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This family home define a way of life.

The “Snail shell retreat” is built in countryside, 45 kilometers to the southwest of Shiraz, Iran. It is designed as a holiday home for relaxing, getting away from city life, and holding family gatherings. The house has a small courtyard and is designed for introvert/extrovert use. Its spaces are in a snail shell formation, which is why its residents have called it that.

Haining is a water-bred city about 100 km to the southwest of Shanghai and 60km east of Hangzhou. Mostly known for its leather products and textiles, the city is also famous for its shadow puppetry, the art of storytelling with light and shadow that gradually evolved into cinematography. Given a street cornersite and themixed program of a retail store with a café, Lukstudio explores the idea of theatre to put the spotlight on the fashion platform of Dear So Cute.

The residence was to be designed for a couple and two daughters, which provided generous comfort and luxury, yet sat in the tranquil landscape of almost three acres. As the site is shared between two other houses already built, designing the home in a manner that enjoys the landscape whilst having privacy was paramount. A prime component of the design was a soaring fishtail palm tree that stood disregarded behind the old structure where the new house was to be constructed as if demanding to be part of this family. This led to the inclusion of the tree in the new home, hence naming the house ‘CARYOTA’.

This article was originally published on March 30, 2016. To read the stories behind other celebrated architecture projects, visit our AD Classics section.

Three were originally invited to draw up plans for a ‘Nordic’ pavilion: the Finnish partnership Reima and Raili Pietilä, Sverre Fehn from Norway, and the Swede, Klas Anshelm. Following the selection of Fehn’s proposal in 1959, Gotthard Johansson wrote in the Svenska Dagbladet of the project’s “stunning simplicity [...], without too many architectural overtones”[1] – a proposal for a space able to unite a triumvirate of nations under one (exceptional) roof.

The MIST Hot Spring Hotel is located near Xuchang city in Henan province. This region of China has been considered the nation’s most famous hot spring destination for over a thousand year. The best natural attribute of the site is hidden down below - it is China’s finest geothermal underground water. As the heated water is brought up, it gives off gently lingering mist floating above the water surface. The project attempts to heighten the experience of this mystic quality of blurring landscape through master layout design. The building masses, the passageways and the waterscape are strategically integrated with natural steam from hot-spring pools and some additional mechanized fog that would surround the overall atmosphere and experience. White mist floating just above water surface not only creates dreamy ambience but also provides certain level of privacy for guests relaxing in private hot spring pools from other guests’ view.

Two Stories building: exploring possibilities in commercial tenant buildings Commissioned design of this commercial tenant building was inspired by considering two main themes. First: how the design should relate to the neighborhood. We considered what aspects of the building should blend in and what statement it could make. As for the existing cityscape, until around the 1990s many buildings in this suburb featured conventional low gable roofs, hip roofs, or pavilion roofs. Flat roofs appeared in the past 15 years or so as condominiums, apartment complexes, and commercial buildings popped up here and there. Now these flat-roofed office buildings and condos are becoming more common here.

The project base, which is located in the DaXi Mountain Phoenix Range out of the Beijing west sixth ring road, consists of two neighboring private houses with their own independent courtyards. To the south of the base lies a big orchard, through which visitors can enjoy a splendid view of the mountain. The proprietor, who wants to build the whole place into a kind of private restaurant, entrusts Nazodesign Studio to conduct an all-directional innovation renovation on the houses with respect to their inside and outside construction and decoration as well as the landscape surrounding them.

“The owners were quite generous with the design of their home – they built it for themselves, but also to support the larger art community of which they are a part.” –Jim Olson, Design Principal

Conceptual design of the 10 stations of the new Line 6 of the Santiago Metro, 4 of which are interchange stations, and posterior development of detailed engineering.