If you're at the city of Sapporo in Japan then right at its borders lies a simple residential construction, which has lately been getting a lot of curious attention from bystanders and passersby. Onlookers glance at the aesthetic magnificence erupting out from the serene hilly outskirts of Sapporo. Privacy and seclusion has been given prime importance for this hillside house. Dense undergrowth, nearby woods, and a scenic view of the distant hills makes up for the landscape of the Maruyama House.

Japanese studio architects Atelier Sano has designed this wood and concrete hillside. The house sits on a concrete robust base rising up to 6 feet from ground level. Then atop the base is the clean wood cladded architecture that provides for its client a comfortable lifestyle.

The designers have gone for a simple and honest design giving enough room for the interiors. Clean open spaces and large windows opening out to soak in the nature outside has been the central feature of the design. The open floor plan is left undisturbed through the help of nooks and shelves that shelters different programs. This modernistic open design cuts away from the classic approach and gives for a much spacious interior. Simple and subtle furniture arrangement that attracts the attention, which is not an assault on your senses, is integral to this design.

At eastern Long Island, New York, a 12 acres site is the weekend retreat spot for this mother daughter client for whom Leroy Street studio has designed the Stone Houses. The Stone Houses incorporate Westchester granite in its making. The house also incorporates great expanses of glass in providing for scenic view all around. The compound together is well unified through dry stacked walls that integrate the exterior and interior spaces together. Water features links the walls providing a holistic unification while at the same time remaining distinguishable in its private arrival side of the buildings. The southern side of the building is curtailed off from the northern end through these strong granite walls.

Coming to the mother’s house, it is seen that it is divided into a private and public section by a gallery, which leads onto a sculptural court. Wrapping roofs subdivide the singular volume of the public wing, whereas the dining area and the screened porch are segregated by the lower roof. The upper one is used to create a private intimate entry vestibule and a cozy living room.

Now the daughter’s house is quite similar and has the Stonewall as its integral element. Perpendicular roof planes are the central feature of the daughter’s house.

We have seen houses atop trees, homes at the precipice of a mountain, bamboo huts and ice houses (igloos), but this newest guest house designed by Poteet Architects has caught us by surprise. The designers have built a house out of a container. Yes you read that right, a shipping container.

The client had wished on experimenting with shipping containers, which resulted in the architects fancying a chance at building a home inside one. The client had her way and is presently the owner of such a unique, bizarre and at the same time magnificent project at San Antonio, Texas.

Now coming to the details of the container/house, we must say that the designers have left no stone unturned in furnishing it into a fully equipped utility rich guest house. The interiors open up to the surrounding landscape through the help of an end wall glass lift and slide end window. Large portions of the interiors are cordoned off for preparation of garden sheds. The guest room comes equipped with custom stainless sink, shower and WC (composting toilet).

Sustenance is the word when it came to  designing this one of a kind house. The container is itself recyclable and has planted roofing atop for cooling and better air circulation. Bamboo plywood fabrication over spray foam in the walls and floors reduce heat absorption, while water is filtered from rainwater and then used, after which it is used for irrigating the planted roof. Moreover, the house itself has laid its foundation on top of recycled telephone poles and has a deck of HVAC equipment pads set in a steel frame.

Master bedroom closets have come a long way from what they initially were and what purpose they served. From being just a cabinet to store clothes, they have now metamorphosed to house not just clothes, but to also fit in things like excess furniture, store stuff as well as a dressing area. This has led to the advent of multifunctional master bedroom closets with which we are going to acquaint ourselves today.

What must you put in it?

Lets first analyze what all are the must-haves in your closet. This list may vary from person to person according to their lifestyle, career and finances. Apparels, accessories and shoes would take up a fare amount of the space. Leave out some space (as you usually require) to get dressed. Other than that, chuck in some other stuff in the far end to be used as the storage corner.

How to personalize the closet?

Next up is how you jazz up your space! There are many ways to make your closet truly yours. Just like you have accessories stored in your closet, try and accessorize your closet with photo memories, artwork, sculptures and baskets and other ornamental stuff.

Cramped for space? Go for a smart versatile closet…

But all this works as long as you have the adequate space you need. But what if you are in a crunch for storage space, then you would need to let out your creative side make the closet versatile. Optimize space, tuck away stuff you don’t regularly need, make use of shelves and most importantly make do with a smaller dressing area. Now there you have it! Your personal closet catering to all your dressing needs!

If you're looking for the perfect getaway spot then you must have a perfect getaway house to compliment it. In the modern times, with breakneck pace of our lives, a place of recluse, a home away from home is one of the most treasured assets and the Sea drift residence beach house is exactly that.

Designed for a three generation family currently staying in San Francisco, this green vacation Home acts as the perfect vacation home. This 1900 square foot structure has been a design concept churned out by San Francisco based CCS Architecture group at Stinson Beach, California. The residence is split into two separate zones – the living room and the bedroom zones. The living space opens up onto a sprawling L-shaped deck area, which leads to the lagoon side on the north.

On the other side is the courtyard that laps up the sun throughout most of the day. Glass is a major element in the building, which provides exquisite landscape views to the residents. The cedar-cladded walls veils the nearby hillside and waterfront. The house opens up to its bounteous surrounding through the deck that leads up to the pier.

