Co-designed and built with teachers and 44 students from Haroun Tazieff high school in Saint-Paul-lés-Dax, France, ProtoCAMPO is the third iteration of a building technique developed by Frédérique Barchelard and Flavien Menu, themselves former fellows of Villa Medici (2019-2020). The first was the Proto-Habitat, built during their stay in Rome, and the second was the SOLARproto, a 300-square-meter exhibition space built in Amsterdam. ProtoCAMPO takes those concepts and builds upon them, tailored to its unique environment and purpose in one of the city’s most beautifully preserved Renaissance palaces — not to mention home to The French Academy in Rome.

“ProtoCAMPO is both low-tech and high-tech,” explain the designers. “Low tech, as it is assembled by hand using traditional and basic carpentry and joinery assemblage techniques to build up the prefabricated timber pieces. High-tech, in the conception of the inflatable cupola that can be implemented in less than an hour to unfold a six-meter diameter dome weighing only 300 kilograms. protoCAMPO subtly plays with the rhythm of the Villa Medici’s garden framing views of the 200-year-old pine trees and the historic villa. The repetitive timber structure echoes the Renaissance grid structure of the garden being both classical and wild. The dialogue between the pavilion and the surrounding nature evolves over the day, playing with the sun’s path and the rhythm of the garden.”

The cupola of the pavilion shelters up to 350 occupants while remaining open to the sun and wind, and the wooden base is sturdy enough to withstand heavy traffic. In the first week of the festival, protoCAMPO welcomed 300 high school students as part of the Residence Pro educational program developed by Villa Medici with the Nouvelle-Aquitaine Region. Now, it’s hosting events, concerts, dinners, shows, and some of the villa’s cultural events for the remainder of the year. Like WALD’s other “proto-architecture” projects, it’s prefabricated, locally sourced, and modular, so it can be quickly assembled and disassembled. No word yet on how it will be used next.

Located near Rome’s famous Spanish Steps, the Villa Medici was designed by Bartolomeo Ammanati and built by Grand Duke of Tuscany Ferdinando de Medici in the 16th century as an estate and open-air museum celebrating the Medici family’s influence in Rome. Its grounds include Roman bas-reliefs and statues, botanical gardens, formal gardens, and palatial architecture. In 1803, it became home to The French Academy in Rome, which aims to welcome artists, creators, and art historians in residence, curate cultural and artistic programs, and conserve the palace’s architectural and landscape heritage.

The post ProtoCAMPO: An Inflatable Dome-Shaped Pavilion for the Villa Medici in Rome first appeared on Dornob.

Danish architecture firm Waterstudio.NL made this dream a reality with “Arkup,” a new avant-garde floating home. Designed to combine the best qualities of yachts, houseboats, and modern residences, this double-decker creation stands on retractible hydraulic pilings that can raise it 20 feet into the air when needed, making it as stable as any conventional house. It’s also rated to withstand Category 4 hurricane winds of up to 155 miles per hour.

It doesn’t spare any details when it comes to feeling like a real home, either. There’s nothing cramped about it. Measuring an impressive 4,350 square feet, the Arkup is even more spacious than a lot of urban residences, and it has all the bells and whistles you’d expect to find in a high-end townhouse. In fact, everything about it looks more like a house than a boat.

When you’re ready to move, all you have to do is pull up anchor and start the engines: a pair of 100 kW (134 hp) electric azimuth thrusters, to be precise, which allow the 75-foot-long houseboat to reach speeds of 7 knots. Dock at a metropolitan marina for access to city amenities, or take a cruise down to a quieter and more scenic setting. The prototype is currently docked at Vice City Marina in Miami, Florida.

The Arkup is self-sufficient, producing its own power via a 36 kW solar panel array and a 1,000 kWh battery bank. Rainwater is collected from the roof and purified to make it safe for drinking, though it’s unclear how waste is dealt with. A smart communications system includes satellite TV and Wi-Fi antennas to keep it connected at all times, and all technical elements are stored within its modular hull. All the houseboat’s glazing ensures spectacular views of the water wherever you’re docked. A boat lift at the stern makes it easy to dock a jet ski, and the sun deck can be immersed and turned into a sea pool.

The Waterstudio team explains that “you can lie at anchor in a marina or a bay. You can cruise silently in waterways, bays, or open sea. You are free to move your home as you want. Enjoy the freedom and the variety of scenery. Live in comfort and luxury in total independence and make your life between the sea, the sky, and the city. No matter the weather conditions and high winds, surge and floods are no longer an issue thanks to this self-lifting system, making you feel 100-percent safe and protected. The four spuds allow your livable yacht to be completely stabilized and even lifted out of the water, avoiding any sea-sickness.”

