A spacious loft room bordered by a slender handrail is located beneath the steeply sloping wooden rafters of this Tokyo house by Apollo Architects & Associates (+ slideshow). More about Nord house by Apollo Architects boasts a spacious loft room for children to play in
Huge steel beams with I-shaped profiles were stacked to form the framework of this Tokyo house by Mount Fuji Architects Studio, which features a red spiral staircase winding between its floors (+ slideshow). More about Log Rhythm house revives old Japanese building technique using steel beams instead of wood
This house for two retired lecturers in the Indonesian city of Salatiga was designed with multiple bamboo funnels on its roof to echo the area's mountainous topography (+ slideshow). More about Budi Pradono Architects' bamboo house mimics the shapes of nearby buildings and mountains
Square windows and a matching door puncture the dark brick facade of this extension to a 1920s house in a Sydney suburb, designed by local office Tribe Studio (+ slideshow). More about Tribe Studio adds contemporary brick extension to a 1920s Sydney bungalow
This raw concrete house in Tokyo was designed by Japanese firm Apollo Architects & Associates as a family home for a couple whose interests include contemporary art and cars (+ slideshow). More about Apollo Architects creates spaces for artwork and cars in raw concrete Grigio house
This staircase inserted into a terraced house in London features alternating treads that make the most of a tight space, and perforated steel surfaces that allow light to filter through. More about DBLO Associates adds perforated steel staircase to refurbished London home
Hall + Bednarczyk Architects paired rugged sandstone with contemporary details to create this rural house in Wales, which pays homage to vernacular barns (+ slideshow). More about Sandstone-clad house in Wales designed by Hall + Bednarczyk to resemble local barns
Rippled facades create curved balconies for the residents of this apartment building completed by NEXT Architects in the Chinese city of Fuzhou (+ slideshow). More about NEXT Architects creates rippled facade for Fuzhou apartment block
Wooden bookshelves installed against slanted walls help to define the different areas of this open-plan loft apartment that h2o Architectes has renovated in the Arsenal district of Paris (+ slideshow). More about h2o Architectes adds angular shelving units to a book collector's Parisian loft apartment
The sixth movie in our exclusive series profiling the buildings of MVRDV focuses on Silodam – a polychromatic apartment building on Amsterdam harbour that studio co-founder Nathalie de Vries describes as a "big block lying in the water" (+ movie). More about MVRDV's Silodam block contains a cross-section of Amsterdam society says Nathalie de Vries
Stone from a local quarry was used for the cladding, paving and retaining walls of this cluster of buildings by DVA Arhitekta, built on a sprawling site in Bosnia and Herzegovina (+ slideshow). More about Holiday "village" for an ex-footballer comprises seven cuboids with stone walls
Canadian studio YH2 has completed a series of cabin-inspired homes for a woodland development between the shores of Lac Supérieur and the Mont-Tremblant ski resort in Quebec (+ slideshow). More about YH2 reinterprets the Canadian log cabin for lakeside housing development in Quebec
Broad white piers create a rhythm of regular openings around the facade of this small residence near Stockholm by architecture firm Hermansson Hiller Lundberg (+ slideshow). More about Hermansson Hiller Lundberg references Classical architecture with monochrome House Skuru
This glass-fronted living room and surrounding garden have been added by New South Wales firm CO-AP on the rooftop of a house in Sydney's Darlinghurst (+ slideshow). More about CO-AP creates rooftop oasis for residents of a Sydney penthouse
Architect Joris Verhoeven chose hand-moulded bricks for the walls of this asymmetric gabled house in the Dutch village of Riel (+ slideshow). More about House by Joris Verhoeven features handmade bricks and a lopsided roof
Anodised aluminium panels surround windows and doors set into the angular concrete facades of this house in Tübingen, Germany, by Steimle Architekten (+ slideshow). More about S3 House is a concrete and aluminium villa by Steimle Architekten
A fitted kitchen, a seating nook and a desk space are all contained in oak-lined recesses in the otherwise black walls of this apartment in Ljubljana, Slovenia by local studio Arhitektura d.o.o. (+ slideshow). More about Wooden niches contain work surfaces and storage inside Black Line Apartment by Arhitektura d.o.o.
Pomo summer: patterned tiles, geometric screens and a bright yellow staircase were added to this apartment in Athens by local studio Point Supreme (+ slideshow). More about Point Supreme adds Postmodern touches to Nadja apartment in Athens
Walls of frameless glazing offer uninterrupted views of the Golden Gate Bridge and San Francisco Bay from this 1970s California house, which has been reworked and extended by local studio Swatt Miers Architects (+ slideshow). More about California home by Swatt Miers Architects faces out over San Francisco Bay
This timber-clad Copenhagen house was designed by local studio EFFEKT to be flexible for a growing family, but also to match the cost of the country's cheapest kit homes (+ slideshow). More about EFFEKT's Villa One is a low-cost home designed to suit a growing family