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US architecture firm William Kaven Architecture has stepped a black house with expansive balconies down a wooded ground to overlook an Oregon forest.

Two stacked rectangular volumes clad with black siding by Aspyre and large windows comprise the geometric 4,352-square-foot (404.3-square-metre) house, which is set on a concrete foundation.

The house called Royal is situated on one of nine plots owned by the local studio and its partners that extend into Forest Park, an urban forest with hiking trails, near downtown Portland.

"Royal is the first of a series of homes to be nested within an epic location deep in Forest Park," William Kaven partner Daniel Kaven said. "The thesis of the design was to live among the trees."

Large expanses of glazing and 735 square feet (68.2-square-metre) of exterior deck wrap the house to overlook the deciduous site and its natural flora, which includes Douglas fir trees and vine maple. In the summer, the tree canopy is intended to mitigate the sun heating the interiors.

On the residence's all black front, an attached garage unit is fronted with glazed doors and a grouping of clerestory windows run along the top of the one-and-half-storey foyer.

Inside, the entry hall opens up to the main living area featuring white oak floors with walnut border inlays. Large windows and sliding glass doors in the room flood light into the interiors and provide views of the natural landscape.

William Kaven designs sturdy house on Lake Michigan for bracing weather

Two box-like spaces with floor-to-ceiling windows jut out from the open-plan living area to form a cantilever over the planters and terraces that edge the house.

The living area has a grey dual-fuel fireplace is paired with a number of wood furnishings custom-made by local studio The Good Mod. The wood pieces include a long dining table, kitchen stool and chairs.

Each of the four bedrooms is oriented towards the east where the sun rises and has an attached balcony for enjoying the outdoors.

William Kaven is Portland architecture studio founded by brothers Daniel Kaven and Trevor William Lewis in 2004. The firm also designed a concrete and blackened timber residence that overlooks Lake Michigan.

Photography is by Jeremy Bittermann.
Project credits:
Partner-in-charge: Daniel Kaven
Partner-in-charge: Trevor William Lewis
Director of architecture: Mike Perso
Director of interiors: Katy Krider
Project designer: Joel Dickson
Project designer: Max Taschek

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Black wood and glass volumes stagger down woodland in Oregon to form Royal house

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US architecture firm William Kaven Architecture has stepped a black house with expansive balconies down a wooded ground to overlook an Oregon forest. Two stacked rectangular volumes clad with black siding by Aspyre and large windows comprise the geometric 4,352-square-foot (404.3-square-metre) house, which is set on a concrete foundation.

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Canadian architecture firm Atelier Schwimmer has contrasted planks of charred wood with pale wood to form a cabin for brothers overlooking a lake in Canada.

Chalet Lakeside is located on a wooded site that faces Lake Brome in a small town east of Montreal.

Atelier Schwimmer constructed the 3,200-square-foot (297-square-metre) cabin for two siblings who enjoy outdoor activities and wanted a place to escape city life.

The residence comprises a single rectangular volume with a gabled roofline and recessed walls. For the cladding, the studio charred larch wood, while the set back portions are left exposed and treated with a natural oil.

"This play of dark and light increases the singular aspect of the house," the studio said.

Large glass sliding doors and a wood deck wrap around a back corner of the cabin. Windows and doors on all sides are oriented to face the grassy property, dock and lake.

Inside, a portion of the ceiling is cut away to give height to the open-plan living space. The design in the space revolves around a concrete fireplace in the centre of the room.

Logs are inserted inside a glass box within a void cut into the centre of the monolithic volume.

"The design was developed around a fireplace set beside a triple-height area that makes it visible from everywhere within the cabin thus generating a canyon of hospitality," it added.

Charred cedar clads Ontario lake boathouse by Akb Architects

Concrete covers the floors and the walls, while the ceilings are panelled with pale wood planks. An L-shaped plywood bench forms a seating area against a window with a lake view.

Attached to the ceiling is a climbing rope that extends from the peak of the gabled roof down onto the living room floor.

Wood steps form the staircase that leads to the upper level, where the four bedrooms and a family room are located. Three rectangular skylights above the stair landing brighten the hallway that is open to the lower level.

