Architecture

NEUME, a Basel-based architecture firm, designed a vacation home in Romagny-sous-Rougemont, France, on the foundation of a former fisherman’s cottage from the 20th century. The structure includes a main house and an attached storage/utility room. Its grey, rough-textured base is visible from the village side but blends into the terrain near the pond due to elevation changes.

Zurich-based architects Mathis Kamplade have designed a free-standing apartment building set back from the street in an urban setting. The structure, composed of concrete pillars with stiffening walls and plastered brick infills, is legible from both the inside and outside.

London-based architects Knox Bhavan have designed a new house and studio in a Hertfordshire village for a client who became paralysed from the shoulders down following a life-changing accident as a teenager. The house stands on the same lane where the client grew up and replaces a poorly built 1950s chalet bungalow, maintaining a similar size. Knox Bhavan utilised a prefabricated cassette system, developed in collaboration with modular manufacturer BlokBuild and engineers Price & Myers.

Swiss-based Celoria Architects have designed House C in the 'Alle Cantine' area in Mendrisio, Switzerland. It has the same volume as a previous house on the site and uses its foundations. The house stands with mountains and forest on one side and a valley leading to San Martino on the other. It is situated at the foot of a rocky wall in an area characterised by a row of houses and dominated by the Oratory of San Nicolao. The area is approached by a long, tree-lined avenue and features locally typical 'grotti' underground ventilation spaces.

London-based 31/44 Architects have built Six Columns, a house for its architect owner and family on a garden plot in Crystal Palace, South East London. The design responds to a trapezoidal site with a large Sycamore tree, incorporating architectural detail from the neighbouring house and also from the owner's travels. Conceived as a blend of a farmhouse and a California Case Study House, it reflects the directness of 1950s British architecture. The house is designed to evolve and prioritises shared spaces, minimising individual sleeping areas and contained rooms.

Swiss architects Bearth & Deplazes have designed a 96-unit residential complex with a cloister surrounding three sides of a large garden in Austrasse, Chur, Switzerland. Named 'Vier Jahreszeiten' (Four Seasons), the development shields the courtyard garden from a nearby highway. The garden, set with marlstone, accommodates children playing, pedestrians and cyclists, while ample trees provide shade, and islands of shrubs and flowers that are inspired by Japanese gardens.

Prague-based EHL & Koumar Architekti have constructed a new footbridge with an elevator in Litomyšl, in the Czech Republic, connecting the Municipal office to the town centre. The footbridge replaces an overpass built in 1981. The new steel structure is supported by exposed concrete pillars, with the elevator block forming part of the support. A central pillar with a concrete staircase, and on the western side, an abutment on an existing retaining wall, serve as the other supports for the structure.

UK-based Mole Architects and Invisible Studio have designed the Big Roof, a low-carbon, low-energy storage and training centre in the Cambridgeshire Fens for Forest School Camps, a charity providing educational camps for children. The single-storey, 745m2 building includes 400m2 for camp equipment storage for sites across the country and replaces three dilapidated buildings.

Berlin-based Sehw Architektur has completed the first phase of the expansion and renovation of a primary school in Essen, in the North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. This involved the renovation of two buildings from the 1950s and the addition of new structures to create a 'learning village' of four buildings.

London-based architects Knox Bhavan have transformed a landlocked triangular plot in Teddington, once housing a disused warehouse, into Threefold House, a low-energy single-family dwelling with three planted courtyards. The site's restricted access rendered it unsuitable for industrial use. The replacement dwelling features a 2.5-meter-high perimeter wall echoing the old warehouse wall, behind which lie courtyards surrounded by single-storey accommodation, with a two-storey section bordering the street.

Berlin-based Sehw Architektur has completed a series of school buildings using modular timber construction in Cologne, in the North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany.

For a special school in Dünnwald, Cologne, timber modules were lifted over the existing listed buildings to extend the school. The extensions are finished in red brick to blend with the existing listed post-war buildings. The interiors are designed to maximise daylight and feature classrooms with adjoining annexe rooms.

