#habitattheory

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Out-to-Out House | Design by L.E.FT Architects | Photo by Bahaa Ghoussainy © Located Faqra, Lebanon📍 . Follow @habitat.theory . Located in the snow resort of Faqra - Lebanon, the two-story concrete house hugs its triangular corner site through a gently curved geometry, to create different outdoor spaces of varied spatial and environmental qualities. The house is formed of a rectangular ground floor (5.5m X 20m) volume containing the bedrooms and a hovering curved first floor above it (5.5m X 24m) containing the living quarters. The design starts from a Lebanese urban myth, asserting that one can be skiing in the mountains and swimming in the sea within the same day; an overlapping of climatic seasons characteristic of Lebanon’s geography. A scaling of this experience to the domestic scale of a house merges the mountain views from the elevated outdoor roof with the ground outdoor pool area, through a continuous looping circulation movement. #habitattheory #Out-to-OutHouse (at Faqra, Roman Temple, Kfardebian, Lebanon)

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Suncatch | Design by Norm Applebaum Architect | Photo by Mary E. Nichols © Located Rancho Santa Fe, United States📍 . Follow @habitat.theory . The architecture of “Suncatch" came about after an 8 year design and construction process. It sits on 30 acres in the prestigious area known as Rancho Santa Fe in Southern California. The project consists of 54,000 square feet of floor space divided as follows, 24,500 square feet of living space and 29,500 square feet for a 37 car showroom under the house. It was completed in 2005. The architect’s client stated that he wanted the finest house in the region. The home is finished out using a half million board feet of clear vertical grain Douglas fir, floors, ceilings, cabinets, doors, fascia and all trim. Plaster walls and poured in place concrete, using a veneer system invented by the architect, are the finish materials. Views were to north but large overhangs were used to capture the south sun, this in turn brightens up the interior spaces of the architecture. #habitattheory #modern #suncatch (at Rancho Santa Fé)

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By the Way House | Design by KWK Promes | Photo by Juliusz Sokoàowski © Located Poland📍 . Follow @habitat.theory . The client had a beautiful, huge plot on the hill near the river. He had also some strange wishes: to copy his existing, a bit boring interiors from his previous flat and put living space on the 1st floor. The main inspiration turned out to be the road, which had to be there anyway to reach the middle of the plot, where the house was planned to stand. We thought, what would happen if we lifted “the way” and "wrapped it around" these ugly interiors. Then we brought it back to the garden level, leading it trough the steep hill to reach the river, in the same time not cutting out any tree. The road shaped the entire building - its floors, walls and ceilings, becoming the main motif of the project. Apparently absurd customer wishes resulted with incredible view from the living room and thanks to this idea we managed to connect living space with the garden and gain much more. #polandarchitecture #habitattheory (at Poland)

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Brise Soleil House | Design by Studio Workshop | Photo by Peter Bennetts © Located Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea📍 . Follow @habitat.theory . The Brise Soleil House is a compact 2-bedroom, 173SQM dwelling situated at the top of a steep, west-facing block near Port Moresby Harbour overlooking a former cargo terminal. The house is a cast-in-situ concrete building partially clad in an undulating wave-like timber wrapper which provides shading, privacy, and ventilation to the master suite. The wrapper flattens as it continues around the building to become a full-height operable screen for the upper level gallery to control the western sun and capture views to the Coral Sea beyond. From a design perspective, the wrapper pays homage to local traditions of timber craftsmanship seen in the lowland stilt houses and intricately carved canoes (lakatoi), utilizing a system of complex joints and a high degree of surface articulation. But it does so though a digital lens; updated to address the capabilities of contemporary software and hardware tools and their ability to manage complex systems and to mass-customize intricate geometries with embedded assembly logics. Furthermore, the design of the wrapper engages a broader discussion of screens and veils in equatorial architecture found in the canon of Modern and 20th century works by Ossipoff, Ferrie, Rudolf, and others. #papuanewguinea #modernarchitecture #habitattheory #modernhomes (at Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea) https://www.instagram.com/p/BnV7LVJn-L6/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=1cjvffheo2yeq