Other projects overlooking lakes in Canada include a charred cedar residence and boathouse anchored on a wood deck and a black house in Quebec with a terrace that extends over the water.

Photography is by Adrien Williams.
Project credits:
Team: Felix Schwimmer, Francesca Fiaschi
Consultants: PercoDesign, Steve St-Hilaire
Structural engineer: Yannick Pelletier
Hydro engineer: Yves Leblanc
Construction: Dunfab construction, Guillaume Dumas

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Atelier Schwimmer designs two-toned Chalet Lakeside in Canada

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Canadian architecture firm Atelier Schwimmer has contrasted planks of charred wood with pale wood to form a cabin for brothers overlooking a lake in Canada. Chalet Lakeside is located on a wooded site that faces Lake Brome in a small town east of Montreal.

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A tactile material palette and floor-to-ceiling glazing characterise this Ecuadorian house, which Jannina Cabal has created for a family of five in the town of Samborondón.

The dwelling was designed by Cabal to be as simple as possible and form a part of its verdant setting, which is bordered by a park and a lake in the suburbs of Guayaquil.

It is composed of two rectangular storeys that are unified by textured stone and dark iron cladding, interspersed with large areas of glazing that minimise the boundary with the outside.

"Looking at nature through glass walls to understand it as part of a whole was the main objective for its design, arriving at architecture of pure lines," said Cabal, an architect based in Samborondón.

"In short, to simplify it to the maximum to appreciate the beauty of the architecture and its surroundings in all its purity," she explained.

The majority of 6M House occupies the ground level, while the first floor is smaller in size and dedicated to the service area, utility room and laundry room.

Cabal positioned the dwelling to the west side of the plot to minimise solar heat gain and leave half of the site available for landscaping and "outdoor living spaces", such as a swimming pool and a large patio.

"The house was designed on a single level and one of the requirements was to implement the house using half of the land," Cabal told Dezeen.

"It was designed to allow visitors to contemplate the garden and the patio in its entirety from the moment you enter the house."

Cabal's landscape design also includes a small pond and dense areas of vegetation, which form a barrier between the house and the street to ensure privacy for the family.

The pond is curved in shape and projects out from at the entrance to the house to the garden to break up the "orthogonality of the volumes".

6M House is entered from a patio that bridges over this pond, which is concealed behind large, iron doors and leads into a concrete hallway that is used to display art.

The hall opens out into a large, open-plan dining and TV room that forms the social heart of the home, and is connected to the main patio outside through sliding glass doors.

All the private spaces in 6M House, which includes four ensuite bedrooms, are positioned on the west side.

Gabriel Rivera designs Tacuri House for verdant site in Ecuador

They are linked to the main living area by a black kitchen, which features a seating area at one end and a spiralling, black staircase at the other that leads to the first floor.

The dwelling's interior design is dominated by a neutral and tactile material palette, which was developed by Cabal to "harmonise with the architecture of the house".

This includes exposed concrete ceilings, which extend outside to shelter the patio, alongside grey stone floors, wooden detailing, steel beams and graphite-coloured window frames.

The only decorative elements throughout are classic furniture pieces and artwork from the client's personal collection.

Among the standout pieces of furniture are leather armchairs and a daybed by Knoll, LCW chairs by Charles and Ray Eames and Wishbone dining chairs by Hans Wegner.

Last year, Rama Estudio also designed a stone-clad house in Ecuador to blend in with its natural surroundings. Named Casa Patios, it is complete with grassy roofs and partially sunken into the landscape.

Elsewhere in Ecuador, David Guambo recently completed his stilted hillside studio and architects Juan Alberto Andrade and María José Váscones built a wooden office with a wall of angular windows.

Photography is by JAG Studio.

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Tactile 6M House in Ecuador nestles into its natural surroundings

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A tactile material palette and floor-to-ceiling glazing characterise this Ecuadorian house, which Jannina Cabal has created for a family of five in the town of Samborondón. The dwelling was designed by Cabal to be as simple as possible and form a part of its verdant setting, which is bordered by a park and a lake in the suburbs of Guayaquil.