“There’s just something about living on the water and coming home to the light shimmering on the surface after a long day in the city. It’s an experience you’ll never forget. Live ecologically while being self-sufficient with water and electricity. Enjoy living off-the-grid and feel the satisfaction of minimizing your carbon footprint.”

The firm adds that it plans to produce more Arkups for sale to private owners, 1/4-shared “fractional” ownership similar to a time share, and as hotels. If you go the fractional ownership route, Arkup maintains management services, taking care of details like insurance, dockage, maintenance, and even concierge services. They suggest generating revenue by chartering the vessel when you’re not using it, renting it out for four days per quarter at $2,500 per day to offset the expense of recurring operating costs.

As you might suspect, all of this still comes at a significant cost. The total cost to own an Arkup is $5.5 million USD, and fractional ownership sells for $1,375,000. But the company intends to make an “affordable version” too, whatever that means.

The post Solar-Powered Yacht Villa Can Rise Above High Water on Demand first appeared on Dornob.

“Ha Long Villa” is remarkable at first glance not just for its irregular geometric facade, but also for the trees poking out of large apertures on every side, all the way up to the roof. Along with providing a little extra shade, the trees give the home a garden-like atmosphere that helps connect its inhabitants to nature within the rapidly industrializing coastal city of Ha Long.

The architects’ two principle motivations may seem to be at odds: the increasing loss of forests and other undeveloped spaces in the area, and the need to create high-quality sustainable housing that meets Ha Long’s rising standard of living. The result is an airy modern home with almost as much exterior living space as interior, though realistically, it’s a bit oversized as a single-family home to truly be considered sustainable.

“The semi-exterior space connects the interior and the terrace part of the garden, and is a place to promote various living activities,” the firm explains. “It is a multipurpose space which serves as a connection between each space. It is a place for gardening, sightseeing, sitting, [and] walking, and it also connects to the living space. These distinctive spaces offer residents options in their daily lives, like whether to dine inside or outside on a particular day. The various movements in the resident’s lives are also conveyed to the neighborhood through [the] windows in the exterior facade.”

Between the wrap-around terraces and all the plants on the rooftop, the architects have planted more greenery than construction of the home displaced, though of course, public green spaces have a lot more value to the community at large. VTN Architects took inspiration from stones found in the nearby UNESCO World Heritage Site Ha Long Bay for the rough exposed concrete of the exterior walls, which themselves are dappled in shadow by all the greenery. As the trees change along with the seasons, so does the facade.

“Ha Long Villa is one of the prototypes of ‘House for Trees,’ which is a series of residential projects,” add the architects. “The aim of the series is to bring green spaces back into the city, and to design as much greenery as was present in the original landscape to provide a healthier life to people living in the city. Due to the simplicity of the concept, the idea of ‘House for Trees’ can be multiplied almost anywhere in tropical climate regions. As part of the vast landscape, Ha Long Villa harmonizes with the natural environment. And Ha Long Villa aims to be a space where people return to living surrounded by nature.”

It would be cool to see the passive cooling double-facade concept catch on in other hot places, particularly deserts. Can’t you imagine something like this working in a place like Nevada or Arizona with cacti instead of trees?

The post Ha Long Villa: Home in Vietnam Wrapped in an Inhabitable Garden first appeared on Dornob.

Located in Channiir in the Mount Lebanon district, CH730 Villa is set on a mountainside, with its stepped plan facing north and access located to the south, at the top of the slope. The site is challenging, to say the least, with a sharp incline that makes it difficult to build anything in a conventional way. But the views make it all worthwhile, taking in the valley of Channiir below. The steepness of the incline inspired the architects to come up with a design that puts the focus on those views — and they had to do it all on a budget.

The firm explains: “The basic conceptual idea behind this project was to build a home with three main objectives: achieving a good adaptation in the overall streetscape, inserting the building into the topography of the original terrain, and implanting the client program: the result, conserving the environment with a potential of altering different views. DAZ regards each project as a unique opportunity to create tailor-made solutions and designs.”

“The team’s thorough attention to detail, finishes, and materials allows us to create harmonious projects. Thus, the idea of the house is based on placing a monolithic concrete structure on a black glass platform following the cliff overlooking the spectacular view of the 500-meter hillsides between it and an old river. This parallelepiped module follows the direction and the angle of the cliff so that the house appears to be naturally encrusted into the hillside.”

