Tile & Brick

Ignacio tends his garden outside the kitchen window.

More brick in the bathroom is set against a green finish, one of the only moments of color Ignacio wanted in the home.

The kitchen is positioned for a view of the river.

A brick partition separates the refrigerator from the living space.

On the left, stairs over the sauna lead up to an elevated lookout on the right. Beneath it is the bathhouse.

Marion Mahony Griffin in front of Newman College, Melbourne University, recreational pavilion, 1916.

In winter, a wood-fired stove keeps the entire house warm. “I love when people come over in the middle of winter and find out there is no extra heating,” says Jordi. It’s the final surprise in a home full of quiet, thoughtful ones.

Volta catalan

Chestnut wood surrounds the kitchen cube at the center of the plan. "The kitchen became like a piece of furniture itself,

The stone is further tempered by the concrete window frames that protrude from the facade, an indentation or "reveal

The dry stonewall construction contrasts with the smooth finish on the passage separating the two houses, and "creates tension,

Located on the outskirts of Morelia, Mexico, the 5,920-square-foot UC House by architectural designer Daniela Bucio Sistos is grounded by a foyer with a raised, circular ceiling, which houses a tree that grows out from a hole in the floor at the center.

The circulation spaces on the upper level of the home maintain a feeling of openness. “During the summers, living here is a very different and more comfortable experience compared to the houses we’ve lived in before,” says the homeowner. “The open-plan of the house creates a spacious feel without any sense of congestion, even in the small plot that we had.”

Supported by just four columns on the ground floor, the home's asymmetric groin vault was an ambitious structural experiment. “It’s a hybrid structure that combines traditional brick vaulting with modern concrete technology,” explains architect Harikrishnan Sasidharan.

Kudoo is built on a two-cent plot—a unit of land measurement, commonly used in parts of South India, equivalent to 1/100th of an acre. Half of the site is occupied by the built form, with a landscaped border surrounding it. A major challenge was the location of the home, 100 metres from the main road. This meant that everything had to be carried to site by hand and added to the construction cost.

The light pendant upstairs is crafted from screw pine, a plant traditionally used in local craft. “We came across it while travelling through Cochin and bought it from a local artisan to use in a future project like this,” says architect Neenu Elizabeth. The chairs were left over from a previous project by NO Architects.

Jessica selected Saltillo floors to add a layer of warmth to the home. “Some of the tiles have paw prints of when dogs walked across them as they were laid out to dry in the sun in Mexico,” says Jessica. “I put them in special locations to honor that story.”

Two-tone cabinets anchor the kitchen, including stained white oak on the bottom and white uppers.