Messana O’Rorke Architects: The project started with the purchase of a much-neglected Eighteenth Century homestead in an apple orchard located in Columbia County, New York.

The brief was to develop modern house within the existing frame and extend the house to provide additional accommodations. No restrictions were plced on the design except to respect the form the original Dutch House. The Spartan living conditions of the early settlers and te simple clean lines of their architecture were the inspiration to formulate a minimal design solution.

via Messana O’Rorke Architects

The design of the house developed organically; stripping back various additions and removing interior partitions from previous renovations revealed a classic house form, emulating a child perception of a house replete with four windows, a door, and sloped roof with a chimney on top.

This beautiful house – Casa Negra or “the Black House”- comes from Andres Remy Architects and is located at a 30 km distance from Buenos Aires, Argentina, in a spectacular natural environment.

via freshhomes

via Bevk Perović Arhitekti

via Bevk Perović Arhitekti

The U-House was designed by architect Natalie Dionne to house both the family residence and her office space. Along with her partner, who works in cinema, she drew plans and began construction in 2003. Originally, the couple bought a small industrial building and a rare vacant lot adjacent to it. The U plan was achieved by adding two additions to the original building, one at each end of the vacant lot.

via Contemporist

via Contemporist

World Architects:
Fits to its historical context formulated in beginning of 20’s in center part of Nanjing city, Slit house express itself in harmony with surroundings in the new form of concrete facade. The entir structure & facade even roof are made from concrete with 5cm horizontal wood textile strip which shares the same scale with neibour buildings of brick built almost 100 years ago. Even we used almost half of world’s cement in China, Slit house is the first real concrete building in Nanjing, the city which built also 1300 highrise concrete structure towers in last 25 years.

via Iwan Bann

Showing the transparency of house in its public part with deep slit, Stail is used in this project to link two parts which has half floor height difference, then made 2 floor height living area and 1.5 floor dining area. With limited openings to east & west nearby neighbor.

via Iwan Bann

Studio 804 presents the design for a single-family residence at 3716 Springfield in the Rosedale neighborhood of Kansas City, Kansas. Nestled on a secluded site near the University of Kansas Medical Center, the residence seeks those who desire to live “off-the-grid” while enjoying the revitalized amenities that comprise the metropolitan urban core.

via archaalto

The house was built with sustainable building practices: geothermal heat, passive solar, PV roof panels, FSC certified wood, hydronic radiant heating, pervious concrete, and wind generator

ArchDaily: The setting of the project is a plot with steep slopes and a great amount of trees and bushes. The aim is building a house without causing any serious impacts on the land. The house will be built on a natural rocky platform. This platform will also be used as either the exit or the garden of the house. The architects and the property developers have agreed on minimizing land movements in order to build the artificial landscaped platforms. The target is to make good use of the existing land shelves.

>via ArchDaily

Award-winning architect, Sheri Olson’s Seattle house she designed.

via Contemporist

via AIA Seattle

A two story addition to an existing house utilizing passive and active green technology, including: grey water recycling, solar energy, passive thermal, daylighting, interior pocket courtyard with bamboo garden, drought tolerant landscaping, etc.

via Jeremy Levine Design

Creativity Online: As a concept, prefabricated housing seems to make so much sense that it’s a wonder why all houses aren’t built with prefab techniques and methods. I thought the prefab manufacturing methods had finally reached a level of efficiency that would enable mass customization, but it was brought to my attention just last week, that one of the most well-known players in the prefab housing industry was shuttering its doors. So what happened?

The percentage of people that will buy land, and design and build a house themselves is very small. Most people choose to buy existing houses because the majority of people do not want to wait or deal with the complications of design and construction of a home, and in addition, they are not that creative nor do they want to be. Present somebody with a blank canvas and they’re not sure where to start, but show them an empty house and they can imagine living in it. It is much easier for people to visualize space when it is already built.

I was sure that prefab was the future a few years back, but now when I ask myself the question: if I had land and money to build a house, would I really choose prefab? The answer, despite my preferences for sustainability, is probably not. And why not? Somehow I feel restricted by the pre-designed concept, I feel as if I’d be ordering to build a house from Legos. It may be that I haven’t educated myself thoroughly on the possibilities of prefab, but for the time being, this is my instinctual reaction.