The DAZ team adds: “The architectural design is kept basic in form, allowing the architecture to shine through its shape and facade details. Geometric forms and contemporary details translate the simplistic and monolithic overall of the design. The volume’s composition results from the rotation of the upper part of the volume on an axis following the natural slope or topography, while the lower part maintains its horizontality, especially towards the side of the slope. DAZ transformed a simple rectangular volume into a better and improved shape that answers all the site’s requirements and obstacles.”

The architects see the monolithic qualities of the volumes and their gray cladding as visual references to massive, solid boulders and mountains, as softened by the use of wood cladding. Inside, the effect is a little cozier. Two of the home’s four levels project out from the slope, while the other two are built into the hill, “forming a support to the parallelepiped module.” Measuring about 6,100 square feet, it’s organized to offer seamless circulation in both horizontal and vertical directions.

In this case, you could interpret “ground floor” in a number of different ways, but the architects define it as the point from which you enter, at the top of the slope. These spaces hold the living and dining areas, kitchen, and other communal areas, while the next level houses the master bedrooms, children’s bedrooms, and a second family living room. Below that is a level housing a TV room, entertainment room, guest bedroom, and additional living room, while the lowest level is a basement from which the infinity pool and outdoor terrace can be accessed.

The design is quirky, to say the least. All of the different window shapes give it a bit of an eclectic look, and the portion of the house that appears to be leaning from the outside is purely decorative, ultimately blocking some of those desirable views — but it’s definitely an eye-catcher!

The post Quirky Cliffside House Looks Like It’s Tumbling Down a Hill first appeared on Dornob.

It took an entire year to gut the five levels of the original 1930s brick and wood villa and complete the design for Hellas House. The construction took another five years. Chatzigiannis even laughed as he noted: “I spent the better part of my youth on it.”

Hellas is what Greeks call their homeland, which is why it was formerly known as the Hellenic Republic in English. Kontomichalos’ challenged Chatzigiannis to renovate the 5,380-square-foot villa so it would “scream Greek” without any brash or tasteless touches that often plague such projects. Chatzigiannis explains: “There is a stereotypical ‘Grecian’ style for this kind of project, one that can’t seem to escape the blue-and-white thing or laurel-wreath crowns or chitons. It can go over the top very easily.” He gladly welcomed his client’s refreshing challenge.

Kontomichalos wanted his main business ventures centered in Hellas House, including an import company dedicated to bringing the finest honey, wine, and olive oil from his homeland into Shanghai, a travel agency dedicated to unique and personalized adventures, and a store offering locals the best of imported Greek produce. His vision also included a space dedicated to showcasing social and corporate events, as well as other floors and rooms that would bring the best of Greece to the other few hundred Greek natives who call Shanghai home. Simply stated, Kontomichalos wanted Hellas House to represent, “the best Greece has to offer: history, culture, natural products, hospitality, and healthy lifestyle.”

The culmination of Chatzigiannis’ five-year project delivered exactly what Kontomichalos wanted. The travel agency, produce store, and import company were the easiest factions to create. The basement of Hellas House became a wine cellar for Greek wines. An open-air kitchen now occupies the ground floor, flanked by a gallery of artifact replicas representing the various eras of Greek culture. The adjacent lounge gives way to a garden, pool, and dining veranda, while a multi-purpose exhibition space occupies the mezzanine. Formal dining is offered on the second floor, which also includes a luxurious living room and terrace. An attic retreat is slipped in beneath the pitched roof and displays ceiling beams salvaged from the original structure.

To ensure Grecian authenticity all throughout Hellas House, Chatzigiannis chose to work with resources and color schemes from ancient times to complete the project. Bronze, marble, and wood are abundant in almost every room, as are basic hues of black, white, and gold. He also imported massive slabs of raw marble to Xiamen from the Aegean islands of Naxos and Thassos to construct the floors, walls, and columns.

Every era of ancient Greek history is represented throughout Hellas House. For example, the entrance hall represents the Bronze Age, with a life-size plaster cast replica of a female circa 2800–2300 BCE. Chatzigiannis complements the statue’s minimalist style with equally restrained custom elements: a graphic metal console in matte black, a simple geometric brass stair rail with a matte-gold finish, and a subtle white-on-white plaid-pattern floor of polished marble.

In addition, the chaises, stools, and chairs found throughout Hellas House are replicas of T.H. Robsjohn-Gibbings, a renowned 20th-century designer celebrated for incorporating ancient Greek furniture standards into modern creations. Chatzigiannis painstakingly found the small number of elderly Athenian craftsmen who still create Robsjohn-Gibbings’ signature curved-wood furniture to ensure he could bring it into the home.

