The Best of Home of the Week From Around the World
A look back at some of the finest international architecture featured in our Home of the Week column, from Prague to Tokyo and beyond.
A look back at some of the finest international architecture featured in our Home of the Week column, from Prague to Tokyo and beyond.
On a Hillside in Tokyo, These Homes Rise From the Rock
Despite the heavy use of concrete, and the drab government buildings that may evoke for many of us, the inside is light and airy, with each unit benefiting from large windows and a freshness often missing from homes built into hillsides.
For the architect focused on ensuring that a house is truly at one with its surroundings, there can be no better material than the very soil on which the home is laid out. This was the approach taken by ODD Architects with A House in the Andes, a private home on the outskirts of Quito, the capital city of Ecuador. The firm, which was founded in 2015 by Lucas Correa, and named one of the best architecture firms in the world by Architizer, is in the process of expanding to Toronto.
The Transformation of VII House
When the client, real estate developer WP 7, contacted the architecture firm Formafatal, they referenced its potential and saw the vision of what the building could be—a “Cinderella” among the grand palaces, waiting for its new beginning.
In Mexico, Veinte Diezz Arquitectos Transforms a Nearly Ruined Home
Mérida, the capital of Mexico’s Yucatán state, is a city of jaw-dropping colonial architecture and hidden courtyards—so it’s no wonder that it’s home to a booming expat community and tourism industry. With that market in mind, Mérida-based architecture firm Veinte Diezz Arquitectos has designed Vistalcielo, an adaptive reuse project that turned an abandoned building into an earthy yet airy vacation rental.
In London, Jason Good Architecture Revives a Dilapidated Cottage
Wimbledon Village House by Jason Good Architecture. Copyright Jim Stephenson 2024
“Refined” and “enduring”: that’s how U.K. architect Jason Good describes the private home in Wimbledon Village that his firm completed late last year. Previously, the walled site contained a dilapidated 1980s cottage. Now, it features a striking two-bedroom home with an intriguing L-shaped layout, a trio of triple-paned windows that punctuate its second storey, and a façade that includes a cylindrical skylight that extends up from the roof, which Good has dubbed the “top hat.”
A House at the Crossroads of Europe and Asia
Georgia is home to ancient monasteries, forts, castles, and widely touted as the birthplace of red wine, but this ancient history coexists with both Soviet and post-Soviet pushes for modernity. NS Studio, in the capital city, Tbilisi, confronted the same push and pull when designing a private residence in the village of Tvaladi in central Georgia, so ensuring the balance between the old and the new was crucial.
