This 2,200 square-foot residence, one of the recipients of the 2009 AIA Housing Award, is located on a Chesapeake Bay barrier island near the Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge, an estuarine marshland ecosystem, and an important stop along the Atlantic Flyway.

This house for a family of five explores spatial gradation from communal to private, in an urban domestic condition: children’s bedrooms on the third floor lead to a collective play space for the three children, which is connected to the communal family spaces on the ground floor via a stair, skylight and aluminum screen.



The skylight serves to bring light into the center of the home; the screen acts simultaneously as guardrail and light filter.  

One of the recipients of the 2009 AIA Housing Award, the goal of this project was to create a modern, eco-sensitive, urban retreat that was kid tough and kid friendly.

The owners, a family of four, were both architect and builder.

Materials, details and connections are visible expressions of the design and construction. This is exemplified in the intricate staircase where water jet-cut steel stringers support translucent acrylic treads and risers.

This is quite an enjoyable new modern house that BUILD LLC has designed and built in Bainbridge Island, Washington. Bainsbridge is a small beautiful looking island reachable from Seattle in 30 minutes by ferry.The house strategically addressed this client’s varied lifestyle of family activities, entertaining, Great Dane exercising, winemaking and kayaking on Murden Cove below.

The house is located within great surroundings, on Wolfback Ridge Road, in Sausalito, California. The south-facing ridge top site abuts the GGNRA, and is a gently sloping swale with panoramic views from east to west including the East Bay hills, the city of San Francisco, Golden Gate Bridge, Marin Headlands, and the Pacific Ocean. The site flows into the natural habitat of the Headlands, and affords maximum solar exposure, bracing maritime breezes and cloaking fogs.

The architects designed the house to feel as if it has always been there, the Final(ly) House atop Wolfback Ridge is precisely executed for its owners and its unique site. The universally accessible design reconciles the need for a flat house on a sloping site, meeting the needs of the owners who are nearing ninety years of age. Minimal and honest expression of materials and speed and simplicity of construction result in a modern form clad in a combination of glass and 100 year-old locally reclaimed redwood, and topped with a living roof. Green elements are integral to the overall design principles and ultimate expression of the house

Family house K is situated on a large residential plot on a moderate eastern-facing slope at the edge of a forest near the base of Sljeme hill. By placing the object next to the street in the north-western corner of the plot, preference was given to a beautiful forest view; the uneven terrain was used as a means of developing the object’s volume.  

The concept of the house is inspired by the shape of a snail’s shell, which involves a spiral twisting around its own axis, and as such all functional elements of the house follow each other and are built around a central atrium. The atrium was made in order to compensate for a lack of sunlight in the living-room area and enabled two-way lighting of certain rooms.

Photographs by Damir Fabijanic

This project testifies about the longevity of a good house design, and the enjoyment that it brings to its owners. Thirty-five years after the firm originally designed this vacation residence, its new owners sought to rejuvenate the house while preserving its spaces, seasoned tones, and texture.

All Photographs courtesy of Chris Wesnofske

Ofis arhitekti produced a great example of the integration of a contemporary modern construction next to more traditional entities. A great proof that a contemporary house can distill the essence of a local traditional architecture while avoiding the simplistic imitation of the past.


The hut is situated in a small Alpine village, part of Triglav national park with very strict rules of construction and architecture design. The client bought the site together with existing construction permit for the generic project. Demand was not to change construction permit but change the elements of the house to suit his family, sustainable design factor and open the windows toward the views.

Photographs courtesy of  Tomaz Gregoric