Image via Complex Original
While you were busy sculpting your Movember facial hair, architects everywhere were putting the finishing touches on their own impressive designs. From underwater rooms to homes inspired by racecars, the houses built this month strove to reach new heights. Trends in architecture for November included an emphasis eco-friendliness, an attempt to maximize the potential of small spaces, and an effort to find solitude from the outside world. All the houses on this list are escapes from the everyday norm, whether in shape, location, or design. Check out the innovative constructions this month with Fresh Builds: The Coolest Houses of November 2013.
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20. Shirasu House
Location: Kagoshima, Japan
Architect: Aray Architecture
This house harkens back to a natural systems of heating and cooling. The building employs irregular geometric shapes that leave room for unique spaces like the triangular living room that unfolds to the patio. The building is made out of a combination of local volcanic ash soil and cement.
19. MO House
Location: Madrid
Architect: FRPO
Do you ever wish that your home were more like a tree house? Spanish architects FRPO decided to build a home wholly incorporated into nature but with an innovative twist. Using a series of interconnected boxes, FRPO breaks up the idea of a traditional consolidated building, allowing for more communication between the home and nature. Views of nature are emphasized by large windows, and FRPO includes outdoor green spaces between rooms as well.
18. House of Awa-cho
Location: Awa, Japan
Architect: Container Design
This home, like the MO House, challenges our traditional conception of a contained house. Individual square rooms form a circle to completely restructure this home. This approach leaves the nucleus of the house open for a courtyard space, maximizes window space, and has some extra privacy benefits. The house reaches a new level of spaciousness through the interaction of the units and the courtyard.
17. Casa La Cañada
Location: Santiago, Chile
Architect: Ricardo Torrejón
A huge concrete slab with interspersed glass slits makes up the façade of this unusual building. The front of the building opens onto a huge English park while the back features large glass windows and mini-courtyards, a disjunction that would feel like two separate buildings were it not for the consistent building material.
16. La Sentinelle
Location: Quebec
Architect: NatureHumaine
Functioning as both a lake and mountain house, this L-shaped, two-storey home faces many natural challenges. The building's roof has a slow, downward gradient inspired by the natural shape of the landscape. The angled roof hints at the novel design that its covering—the home is made up of a two-storey rectangle and a one-storey rectangle.
15. Lake Cottage
Location: Ontario, Canada
Architect: UUfie
Charred cedar walls, a black steel roof, timber panels, a wood burning stove, and a mirrored entrance are only part of what creates the rustic appeal of this woodsy Canadian home. This house is a fusion of modern and classic approaches, exemplified by the staircase, which is made up of white stone steps supported by a single log. Both styles mix in a way that pulls the classy city feel out into the woods.
14. Small House
Location: Tokyo
Architect: Unemori Architects
It's hard to believe that this 725-foot-square home would offer enough living space, but Unemori Architects designed the house to fit one couple with a child. A spiral staircase centers the 13-by-13-foot building. The home also features very thin floorboards, a roof deck, two bedrooms, one bathroom, a dining room, and an entrance space.
13. House in Tsurumaki
Location: Tokyo
Architect: Case-Real
Playing with geometric shapes is the main theme of this home. While the façade is unassuming, the back is unexpectedly hexagonal. The challenge that brought about this unusual design came from the clients, who wanted a south-facing living room on a north-facing site. The hexagonal backyard was a clever way to create a larger space. The architect used 30-degree angles for the windows so they wouldn't directly face the neighboring home, increasing privacy for both homeowners.
12. Keperra House
Location: Brisbane, Australia
Architect: A-CH
This single-occupant dwelling in Australia is a great place for reflection and solitude. The center of the building has a void that is filled by a single Jacaranda tree. A sheltered deck was actually the inspiration behind this building concept, and the home was built to revolve around the deck.
11. White House
Location: Seoul, South Korea
Architect: Design band YOAP
Making small spaces feel luxurious and welcoming is a big theme in this month's building projects. One of the tricks that the architects of this home employed was positioning windows to view the street, instead of the adjacent building, making the apartments feel more open. Design band YOAP also used vibrant colors to make up for the lack of natural light in the stairway space. Using these clever tricks, they were able to create nine studio apartments on five floors with less than 2,000 square feet.
