American Architecture Housing Awards: 10 Best American Homes of 2009

The American Institute of Architecture has named 10 homes selected for its annual Housing Award, a prestigious honor given this year to residential projects built with eco-friendly design elements, unique material usage and cutting edge construction methods. An April 17 story and slideshow in the Wall Street Journal detailed some of the winning homes, including the Zack de Vito-designed Laidley Street Residence in San Francisco, a 3,000 square-foot townhouse built with an acrylic staircase that funnels illumination from a skylight to the basement. The WSJ article also explored Frank Harmon’s Low Country Residence in Mount Pleasant, S.C. — a home designed for a Hurricane Hugo survivor that was built with heavy shutters that can be easily closed to block the sun and heavy storm winds.

Hit the jump to see all 10 of the AIA’s Housing Award-winning home designs. [read more at archdailyand The Wall Street Journal]

• Laidley Street Residence
• San Francisco, California
• Zack / de Vito Architecture

• 700 Palms Residence
• Venice, Calif.
• Ehrlich Architects

• House at Sagaponac
• Wainscott, N.Y.
• Tsao & McKown Architecs

• Glade House
• Lake Forest, Ill.
• Frederick Phillips and Associates

• Outpost
• Bellevue, Idaho
• Olson Sundberg Kundig Allen Architects

• Montecito Residence
• Montecito, Calif.
• Olson Sundberg Kundig Allen Architects

• Cinco Camp
• Brewster County, Texas
• Rhotenberry Wellen Architects

• House on Hoopers Island
• Church Creek, Md.
• David Jameson Architect

• Chuckanut Drive Residence
• Bellingham, Wash.
• The Miller | Hull Partnership

• Low Country Residence
• Mount Pleasant, S.C.
• Frank Harmon Architect

The ideal house for people who live in SA....

 

Luxurious Home Design with Futuristic Architecture in Australia

This futuristic home architecture is a luxurious home design by Australian architects Tony Owen Partners in Sydney, Australia. Modern house has concrete walls on the concrete contractor who used his experience to make personal contact and built his home is. The first thing you’ll see the current concrete curved walls that characterize the exterior of the house, see “How a candle in the wind, the massive white walls give the house a light, airy, moving indeed. Inspired by Mediterranean architecture, concrete and glass building patios and terraces on the edge Floor to ceiling windows, resulting in the development in the open on a series of building blocks that should be at home than it sounds terrific on the road. multistage design gradually moves from the first floor, all levels of the central staircase, which is dominating the attention of all in the room due to . Expansive windows flood rooms with natural light and bright, that in the polished stone floor, and reflects the modern design is everywhere. In addition to these designs chic, urban rustic, natural, as the stone walls and a central courtyard.[source]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Modern Dream Home: Floating Box House by Peter Gluck and Partners Architects

New York Firm, Peter Gluck and Partners Architects concentrates primarily on residential and institutional projects that are characterized as new-age modernism. The Floating Box House, located in Austin Texas, is designed true to the nature of its mythic name. This modern residential work of architecture and contemporary interior design relies on the composition of forms that showcase blocks of space and areas absent of space.

Although the home’s architecture may initially be viewed as a stark contrast to its location on a field of live oak trees, the home is designed to integrate within its environment. Certain portions of home were specifically built below grade, as to not mess with the existing rural landscape. The floating box’s strategically placed windows allow for views outside to nature from the privately confined rooms of the upper level. In addition to providing expansive views outward from the home, the completely open ground level gives this portion of the home a spatial transparency to the environment.

The actual floating box is clad in a vibrant mahogany veneer that sits atop a glass-enclosed ground level. Even below the glass level is a basement level that is partially revealed in some areas and covered with landscape in others. There is a driveway that leads to the lower layer and steps that lead from the other side of the basement level to the pool terrace.

A massive steel staircase penetrates through all levels of the home.

From this office room, one can get a glimpse directly into the pool outside.