Federico Babina has unveiled yet another playful collection of architecturally inspired illustrations: Derived from the ”symbiotic relationship and implicit partnership” between art and architecture, Archist reinterprets the expressive language and aesthetic of prominent artists as built form. 

“Art and architecture are disciplines that speak and lightly touch each other, the definition and function of the architecture are changing constantly with the development of contemporary art,” described Babina. “I took pleasure imagining architecture steeped of art, designed and constructed through the interpretation of an artist’s language.”

Shogo Aratani designed the two-storey house for a site with an 11-metre change of level from front to back, so he divided the building into a series of blocks that stagger up to follow the slope of the hill. "We decided to place volumes along the sloped ground to minimise excavation," said the architect. "We designed the spatial sequence in relation to the landscape by placing three volumes along contour lines." The three rectilinear volumes fan out around a triangular central section that accommodates the houses's main staircase, but which also functions as a small library. Books can be stored on shelves around the three edges of the space, as well as within the gaps between treads.

Hidden at the bottom of a London garden, this glowing shed by British studio Weston, Surman & Deane was designed as a writing retreat for an author. The inner facade of the Writer's Shed is shingle-clad with a glazed sliding door that opens out to a covered veranda facing back towards the house. A cedar screen fronts the veranda and gaps between the narrow slats allow light to shine out at night. Tucked away behind the cedar frame are logs to be used in the wood burning stove that heats the shed, which sits on concrete paving slabs and leans against the gable wall. Oiled chipboard bookcases for the writer's library fill the space around it and painted pine boards cover the floor. Externally, the glowing cedar facade, shingle cladding, log store and chimney all play a part in creating this world. Inside, a large north-facing skylight floods the workspace with natural light. On the gable wall, a bookcase meanders around the wood burning stove, providing a centre piece for the client to store his library of books. Looking back out over the garden, the glazed sliding door gives onto a covered verandah – a space perfect to enjoy the very worst of the British weather. Weston, Surman & Deane, also known as WSD Architecture, was launched by three Royal College of Art architecture graduates after they completed their first project, the Royal College of Art Student Union Cafe. The Writer's Shed is one of 24 projects shortlisted for the AJ Small Projects Award 2014. The winner will be announced next month.

A garden snakes between the cedar-clad walls of this house in Osaka by Japanese architects Arbol Design who chose to enclose the garden within the high walls that surround the property to keep the spaces out of view from tall apartment buildings close by. Designed for a retired couple, the single-storey wooden home stands out from the rendered concrete multi-storey apartment blocks in the Nishimikuni district of central Osaka.