The journey to completing Hellas House was long and tedious, but both Chatzigiannis and Kontomichalos happily agree that it was a big success.

Photos courtesy of InteriorDesign.com

The post Ancient Greek Architecture Graces Shanghai’s New Hellas House first appeared on Dornob.

There’s a lot to love in Hoi An, one of Vietnam’s most beautiful traditional towns. For starters, there are its glorious white sand beaches dotted with tropical palm trees. Then there’s the ancient trading port of Old Town Hoi An, which dates back to the 15th century. Even better, this area’s historic architecture is among some of the best-preserved in the entire nation.

Showing influences from countries all around it, including China and Japan, the Old Town is often packed with tourists coming to admire its many charms and multitude of canals. Outside the town, much of the land is still wild and minimally developed.

But to really enjoy Hoi An, you have to be prepared for a bit of extreme weather. The dry season runs from May through September, with temperatures commonly hitting 100°F. The rest of the year is wet, with torrential rains frequently causing floods. So when architecture firm D1 was commissioned to create a duplex villa along the Hoi An River, they knew they’d have to place a high priority on working with the regional climate.

The Vietnam-based studio founded in 2017 by architect Tan Nguyen has quickly gained a reputation for blending modern elements with the local vernacular, employing plenty of organic materials in the process. They believe in creating “responsibly-designed buildings” that are custom-tailored to each site. The key to injecting “soul” into each structure lies in taking cues from the things the surrounding buildings are made from — and of course, from paying local artisans to do much of the work.

M VILLA is the latest hospitality project from the firm to be made with materials like coconut leaves and local stone, wood, and bamboo, taking advantage of the skills and craftsmanship associated with each of those items in the area. But because the duplex is set along the river, it’s especially prone to storms and floods, so it needed a little extra creative thinking to ensure its full protection.

D1 created a large overhanging roof made of layered and overlapped coconut leaves to create a sort of tent over the living areas, simultaneously cooling them and giving them additional protection from the rain. These common spaces are also set along the exterior of each unit to take advantage of the surrounding views, natural daylight, and fresh air. Private spaces like bedrooms and bathrooms are set into the core of the structure, and are decidedly more “reserved for resting.”

The architects add: “At the same time, both spaces are seamlessly connected to the surrounding nature. To effectively take advantage of the beautiful surrounding landscape, the design minimizes walls to the max in order to maximize wide angles. All functions are arranged vertically, leaving the ground floor open, flexible, and easy to move in case [the] water level rises during [the] heavy rainy season.”

“Local materials and skilled craftsmanship are greatly employed [in this project]. This helps create a harmonic integration between the project and its surrounding scenes and landscape. More importantly, this allows for the preservation and promotion of traditional crafting villages amid today’s mass production age in Vietnam.”

A lush “coconut forest” of palm trees along the edge of the river acts as a transitional zone, helping to further alleviate flooding concerns. Elsewhere, high stone walls topped with wooden privacy panels help create backyard oases despite the two tenants living so close to one another. The back side of the duplex meets the street, too, ensuring that the lot is primarily used for respite and recreation.

The post M VILLA: A Tropical Vietnamese Duplex by D1 Architects first appeared on Dornob.

All of these features and more are built into the dreamy Hanging Villa, a private residence by TWS & Partners in Bandung, Indonesia. Commissioned by a client who wanted to entertain large groups of family members without giving up his own personal spaces, the house features several stacked offset volumes facing in different directions to optimize views — not to mention multiple terraces, rooftop gardens, and a palette of natural materials that create visual harmony with the home’s surroundings.

“The site takes benefit from the beautiful surroundings of deep valley and has an advantage of its proximity to the forest conservatory, which provides [the] tranquil atmosphere of the mountainside,” say the architects. “The building’s mass is originally taken from the idea of stacking boxes, which are rotated through their corner axis in order to create different walking experiences from different angles of view. This strategy also allows the users to have different orientations in different rooms and have almost 270-degree views of the surrounding valleys.”

“The building is oriented to take the full advantage of the sun’s position and perpendicular to the wind direction to maximize the wind [entering] the building, while the extensive use of glass openings allows natural cross-ventilation and maximizes [the amount of] natural light entering the building during the day. The building has been weatherized for maximum protection against the loss of warm and cool air by applying appropriate insulating materials and window glazing to reduce heat loss in ways that do not cause indoor humidity.”

A vertical circulation tower leads from the garage at street level up to the second floor, dropping visitors onto a sunny boardwalk that stretches across a reflecting pool. They then enter the villa’s main communal area, which contains the living room, dining room, and kitchen. Full-height glass walls give these more public areas of the home some of the best views, while the interiors are designed to offer a “tranquil and relaxing atmosphere.”

