A box built for living purposes is given its home within the forest. Designed by Aabe architecture, it's raised just a few centimetres from the earth and appears as if the building makes every effort not to disturb the tranquility of the site. Inside, the rooms are surrounded by a glass curtain which weaves through the box without ever touching the external walls of the structure. The curtain is used instead of blank walls and incorporates two patios which separate the bedrooms from the living rooms. Much in the style of colonial residential buildings, the building has an ambulatory around the outside where residents can enjoy a stroll and also benefit from being in the shade. On a lower level you’ll find the terrace which has been carefully built into the land outside the house and which incorporates the most simplest of swimming pools.

Tom Ford calls Santa Fe home. Specifically his ranch designed by Tadao Ando that was recently published in Paris Vogue. With sweeping landscapes, Ando's signature juxtaposition of light and dark is evident throughout. We found an interview snippet between Karl Lagerfield and Tom Ford about the said subject:

Karl Lagerfeld

And how is the [Tadao] Ando house coming along?

Tom Ford

He has designed several buildings for us, and we've started on one of them. We're still redesigning the main house. I like working with him.

Karl Lagerfeld

Oh, he is devine! I worked with him for many years and we always had so many problems with planning permission. You know in France you cannot build these kind of house. They said it looked like a church of a sect. At the end, I stopped it and introduced him to your friend Monsieur Pinault, and he got the museum. Where is he building your house?

Tom Ford

Outside of Sante Fe

Karl Lagerfeld

It will look great there.

Tom Ford

That's why I hired him, I think he is so much about walls and light. And the local architecture of New Mexico is of course adobe and fortress like, and the light is very strong there, so it's about light and massive walls.

Karl Lagerfeld

I think it's very creative to build houses.

An abandoned church in Utrecht, Netherlands undergoes a subtle renovation by Zecc Architects for its new owners. The finished result of St. Jakobus is awe-inspiring with many original elements preserved in order to retain a sense of its original purpose. Zecc Architects kept the original floors, stain glass windows and doors and repaired anything else that was necessary. The double-height ceiling provides a natural gallery space for the owners collection of art - some of which seems to provoke the serious nature of the building's history. The original mezzanine floor was partly removed to allow natural light to spread throughout the entire space, and to enable the owners to see a cross-section of the two levels. Old church pews have been have been reused by Zecc to create the owners' dining table, whilst glass sectioning allows different living spaces to operate seamlessly.

Merry Christmas and happy New Year from the Design Folio team. We will be taking a short hiatus until mid January. Until then, we hope you head somewhere almost as amazing as this classic modernist Kaufmann house by Richard Neutra in Palm Springs.

The long linear structure of this artist studio on Fogo Island by Saunders Architecture maximises the amount of open wall and floor space. Large windows at either end and a skylight on the roof of the studio allows the maximum amount of natural light to flood the space. Walls were made one metre deep to house storage, toilets and washbasins along with doors that are flush to the wall, thus avoiding any visual distraction inside the space.The studios are placed on pillars at the end towards the sea, while the entrance area has a small concrete foundation for anchoring the construction to the landscape. With this type of construction, the studios can be placed in almost any place on the island. In addition, this allows for the studios to be pre-fabricated in a local workshop during the winter months, and then placed in the landscape in the spring. The main body of the studio is fully enclosed to provide an area of protection and solitude from the outside environment while still providing a connection to the landscape through a strategically framed view of the dramatic surrounding.

We recognised this dramatic space immediately as White Mountain, an underground bunker that we wrote about here in 2009. The NY Post revealed this is the underground lair where Wikileaks' own Doctor Evil stores the 250,000 secret cables that are wrecking US diplomacy. It's a high-tech granite cave, carved out of hard rock and hidden 100 feet below a downtown Stockholm park. Inside, there are all the trappings of a James Bond villain.

The perfect gift for the budding architect. The Tectus combines white wooden blocks, black  wooden panels and the all important golden ratio all into one seriously good desk accessory. While away the tiresome parts of the day by constructing award winning architectural marvels. The perfectly simplistic geometric shapes allow for the creation of some unthinkably inspiring complexities.

"The cube is divided several times in adherence to the golden ratio and surrounded by black shapes. During play, these become foundations, walls or roofs and a player the architect. Everything fits into each other harmoniously."

Order yours today here.

Tom Kundig, of  Seattle based architecture practice Olson Kundig Architects, who is known for houses that are both elegantly rugged and eminently livable has created a home that sits nestled in a rocky outcrop. It occupies a 15-acre site in the San Juan Islands off Washington State, the compact, 220 square metre box has a sod roof and tall steel-framed windows.  The house consists of a main space, 20 metres long and four metres high, with a large kitchen at the back and a living and dining area overlooking the water up front. There’s also a master bedroom and sitting room as well as a small guest room on the main floor, and another guest room tucked beneath the house.

Situated overlooking Cape Town harbour in South Africa, architect Antonio Zaninovic allows the house's landscape to dictate the architectural solution. The single family residence embraces classic elegance in its execution with simple forms, and plenty of glass to enable the exterior and interior to feel seamlessly as one. The interiors of the residence are by Lucien Rees of New York based practice Rees Roberts + Partners and the landscape by David Kelly of the same firm. With a focus on sustainability, the house includes natural cross ventilation, heat repelling glass and a self-cleaning pool. The interior is chic, yet homely - but it's the pool that is the absolute hallmark of this residence.

This glass house - The Williams Studio, situated over a boat house on Stony Lake in Canada, is a photographer's home and studio. Designed by GH3 the brief included simplicity, open spaces and a unity between exterior and interior spaces.  The double-height space provides the owner/photographer with unparalleled light and natural illumination, whilst the 360 degree glass backdrop provides an ever-changing backdrop with nature. Sitting jutted out over the water's edge, the entire building appears to almost float over the water when inside. Whilst it looks like a literal ice box in winter, the architects considered inclusion of granite's thermal mass that saps up the sun allows it to remain warm. The mezzanine floor houses the bedroom, bathroom and closet which can be concealed from the rest of the space by sliding glass. White lacquered panels with reflective qualities diffuse light in every part of the interior, making it the perfect canvas for artwork, and the perfect space for photography.