As the world progresses and more people become environmentally conscious, architects and builders are looking for more sustainable and efficient building materials. A modern concrete house is durable and can last for decades with minimal maintenance. They are also fire and waterproof, making them a good choice for areas prone to natural disasters.
Despite their many benefits, some challenges come with owning a concrete house. First, they can be quite expensive to build. Second, they can be quite heavy, so not all foundation types can support them. And finally, they can be difficult to remodel or renovate. However, any of these challenges can be overcome with the right team of architects and builders.
Overview of Modern Concrete Houses
Modern Concrete houses offer many benefits that make them a popular choice for homeowners worldwide. If you are considering using concrete in your next construction project, check out the following 27+ famous concrete house designs.
27+ Modern Concrete Houses Around the World
Whether you’re looking for inspiration or just curious about this type of architecture, read along to explore some famous modern concrete houses worldwide.
1. Hanoi’s Old Concrete Homes
The concrete house, constructed in the French era in Hanoi, was a small and unique house with a very old architectural design. The house was in the shape of a cube, which was used as a residential room for a French family. The small house was painted yellow to lighten up the atmosphere.
2. Gehry’s Residence: Concrete house
Even today, the Gehry Residence stands out among its contemporaries, just as it did when it was first completed. In the 1970s, the couple purchased an existing house in Santa Monica, California, and Gehry immediately started demonstrating his daring deconstructivist ideals.
He chose to keep the original concrete house but deconstruct ‘the ghost of cubism,’ which he believed haunted it. As a result, the structure was encased in a metal envelope punctured by massive wooden-glass windows designed to ‘look like they were crawling out of this thing.’
3. Capital Hill Residence, Russia
The deconstructivist Iraqi-British icon, Zaha Hadid, was prolific but only completed one private residence – a modern concrete house for a wealthy businessman in the Barvikha Forest near Moscow. Its distinguishing feature is the main suite perched atop a slender concrete stalk high above the tree canopy.
4. Secular Retreat Concrete House, UK
Peter Zumthor’s first permanent building in the UK was the Secular Retreat concrete house, a holiday home inspired by the villas of his hero, Italian architect Andrea Palladio. It took more than ten years to build due to the extensive use of hand-rammed concrete — a technique that gives the walls stripes inside and out.
5. Villa Savoye: Concrete Floors in House, France
The Villa Savoye in northern France, built-in 1931 as a vacation home for the Savoye family, is the most well-known Le Corbusier design.
The concrete house was designed with concrete according to his Five Points of Architecture – the principles he considered the foundation for modernist architecture. It is widely regarded as one of the most important houses of the twentieth century.
6. Kauffman Concrete House
Richard Neutra’s most famous work is the Kaufmann House in Palm Springs, a form-fitting two-story concrete house completed in 1946 that reflects many modernist architectural hallmarks.
7. Bell Beach Concrete House
The owners built high concrete walls in the concrete house that separate Dan Naegle’s Bell Beach Guest House from the beach. However, before the walls, the tides surrounding the abode’s base added to its disguise as a secretive observatory.
8. Fallingwater, Pennsylvania
Frank Lloyd Wright’s masterful design, originally intended as a weekend concrete house, is among the most famous twentieth-century modern architecture sites with nature to personify the organic style of architecture, a term coined by Wright himself.
9. Cast-in-place Concrete House
There is an unfolding sequence of geometric forms designed by Christopher Robertson and Vivi Nguyen-Robertson in this modern concrete house that unfolds from a low concrete wall to a concrete cube to a box clad in Siberian larch.
10. Brutalist Concrete House
Modern and light-filled interiors revitalise a brutalist concrete structure in Ramat HaSharon, near Tel Aviv, at the private concrete house of architect Pitsou Kedem.
11. Katz’s Cradle, Johannesburg
There are three concrete homes located on a third of an acre that span 3,660 square feet each, and each meets the needs of many residents who wish to live in a community with space, security, shared maintenance, and even a sense of belonging.
12. Aranzazu Concrete House, Argentina
In the Buenos Aires suburbs, there is a newly renovated family home where concrete is exposed, wood siding is installed, and an expansive landscape surrounds the concrete house.
13. Concrete House, Belgium
The predominantly rural setting significantly influenced the building’s design, which is surrounded solemnly by a couple of farms and a grove of trees. The use of concrete pays homage to the area’s history while emphasising the grandness of the modern concrete house.
14. S House, Taiwan
Taiwan-based Yuan Architects designed a brutalist-style, raw concrete shell for a four-level dwelling in Hsinchu, north of Taipei. Three generations of a family share a house, and the interiors are divided by an S-shaped wall that splits the public and private spaces in the concrete house.
15. Casa Tiny, Mexico
Casa Tiny is inspired by Henry David Thoreau’s Walden, a testament to a simple life surrounded by nature, and attributes a rustic wooden accented minimalist concrete house design. The tranquil home is ideal for a pleasant getaway amidst nature.
16. Coastal Concrete House, Malibu
The view opens up inside the California concrete home, which is entered via a bridge that cuts the 25-foot-high primary facade to a panoramic view of mountains and sea.
17. Orchard Concrete House, California
The Orchard concrete house is nestled in an apple grove. With the voracious design desires of a gastronomically inclined family of clients, this concrete prefab design is a moveable fiesta of a home.
18. Pink Concrete House, Argentina
Instead of painting the concrete house, the architect tinted the concrete a soft pink to reflect the natural minerals in the area. Rosy rocks can be found among the grasses and brush.
19. Pankhaniyil Concrete House, Kerala
Plants can grow through infills in the concrete slabs, strengthening the concrete home’s connection to the site.
20. Prefab Concrete House Cabins
This 10,743-square-foot concrete house development was built in just eight months using the company’s low-cost Gamos System.
