Collection by Matthew Keeshin
Could You Live in a Concrete Home?
From solid blocks of concrete to prefabricated units, these hard-edged houses are more expressive and full of personality than you would think. Share your thoughts in the comments section below!
The rear of the house looks onto a lush backyard. The rough, industrial prefabricated concrete panels by the German manufacturer Syspro are the building blocks of the home.
Designers Christopher Robertson and Vivi Nguyen-Robertson conceived their house as an unfolding sequence of simple geometric forms: a low concrete wall, a concrete cube, and a boxclad in Siberian larch.
When Belgian fashion retailer Nathalie Vandemoortele was seeking a new nest for her brood, she stumbled upon a fortresslike house in the countryside designed in 1972 by a pair of Ghent architects, Johan Raman and Fritz Schaffrath. While the Brutalist concrete architecture and petite but lush gardens suited her tastes to a tee, the interiors needed a few updates.
For a family in Lima, a team from local firm 51-1 Arquitectos built Casa Serpiente, which meanders around 25 existing trees. Husband Irzio’s study is among the few ground-level rooms in the 4,300-square-foot house.
Nakada works from an Alvar Aalto table in the living and dining area, adjacent to the kitchen. He saved on some elements, such as the plywood cabinetry, and splurged on others, such as the Finn Juhl chairs and Vilhelm Lauritzen lamp. A skylight beneath the angled roof allows in a sliver of constantly changing light.
Sparse but colorful furnishings soften up the interior, contrasting with the raw concrete surfaces throughout.
The Sonoma County home of Lars Richardson and Laila Carlsen is the result of a long-running collaboration with architect Casper Mork-Ulnes. A 713-square-foot indoor-outdoor Shotcrete dining pavilion dubbed the Amoeba provides a loose counterpoint to the more rigid barn structure behind it.
The south-facing facade looks out towards the forest.
The 3,200-square-foot structure occupies a hillside site in Montauk, and enjoys a distant view of the ocean. Coen + Partners did the landscape design.
Delivering a modern look, concrete serves as a long-lasting, hardwearing material.
With its simple rectangular form, the house has an infrastructural presence in the landscape, making it appear as if the house itself is holding back the steep hill.
A stepped concrete garden planted with herbs and flowers marks the descent to the house. The courtyard is the focal point of the U-shaped structure; there is clear visibility between the kitchen on one side and the children's bedrooms on the other.
Architect John Hix—who, as one might gather, worked under renowned American architect and concrete aficionado Louis Kahn—designed the hotel Hix Island House in Vieques, off Puerto Rico. The latest guest house on the property is called Casa Solaris and is entirely removed from the commercial grid, running completely on solar power. Photo by Michael Grimm.
Located in Chicago’s West Town, the concrete shell of Upton’s Naturals headquarters was erected in just 48 hours.
Gregory and Caryn Katz are dwarfed beneath the cantilevered concrete overhang, which houses the bedroom on the upper level. The stackable glass doors that run beneath allow the house to open completely to the yard and swimming pool, soften the severity of the concrete, and blur the boundary between indoors and out.