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Exterior Glass Siding Material Brick Siding Material House Metal Siding Material Flat Roofline Design Photos and Ideas

To the front, the gardens are laid around a central lawn with a circling driveway which provides parking. There is also a garage for family cars.
Inspired by ancient ruins, Frankie Pappas crafts a green-roofed, brick guesthouse that connects deeply with nature in the South African Bushveld.
“The clients are passionate about nature conservation,’ says architect Ant Vervoot. “They know how every plant, insect, and animal fits into the greater ecosystem—their curiosity about the Bushveld is insatiable and inspiring. It really is an amazing thing to be around them in the bush.”
“We asked Frankie for a home, and they built us a fantasy,” remarked the clients when House of the Tall Chimneys and House of the Big Arch were completed.
The guesthouse is located in a private reserve in the Waterberg, a mountainous region about three hours from Johannesburg.
A brick path leads through the forest to the entrance of House of the Tall Chimneys. “Bricks are a really cost effective way of creating space,” says architect Ant Vervoort. “Over and above that, when used correctly, bricks create complex patterns that I don’t think it’s possible to mimic using other materials.”
The entrance to House of the Big Arch is a nine-meter-tall passage, which creates a high-pressure system that pulls cool air into the kitchen.
The aluminum windows are powder coated in a charcoal color, which is intended to match the shadows created by the forest and help the building further blend in.
The ground-floor living space looks inward to the courtyard and is protected on all other sides by the mass of the building and the blank brick facade.
A side patio leads from the front of the home to the courtyard. The same red bricks used for the facade have been used for the paving to create a seamless fabric that wraps the built form and the site.
The slim profile of the red bricks used in the facade creates a textured surface across the monolithic form, while red and brown tones of each brick create an organic, varied pattern of color.
The entire home is wrapped in a brick "skin" that extends onto the ground at the front and sides of the home. The entrance is found through a simple void in the facade beside a pond with floating vegetation that hints at the verdant interior.
The mostly blank brick-clad exterior belies the complex geometries that inform the multilevel plan inside. The windows are arranged to frame specific views—including the steeple of the nearby St. Michael’s Church—while retaining privacy from the street.
The firm worked with landscape design company Alchemie to plan the landscaping and create a variety of seating areas throughout the property.
The addition houses a kitchen and family room on the main level, and the master bedroom and roof deck above. Sliding glass doors now allow generous sightlines to the yard, and also convey a lightness to the new architecture that contrasts with the character of the old.
For the new addition, new brick syncs with the old, while blackened steel provides a modern counterpoint to the historic facade.
Large timber-framed glass sliding doors open the kitchen/dining space to the rear courtyard on two sides.
The glazed facade is broken up by classic midcentury lines.
In the entrance, a team with the general contracting firm Martha uncovered an abstract mural that Engels painted himself and then plastered over. He also made the geometric door handle. Simon speculates that Engels sourced the marble, found all over the house, from Expo ’58, after the pavilions had been dismantled.
Villa Engels, the home of the esteemed Belgian modernist Lucien Engels (1928–2016), was falling apart when its second owners bought it in 2013. Yet due to its heritage status, any changes they planned would have to be approved by the provincial preservation office. Engels completed the elongated, cantilevered residence in 1958, the same year he finalized the master plan for Expo ’58, the Brussels World’s Fair that famously featured the Atomium.
La Vinya, PGA Golf Resort | Studio RHE
"The main forms were wrapped in stainless steel to reflect the landscape and create a colorful, shimmering, envelope," explain the architects on their website.
The home is surrounded by extensive gardens and mature trees.
The private estate is located off a country road just over one mile from the historic town center of Godalming, England.
The sprawling property has a strong connection to the outdoors.
Lush landscaping softens the steep driveway that leads to the garage at the base of the house.
The couple’s garden-style townhouse is one of nearly 200 units that Mies van der Rohe designed for Detroit’s middle class after World War II. Zac Cruse Construction assisted with their remodel.
“To be able to respect the ‘massiveness’ of the roof, making bigger windows would be wrong, because we would lose the character of the farm,” Wynants explains. “Therefore, I was looking for other ways to collect light. At this spot you had the big barn doors at both sides: This is the economical axis of the farm. This I kept, as my own design office is right under this volume. It keeps the sun out, so I have a splendid view when I’m working—I never need sun shades.”