The reflecting pool and other water-based elements aren’t just decorative, of course. They add to the building’s natural ventilation scheme, naturally cooling breezes as air flows in to reduce the need for air conditioning. Slanted wooden louvers on the facade let even more air in while offering some protection from the sun.

Hanging Villa is a beautiful example of design that takes inspiration from local traditional architecture and works with the regional climate to produce a result that feels comfortable, familiar, and refreshingly contemporary all at once.

The post Hanging Villa is a Dreamy Green Getaway in Indonesia first appeared on Dornob.

From the moment you first spot its sleek contemporary facade from the curb, the McGovern Residence in the Queensland, Australia town of Mooloolaba seems like an unlikely place to find such an outdated feature. Pass through the garden gate and into its high-ceilinged concrete interiors, and the idea becomes ever more ludicrous. But believe it or not, this stylish modern space only offers more evidence that the sunken conversation pit is having a bit of a moment right now, broaching the possibility that the trend might even make its way into everyday interiors sometime soon.

Previously, we’ve featured updated versions of the conversation pit in multiple contemporary homes, including a cozy reading nook in a minimalist Czech home and a luxe, well-padded amethyst lounge pit within a glass-walled room in Cupertino, California. Both of these examples saw the pit padded and upholstered to create more space for lying down. At the McGovern Residence, designed by the Australian firm Reitsma, a modern conversation pit echoes the shapes of the 60s and 70s originals with a sunken semi-circular couch, but it somehow feels natural in its very of-the-moment surroundings.

Upholstered in a rich smoke-colored velvet, the sunken feature lures you in with soft surfaces and views of both an adjacent reflecting pool and a theater-style screen. Its round shape also mimics that of an opposite wood-clad volume and the ceiling tray directly above it, bringing some organic curvature into a space that’s otherwise quite hard and linear.

Other intriguing details seen throughout the interiors (all photographed by Kelli Black) include lots of strategically placed skylights, glazing directed only at private outdoor spaces to avoid views of the neighbors, and a stunning stone backsplash in the kitchen.

“A landmark site, a radical client willing to take risks, and a sensational builder: the dream commission,” says Reitsma of the project. “The south-facing riverfront allotment was occupied by a very charming but exhausted 1940’s worker’s cottage. The cottage was casually nestled between two mature trees: one to the street and one to the river. The secluded, sheltered feel needed to somehow remain. Surrounded by high-rise construction [on] either side, this would be the only house left in the street, [so] it had to be excellent, not wasting a single inch of the expensive potential development site.”

They add: “In an unusual move, our brief went against the typical trend. A lowest three-bedroom home with one living room would set the agenda, [and] this would be an exercise in quality over quantity. The modest size would not only allow for generous landscaping, but it would also ensure the new home would be of a manageable scale for the years to come, [and] a special place to enjoy for a lifetime.

“The built home may be modest in size, yet it is rich in thought, detail, and specification. In contrast to the original lightweight worker’s cottage, this new home presents [itself] as a very permanent structure, anchored to the ground with an extensive use of off-form concrete. The new home [also uses] frameless glass and large volumes to capture the [forest] surroundings, maintaining its original connection to both the site and river.”

The post The Classic Conversation Pit is Reborn in This Modern Australian Villa first appeared on Dornob.

For Dutch architectural practice Mecanoo, this spot along Lechlade-on-Thames in Cotswolds, England offers an opportunity to commune with the water from virtually every room in a new nature-centric home. Measuring 600 square meters (6,458 square feet), “Villa on the Lake” features floor-to-ceiling glazing on all four sides, a rooftop deck topped with greenery and solar panels, and cantilevered boardwalks leading up to the drive. While it might seem like one’s privacy would be compromised in such a transparent home, being tucked into a private lagoon and shielded from the road by mature trees ensures that only passing boaters ever get a glimpse of the family inside.

Besides, the benefits of gazing out onto this scenery from three levels of living spaces easily beat out the concerns about prying eyes. On top of that, the glass panels are just reflective enough to partially camouflage the home into its environment from afar. Aquatic plants alternate with stepping stones along the shore to guide visitors to gardens, and the bridge connecting the lakeside villa to the road curves to allow nearly every tree on the site to remain intact. Terraces on all sides of the home provide plenty of room for sunbathing, diving, and barbecues. The rooftop terrace even boasts a glass balcony so “one can enjoy panoramic views as if floating quietly over the expanse of the lake,” according to the architects.

Inside, private spaces like bedrooms and bathrooms are contained within opaque volumes that help divide the open-plan spaces without cutting any area of the home off from the surrounding environment. A full-height void within the center of the house contains the staircase, which stretches up to a generously-sized skylight on the roof, and a sunken basement, which contains a private cinema. All of the materials and color schemes are kept muted and minimalist to keep the focus on the scenery.

“The guiding design principle was to create a house that combined transparency with sustainability, forging a strong relationship between the villa and the landscape. The harmony between landscape and interior, architecture and nature, was a key design determinant, particularly regarding sight lines, materials, colors, and lighting. The house is designed from the inside out, creating uninterrupted views to the surrounding nature while providing shelter and intimacy. All these aspects work together to ensure the house’s sense of timelessness.”

For a home that’s occupying a potentially delicate aquatic ecosystem, “Villa on the Lake” sits lightly upon its plot, only minimally altering it. Though it’s set on pillars rather than pontoons, this glassy modern residence feels much more like a boat house temporarily anchored to the shore than it does a permanent structure.

The post Glass Lakeside Villa Bridges Land and Water first appeared on Dornob.

Eager buyers from places like Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Bahrain, and Saudi Arabia snatched up 350 of the 587 villas while they were in early stages of construction. But not only are these hundreds of identical faux chateaus packed onto a relatively compact plot of land like spiky sardines, but they’re also all sitting empty and abandoned in the midst of Turkey’s economic downturn.

The effect is almost that of a mirage, especially from a distance. A ribbon of the villas twists through the valley nearly as far as the eye can see. Set alone within a grassy yard, each individual villa might look like the mansion it is, albeit one with a Disney-like feel modeled after historic European architecture. Instead, they’re crammed so close together that some of them have views of nothing but each other. Architectural aesthetics aside, they’re already starting to feel a little bleak on their muddy building site, which itself is surrounded by debris.

The $200 million development broke ground in 2014, but in the midst of construction, Turkey’s economy contracted. The developer, Sarot Group, ran out of money to complete the project when buyers failed to follow through on their $400,000 – $500,000 purchases. Sales were canceled and investors pulled out. Sarot sought bankruptcy protection for its $27 million debt, but the court ordered the group to stop all construction immediately. Nonetheless, Sarot Group Chairman Mehmet Emin Yerdelen says just 100 of the villas need to be sold to pay off the company’s debt, remaining optimistic that the crisis could be over within five months for a full inauguration of the project by the end of 2019.

In the meantime, the stalled project remains an eerie spectacle, particularly with the roads unfinished and many of the houses missing their doors and windows. For all of their elaborate decorative flourishes, the villas lose most of their potential for an interesting final result thanks to the builder’s strange stipulation that they all remain identical — which means zero modifications are allowed to the exteriors once the owners move in.

“The fees of the parcels paid by those who do not comply with the architectural drawings and specified periods shall be refunded to them and received back by the investor firm,” notes the Burj al Babas website, though buyers putting their own creative spin on the houses seem like the least of the developers’ problems right now.

Even if the Burj al Babas development does recover by the end of the year, there’s still the question of just how much luxury can really be enjoyed when you’re right on top of your mirror-image neighbor. Do you want to feel like royalty badly enough to live in this abandoned village of shrunken Disney castles?

The post Would You Move into This Abandoned Village of Disney Castles in Turkey? first appeared on Dornob.

While some renovations take great pains to keep impact on the existing structures to a minimum, others forge boldly ahead with complete remodels, adding contrasting modern elements that visually highlight the passage of time. An example of the former approach might make all modern alterations temporary and removable, like a 300-year-old Japanese home wrapped in a protective extension, or virtually invisible from the road, like a rural homestead that’s sort of like the architectural version of a mullet: traditional from the front, ultramodern out back. In cases like “A Country Home in Chievo” by Italian architecture firm Studio Wok, the original structure becomes little more than an envelope containing a whole new house.

The country villa was actually not a house but a barn in its former life. Located in a rural area outside Verona near the river Adige, the building’s earthy facade offered an intriguing possibility for rebirth as a family residence that maintained traditional architectural typologies of the area with its extensive use of river pebbles and local stone. Since its interiors were almost entirely open, it was essentially a blank canvas for Studio Wok’s vision.

The architects removed the existing barn loft and stalls, adding new interior volumes along with modern energy-efficient doors and windows framed in larch wood. They reopened a large arch facing the garden “as a reminder of the site’s historical function,” focusing views on a mature magnolia tree the clients wished to preserve.

