lumière

Architects Simone Carneiro and Alexandre Skaff used materials like cement-tiles and perobinha wood to make a fomerly cramped São Paulo apartment feel more open. Re-envisioning an under-utilized terrace as a lush garden certainly helped as well.

The exterior of this 1878 Victorian offers little insight into its new, expansive, light-filled interior. The house even keeps its solar-powered personality under wraps, with its panels tucked neatly (and unnoticeably) behind its low-pitched roof.

Since the room is at the windowless middle of the house, it borrows light from the kitchen, which, despite its pristine Bulthaup cabinetry and hardware, is the laid-back heart of the house. Chong took advantage of the one-and-a-half-height ceiling to establish some well-hidden storage cabinets.

In 2013, dedicated British minimalist John Pawson tackled the interior renovation of the 1,000-year-old St. Moritz Church in Augsburg, Germany. While the layout remains traditional, modern touches like a thin onyx coating in place of stained glass add a luminescence that underscores the beauty of the traditional apses.

The second-floor office is housed inside a rounded rectangle of concrete that the architect inserted on top of the old farmhouse.

The couple kept original touches, including the arch.