The Silicon House by architects Selgas Cano is deceptively urban. Both surrounded by and covered in trees and plant life, you would be forgiven for thinking it was a stylish country retreat. Yet aerial pictures reveal that the house resides in a (albeit quieter) neighbourhood in the Spanish capital of Madrid. Through several sleights of hand the architects have shown the potential for the home to be a space of complete privacy and calm, even in an avowedly urban setting.

Jørn Utzon’s “Bright House” is a paragon of Danish design. Located in sleepy Harpenden (Hertfordshire, England), and completed in 1963, the single-floor house was originally built for Utzon’s friend and fellow Dane, Povl Ahm (chairman of the renowned engineering firm Ahm).
By far the most well-known of Utzon’s projects is the Sydney Opera House (completed in 1957), but long before

The Berry Street Residence is a home constructed with simplicity in mind. Sitting on top of a medium-sized block of flats in the east of central London, with the three towers of the Barbican a stone’s throw away, the flat was designed by Stirling Prize-winning architect David Chipperfield.