Finnish studio MNY Arkitekter has completed Two Sisters, a timber holiday home in Salo that is designed to allow two siblings to live “together separately”.
To create a dedicated space for each of the two sisters, MNY Arkitekter divided the home into two standalone units joined by a central terrace overlooking the surrounding rocks and pine trees on Finland’s west coast.
The two units are joined by a central terrace
“In many ways the site is one of typical Finnish inner archipelago terrain and vegetation, and one of the main goals was to preserve as many trees and visible rocks as possible,” MNY Arkitekter founder Mathias Nyström told Dezeen.
“Equality of the views from the two units was also important and had a significant impact on the layout.”
Each unit has large windows. Photo by Mathias Nyström
The home’s two units “fan out” to provide privacy and avoid the surrounding trees, while making space for an existing sauna, utility room and overnight shelter on the site.
Each block features large windows at its western end, looking towards the sea and pine trees to the west. Openings facing the central terrace have been placed to minimise overlooking.
Black kitchen counters feature in each living space
“Being in one of the units you can only see the other from certain points, otherwise you mostly sense the existence of the other part,” said Nyström.
“You are on your own, but feel part of a bigger entity,” he added.
Each living space at Two Sisters has been finished with black kitchen counters, a dining table and a large freestanding fireplace. Built-in bench seating provides space to sit and look out over the landscape.
In the northern block, a bed is housed in a small nook off this living space backed by a full-height window, while to the south the slightly larger unit provides a double bedroom and two single bedrooms alongside the living space.
A small bed is backed by a full-height window in the larger unit
Two Sisters has a prefabricated structure of glue-laminated timber, finished externally with vertical planks of spruce. Internally, pale timber walls, floors and ceilings are treated with lye.
“The aim for the atmosphere was to create a uniform, serene space where nature plays a big part – the end result is very uplifting,” said Nyström.
“The weathered silver-grey wood will fuse the building in the landscape with rocks and pines. All in all it is a down to earth and subtle building,” he added.
The home is constructed from glued-laminated timber
Elsewhere in Finland, MNY Arkitekter created a home on the shoreline of a small lake in Tenala using seven different varieties of timber.
Other recent projects in the country include a sauna and restaurant on the edge of Lake Saimaa by Studio Puisto and the steel-clad Dance House by JKMM and ILO architects in Helsinki.
The photography is by Multifoto Ab unless otherwise stated.
From a brutalist dwelling nestled in a pine forest to a beachy weekend retreat with a rooftop swimming pool, our latest lookbook features 10 holiday homes across Mexico.
While known for their often vibrant colours, Mexican interiors also include many examples of more muted designs. These earthy hues are often created through the use of natural and local materials, such as wood and stone.
Holiday homes are located all over the country, which has a varied landscape and is famous for its escapist destinations. Here are 10 Mexican holiday homes that combine pared-back colour palettes with getaway-style luxury.
This is the latest in our lookbooks series, which provides visual inspiration from Dezeen’s archive. For more inspiration, see previous lookbooks featuring metal furniture, breakfast nooks and living spaces with swings.
Top and above: photos by Rory Gardiner
Casa Alférez, Alférez, by Ludwig Godefroy
This holiday home is a brutalist dwelling clad in board-formed concrete and located in a pine forest in the country’s Alférez region.
French architect Ludwig Godefroy, who is Mexico City-based, added a conversation pit to the cathedral-like living area, which features a spindly double-height fireplace.
Find out more about Casa Alférez ›
Photo by LGM Studio
Holiday home, San Simón El Alto, by Estudio Atemporal
Local architecture office Estudio Atemporal designed a weekend retreat in San Simón El Alto village with an oversized gabled roof.
Inside, the studio created a statement brick wall in the angular, open-plan living space defined by timber and concrete accents. Generous glass doors lead to a covered outdoor patio.
Find out more about this holiday home ›
Photo by César Béjar
Villa Cava, Tulum, by Espacio 18 Arquitectura
Neutral tones and textures define this house in Tulum that was informed by cenotes – ancient sunken water-filled limestone pits and caves found across Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula.