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US studio Field Architecture has designed the dining room of this house in a suburb of Silicon Valley, California so it is open to the outdoors and frames an oak tree.

Field Architecture, which is based in Palo Alto, completed Dawnridge House in Los Altos Hills on a site with two key features: a creek that flows intermittently and large oaks.

It is split into two volumes other so that it can wrap around one of the existing and also follow the flow of the water.

"Formally, a low-sloped ranch form splits to make room for the giant live oak tree on the site, that anchors the home by sheltering an internal courtyard," said the firm.

"The split in the building's volume doesn't just make room for the tree; it also follows the bend of the stream, settling in perfect complement to the shape of the land and breaking the symmetry of the building's geometry," it added.

Dawnridge House's wings - one is one storey and the other is two - are linked by a tall glazed structure and encase an outdoor yard underneath the shades of the tree.

"This central knuckle of the home - located off the main living space - offers a melding of natural landscape with built form at its most elemental: the yard is sheltered on its sides by build form and above by the tree canopy," Field Architecture added.

The firm said the design of the house was borne from careful study of the surrounding landscape, which also led them to leave much of the surroundings untouched.

"We began with a careful study of the site's topographical qualities, its native flora and fauna, and the particularities of its relationship to the areas that surround it," the studio explained.

"We designated more than half of the site as a natural, protected habitat, prioritising the restoration of an intermittent freshwater stream that winds along the northern edge of the site."

"Allowing these movement patterns to influence our design process, we thought also about the way in which visitors would move through the site and through the architecture, and the way in which the architecture itself would wind through the landscape," it added.

As part of an ambition to provide a strong connection to the outdoors, the studio designed the house's dining room so that it is open to the outside. Sliding glass doors open the kitchen onto the covered dining area with a barbecue. A path leads from here into the woodland around.

Glazing also links other spaces in the house to complementary outdoor areas including the living room, which opens onto a triangular gravel yard filled with large boulders "borrowed from the site", and the master bedroom on the second level, which opens onto a terrace. Large amounts of glass throughout the residence also open up to vistas.

"The windows descend to the floor, allowing the grasses that blanket the grounds to sketch their shadows across the interior floors," said the studio.

Field Architecture designs Pinon Ranch to embrace pastoral setting in California

The glass is teamed with concrete and slatted cedar to forms part of a simple material palette that draws on the surroundings.

This is continued through the furnishings and decor with elements like grey stone flooring, pale built-in wooden cabinets in the lounge and the kitchen, and greyed wooden treads. Other details include wooden furniture - such as a table made from a tree stump - and muted textiles.

Field Architecture completed Dawnridge House in 2018. Other projects by the studio that are set in California's natural habitats are Pinon Ranch home in Portola Valley, just south of San Francisco, which was also designed to ensure that no trees had to be removed from the site.

The studio has also completed two homes in Napa Valley - the wood-clad Zinfandel House, which takes cues from vernacular architecture, and the Sentinel Ridge dwelling, which has facades wrapped in salvaged wood and tan stucco.

Photography is by Joe Fletcher.

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Dawnridge House by Field Architecture splits in two around giant oak tree

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US studio Field Architecture has designed the dining room of this house in a suburb of Silicon Valley, California so it is open to the outdoors and frames an oak tree. Field Architecture, which is based in Palo Alto, completed Dawnridge House in Los Altos Hills on a site with two key features: a creek that flows intermittently and large oaks.

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Scullion Architects has renovated and extended a terraced Victorian house around a plant-filled courtyard for a young family living in Portobello, Dublin.

The two-storey dwelling, aptly named Portobello, was updated to introduce light-filled spaces and a connection to nature to help the owners disconnect from the bustle of the Irish capital.

To achieve this, Scullion Architects lowered and extended the ground floor, and created an enclosed garden that is visually connected to every room through large windows.

"[The clients] were keen for us to find ways to emphasise a relationship with nature despite a very small garden footprint and the dense urban location," the studio told Dezeen.

"The house and extension gather themselves around the sunken courtyard generating their own world apart and a sense of removal from the busy city beyond."

