Reader’s Choice: Top 10 Architecture Projects on Architizer in June 2022

Concepts and unbuilt plans ruled the list of readers’ favorites, as well as residential projects that challenge traditional approaches to home design.

Architizer Editors

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Architizer’s journal is fueled by the creative energy of the thousands of architects from around the world who upload and showcase their incredible work. 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, as well as a detailed project description, can go a long way in making a project stand out, as does indicate 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. In 2022, we’re rounding up our database’s top 10 most-viewed, user-uploaded architecture projects at the end of each month.

10. Casa AVALOS-UNO

By MC arquitectura in Zapopan / El Arenal, Mexico

The objective is to build a rest house developed on a single level, which houses the minimum spaces necessary for living and at the same time offers an experience of peace and total isolation, allowing the user a place of quietness just minutes from the city. This may sound like a tall order, but situated in a rural context on the border between two urban areas, the design masterfully draws on materials from the surrounding area: stone, brick, concrete, wood and the finish on the walls.

This gives a warm and cozy result that allows it to adapt to a bioclimatic environment in constant change and thus achieve a lower visual contrast in the different seasons of the year. The barrel vault structure offers a subtle play of volumes and heights, opening the home up towards the best views. Open air circulations together with 2 outdoor patios, the front garden and the visuals projected on each window invite the user to coexist with the context and communicate with the exterior.

9. Tea House No. 1

By AOS works : architecture & design — Concept (Southwestern Desert, United States)

This fascinating combination of geometries draws lessons from traditional Japanese tea houses with the aim of transporting visitors to an alternate realm of ceremony and contemplation. The design, evocative of geological formations typically found in the surrounding desert stands out like a land art sculpture set in a vast landscape. The material composition is minimal: thick, battered limestone walls, travertine wainscoting and a roof clad in weathering steel panels.

The project’s size was inspired by a 4.5 tatami mat layout. A sunken hearth serves as the nucleus, framed by a border of alcoves that house the functions of the tea ceremony. The large roof overhang evokes a precariously balanced rock, providing shade in the harsh, sun-drenched environment. The reflecting pool, which defines the space below the roof, and acts as an opposing force to the solid walls of the tea house, which erupt from the earth, also aids in evaporative cooling.

8. Garage House in Kawagoe for Maserati Shamal

By Horibe Associates, Japan

This house was created for a true car and bike enthusiast, who wished to bring his passion home. This two-story residence makes this dream come true, while also providing a quiet domestic space for the client’s wife and dog on the second floor. On the ground floor, a garage houses the client’s favorite Maserati Shamal, among other Italian cars and motorcycles. Meanwhile, the use of durable, reinforced concrete guarantees the tranquility of the upper level. A courtyard at the end of the garage acts as an outlet for the release of sound and vehicle exhaust. Likewise, the courtyard’s greenery muffles engine noise, while helping to purify the air.

7. 1390 House Renovation

By S+S Architects in Bangkok, Thailand

This remarkable home renovation project is found on Ratchadaphisek Road a suburban area that has a surprisingly high-density. Privacy, safety and elder friendliness were the three values that guided the design. To this end, outer decoration is guards the domestic space, creating more privacy, while the interior design emphasizes voids. The ingenious façade is make of perforated aluminum sheets that screen out the sun and filter in natural breeze; they can be closed or opened as the dwellers’ needs for any interactions with the surrounding neighborhood.

6. From the Garden House

By Robert Konieczny KWK Promes, Poland

Photos by Jakub Certowicz

The design of this private home has an unusual genesis: the owner had already had already begun designing a garden and wanted a home that would respond to it — the inverse of the usual order of business for architects. The design was thus inspired by the curving green oasis that the patron had created. The topographically shaped ground floor is thus contrasted with the block of the upper floor closed with shutters on the south side, providing privacy from the access road. These two different geometries are linked by a softly cut atrium — the green heart of the house.

Ultimately, the idea to start the investment with a garden was inspired, with many benefits over the traditional order for designing things. The moment the house was completed, the client could immediately enjoy greener. Meanwhile, to reach the target size, plants need more time than it takes to build the house, and planting tall trees generates high costs. What’s more, because of the transportation and the need for heavy equipment, it is not environmentally friendly.

5. Senegal School

By Mado Architects in Senegal

Equality, conservation, cost-effectiveness, construction methods and step-by-step construction: these were the top concerns that drove the design of this project. In Senegal, cultural myths involving baobab trees are the origins of many villages. This was the genesis of the idea to form spaces around the existing trees on the site — the competition also called for them to be preserved. Two circles with a radius of 8 meters surrounded the central trees of the site, and to provide the area of the yard and playground, a third circle was added to the circles for this purpose.

Circular spaces were formed around the courtyards, which eventually connected to each other and formed a unified form. A triangular shape was used to form the roof and walls of the school, where the roof and the wall were connected. To create dynamic circulation, two movement paths were considered in the inner and outer walls, one of them was dedicated to the ramp for the disabled. To facilitate the construction method and cost-effectiveness, an attempt was made to use native materials such as wood and straw in the project, and to adopt a simple construction method.

4. Cronton Colliery

By Atis — Concept (for Knowsley, United Kingdom)

This project imagines a new life for the former Cronton Colliery — a disused coal mine at Knowsley near Manchester — as a world class, sustainable park. At its heart, the architects designed a community space that projects the positive co-existence of natural and urban areas. The buildings and infrastructures are inspired by the textures and color palette naturally occuring on the site — grasslands and birch groves. The master plan takes into account extensive land remediation and revegetation along with the phased introduction of proven community amenities that would draw the public to the area including sustainable housing and eco-tourism in the form of an ecologically designed hotel, conference centre, spa and restaurant.

3. Nishigahara House

By Roovice in Nishigahara, Kita City, Japan

Photos by Akira Nakamura

This renovation project is found in the central north area of Tokyo. The owner of the two-floor family house envisioned a DIY atmosphere filled with custom made furniture crafted by himself. In Japan, most traditional buildings have little to no insulation; many are also behind current seismic regulations, which are rapidly constantly evolving. The renovation sought to remedy these outdated aspects, while enhancing other traditional aspects of Japanese design, such as a using voids above the ceiling to help the ventilation. In sum, the design is characterized by a dynamic double character: the imperfection of the irregular wooden elements and DIY atmosphere mixed with the precision and ingenuity of the newly designed structure.

2. The interior design of VIEWSHINE Headquarters

By line+ in Hangzhou, China

After 4 years, line+ completed the headquarters building for VIEWSHINE, a listed company developing from traditional instruments to intelligence. With integrated design, line+ has created a brand-new office space fit to accommodate the ever-evolving working scenarios and needs in the future and reflecting a unique corporate image in the historic city center. After the tailor-made architectural space language has completed the empowerment of the company’s own brand image, the original concept and vision will be embodied in the spatial details of the user’s personal experience. Through interior design, the intangible corporate values will be conveyed. Ultimately, line+ incorporates corporate culture into the workplace by building its headquarters.

1. Flamingo House

By STOPROCENT Architekci in Zory, Poland

Flamingo house sits on the frontier of a former brickyard, which has been been transformed into a recreation park for the historic city of Zory. The site’s varied terrain, which ranges significantly in height, informed the design. On one side, a simple and light rectangular volume emerges; it is raised above the ground level with a glazed ‘belt’ that delimits the building from the ground, creating the illusion of levitating structure. An internal patio serves as the nucleus for the lower level. The façades revel in the juxtaposition between fullness and transparency, and lightness and heaviness — massive blocks contrast with glazed stripes of the facades and the whiteness of the full surfaces is set off by dark rhythm of the windows.