Kyoto-based OHArchitecture takes over the reconstruction of a two-leveled residential unit in Betsuincho, Japan. The concrete structure is cast with loose plates forming a rough texture that resembles abstract wrinkles. The first floor which serves as a rental module models a six-meter grid arrangement, while the second story protrudes a two-meter cantilever assembling separate residences. Each of the two floors is divided into maisonettes to enhance the strength of the space. The transformed collective housing makes use of the framework, forming several different living zones.
all images provided by OHArchitecture
interior applies nested iron black skin and wooden boxes
On the first floor, the space between the exterior eaves displays a full steel sash, while the ground floor area stands connected to the outdoor zone. On the second level, the slab is cut open and a steel staircase is installed to smoothly connect the upper and lower stories. The interior applies nested iron black skin and wooden box-like volumes. By compactly organizing the water and other areas, the design team at OHArchitecture achieves a high degree of free open space in the common center of the structure. Originally designed attached to a ground-floor shop, the construction transforms the house’s spaces and functions through a series of modifications that reserve the initial character.
the second story protrudes a two-meter cantilever
originally attached to a ground-floor shop, the construction transforms the house’s spaces and functions
Kitchens with exposed concrete surfaces take centre stage in this lookbook, which includes homes in Mexico, Japan and Ireland.
Concrete is a ubiquitous material in architecture, but it is less commonly used in interiors – particularly in residential spaces such as kitchens.
However, its durability and impermeability make it an ideal surface material for cooking and food preparation, while its raw aesthetic can create a striking backdrop for dining and entertaining.
This is the latest in our lookbooks series, which provides visual inspiration from Dezeen’s archive. Other recent editions showcase airy balconies, marble bathrooms and gallery interiors.
Photo by Toshiyuki Yano
House in Jiyugaoka, Japan, by Airhouse Design Office
Airhouse Design Office created this kitchen as part of its renovation of an apartment for a fashion fanatic in Nagoya, Japan.
Like the rest of the home, the kitchen’s walls, floor and ceiling have been stripped back to expose the concrete beneath. While some areas were left with chipped edges and plaster, others have been polished for a smooth finish.
Find out more about House in Jiyugaoka ›
Photo by Daniela Mac Adden
Casa H3, Argentina, by Luciano Kruk
This open-plan kitchen and dining room sits on the ground floor of a holiday home by architect Luciano Kruk in Mar Azul.
Blending seamlessly into the home’s concrete structure, it features geometric shelving and kitchen counters that extend from the walls and floor. Its industrial look is complemented by an enamel pendant light and a pair of wireframe chairs.
Find out more about Casa H3 ›
Photo by Rory Gardiner
Casa Alférez, Mexico, by Ludwig Godefroy
In a pine forest in Mexico, architect Ludwig Godefroy created a brutalist cube-shaped home that is built from concrete cast in situ.
This includes its kitchen, where the shelving and worktops are also all cast from concrete. Here, their raw finishes are juxtaposed with delicate ceramics and Danish designer Hans Wegner’s Wishbone chairs, visually softening the space.
Find out more about Casa Alférez ›
Photo by João Ferrand
Flower House, Portugal, by Ezzo
The concrete worktops of this sunken kitchen double up as a smooth floor for the dining room at Flower House, a renovated dwelling in Porto.
Wood-fronted cabinets slot in beneath the flooring, which was hand-poured on site and has been covered with a waterproof coating to give it a polished look.
Find out more about Flower House ›
Photo by Onnis Luque and Fabian Martinez
Toad’s House, Mexico, by Espacio 18 Arquitectura
Throughout the minimalist Toad’s House on Zapotengo Beach in Oaxaca, architecture studio Espacio 18 has left the concrete structure unfinished and exposed.
In the bar-style kitchen, the board-marked walls are teamed with glass ornaments and woven baskets, while a central island has been topped with a wooden countertop.
