Architect Homes Archives - Page 2 of 3

Northern Lake Minnesota Home

Northern Lake Minnesota Home Project Description:

Combining the active lifestyle and appreciation of modern Scandinavian architecture of a youthful Minnesota couple, this vacation retreat celebrates its natural north woods environment.

Programmatically, the Northern Lake Home is composed of two primary massings separated by a glass core.

Splaying out to the lake beyond and nestled into a natural swale, the public spaces contour along the landscape blurring the distinction between its built and natural environments.

The voluminous living areas feature large walls of glass to welcome in the sometimes scarce northern light and capture intimate lake views through the embankment.

A glass core converts through its operable glass wall to combine the dining and private lounge to allow a sheltered connection to the woods and lake beyond.

The private family area is partially embanked into the landscape and set away from the public area, protecting its sleeping quarters and private spaces from the active lifestyle surrounding it.

With a subtle darkened exterior material palate, the Northern Lake Home blends into the forested landscape, while white oak finishes provide a warmth to the minimal and crisp interior that allows the surrounding natural environment to be the highlight.

Strand Design

Instagram: @stranddesign

Contact Email: mckay@stranddesign.com

Completed in 2017

Built Area: 4,800 sqft

Photographer: Chad Holder Photogaraphy

Design team: David Strand, David McKay

Key Materials Used: Steel wall panels, 2 Stone precast cement tile, Darkend & Natural Cedar, Rift Sawn White Oak, Ground and Polished Concrete.

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FRA House – Single Family Detached Dwelling

FRA House – Single Family Detached Dwelling Project Description

One of the investors’ main design guidelines, something that determined the form and location of the building, was that we ensure maximum privacy without going so far as to construct a fortress.

We sought out to create a building that expressed itself simply, one with a clear division of materials and that respected the investors’ introversion.

Unlike the other buildings in the neighborhood, this house was placed in the northern part of its plot, away from the street. This opened up room on the southern side of the building for a large terrace and garden.

A garage and a high fence provide privacy on the roadside, while neighboring yards are veiled by a wall that also acts as a lattice for the planned vegetation. The plot has a slanted front, a factor which in turn influenced the shape of the terrace.

A footpath runs towards the house along a fence made of granite-filled gabions. We made this the backdrop for a line of plants and lamp posts.

On the northern side of the house, there is an introverted gallery, an area closed off by a wall that is the negative reflection of the house’s northern wall. This is an intimate space, hidden from the neighbors’ eyes.

The house’s form draws on the detached house archetype – it is topped with a symmetrical gable roof covered with flat ceramic tiles.

The building was designed as a play of contrasts – smooth white plaster mixes with the dark ribbed wood of the elevation.

Completing the whole are the anthracite window frames and anthracite roof.

The white body of the building takes on the look of a drawer pulled out of the wooden box that is its western and northern sides.

Despite the investors’ introverted nature, the house was designed to include a large amount of window area – yet this did not lead to reduced intimacy inside, thanks to the presence of an obscuring wall as well as blinds and awnings.

The ground floor contains the common areas – here you find a living room, dining room, and kitchen, a guest room with a private bathroom, a bathroom, technical rooms and closets. In the living room, part of the ceiling has been left open, revealing the open roof truss above the upper floor and the glass bridge leading to the office.

Upstairs there is a master bedroom with a bathroom and closet, an office, a laundry room and children’s rooms with a closet and bathroom.

The common areas and the bedrooms were placed on the southern and western side of the house in order to let in the maximum amount of light.

Like on the outside, inside the house, contrasts are king. The investors made the bold decision of choosing dark wood for the floors and white brick for the walls – we expanded on that contrast consistently by using three colors for the interior: white, dark wood and anthracite.

White appears mainly on the walls and ceilings, dark wood on the walking surfaces and doors and anthracite on smaller furnishings and finishing elements – furniture, door casings, floor moldings, light fixtures, and accessories.

Completing the interior are elements made of black unfinished steel – for example, the hanging interior staircase and the fireplace in the living room.

Upstairs, we designed a glass bridge on a steel construction leading to the office. The openings in the ceiling were closed off with linearly-placed glass balustrades.

The combination of black steel, brick, and exposed infrastructure elements provides a break in the style of the interior and gives it a slightly industrial character.

An important element of the interior is the roof truss. For it, we used prefabricated roof girders painted in a color similar to that of the floorboards.

Opening up the roof truss makes the upper floor feel much more spacious, while careful lighting of the girders makes the roof not only a functional element of the house but a decorative one as well.

Data Sheet

Project name: FRA House – single family detached dwelling
Architect: BECZAK / BECZAK / ARCHITEKCI – Magdalena Beczak, Maciej Beczak, Beata Kiciak
Website: www.beczak.pl
Contact e-mail: beczak@beczak.pl
Project location: Poland, Mazowiecki voivodeship, Piastów
Design: 2013
Construction: 2014-2016
Photo credits: jankarol.com
CAD Software: Allplan FT 2015

Brands / Products

Roof: Braas Tegalit Protegon
Facade: Baumit Nanopor Top + Okoume wood elevation
Windows: Blyweert aluminium Triton HI

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The Most Popular & Iconic Home Design Styles Over The Years

You have probably heard of a Tudor or Georgian style home, but maybe never knew how to identify one on sight. Our guide to the most popular & iconic home design styles over the years shows how dwellings in England, Italy, and France influenced the way we build our houses today in North America. This guide is a must-read for any real estate buff who prides themselves on their knowledge of architecture.

