Giles Pike Architects adds stepped glass extension to the Victorian house in South London

Giles Pike Architects has expanded this house in Putney, southwest of London, using glass walls to flood the new basement living areas with natural light.

Giles Pike Architects designed the stepped extension of a Victorian townhouse to create an open-plan living, kitchen and dining room.

The architects dug terrain at the back of the Felsham Road property to extend the basement and remove the rear side wall. A new two-story brick wall was added along the site boundary to take full advantage of the overall site width.

"Our writing was to expand and improve the property to reach its full potential and in doing so, we have exploited the volume inside the house to create double height spaces," said the architects.

"This was achieved by extending the basement areas and linking it with the ground floor and the first floors."

Glazing bridges the gap between the flat roof of a floor volume and the smaller brick structure on the second floor to make a long clerestory window.

A large skylight is also interwoven between the volume of brick and the wall of the two-story boundary, where it illuminates a staircase leading to a mezzanine level that dominates the space.

"The generous volumes plus the increase in natural light that we have brought to the house with the large areas of clear glass without frame combine to make this a spectacular home equipped for modern family life," said the architects.

The combined kitchen and dining area open to the garden, while the living room occupies an alcove in the back of the space.

Here, a door leads through the existing basement, which is now occupied by a bedroom and en-suite bathroom.

Simple finishes complement the exposed brick wall - dark wood covers the floor and the walls are painted white, while the kitchen cabinets and cabinets are painted a charcoal gray.

Tom Pike and Matt Giles founded their practice based at Battersea Giles Pike Architects in 2008 and have since completed a number of residential projects in the capital including converting a Victorian workshop into a home and a wooden residence designed for a small plot .

The photograph is by Logan McDougall.

Specht Architects orients New Mexico's built-in home to desert views

Glazing in this Santa Fe concrete home by the American studio Specht Architects offers sweeping views of the distant mountains while casting shadow patterns across the interior walls.

The Sundial House is located in the characteristic landscape of the northern cities of New Mexico - wavy and arid terrain that reaches into the nearby mountains.

To meet the height restrictions of the region for buildings, the architects built the house on a sunken plane. From the road, a slabbed walkway passes through a terrace and through a stairway to an entrance into the courtyard.

Both level areas have gardens that extend to the western edge of the facade. The shrubs planted on the upper terrace balance the tall trees that rise above the lower enclosure.

The ash-land fill that fills both plots reinforces continuity between the gardens and creates a smooth transition to light gray from the outside of the house.

The structure itself is built around two perpendicular concrete walls, marked with a board in the recessed plane. Throughout the intersection, Specht Architects aimed to better connect the house with the surrounding landscape.

"This house in Santa Fe is organized around a pair of perpendicular concrete walls that orient the house toward specific points of view," said the firm, which has offices in Austin and New York.

The longest part extends from north to south, defining the boundary of the lower vestibule and cutting part of the raised terrace.

The east-west wall forms the entrance façade. Just before the two concrete partitions intersect, a threshold provides access to the house.

The plant is divided into two rectangular sections along the north-south wall. The entrance opens in the west half, which accommodates service rooms, a kitchen and a small bedroom.

Passing an opening to the right of the threshold, the east side extends along the partition to offer views of hills through the interior.

Two bedrooms with adjoining bathrooms flank a central living room. The cantilevered roof covers a courtyard that runs along the length of the east façade.

Emphasizing the division of the house, the ceiling and the walls of the volume are short of the north-south partition.

The architects covered the gap with a short strip of glazing covering the gap. The light admitted through the glass serves to provide added brightness and interior trim.

The shifting striations projected by the wooden ceiling beams resemble a sundial - the time-indicating device of which the residence bears its name.

"A long, slender skylight casts shadows on a high-textured concrete wall in the house," Scott's founder and director Scott Specht told Dezeen. "These shadows change throughout the day, and you can" feel "the passage of time because of changing lighting conditions."

Directing the house towards the best views of the landscape and including the temporary characteristics of the site to in the design, the architects tried to create a home that is well incorporated in its surroundings.

"The movement of the sun and the way the house incorporates and modulates this, really make the day an important part of the experience of the place," Specht said.

"The house also extends into the landscape, with concrete walls stretching from the inside out and into the landscape beyond," added the architect.

Other recently completed desert homes in the American Southwest include a residence housing a series of walled courtyards and an Arizona home elevated over the surrounding landscape.

The photograph is by Taggart Sorensen.

Anahata's back house in western India has a facade designed as "a piece of art"

The sculptural facade of this house in the Indian city of Belgaum comprises staggered blocks containing rooms that extend from a central courtyard full of plants.

Padival House was designed by local Anahata studio for a young couple with two children, who wanted a modern home to sit on a site in a typical residential neighborhood.

The previous family home in the coastal town of Mangalore was a traditional villa set around a courtyard. The architects sought to repeat the feel of this building in the design of the contrasting contemporary urban house.

"The idea was to create a purest architecture of architecture," said Anahata, of architecture stripped of its non-essential elements, reduced only to its basic elements and to the feelings that space itself evokes. "

A predominantly closed facade with a series of staggered volumes was used in response to the proximity of the building to a busy road.

Each block reflects the layout of the internal program and results in a multidimensional surface that alters in appearance as the sun passes through it during the day.

"The composite wall is designed to resemble a fabric - very light and absent, keeping the composition unchanged," said the architects. "The house tries to be a work of art".

Inside the building, the central courtyard is surrounded by areas designated as specific functions. On the ground floor, a living space to one side of the entrance foyer flows smoothly into the dining room.

The heights of the ceilings that vary along this open floor space correspond to the layout of the superior rooms. A library nestled on a mezzanine level overlooks the courtyard on one side and the lounge on the other.

A full height atrium covered with a large ceiling light draws natural lighting through the floors to the patio and dining area.

The gratings that surround this glazed surface and other light high above the stairs constantly project shifting patterns of light and shadow across the white painted interior walls.

"Light as a building material is sculpted carefully to define the spaces and their functionalities," said Anahata. "As the sunlight changes throughout the day, the shadows make the space dynamic and changing in all seasons."

Glass windows in the upper levels allow light entry and create visual connections between the central courtyard and the surrounding rooms, including the bedrooms.

A staircase that ascends along one side of the building connects the ground floor with a prayer area housed in a box that cantilevers the facade.

The stairs continue to the family area containing the library and the rooms, before finally arriving at a barsati at the top of the house.

This small traditional rooftop room with an adjoining terrace acts as a threshold to a large terrace, and can be used as a pantry to serve food and drinks during the holidays.

Interior details and furniture characterized by strong use of color, line, space and light are influenced by the Indian artist S H Raza. In particular, a decorative stone work of art placed on the floor of the living room and the tables with their pyramidal wood forms evoke one of the paintings of Raza.

A concrete roof helps to join the interior spaces, which present a palette of white plaster, brass, wood and natural stone.