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From Mies van der Rohe to Phillip Johnson, even the most minimalist modernists never took the ‘see-through box’ concept quite this far in the 20th Century – an entirely transparent house plan with see-through floors, ceilings, interior and exterior walls on every side both inside and out. It took a contemporary x-ray visionary to see the extreme possibilities in this simple home design idea.

Decorated with retro-modern furniture classics, the spaces are all but invisibly defined – save for a few bookcases, beds, sofas and and smaller furnishings that pay tribute to modern design as well as some specific designers of times passed. In the absence of opaque surfaces, these stand out more than ever.

Conceived as being constructed from ‘ultra-clear’ glass, this visionary design by the Italian group Santambrogio is not so unrealistic. After all, we already have transparent concrete, see-through wood and structural glazing systems evolving at an unparalleled rate with increasingly few restrictions on opacity. The question, as always, is whether we want to live in such direct visual connection with the world around us or if this is an case where the idea of the building is better than the actual living inside of it would be..