• Picture: Hill West Architects

    Picture: Hill West Architects

  • Picture: Hill West Architects

    Picture: Hill West Architects

  • Picture: Hill West Architects

    Picture: Hill West Architects

  • Picture: Hill West Architects

    Picture: Hill West Architects

  • Picture: Hill West Architects

    Picture: Hill West Architects

  • Picture: Hill West Architects

    Picture: Hill West Architects

  • Picture: Hill West Architects

    Picture: Hill West Architects

  • SPF:architects designed Orum in Los Angeles. Picture: Matthew Momberger

    SPF:architects designed Orum in Los Angeles. Picture: Matthew Momberger

  • SPF:architects designed Orum in Los Angeles. Picture: Matthew Momberger

    SPF:architects designed Orum in Los Angeles. Picture: Matthew Momberger

  • SPF:architects designed Orum in Los Angeles. Picture: Matthew Momberger

    SPF:architects designed Orum in Los Angeles. Picture: Matthew Momberger

  • SPF:architects designed Orum in Los Angeles. Picture: Matthew Momberger

    SPF:architects designed Orum in Los Angeles. Picture: Matthew Momberger

  • SPF:architects designed Orum in Los Angeles. Picture: Matthew Momberger

    SPF:architects designed Orum in Los Angeles. Picture: Matthew Momberger

  • SPF:architects designed Orum in Los Angeles. Picture: Matthew Momberger

    SPF:architects designed Orum in Los Angeles. Picture: Matthew Momberger

  • Picture: Derek Swalwell

    Picture: Derek Swalwell

  • Picture: Derek Swalwell

    Picture: Derek Swalwell

  • Picture: Derek Swalwell

    Picture: Derek Swalwell

  • Picture: Derek Swalwell

    Picture: Derek Swalwell

  • Picture: Derek Swalwell

    Picture: Derek Swalwell

  • Picture: Derek Swalwell

    Picture: Derek Swalwell

  • Picture: Peter Landers

    Picture: Peter Landers

  • Picture: Peter Landers

    Picture: Peter Landers

  • Picture: Peter Landers

    Picture: Peter Landers

  • Picture: Peter Landers

    Picture: Peter Landers

  • Picture: Peter Landers

    Picture: Peter Landers

  • Picture: Peter Landers

    Picture: Peter Landers

  • Caryota House in New Delhi is designed by Dada & Partners. Picture: Ranjan Sharma

    Caryota House in New Delhi is designed by Dada & Partners. Picture: Ranjan Sharma

  • Caryota House in New Delhi is designed by Dada & Partners. Picture: Ranjan Sharma

    Caryota House in New Delhi is designed by Dada & Partners. Picture: Ranjan Sharma

  • Caryota House in New Delhi is designed by Dada & Partners. Picture: Ranjan Sharma

    Caryota House in New Delhi is designed by Dada & Partners. Picture: Ranjan Sharma

  • Caryota House in New Delhi is designed by Dada & Partners. Picture: Ranjan Sharma

    Caryota House in New Delhi is designed by Dada & Partners. Picture: Ranjan Sharma

  • Caryota House in New Delhi is designed by Dada & Partners. Picture: Ranjan Sharma

    Caryota House in New Delhi is designed by Dada & Partners. Picture: Ranjan Sharma

  • C.F. Moller and BRUT have won an urban design contest in Ostend, Belgium. Picture: C.F. Moller and BRUT

    C.F. Moller and BRUT have won an urban design contest in Ostend, Belgium. Picture: C.F. Moller and BRUT

  • C.F. Moller and BRUT have won an urban design contest in Ostend, Belgium. Picture: C.F. Moller and BRUT

    C.F. Moller and BRUT have won an urban design contest in Ostend, Belgium. Picture: C.F. Moller and BRUT

  • Mutuo has created an affordable housing concept for Los Angeles. Picture: Caca Santoro Photography

    Mutuo has created an affordable housing concept for Los Angeles. Picture: Caca Santoro Photography

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Residential Developments (Apartments)

2019’s most read residential projects: ingenuity and inspiration shine through

Brooklyn waterfront, propellor-shaped house, Palm house, beach pad and micro house and housing for a bustling city: 2019’s most read residential projects

by Georgina Johnston 17 December 2019

Brooklyn boasts new waterfront landmarks

Hill West Architects was the creative powerhouse behind 363 Bond Street and complementary 365 apartment block forming a sleek geometric landmark for Brooklyn’s Gowanus neighbourhood.

Designers took design cues from the surrounding neighbourhood and its industrial past through touches like weathered brick, raw concrete, compact low density buildings, which stand at just 12 storeys, and large expanses of mullioned glass.

While the buildings perfectly balance each other, they each have their own design identities which are outlined below: 363 Bond Street features greyish brick to differentiate itself from the typical red brick buildings found in the neighbourhood.

The amenity package includes a pool on the roof with a view of the Freedom Tower, a shuffleboard court, lounge, game room, yoga studio, fitness center, kids room, 2nd floor courtyard and plenty of accessible outdoor terraces.