21. Concrete House, Belgium
When working with a lot of concrete, it’s often a great idea to offset the coldness, including some warm wood elements. When planning this concrete house in Belgium, Clauwers & Simon accomplished this. They built the structure around a courtyard.
22. Crystal-Shaped Concrete House
Often, we expect our houses and apartments to blend in with their surroundings, but other times we want them to stand out. One of them is this three-story concrete house in Pliezhausen, near Stuttgart.
23. City Villa Concrete House
The City Villa’s geometry is remarkable. It is a modern concrete house in South Africa. Its design consists of a series of rectangular volumes stacked on top of one another.
24. Concrete House in the Forest
This forest concrete house can be found in Argentina. The owners envisioned it as a private, intimate, remote refuge away from the waters and populated areas. They attempted to relate to nature and the terrain at the same time.
25. Dune Concrete House, Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires dune house is a modern concrete house designed to be used as a summer house during the warmer months. Its location has an uneven surface that slopes towards a pine forest. It becomes embedded in the slope as it follows the natural topography. It can communicate more effectively and blend in better with the dune.
26. Wood & Concrete House, Southern France
It features huge glass doors that open up the living areas to the garden. They also installed a large circular skylight carved into the terrace roof. The skylight is an unusual and unexpected detail.
It allows more brightness into the kitchen and opens up the open areas to views of the sky, which is ideal in the winter. The concrete and wood, two materials that enhance each other, are especially beautiful in this concrete house.
27. Sci-fi Inspired Concrete House
The studio designed it after another location in a sci-fi filming location rather than the surroundings. They created an original design using the destination as a guide. As a result, this terrific two-story concrete house with a sustainably sourced connection to the outdoors was created. It also has a large, bright, and inviting interior.
28. Spanish Concrete House with Golf Court in the Neighbourhood
The location, facing a golf course, inspired this concrete house in Spain. Except for the plot facing the golf course, the site is irregular and has adjacent plots on all sides. As a result, it became the focal centre of the entire structure.
The house has a U-shaped layout, which allows it to maintain the privacy of the neighbouring structure while remaining open to the view. The materials used in the project’s palette highlight the landscape and scenery.
Benefits of Building Concrete Homes
When it comes to choosing a material for your concrete house, concrete has a lot to offer.
- As a durable and weather-resistant material, concrete is one of the most widely used building materials. It is also fire- and insect-resistant, making it a good choice for homes in areas that are prone to natural disasters.
- Concrete is also a sustainable material, which means it can be recycled and reused. And because it is made with natural materials, it is environmentally friendly.
- Concrete homes are also energy-efficient, as they keep out the heat in the summer and the cold in the winter. This makes them ideal for homes in hot and cold climates.
Challenges with Concrete Homes
It’s a consideration that modern concrete houses can be expensive to build. It is because concrete is a material that is not easily sourced or processed. As a result, it can add high costs to the overall price of construction.
Concrete also has a high thermal mass, meaning it retains heat well. It can be an issue in hot climates, as the house will be cooler inside than if it were made of other materials. In addition, concrete is susceptible to cracking in earthquake-prone areas.
Building a concrete house is not without its challenges. In addition to the high initial cost, modern concrete houses are more difficult to insure and harder to sell. But if you’re looking for a unique and durable home, concrete may be the way to go.
Design Considerations to Build a Concrete House
Concrete is a great material to use in house construction. It provides many benefits and advantages over other materials. However, before you start building your concrete house, there are some things you need to consider.
1. Types of Concrete Used in Building a Concrete House
The first thing you need to do is decide what concrete you want to use for your new home. There are several types of concrete, each with its advantages and disadvantages.
You can choose from standard concrete, the most common type used today; reinforced concrete, which is more durable than standard concrete; and decorative concrete, which can add beauty to your home’s exterior.
2. Space to Build a Concrete House
The next thing you’ll need to decide is how much space you have available for your new home. If you have a large area where you plan on building your home, then it might make sense to go with reinforced or decorative concrete because it will hold more weight than standard or plain concrete and thus save space on your property.
If, on the other hand, space is limited at one side or corner of the land where you will build your new house, then plain or standard concrete might be ideal because it won’t take up much room!
3. Aesthetics for your Modern Concrete House
The last thing you’ll need to consider when deciding which type of concrete you want for your new home is the appearance. If you are looking for something that will add beauty to your property, then decorative or reinforced concrete might be a good option because it will add depth and texture to the exterior of your house.
However, if you are simply looking for something that will keep its colour over time and withstand harsh weather conditions, then plain or standard concrete might be better suited for your needs.
Concluding Phrase
When building a concrete house, you need to ensure that you have a good design. The design of the house is important, as it will determine the functionality and aesthetics of the house. You also need a good contractor to help you build the concrete house.
Designing and building your own concrete house can be a rewarding experience. Plus, you’ll get to enjoy all the benefits that come with living in a concrete home.
If you’re not quite ready to design and build your own concrete house, that’s okay. There are plenty of existing modern concrete houses around the world that you can explore. Take some time to visit some of these homes and see for yourself what living in a concrete house is like.
FAQs: Concrete House
Concrete is a great building material for a number of reasons. It’s the most durable building material in the world and is resistant to fire, termites, and all kinds of other problems that plague other building materials.
The cost of building a concrete house can vary depending on the materials used and the size of the home. However, they are typically more expensive than traditional homes.
Modern concrete houses are very difficult to maintain. They must be painted to protect the concrete from being damaged by hot or cold temperatures.
The paint must be scrubbed off periodically to prevent it from cracking, flaking, and peeling. Modern concrete houses are also prone to dampness and must be kept dry to prevent mould.
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