Belgium architects noAarchitecten have replaced a 1950s extension with a tourist reception and visitor centre at the collection of historic buildings known as Het Steen in Antwerp. The extension draws inspiration from the site's history, transitioning from being a part of the city wall to a freestanding castle around 1890. To restore its character, the 1950s extension was replaced with a contemporary structure, referencing historical elements such as stone walls, bay windows, and towers.

Swiss architects Allen + Crippa have designed 'House with a Curtain' in Grabs, Switzerland, within the Rhine Valley offering views of the Prealps. The house spans three floors including a basement, featuring identical floor plans inspired by traditional barn houses of the region. The front section accommodates living and dining spaces alongside a bedroom, while service areas at the rear encompass a bathroom, pantry, and staircase. Internally, partition walls serve dual purposes as built-in storage.

London-based architects Archio have completed eleven affordable homes at Citizens House, the first Community Land Trust (CLT) in London. Extensive collaboration with the local community led to the replacement of an underused garage site with a three-to-four-storey building facing a landscaped courtyard.

Staggered balconies and a wide walkway encourage residents to interact. A stepped profile responds to the surrounding buildings, with insets bringing light into the centre of the building.

Swiss architects Deschenaux have designed a house adjacent to a forest in a neighbourhood of villas in Vuissens, a secluded village in Fribourg, Switzerland.  The house is oriented towards the forest and entered through an opening in a concrete wall. Following the topography of the site, a small entrance hall leads two steps down to the kitchen, which connects to a larger volume of the living room. The living room, with forest views through a wall of glazed doors, opens to a double-height loggia.

US architects Easton Combs have built House SIX, a 5,000 sq ft house in Berkshire County, western Massachusetts, near New York’s Hudson Valley. The house responds to a sloped site with a low, elongated, thin volume featuring a folding roofline. A bend and fold in the plan allows the central living space to open onto the south and east while also connecting to bedrooms to the southwest.

The Swiss architectural practice Bearth & Deplazes, based in Chur, has built House Schweizer-Schmid in the village of Ardez in the Lower Engadin valley, Switzerland. The house, with its exposed concrete exterior, is a contemporary interpretation of an Engadine house, traditionally characterised by large arch openings and deep, hole-like windows with funnel-shaped reveals. Photo by Juan Rodriguez. Bearth & Deplazes

Swiss-based architects Allen + Crippa have renovated and extended a fire-damaged house in Salez, Switzerland. The approach was to reuse a large proportion of the structure rather than demolish and rebuild, reducing the construction time and preserving an established garden. 

The exterior walls of the ground floor form a base for the new timber frame structure. The independent structure allowed for the creation of nine interconnected rooms separated by sliding doors.

Slovenia-based architecture studio Elementarna, with headquarters in Ljubljana, has renovated the Old Glassworks buildings and upgraded the adjoining public spaces in the historic town of Ptuj, Slovenia. The Old Glassworks, with its courtyard, and the formal Vrazov trg square - an urban landmark for cultural events - along with the adjacent streets, connect Castle Hill, the town, and the river, creating a vibrant city.

The two halls of the Old Glassworks incorporate cantilevered folding doors, allowing the spaces to fully open up to the courtyard and forming flexible event spaces.

Lisbon-based Bak Gordon Arquitectos has designed a house on Rua São Francisco de Borja, adjacent to the National Museum of Ancient Art in Lisbon, Portugal. The house replaces an industrial building on a long and narrow plot measuring 7 meters by 26 meters. The facade of the house features a ventilated wooden grid on the ground floor, a single window on the first floor, and a recessed space for a small garden, facing the street, on the second floor.

Stockholm-based Kolman Boye Architects used oak and Douglas off-cuts from Danish flooring manufacturer Dinesen to create Saltviga House, a recreational home in Grimstad, Norway. Over 12,000 waste oak off-cuts were pre-cut to minimise wastage and pre-treated before being transported to the site.

London-based, Stirling Prize-winning architects Witherford Watson Mann have reinterpreted the almshouse concept for the 21st century with their Appleby Blue project in Bermondsey, South London. Appleby Blue is a social housing development comprising 57 almshouses for those over 65, situated off a busy high street. This is in contrast to conventional older people's homes, which are typically located on the fringe of cities.