Find out more about Toad’s House ›
Photo by Toshiyuki Yano
House T, Japan, by Suppose Design Office
This concrete kitchen is among the purposely dark and cave-like living spaces in the monolithic home that Suppose Design Office designed for its founder in Tokyo.
Its concrete walls and worktops have tactile finishes, which stand against a backdrop of large stone floor tiles and wooden furnishings.
Find out more about ›
Photo by Aisling McCoy
Hollybrook Road, Ireland, by TOB Architect
Irish studio TOB Architect designed this concrete kitchen extension to evoke the feeling of “being a child under a very robust table”.
It was cast in situ as one geometric form with the goal of creating a seamless and cavernous look inside. The architect chose an otherwise restrained material palette of terrazzo, walnut and Accoya wood in an effort to retain focus on the texture of the concrete.
Find out more about Hollybrook Road ›
Photo by Daniela Mac Adden
Casa Golf, Argentina, by Luciano Kruk
Another concrete kitchen by architect Luciano Kruk is found in Casa Golf, a holiday home on the Argentinian coastline.
Paired with black cabinets and extractor ducting, its dark-grey surfaces add texture to the space without distracting from the outward views framed by the variety of windows that line the space.
Find out more about Casa Golf ›
This is the latest in our lookbooks series, which provides visual inspiration from Dezeen’s archive. Other recent editions showcase airy balconies, marble bathrooms and gallery interiors.
Raw concrete surfaces are softened by timber and plenty of daylight inside these Mexican houses, rounded up here as part of our latest lookbook.
Many of these brutalist interiors leave their concrete shells exposed and their cavernous rooms largely unadorned.
But freed of the constraints posed by frigid temperatures, they also create a greater connection to the outside, whether overlooking Puerto Escondido’s wave-swept beaches or nestled in the bustling metropolis of Mexico City.
Here, concrete surfaces help to create a sense of seamlessness between indoor and outdoor spaces – often separated only by removable partitions – while unfinished natural materials, such as wood or stone, are brought into the interior.
This is the latest in our lookbooks series, which provides visual inspiration from Dezeen’s archive. For more inspiration see previous lookbooks featuring homes with exposed services, primary-coloured living spaces and houses with outdoor showers.
Photo by Rory Gardiner
Casa Alférez, Cañada De Alferes, by Ludwig Godefroy
Tucked away in the forest outside Cañada De Alferes near Mexico City, this brutalist holiday home has a board-formed concrete shell.
This is left on display throughout its entire interior, all the way down to the bedrooms (top image) and the double-height lounge (above).
To bring a sense of homeliness to its otherwise spartan living spaces, architect Ludwig Godefroy added warm wooden floors and lush pops of green – as seen across upholstery and lighting fixtures.
Find out more about Casa Alférez ›
Photo by Onnis Luque and Fabian Martinez
La Casa del Sapo, Playa Zapotengo, by Espacio 18 Arquitectura
The kitchen of this seafront home – set right on Oaxaca’s Zapotengo beach – can be merged with its neighbouring patio using a wide wooden folding door.
All-around concrete helps to underline this fusion, while also serving a practical function in the form of a kitchen island and matching shelves.
Find out more about La Casa del Sapo ›
Photo by César Béjar
The Hill in Front of the Glen, Morelia, by HW Studio
Reminiscent of the Hobbit houses in JRR Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings, this sunken home is nestled into a hillside in the forests of Michoacán in central Mexico.
The building’s interiors are defined by its concrete vaulted ceilings, which can be seen in every room, while log benches and full-height glazing provide a visual link to the woodland outside.
Find out more about The Hill in Front of the Glen ›
Photo by Rory Gardiner
Casa Mérida, Mérida, by Ludwig Godefroy
Mayan architecture and craftsmanship informed the design of this otherwise brutalist house in Yucatán state, which is considered the capital of the indigenous civilisation.
The home’s perimeter walls, for example, have joints covered in stone splinters that take cues from the design of Mayan pyramids and temples. These are left exposed on the interior alongside the concrete ceilings, creating a rich medley of architectural references.
