Create an ideabook for your next remodeling project!
Browse more than 1,000,000 photos from top designers and save your favorites
Landscape Design
Top Ideabooks
- How to Turn a Side Yard Into a Glorious Garden Room
- How Low Can Hedges Go? Discover Unusual Garden Borders
- 5 Essential Considerations for a Landscape Design Project
- 6 Driveway Looks Take Landscapes Along for the Ride
- 11 Perfect Plants for a Moonlit Garden — in Pots
- 8 Modern-Day Moats That Float Our Boats
5 Unique Homes Throw the Landscape a Curve
Swooping house plans cradle views, reflect their owners' one-of-a-kind style
Houzz Contributor. I am an architect and writer living in New York City. I have Bachelor of Architecture and Master in Urban Planning degrees, and over ten years experience in architectural practice, split between Chicago and NYC. Currently I'm focused on writing and online pursuits. My daily blog can be found at http://archidose.blogspot.com
Houzz Contributor. I am an architect and writer living in New York City.... More »
Perhaps the most uncommon shape for residential floor plans is the curve. Many factors make this an unusual way to build a house — namely expense, complexity, and having enough land to execute such a shape. But regardless of the difficulty in building something with curves instead of all straight lines, a number of such houses can be found on Houzz. Unlike linear and U-shaped plans, these examples illustrate a wide variety of reasons for their shapes. I'm guessing the residents are as idiosyncratic as the houses they inhabit.
| Like it? Save it to your Ideabook »
|
| This residence on a prominent site overlooking the Pacific Ocean is horseshoe-shape in plan. Curving on the inside and outside faces, the house looks in both directions: in to a courtyard and out to the ocean. Next, take a look inside. |
| Like it? Save it to your Ideabook »
|
| At the entrance, the inside of the house is open to the forecourt, but it closes off a view of the courtyard. One must follow the curve to have this central cradled space revealed to them. |
Like it? Save it to your Ideabook »
Still in the horseshoe house, we can see how the circulation gently follows the curve. I like how different materials are used for either side: Rough stone delineates the inside curve, while bands of wood sit opposite. The clerestory windows hint at the courtyard to the left and the other rooms borrowing light to the right.
| Like it? Save it to your Ideabook »
|
| At one end of the horseshoe is a living space open on both sides. This space overlooks both the courtyard and the ocean. |
Like it? Save it to your Ideabook »
A more compact curving house is found here, where the focus is clearly on the pool. A generous terrace overlooks the pool, which is also curved in plan. Next, see another view.
Like it? Save it to your Ideabook »
Even if many of the materials are made up of straight or planar pieces — wood planks, glass panes, mullions, railings, etc. — the constructed radius of the roof allows this side of the house to be read as curving. This line is prominent outside and inside, as we'll see next.
Like it? Save it to your Ideabook »
The line of the curving roof outside extends inside and is capped by clerestory windows, a nice means of connecting interior and exterior. Note the elliptical glow in the distance ...
Like it? Save it to your Ideabook »
That glow comes from a circular oculus over the round kitchen sink. So even in an orthogonal corner of the house, the curving motif is picked up, a reminder of the curve by the pool.
| Like it? Save it to your Ideabook »
|
| Similar to the previous example, this house has railings following a curve. But in this case they are found on a second-floor roof terrace. Get a closer view, next. |
| Like it? Save it to your Ideabook »
|
| Here we see the curving portion in the foreground, but it's apparent the house is an L-shaped plan with the curve filling in the corner of the "L." This creates that roof terrace and also brings the rooms towards the lake that the house overlooks. |
Like it? Save it to your Ideabook »
No, this is not a curve, but note how the kink of this plan relates to the curves of the previous two houses. By bending a house, it creates a sense of enclosure and focus; in many cases it helps relate to the site, both immediate and distant.
by DWYER DESIGN
»
Like it? Save it to your Ideabook »
This last example, the aptly named Radius House, dates back to 1960 and is directly influenced by Frank Lloyd Wright's curvilinear houses. The curve is used to give maximum exposure to the trees around the house. Next, let's take a look inside.
|
by DWYER DESIGN
»
Like it? Save it to your Ideabook »
|
| While the exterior looks out through glass walls to the trees, the interior is focused on a structural column. The wood beams radiating from this spot make the shape of the house clear, as well as one's position within the plan. More: The L-Shaped House Plan The U-Shaped House Plan Living La Vida Linear |
Comments
Lucy Le Pera Last one by Dwyer Design. It's spectacular!
18 months ago · Like
vah27 the first is amazing - one of my favourites on houzz!
18 months ago · Like
dmui2004 Can't pick just one. I vote for the first and the last. Based on design to allow the outdoors in. ... Love them both. But if I had to pick it would be on location. House one would get my vote.
18 months ago · Like
Jean-Yves Mesnil new brilliant presentation :-)
18 months ago · Like
Margaret Eaton Here's one from UK - http://sharetv.org/shows/grand_designs_uk/episodes/597653. 
18 months ago · Like
Laura Warburton gorgeous, thoroughly embrace the curved feel of each space, warms and makes it so much more interesting
18 months ago · Like
steve2426 Very nice professional integration of modern homes and the landscape
18 months ago · Like
kelly57 Well done. I really enjoyed every house.
18 months ago · Like
poorgirl wow, what a great presentation, beautiful places. My fav. is the 1st and the last . Thanks somuch for sharing this.
12 months ago · Like
Ideabook updated on Dec. 2, 2011.
What are you working on?
News From Our Partners
Latest Ideabooks
People found the photos in this ideabook after searching for:
View over a million photos:
