This Infinity House is a Minimalist Paradise

By LeeAnn Whittemore May 16, 2017

In Northern Norway, perched quietly near the mountains and the sea, sits a beautifully designed respite from the busy outside world. The Infinity House by Vladimir Konovalov has an incredibly minimalist exterior design, with floor to ceiling windows that turn the surrounding landscape into a breathtaking living wallpaper for the interior.

Infinity-house-

The incredible views continue up onto the home’s unexpected coolest feature – an infinity pool roof. The heated pool is split into a separate swimming pool and a soaking tub – both completely surrounded with endless panoramic views of nature.

Infinity house

The interior design is modern and wonderfully subtle, with cool grayscale tones that emphasize the view. The living room has a towering dark bookcase that doubles as a divider between the seating space and the kitchen.

Infinity house

In the kitchen, a crisp white marble counter-top against a sharp dark island and appliances emphasizes the seemingly invisible barrier to the mountains in the distance.

Infinity house

At the center of the house is the bathroom, whose exterior walls form a large black cube that doubles as a surprising and charming accent to the home’s minimalist aesthetic. The central walls and weathered concrete tile throughout the entire house create an openly flowing interior layout that culminates in a monochromatic bedroom surrounded by full views of the colorful night skies.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics

The Manual | The Essential Guide for Men

Culture

This Minimalist Desert Retreat Creates Views Where None Existed

bridge view residence kendle design collaborative 2

The desert is a challenging place to build a home. Materials need to be able to handle any condition Mother Nature can throw at them. Scorching heat during the day turns into frigid temperatures at night. While the desert may be arid for most of the year, the rainy season brings flash floods that could devastate any structure unfortunate enough to be in the water’s path. To build here takes unique vision and determination. Luckily for us, the folks at Kendle Design Collaborative gladly meet the challenge head-on and have been turning out desert minimalist homes that are both stunning and strong.

The latest project, Bridge View Residence, faced all of the typical obstacles of a desert build along with a difficult build site. Abutting a desert wash and steep drop-off in the land, the plot didn’t offer many options for creating a beautiful sprawling home. The location also had limited views, and the clients wished to be able to see both the wash and the mountains. The solution that lead architect Brent Kendle came up with was to elevate the main living space and master suite, bridging it over the first floor. Placing the public spaces like the living room and kitchen on the upper floor instantly created the landscape views the clients wanted.

Culture

A Futuristic Minimalist Home Hugs the Hills in Southern California

bridge house belzberg architects minimalist architecture 6

Minimalist homes never go out of fashion. The clean lines are visually appealing and the monochromatic color palette offers a blank slate to build upon should the desire for change arise. But minimalism also hasn’t changed much over the years, resulting in homes that tiptoe close to becoming cookie-cutter.

Thankfully, the folks at Belzberg Architects have created a sophisticated home that checks all of the minimalist boxes while putting a futuristic spin on things. Bridge House says “no thanks” to the traditional black and white color palette typical of minimalist homes, embracing soothing tones for a sophisticated finish.

Culture

How to Cultivate Brutalist Style in Your Own Home

Interesting Brutalist Home

Brutalism. The word brings to mind cold, soulless concrete buildings. But there’s so much more to this surprisingly complex style than concrete. From Modernist influences to a contemporary rethinking of the style, it’s time to give brutalism a closer look.
Principles
Brutalism, which gained popularity in the 1950s and ’60s, has received a bad rap over the decades since due to its pared-down look and overabundance of concrete. To better understand and gain an appreciation for the style, you need to know where it came from. Modernist icon Le Corbusier had a serious love affair with concrete and termed his designs “béton brut,” French for “raw concrete”. It was meant to describe the way in which he was using the material. But thanks to a few harsh critics, the term morphed into “new brutalism” with the idea that the architectural style was “brutal," both to look at and be in.

Le Corbusier and other architects who adopted the style intended their concrete buildings to be the ultimate form of the “less is more” principle that had developed as a counter-movement to post-war ostentatious designs. Brutalism was meant to be so simple in materials and style that users would inherently know how to use the space while forming connections with each other. What ended up happening, though, is that the style was quickly adopted by socialist countries and governments looking for buildings that were sturdy and cheap to build yet felt imposing. The result is that by the 1980s, the style was out of fashion and all but abandoned by future-thinking architects.