Like many Victorian houses in the area, Portobello's original layout had an entrance and living room on a half-landing level at the front of the house, with a split-level stair to bedrooms above and a kitchen and garden below.

To maximise space and improve this layout, Scullion Architects excavated the former living room by 1.2 metres to align it with the garden and ground floor.

The old living room has now been transformed into Portobello's double-height kitchen, which forms the heart of the dwelling and is seamlessly connected to the rest of the ground floor.

It is filled with white cabinetry and lit by its original south-facing bay window, which now resembles a large clerestory opening and features a stepped plinth at its base to allow the family to look outside.

"The client stated at the outset they wanted an open kitchen and dining area that would be the heart of the home, and that it must capture the south light to the front while somehow retaining an uninterrupted connection to the rear courtyard," explained the studio.

"They asked us for rooms filled with light with floor to ceiling windows whilst retaining a sense of warmth, comfort and retreat from the city."

Portobello's entrance area's split-level stair has been retained and the original door to the living room has been turned into a large window to offer a view into the kitchen.

The hallway also provides a glimpse of the new densely planted garden on the ground floor via the floor-to-ceiling glazing in the bathroom, located at the bottom of the staircase.

The dwelling's other ground-floor spaces, which fold around the courtyard, were all introduced as part of the home's extension.

This includes a living and dining room that extends out from the kitchen, alongside a garden bedroom and sky-lit shower room.

Glazed sun room with copper parapet extends Dublin house

Portobello's first floor was also extended as part of the project to create space for a larger master bedroom and ensuite, which sits adjacent to a third bedroom for one of the client's children.

The master bedroom looks out over the courtyard and also features an internal hatch-door that looks into the kitchen below.

Externally, the ground and first-floor extensions are unified by their large glazed areas and wooden cladding, which has been stained dark green.

The wooden panels are arranged in alternating positions, appearing as though they have different widths and thicknesses to give the facade "rhythm and animation".

Interior finishes throughout Portobello are earthy and tactile in an effort to enhance the home's relationship with nature further.

This is most evident in the main bathroom on the ground floor, which was designed to offer a "sense of retreat and withdrawal". It is has a pebble-lined floor and dark timber detailing, and is complete with a view to the courtyard through a plant-filled pergola.

Elsewhere, a partially-exposed timber structure crowns the ground floor extension, teamed with rough plaster and timber-lined walls, while marble countertops fill the kitchen, and timber and concrete flooring run throughout.

Scullion Architects is an Irish architecture studio based in Dublin, which was founded by Declan Scullion in 2016.

Other recently completed projects by the studio include a house extension that takes the form of a glazed sunroom with copper parapet and the Blackrock House on the outskirts of a seaside village near Dundalk.

Photography is by Fionn McCann.
Project credits:
Architects: Scullion Architects
Engineer: Loscher Moran
Contractor: Bespoke Build

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Scullion Architects folds Portobello house extension around courtyard

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Scullion Architects has renovated and extended a terraced Victorian house around a plant-filled courtyard for a young family living in Portobello, Dublin. The two-storey dwelling, aptly named Portobello, was updated to introduce light-filled spaces and a connection to nature to help the owners disconnect from the bustle of the Irish capital.

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Ström Architects reveals hyper-realistic renderings for pair of Swedish island villas

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Two timber-clad villas - one dark and the other silvery grey - balance over a steep hillside on the Swedish island of Lidingö, in these intricately rendered visuals of the project by Ström Architects. The British studio led by Magnus Ström designed the two dwellings, named Pyrus 9 and Pyrus 10, for the property developer Imola Förvlatning.

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British practice Ström Architects has completed Island Rest, a low-lying holiday home in the Isle of Wight that is clad in beams of blackened larch wood.

Island Rest has been designed by Ström Architects as a "home away from home" for a family of four, who wanted a place where they could spend quality time together.

The house is nestled in a creek that looks out across The Solent, a 20-mile-long stretch of water that separates the Isle of Wight from mainland England.

First revealed in a series of renderings in 2018, the now-complete Island Rest house comprises a single-storey rectilinear volume clad with beams of black-stained larch wood.

