MODERN HOUSE DESIGNS

Carol Richard of the Atlanta-based architecture firm Richard Wittschiebe Hand designed a passive solar home design in Madison, Wisconsin, which she calls her castle. Also known as Ross Street House, this modern sustainable architecture project was a collaborative effort with her mechanical engineer husband, Fred Berg, and was recognized as Wisconsin’s first LEED for Homes Platinum-rated residence in July 2009. Set in a neighborhood of post-war Cape-Cod-style homes peppered with some “modern” 1960s homes, this residence was actually designed to ... Continue >

Casa 205 in Barcelona is an unusual mountain home idea by Spanish architecture firm H Arquitectes, created to minimize environmental impact while maximizing the striking surrounding nature views. The site’s steep incline sets the tone for this slope house, which hangs precariously off the hillside edge overlooking the forest and the mountains on the horizon. In keeping with the region’s rustic countryside flair, this timber house is clad in wood both inside and out. An airy softwood facade features pine ... Continue >

A short 35-minute ferry ride from Seattle, this luxury waterfront house is a nature-lover’s paradise, removed from the hustle and bustle of city life, embracing peace, privacy and the environment. Located on Bainbridge Island, WA, the very modern house plan was designed to frame the waterfront views. Tucked between the waterways of Puget Sound and the Cascade Mountains, this Zen-style home’s cool facade complements its surroundings with its a contemporary combination of tongue-and-groove cedar, a sloped corrugated metal roof ... Continue >

The Glacier is the latest in prefab sustainable homes, by Method Homes. This eco sustainable home in Washington is helping homeowners stay ahead of the game by going green and doing it in style. This wood cabin design features a cedar exterior and interior; Eco Top counters; bamboo and cork floors; bamboo cabinets and shelving; no- and low-VOC paints and stains; radiant flooring; and marmoleum and recycled tile. Bathrooms boast bamboo built-ins – a renewable resource that looks as great ... Continue >

This rooftop garden home design is a sustainable gem in a central downtown Toronto, Canada neighborhood, bringing a bit of nature into the urban core. “Compact, ecologically smart, affordable and successfully integrated within a diverse streetscape, the Euclid Avenue Home is a useful prototype for new urban housing. The project’s design restraint, responsive plan, its unity of architecture and nature establish an array of alternatives to the shortcomings of Toronto’s housing typologies,” according to Canadian architecture firm Levitt Goodman Architects. ... Continue >

A tiny treasure in the Australian outback, this cool, tiny house design by Australia architects Casey Brown Architecture brings a bit of the unexpected into its natural surroundings. This prefab cottage measures only 10 by 10 ft., clad in copper with a glass-enclosed lower level revealed when the shades are drawn. This rustic house style boasts a simple cube shape with unadorned, unpretentious interiors with a relaxed, casual country-chic character. But there’s more to this countryside home than meets the ... Continue >

Like a shard of metal breaking through the earth’s surface, this beach cottage design (dubbed “Klein Bottle House”) by Melbourne-based architecture firm McBride Charles Ryan also breaks the boundaries of conventional residential architecture. Located in Rye, Australia, this modern vacation home is surrounded by sand dunes and beaches along the Mornington Peninsula. The architects started with the idea of a spiral in this modern beach cottage, and built it based on that concept of fluidity and movement. The floor plan ... Continue >

Deep in the desert of Pioneertown, California, this simple sustainable house was designed by architect Lloyd Russell as the “ultimate desert structure.” A striking steel canopy makes up the home’s main shelter, under which the eco house design takes shape. The house is made of recycled materials, making the old new again, and beautiful too. An essential in the sandy hotspot, the innovative canopy house was designed to passively regulate the home’s temperature threefold – first, to reflect the sun’s ... Continue >

Eco sustainable homes and sustainable urban architectural design are at the forefront of the Batimat show in Paris. The aptly named Be-Green Houses prove it really is easy being Green, and it can be done in total comfort and style. This pair of contemporary house plans incorporates all the essentials into a colorful, bright design. Some spaces, such as the laundry and terrace, are designed as shared spaces, while others are conventional by all accounts – apart from their amazing ... Continue >

This stunning luxury house for sale in California will make one lucky buyer very happy. Designed by architect Thomas Robertson of Ripple Design, this Los Angeles, CA, house includes many layers of living space: indoor and outdoor living rooms, and even a rooftop deck that’ll wow with its amazing views and thoughtful design. Measuring over 2,800 sq. ft. on a 6,316-sq.-ft. lot, this courtyard home plan welcomes you with its colorful entrance to a vibrant, modern design. Custom tiles and ... Continue >

From Italian design company Subissati comes this wonderful, modern wooden prefabricated house. This Italian prefab home isn’t exactly what you’d expect upon hearing “wooden” and “prefab” in the same sentence. This chic, contemporary house design is the brainchild of architect Roberto Semprini; a sustainable house design born from the notion that the home should be a manifestation of fashion, function, elegance, environmental responsibility and poetry in life. This modern, open concept house design features minimalist interiors with a futuristic edge, ... Continue >