10. The House of Yagi
Location: Hiroshima, Japan
Architect: Suppose Design Office
An indoor courtyard with an earth floor, a central tree, and bulk presence are is the defining features of this house. The bedroom, living, and dining rooms are all located on the second floor to leave space for the massive courtyard. House of Yagi is unique in that it grounds the people living in the home and creates a bond between the inhabitants and the earth. The home is meant to accommodate a family of four but can be adapted based on the size of the family.
9. Sunset Rock House
Location: Nova Scotia, Canada
Architect: MacKay-Lyons Sweetapple Architects
Sunset Rock House is a vacation home that sits on top of eight concrete fins next to the Atlantic Ocean. This property, like many of the others we have seen this month, has an emphasis on disconnecting from our Internet lives—the closest town is a small fishing village.
The design was intended to find a relationship between the building and the sunset, providing gorgeous, natural lighting as well as astounding sunset views. One corner is completely open and covered in crystal-clear glass, effectively breaking the boundaries between land and sea.
8. House on a Stream
Location: Alibag, India
Architect: Architecture BRIO
House on a Stream is a beautiful house in India reminiscent of Frank Lloyd Wright's famous Fallingwater. The stream running through the home has a natural cooling and calming effect. The home is surrounded by medicinal and fruit-bearing trees. Climate determined the orientation of the home, with rooms dedicated to catching the morning rays and the evening sunset.
7. Minimalist Baja Beach House
Location: Todos Santos, Mexico
Architect: Gracia Studio
For $479,000, this home offers three bedrooms, a multi-use kitchen-living-dining room area, vast expansive spaces, and spotty cell phone reception. In today's hustle and bustle, sometimes we forget how appealing those features really are—not to mention the paradise pool that is also a part of the deal. The geometric concrete structure of the building blends in with the desert surroundings.
6. Cliff House
Location: Nova Scotia, Canada
Architect: MacKay-Lyons Sweetapple Architects
Cliff House is exactly what its name promises—a house that projects off of a cliff in Canada. A wooden rectangular box is firmly planted on the ground while protruding metal beams hold it up. The building was made on a tight budget, but one would never guess that because the cost-effective industrial interior matches the exterior.
5. Mullet House
Location: Melbourne, Australia
Architect: March Studio
Business on the bottom, party on the roof: this house satisfies the required parallel to be named after the infamous mullet hairstyle. The combination of the Edwardian home with the bent, angular, and raised roof makes this house exciting. For all of its flashy features, this home is surprisingly functional.
4. Madrid Urban Shelter
Location: Madrid
Architect: OHLAB
The architects over at OHLAB are breaking the "bigger is better" mentality slowly and skillfully with small spaces that include all the necessary amenities. Including an indoor/outdoor shower, grass carpeting on the patio, and white leather curtains that double as a projection screen, this tiny space has everything an urban dweller would need.
3. Arboleda House
Location: Tokushima, Japan,
Architect: Horibe Associates
This homeowner definitely has a thing for speed because this home resembles a streamlined sports car. The interior, however, takes on a less mechanical look, featuring lots of wood. Its orientation near the street and angular shape creates the automobile feel while the traditional cabin-like interior doesn't hint at the building's unusual exterior.
2. Lucid Stead
Location: Joshua Tree, Calif.
Artist: Phillip K Smith III
This building is not actually a home but a piece of contemporary art. Built by artist Phillip K. Smith III, it is an installation called Lucid Stead. The mirrored panels are skillfully used as a form of camouflage for the house during the night. This installation completely disappears at night with the exception of the neon lights. To capture the artist's effect, photographer Lou Mora spent 14 hours shooting this installation. The way the home interacts with different times of day has the potential to inspire real homes.
1. Underwater Hotel Room
Location: Off the coast of Zanzibar, Tanzania
Architect: Genberg Underwater Hotels
Though this isn't a house, it's so exceptionally fresh that it had to make the list anyway. As part of the Manta Resort, this beautiful new hotel room is submerged 15-feet underwater. It is compromised of three levels that let you appreciate the ocean in different ways: an ocean-view balcony, a sea-level lounge, and an underwater bedroom. From luxury to solitude, this floating hotel provides an entirely new holiday experience. Obviously, it will take quite a toll on your wallet to stay here. Prices are not yet disclosed publicly though a 10-night stay in the resort proper costs about $2,608 per person.