architect : studiolev

Tommy Daspit

James Florio

AMD House (2009) Project, Management and Construction Location Altos del Sol Gated Neighborhood, Ituzaingo, Buenos Aires, Argentina Total Area 205 m² Photo DOT Principal> Arq. Alejandro Amoedo Lead Designer> Arq. Alejandro Amoedo Project Manager> Arq. Alejandro Amoedo Collaborators> Valeria Bruno, Lucas D´Adamo Baumann, Verónica López Garrido. The shape of this house, located in a gated neighborhood to the west of Greater Buenos Aires, was inspired by a painting and its driving force was the coincidence of the lines dribbled by its owners long before getting to know each other. On a trial-and-error basis, it was an experimental project where we sought to get rid of the influences of the predominant images of current design and the main aim was to search for internal and external sensations, sustainability and re-using of left-over materials. This generates situations to be found almost constantly; the virtual relationship with the garden and its pond, with three levels, interacting with each other through the double-height glass at the different times of the day, together with the clouds, the sky and its different hues. The cross ventilation and the sun entering the room in winter are also significant. The functional layout finds a solution, in few meters, to the needs of a very large family. On the ground floor, the kitchen, the dining room and the sitting room are integrated so as to offer a spatial continuity that makes them flexible from a functional point of view and visually larger. The half-covered garage, located next to these rooms works as a complement to them, becoming a barbecue area that may be fully closed. The finishes are mainly those of the construction in apparent conditions: reinforced concrete, wood, aluminum and glass. The main construction system involves rigid frameworks, built by concrete and steel beams and columns, whose main function is to cover large areas with little material and to replace division walls by other items such as furniture, plants, panels, metal or wooden and glass sheets. Thus, the rooms are filled with natural light and are offered an industrial aspect inspired by the origin of Lofts in New York.

vista desde sal ahacai comedor y vista del Oceano Pacifico Photo:jordi miralles

Patrice Jerome

Stommel Haus

Manuala Ruiz

Fotograf Manfred Seidl

Jim Schmid Photography

Photo: Sarah Greenman © 2015 Houzz

Photo: Sarah Greenman © 2015 Houzz

Joe Fletcher Atop a ridge in the Santa Lucia mountains of Carmel, California, an oak tree stands elevated above the fog and wrapped at its base in this ranch retreat. The weekend home’s design grew around the 100-year-old Valley Oak to form a horseshoe-shaped house that gathers ridgeline views of Oak, Madrone, and Redwood groves at its exterior and nestles around the tree at its center. The home’s orientation offers both the shade of the oak canopy in the courtyard and the sun flowing into the great room at the house’s rear façades. This modern take on a traditional ranch home offers contemporary materials and landscaping to a classic typology. From the main entry in the courtyard, one enters the home’s great room and immediately experiences the dramatic westward views across the 70 foot pool at the house’s rear. In this expansive public area, programmatic needs flow and connect - from the kitchen, whose windows face the courtyard, to the dining room, whose doors slide seamlessly into walls to create an outdoor dining pavilion. The primary circulation axes flank the internal courtyard, anchoring the house to its site and heightening the sense of scale by extending views outward at each of the corridor’s ends. Guest suites, complete with private kitchen and living room, and the garage are housed in auxiliary wings connected to the main house by covered walkways. Building materials including pre-weathered corrugated steel cladding, buff limestone walls, and large aluminum apertures, and the interior palette of cedar-clad ceilings, oil-rubbed steel, and exposed concrete floors soften the modern aesthetics into a refined but rugged ranch home.