A low-lying structure was specifically chosen so as not to compromise views of the surrounding natural landscape.

"We wanted the house to sit quietly against the backdrop of trees, while feeling like it embraced the views when looking out," said the practice.

"Our clients asked for an architecturally timeless building, drawing on the very best modern architectural concepts to create a whole - no frivolous moves; rigour must flow through every space and every detail that the building is."

As the area surrounding Island Rest is prone to flooding, it has been positioned to sit at the highest point of the site.

At one end the house is supported by a grassy hill, but as this gradually slopes away, slim metal poles are instead used to elevate the structure.

Magnus Ström models gabled annex for Hampshire home on "rustic boutique hotel"

Expansive panels of glazing have also been fitted on both sides of the home to maximise sightlines and natural light.

Inside lies an open-plan living and dining area, complete with a jet-black kitchen suite. This leads off to a fleet of bedrooms for the owners' three young children.

Each room has been given a largely simple fit-out to make them "places to sleep and not places to stay", in a bid to encourage the children to spend more time playing outdoors.

To give the parents a greater sense of privacy, their bedroom has been placed on the opposite side of the house.

It has ensuite bathroom facilities and access to a small deck that leads down to the swimming pool and verdant garden.

"Landscaping was a consideration from the outset and has a very natural and organic feel, with mowed paths through wildflowers leading to and defining areas of different function and interest," added the practice.

Ström Architects was established in 2010 and is based in the New Forest, a district of Hampshire, England.

Other homes on the picturesque Isle of Wight include The Sett by Dow Jones Architects, which takes design cues from black-painted fishermen sheds seen dotted along the island's beaches.

There's also House for a Yachtsman by The Manser Practice, which is punctuated by several glazed openings.

Photography is by Nick Hufton of Hufton + Crow.

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Island Rest is a black-timber holiday home on the English coast

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British practice Ström Architects has completed Island Rest, a low-lying holiday home in the Isle of Wight that is clad in beams of blackened larch wood. Island Rest has been designed by Ström Architects as a "home away from home" for a family of four, who wanted a place where they could spend quality time together.

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Swiss practice Think Architecture has created House at a Vineyard, which includes a veranda and sunken courtyard that have vistas across the waters of Lake Zurich.

The house is situated in a wildflower-filled meadow that lies beyond a small vineyard near Lake Zurich.

It was created by Think Architecture for a young family of four who, after showing the practice a few inspirational images from Pinterest, said their key request was that their home was modern and had a simple, symmetrical layout.

"Though symmetrical villas have long dominated architectural history, in recent decades they have tended to appear only as neoclassical imitations," said the practice.

"House at a Vineyard aims to prove that this specific spatial arrangement still has its place and can be translated into a contemporary design."

The house comprises a stacked pair of rectilinear volumes, both of which are punctuated with tall recessed windows that offer views of the surrounding landscape.

A three-metre-wide veranda runs the entire length of the lower volume of the house that boasts chevron-pattern decked flooring.

At its centre is a small, sunken courtyard centred by a single tree, which the practice has specifically placed to fall in line with the sequence of reception rooms indoors.

Cushioned seating runs around the perimeter of the courtyard, allowing the family to relax there during the warm summer months while overlooking the waters of the lake.

To complement the exterior of the house, which is rendered with pale, off-white plaster, surfaces of the internal living spaces have been washed with lime. Chevron oak flooring also runs throughout, mirroring the decking on the veranda.

Think Architecture creates minimal hilltop house in Zurich

Think Architecture worked alongside Atelier Zurich to develop the aesthetic of the home's interiors, which have been finished with a few standout decorative elements.

In the kitchen, the breakfast island is topped with a slab of murky-green marble, while the dining room has a long blood-red table surrounded by cane-back chairs.

This room is flanked by staircases that lead to the first floor, where blue-grey joinery and wall panelling has been introduced. Several contemporary artworks have also been mounted on the walls.

Think Architecture was established in 2008 and is co-led by Ralph Brogle and Marco Zbinden.

