Architizer’s journal is fueled by the creative energy of the thousands of architects from around the world who upload their stunning work throughout the year. From conceptual designs to projects under construction to completed buildings, we are proud to serve as a platform for showcasing global architectural talent and the brilliance of visualizers, engineers, manufacturers, and photographers who are crucial members of the industry. A stellar drawing, rendering or photo, and a detailed project description can go a long way in making a project stand out, as does tagging the stellar contributors on a project.
Firms who upload to Architizer share their work with professionals and design enthusiasts through our Firm Directory and Projects database. They also gain exposure by having their projects shared on our Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter pages, as well as in our Journal feature articles. Indeed, through these various channels, hundreds of thousands of people in the global design community have come to rely on Architizer as their architectural reference and source of inspiration. As 2021 draws to a close, we’ve rounded up our database’s top 10 most-viewed, user-uploaded architecture projects:
At the end of a long driveway, on a lush green plot located far from the street, sits a unique home consisting of 3 volumes of varying heights. The project held special significance to the architects: the space will serve as their own home and office. The volumes express the architectural program: one is a double garage with wood siding, the other is the architects’ office with separate access and finally the private home.
The Ampia Vista retreat derives from the Italian meaning of the phrase “ample view” — this conceit was a driving element in the hotel’s design. In many mountainside Greek villages, a centrally located public square anchors urban morphology. Similarly, the retreat is deployed on a staggered set of different levels, while the communal spaces, such as the large pool area, the restaurant and bar area are located in the center. The steep longtitudinal plot offers breathtaking views of the Ionian Sea; all rooms and facilities have unique unhindered views of the mesmerizing blue of the nearby bay.
How do you retain the character and original design intent of a 1962 home while expanding it by almost 1,100 square feet (102 meters square)? Klopf Architecture shows us how this is done with their intervention on this Roger Lee-designed house in Stanford, CA, which they completely gutted and expanded. Expanding window and door openings bring the breath-taking outdoors in for the first time; what is more, they help re-center the home around a breezy outdoor living room.
With a series of NIU projects, this Spanish firm is exploring innovating construction systems. The N70 is the smallest model in this series, which juxtapose aluminum walls and extruded spaces to open glazing. The goal is to make more sustainable, quicker-to-build homes that promote healthier lifestyles.
Coming it at first place, the McDonald’s Global Flagship represents the first Net Zero Energy quick service restaurant. Based in Florida’s at Walt Disney World Resort, a soaring canopy clad in solar panels projects over an expansive terrace of outdoor seating. Although the building is naturally ventilated 65% of the time — expressed outwardly in the language of wooden slats — outdoor humidity and temperature sensors can also signal for the jalousie windows to close automatically when air-conditioning is required. A green wall on the outer façade communicates the lofty sustainability goals that the project encompasses.
The expressive, geological form of this two-story private home couldn’t be more apt for its setting. Sitting proudly at the foot of the Catalina mountains, the Ventana House straddles a line between the sprawling desert and a protected mountain peak. This rock metaphor can be extended. As the architects explain, the building is “like a geode,” with a surprisingly elegant, inviting and light-filled interior, the spaces of which are sequenced to move visitors through space cinematically by reorienting them while simultaneously revealing both interior and exterior spaces through the gaping windows.
A lighting company headquartered in South Korea charged Fujiwaramuro Architects with designing a building in Japan that would express their brand identity. The architects did just that, ingeniously integrating architectural and product concepts by incorporating one of the company’s core products — linear lighting — into their design. The building volume appears like three stacked and offset cubes — a move that both disrupts the linear expectations of multi-story tower and draws attention to the product. The illumination not only calls attention to the separation between the floors, but it also dissolves the structure itself, making the blocks appear to be levitating.
When the Polish architecture firm STOPROCENT Architekci started working on House K in 2012, they could not have imagined that the project (one of the young studio’s first!) would take a decade to complete. The client had requested a modern one-story building that would bring it’s inhabitants closer to nature. Yet, the complicated construction process, involving a negligent contractor, led to a complete shut-down of the works. As the resulting court battle wore on, the house began to deteriorate and the surrounding neighborhood continued to develop. When it came time to return to the work, which had been overgrown with greenery, the architects had to stripe the building down to its bare concrete structure so that they could carefully re-built it. The attention paid to detail and finishing materials is evident in the completed project, which stands as a testimony to perseverance and a mature design practice.
This is the masterplan for the sprawling site of Beijing’s 2019 International Horticultural Expo. The modular building-blocks built of cross laminated timber with connecting glass panels scale down the enormity of the site, making it more friendly to the visitor. Drawing on the rules for urban planning in ancient Chinese cities, the experience is more akin to that of a small village rather than a sinister palace. Rather than emphasis on the whole, this spatial approaches creates the sensation something special is able to happen at each corner. In the aftermath of the Horticultural Expo, the pavilion will transform into an ecological education area with schools, dormitory, a canteen, playgrounds, lecture halls and a large library.
A top contender on April’s list, the Kozina House held it’s ground through the month of May as well. In the narrow sleepy streets of a small South Bohemian town, next to the grassy patch of the Kozina Square, ATELIER 111 architekti joined two neighboring, historic houses to create a stunning home. While one of the building underwent a significant reconstruction at the turn of the millennium, the other was in a state of disrepair. The renovation process uncovered original stone masonry and small historical fragments, which the clever conversion not only preserves, but showcases. The final result is a striking balance between an innovative and airy contemporary space with a timeless structure.