Find out more about Casa Mérida ›
Photo by Rafael Gamo
Pachuca Apartments, Mexico City, by PPAA
Concrete slabs pave both the patio and living spaces in this Mexico City house to create a sense of continuity, only separated by a full-height glass wall that can be completely pushed open.
On the interior, the rough concrete finishes are contrasted with details in American white oak, among them a long dining table as well as a staircase with treads that slot into a huge bookshelf.
Find out more about Pachuca Apartments ›
Photo by Dane Alonso and Mariano Renteria Garnica
Casa UC, Morelia, by Daniela Bucio Sistos
Neutral colours and tactile materials are found throughout this home in the city of Morelia, including raw concrete ceilings and floors finished in a honey-toned tropical timber called caobilla.
In the library, the same wood was also used to form integrated shelves and a huge porthole window that can be pivoted open and closed like a door.
Find out more about Casa UC ›
Photo by Sandra Pereznieto
Casa Aguacates, Valle de Bravo, by Francisco Pardo
Mexican architect Francisco Pardo repurposed the pinewood formwork used in the process of constructing this concrete house to form a series of partition walls throughout the home.
The resulting interior layout is simple and fluid and centres on an open-plan kitchen, dining area and living room that open up onto a sunken garden.
Find out more about Casa Aguacates ›
Photo by Rory Gardiner
Zicatela, Puerto Escondido, by Emmanuel Picault and Ludwig Godefroy
Set in the small surf town of Puerto Escondido, this weekend home accommodates its main living areas inside a covered patio and is made almost entirely of concrete.
The only exceptions are the doors and sliding louvred wood screens that can be used to open the space up to the gardens on either side, as well as a few sparse furnishings such as the low-slung dining table, which is made from a cross-sectioned tree trunk.
Find out more about Zicatela ›
This is the latest in our lookbooks series, which provides visual inspiration from Dezeen’s archive. For more inspiration see previous lookbooks featuring homes with exposed services, primary-coloured living spaces and houses with outdoor showers.
Multidisciplinary studio Design ni Dukaan has completed a house in Gujarat, India, with a board-formed concrete exterior walls that wrap the home and define courtyard spaces.
Located on a remote site in the municipality of Himmatnagar, the studio designed the undulating enclosing walls as a “second skin” informed by the spaces within.
Board-formed concrete walls wrap the home
“Situated on a mound, the citadel-like compound is bound by peripheral walls comprising two curved and two straight surfaces that are disjointed at their intersections to create points of entry or subtle exits into the adjacent landscape,” said Design ni Dukaan.
“In the absence of a strong context, we relied on the client’s brief to inspire the design, but his complete disinterest in how the house would look from the outside prompted us to question the very basis of built forms,” it continued. “This caused a shift in our perception that resulted in an inside-out approach to the design, wherein the experience of space from within took precedence over the external form.”
The enclosing wall curves towards the main entrance
Two concrete walls curve towards a main entrance that is covered by a concrete canopy and leads to a central courtyard space.
The kitchen, formal living and dining room, secondary kitchen and dining room, two main bedroom suites and three additional bedroom suites are arranged around this central open space.
Set back from the courtyard are two additional bedroom suites, a gym and a lounge room next to an outdoor swimming pool.
A covered walkway separates interior spaces from the outdoor courtyard
A covered walkway creates a buffer between the outdoor courtyard and indoor spaces, protecting the interior from the harsh tropical sun and hot winds while letting in natural light and ventilation.
Design ni Dukaan added “frames” throughout the home, including a swing seat placed by a large opening that overlooks the courtyard.
At three points in the home, volumes rise above the height of the enclosing wall to second-floor level and accommodate an artist’s loft, attic room for the family’s grandson and a water tank.
“We imagined them as three sentinels in conversation, floating above a seamless sea of green once the vegetation had reclaimed the concrete,” said Design ni Dukaan.
