Modernist Houses

Settled on a picturesque hillside in Somona, California, the Connect 5 residence features stunning floor-to-ceiling windows, which allow warm natural light to flood through the home.

Vo chose a simple material palette to highlight the green plants.

Mountainous terrain surrounds the modern, desert home. Horizontal roof planes extend outward, connected the home to the desert land.

Inspired by the surrounding landscape of chestnut trees, rocky hillside, and bubbling stream, Portuguese architecture firm 3r Ernesto Pereira chose to blend into, and take advantage of, the local geography rather than fight against it at this sleek, modern home near the coastal city of Porto. At a cost of €100,000 (approximately $125,000) and measuring about 140 square meters, this stunning, wood-and-glass retreat took about four months to construct.

Private courtyard between house and studio

Traditionally home to merchants and craftspeople, a machiya is a type of Japanese wooden townhouse that originated in the Heian period and developed through the Edo and Meiji periods.

Entry Courtyard

Front deck and facade

Medina Residence

This mid-century modern house was transformed from a municipal garage into a private house in the late 1950’s by renowned modernist architect Paul Rudolph. At project start the house was in pristine condition, virtually untouched since it won a Record Houses award in 1960. Ruhl Walker Architects in Boston were tasked with bringing the house up to current energy efficiency standards and with reorganizing the house to accommodate the new owners’ more contemporary needs, while also respecting the noteworthy original design.

Modern Barns is a 4,300-square-foot dwelling consisting of a series of timber volumes with pitched roofs.

The entryway of the Pink House is recessed to enhance the spatial notion of solid and void.

Mountain View Residence