Espacio 18 Arquitectura carved a circular window into one of the home’s ceilings, which reveals a rooftop swimming pool. Blue-coloured light filters through the opening, emphasising the cavernous atmosphere.
Find out more about Villa Cava ›
Photo by Diego Padilla Magallanes
La Extraviada, Mazunte, by Em-Estudio
Architecture firm Em-Estudio stepped a pair of concrete residential volumes down a rocky hillside overlooking the coastal town of Mazunte, Oaxaca.
Called La Extraviada, the holiday home includes an eclectic kitchen and dining space flanked by floor-to-ceiling timber shutters that open onto a terrace with a swimming pool.
Regional materials, including guapinol wood and local stone obtained from nearby quarries, feature throughout the earthy-hued project.
Find out more about La Extraviada ›
Photo by Fabian Martinez
Casa Tres Árboles, Valle de Bravo, by Direccion
Architecture studio Direccion took cues from “monastic” sanctuaries when renovating this weekend retreat in Valle de Bravo.
The open-plan living space includes exposed warm-toned wooden ceiling beams, which contrast against dark-painted walls. A soft-red sofa adds a rare pop of colour to the otherwise muted interiors.
Find out more about Casa Tres Árboles ›
Photo by Rory Gardiner
Los Terrenos, Monterrey, by Tatiana Bilbao
Mexican architect Tatiana Bilbao added a multifunctional ceramic screen to the interior of Los Terrenos – a holiday home in Monterrey with mirrored glass facades that reflect the surrounding wooded site.
“[The screen] works as solid and permeable floor, a screen partition, a structural wall, and as a semi-open wall that allows ventilation and sunlight to bathe the interior spaces,” explained Bilbao’s eponymous studio.
Find out more about Los Terrenos ›
Photo by Ansatz
Tonalli House, Jalisco, by Moises Sánchez
This stucco-clad holiday home was punctuated with strategic openings and takes cues from architecture commonly found in Mexican villages, according to its designer Moises Sánchez.
Sánchez created an understated interior palette referencing the nearby architecture surrounding Lake Chapa, where the home is located. For example, the blocky terrazzo staircase doubles as a stepped plinth for sandy-coloured ornaments.
Find out more about Tonalli House ›
Photo by César Béjar
Casa Areca, Tulum, by CO-LAB Design Office
Local studio CO-LAB Design Office created Casa Areca to merge with its lush Tulum setting.
The open-plan ground floor includes pivot doors and retractable glass walls, which enable the social area to flow into the jungle-like garden. Creamy walls and polished concrete floors were paired with local tzalam wood, jute accents and ceramic vases filled with hand-selected wild grasses.
Find out more about Casa Areca ›
Photo by Dove Dope
El Aguacate, El Barrial, by Práctica Arquitectura
El Aguacate – or “The Avocado” – is a holiday home in El Barrial village made almost entirely out of concrete.
Práctica Arquitectura topped the main living area with a tall pyramidal roof featuring a boxy skylight. The studio added a built-in fireplace and alter-like dining table to the space – also made from smooth concrete.
Find out more about El Aguacate ›
Photo by Rafael Gamo
Casa Cova, Puerto Escondidio, by Anonimous
When designing Casa Cova in Puerto Escondido, Mexican studio Anonimous took cues from pre-colonial architecture.
Inside, the central living space is kept cool by a traditional thatched roof made of dried palm leaves, called a “palapa.” Tiny square openings were also cut into some of the walls, creating “a dynamic light pattern from dusk till dawn”.
Find out more about Casa Cova ›
This is the latest in our lookbooks series, which provides visual inspiration from Dezeen’s archive. For more inspiration, see previous lookbooks featuring metal furniture, breakfast nooks and living spaces with swings.
A renovated 1970s bungalow with “kitsch character” and a greenhouse that doubles as a living room feature in Casamontesa – a weekend home designed by Spanish studio Lucas y Hernández Gil.
The project began when a couple asked the studio to overhaul a single-storey house that was once part of a hotel complex on the outskirts of Madrid.
The renovated bungalow and a multifunctional greenhouse (above) make up Casamontesa
The brief later expanded to include a multifunctional greenhouse that can be used as a workspace, a guest bedroom, a gym or simply as a garden room.