Greenery was added to complement the concrete
The studio merged indoor and outdoor spaces using a material palette of textured concrete, white-plastered walls, Kota stone and greenery.
“When the vegetation eventually grows over this backdrop of grey, the boundaries between inside and outside will further dissolve and diminish any notion of form,” said Design ni Dukaan.
The central courtyard lets natural light into the home
The texture of the concrete walls was created by unbolted wooden formwork and the imperfections in its finish informed material choices elsewhere in the house.
“The unpredictable but beautiful texture caused by the shifting and warping of unbolted wooden formwork was fascinating,” said the studio.
“We decided to embrace these ‘anticipated imperfections’ as part of the construction process, even extending this choice to the use of other materials such as the flooring in the corridors, which utilises strips of leftover stone from the interiors to mimic the pattern of the concrete walls.”
The home was designed to entertain guests
The neutral colours of the concrete, stone and white walls are punctuated by terracotta-coloured accents, including swimming pool tiles, seating and sculptural objects.
More playful colours were used in some of the bathrooms, which have monochrome green, blue or golden finishes.
The studio added terracotta-coloured accents
The home was designed for the residents to entertain guests, with a formal lounge opening onto a lawn and a movie theatre in the basement. The house also has a mandir with a depiction of the deity Shreenathji engraved in black granite.
Other examples of concrete homes in India that use central courtyards to keep interior spaces cool in the hot summers include a house in Bharuch designed by Samira Rathod Design Atelier and a home in Chennai by Matharoo Associates.
Spotted: Most of us are aware of the environmental harm cause by the use of concrete – around 8 per cent of all global carbon emissions are due to the use of this common material. Given the ubiquity of its use, it’s clear that achieving net zero is going to involve somehow reducing the impact of concrete and its main component – cement. Finnish company Carbonaide is working to achieve this with a carbon-negative concrete.
Concrete is a mixture of aggregate (small stones), and a paste made from cement and water. Through a chemical reaction, the cement and water hardens and gains strength to form concrete. The problem is that creating cement requires heating limestone and other ingredients to a very high heat – which takes a lot of energy. Carbonaide’s solution involves the development of an efficient method to bind carbon dioxide into precast concrete using an automated system.
This method operates at atmospheric pressure and reduces the amount of cement required to produce concrete. The company claims its technology can halve the CO2 emissions of traditional Portland cement-based concrete. In addition, the precast concrete component can include industrial side streams, such as industry slags and bio-ash, further reducing the carbon footprint.
The company’s process can permanently store and remove CO2 from the carbon cycle – making it carbon negative. Tapio Vehmas, CEO of Carbonaide, explains that the company has, “demonstrated in the pilot unit that our technology is capable of reducing the CO2 emissions of conventional concrete by 45 per cent. Last autumn, we demonstrated lowering our products’ carbon footprint to -60 kg/m3 by replacing Portland cement with slag.”
At Springwise, we have seen a wide range of innovations that focus on reducing the environmental impact of concrete. These have included a concrete designed to be covered in moss, to provide cleaner air, and a carbon-negative cement that uses rocks instead of limestone.
Concrete, the most widely used construction material on the planet, has a serious pollution problem. Accounting for about 7% of carbon emissions per year (approximately 2.8 gigatons of CO2), if concrete were a country it would rank third behind China and the United States in terms of total emissions. Concrete, used to construct roads, bridges, homes, and monuments for centuries, needs to change to mitigate the effects of climate change. Fortunately, a variety of new, green concrete options are emerging to lower the embodied carbon of homes and buildings and help achieve global climate goals.
Concrete carbon emissions come from cement
Concrete is made of cement, water, and aggregates (such as crushed stone, sand, and gravel), as well as chemical admixtures to increase durability, workability, or resilience to environmental factors.
