Although the design diversity of private homes often relies on how each project responds to the topography, context, and material availability, the most significant factor of residential architecture is users and what they require in terms of spatial needs and preferences. This user-centric approach has long been practiced, Mies van der Rohe once explained that "the architect must get to know the people who will live in the planned house. From their needs, the rest inevitably follows".
This week’s curated selection of Best Unbuilt Architecture highlights private residential projects submitted by the ArchDaily community. From a private family house nestled in the forests of Russia to a reinvention of Colombia's traditional courtyard typology, this round up of unbuilt projects showcases how architects design private spaces that combine nature, functionality, privacy, and locality. The article also includes projects from Kosovo, Spain, United States, and Serbia.
Read on to discover eight private housing projects, along with their descriptions from the architects.
Villa in Brezo
Besim Krosa
For a long time I asked myself what constitutes beauty in architecture and what makes architecture in general and I came to the conclusion that it is the noble nature of the materials and the form. I started with this approach and that's how I came to this result. Unfortunately this project will not come to life as we did not find a common language with the building owner.
Cortijo De San Alberto
BISA Design Group
This house is projected on a square land of 39 meters wide and 40 meters length. having access from its south facade and delimited by neighboring lands in its other three limits. The client asked us to design a house for seasonal residence, that while they are working in Marbella , be able to use it’s facilities like a personal resort. Four master bedroom, large double height leaving area, with a useful kitchen that has direct access to dining space from south and private yard from north for breakfast times, with square playroom make this house more useful. Landscape is completely designed to answer client’s needs with its rectangular swimming pool and cozy fire pit for night family event.
Swan Island Residence
To accommodate the needs of a multi-generational family, our proposal for a home on the New England coast offers these solutions: Single-level living to foster interaction with nature and with each other. Four unique courts balanced with four distinct wings so private and social spaces spill from interior to exterior. Wide, gently curving roofs to capture rain, to capture sunlight, to capture volume underneath. Simple, bowed “frames” for efficient assembly, generous openings and expansive views.
Private House for a Young Family
RESIDE Architectural Bureau
The main aesthetic idea is the intention to preserve the image of the environment, without standing out and not breaking out of the context of nature. The task was set to achieve a certain "transparency" of the building, simplicity of form, which connects, merges with the forest landscape, does not create noise with its volume, makes it possible, being inside the house, to feel nature. The interior space is open, free of partitions. The house is divided into two floors. The interior of the house uses materials that are also used outside the building, which helps to create a single, but simple and calm image. The development spot is surrounded by a dense pine forest. Several pine trees were included in the architecture of the house, thereby achieving even greater integrity with the surroundings.
Floating Pavilion
Designed for temporary residence-and-work conditions, this 48sqm-NET prefabricated floating house for a new generation of users is a free-plan "off-grid" system completely consumed by natural surroundings, using the potential of the location - water. Lying on water, the gesture of “sinking” the technical core clears the space from any walls. No walls and opening the façade creates various connections, and interspaces are formed between the house, the porch, and the water. The floating system leaves no scarring on the environment.
House Over The Lake
Taking advantage of the slope the volume is crafted from the topology lines with a green roof blend the house with the landscape surrounding, generating an interior patio that brings tranquility to the interior of the house with its Japanese garden allowing natural light to enter the house and work as visual links allowing the visitors to understand the house circulation, a porch with olive tree embraced by the stairs that link the ground floor with the green roof. A cantilever over the edge gives a filling as if the house floating over the lake with a curved glass wall façade facing the lake and polished concrete run through between the interior and the exterior blur the boundaries and bring the outside to the inside connecting the inhabitants of the house with the landscape surrounding.
House in Luxor
Pharaohs used to build Tombs and Temples in stone, but their homes in brick, the project for the House in Luxor aims to reverse this tradition, building homes in Egypt fully in stone and hold by gravity alone; therefore the project is a full open plan in a cross like shape, oriented north with 3.2x3.2m opening on every arm. A House that wants to be a Temple.
House of Courts
On the northern hills that border the colonial town of Villa de Leyva, Colombia sits a new home for a couple and their family. The house, a single-story brick and concrete structure, plays with the traditional courtyard typology of the region to produce a variety of internal outdoor spaces while simultaneously framing and highlighting the majestic views of the surrounding mountains.
HOW TO SUBMIT AN UNBUILT PROJECT
We highly appreciate the input from our readers and are always happy to see more projects designed by them. If you have an Unbuilt project to submit, click here and follow the guidelines. Our curators will review your submission and get back to you in case it is selected for a feature.
