This concrete house in Tokyo was designed by Japanese firm Apollo Architects & Associates for a family that regularly accommodates foreign exchange students (+ slideshow). More about Concrete Calm house by Apollo Architects designed to accommodate exchange students
News: a tower under construction in Miami by Porsche Design and Dezer Development is to feature car elevators, allowing some of the world's wealthiest people to park right next to their living rooms (+ slideshow). More about Car elevators in Porsche Design's Miami tower will give billionaires drive-in apartments
News: John Pawson has become the latest designer of a holiday home for Alain de Botton's Living Architecture project with his proposal for a black brick lodge in the Welsh countryside (+ slideshow). More about John Pawson designs countryside lodge for Alain de Botton's Living Architecture project
This combined dental clinic and beauty salon in Takashima, Japan, by Osaka designer Ryutaro Matsuura features a plain white facade that conceals windows and patios behind perforated metal screens (+ slideshow). More about Bright white clinic by Ryutaro Matsuura with concealed windows and patios
This small house in Japan by architect Hiroyuki Shinozaki features volcanic stone walls and a ribbed structure that forms the shape of a dome over the central living space (+ slideshow). More about Hiroyuki Shinozaki's House I features stone walls surrounding a ribbed dome
Letter I stands for Japanese architect Arata Isozaki in the ninth window from our A-Zdvent calendar of architects. Isozaki's most famous projects include the Museum of Modern Art in Gunma, but he more recently completed an inflatable mobile concert hall in collaboration with artist Anish Kapoor and the Qatar National Convention Centre, where tree-like columns support an overhanging roof (pictured).
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More about Dezeen's A-Zdvent calendar: Arata Isozaki
Curved walls made from sun-bleached timber slats screen the exterior of this sports centre by Explorations Architecture in the French commune of Arpajon, near Paris (+ slideshow). More about Sports centre clad with sun-bleached wooden slats by Explorations Architecture
A rare prefabricated one-room house designed by Jean Prouvé in 1945 is on sale at Design Miami for $2.5 million. Update: this interview is featured in Dezeen Book of Interviews, which is on sale now for £12 (+ movie + interview). More about One-room prefab house by Jean Prouvé on sale at Design Miami for More.5m
We've recently featured a house with a fritted glass facade and an energy efficient house in a glazed box located in the Netherlands. From the iconic Piet Blom cube houses to the traditional Dutch townhouse, here is a selection of Dutch homes from the pages of Dezeen. See our new Dutch houses Pinterest board »
More about New Pinterest board: Dutch houses
Following a preview of the nearly completed Pérez Art Museum in Miami this week, our eighth A-Zdvent calendar window features Swiss architecture duo Herzog & de Meuron. Here's a picture of their Vitrahaus showroom shaped like a pile of houses.
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Dezeen and MINI World Tour: in our first movie from Miami, Jacques Herzog of Herzog & de Meuron claims the Swiss architecture studio is trying to create a "new vernacular for Miami" that eschews sealed, air-conditioned buildings in favour of more "transparent or permeable" structures. More about Herzog & de Meuron is "deconstructing stupid architecture" in Miami
Dutch studio NL Architects used turquoise-coloured bricks to build this apartment block in Rotterdam, which staggers at the top to make room for sunny balconies on one side (+ slideshow). More about NL Architects completes turquoise tower that leans over towards the top
G is for Frank Gehry in our seventh A-Zdvent calendar window. The American architect's Guggenheim Museum in the Spanish city of Bilbao (pictured) famously sparked a trend for cities commissioning iconic buildings as catalysts for regeneration, while other high-profile projects include his Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles and the upcoming new headquarters for Facebook.
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News: architect Daniel Libeskind has unveiled plans to build an angular apartment block in Berlin that will feature a gleaming metallic facade. More about Daniel Libeskind designs metallic apartment block for Berlin
A collection of vintage Aston Martins can be glimpsed through the fritted glass facade of this house in Maastricht, the Netherlands, by Dutch studio Wiel Arets Architects. More about Wiel Arets completes a glazed house for a vintage car collector
Behind our sixth A-Zdvent calendar window is British architect Norman Foster. One of his most famous buildings is the Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank Headquarters completed in 1986 (pictured) and his firm Foster + Partners this week revealed its collaboration with designer Thomas Heatherwick on a finance centre that is currently under construction in Shanghai.
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The translucent polycarbonate walls of this house in Hiroshima by Japanese architects Suppose Design Office allow natural light to flood the interior from all sides (+ slideshow). More about Suppose Design Office's House of Tousuienn has translucent plastic walls
Design Miami 2013: architect Norman Foster plans to add a row of stone pavilions to the Norton Museum of Art in Florida as part of a major overhaul that will double the building's gallery space, and he unveiled the designs yesterday during the opening of the Art Basel Miami Beach and Design Miami fairs. More about Foster unveils extension plans for Florida's Norton Museum of Art
A bridge over a stream connects the two sides of this concrete house in India by Mumbai firm Architecture Brio (+ slideshow). More about Concrete house by Architecture Brio that straddles a stream in India
Behind our fifth advent calendar window is Portuguese architect Eduardo Souto de Moura, who was awarded the 2011 Pritzker Prize and designed the red concrete museum dedicated to artist Paula Rego (pictured) in his home country.
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More about Dezeen's A-Zdvent calendar: Eduardo Souto de Moura