Futuristic Homes in Europe

The “culinary cockpit” (a.k.a. the kitchen) stands at the center of the apartment on a raised platform. A long, white slanted counter contains hi-fi speakers and a BUS-system panel of 18 buttons for controlling lights, curtains, heating, ventilation, etc.

NOEM, a Barcelona–based architecture firm, created a metal-clad house for a young client just outside Madrid. It’s raised 12 feet off the ground to offer better views of the landscape, lending it "the futuristic feeling that it just landed," says Pol Guiu, one of NOEM’s cofounders.

In the Dolomite mountains, an angular copper-clad apartment building echoes the topography of its site. Photos by Hertha Hurnaus

SCAPE's transformation of the two top floors of a freestanding house in Rome's Colle Oppio neighborhood is a project that, as is often the case working with the city's ancient fabric, involved complex factors. The 2,368-square-foot apartment was distributed over three levels with two main floors and a mezzanine, "the fruit of numerous interventions that had been carried out in a disorderly and incoherent manner over the last twenty years." The renovation required structural work as well, including the consolidation of the floor slabs and roofing.