The compact kitchenette is kept to one wall and appears of a piece, thanks to a continuous counter that hosts the sink, cooktop, and fridge.
Yang Yeo and his girlfriend Ching Ian relax on the back stoop of their renovated and radically updated Singapore shophouse—an archetypal building type in this busy port city. “Shophouses brought back memories of our childhood,” says Yeo.
The exterior of the Mill House.
In the tiny town of Auvilliers, France, architect Jean-Baptiste Barache designed an elegant cedar-shingled home with an A-frame construction.
Architect Indra Janda hand-cut sheets of polycarbonate into 15¾-inch square shingles and clad the entire timber structure—a gabled roof and walls—with them.
Environmental engineer Max Fordham outfitted his sustainable home with experimental insulated shutters.
Inspired by the Sydney Opera House, architects Andrew Maynard and Mark Austin paid careful attention to the extension’s “fifth elevation"—the way it’s seen from the sky. Its tiny houses, clustered at the southern end of the property, are clad in white steel panels and western red cedar shingles, contrasting materials that emphasize their geometric forms.
Cooke treated the southern beech in the stairwell with natural oils, rather than polyurethane, to bring out the grain and warmth of the natural materials. To keep the surface visually clean and minimal, the balustrade is set into the wall, so wood wraps the stairwell from ground floor to skylight.
A cedar screen adds an openness to the staircase.
The staircase space, darker, marks a pause at the passage of the two bright levels.
Jewel in the apartment: The industrial form of the anodised aluminium staircase is precision manufactured and finished to be iridescent and soft the touch. Beneath, the ephemeral neon light contrasts with it natural flowing shape.
Following the house-within-a-house concept, this playful playhouse-like addition features an all-plywood interior.
Van Beek’s extra space is home to her office. She works on a Tense table by Piergiorgio and Michele Cazzaniga and Flow chairs by Jean Marie Massaud, both for MDF Italia.
Architect Sven Matt mixed basic shapes with rich details in this Austrian home. The lattice shell was hewn from silver fir sourced from a nearby forest. Eternit shingles clad the roof.