Surprisingly Colorful Concrete Homes

In the kitchen, the walls near the garden are painted green. The built-in table was designed by Chastain, and the Tone chairs are from De La Espada.

A minimalist approach to design can make spaces feel thoughtful, bright, and more spacious than they really are—qualities that are paramount to a recent project in Poznań by Polish architecture firm mode:lina. The architects employed several tricks to make the home feel more spacious. Among them, mirrors were installed to visually enlarge the room, and smart storage spaces—even a recessed dog house—were built directly into the home’s walls. “The less visible [storage is], the better,” they say.

The house sits on a slope, atop blue concrete and ceramic tiles. A set of web-shaped stairs (right) flow like a waterfall onto the blue floor. Photo courtesy Z-A Studio.

“It feels like one really grand room, and that’s the attraction,” says the architect of the kitchen and main living space.