Volcanic rock used as part of a wall. A glass ceiling installed for star gazing. A kitchen sunken into the Earth to enable eye contact with wildlife. An ever-growing number of architects and homeowners around the world are opting to tie in the house with the landscape - not to subdue nature to our needs, but to get closer to it, making it a feature of the house and the architecture adapting to the local palette, materials, traditions, restrictions and sources of inspiration.
Read on to see how these international architects have made a break for the natural border, using new techniques to build homes where none have been built before.
![Architects all over the world are using new techniques to integrate buildings with nature.](/web/20161026075215im_/http://www.smh.com.au/content/dam/images/g/q/u/m/5/u/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gquj83.png/1471565577012.jpg)
1. Life on the Wild Side in Japan
Location: Hiroshima, Japan
Architects: Makoto Tanijiri and Ai Yoshida of Suppose Design Office
Architects Makoto Tanijiri and Ai Yoshida of Suppose Design Office built this small, transparent-walled house to integrate into the environment, with its furniture denoting different zones. Within the transparent acrylic walls lies a fluid open space, with boundaries of rooms only hinted at with the aid of zoning, curved sheets of see-through metal and varying floor levels.
"The concept of this project was to suspend a thin cover over a natural hill, furnishing it to create a place where people and animals could meet in its shade," says Makoto Tanijiri.
Inside the house, spaces are separated by curved sheets of expanded metal. These see-through partitions act as guidelines for the furniture layout, helping the residents maintain a tidy look. The light materials and organic shapes encourage a fuller integration into the landscape, the architects say.
The bathroom and toilet are partially concealed underground so the residents could have more privacy with a view of nothing but the sky. At the same time, in the kitchen space, the lower floor level connects the benchtop with the ground outside, making it possible for residents to watch deer grazing outside while preparing meals.
See more pictures of this Hiroshima dwelling
2. Living at the Rockface in Australia
Location: Sydney, Australia
Architects: Richard Cole of Richard Cole Architecture
You don't have to turn your face toward the skies for inspiration; you can also find it underneath your feet - quite literally, in some cases. Of course, you can't put a fragment of clay loam or sandy soil on display, but rock looks great when used for either construction or decoration.
Instead of concealing the foundation of a house as a technical element, you can make it a feature of your interior design. Richard Cole, the architect of this house in Waverton, Sydney, has created a project with "a bold sculptural gesture that's primarily site-driven".
It took Richard a long time to create a concept that enabled the house to blend into the terrain of the rocky slope where it was to be built. "We designed both levels to feel solid at the back, to feel part cave-like against the slope, and to open to the views to the south and west," he explains. The rock provides more than just a foundation - it's also part of the interior, with natural expanses left uncovered in the basement and in one of the bathrooms.
View popular contemporary home designs
3. Looking Towards the Sky in Italy
Location: Berici Hills, near Vicenza, Italy
Architects: Traverso-Vighy Architetti
A dwelling that integrates with nature doesn't have to be a whole house. Many of us would love a small retreat where we could read, listen to music, or admire the view undisturbed. Traverso-Vighy Architetti have answered just such a request and installed a 9-square-metre hut in the Berici Hills near Vicenza, which serves as a small studio for reading during the day and stargazing at night. The owner is a retired businessman who wanted a relaxing room linked to the main holiday house.
"The most difficult part of the work was transporting those huge window frames through the woods and installing them," says Giovanni Traverso from Studio Traverso-Vighy. "The main idea was to leave the surrounding woodland completely untouched and to construct a nice room with sufficient illumination provided by natural light in the wintertime and enough shade during the summer.
"The dwelling is rather small, but the light and the tall windows convey the feeling of a larger space where you can really feel immersed in nature. The big window frames look as though they're dug into the ground - the glass reaches the surface of the soil - and the view of the leaves conveys the impression the tree is actually inside the room."
See more pictures of Bosco retreat
4. Hiding in the Grass in Denmark
Location: Near Skagen, Denmark
Architects: Mogens Kassow and Lise Kassow of Kassow Arkitekter
Architects have also adopted the principle of mimicry from nature, making their buildings merge with the landscape quite literally. This house near Skagen in Denmark, created by architects Mogens Kassow and Lise Kassow, is a fine example of how this principle can be implemented.
The property looks like part of the environment, with the grass roof and dark wood panels rendering the building virtually invisible. "It was imperative to avoid the impression that the house stands in the bottom of the pit, since there is a depression in the terrain here," says Lise Kassow. "The three parts of the house follow each other on different levels, and the house seems to be growing from this natural depression. It makes quite an impression - you can stand down there at the entrance and look up to the sky and the hills across the entire house."
In the summer, the grass covers the roof in a thick carpet that captures the night chill and releases it into the house during the day, providing protection from overheating when the weather is hot. When winter comes, the grass dries out and transforms into hay, which has thermal insulation properties similar to those of standard synthetic materials used for the same purpose. It provides extra thermal protection, which is an important feature for regions with colder climates.
5. Being Inspired by a Difficult Site in Spain
Location: Les Gavarres, Catalonia, Spain
Architects: ZEST architecture
A site's limitations and associated difficulties often inspire the search for left field solutions, when the architects are challenged by the circumstances as well as by nature itself.
Due to the regulations applying to the site located on the territory of Les Gavarres, a nature reserve in Catalonia, Spain, ZEST architecture had to faithfully restore a decrepit old farmhouse to its initial condition. The idea was to transform it into a weekend and holiday home for a family with two teenage children.
