Named OLS House, the three-storey concrete residence is positioned on a sloping site in a suburban neighbourhood and functions as the home for a family of four.

The clients asked J. Mayer H. to bring the view of the nearby valley into the house, so the architects added a line of floor-to-ceiling windows that wrap around the front corners. This glazing and the railings in front look like the teeth of the building, while rounded windows on either side look like huge eyes.

The house was constructed from reinforced concrete, then coated with two different shades of render to emphasise the rounded forms of the walls and roof.

A discrete entrance is positioned on one side and leads directly into the centre of the house. Here, a curving concrete staircase winds between the floors, leading up from spas and utility rooms on the ground floor to living and dining rooms on the first floor and bedrooms on the top floor.

Each room is outlined by curving partitions and furniture is built into the walls, creating functional storage areas for residents.

The middle floor opens out to both a balcony along the front of the building and a terrace at the rear, while the second floor also features a small sheltered balcony.

German architect Jürgen Mayer H. founded J. Mayer H. Architects in 1996. One of the studio's best-known designs is the Metropol Parasol, a giant latticed timber canopy in Seville, while other projects include a knobbly observation tower between Turkey and Georgia and a foster home for children and adolescents in Hamburg, Germany. See more architecture by J. Mayer H.

Photography is by David Franck.

Here's some more information from the architects:

OLS HOUSE near Stuttgart, Germany

The new house is on a plot of land near Stuttgart, on a hillside with a generous view of the valley. The owners wanted a new home that would bring this view to life even inside of the building. The house is in a residential area with conventional developments, most of which date from the 1960s.

The new, 4-person family home is divided into an elevated ground floor with entrance area, utility room and spa, and a second floor with an open, flowing floor plan containing the living, dining and kitchen areas. Full-height glazing provides a free view of the valley and terrace looking over the garden area. Upstairs are the sleeping areas, dressing rooms and bathrooms. The central design element is a sculptural staircase that connects all three levels.

The house was built as a reinforced concrete construction. The facade consists of one heat-insulating compound system and an aluminum and glass facade. Slats and anti-glare sheeting provide integrated sun protection, protecting it against heat. All of the lightweight partition walls inside are made of drywall. The floor is a seamless layer of screed. The roof with the deep, recessed balcony was built with pre-weathered zinc plate cladding and is fitted with solar panels.

Team: Juergen Mayer H., Marcus Blum (Project Architect), Sebastian Finckh, Paul Angelier, Hugo Reis, Julian Blümle

Project: 2009-2011
Completion: September 2011
Client: Private

Architect on Site: AB Wiesler + Michael Gruber, Stuttgart
Structural Engineer: Gunter Kopp, Leutenbach/ Nellmersbach
Service Engineers: IB Funk und Partner, Leutenbach
Building Physics: Kurz&Fischer GmbH, Winnenden

Function: Private House, near Stuttgart, Germany
Site area: 891 sqm
Building area: 306 sqm
Total floor area: 488 sqm
Number of floors: 3
Height of the building: 10,43 m
Structure: reinforced concrete, brick, roof: steel
Principal exterior material: EIFS, glass, zinc, rooftiles
Principal interior material: wood, plasterboard, creative floor
Designing period: 08/09 – 04/10
Construction period: 04/10 – 09/11

Above: site plan

Above: ground floor plan

Above: first floor plan

Above: second floor plan

Above: long section

Above: front elevation

Above: side elevation

Above: rear elevation

Above: side elevation

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A rectilinear white volume nestles against the hill at the base of the house, providing a combined bedroom and washroom, while a black building shaped like an archetypal house sits on the top and contains a kitchen, dining area and living room.

Glazed walls line the facades of both storeys, offering views out over the landscape. "The volumes open up to the natural space, the forest," said Fabi Architekten. "[It is] a minimal intrusion into the hillside topography."

On the upper floor, the glass doors slide open to lead out to a triangular roof terrace, while on the level below they provide a second entrance to the house.

The main entrance is positioned on the side of the building and is sheltered beneath the overhanging corner of the first floor.

A cantilevered wooden staircase connects the two storeys.

The house is located in Wenzenbach and was completed in 2012.

Other houses completed in Germany recently include a gabled house in Metzingen and a residence in Stuttgart with an inclining profile. See more architecture in Germany.

Photography is by Herbert Stolz.

Above: lower floor plan

Above: upper floor plan

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The three-storey-high residence completes the edge of a medieval market square in Metzingen where all new buildings are required to have a steep pitched roof.

"The 'Kelterplatz' is a very special part of the city," (se)arch architect Stephan Eberding told Dezeen. "It's a square with seven old 'Keltern', which are a kind of traditional wood-frame construction with a roof to make wine. We tried to play with that."

The roof of Haus E17 slopes up at a steep angle that matches its neighbours and is clad with brown tiles. "We were not allowed to use metal, even the colors of the tiles had to be dark red or brown, so we tried to create a very simple, sharply cut shape," said Eberding.

The walls are clad with beige-coloured stucco and the windows are framed with bronze-aluminium. "We tried to keep the colour palette in a small spectrum, to make the shape stronger," added Eberding.

Living rooms and kitchen areas are located on the ground and basement floors, while bedrooms occupy two split levels on the top storeys of the building.

The projecting window can be found on the uppermost floor and faces out over the square. Eberding explained: "From upstairs you have a far view to the 'Schwaebische Alb', a mountain chain south of Stuttgart."

Other buildings by German architects (se)arch include a house clad with cedar shingles near Aalen.