The cement is usually made of clay, limestone, or iron ore and serves as the main binder of concrete. Portland cement, the most common type of cement, forms by heating limestone and clay to blistering temperatures, which produces clinker—a dense, hard substance that’s then ground into a fine powder to form cement. This formation process is extremely energy intensive and requires the burning of coal, oil, and other fossil fuels. Additionally, when limestone is heated, it produces quicklime, releasing CO2 as a byproduct. Altogether, this produces the equivalent of 0.98 tons of CO2 per ton of clinker, of which 0.46 tons are attributable to fuel combustion (source: EPA 2010). That’s gigatons of carbon emissions annually!
Mass timber could become a key tool in reducing waste from the construction industry, GXN partner Lasse Lind tells Dezeen in this interview for our Timber Revolution series.
GXN was founded in 2007 as the research arm of Copenhagen-based architecture studio 3XN.
GXN looks at circular and low-carbon design, behavioural design – including the social aspect of buildings – and technologies that can help the industry transition to a more sustainable future.
Use of timber “exploded”
Its use of timber has “exploded” recently, with around half of its buildings now having a significant element of wood in their structure, up from almost none five years ago, Lind said.
“We’ve always been very interested in materials and material technology,” Lind told Dezeen.
“Our material focus has evolved to change over the years and now we’re extremely focused on recyclability, recycled content, low-carbon, natural biogenic materials – that is our absolute focus.”
Above: Lasse Lind is a partner at GXN. Top: A CLT-framed hotel on Bornholm is among the studio’s projects. Photo by Adam Mørk
The majority of the studio’s work at the moment is in mass timber, which Lind says has many advantages over other building materials.
“The first one is obviously lower carbon, which is a big advantage, and the fact that it’s kind of regenerative as a material,” he said.
“There are other aspects as well, which are related to build-ability,” he added. “Timber tends to be lighter than, for example, concrete construction. So you need less transport and, in principle, fewer crane lifts.”
Timber helps you “close the loop on waste”
The fact that everything is prefabricated when it comes to mass-timber construction also means it is possible to work with more precise tolerances and cut down on waste, according to Lind.
In a recent project, a full-timber hotel extension on the island of Bornholm, Denmark, the studio even used offcuts from the cross-laminated timber (CLT) used for the building to create furniture and furnishings.
“You don’t have a lot of waste, potentially, in the production,” he said. “Especially if you think about it like we did in the prototype on Bornholm, where we used all the offcuts for furniture – you can actually close the loop on waste in the production chain a bit.”
The studio’s use of timber has “exploded”. Photo by Paul Casselman
As part of its research in this area, GXN is also experimenting with using offcuts from CLT boards as slabs in its buildings.
“You would have to live with the fact that it’s different thicknesses and you would have to look at the grid because if it’s offcut materials, you cannot get everything in eight metres,” he said.
“You have to have some substructure to accommodate a variety of sizes, so you need to spend a little bit more energy on the substructure but then you can actually use these offcuts as actual slabs.”
At the moment, the addition of concrete to the slabs is one of the things that makes it hard to design fully reversible timber buildings.
“In larger timber structures, where you have slabs, the standard practice is to cast everything out due to sound and vibration,” Lind explained.
“So essentially, if you have a timber slab, you cast a screed of concrete on top, and that actually messes up the reversibility of a lot of the structure,” he added.
GXN has attempted to create buildings that use alternatives to concrete slabs, including a version that saw the studio use egg crates filled with sand instead of the slabs.
“What we tried to do on the project on Bornholm is to have these crates and fill them with granite dust, waste production from granite, but the engineers wouldn’t sign off on it, unfortunately, so we weren’t able to do that for that project,” Lind said.
“But we are doing a building right now where we are getting rid of that concrete screed,” he continued.
“It’s something we’re always aware of when we’re building with timber – if we can get away from that detail, we’d like to, because it’s a small detail but it messes up the reversibility of the whole structure.”
Carbon budget “structures the discussion”
Lind believes that in the future, we will see a lot of hybrid timber systems as the industry figures out when wood is best to use.
“We [need to] figure out what timber is really good for, what concrete is really good for and what steel is really good for,” he said.
“The approach should be to minimise the use of concrete and steel, but there are just parts of a building where [those materials] makes more sense,” he added.
“I’m very interested that we use materials where they are best, and I think there are a lot of places where we could easily replace concrete or steel with timber.”
The Lemvig climate centre features a wavy wooden facade. Photo by Adam Mørk
To help minimise carbon emissions, GXN sets carbon budgets for each of its projects that vary depending on the type of project and country it’s built in.
“The one thing we always try to do is bring a carbon budget, because it puts carbon up for discussion with every material choice and in that sense, it structures the discussion, like a financial budget does,” Lind said.
As timber buildings become more popular, Lind believes that as well as having an impact on carbon emissions, the material will also impact the way that buildings look, behave and feel.
“I think we will begin to explore, as designers, the vocabulary of what we can do, which I think will be very interesting,” he said.
“I don’t think it will be the same as architecture was 50 years ago when we kind of discovered the computer, but if you think about it, there are a lot of really creative half-timber buildings in Europe that have all kinds of weird ornaments and shapes and forms,” he added.
But though the use of timber and mass-timber is becoming more popular, there are still challenges facing architects when designing timber buildings. One of these is conveying the safety of the buildings to insurance companies.
“What we’re seeing as a challenge for timber buildings right now is generally insurance, because it’s a different material from what people usually use,” Lind said.
“We often find that insurers need to get on board and understand that it’s different. Because you can secure timber buildings, you can build them in a way where they are safe to operate and they’re safe as an asset, but there is a degree of scepticism from insurers.”
Designers should love timber’s “natural patina”
There are also sometimes regulatory difficulties as fire safety rules are often based on buildings made from steel or concrete.
“Inherently timber structures burn in a different way than steel or concrete does,” Lind said.
“And you can build safely with timber, but the way that you measure and regulate it needs to be different because it’s not steel,” he continued.
“Steel gets extremely hot and then it snaps, timber burns very slowly. It’s just a different strategy, fire-wise, that you need to apply.”
GXN uses a carbon budget for its projects. Photo by Rasmus Hjorthøj
Architects and clients also need to get used to the fact that timber is a living material, which means it will change in ways that concrete and steel buildings might not, he argued.
“There’s a certain degree of natural patina that you should love as a designer,” Lind said.
“You should love the fact that it’s a material that changes over time – it’ll change colour, maybe have some cracks, it’s not going to look the same forever,” he added.
“So there’s some aesthetical considerations that you should be able to take your client through and understand that this is a living material and performs in a different way than an inorganic material.”
The architect believes that we’re only at the beginning of seeing the possibilities of timber and mass timber.
“There are loads of things that you could do even with fairly simple timber construction; there’s a whole field of investigation that we’re getting into which will be very interesting,” Lind concluded.
This article is part of Dezeen’s Timber Revolution series, which explores the potential of mass timber and asks whether going back to wood as our primary construction material can lead the world to a more sustainable future.
Our latest lookbook explores eight bathrooms with striking concrete interiors, ranging from a Mexico City bathroom that also features a rough-hewn stone bathtub to a UK bathroom built around a “concrete sculpture”.
Concrete is a practical choice for bathroom interiors since the material is water-resistant, hardwearing and easy to clean. It can also be a decorative option – the material has a rugged, industrial look that gives bathroom interiors a brutalist feel.
This is the latest in our lookbooks series, which provides visual inspiration from Dezeen’s archive. For more inspiration see previous lookbooks featuring interiors that prove beige doesn’t have to be boring, tidy kitchens with slick storage solutions and save-saving pocket doors.
Photo by Nicholas Worley
Untitled House, UK, by Szczepaniak Astridge
This residential extension in south London was designed around a “concrete sculpture”, a concrete-walled void that travels through the house from the kitchen up to the bathroom.
Here, concrete was poured in situ to form the foundations, floors, walls and ceilings. A monolithic bathtub, also made from concrete, adds to the brutalist feel of the bathroom.