“The project’s leitmotif is a spatial and material dialogue between history and modernity, and it is also characterized by the great care taken in terms of environmental sustainability,” say the architects. “In addition to the use of technical devices and systems for efficient energy, special attention has been given to the surrounding territory and landscape in the use of materials and design choices.”

Inside, birch plywood cladding creates smooth, unfussy surfaces to complement the rugged nature of the stone and brick, defining the interior spaces and making a clear distinction between the older and newer elements of the villa. Set across three floors, the house features a full-height living room, a library with a brick fireplace, and bedrooms tucked into the new wooden volumes that appear to hang from the ceiling. Outside, the all-important magnolia offsets a gorgeous swimming pool.

“Bordered by a square black flowerbed, in contrast to the stone flooring on which the pool is set, the tree is the protagonist of the outdoor space and perfectly dialogues with the house: the shadow of its foliage is projected at sunset on the stone facade and is visible from all rooms.”

The post Italian Country Villa Gets a Stunning Modern Update first appeared on Dornob.

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When Mexican architecture firm Punto Arquitectónico first saw the property, it was in rough condition. The jagged stacked stone walls were beautiful but needed to be patched and reshaped in some areas. Instead of putting a new roof over the entire structure, the architects came up with a novel floorpan that would enclose two bedrooms with private bathrooms, the kitchen, and the living areas while leaving a spacious terrace only partially protected from the brilliant Yucatán sun.

The swimming pool weaves in between the walls and new concrete columns that stretch up to support the overhang of the roof, flowing through doorways to create several private oases. In one of these spaces, a hammock stretches above the water for lazy lounging. In another, a sheet of falling water offers entrance to a roofless circular volume, which, the architects explain, is a reference to traditional cisterns.

Punto Arquitectónico thinks of the interior segments, which are enveloped within the 100-square-meter (1076-square-foot) footprint of the original house, as three “bays.” The first contains the foyer, which was designed as a transitional space between the street outside and the tranquil residence within, as well as one of the bedrooms and its integrated bathroom. The second is the social area, which pulls together the living room, dining room, and kitchen within a fluid open space. This bay leads seamlessly into the third, which consists of the terrace, pool, and a master suite at the rear of the property.

These indoor/outdoor spaces provide some separation between the two bedroom areas for privacy and further distance the master suite from the world outside. The rear volume is an entirely new construction, gazing out onto the terrace, the pool, and the cistern through two oversized doorways. While the home’s plot and walls are arranged on a grid, the pool is more organically shaped, adding a dynamic visual element to the layout.

“The third bay of the property was the more intervened one,” explain the architects. “The poor condition of the original slab was replaced with a light one, which contrasted with its materiality concept. Sheltering the terrace, the concrete slab, the structure of it passes tangent to the existing walls without touching them.”

From the street, the home looks as ordinary as any other. Its unremarkable facade provides no hint of the dreamy refuge sheltered just beyond the front windows, making it feel all the more special and unique.

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Architecture studio 314’s proposal for a residential renovation in Corfu may be as modern as they come, but it retains that distinctly “Greek” feeling thanks to its traditional color palette and rounded arches. Rising above the treetops of an olive grove at the edge of a cliff, the villa is infused with all the drama we’ve come to expect from the Hellenic Republic.

While many cliffside homes are designed to blend into their surrounding environments, seeming more like an extension of the landscape than an artificial construction, 314 went in a bolder direction with this summer residence, which catches the sunlight by day and glows from within by night.

“House in Corfu” takes full advantage of the setting, which offers panoramic views of the Ionio Pelagos. It elevates and offsets its main volumes in a stepped arrangement to create a series of porticos and terraces that look out onto the sea. 314’s design would replace an existing structure in the same location on a 64,500-square-foot plot, the home itself measuring just over 3,200 square feet. The architects aim to stick to the same footprint to avoid disturbing the nature that makes the site so special.

Updating Corfu’s architectural vernacular for the 21st century is the studio’s main concern, and the highlight of their design is undoubtedly its incorporation of repetitive arches, as well as some openings in the roofs that allow full-sized trees to flourish. The flat, wide terraces formed by the home’s layout allow residents to take in extraordinarily clear views of the sky, which have earned the property the nickname of “The Midnight Stars.”

Roughly half of the ground floor is open to the air, providing transitional indoor/outdoor spaces that lead from common areas like the living room and kitchen out to the infinity edge swimming pool. Inside, an abundance of mirrored surfaces adds to the reflective qualities of the house’s white paint and textiles, multiplying the views of the surrounding nature.

