Natural Architecture
Architecture and design that integrates natural systems, materials, and ecological principles into built environments.
Architecture as the Bridge to Nature: A Thermal Bath in Iceland You Can Walk Over
A ring of green roof, a crossing bridge and sunken pools turn an Icelandic bathhouse into a landscape trekkers walk across before they ever step inside.
Earth Made: A Rammed Earth Courtyard Housing Scheme Built Around a Stepped Water Kund
Three earthen bars frame a sunken, terraced pool in Gwalior, proposing that the oldest building material can still organise shared urban life.
slóð: A Thermal Spa That Hands Its Roof Back to the Trail
A low concrete spa carries a walking path across its roof, tucking baths, saunas and stepped seats beneath it in a storm-filled valley.
Mono in Mist: A Castle Wall Rebuilt in Water Hides Three Sunken Meditation Gardens in Fukuoka
Below a public park of pools and mist, a waterfall-ringed basin turns meditation, hotel rooms and a castle-wall metaphor into one descending journey.
Verne Arquitectura Sinks a Timber-Roofed Pelota Court into the Medieval Fabric of Aguilar de Codés
In Navarre, a semi-buried frontón replaces a ruined house in Aguilar de Codés, keeping its stone face while a timber truss sifts southern light.
FMD Architects Sinks a Melbourne Family House into Its Slope Beneath a Garden Inspired by Babylon
In Melbourne's north-east, Babylonia Residence sinks 928 m² of timber, concrete and stone into a slope beneath a suspended rear garden.
Offhand Practice Folds a Natural History Cabinet of Curiosities into a Concrete Shell at Aranya Guangzhou
A 155 m² specimen shop at Jiulong Lake, Guangzhou, where walnut cabinetry and collected antiques sit inside raw concrete without pretending to be old.
Dom Arquitectura Sets a Stone-Pier House at the Top of a Costa Brava Slope to Give the Garden to the Pool
In Montràs on the Costa Brava, a 735 m² single-level home uses rubble stone piers, oak and deep porches to make outdoor living the daily default.
Austin Sandy Architects Turns a Dark Danville Ranch House Toward Its Garden with Oak, Concrete and Glass
In Danville, California, a chopped-up vintage T-plan ranch becomes a family home of oak slat screens, concrete floors and glass walls facing the garden.
Not a Number Architects Splits a Halkidiki Stone House into a Tower and a Long Wing Beneath Ancient Olive Trees
A 200 m² retreat in Halkidiki, Greece, reworks the rubble stone house as a tower, a planted bar and porches threaded through ancient olives.
Raulino Silva Turns His Grandparents' 1936 House in Rural Vila do Conde into His Own Architecture Studio
In Bagunte, Portugal, a granite family house gains white marble-floored rooms and a walled gravel courtyard without pretending the new part is old.
3XN, B+H and ZHUBO Design Shape the Shenzhen Natural History Museum as a Walkable Geological Landscape
Beside Yanzi Lake in Shenzhen's Pingshan District, a 105,300 m² museum folds its galleries under a public roof that behaves like a river-carved hillside.