Some other German houses to complete recently include a residence with an inclined profile by UNStudio and a Bavarian townhouse by SoHo Architektur. See more German houses on Dezeen.

See more photography by Zooey Braun on Dezeen, or on his website.

Here's some more information from (se)arch architekten:

The prominent location of the house is on the edge of the historical Kelternplatz. The Kelternplatz is a market square with seven medieval winepress buildings, which are are declared as historical monuments. The site was previously used as a parking lot. The historic square gets now with the new building the completion of its northern edge.

The house, clearly outlined in its outer form, is based on a parallelogram floor plan. This is the result of the geometry of the site and other building conditions. The house is developed as a "living space sculpture". The inside is determined by a composition of free arranged floor levels which transmit a spatial impression. Specific views through the windows of the historic environment are freezed into images. Those are placed in contrast to the flow of the internal space.

The house measures 11.5 meters x 6.5 meters and arises over 4 1/2 levels. All service rooms, storage areas and the stairs are concentrated in a 2 meter wide "function zone". This succeeds to keep the remaining volume free and to focus on the space. Vistas and exposures to light are in a balanced tension and continually provide unexpected spatial situations.

Above: basement plan

Above: ground floor plan

Above: first floor plan

Above: second floor plan

Above: cross section

Above: long section

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Named Haus Bergé, the family house was extended to create enough room for guests to stay.

The new structure climbs up on one side of the two-storey building and KHBT have also added an extra storey over the northern corner, altering the shape of the roof.

"The roof shape was developed through a continuation of the existing double monopitched roof," architects Bernd Truempler and Karsten Huneck told Dezeen, explaining how they extended the surface in one direction before folding it around the chimney.

At ground level the grey brick walls are left exposed, while the upper floors are clad with wooden fins that have been painted in a weather-resistant mineral coating.

To carry the weight of the extension, the architects added additional supports to the house's structure. "We had to punch through the existing first and ground floor in order to bear the new floor on its own structural elements," explained Truempler and Huneck.

The staircase remains in its original position in the northern corner of the building but the architects have extended it upwards to connect the lower levels with the new top floor.

Other German houses we've featured on Dezeen include a red concrete residence outside Stuttgart and a house in Wiesbaden with a cinema on the roof.

See more houses in Germany »

Photography is by Johannes Marburg.

Above: ground floor plan

Above: section

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Each floor plate of the three-storey Haus am Weinberg has a different shape and the top level leans out over a double-height glazed dining room at one corner.

Windows fold around all four corners of the building without columns, maximising views towards the vineyard on one side and the city on the other.

A curved staircase twists up through the centre of the house and has oak treads to match the flooring in the living room and bedroom.

The client enjoys hunting as a hobby, so one room of the house is dedicated to "music, masculine conviviality, and the hunt," according to the architects.

Above: photograph is by Christian Richters

Unlike the rest of the house, this room has little light and features wooden walls plus a collection of hunting trophies.

See more stories about UNStudio, including a scientific research centre with windows like dominoes.

Photography is by Iwan Baan, apart from where otherwise stated.

Here's some more information from UNStudio:

The Haus am Weinberg is located in a setting that is at one time rural, yet suburban.

The location of the villa affords pastoral views of the stepped terraces of an ancient hillside vineyard on one side and cityscape vistas on the other.

The inner circulation, organisation of the views and the programme distribution of the house are determined by a single gesture, ‘the twist’. In the Haus am Weinberg the central twist element supports the main staircase as it guides and organises the main flows through the house. The direction of each curve is determined by a set of diagonal movements. Whilst the programme distribution follows the path of the sun, each evolution in the twist leads to moments in which views to the outside become an integral experience of the interior.

This is enabled by the building’s load bearing concrete structure which is reduced to a minimum. Roof and slabs are supported by four elements only: elevator shaft, two pillars and one inner column. Through the large cantilever spans, a space is created which enables all four corners of the house to be glazed and column-free.

A double-height, glazed corner - which houses the dining area - opens up to extensive views towards the North-West and frames the vineyard hill which forms the backdrop to the house.

By means of sliding panes, this corner of the house can fully open up to further blur the boundaries between inside and outside. Views from the living room are extended by means of a fully glazed corner affording open vistas toward the nearby parklands to the South-West. Further views from the twist are encountered on the second level, where the master sleeping and wellness areas are located.

Site plan - click above for larger image

The interior of the Haus am Weinberg is arranged into spaces of varying atmospheres and spatial qualities, with the four glazed and open corners allowing daylight to reach deep into the house. The materialisation of the interior of the house further accentuates the overall atmosphere of light by means of natural oak flooring, natural stone and white clay stucco walls speckled with small fragments of reflective stone.

Concept diagram - click above for larger image

Custom made features and furnishings are also integrated to blend with and accentuate the architecture. In contrast, at the core of this light and flowing structure is a multi-purpose darker room, dedicated to music, masculine conviviality, and the hunt. In this room the ceilings and walls have especially designed acoustic dark wood panels which transform from an articulated relief on the ceiling into a linear pattern as they descend the walls and meet the dark wooden floors.

Layout diagram - click above for larger image

The volume and roofline of the Haus am Weinberg react and respond directly to the sloping landscape of the site, where the scales and inclinations of the slopes which sculpture the vineyard setting are reflected in the volumetric appearance of the house. The design of the garden landscaping extends the organisation of the house, with the garden forming a continuation of the diagonals of the floor plans and each division creating different zones for function and planting.

Sloping lines diagram - click above for larger image

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