The annual Wallpaper* Architects Directory, now in its twelfth year, provides the ultimate little black book to the world’s most promising young practices. For this year’s Directory, Wallpaper* selected twenty studios from around the world. Each was given an open brief to design the ultimate rural retreat. These twenty houses were designed to be flexible and functional, but also formally and technically innovative, sitting on an isolated countryside site. The only sanction was the need for the homes to touch the ground lightly, with minimum disruption to the landscape.
