In Zurich, the mechanical facade of an unusual house performs an intricate dance, with petal-like louvers opening and closing as balconies pop out and lock into place. Dubbed ‘Ballet Mécanique,’ the five-unit rental structure designed by Basel-based architect Manuel Herz was commissioned by reclusive textile heiress Katrin Bechtler, who lives on an adjoining property.

The point of a rental property is usually to make extra income, but the facade of Ballet Mécanique alone cost $1 million, so it’s more like an elaborate inhabitable art project built just for fun.

Herz notes that it’s not often a client is willing to approve such a complex design. Normally, if he had something fanciful in mind, client-directed revisions would result in a vast simplification of his original vision. But Bechtler clearly isn’t an ordinary client.

“When I met the owner for the first time, she showed me a sculpture on the side: a table that collapsed when its four legs buckle, and then it can raise itself again,” Herz told Swiss-Architects. “This awkward kinetics was fascinating. This ‘mind in the machine,’ the characteristic that something mechanical can have almost a personality, has influenced me.”

The architect was also influenced by Le Corbusier’s Heidi Weber Museum, which is set just a hundred meters away on the same property. He cites its “pavilion-like lightness,” its bright color palette and the combination of steel construction and concrete as sources of inspiration.

The two-story building, which also has an attic level, a rooftop terrace and a basement for studio space, features five rental apartments with sizes between 2.5 to 4.5 rooms. Steel columns are used along the facade for support, but the core and floors are made of reinforced concrete.

The shutters themselves are made of anodized aluminum with a pearly finish on the outside that gives the building a uniform appearance when they’re all closed. But at the press of a button, the shutters open, their colorful insides contrasting with the greenery in the garden.

“The [folding] elements can be operated from the inside and are controlled by motors hidden in the steel structure. Control via motors guarantees a largely silent and synchronous movement. Each apartment is assigned a movable and walk-in balcony. These movable walk-in balconies are based on the same construction and motor control as the folding elements and are complemented by a railing. After complete extension of the folding elements, the railing can be pushed outwards.”

Each one of architectural firm Olson Kundig’s creations is in open dialogue with its environment, often integrating oversized glass doors that open wide to the outside world or sliding steel panels to close them up and make them feel safe and secure. The Washington state-based firm, consisting of architects Tom Kundig and Jim Olson, feels quintessentially Pacific Northwest in its choice of raw, rugged materials that can stand up to extreme weather conditions, from wildfire-prone plains and heavy snow pack to rainforests and windswept coasts.

Seattle Space Needle Renovation

While a $100 million renovation of Seattle’s iconic Space Needle may sound like a project that could dramatically change the landmark’s form, it will look much the same in the city’s skyline when it’s complete. Olson Kundig is adding to the experience with floor-to-ceiling glass in both the interior and exterior spaces, including a rotating glass floor on the restaurant level for new downward-facing views of the structure. The architects collaborated with the original structural engineers, architectural historians and preservationists to remain true to the Space Needle’s spirit while removing clutter, replacing the safety cage system with glass barriers for better views.

Cabin at Longbranch

Designed by architect Jim Olson for his own personal use, Cabin at Longbranch is set on the Puget Sound among fir trees, renovating a 200-square-foot bunkhouse built in 1959 into a beautiful weekend house that reuses and reintegrates the original structure into a modernized context. What was previously three pavilions linked by wooden platforms has been joined together under one roof, framing large glass walls facing views of the water.

Sol Duc Cabin

Many of Olson Kundig’s structures transform in some way, opening and closing themselves to the environment for safety, privacy or protection from the elements. This 350-square-foot cabin is envisioned as “a small perch for its occupant,” raised above the soggy rainforest landscape in remote Washington State like a bird’s nest with a view onto the Sol Duc River. The owner and his wife like to use the place periodically for steelhead fishing, and close it up safely when they’re not around. The large shutters slide on rails designed for barn doors and are operated manually with custom steel rods, making the building virtually indestructible.

Glass Farmhouse

You don’t often see glittering glass buildings in rural locations. The owners of this property on a high-altitude plateau wanted a refuge inspired by Philip Johnson’s Glass House, opening up to the wheat fields and surrounding mountains, steps away from their barn. The shed roof of the home takes its shape from that of the barn. While it might look chilly, the house is made with high-efficiency glass and sits on a concrete slab supported by a concrete foundation to absorb and release thermal mass.

Chicken Point Cabin

A massive 19-foot-tall glass garage door opens to the lake outside manually via an industrial-style pulley mechanism in this concrete block cabin, which also boasts a 4-foot diameter steel fireplace the architects call ‘the bong.’ The door is large enough to accommodate long skis, an important feature for this vacation cabin in a snowy location. The cabin sleeps ten and is made of low-maintenance materials that will take on a patina over time.

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Starchitect Spotlight Olson Kundigs Crystalline Modern Sensibilities

You know those glass tubes at the bank drive-through that shoot your deposits and withdrawals back and forth between you and the tellers? This house is like living in a cluster of them. Sadly, they’re not full of money, but it’s still pretty cool. ‘Cylinder House’ by lead architect Cyril Lancelin of the firm Town and Concrete is a modular glass residence in Lyon, France that can easily be expanded and rearranged without disturbing the trees around it by adding or subtracting one glass tube at a time.

Set on plinths, the tubes are narrow enough to allow for optimal malleability, conforming to the site. Some are taller than others, and some seem to hover above the landscape. The tubes can be fully open to each other, partially open or closed off altogether for smaller spaces. There are no walls or hallways inside other than the curving glass.

“The furniture marks space, but its movement can reinvent the house,” say the architects. “The plan is not fixed, to follow the evolution of the lives of these occupants. From the outside, the facades undulate… this system of cylinder juxtaposition allows to enlarge the house but also to have a blurred outer delimitation of the house with its context.”

The effect is definitely unusual when viewing the house from outside. As modular designs become more popular, their inventiveness only increases. It’ll be interesting to see how architecture as a whole is affected by the trend in the coming years.

Apartment buildings are typically so hideous, it’s kind of exhausting. A structure with some measure of character gets knocked down in a prominent spot and before locals dare to dream that something cool might go up in its place, there’s another boring old block of apartments (or worse yet, condos) adding to the dull architectural noise of the city. Of course, it’s all subjective. You could argue, fairly enough, that pretty much all new apartment buildings are ugly, and that trying to make them ‘cool’ results in an even more irritating visual offense. What do you think – are these 13 designs switching up the same-old same-old in a positive way?

Lots of Light: 9 Units at the Apartment in Kamitakada

Developers looking to squeeze big bucks out of a project by creating high-end luxury housing are a lot more motivated to build structures that are more interesting than usual, but every now and then, there’s the rare project that gives some aesthetic consideration to a building that’s actually affordable to the average city resident. Takeshi Yamagata Architects designed this 9-unit building in Tokyo as a cluster of four buildings connected by open-air pathways, integrating gardens, curving walls and lots of windows for the feel of an urban refuge minus the multi-million-dollar price tag.

325 Kent by SHoP Architects

Currently under construction on the site of an old Domino sugar factory in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, the 325 Kent project by SHoP Architects is part of a redevelopment masterplan transforming the refinery into a 380,000-square-foot complex with a waterfront park and four residential buildings containing 2,800 rental units. SHoP’s building will house 522 of those apartments in a 16-story structure, arranged around a dramatic elevated courtyard. The units at the top will be stepped to create a series of spacious outdoor terraces. Nope – this one isn’t going to be cheap.

Pixelated Concrete: 222 Jackson by ODA

Over in Queens, the 11-story 2222 Jackson building by ODA features a pixelated concrete facade creating voids and projections for shade, privacy and outdoor spaces. Located just steps away from MoMA PS1, the building is conceived as a modular grid, giving it about 30% more outdoor space than the same-sized building with the same number of units arranged in a more typical shape.

Parasitic Growth: Plug-In City 75 by Stephane Malka

Commissioned to update and expand a 1970s-era building in Paris, architect Stéphane Malka proposes a system of parasitic wooden cubes that would attach to the facade, extending the living space and reducing the structure’s energy consumption by 75 percent. The unusual design would help mitigate problems with poor insulation and permeable windows while adhering to the city’s restrictive building laws, which don’t allow architects to build vertically.

Contemporary and Complimentary: p17 Housing in Milan

How do you sensitively design a new apartment complex that will blend in with a historic neighborhood while reflecting the era in which it’s being built? For P17, a residential housing complex in Milan, Italian architectural firm Modourbano harmonizes with surrounding buildings while retaining a contemporary feel, thanks to the beautiful natural hues in its sandstone facade.

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No More Ugly Apartment Buildings 13 Designs Refreshing The Paradigm

Like oversized aquariums made for humans, these glass-walled swimming pools put bathers on display and making splashing in shimmering waters the defining feature of the homes, hotels and apartment blocks they’re built into. Transparent sides or floors allow them to peer into adjacent interiors or look down onto landscapes, blurring the lines between these watery worlds and the spaces around them.

North Bondi by CplusC Architects

A glass-walled lap pool runs along the edge of the North Bondi residence by CplusC Architects, hemmed in on the other side by an envelope-like perforated privacy screen that protects the home from noise and the eyes of neighbors.

Villa Clessidra by LAAV Architects

Villa Clessidra by LAAV Architects is a modern three-story vacation home in the forest for relaxing getaways, sliced right through the middle by a swimming pool occupying a ‘transparent zone’ with glass walls, floors and ceilings so it’s visible from all around.

Farrar Residence by Peter Bohlin and Greg Mottola

A glass-ended infinity pool overlooks an aspen-covered mountainside in Park City, Utah, extending out over a tumbling stream. “The rhythm of columns that flank the pool progressively tightens, creating a false perspective,” says Bohlin Cywinski Jackson architects. “The line between interior and exterior is blurred. The relation to earth, sky and the materials of the house shifts with the changes in light and season on the mountain.”

Spa House by Metropolis Design

Not only do operable glass walls slide all the way open to welcome a lap pool into this home’s interior – as well as the larger connected swimming pool out back – but glass windows in the water connect the pools to the home’s lowest level, creating the feel of being in a submarine.

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Modern Homes For Mermaids 12 Houses Built Around Swimming Pools