Via OWI – Office for Word and Image. Photo: Vercruysse Frederik

Frank Lloyd Wright built Fallingwater on a boulder-covered site, but the giant rocks beneath and around that well-known house are not nearly so graphic or madly visible as they are in these houses. Some of these structures were deliberately built on or around boulders, whether for aesthetics, site preservation, or protection; others incorporated the rocks simply because the rocks could not be moved from the only available building spot. Portugal and Spain are full of boulder architecture, and so are many erratic-strewn desert regions where imposing rocks can provide shelter from the sun or wind. In colder climates where rock expands and contracts with the seasons, much of this architecture is not possible, but if I could get a boulder inside my living room, I would. The house above is in Phoenix; the three photos directly below show architect Albert Frey’s own house in Palm Springs (two of those photos have appeared here before; I keep going back to them).

Below, in order: Klein Aus Vista in Namibia, by iciblancheneige; Stone house in Fafe, Portugal, by Jsome1; Rock House, Koh Samui, Thailand, by msharkie; house in boulder-strewn Monsanto, Portugal, by Txumu; house at Cliff Dwellers, Arizona, by davduf; Hairy Bobbo’s handcarved house, 18th C hermitage in Yorkshire, by Nekoglyph. Click on each photo for more information.

The photo above shows the central living area of a rural farmhouse on the border of Tochigi and Ibaraki prefectures. The house was restored by Kenji Tsuchisawa who bought it as a rundown heap when he was only 20, after seeing a photograph of a traditional Japanese farmhouse on a Tokyo magazine cover. He bought the house before realizing it was situated just one village away from the house in the magazine. Many Japanese traditional farmhouses have now been restored and modernized, but the layout of these houses is so clever in terms of use of space and comfort that when they are updated, the original layout is often retained. It’s a house model being studied by North American and European architects aiming to produce smaller but more functional houses. Traditional Japanese houses are not large, but they seem larger than they are thanks to their well-thought-out layout, and their serene, warm version of minimalism makes them comfortable and functional. The use of natural materials and repeated colours makes the rooms feel balanced, and so does the fact that most objects have a real function. Decorative elements exist, but not to excess. When they are modernized, the main alteration is usually the replacement of the original exterior doors and windows, and trading the sliding shoji screen doors and windows for more sturdily framed glass doors, windows and skylights to let in more light and keep out the weather.

Both photos above show the traditional indoor fire pit known as an irori, which sometimes sits on a raised seating platform, though in the photo above the irori has been traded for a more efficient (and safer) wood stove. The beautiful half-frosting on the glass screen doors in the photo above provides some privacy from the fairly public courtyard for people seated inside. Photos are from a book I think is really worth buying: Japan Country Living: Spirit, Tradition, Style, by Amy Sylvester Katoh, photographs by Shin Kimura, Charles E. Tuttle Company, Rutland, Vermont and Tokyo, Japan, 1993. Kimura’s work has also appeared in Met Home and Paris Vogue.

Above is a checkerboard textile of indigo-dyed hemp by Hiroyuki Shindo, on the verandah of his thatched house. It provides privacy (it appears opaque from outside, see here) and yet admits light and the view. Below, a functional modern kitchen produced by making only minor changes to the original.

A ketchup bottle on the stereo speaker really completes a pad. In the Sixties, it’s a new kind of baroque. Ketchup aside, the wall-mounted amp is genius, and the wall painted in four colour blocks is great. Photo is from The Practical Encyclopedia of Good Decorating and Home Improvement, Greystone Press, 1970. Click here to see the whole page with original caption. This set of encyclopedias is an incredible source for retro DIY ideas and often far-fetched photos that we haven’t seen anywhere else. It’s part of Sarah’s most excellent collection of retro decor books. You can get a whole set of these encyclopedias for yourself on abebooks.

David Crosby in 1970 with his father in the family living room in Ojai, California. The shot is from a collection of photos by photographer John Olson of 70’s rock musicians in their parents’ living rooms that has been circulating around the design blogs. See that crazy armchair? Despite the fact that it happens all the time, it’s always weird to recognize something from your own vintage textile collection (below) in an original location. That’s a pretty neat folding screen, too. More here.