10 Stunning Architectural Feats—and How They Pulled Them Off
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How They Pulled It Off is our ongoing series where we take a close look at one particularly challenging aspect of a home design and get the nitty-gritty details about how it became a reality.
From a hobbit-worthy house in Buenos Aires to a floating bedroom in Berlin, these 10 standout projects show just how’s it done.
A Secret Stair Hatch That Seals Off the Living Space
The home is located on a steep site in Los Angeles’s Montecito Heights neighborhood. Designed by LA-based firm Claret-Cup, one standout feature is the custom folding stair hatch that can toggle between appearing as an extension of the railing or, when folded down, becomes an extended portion of the living room floor.
The hatch can be operated swiftly and easily by one person, in part thanks to the installation of four hydraulic pistons.
Inspired by the work of 18th-century landscape architect Capability Brown, the wall is a reinterpretation of the historic ha-ha, a type of sunken fence with French origins first used to keep animals out of gardens.
The sheep graze in their pasture, which is separated from the rest of the property by the knee-high wall, cleverly hidden in the landscape.
When Siki Im, a fashion designer-turned-architect, took on the gut renovation of his 1,600-square-foot Berlin apartment as his first residential project, the vision was clear: He needed to create a floating bedroom to make the most out of 16-foot ceilings without sacrificing the inherent airiness of the space. "I worked with a structural engineer on the solution, which involved installing a steel brace system anchored to the far corner of the box floor, which is mounted to the load-bearing column of the building." The box can support more than 2,200 pounds as a result.
Aurora Arquitectos, the studio founded by Sérgio Antunes and Sofia Couto, dreamed up a clever way to make a Lisbon apartment feel larger: a mirrored console that opens 180 degrees between two rooms and functions more like an art installation than a typical architectural feature meant to maximize a small space.
When closed, the portal looks like art and is elegant but unassuming.
Studio B Interior Design’s Adam Maloney and Rachael Buffa made the main feature of their A-frame in Lake Hartwell, Georgia, a 12-by-15-foot conversation pit, inspired by Buffa’s love for the 1970s.
Studio B selected their fabric and worked with Eternity Modern to create a cloud-like sofa bed from the Tufted Time series that looks like a comforting fog that had drifted off the lake and transformed into a sofa. Viewed from above, the conversation pit is inviting and soft.
In Joshua Tree, Tyler Quinn built a tub—which looks like a mirage you’d stumble upon while wandering the landscape—right into the bed rock next to his off-grid house (and very first build). "I accomplished this with a concrete saw, with my cuts about four to six inches deep. I would then remove the entire layer of granite with hand tools; chisels and hammer," says Quinn.
When the house architect Lorcan O’Herlihy originally built for his parents burnt down in a Malibu wildfire, he was given the opportunity to rebuild it as a structure that will stand the test of time. The concrete shell of the house was the biggest fireproofing decision, particularly the roof. The house also features additional passive fire protection elements to prevent ember intrusions, such as spark-arresting screens to protect any vulnerable spots and drought-tolerant landscaping. A sprinkler system wraps the perimeter to saturate the building in an emergency, plus there’s a pool that could provide additional water for firefighting purposes.
This home by AtelierM in Buenos Aires lands somewhere between a hobbit hole and a partially disguised spaceship. The architects built the home for a young couple who wanted to live more in contact with the earth.
They essentially pulled nature over the top of the structure like a blanket. The inside curve of the structure became a round, planted patio, with the front door tucked to the side. And the landscaping extended up and over the sloping southern side of the structure to turn the whole home into a kind of hill. There’s a walkway up the side of the house, to a patio on the roof of the house, with expansive views out across the flat Pampas grasslands.
The solution that landscape-design firm Outdoor Establishments came up with for this Sydney home is a nearly all-native garden, with structures or pathways made from locally sourced natural materials often found in national park infrastructure. Sandstones, boulders, gravel, and Cor-Ten steel are some of the textures that abound on the property.
To get around Housing & Development Board renovation rules in Singapore, Alex and Jay Liu, brothers and cofounders of the interior architecture firm Right Angle Studio, devised clever ways to create an illusion of custom architecture by conceiving a few fake out areas. The artificial skylight was created by building a second ceiling 25 centimeters (roughly 10 inches) below the flat’s concrete ceiling and installing dimmable lights between the two.
A crackling fireplace—faux, as well—is the centerpice of the living room.
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