Modern Residential Design

Nabil Gholam Architecture & Planning F House High up on Mount Lebanon, away from the hustle and bustle of Beirut, is the F House in Dahr el Sawan. A Mediterranean masterpiece by Nabil Gholam Architecture & Planning . [Article by Ayssar Arida ] The brief A high profile young couple with 2 children, the clients organized a competition for a new family residence to live and entertain in as their home in Lebanon. The general program consisted of 5 en-suite bedrooms for family and guests, generous indoors and outdoors living, dining, and recreation areas to complement the couple's social lifestyle, plus the usual amenities. The brief was much less straightforward: while the aim was to have a modern Mediterranean house (“not organic, not monolithic”), the couple brought two very different stylistic expectations into it. He grew up in a family that had been living in modern architecture (including houses by Mallet-Stevens and Niemeyer) since the 1960s, in Lebanon, Europe and the...

Francisco Portugal e Gomes Casa Milhundos This place is another on my list of great layouts. Taken from Arkinetia - (Thanks for the dig last week on your blog!!) Admittedly it looks a little plonked into it's surroundings, but it does have the solar gain sympathetic layout, that I'm into and the pristine white rear structure seems "protected" by the rough black box in front. Moving through the house in a South - North direction the front one story slate/dark stone covered box contains the living and dining/kitchen areas. below this box is a huge cellar the length of the building. Moving back, through the entrance foyer, you arrive at the stairwell, wet wall with toilet beside the staircase, and a bedroom either side of these. This is repeated upstairs. The daytime and nighttime areas are separated and the Master bedroom could be upstairs away from it all. It's very minimalist, no doubt in response to the brief, but I think I'd like to open it up a little mor...

Erginoglu & Calislar Architects House ’Ö’ World Architecture News have a great post on a Turkish house that caught my eye this week. //Additional images - This house has a great layout, the kitchen is open plan on the ground floor and the bedroom is upstairs. The Toilets, up and down are housed in one block separated by a glass surrounded stairwell from the kitchen and bedroom respectively. The living room and fireplace are at the far end on a mid level, giving the feeling of a cozy elevated nook. All overlooking the pool that separates the house from the surrounding views. I love the use of raw local rocks, capped with white concrete. More interior shots can be found after the jump, showing the opening wall in the bedroom that overlooks the kitchen. From their site: House ’Ö’ is located in one of Bodrum ’s popular holiday districts, Yal ı kavak . The design aims to offer a modern life style approach whilst remaining in keeping with the geography and the scenery of the area. Gr...

TomaHouse Recently I've been hunting down a way to ship in a prefab structure to remote locations, without it being a container house. These classy Baches, Bales, Fales and Bungalows are top of my list now. As a Prefab, they don't match MKD's breeze houses, but they do work as small cabins for remote areas. What particularly caught my attention was their Montserrat project seen below and above left. Which, perhaps in it's tent like nature, reminds me of Christmases in the far north of New Zealand. I've been "Google-Earthing" (my new verb) to hunt for the right spot and now have the structure to put in. The versatility means I can build individual units in suitable areas and join them using their connecting platforms and additions. The four, four foot deep foundation struts mean minimal impact on the area and the plug and play nature suits me to a tee. The neat bit too is if I want to change the inside or outside one day I can just order up some replacemen...