Lucas y Hernández Gil, led by architects Cristina Domínguez Lucas and Fernando Hernández-Gil Ruano, developed a distinct character for each building.
The main house is a bungalow built in the 1970s
Casamontesa’s renovated bungalow has a warm, playful style that draws on the 1970s aesthetic while the garden pavilion has a more utilitarian feel.
“The owners, a young urban couple who love design and live and work in the centre of Madrid, were looking for a functional and compact getaway within a fantastic garden,” Lucas told Dezeen.
“They wanted a very comfortable and flexible home that would be useful for both working and getting together with friends.”
The interior centres around a new kitchen island
The bungalow renovation involved simplifying the interior layout to create a combined kitchen, dining room and living room, with a bedroom and bathroom off to one side.
“The house, in addition to being small, was very compartmentalised,” explained Lucas.
The materials palette includes pink marble and handmade tiles
To unify the newly open-plan living space, the designers installed an island that serves as a worktop, dining table and social gathering place.
This island features a countertop made from Portuguese pink marble while its sides are covered in the same handmade burgundy tiles that line an adjacent window recess.
An arched fireplace provides a focal point in the living room
“The rest of the surfaces – Campaspero stone floors and waxed tinted plaster walls – establish a dialogue by contrast with the colourful and shiny surface of the tiles,” added Lucas.
Key details in the living room include an arched fireplace and a tadelakt plaster coffee table, while the bedroom features semi-circular marble nightstands.
For Casamontesa’s garden room, the design team customised a prefabricated greenhouse.
A pergola extends the building volume outwards in a bid to blur the boundary between inside and out, and is topped with wooden blinds to provide shade.
A pergola extends the width of the greenhouse
A wooden box on wheels provides an additional bedroom, described as a “small Shigeru Ban-style mobile room”.
Other additions include thermal curtains and an automatic shading and ventilation system, which allow for versatile use of the space throughout the year.
A “Shigeru Ban-style mobile room” provides an additional sleeping space
“By complementing the programme of the original bungalow, a more complete and flexible program is achieved, overcoming the limitations of a weekend house,” added Lucas.
Other recent projects by Lucas y Hernández Gil include a bar featuring extreme colour blocking and an apartment with a hidden closet.
Mexican architect María José Gutiérrez has placed a series of round, pine-clad cabins connected by suspended bridges onto a vineyard in Mexico to serve as vacation rentals.
Located in Valle de Guadalupe, Ensenada on the Baja Peninsula, Zeuhary Hospedaje Campestre includes a community lounge and four vacation rental cabins.
Top: photo by Martin Acevedo. Above: the cabins are located in Baja California, Mexico. Photo by Jonatan Ruvalcaba Maciel
“Beyond creating spaces we aim to create experiences, where nature and human beings integrate and recognize each other,” María José Gutiérrez, who leads Mexican studio Arqos Arquitectura Arte Y Diseño, told Dezeen.
“The architecture and interior design were focused on connecting with the environment and maintaining harmony with it.”
Central bedrooms feature in the round buildings
Completed in June 2022, the 250 square metres (2,690 square feet) of built area is divided into five 40-square metre (430-square foot) structures that look outward to the surrounding wine region.
The ground floor of each cabin is divided orthogonally, splitting off a portion for a partially covered exterior porch that leads into the sleeping space through a glass sliding door.
Their interiors are sectioned into bathrooms along one side
The interiors were sectioned into a bathroom along one side, a central bedroom and a kitchenette tucked behind the headboard wall.
“In the furniture and interior decoration, we used organic materials from the region and different areas of the country, earth tones and grey contrasts, crafts, natural fibers, textiles, local wood and stone, recognizing Mexican handicraft talent and tradition,” the studio said.
“The chukum finish on the interior walls gives an organic texture and helps keep the interiors cool in summer, while the exterior coating of recycled pine wood allows the cabins to be thermally insulated in both winter and summer for greater energy efficiency.”
Small private gardens feature round jacuzzis
The cabins are all rotated to face a particular northern or eastern view without compromising privacy for the occupants.