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The Twist and Shout House | Design by MSSM ASSOCIATES | Photo by Sonny Sandjaya © Located Semarang, Indonesia📍 . Follow @habitat.theory . Examining the city as a living, breathing organism is a school of thought that has become increasingly grounded. With rapid changes in the demographic and environmental condition of Semarang, the city has been forced to adapt to these changes, similar to the way a living organism adapts to changes in environment. It is only through a successful adaptation does the city ensure its longevity. More importantly however, this transformation in the city fabric must take place at every scale, and not only the global one. The Twist and Shout house addresses this issue at a local scale. One of the first residential units in the City of Semarang to address the challenge in construction and design. The Twist and Shout house takes a completely Avant Garde, progressive and unique approach to lifting the urban fabric of Semarang at a local scale to compete with other urban tissues at an international level. The interplay between function, form, light, environmental performance, social response and local assimilation has transformed what is usually considered to be a mundane residential dwelling, to one that has pushed the boundaries of construction and design evolving into an architectural landmark that has become unique to the fabric of the city. #habitattheory (at Semarang, Indonesia)

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RCR Compound | Design by Carney Logan Burke | Photo by Matthew Millman © Located Montana, United States 📍 . Follow @habitat.theory . The art collector clients for RCR relocated to this rural setting where they desired a house that capitalized on the characteristics of the extraordinary site and created an appropriate setting for the display and enjoyment of their collection. The house and guest quarters occupy a sloping transition zone between a forested butte and a grassy meadow located on an eight-acre valley site in western Montana. The house was sited to access views of the meadow and distant peaks situated at each end of the valley. This 9,000-square-foot house is organized as a series of connected building forms that surround an elevated courtyard. Carefully detailed wood buildings sit gracefully atop stone walls that extend into the landscape. Roof forms taper and tilt to visually knit the complex into the site topography. Approach to the compound leads through the meadow, gradually rising to an entry court at the base of the butte. #habitattheory (at Montana)

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Hidden Valley Desert House | Design by Wendell Burnette Architects | Photo by Bill Timmerman © Located Cave Creek, United States📍 . Follow @habitat.theory . The Hidden Valley Desert House is a “long pavilion for living” composed of a canopy hovering above a plinth. The south-facing house is precisely sited in the middle of a saguaro-studded knoll just high enough to obtain distant views south to the west Phoenix Valley floor, the Valley’s mountain ranges to the south / southeast, as well as reverse sunsets on the more proximate Continental Mountain to the east. The threshold to this dominant eastern view is a unique confluence of ecology; a teddy bear cholla field growing out of a prominent outcrop of pinkish-red shale stone which is found running along the entire eastern edge of the site. The geology of this rarefied site condition is extended westward into a simple ground-based plinth at an elevation of 2450 feet roughly following the east to west contours of the site. #habitattheory (at Cave Creek, Cave Creek, Arizona)

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Iron Maiden House | Design by CplusC Architectural Workshop | Photo by Murray Fredricks © Located Longueville, Australia📍 . Follow @habitat.theory . Shortlisted in the 2018 World Architecture Festival and Houses Awards, Iron Maiden House is located in Sydney’s lower North Shore and draws on it’s local context and history to create a unique contemporary home. Iron Maiden House was designed for a family of five who wanted a home which celebrated Sydney’s climate. The design delivers generous rooms which flow to inward facing outdoor areas at ground level, while an elevated external corridor connects the children’s bedrooms, enabling the children to build their independence while enjoying private green space. Solar access underpins the planning and orientation, while the flowering of creeping plants along the external skin provides seasonal nuance. The distinctive cladding is a nod to the iconic Australian vernacular material, while the form is a modern re-interpretation of the gable houses typical of the area. Conceptually, the privacy and beauty of a natural gorge, in which water cuts through rock to form secluded spaces, was replicated with overscale walls to generate the final form. The simple shape was extruded lengthways along the site and sliced down the middle with a pond to form a central axis. Slender, cathedral-like spaces were formed around this central thoroughfare with ponds running parallel to walkways to link the spaces. #habitattheory #IronMaidenHouse (at Longueville, New South Wales, Australia)