The upper level contains master and guest bedrooms, private areas which feel a little more cloistered and protected than the house’s common ones. The bedrooms enjoy the best views of the sunset every evening. Though it appears to cantilever off the side of the level beneath it, this upper floor is actually set into a grassy hillside, which might explain all of the mountain goats wandering through the renderings.

The architects explain that they used white cement plaster on the floors and walls to mimic the look of ancient stone and that the patio and swimming pool will be made from uncoated concrete. The curving ceilings, also evocative of traditional Greek architecture, come together in “intersections of domes and arches” for a soft and welcoming effect. There are no harsh contrasts or unnecessary details in this design that would detract from the home’s dramatic silhouette.

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One simple and highly effective workaround is the use of transitional indoor/outdoor areas that feature lots of operable windows or walls that open wide on demand. These “rooms” can be fully enclosed when you want to keep them cool and shady or transformed into patios or verandas when you want to brighten them up and let in a breeze. For a recent renovation project in Australia’s Barrington heritage area, Matt Gibson Architecture + Design put an unusual and elegant spin on the standard transitional space.

The architects attached a modern black volume to the rear of a traditional brick villa, continuing the addition’s wooden floor and ceiling right out into the yard. There are no walls to close off this new dining and lounge area, which projects out over the grass. Instead, the space has been equipped with a set of massive, two-story-tall woven steel mesh curtains that filter out sunlight, limit glare from the west-facing direction, and provide privacy when desired. The free-flowing nature of these curtains creates a sense of movement and fluidity that contrasts with the solid brick structure.

The translucent “buffer” enclosed by the mesh curtains makes use of the yard’s extra square footage and helps regulate the temperature inside the rest of the villa. The curtain also functions as a rain screen, and unlike conventional textiles, it won’t ever fade, get dirty, or encourage the growth of mildew.

Drawing inspiration from the traditional Japanese “hiro-en,” or deep veranda, the architects created a seamless series of spaces that bleed into one another and form a threshold between inside and out. Discreet walls can be closed to secure the innermost spaces or left open to make the entire home feel much larger. Now, these living areas can be sheltered from the sun in the summer or bathed in light during the winter for additional warmth.

The architects explain: “The contemporary addition challenges the concept of building low quality, replica additions that attach themselves to the heritage fabric and in effect compromise, confuse, and diminish the integrity of the original. The intervention here is instead contemporary and interactive, activating and opening up the compartmentalized interior to previously under-utilized green space, and at the same time preserving and augmenting the cultural significance of the original building. Spaces and eras are distinguishable, yet able to bleed into each other, allowing subtle connectivity. Each space, whilst unique, continues a dialogue that is integral to the story of the whole.”

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To create such a transitory space in a colder part of the world, it seems like your walls would just have to disappear whenever you needed them to! If you’re like most people, then that sounds completely impossible to you. Even modern homes that have been equipped with sliding walls have to store them somewhere. Usually, that means overlapping the automatic walls with stationary ones or sacrificing some outdoor views. In an effort to solve this dilemma, Bergmeisterwolf Architekten has come up with a stunning alternative.

For “House F on Lake Garda,” a 250-square-meter extension of a 16th-century villa in Toscolano-Maderno, Italy, the firm created a series of sliding floor-to-ceiling windows that sink into the ground with the push of a button, turning an indoor space into a room that’s fully exposed to the elements. The design redefines what an indoor/outdoor space means by blurring the lines between the two areas more than ever before. Plus, it’s just plain fun to watch the walls in action, because they look like something out of a science-fiction film. Not bad, huh?

House F’s roof functions as a second-story terrace for the historic home and boasts an exterior staircase that leads down onto the lawn. The architects used dyed concrete “in symbiosis to the existing plastered stone facade” of the villa, contrasting modern and traditional styles in a way that isn’t too harsh or jarring. Warm wood accents brighten up the structure’s color palette and counter the roughness of the surrounding concrete. There’s a sense of harmony to the way space flows from the interiors of the original structure into those of the extension and finally out into the yard.

Outside, the rectilinear shapes of the glass-walled extension are echoed by a long and narrow lap pool, whose graduated floor gently slopes from the shallow end down to the deep. The pool reflects the sky and adds a sort of elemental balance to the lakeside lookout.

The architects describe the project as “[a]n integration of existing, new building and garden. A canopy to the house and again to the canopy. Glasses, which can be displaced downwards or disappears effect this change. Roofing, the roof at the same time developed as a terrace with an integrated exterior staircase develops as a connecting element between the garden and the garden… working with distances, and interspaces. Integrated into the garden itself, a bathing house is created, positioned between an existing limonaia wall and the 100-year-old palms.”

All photos by Gustav Willeit

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