Mexico City-based architects, Centro de Colaboración Arquitectónica (CCA) have designed the Community Development Centre (CDA) as part of the Urban Improvement program in Jalpa de Méndez, Tabasco, Mexico. The project was conceived as a sculpture created from eight giant concrete panels perforated with arches, forming spaces for workshops, a multi-purpose room, a library, and an auditorium. Void spaces within the arches provide interior gardens, while a central communal garden offers views from the interior spaces.

Italian architects Bricolo Falsarella designed Villa Tarika at Lake Garda in Italy, allowing the inhabitants to experience the intensity of the landscape. The approach was to create a combination of spaces that allow views of the lake and those that restrict the view.

A large stone wall and a slatted wall enclose the villa at its entrance.  A small opening at the entrance level on the first floor leads to a semi-enclosed space that frames views of the Rocca di Garda, Monte Luppia and the dense surrounding vegetation.

Swiss architects Gautschi Lenzin Schenker have designed a building with six small apartments to replace a residential building in Aarau, Switzerland. The three-storey building comprises six 2.5-room apartments across three floors and an attic, with ancillary rooms in the basement. A covered area with space for bicycles leads to the ground floor, which is raised for flood protection.

Japan-based studio Tetsuya Mizukami Architects has designed a house for a young couple in a residential area of Fukui City, Japan. The site is accessed by climbing a slope that offers mountain views in front and, from the southern end of the site, views of the city with mountains beyond. The architects aimed to incorporate this experience into the house by creating bright, open spaces that are offset by half a floor, providing views through openings onto void spaces that connect to the surrounding landscape. Photo Ken'ichi Suzuki. Mizukami Architects

Swiss architects Bearth and Deplazes have created Winery Obrecht at the eastern entrance to the village of Jenins in Switzerland. The architects have formed a courtyard by adding a new building to the 'assembly' of existing structures, which include the former 'Zur Sonne' inn and wooden stable, with later additions including an additional stable, a shed, and a barn.

Berlin-based Sehw Architektur has designed a building comprising 159 apartments for students in Oberschöneweide, Berlin.  The corner building with similar treatment of its walls and sloping roof gives it a monolithic appearance. The external colour divides the building into two parts, and the slight horizontal shift in the windows provides the facade with a 'playful dynamic’.  The building features open-plan kitchen-living rooms, common areas to promote social interactions, and compact apartments with large windows. Photo Helen Bereket. Sehw Architektur

Swiss-based Bolthauser Architekten has designed the high-rise H1 building on the Zwhatt site, in the Banhoff Nord development area of Regensdorf, near Zurich. The building is a response to a pavilion designed by artist Alexander Brodsky and is part of Peter Märkli's masterplan, which includes a second high-rise building designed by Märkli. The 24-storey, 75-meter tall building is constructed with a three-floor concrete 'table' supporting a timber structure above. The ground floor is accessible to the public and includes a bistro, while the next two floors comprise co-working areas. Above this, there are 150 apartments of various sizes, configured according to the timber structure.

London-based architecture studio Jonathan Tuckey Design has refurbished and converted a 200-year-old farmstead in Piedmont to create a home and studio. The project, named Cascina, aims to open up the facade to reconnect the building to the landscape and also to strip back additions made in the 1990s. With the methodology of 'elegant appropriation', the original fabric, including the stone walls and roof timbers, together with roof tiles, are reused. New repairs and upgrades are woven into the existing structure, creating a rich tapestry.

Chile-based architecture studio Pezo Von Ellrichshausen has created the LAMA Pavilion in Yungay, Chile to provide views of the Andes Mountains. The pavilion consists of two stacked towers with an extended, cantilevered plate dividing the two. The plate holds a shallow volume of rainwater reflecting the upper part of the tower, suggesting the presence of the lower part. Inside, a spiral staircase is surrounded by murals of 30 native flowers, leading via a timber staircase, to a blackened room with four peepholes. This, in turn, leads to a rooftop firepit, giving the building the appearance of a chimney when viewed from a distance. Pezo von Ellrichshausen