A new architectural roundup showcases eight remarkable infill houses that demonstrate creative solutions for building on tight urban sites. These projects, spanning from Dublin to Buenos Aires, reveal how architects are transforming vacant city plots into distinctive homes that either complement or boldly contrast with their surrounding neighborhoods.
The featured projects illustrate diverse approaches to the challenges of urban infill development, where space constraints and neighboring buildings create unique design opportunities. Each house responds to specific site limitations while maximizing natural light, privacy, and livability within compact footprints.
In London, Ao-ft's Spruce House seamlessly connects two existing terraced houses while creating visual intrigue through its facade of vertical timber battens and mullions. Drawing inspiration from the area's history as a village high street, the architects designed the front elevation like a shop front, featuring a glazed ground floor screened by wooden slats that allows light while maintaining privacy.
Belgian studio Delmulle Delmulle Architecten faced a different challenge with their Glass Brick House in Ghent, where surrounding buildings on three sides severely limited window placement. Their solution involved using glass brickwork for the upper portion of the street-facing facade, effectively bringing natural light into the interior while creating a distinctive architectural statement. The home's layout places bedrooms on the ground floor behind the terracotta-tiled facade, with living, kitchen, and dining spaces positioned above.
In Wisconsin, Johnsen Schmaling Architects deliberately broke from convention with their Curtain House, abandoning the pitched roof silhouette typical of neighboring homes in favor of a contemporary rectangular form. The facade features wood and metal louvres that create dynamic shadows and privacy while maintaining the same height as the century-old neighboring buildings, demonstrating how modern design can respectfully integrate into historic streetscapes.
Irish architecture studio Gró Works took an industrial approach for their Dublin infill house, combining red brick with perforated metal panels to reference both the ornate Victorian red-brick terraces nearby and the more utilitarian character of the backstreet the home overlooks. A door in the metal cladding opens onto a sheltered porch, creating a transitional space between the street and entrance, while bedrooms occupy the ground floor and an open-plan living area on the upper floor extends onto a private balcony.
Space constraints reached extreme levels with Casa Ederlezi in Monterrey, Mexico, where Práctica Arquitectura worked with just a five-meter-wide infill plot. Their solution involved creating two red concrete volumes separated by a central courtyard, designing the home to be closed off from surroundings for privacy while incorporating outdoor spaces within the perimeter walls to maintain a sense of openness and connection to nature.
London's NW10 House by Platform 5 Architects demonstrates how irregular sites can inspire creative architectural solutions. Occupying a triangular corner site that formerly served as a builder's yard, the house features an irregular, blocky form that responds to planning constraints and sight lines of surrounding properties. The three-story home's rooms fan out from a central skylit spiral stair, with exposed concrete interiors that emphasize the building's sculptural qualities.
Perhaps the most space-constrained project is TH House in Hanoi, Vietnam, where ODDO Architects squeezed a five-story home into a four-by-six-meter site flanked by buildings on three sides, with only a narrow 1.2-meter-wide alley separating it from the opposite property. The architects maximized natural light through strategic lightwells, perforated walls, and a glazed facade positioned slightly forward of the interior spaces to create depth and visual relief.
Finally, Casa Vedia in Buenos Aires showcases how BHY Arquitectos optimized spatial quality despite being sandwiched between two party walls. The all-white three-story house incorporates two courtyards and two patios to bring light and air into the interior spaces, while a double-sloped roof helps diminish the building's scale and better integrate with the residential neighborhood character. This project demonstrates how thoughtful design can create generous living spaces even within the tightest urban constraints.
