MODERN HOUSE DESIGNS

In underground home designs, this unusual house plan is the collaboration between the Netherlands architects at SeARCH and Christian Muller Architects. This underground home, located in the Swiss village of Vals, is set amidst a cluster of mountain houses and if you don’t look carefully you might miss it! The most striking thing about this stone house is the majestic Alpine view through a wide, elliptical opening in the hillside, revealing spacious outdoor entertaining areas that lead to the home’s ... Continue >

Korea’s IROJE KHM Architects have designed this unusual home in GuMiDong, BunDang, SungNam, Korea with a modern outdoor space flavoring both the exterior and interior environment. Unusual in the typical urban house, this courtyard house design puts a large garden within the home’s borders, with expansive windows and sliding glass doors opening onto these lushly landscaped outdoor entertaining areas. Two adjacent volumes make up the main house and a guest house, each facing the interior courtyard. Beneath an angular metal ... 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 >

OBRA Architects had some circular logic for their stunning wood country home design in Southampton, New York. Among the grass and trees of this five-acre property, this wonderful wood clad house features an unusual floor plan with a hollow center, “as if the heart of the house had somehow fallen outside its body,” according to OBRA Architects. But that’s not to say this country home doesn’t have heart! A linear layout of living spaces leads you from one part of ... Continue >

Pezo von Ellrichshausen Architects designed this vertical house in San Pedro, Chile with a spatial focus that gets the biggest bang for functional family living. Created for a family of six, this three-storey house plan boasts five bedrooms, three bathrooms, a family room and a studio space. This Chile architecture is situated at the high point of the property to take advantage of the amazing views. This unusual concrete house features a facade of Copper Oxide which provides a water-repellent ... Continue >

House Bierings is a wood home design of a most unique shape. This interesting home in Utrecht, Netherlands stands out in its rural setting. The countryside wood home by Netherlands Architects Rocha Tombal features protruding windows of varying shapes and sizes, also clad in wood, dotting the unconventional home’s exterior. The sleek roof is clad in wood as well, with roof edges being flash with the walls. “From a basic form, defined by the municipal urban plan, sculptural ‘eyes’ emerge ... Continue >

The kings of compact home design – Chaewon Kim and Beat Schenk of design/build company UNI – created XS House in Cambridge, MA. This compact house is composed of three 16-by-22-ft. boxes, stacked and rotated for a most unusual profile. Finished in marine plywood, this wood clad house design highlights the material’s bold and prominent grain, which makes its way inside onto walls, floors and a central staircase that leads residents through the home’s three levels. Each level of this ... Continue >

Topped by a Z-shaped roof, this stunning example of concrete and wood architecture aptly named Z House, was designed by architecture firm Hohyun Park + Hyunjoo Kim. This contemporary style house has lots of quirks that make it a truly unique and unusual home design. Located in Gwangju Si, Gyeonggi-Do in South Korea, between a steep hill and forest, this concrete and wood house boasts many layers of design and living. A facade of black zinc, basalt, red cedar and ... Continue >

Designed by architects Manuel Bailo Esteve and Rosa Rull Bertran of ADD+ Arquitectura, this rooftop garden house takes the concept of a "green roof” to new heights with this amazing and unusual house plan, topped by a mini-golf course! This playful and contemporary style house is located on a high point in Igualada, Spain. The modern slope house plan cantilevers out over the grassy landscape rolling out beneath the stilt home. The house itself was designed as a promenade to ... Continue >

A more scenic spot could not have been chosen for this amazing, idyllic Mexican vacation home, designed by artist Gabriel Orozco and architect Tatiana Bilbao. The artist’s touch is evident in this amazing piece or architecture. Set on a rocky plot overlooking the Pacific, this unusual home is a 1:1 scale replica of the Jantar Mantar observatory in New Delhi. The observation deck surrounds a pool – the focal point of this interesting house. Notable too for its simple materials ... Continue >

Designed by architect Alberto Gonzalez, Manuel Villa is a compact house that you wouldn't expect to see on your stroll through the suburbs of Bogota, Columbia. This unusual house stands out for its unconventional shape and contemporary take on family living. The compact house design features a polyhedron shape, clad in a black exterior with a huge window taking up an entire side of the house. As if the structure was cut open on one side, the window opens onto ... Continue >

As far as water homes go, Watervilla Kortenhoef, is definitely a cool modern design. Located in The Netherlands, this unique home design is modern aquatic architecture at its best, boasting all the features, finishes and comforts of a conventional house, with water beneath it and surrounding it in every direction. Designed by Waterstudio.NL, this unusual home features a low profile against the water’s surface. And because the ground is floor virtually level with the water, this allows for an even ... Continue >

The Perforated House is an unusual modern house with its own agenda. Designed by Australian architecture firm Kavellaris Urban Design in an infill neighborhood in Brunswick, Victoria, the house “is a platform to establish a critical dialogue within our built environment; to raise questions as much as to find solutions,” according to the architects. “The project is a critique on our cultural attitudes and how we determine them, on what we consider to be of heritage significance and how to ... Continue >

Created by architect Stanley Saitowitz of San Francisco, California-based Natoma Architects, Inc., this bridge house design in Marin, California is as gorgeous as it is unusual. This modern house, set on a 15-acre wooded property, stretches 22 ft. across a grassy ravine. Above the dip, this raised bridge house plan spans two storeys, but the home’s strong horizontal presence is most prevalent, highlighted by wide, solid panels and a glass wall enclosing the upper floor. To accommodate practical living and ... Continue >

An amazing example of Polish modern architecture by Moomoo Architects... Scheduled for completion in 2010 in Lodz, Poland, this unconventional house design takes a modern approach to traditional Polish houses. The unusual home is clad entirely in Thermopian – a plastic material typically used in roofing applications and favored for its high thermal, acoustic and insulating properties. But this material also offers this contemporary style architecture an unusual aesthetic for minimalist living that comes in any color. The shape itself ... Continue >

Can you imagine a more inspiring place to work? The main idea of this small house design is the modern cube on a hill – the curious home office of Peter Frazier, overlooking Chuckanut Bay in Bellingham, Washington. Gone are the days of the sterile cubicle where boredom brings you to tears as you count down the minutes until 5 o'clock. This unusual small house plan delivers amazing views of land and bay, with glass on three sides of this ... Continue >

An irregular shape for an unusual contemporary home, the parallelogram provides this modern structure with interesting nooks and openings, and irregular windows to illuminate its spacious interiors. Designed by architecture firm Klaarchitectuur, the modern rural House Kempeneers in Belgium boasts a grey-brick exterior that’s interesting, to say the least. The contemporary style home’s modern, jagged profile and fascinating openings lure you in. The 350m2 ground floor and 120m2 second floor are small, but sweet. Minimalist interiors are sleek and stylish, ... Continue >

A pair of unusual Balsa wood tea houses with a curious name, “I am so sorry. Goodbye.”, by Heather and Ivan Morison will whet your appetite for ultra-modern architecture, with a spot of tea on the side. Two geodesic domes take organic shape, clad in Balsa wood and topped with a futuristic, hemispherical skylight that softly and naturally illuminates interiors. Inside, a minimalist, contemporary style lends an atmosphere of rest and relaxation. This artful interpretation of the traditional tea house ... Continue >

Stop in for a spot of tea at this sheet metal house, a modern Japanese Tea House located in Osaka, Japan. And if tea isn’t your thing, then you can just sit back and appreciate this modern work of architecture. Designed by forward-thinking Ks Architects lead by architect Hiroaki Kimura, this metal tea house is an industrial-style gem set amidst the serenity of trees and ponds. The juxtaposition of these polar opposites creates an interesting introduction into this unusual home. ... Continue >

This wonderful, whimsical house design in Mexico City is bringing the life aquatic into architecture. The modern Nautilus House designed by architect Javier Senosiain of Arquitectura Organica is wonderful to look at, walk through and enjoy for what it is – a blend of modern architecture and contemporary art. The Nautilus House falls under the architect’s “organic works” category, inspired by the sea and taking on the twisting and turning form of the Nautilus shell. The sculptural whimsical house ... Continue >

Designed by Aleks Istanbullu Architects, this little modern guest house has made quite the big impression in Beverly Hills. This small guest house – an 855-sq.-ft. addition to the existing home overlooking Coldwater Canyon – makes a wonderful, “nature-inspired sculptural retreat” for visiting guests, as described by the architect, or as a haven for residents looking for a little “me” time away. Initially planned as a one-room home, this modern design evolved from its original cube-shaped living area to include ... Continue >

How many pixels in a house? The modern, tech-inspired Pixel House, designed by Mass Studies, was designed for a young family in Paju City, Kyonggido, Korea. Its unique facade comes together one brick at a time, each brick representing a pixel as part of a whole image – the picture of innovation in Korean modern architecture. The staggered bricks form a curved front face and a three-dimensional profile. Inside, the contemporary design takes the form of its exterior, only with ... Continue >

Designed by architects Cristobal Fernandez and Andres Mas of Mas y Fernandez Arquitectos, the Fleischmann-Ossa House in Santiago, Chile, is a modern design that’s unique for a number of reasons. Home to a young family, this contemporary architecture of concrete, stone, glass and wood was designed with a distinct goal – “to achieve a visual connection between their inhabitants,” according to the architects. That brings us to the next unusual feature of this home – the weird and wonderful windows ... Continue >

Denmark’s Dorte Mandrup Arkitekter has designed this cool summer house in Jorlunde, with an “open concept” design. Taking their plan a step beyond the traditional definition, where rooms simply open onto one another, this modern home offers a seamless flow from outdoors in. The simple structure sits above ground on concrete pillars, cantilevered over the slightly sloping property. Framed in steel, the house boasts sliding glass walls that dissolve the inside-outside boundary when opened. Fabric panels along the home’s perimeter ... Continue >

Created for a couple of professional actors who, apart from wanting a modern architectural work of art, also wanted a home with a connection to its surroundings, Vienna-based architecture firm Xarchitekten designed Folded House in Wienerwald, Austria. This unique residential design delivers garden access from every room in the house via a walkway that winds its way up the exterior of this contemporary home. The house is also characteristic for its unusual folded form, visible in its striking roof as ... Continue >

The B Hive House has generated some buzz among architecture aficionados and lovers of the cool, the contemporary and the unusual. Designed by Hartree Architects, the modern house in Perth, Australia was created for a family of five on this luxury riverfront property. Both indoors and out, the house blends indoor and outdoor living into one. You’ve heard of a wrap-around porch, but what about a wrap-around roof? Well, this cool house has it! Enfolding around the home, the roof ... Continue >

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