Fresh Builds: The Coolest Houses of September 2013

Location: Bangkok
Architect: allzone

In the suburbs of Bangkok sits a rather unconventional home. Architectural firm allzone took an everyday house, sliced it into layers, and overlapped them to create the S3H House. The modern house features openings in the walls and roof to break up an otherwise linear structure. While the S3H looks unconventional and fun, it still manages to blend in with the surrounding homes. The cut-outs (which allow for light to be emitted) and uniform cream color offer warmth to an otherwise stark exterior.

Location: Victoria, Australia
Architect: Elenberg Fraser

Star Wars enthusiasts will like this one. The Luna Apartment complex was actually inspired by Princess Leia's gold bikini, believe it or not. The gold and metallic material of the building alludes to the infamous two-piece, while the curves of the building reflects, well, Princess Leia's curves.

Location: London
Architect: Squire and Partners

Squire and Partners recently completed their construction of a private London home. The most stunning aspect of the building? It's covered in metallic leaves! The London firm made 4,080 aluminum leaves, glossed in PPC, to simulate real leaves. The result is a fascinating, ornate facade with an Art Deco feel to it.

Location: Quebec
Architect: Henri Cleinge

Antiquity meets modernity in Henri Cleinge's Bord-du-Lac House. The residents of the original 200-year-old Quebec house approached Cleinge, requesting an extension large enough to house four generations of the family. Thus, Cleinge did exactly that, seamlessly merging a modern, wood, and glass structure to the stone edifice as to depict both a passage of time, showing contrast but still maintaining a connection to its former roots.

Location: Vietnam
Architect: H&P Architects

There are many advantages to using bamboo as a primary building material. It's flexible, needs little processing, and most importantly can withstand devastating floods. While it may look weak, bamboo is actually stronger than steel. H&P Architects knows, designing the Blooming Bamboo Home in reaction to natural disasters that have plagued the area. Currently, the Blooming Bamboo Home can weather and survive a 1.5-meter-high flood. They're currently experimenting to see if it can handle a 3-meter-high flood!

Location: Port Sea, Australia
Architect: HASSELL

There's no better beach house than the Point King Residence, fashioned by international design firm HASSELL. The architects behind this masterpiece had both an eye for aesthetics and practicality. The top structure, constructed from timber, sits atop a limestone base. It also features a cantilevered portion, which juts out from the base and offers breathtaking floor-to-ceiling views of the surrounding sea, not to mention a whole lot of sunlight.

Location: Jalisco, Mexico
Architect: Almazán Arquitectos

The Casa del Agua, located in Jalisco, Mexico, immediately evokes a sense of harmony and peace. The white, linear building balances out perfectly with the touches of wood incorporated into the edifice by architects Almazán Arquitectos. As its name suggests, the Casa del Agua also features a large body of water. The waterspace, brimming with pebbles and stones, envelopes a wooden walkway, which leads to the home's entrance.

Location: Auckland, New Zealand
Architect: Glamuzina Paterson Architects

Despite its prototypical, metal-like exterior, the Blackpool House adapts perfectly to the surrounding woods of Auckland, New Zealand. It's an atypical tree house, to say the least, consisting of a wood in the four interior levels and on the floor of the decks, which offer great views of the lush greenery. Only the height and vertical form of the Blackpool House seems reminiscent of the traditional tree house.

Location: Guadalajara, Mexico
Architect: Hernandez Silva Architects

Hernandez Silva Architects' Casa Siete consists of a roofed structure, which sits atop and overlaps a smaller, wood-paneled base. The entire Casa Siete is enveloped by a white exterior, and it also features floor-to-ceiling windows—the ideal abode while living in Guadalajara, Mexico.

Location: Ottawa
Architect: Colizza Bruni Architecture

When combining two separate homes, most architects merge the individual structures side to side. Colizza Bruni, on the other hand, worked to build Front to Back Infill, which, as its name suggests, comprises two houses fused together front to back. The innovative creation was the product of two architects, each working on one structure. In doing so, they created a home for two separate residents. The final product, however, sits on a small 25-foot by 80-foot space, allowing the two residents to split the land cost.

Location: Farschweiler, Germany
Architect: Architekten Stein Hemmes Wirtz

Situated in Farschweiler, Germany, the +Energy House was designed with its surroundings in mind. Architekten Stein Hemmes Wirtz constructed the building so that its contours and roof shape would assimilate with the land's irregular slope. As its name might suggest, the +Energy House was made from ecological building materials like the laminated wood panels, which cover the building. Unlike the house's facade, the back of the house consists of floor-to-ceiling glass panels, which allow for sunlight and heat to enter.

Location: Sweden
Architect: Tengbom Architects

College students rejoice! Tengbom Architects have kindly fashioned the Swedish Micro-Cottage, a tiny house that's roomy enough to include a sleeping loft, kitchen, and bathroom all within a 10-square-meter space. The miniature, futuristic-looking home looks sleek and modern while also maintaining a rustic feel, as it's made from locally-sourced wood. Right now, it's on view at the Viserum Art Museum to promote sustainable construction, but hopefully the cost of housing won't demand too much whenever it does become available.

Location: Saitama, Japan
Architect: Hideo Kumaki Architects

Hideo Kumaki Architects' Green Screen House is original in so many ways. Not only does the colossal building stand out for its arched shape, the architect also integrates an ingenious collaboration with Mother Nature into the design. On one end of the building, draped from the top of lawn of the home, is a literal green screen, made from a wall of shrubs. The green screen shields the house from too much sun and can lower the temperature 50 degrees Fahrenheit!

Location: Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan
Architect: mA-style architects

"Koya no sumika" literally means "a home of cabin." Its name is directly representative of the structure's design. Though it appears simplistic and humble like a cabin, the design and floorplan make for a cozy, intimate home. mA-style architects re-envisioned the traditional, one-story enfilade to include a V-beam truss to heighten the home, making it resemble a welcoming cottage. "Koya no sumika" features a separate, extended space for a young couple. The rest of the rooms like the kitchen, bathroom, childrens' bedrooms, and general living space, on the other hand, are interconnected to maintain a sense of family ties.

Location: Brittany, France
Architect: Raum

Combining two separate structures to create a harmonious, seemingly monolithic structure can be a difficult feat. French architects Raum make the task look easy, presenting an all-white everything shared holiday home. The only clue which reveals the fact that 2 House 2 Studio actually comprises multiple units is the divide in the middle. From the back, one can see an overlap in the two homes and cut-outs, which adds contrast to the flat front.

Location: Bornes de Aguiar, Portugal
Architect: Luís Rebelo de Andrade and Tiago Rebelo de Andrade

Nestled among the trees of Pedras Salgadas Park are two tree houses, both shaped like snakes. The serpentine structures were created by Luís Rebelo de Andrade and Tiago Rebelo de Andrade and developed in partnership with Modular System to show that a tree house can easily adapt to the surrounding terrain and conditions. A slithering bridge leads residents and visitors to the entrance and inside of the raised tree house, designed to resemble a serpent's head. Ingenious.

Location: Chiba Prefecture, Japan
Architect: Yuusuke Karasawa

From the outside, the Villa Kanousan stands out amongst the surrounding vegetation, inviting curious glances from any visitor. The inside, however, is even more fascinating, as it's a stark contrast to both the wooden exterior and organic setting. Yuusuke Karasawa designed the home to consist of white walls, asymmetric windows, and cut-outs for a whimsical, dream-like feel.