This isn't the only residential project that the practice has completed in its home city of Zurich - last year it created House in a Park, which comprises a series of stone and plaster-lined volumes.

Photography is by Simone Bossi.

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Think Architecture completes Zurich home with lake and vineyard views

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Swiss practice Think Architecture has created House at a Vineyard, which includes a veranda and sunken courtyard that have vistas across the waters of Lake Zurich. The house is situated in a wildflower-filled meadow that lies beyond a small vineyard near Lake Zurich.

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A cantilevered upper storey with symmetrical, glazed dormers is the focal point of House on 36th, which Beebe Skidmore has completed for a young family relocating to Portland, USA.

The sculptural dwelling overhauls an existing one-story cottage on the site that was built in 1945 but required a contemporary update and more space to meet the needs of the family.

Beebe Skidmore's design involved introducing an upper storey and brighter living spaces to the house but focused primarily on developing a new "unexpected" exterior that challenged the aesthetic of typical family homes in the area.

"We approach every project with the intention of making an unexpected, dynamic, and endearing shape that catches the eye of passersby and is delightful to live in overtime," explained the studio's co-founder Doug Skidmore.

"We also wanted to challenge the traditional way in which single-family houses present a centralized composition, often with a projecting porch or front door being the focal point," he told Dezeen.

House on 36th retains the original cottage's concrete basement and foundations, as well as parts of its wood framing and plumbing.

The new cantilevered first floor, which overhangs the front of the house by 2.5 metres, was modelled on the North American garrison - a type of house with a slightly overhanging first floor.

This added more living space to the house without encroaching on the garden, and it also breaks up its building's massing so that it does not appear out of scale in comparison to the neighbouring dwellings.

The blackened wood cladding for the house was chosen by Beebe Skidmore to emphasise the home's sculptural form, while also helping to unify the levels and metal window frames.

This wood was stained rather than painted so that its natural textures and patterns are still visible.

"We created a material palette that puts the visual emphasis on the total form as one cohesive object rather drawing attention to individual details and elements," explained Skidmore.

"The dark exterior colour also makes the voids formed by the big windows visually pop, especially in the evening and at night."
Beebe Skidmore punctures ornate Portland home with "fearlessly distinct" glass cubes

The house is entered from below one of the first-floor cantilevers, which creates a deep weather-protected porch area.

This opens out into the heart of the house, where there is a large open-plan living area and kitchen, which is visually connected to the street, garden and first floor via a sweeping staircase.

"[The client] is an avid cook so they wanted a really functional and generous kitchen that they could eat in and live in by themselves and with friends," Skidmore said.

"When they were in the kitchen, they wanted it to feel socially connected to the rest of the house."

The house also contains three bedrooms, two bathrooms, first-floor seating areas and a bike store at the rear.

The children's bedrooms are located behind the two large wall dormers on the first floor, which are used as cosy reading nooks, while the master suite is tucked away downstairs.

The material palette for House on 36th is deliberately pared-back, with a white "gallery-like" aesthetic chosen by the client that contrasts with its exterior.

However, to enliven the minimalist finishes, Beebe Skidmore has punctured large windows throughout to maximise natural light and also frame changing views of the surrounding neighbourhood.

Other recent projects by Beebe Skidmore that feature large windows include the Lincoln Street Residence extension, which is fronted by a grid of glazing and sliding doors, and a dark green dwelling that takes cues from Arts and Crafts architecture.

Canadian studio Post Architecture recently added a protruding window box to a century-old brick house during a renovation of the property near downtown Toronto.

Photography is by Jeremy Bittermann.
Project credits:
Architect: Beebe Skidmore
Architect team: Doug Skidmore Heidi Beebe Pooja Dalal
General contractor: Owen Gabbert LLC
Structural engineer: Structural Edge

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Large windows and cantilevers animate House on 36th by Beebe Skidmore

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A cantilevered upper storey with symmetrical, glazed dormers is the focal point of House on 36th, which Beebe Skidmore has completed for a young family relocating to Portland, USA. The sculptural dwelling overhauls an existing one-story cottage on the site that was built in 1945 but required a contemporary update and more space to meet the needs of the family.