Balanced above the central core, the office offers an ideal perch for work with a west-facing skylight that provides natural illumination for the shared desk space.
The house’s new lime plaster walls, seen here in the courtyard, contrast with the old brick wall that divides the house from Kolasiński’s adjoining carpentry shop. Though the house itself is small, the outdoor spaces and furniture studio bring its total square footage to nearly 11,000 square feet.
In this kitchen, an exposed brick wall stands out against the milky smoothness of the marble tile floors.
A door leads out from the romantic courtyard, lush with plants. “Although we live in a big city, it doesn’t feel like it,” Kolasiński says. “The neighborhood and the nature are very relaxing and quiet.”
The second-floor office is housed inside a rounded rectangle of concrete that the architect inserted on top of the old farmhouse.
All of the beds in the house are playful custom one-off designs by Crasset, including the marionette-themed master bed, which a local carpenter fabricated from oak felled in the surrounding forest. The stone fireplace is original.
Seen from a distance, the farmhouse has a time-honored quality, though it’s still clearly a product of the 21st century.
PROD Architecture + Design created a farmhouse in Penafiel, Portugal to fuse the aesthetic of traditional homes in the region with contemporary, floor-to-ceiling windows that respond to the environment. Made up of four distinct structures, the home takes on the shape of an existing gabled-roof structure on the site. To complement the stone building, the home incorporates a series of muted materials including granite for the base, zinc for the roof, and Scandinavian pinewood for cladding.
The main entrance is on the house’s south side. It leads to a central hall from which all sections of the home are accessible.
The architect chose granite for the house’s base, zinc for its roof, and Scandinavian pinewood for cladding—all materials that complement the nearby gray stone building.
Four distinct structures make up the house. Their design echoes the shape of an older, gabled-roof building already on site. “We considered the neighboring construction quite interesting in terms of scale and layout,” de Carvalho says. “Due to the proximity, we felt the necessity to integrate it in the design.”
In the existing house, the wood beams were hidden under sheetrock and wallpaper. "I exposed them all, but I didn't let that dictate where the new walls would go," Givone says. "I let the beams fall where they may."
A glass-lined shower with a Hudson Reed showerhead adds a modern touch to the second-floor bathroom. A pane of privacy glass lets natural light enter the room.
The new custom kitchen is situated in the original structure. The window is a new commercial unit with an operable frameless center pane and was set so that the countertop could tuck right underneath it to create a 1/4-inch shadow line.
Nicknamed the Floating Farmhouse, this 200-year-old home inspired one former copywriter to delve into architecture as a living. Inside, renovator and owner Tom Givone mixes vintage and industrial decor. Photo by Mark Mahaney.
Built by a crew of three, the home makes a virtue out of being unfussy and straightforward. The north-facing glass wall under the gable, with a triple-glazed facade, doesn't require shading or insulation. The quick-to-build structure—which consists of just structural insulated panels (SIB) made from OSB panels with a foam core, and a concrete floor that retains heat—doesn't include any complicated systems or require much maintenance.
With a few small changes and regular maintenance, existing buildings are some of the most sustainable around.
On an 18th-century farmstead in rural Sweden, two Copenhagen designers handcraft a summerhouse that seamlessly melds the modern and the traditional.
BLAIR NICHE PROJECT
At just $167 per square foot, this high-design, low-cost barn in rural Wisconsin is an American idyll.
A picnic table in a matching hue to the Stealth Barn rests between the two structures.
Monory’s friends, the Leclercs, join her for an alfresco meal on the patio. They’re seated at a custom-made table on Fermob’s Luxembourg chairs.
Michèle Monory’s Chinon farmhouse is an idyllic getaway from her home basein Paris. After she inherited the property and centuries-old structure from her father, she hired Matali Crasset, who runs a cutting-edge architecture and design firm, to update the living spaces.
"It only cost about $48,000 to build, which was incredibly cheap," says Turner of the Stealth Barn. "We got the Timber Frame Company to supply the shell, then we clad it and fitted out the interior and windows ourselves. The idea was to take the archetypal black tar-painted agricultural building and make an almost childlike icon of that."
Rent a Belgian Farm: Because who wouldn’t want to vacation in this lovely place? The Heerlijkheid van Marrem farm is available to rent in Wevelgem, East Flanders. From Remodelista.
For the bedroom, the designer selected a bed by Muji and floor lamps by Lightyears.
“When you’re working on something inexpensive and then decide you don’t like it, fine. You’re not tearing down millions of kroners worth of work.” —Mette Lyng Hansen
The Floating Farmhouse’s semitransparent addition has a roofline that matches the pitch of the original 1820s farmhouse. A porch, tucked under the side eaves, is cantilevered over a stream that runs through the property. Ikea loungers are illuminated from the interior by commercial gymnasium lights repurposed as pendant lamps.