Find out more about Untitled House ›
Photo by Givlio Aristide
Cloister House, Australia, by MORQ
The almost-windowless Cloister House in Perth surrounds a plant-filled courtyard and was designed to have a sense of privacy.
Made from thick concrete, its interior walls only have thin, arrow-slit openings. In the home’s bathroom, the rammed-concrete finish of the walls was left exposed and softened with a floor made from wooden slats and a red hardwood ceiling.
Find out more about Cloister House ›
Photo by Radu Palicica
Sunken Bath, UK, by Studio 304
Sunken Bath is a glazed bathroom that local studio Studio 304 designed for a London flat to create space for Japanese ritual bathing – a relaxation practice.
The shower and toilet are separated from the concrete bathtub, which is enclosed by glass walls and a glass roof and offers views of the peaceful bamboo-filled garden.
Find out more about Sunken Bath ›
Photo by Gilbert McCarragher
House and Studio Lambeth, UK, by Carmody Groarke
Architecture office Carmody Groarke designed House and Studio Lambeth to slot inside the fabric of an old warehouse. Its design combines a brick “skin” with a smooth concrete interior.
A concrete bathroom unit finished with a large shadow gap underneath the ceiling divides one of the home’s four bedrooms. This is contrasted with a decorative marble sink and copper-hued taps and details.
Find out more about House and Studio Lambeth ›
Photo by Maxime Brouillet
Unit 622, Canada, by Rainville Sangaré
Moshe Safdie’s famous brutalist Habitat 67 in Montreal is home to this apartment, which is one of 158 homes in 354 stacked, prefabricated concrete “boxes”.
Its bathroom features a shower fronted by dichroic glass that changes colour depending on which angle it’s viewed from. Vertical concrete wall tiles were designed in a nod to the brutalist building’s structure.
Find out more about Unit 622 ›
Photo by Edmund Sumner
Pedro Reyes House, Mexico, by Pedro Reyes and Carla Fernandez
This Mexico City home was made primarily from concrete, applied in varying degrees of coarseness, and was designed for and by a Mexican sculptor and fashion designer.
In the bathroom, the sink was moulded into a shape that resembles pottery and the bathtub is made from stone to look like a rock pool. The rough-hewn shapes match the rough feel of the concrete walls and ceiling.
Find out more about Pedro Reyes House ›
Photo by BoysPlayNice
Art Villa, Costa Rica, by Formafatal and Refuel Works
The Art Villa is nestled into the Costa Rican jungle and was designed to reference the tropical landscape and buildings by architect Paulo Mendes da Rocha, which are known for their monolithic concrete forms.
The concrete walls and ceilings in its bathroom match the large stone bathtub and contrast the wood used for the floor. Large floor-to-ceiling windows offer views of the verdant countryside.
Find out more about Art Villa ›
Photo by Amy Barkow
S-M-L Loft, US, by BC–OA
Located in a cast-iron building dating from 1880 in New York’s Soho district, the S-M-L Loft draws on its past as a warehouse.
The functional, industrial vibe of the flat can also be seen in the bathroom, which has solid walnut millwork paired with raw concrete panels and white porcelain tiles.
Find out more about S-M-L Loft ›
This is the latest in our lookbooks series, which provides visual inspiration from Dezeen’s archive. For more inspiration see previous lookbooks featuring interiors that prove beige doesn’t have to be boring, tidy kitchens with slick storage solutions and save-saving pocket doors.
Undulated concrete walls form the lower portion of this Californian house by architecture studio Laney LA, while its top half is wrapped in glass and cedar.
The aptly named Scalloped Concrete House sits on a hill in the Manhattan Beach neighbourhood, just south of LAX airport, which affords the property sea views.
Its lower storey is mainly constructed from unusually formed concrete. It features a pattern of inverted curved ridges known as scalloping.
The material is exposed both on the exterior and continues across some interior walls, and “reveals its form most strikingly at each corner”, according to Laney LA.