A small planted garden protected by a grey wall rings a quarter of each plan, terminated by a private in-ground jacuzzi, connected to the cabin by a wooden deck with planks that align with the vertical cladding boards as if the facade radiates down the wall and along the ground.
Rooftop terraces are included atop each cabin
Up a delicate metal spiral staircase with wooden treads, the round plan becomes a rooftop terrace complete with a rope net set into the roof of the porch like an integrated hammock.
A free-swinging wooden bridge with rope netting guard rails is suspended from the roof of each cabin and leads to the roof of the common area, allowing guests to congregate in a central location.
“The circular floor plan of the cabins, together with their transition spaces such as the hanging bridges, wooden paths and spiral staircases generate fluid and dynamic routes which allow us to reconnect with ourselves and awaken our inner child through play and movement,” the studio said.
In addition to the material selection that responds thermally to the environment, the design works to preserve what little water the agricultural region has, reusing grey water for the irrigation of the vineyards.
Zeuhary Hospedaje Campestre is positioned within a vineyard
Other cabins recently completed in Mexico include a house deconstructed and separated for glamping within a forest in Nuevo León by S-AR and a brutalist cube-shaped holiday home tucked into a pine forest in Alférez by Ludwig Godefroy.
The photography is by Jonatan Ruvalcaba Maciel unless otherwise stated.
Project credits:
Architect: María José Gutiérrez Engineering and construction: Specialized Urban Services
A 200-year-old stable building in the mountains of Ibiza has been converted into a vacation home by local studio Ibiza Interiors.
The Atelier is one of four dwellings that make up Campo – a group of rentable guesthouses set in a finca, or farmstead, in the island’s Morna Valley.
Campo Atelier is located in a renovated dry-stone stable building
Ibiza Interiors founder Jurjen Van Hulzen has renovated these buildings one by one to enhance their original features and create a series of tranquil getaway spots.
“Nestled between carob and orange trees, the Atelier […] appears at the end of the path as a haven of peace,” said the Dutch architect, who founded the studio in 2014.
The main space is designed for flexible use
The single-storey dry-stone structure is typical of the local vernacular but now features a large retractable glass wall across its front.
A polished concrete patio continues inside, where exposed timber ceiling beams and wooden doors complement the neutral colour palette.
“Textures and styles are not afraid to cohabit and the emphasis is on the interplay between old and contemporary, elegant and rustic,” said Van Hulzen.
A small kitchenette with wood-panelled cupboards matches the doors on either side
The main space contains a small kitchenette on one side and a dining table that doubles as a workspace on the other.
A seating area comprising low, comfy sofas is positioned towards the back.
The minimally furnished bedroom includes built-in storage
The interior is designed to be as flexible as possible, with all of the furniture except the kitchen counters moveable to provide space for exercise or meditation.
Equally, the linen curtains can be drawn and the sofas reoriented for watching movies on a projected screen.
The bedroom is minimally furnished but guests can store their belongings within built-in closets while another glass door opens to the exterior.
In the bathroom, lit from above by a skylight, a large tub made of dark stone is accented with matte black hardware.
In the bathroom, a grey stone tub is illuminated by a skylight
The landscaping around the Atelier was designed by Ibiza Exteriors, a new offshoot of Ibiza Interiors created by Van Hulzen and Alicia Uldall.
The pair chose local flora attuned to the island’s climate that requires minimal maintenance such as stipa grasses, aloe, rosemary and mastic trees.
The 200-year-old building sits on a hillside, with its flat roof accessible via stairs
Deep steps lead up to the flat roof that serves as a picnic or sunbathing spot overlooking the valley. The dining table and chairs can also be brought outside for al fresco dining among the vegetation.
“Like the Atelier, the garden preserves the wild essence of this land and its genuine beauty,” Van Hulzen said.
The dining table can be brought outdoors for al fresco meals
Better known for its party scene, Ibiza is becoming ever more popular as a wellness and relaxation destination – particularly away from its coast.
Many of the island’s historic fincas have been converted into secluded accommodations including the remote Aguamadera resort and the members-only retreat La Granja.