Propellor-shaped glass house floats above LA hillside

SPF:architects has completed a three level home designed to subtly “float” above its hilltop environs in Los Angeles, California.

The three storey structure, which takes on the shape of a three winged propeller, is wrapped in glass that mirrors its sweeping views of the Los Angeles Basin. 

The motivation behind SPF:architects’ (SPF:a) design of the home,  named Orum, was to create a residence that could meld into its surroundings while maximising views.   

The client wanted a luxurious house where she could throw large events and host her extended family, but she also wanted it to feel welcoming. To make this work, we needed the home’s spaces flow into one another with ease. Our answer was distribute the program across three ‘blades’ that radiate from a central node.

Z. E. Pali, SPF:a founder and design principal. 

Beach pad more chic than shack

The coastal building stands alone among wild bushland, rugged sand dunes and scrub, measuring less than five metres in radius.

St Andrews Beach House is a two storey circular holiday home that avoids unnecessary modcons to enhance the back-to-basics natural setting of Victoria's rugged southern Mornington Peninsula.

The design follows the lineage of the Australian bush shack or knocked together New Zealand bach and is an attempt at building a vertical hard tent rather than a holiday home.

Austin Maynard Architects took advantage of the remoteness of the site and expansive views to create a modest but unique two bedroom design with no neighbouring forms to respond to.

Architect works up 'palimpsest of the past'

Chris Dyson Architects has skilfully transformed a Hackney workshop into light filled loft apartments.

Ultrasmooth concrete contrasts rough cast ceilings created using sandblasted Douglas fir, while finely crafted Roman brick facades reference the original fenestration.

The new space included a ground floor studio and office spaces, with design touches that gave a “palimpsest of the past”, said chief designer Chris Dyson.

This project is simultaneously contemporary and rooted in the 19th century. The new elevations present a palimpsest of the past with their recessed blind windows.

C. Dyson, chief designer. 

Soaring palm centres contemporary home

Dada & Partners have designed a New Delhi home around a courtyard featuring a fishtail palm tree.

The 14,000ft² home in the heart of New Delhi, India, has been developed to combine privacy with a connection to the surrounding landscape. 

A prime component of the design was a soaring fish tail palm treee, otherwise known as a Caryota palm, that stood disregarded behind the old structure where the new house was to be constructed. 

C.F. Møller Architects and BRUT win Ostend project

C.F. Møller Architects and BRUT have won a competition for an urban development project in Belgium.

The winning proposal by C.F. Møller Architects and BRUT for this new neighbourhood of 500 homes combines green spaces, playgrounds and high and low rise apartments.

The new urban project in De Nieuwe Stad quarter in Ostend is set to replace the outdated neighbourhood, which was built in 1972 by two social housing associations.

The proposal aims to create an innovative, inclusive and sustainable housing project that includes 10 low rise buildings and four tall tower blocks.

A new bicycle and walking connection between the city center and the green belt around the city, following the course of a former creek, ensures that the neighbourhood is taken out of its isolation.

Compact housing concept for LA

Mutuo has designed a novel plan for creating affordable housing in Los Angeles.

Design studio Mutuo has developed a plan for creating micro housing using reinforced precast box culverts commonly used for infrastructure projects.

The solution for building modern, compact, affordable housing in Los Angeles has been tested in a one storey pilot plan.

Mutuo now plans to replicate the pilot project by stacking five units into a tower configuration on the city’s Boyle Avenue.

The basic pilot plan unit comprises four interlocked boxes, one for each space: living, kitchen, bathroom, and bedroom.

SO-IL digs density in Mexico

Architects at SO-IL are helping to beef up density in a bustling Mexican city.

The curvaceous concrete 2,013 property is in the Las Americas neighbourhood close to the historic center of the City of León, Mexico.

The US practice's Intra-Urban Vertical Housing project is being developed by the Municipal Housing Institute of León Guanajuato (IMUVI).

The façade is made up of a complex system of prefabricated concrete block panels that when turned at different angles allow the passage of natural light through openings from floor to ceiling.

Some 56 homes of more than six levels include apartments of one, two and three bedrooms around two central courtyards with an external staircase in the main courtyard.

New home finds the right angle

Architect FreelandBuck has just completed a smooth yet angular residential project.

Second House in Culver City, Los Angeles, is a new 1,500ft² home, an intricate aggregation of interior and exterior volumes.

Lead designers for the Los Angeles and New York based firm were Brennan Buck and David Freeland with the design team including Johannes Beck and Nick Schwaller.

Located on a tight built-up site the new structure borrows the steeply pitched surrounding rooflines while turning inward around a private, central courtyard.

Each room of the house is expressed as a distinct block paired with a corresponding exterior space, two entry alcoves and a balcony overlooking the courtyard, carved from the buildable footprint.

Even though the programme is articulated as separate volumes, the interior and exterior spaces are woven together into a single, visually continuous living space.


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