Location: Stuttgart, Germany
Firm: J. Mayer H. Architects, Berlin
Team: Jürgen Mayer H. and Marcus Blum, with Paul Angelier, Julian Blümle, Sebastian Finckh and Hugo Reis
Everything about this house is exuberantly sculpted, starting with its dinosaur head form. Rendered in the digi-architecture style of Jürgen Mayer H. – which varies from all-white curves (the Sarpi Border Checkpoint in Georgia) to high-tech rudimentary (the Metropol Parasol in Seville) – this audacious house still fits comfortably in its residential neighbourhood outside Stuttgart. The 488-square-metre building is also sinuous on the inside, with an open floor plan of rooms flowing from one to the next. At its core, a staircase unfurls like a ribbon through the three-storey reinforced concrete interior.
Location: Brittany, France
Firm: Lode Architecture, Paris
Team: Arnaud Lacoste and Jérôme Vinçon, with Guillaume Choplain, Hélène
Gasnier and Stéphane Saltzmann
Set into the bank of an estuary, this weekend home achieves that elusive combination of rustic charm and contemporary elegance. The 250-square-metre structure is made of steel, concrete and cross-laminated timber panels, with stone and cork floors warmed by geothermal heating. On the first floor, where the kitchen and living room are located, full-height glazing outlined in a fluorescent beam of light slides away completely, opening up the interior to the wooded lot. The top floor – where vertical chestnut louvres enclose the bedrooms as well as outdoor spaces – cantilevers effortlessly above it all.