"We wanted to integrate the house into the landscape to a greater extent than it had originally been, but we had to disturb the ground as little as possible, as everything here is part of a nature reserve. The solution was to use the swimming pool in order to create an intermediate level. We could thus build a swimming pool without any excavation works, leaving the soil untouched, and we could use spare fragments slate, which is abundant in the area, for further infilling," says Co Govers, the founder of Zest Architecture.
"By using materials of the same tone as the slate that had served as the original construction material, we have made the house melt into the landscape visually. This effect is also noticeable on the inside, where the grey-green colour of the clay plaster makes the contrast between the inside and the outside minimal."
"The pool itself is a natural pond, where plants and gravel filter the water," says Co Govers. "It is favoured by all kinds of wildlife, with lots of frogs, salamanders and dragonflies getting in through the plant filter during the summer, and birds coming to wash themselves on the infinity edge all year round. The sewage from the house is filtered through a reed bed, so that the liquid could be recycled for watering the garden."
6. Stretching Downhill in Japan
Location: Fukuoka, Japan
Architects: Suppose Design Office
The owners of this small house in Fukuoka, Japan, wished to remain as close to nature as they could. And even though the nature of the site was rather problematic, the architects from the Suppose Design Office managed to place a three-level building on the rather steep slope. The roof was raised above the walls on thin pillars, with a well-calibrated view of the local artificial lake opening through the gaps.
7. Mimicking the Landscape in Spain
Location: Sagunto, Valencia, Spain
Architects: Ramón Esteve Estudio
The architects of this house in Sagunto, Valencia, also got their inspiration from the local landscape. The mountainous terrain provided the inspiration for the design and the layout of this house, with huge rocks left intact as elements of its walls. It is fully integrated into the environment - red sandstone blocks quarried during the excavation works required for laying the building's foundation were later used for masonry walls.
"The house is rooted into the ground and becomes a tectonic feature of the landscape. Using the resources at hand is the natural way to go with the design… This is a watchtower built of red sandstone that looks really warm and natural," says Ramón Esteve, founder and leading architect of the studio. Wide glass panes enclose the stone walls, providing for total transparency between the mountain and the valley, and emphasising the massiveness of the walls.
8. Crouching Beauty of a Sloping House in Sweden
Location: Stockholm, Sweden
Architects: Trigueiros Architecture
The Cone House by Trigueiros Architecture merges with nature not only in its construction, but also via the usage of materials, colours, and textures corresponding to those found in the landscape.
It was built on a densely populated island in Stockholm with sharply sloping plots of land. "We wanted the main house to look as though it were flowing down the slope and embracing the view of the sea at the end," says Vasco Trigueiros. There are also a group of outhouses that look as though they lean in unusual angles, to fit the lie of the land.
The unusual scales on the house, which gave it the name of Cone House, are made of cedar wood, and will assume silver-grey hues naturally with age and exposure to sun and wind, merging the house with the landscape ever more snugly.
Photos by Lindman Photography
9. Framing the View in Russia
Location: Sochi, Russia
Designers: Yury Zubenko and Olga Tsherbakova of Studia Yury Zubenko
When designers Yury Zubenko and Olga Tsherbakova of Studia Yury Zubenko first saw the site, with a mountain stream running past, they were amazed by the landscape views and suggested the clients allow the natural world to blend into the interior. Consequently, many of the walls are panoramic windows with magical views of the woods and creek.
Architects have been using the window-as-a-frame motif for many years, of course, but modern technology has made it feasible to install panoramic windows in virtually any climate. The designers of this project, however, didn't have to worry about the weather, as subzero temperatures are virtually unheard of in Sochi, in the far southwest of Russia. The huge windows throughout the house allow the owners to admire the landscape from the comfort of their home, which opens right onto it, enjoying the beauty of the woods and the magnificent natural colours all year round.
"We were aiming to create a Zen interior of sorts - a place where the clients could leave the fast-paced city life and all that crazy bustle behind them," says Zubenko. "We did whatever we could to make the house come alive, creating a place where one could really feel free and at ease, and stay in close touch with nature."
The easiest way to marry an interior to a landscape is with expanses of glazing that make the most of the natural setting. So one could watch the sun rise from the east aspect of the house and set from the west, for instance, or admire the play of the waves across the ocean, or simply a garden covered in blossom.
See more photos of this Sochi dwelling
10. Blending into the Local Landscape in New Zealand
Location: Suburb of Piha, Auckland
Architect: Herbst Architects
Gary and Sherry Butler had spent many a summer in the beachside suburb of Piha, before deciding to buy a secluded forest plot nearby.
Heavily protected, mature pohutukawa trees populated 90 per cent of the land and the couple wanted to build a home that was as respectful of them as it was enveloped by them. Lance Herbst of Herbst Architects was called in to help blend this holiday home into its natural habitat.
"The building needed to recognise the importance of the trees, both metaphorically and in its structure," says Herbst. "Community members are vehemently opposed to cutting the trees down and you can't work over the roots, or drip line, which made the design very difficult."
Although some trees still had to be cut down, Herbst was largely able to work within the confines of the trees. Indeed, the structure of the house is designed to embrace the leafy surrounds. The roof structure, for example, alludes to the trunks and branches of the trees, filtering light into the room in a similar way to natural branches.
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- This article originally appeared on Houzz.