The back of the house opens onto a pool terrace
“Like cliffs carved from water, the scalloped walls are even engrained with the faint grain of the formwork that shaped them,” said the studio. “Each piece of formwork was custom milled to accomplish the undulating form.”
Some of the concrete sections stretch up to windows on the upper level, while cedar clads any remaining areas that aren’t glass.
Minimalist millwork wraps around the kitchen
Rooms at ground level feature retractable panels that open the kitchen and living room up to a concrete pool terrace and barbecue area.
More shaded outdoor spaces are created by the deep cedar overhangs from the upper floor and the roof.
A large pocket door frames a verdant view from the dining room
A 16-foot-long (4.9-metre) pocket door frames a verdant view from the dining room.
In the kitchen, millwork hides the majority of the appliances and has no visible handles for a minimal appearance.
The staircase is sandwiched between concrete walls
Concrete forms the backsplash and countertops, as well as that of a large island that incorporates a built-in bench.
The lower level is kept private by the concrete walls, as well as strategically placed fencing and plants.
Meanwhile, the upstairs is much more open, with large windows positioned across all elevations.
Balconies that face the Pacific Ocean are accessed via full-height glass doors from the bedrooms.
The scalloped pattern is most evident at the corners of the concrete walls
“With its panoramic ocean views and echoes of that element within its own walls, the architectural language of this structure speaks to a beauty shaped by the impermanent,” said the studio.
Laney LA was founded by architect Anthony Laney and was longlisted for the Dezeen Awards 2022 in both the urban house and house interior categories for its HT Residence in California.
The cedar and glass upper floor overlooks the Pacific Ocean
The studio joins a long list of architects that have employed scalloping for their building facades, at varying scales.
Brooks + Scarpa used the pattern vertically for a supportive housing development in Los Angeles.
A flowing landscape of grass-topped, terracotta-coloured concrete animates the Chaohu Natural and Cultural Centre designed by Chinese studio Change Architects to reference mountains in Anhui province.
Commissioned by OCT Group, the centre provides a community hub and restaurant for the Bantung Hot Spring Town resort, which forms part of a new economic development zone at the foot of a mountain to the north of the city of Chaohu, China.
Change Architects has created the Chaohu Natural and Cultural Centre
Its design is informed by both mountains and wormholes, with a series of performance and restaurant spaces punctured by large openings that allow visitors to see the surrounding landscape in new ways.
“The logic of the architectural concept derived from the idea of natural elements,” explained Change Architects.
It is concealed by a flowing landscape of terracotta-coloured concrete
Winding across the site between a small lake and a path, the concrete structure incorporates walkways and viewing points and rises up at its western end to conceal a large restaurant beneath a grass-topped mound.
This artificial landscape was constructed using a steel frame, which was then covered with concrete poured in situ, and finished with a green roof and anti-slip surface finishes.
Holes and curved openings that puncture the roof create skylights and open courtyards below, where sunken areas of amphitheatre-like seating provide informal areas for outdoor performances.
The sinuous walkways provide multiple routes to the restaurant entrance, where visitors can either descend into a lounge space or move upwards towards the dining area.
Its form incorporates sinuous walkways
Once inside the restaurant, a fully-glazed wall looks out over an adjacent lake to the south. At night, the building is reflected in the water, creating a “moment where mountains, water and buildings meet”.
The dining area is housed in a rectangular form that projects from the northern side of the large mound, with a mirrored exterior designed to blend in with the surroundings and a balcony to provide views of the nearby mountains.
Holes in its surface form skylights to spaces below
The interiors of the Chaohu Natural and Cultural Centre’s restaurant are defined by smooth, white-painted concrete surfaces and extensive planting. Designed by the German-based studio Ippolito Fleitz Group, they are intended to echo the flowing form of the exterior.
Elsewhere in China, a Team BLDG created a cluster of grass-topped, artificial mounds to conceal facilities for a riverfront park in Pazhou.