It may be nestled on “Mount Misery” in Sag Harbor, NY, but this rustic eco home is wooden bliss. Designed by the architects at Jendretzki Design and Planning Consultant, this wooden clad house renovation served to open the indoors to the outside environment. Outdoor living rooms expand the home’s square footage beyond its conventional walls. The surrounding gardens and forest become a part of the house by opening up the walls and incorporating parches and terraces that are connected by ... Continue >

Sustainable architecture is the future of home design. This California house designed by a sustainable architecture firm, John Friedman Alice Kimm Architects, encapsulates cool, contemporary living in its modern design with attention equally doles out to aesthetics and environmental sustainability. In fact, according to the firm, this eco friendly home “suggests that attentiveness to sustainability can inspire and elicit beauty where it might not be otherwise.” This 3,900-sq.-ft. Santa Monica-area eco house design boasts a simple, modern white facade punctuated ... Continue >

Skybox sounds more like an amusement park ride than it does a residence, but this simple small house design by Danish architecture firm Primus is just as thrilling if you’re into contemporary and unusual homes. At 75m2, this modern wood clad house on the coast of Zealand in Denmark, crams all the good stuff into a deceivingly small footprint. “The main focus has been to add spatiality and experience of light,” according to the architect. The simple floor plan of ... Continue >

The dark facade of Somers House with courtyard in the middle was designed to blend into the shadowy background of the Australian outback. Melbourne-based Rowan Opat Architects designed this house with a low, inconspicuous profile, a flat roof and clad it with dark wood and windows, bringing it into its surroundings with subtlety. Inside, this modern house is anything but subtle, understated or humble. Rich wood ceilings and floors finished in radial-sawed timber give interiors a rustic-chic style which is ... Continue >

Architect Robert M. Cain has wearing his Green thinking cap when he came up with this fabulous, sustainable residential architecture design in Decatur, Georgia. The modern two-storey, 2,800-sq.-ft. RainShine House was named for its innovative design feature, a “butterfly” roof suspended over continuous clerestories that allow for sun-drenched interiors. This unique feature’s inverted winged shape collects rainwater for recycling, while also positioning roof-mounted photovoltaic cells southward to take full advantage of the sustainable solar energy. Beneath the eco-friendly roof, this ... Continue >

Its name may seem a little redundant, but Shelter House by Franklin Azzi Architecture boasts a really unique eco house design that offers sustainable shelter and style to boot. Located in Yport, atop the cliffs in Normandy, France, the eco house boasts two expansions which protrude on opposite sides of the house, resembling wings with a couple of sheltered patios at ground level, and rooftop terraces above. This modern, sustainable home is constructed mainly of wood with a rustic masonry ... Continue >

This contemporary, sustainable home idea was conceived by Studio 804 – a design/build program at the University of Kansas School of Architecture and Urban Planning. Schooling the public in the art of eco friendly architecture, Studio 804 went off the grid in their design for this single-family home project in the Rosedale neighborhood of Kansas City, Kansas. After demolishing an old magazine building from the Sunflower Ammunition Plant, the designers recycled and reused the lumber, giving the house its distinctive ... Continue >

• Barn Homes
• Brick Houses
• Coastal Homes
• Compact Homes
• Concrete Homes
• Cottage Homes
• Custom Houses
• Desert Homes
• Farmhouse Homes
• Floating Homes
• Futuristic Homes
• Glass Houses
• Home Additions
• Japanese Homes
• Lake Homes
• Luxury Homes
• Mountain Homes
• Prefab Homes
• Slope Houses
• Sustainable Homes
• Tree Houses
• Underground Homes
• Wood Homes

• Passive Solar Home Design Conserves Energy, Exudes Style
• Mountain Cabin Home Plan for breathtaking views
• Amazing Travertine House by A-Cero Architecture Firm with water features
• Laminated Pinewood House by Nordicasa Design & Construction. We love it!
• Raised Home Design – Renovated Guest Homes at Russian Resort
• Modern Zen House Design in Madrid, Spain
• Mountain Home Ideas – Hillside Home in Barcelona
• Progressive Architecture - Timber and Stone Two-homes-in-one Design
• Riverfront Architecture – Contemporary Concrete House Overlooking River Views
• Timber Wood Home in Natural Courtyard Setting
• Colorado Mountain House is a Lesson in Luxury, for sale!
• Modern Waterfront Home - Timber Design in Australia
• Italian Countryside House Makes a Modern Statement
• Future Home Designs – Australia Architecture with Flow
• Concrete Home Designs - minimalist in Germany
• Luxury Garden Shed Designs – compact sheds for work and play
• Waterfront House Plans - Luxury Waterfront Home for Sale on Bainbridge Island, WA
• Recycled Houses - Repurposed Steel and Concrete from the I-93
• Rustic Home Design Ideas - Baraboo, Wisconsin Home by Bruns Architecture
• Panoramic House Plan on Australian Coast