What does architecture look like when its designers are free to explore the limits of their imaginations, creating structures that are more like monumental sculptures than conventional buildings" The “Solo Houses” project in Matarraña, Spain, creates a space where such ideas can become realities in the form of holiday homes, all 12 of which have been designed by budding international architecture practices across a hilly 99-acre property. Dreamed up by French developer Christian Bourdais and first announced in 2010, the project takes inspiration from previous experimental architecture programs meant to spark innovation.

The recently unveiled “Inverted Pyramid Solo House” by Tokyo-based firm TNA, led by Makoto Takei and Chie Nabeshima, evades all expectations of conformity with its monolithic and seemingly precarious silhouette. Currently under construction at the Matarraña site (along with the rest of the houses), this upside-down pyramid almost seems to have fallen from the sky, wedging itself just deep enough into the soil to avoid falling over.
The home?s seemingly impenetrable exterior is pierced only by a few trapezoidal cutouts, which allow natural light and fresh air inside via sliding glass panels. Its wide open interior is divided by platforms at various levels, all of them projecting from exterior walls and elevating private spaces like the home?s three bedrooms far above the common ones without cutting them off from the rest of th...