lighting is also integrated into the structure’s slim steel structures. This has the combined effect of adding layers of lighting that seem almost magical, especially when the glass acts like a prism to break sunlight into its component colors.

In keeping with Finnish tastes, the Smart Lucia espouses a minimalist design even indoors. But where most houses make the living room or the dining table the centerpiece of the home, the bedroom or rather the bed is the pivotal element inside this tiny house. While the glass house is situated and oriented to capture the best views of nature at that location, you can really enjoy that view only when you’re lying in bed.

Of course, privacy can become an issue with a house that has glass for walls, and there are definitely options to address those concerns. Darkened or mirrored glass is available, but that could affect one’s unmarred view of the outside world. The simplest solution would be to have curtains that cover only the lower half of the house, obscuring only portions of the vista when the need calls for it.

Pirinen Salo Oy’s Smart Lucia is perhaps a dream come true for minimalists looking in search of tiny homes in the heart of nature. It probably won’t be the most efficient tiny home and is unlikely to be accessible to most people, even those living in Finland. Its design and concept, however, do spark the imagination and open up possibilities for enjoying the majesty of nature in a safe, comfortable, and modern but hopefully still environment-friendly environment.

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This glass fishbowl-like home has us re-thinking about how we connect with nature

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Now that we’ve been inside our homes for over a year now living in a fishbowl doesn’t sound all that bad. However, while many architects are turning to semi-outdoor designs to develop public facilities like restaurants and storefronts, the upcoming trend for homes in this new era finds their indoor spaces merging with the outdoors to get some natural airflow a good breeze. Architecture studio Veliz Arquitectos conceptualized what it might look like to turn a fishbowl into a modern house, turning an entire glass globe into a two-story home.

Envisioned somewhere in a snowy grassland, the Fishbowl House mimics the shape of a crystal ball, propped up on three sturdy wooden pillars that connect to the home’s exterior with a steel fastener. If ever constructed, the Fishbowl House would be entirely made from glass, merging the exterior with the interior. Inside, plants fill the scene, harmonizing with the natural world outside. Constructed from wood, the flooring and semi-outdoor deck helps to warm up the glass facade and make the cabin feel much closer to the natural world. Otherwise, guests can start up a fire in the home’s integrated fireplace for a cozy night of stargazing. For the days and nights, you’d like a little bit more privacy, curtains that seem to be constructed from wood descend from the home’s ceiling to cover the whole of Fishbowl House’s interior.

Veliz Arquitectos conceptualized the Fishbowl House to evoke a sense of safety for those living inside. Lifted above the ground, the Fishbowl House’s entrance is inaccessible without help from a stair or ladder extension. Yet, when the home’s curtains are drawn, the home gives off a den-like quality, oozing with warmth and comfort. Inspired to create a refuge in response to the constricted living situations brought on by the pandemic, Veliz Arquitectos notes, “The Glass Fishbowl protects us apparently, but it can be very fragile, inside it is the safest place and our best memories from the outside wrap us.”

While the design stands out from the crowd for sure, it may be taking things too far. Ironic, isn’t it that we are finally placing ourselves into glass bowls as we did to our pets so long ago. Sure, the world is all about new experiences, and love it or hate it, there is no way you will ignore a house like this. While it is pretty to look at, given the nature of glass, there is almost zero possibility we’ll ever get to see this in real. ANd for sure never ina typhoon zone!

Designer: Veliz Arquitectos

Curtains descend from the Fishbowl House’s ceiling to bring some privacy to an otherwise transparent glasshouse.

Propped up on wooden pillars, three metal fasteners join the pillars to the house’s exterior facade.

Totally transparent from every angle, the Fishbowl House features a warm lighting fixture for when the sunlight doesn’t pour in through the glass facade.

The home comprises two levels, the bottom houses the living area while the top floor keeps the home’s bedroom.

Positioned against the night sky, the Fishbowl House provides the perfect viewing spot for stargazing.

Filled to its brim with plant life, the Fishbowl House merges the outdoors with the indoors from the inside, out.