Built into the lap of nature it has a rigorous sustainability program. Resource efficiency is given prime importance with electricity coming from photovoltaic panels and this yields hot water, HVAC and radiation heating. Natural gas is used for cooking purposes which draws its fall from a 50 gallon propane tank.

This house does not seem alien, and does not look anomalous to the existing topography of the valley. The architect has made it seem that the house has grown into the valley and not erupted out like a boil. It harmoniously forms itself around the contours of the area.

The architect Guiilherme Machado Vaz Arquitecto had 10,000m2; of area to work with in the Valley of Viera does Minho, Portugal. The house pivots around a great Veranda and is facing towards the valley and the mountain range. The Veranda is surrounded by other divisions of the house according to their functionality. This holistic approach is traditional to the local typology. The architect made the house seem like an organic entity rather than an inanimate object.

The house has been built on a secluded land for the purpose of providing seclusion and peace rather than isolation and loneliness. Hence the architect had to take great care in evoking feelings of calmness and keeping away the overwhelming effect of being alone in the heart of nature. Big windows, well complimented exteriors and interiors, elemental nature of basic utilities, all add to the same effect. Flanking the Veranda is a Hall, two rooms and a bathroom.

On the opposite end there is a garden that ends with the beginning of a swimming pool. The use of concrete as construction material brings out the contrasting aesthetics. The house with its monotonous neutral colored coat walls and ceiling gives less of an impression of a lavish space, but seems more like a refuge, a place for shelter enabling you to lap up nature in its rawest form.

The 99K House is so called because it can be erected and sold for $99,000 approx. The price and technique of building these homes have been customized perfectly for the low income groups, especially those residing near the Gulf Coast region.

The architects who have planned this whole program have done their work efficiently and skilfully. This 99K House has been constructed with great planning and finesse. The living room is located towards the east along with westward facing rainwater harvester. The plan is designed in such a way that the family residing in this house can alter and shift the internal components of the house according to their requirements.

Like any other house, these 99K Houses are distributed into 14 equal divisions, including living room, dining hall, kitchen with pantry, three bedrooms, two bathrooms including a small half-bathroom, convertibility activity room, outdoor living room, carport, laundry, water collection tank and an entry door.

What is unique about these 99K houses is their water supply. The sloping metal roof has been designed in such a manner that it serves the dual purpose of rainwater collection as well as distribution. This has been done keeping the moderate rainfall of this area in mind. These slanting roofs are made to accumulate the excess rainwater on the tank situated at the western end of the house and connected with different PVC pipes to every parts of the house through a motor.

These houses have been designed keeping in mind the cost of labor prevailing around the city. The materials used in construction of these homes are both environment friendly and cost effective.

This unique picNYC table has been designed very skilfully to give an outdoor experience with an innovative design. This table is of 7’ in length and 2’6” in width and is made up of an aluminium frame. But the unique thing about this table is that it is fully decorated with grass, soil and pebbles, to give the feeling of a lush green ground. By designing this table, Haiko Cornelissen has tried to provide an outdoor dining experience to the table owners as if they were sitting and enjoying their meal over their backyard lawn.

The grass laid over this picNYC table seems to be real and would need to be watered regularly to keep them alive. To make the experience livelier, he tried to improvise with another innovative idea, where he has placed two wooden benches, both having cross-wooden legs. Each of these wooden crossed-leg chairs are of dimensions of 3’ in length and 2’6” in width over which four people can easily sit down, two at each side and enjoy their meals.

The architect describes the table as “a surreal experience of nature in the city that literally transforms dining. Suddenly spilling water becomes a necessity instead of a problem, wine glasses need coasters not to prevent ring stains but to avoid tumbling.”

As the name suggests, this puzzle furniture has been created in such a manner that would require less space to fit inside your room and can easily be remodelled according to your personal needs. The main concept behind creating this puzzle furniture is to utilise all those broken and damaged unused furnitures lying inside your home and transform them into something usable and good looking. The furniture consists of many different cubes or blocks, which can then be attached with one another in 18 different ways to create a different furniture everytime. Thus, the name Puzzle Furniture since it works just like a puzzle.

To make it more beautiful and eye-catching, different colored clothes, cushions, bags have been used in making it. The blocks can easily be rearranged according to the color of the walls of your house. This rearrangement work can be done by a single person as the blocks are extremely light in weight and thus, can be easily lifted and put in their places. The eight joints of the eight modules helps blocks stay attached one another to create one single piece of furniture.

These types of detachable furnitures are useful for all those people who may constantly move from one place to another for work purposes since it is easy to carry. This furniture would also make the kids happy as this would another game they can play throughout the day.

These stools designed by a Mexican based Industrial designer, Héctor Esrawe named these Ban stools. These stools are inspired from African and American culture and that too, from the early part of Hispanic era when chairs were given the status of kinship or community leadership. In those times, they were symbols of different religious identity, status and tradition.

The craftsmen who have designed these stools have used all their skills and creativity to design these masterpieces. They has been made from beech, walnut and tzalam woods, which have been cut with great precision and have been assembled with equal perfection to make these wonderful stools.

To highlight the smooth and neat finish and its stylish wood design, different natural oils have been used. Many people would feel weird by looking at these strange transversal cut Ban Stools, but when these stools bearing different shapes and sizes are kept at one corner of your garden, it would look elegant and will definitely uplift the look of your room and garden, depending on where you choose to place them.