In the context of architecture, Frank Lloyd Wright is often credited with having pioneered the concept of designing cool houses that are inserted into natural landscapes. It is without a doubt that this concept was pioneered by Wright.
The serene Fallingwater house in Mill Run, Pennsylvania, might seem to be a compelling argument for living naturally surrounded by nature, and since it was built in 1935, many architects have taken a page out of Wright’s book in order to design their own homes based on Wright’s design.
Moreover, even though Wright’s revolution occurred so many decades ago, technology has since made it possible to complete seemingly impossible projects. A superbly modern cross-shaped residence carved into a giant rock in the Saudi Arabian desert to a glass box constructed on the edge of a Canadian cliff, these special homes seem more like works of art than mere residences.
Check Out 10 Supremely Modern Architectural Homes
We will take a look at 10 modern architectural homes that are designed in a way to coexist with nature in a very harmonious way.
1) Frey II House, Palm Springs, California
The largest collection of homes from the mid-century era can be found in Palm Springs, despite the fact that there are mid-century homes all over the world. As an example, let us take a look at the Frey II house. The residence, which served as Albert Frey’s long-term residence for many years, was named for the Palm Springs native who designed it, American architect Albert Frey.
Tahquitz Canyon Way runs west from the west end of the house. It was built into the hillside there. Frey House II was the architect’s second home in Palm Springs, completed in 1964, and he moved in after the house was completed.
2) Mountain House, British Columbia, Canada
In a scenic stretch of land off the eastern coast of Vancouver, Iranian architect Milad Eshtiyaghi designed a building she calls the Mountain House, nestled between four preexisting trees that added a bit of color to the rocky cliffs on Quadra Island. Despite the fact that there is quite a number of levels in the complex residence in the mountains, it is very well organized: There are specific areas for the parents and others for their son and his family, as well as a recreation area that connects the two sections.
3) Fallingwater House, Mill Run, Pennsylvania
As one of the most famous architects of the Mid-Century Modern movement, Frank Lloyd Wright deserves his place among its legends. There are many of his buildings that are considered to be some of the most recognizable from that period in architecture, including the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York City, Unity Temple Oak Park, and his own winter home in Scottsdale, Arizona.
The Fallingwater house, however, is probably his most famous work as it is built over a waterfall that exists naturally on Bear Run, making it one of the most popular houses he designed.
4) Joshua Tree, California
The architect Kendrick Bangs Kellogg made a few notes while the architect Frank Lloyd Wright was overseeing his work. Taking into account the difficult terrain of Joshua Tree, the Kellog “Doolittle House” took nearly two decades to complete for the artist Bev Doolittle and her husband Jay Doolittle as a result of the difficult terrain of the area.
Even though the Doolittle House has been described as having a UFO-like vibe from the outside, it has reportedly been described as surprisingly warm and cozy—especially once you step inside it.
5) Sheats-Goldstein Residence, Los Angeles, California
Located in Los Angeles, the Sheats-Goldstein residence by John Lautner was designed between 1961 and 1963, at the peak of the modernist design movement in the U.S., for a sandstone ledge of a hillside on the hillside. Lautner has managed to create a completely unexpected structure, designed from the inside out to prioritize the views of the valley beneath it, much in the way he has designed homes in the past. Since he didn’t want the house to disrupt the forest in which it stands, he kept the exterior architecture almost cave-like and covered it in glass.
6) Suspended House, Mendocino, California
The Iranian architect Milad Eshtiyaghi has proved that she doesn’t have a fear of heights in spite of her myriad houses in the air. As the name suggests, this home can be viewed hanging off the edge of a cliff in Mendocino, and it was purposefully designed with a touch of fear and a lot of excitement for its residents.
The fact that the house is so connected to nature around it means that even within a house like this, there is still a sense of calm because you are so close to it. The home was built using a cable system so that it won’t slide off the cliff if the wind picked up. The elevated cables support the weight of the house, while the lower ones withstand winds that blow upwards and down.
7) Maralah, Calgary, Canada
Maralah, designed by LAAV Architects, is raw concrete, glass, and black steel isolation cabin and a tribute to the architectures of Frank Lloyd Wright and John Lautner. A delicate structure has been created by the architects that appears both submerged inside a rocky cliff as well as cantilevered off the edge of the cliff. Among the 145 square feet of living space in the house, perhaps the best room is the bedroom, which provides a direct view of the blue-hued Bow River that flows below the house.
In spite of the fact that Maralah looks like a perfect square from the outside, it actually seems like it’s a part of the cliff from certain angles, with a gentle ruggedness throughout. This building blends seamlessly into its surroundings due to its sloping, almost covered roof.
8) Malin House, Los Angeles, California
There is no doubt that John Lautner is one of the most daring architects of the Mid-Century Modernist movement. Despite the fact that most of the unique projects are scattered around the Golden State, Los Angeles has the largest collection. One of his most famous creations is the Malin House, referred to lovingly as the Chemosphere for the reason that it was designed for aerospace engineer Leonard Malin, who was one of his clients.
Furthermore, the one-story Chemosphere appears to balance on a 29-foot tall, five-foot-wide concrete column, the vertical portion of which is pitched into a steeply sloping hillside. From the windows located on all four sides of the building, you will be able to see the San Fernando Valley, which is almost as impressive as the outrageous architecture.
9) Bridge House, Vancouver, Canada
The bright white home that Milad Eshtiyaghi designed above a chasm separating two cliffs in Vancouver was designed with a contemporary bridge in mind. In contrast to a traditional two-story house, this home is characterized by the fact that it has air flowing between its floors, which can be accessed via two sets of external stairs and an elevator. If there are any of you wondering what the aqua-colored glass on the roof is, then we can tell you that it is a rooftop pool.
10) Cliff House in Thunder Cove, Prince Edward Island, Canada
Incredibly beautiful views of the nearby red rock mountains can be enjoyed from a box-like residence perched within two matte black brackets. Despite the fact that Milad Eshtiyaghi designed this residence to look simple, it is actually quite complicated: On the roof, there is a wide expanse of space for sunbathing; beneath the house is a structure with a glass floor, which allows you to appreciate the view from the inside; and on either end of the house, there are floor-to-ceiling windows on both ends of the house.