Known for designing dynamically curved structures in cities, Zaha Hadid’s only single-family residential project is certainly aligned with her signature style but also reacts to a very different and much more remote, natural and green context.

At the pinnacle sits the master suite, rising above the Russian forest canopy over 60 feet above the ground. Its glass walls and dual balconies were designed to give residents stunning views of the landscape. It sits at the top of a support stem housing a glass elevator (to enjoy the surroundings riding up and down).

The client recalls telling Hadid about his dream home: “I want to wake up in the morning and I want to just see blue sky. I don’t want to see any neighbors and I want to feel free.” Realizing this would mean the building would have to reach above the trees, she quickly sketched out the concept. The final structure, though, would be a complex one, richly and three-dimensionally expressive.

Below, a series of flowing volumes with wide roofs make up the majority of the home, with living spaces, swimming pool, lounges and kitchen on the lowest floor, a level embedded partly below ground. Guest quarters, childrens’ bedrooms and a library are located a floor above, as well as the main entrance.

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The design was sketched out over a decade a go, and conceptual renderings were published over the years, but the building wasn’t completed until recently, after Hadid had passed away. The client recalls she was a “very intellectual, smart and sharp woman,” he continues. “It was very tragic what happened, we lost one of the greatest architects of this century.”

This is a once-in-a-lifetime type project for an architect, being given a high budget and a lot of creative freedom. And it shows. “This project is an absolute testament to Zaha’s genius. This is a masterpiece. It has Zaha’s signature features of organic intricacy, complexity of spatial arrangement, a lot of surprises, and a lot of craftiness and beauty.” (Images courtesy of the OKO Group).

A series of stacked tree-like supports seem to abstract the nature in this Japanese chapel, bringing a small geometric forest inside this otherwise minimalist space to serve a contemporary congregation.

Designed by architects of Momoeda Yo, the square pillars were made using traditional Japanese woodworking methods. They stack on top of each other, forming different forest layers and growing smaller as they go up — a fractal-style repeating pattern.

The construction strategy not only supports a ceiling high above, but it also opens up more space for occupation down below. A series of thin, white-painted metal rods are used for structural stabilization (tension) while the wooden members work to hold things up (compression).

The side loads are carried by walls while the columns support roof loads of up to 25 tons. The whole architectural creation reads a bit like a structural drawing exercise, in which loads trace are downward and become larger as they join up and head toward the floor, much like the columns do in this case.

The designer says they were inspired in part by a combination of historic church styles and local traditions: “In nagasaki, there is the oldest wooden gothic chapel in japan known as ‘ohura-tenshudou’,’ he says ‘This chapel is not only a famous tourist point, but a place loved and cared for by the townsfolk. We tried to design the building as a new gothic style chapel, by using Japanese wooden system.”

Cozy on the inside and virtually invisible on the outside, this Modernist home has a reflective facade allowing it to blend in with the natural environment. Meanwhile, residents can enjoy views out thanks to the one-way mirrored panels.

Designed by Mexican architect Tatiana Bilbao (images by Rory Gardiner), the vacation complex in Monterrey has been dubbed Los Terrenos (Spanish for “The Terrains”). Each of three structures in the set are based primarily on one material: glass, earth or wood.

The earthen home has solid walls for privacy, ideally suited for bedrooms. Open-plan living, dining and kitchen spaces are in the more open and naturally lit glass companion building.

The glass curtain wall of the mirrored structure is hung to minimize interruption on the exterior, creating a nearly seamless reflective effect.

The other soil-based structure is composed of clay brick and rammed earth, creating a grounded contrast with its disappearing partner. The third structure has yet to be built, but will be elevated and wooden, again tying it to the forested surroundings.

Reddish-brown corten steel compliments surrounding dark browns and lush greens in this Ukrainian forest retreat, its horizontal planes pushing the building out to meet the surrounding trees.

Known for their use of weathering steel, Sergey Makhno Architects wrapped their latest work with a combination of corten and mesh, the latter to foster the growth of ivy, further connecting nature and architecture.

In the center of the house sits a wild garden as well. As temperatures rise, this greenery will slowly grow up and out, fostering building-climbing plants from both the interior and exterior of the structure.

Notably, this is not the design teams first attempt to weave manufactured materials with a natural setting. Certain formal similarities (large stretches of uniform surface, strong geometric rhythms) can be seen in one prior work in particular.

In a lot of ways, this latest work is a more elaborate extrapolation of earlier and simpler models, like the “Rain” house constructed primarily from corten steel and glass with a much simpler layout.

Lapping up the side of a three-story building in Kiev, Ukraine, this dark mural mixes blue and gray hues to capture dark waters and skies of the Black Sea.

Originally from London and based in Cape Town, South Africa, artist Jake Aikman enjoys working on extreme and dramatic landscapes, from dark blue oceans to dark green forests and distant lonely mountains.

The focus in most of his pieces is not so much the scene but the setting — especially at larger scales and absent figures, as in this piece, they create a tone or mood rather than telling a particular story. In short: they leave a lot to the imagination, like a blank canvass providing a time and place but no characters.

This particular piece is one of his largest to date and was produced for Art United Us. Spanning the entire side of a structure, it was completed in just over a week.