By reading our guide, you will learn how to identify homes based on their facade, style and amount of windows, roof, and siding. Not only is this helpful on a practical level, as it will increase your real estate knowledge, but it also serves as an interesting history lesson. Home styles have always been influenced by socioeconomic factors of the times they are conceived; watch how the period of Victorian opulence morphs into the Craftsman style during leaner times.

If you are actively in the process of preparing to search for a home, read this guide to help develop your preference for a few different home styles!

Tudor House Design Style.

Cape Code House Design Style and Georgian Design Style.

Greek Revival Style & Colonial House Building Style.

Gothic Style (Victorian) & Italianate House Style

Stick Eastlake Style & Second Empire Style

Queen Anne House Design & Shingle Style Design

Dutch Colonial Style & Neo Classical Design.

Craftsman Design & Cottage Style

French Colonial Design Style & Mediterranean Style

Mid Century Modern Design & Traditional Ranch Style

Contemporary Design Style

Credit for Infographics to Part Select

Lake Front Homes

Lake front homes are often beautiful houses sitting on the edge of a lake. This example above is of a wooden house on the edge of Emerald Lake, Yoho National Park, in Canada.

When it comes to a home or a holiday house on the water, most of us probably conjure up thoughts of a house on the beach with the waves lapping at our feet, or perhaps the surf pounding in the distance, but how many of us actually contemplate the thought of it being a stunning home on a serene edge of a lake?

Stunning modern house of large proportions overlooking an expansive lake view.

Lake front houses can fit many different types. They can generally be anything from a simple cottage through to a palatial mansion. Lake edge living though is very different to the seafront or beachfront living. There is often more serenity, more wilderness, perhaps some nearby trees and wildlife, and there isn’t the same tide or salt spray issues that cause corrosion and other quick degradation of one’s home and vehicles.

Large cottage with expansive deck area and jetty on lake edge.

Therefore, the thought of a lake front property has its advantages. If the lake is clean (and not infiltrated with weed) and swimmable, then you have the true city escape. Often the lake water can be a sound water source and the corrosion effects of sea water and spray is just non existent.

And then there’s the fishing! Sure you fish from the beach, but there is just something magical about catching a freshwater fish and then taking it home to cook.

Traditional two storey home set in the woods on the edge of a lake

Stunning triple level home set amidst the woods and on the edge of a lake

Modern secluded house of two levels and sitting on the lake edge

Modern three level home on a cliff edge overlooking a lake

Stunning lakeside holiday home

Country Estate home with large front lawn overlooking nearby lake edge

Japanese style holiday cottage set in a bush setting on the edge of a lake

Stunning modern house with deck area on the edge of an expansive lake

A few lake front houses with a fountain in the lake

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Log Cabins and Log Homes

Great looking log house with twin storeys and front veranda covered in fresh snow

The above is a great looking log cabin home with twin storeys and front veranda covered in fresh snow.

Everyone loves a log cabin home, don’t they? Sure they do! Log homes conjure up in the mind, relaxation nights by the open fire, snow piled up outside, and a cosy warm atmosphere surrounded by all that wood.

What is a log home or a log cabin to be exact? According to Wikipedia a log cabin “…is a dwelling constructed of logs, especially a less finished or architecturally sophisticated structure. Log cabins have an ancient history in Europe, and in America are often associated with first generation home building by settlers.”

So, it kind of goes without saying that most log homes and cabins to be found are likely to be in the countryside, in the mountains and in the wilderness.

Wooden house in the woods with a place for barbeque

The history of log homes in the USA dates back to around the mid 17th Century. According to Wikipedia, “Historians believe that the first log cabins built in North America were in the Swedish colony of Nya Sverige (New Sweden) in the Delaware River and Brandywine River valleys. Many of its colonists were actually Forest Finns, because Finland was an integrated part of Sweden at that time.”

Wooden Cottage Of Stained Timber in the Snowy Woods In Winter surrounded by a wooden picket fence

Log cabins historically were crafted primarily from long straight tree trunks that are laid horizontally on top of each other side by side. They were connected by interlocking the ends with notches, although some were simply nailed and not built with notches. The nailing option wasn’t as structurally sound as the notching method.

Wooden house made from pine wood logs and surrounded in snow

In frontier, pioneering days, the building site was the most important part of building for a log cabin. It was essential that the site provided adequate sunlight as well as drainage. Frontier life was brutal, and these homes had to provide the very best quality of life possible within such a harsh environment.

Snow covered country house in the winter

The choice of trees from which the logs for these cabin homes were made, were typically old-growth trees with as fewer limbs as possible and ideally straight up and down with minimal taper.

Compact Log House on the banks of a River.

“Careful notching minimized the size of the gap between the logs and reduced the amount of chinking (sticks or rocks) or daubing (mud) needed to fill the gap. The length of one log was generally the length of one wall, although this was not a limitation for most good cabin builders.” Wikipedia tells us.

Quaint log cabin in Ohio amidst the trees

In log cabin construction, there were decisions to be made as to what type of dwelling it was to be. Key considerations that had to be taken into account included, the likely size of the house, whether it would single or double storied, roofing type and where to place the doors and windows. Also, depending on the available sources of raw materials (trees, stone, labor, etc) there may be some limitation on the log cabin size and proportions.

Residential two storey house made of wooden logs

The log cabin homes of today have been adapted to modern building construction techniques through the use of squared logs with carefully hewn corner notching on the exterior. The insides are reflective of the needs of modern families with open plan living spaces and areas. Today’s log houses are often spacious and elegant when compared with their predecessors from the bygone era.

Log house covered in snow during the winter

Log House on a sunny winter day with blue sky and snow on the ground.

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