Abara Garden House | White Cube Atelier | Makou, Iran

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Modern houses with unique architectural design and elegant wooden facades at sunset above the mountains

White cloud between earth and sky

Suspended between mist and mountain air, the Abara Garden House by White Cube Atelier rises like a white cloud among the rocky heights of Karahach, Free Zone Makou. Designed as a modest refuge from urban hustle, this small garden house redefines how minimalist architecture can deeply connect with nature and human perception.

Working within the spatial constraints imposed on garden plots in the region, architects transformed the limitation into poetry — creating a housing prototype embodying tranquility, balance, and the sensation of weightlessness between sky and earth.

Concept and Inspiration

The project emerged from a childhood image of a floating house, architecturally realized as a hovering cubic form, light on the landscape. White Cube Atelier aimed to create not just a place of rest but also a contemplative object, a volume capable of inspiring wonder in those who see or live within it.

The architects describe the form as a 'white cloud floating between sky and earth' — both grounded and ethereal. This image captures the dual nature of the project: a structure firmly rooted in the landscape but visually light and fleeting amid the constantly changing fog of Makou mountains.

Program and Spatial Organization

The Abara Garden House occupies a 6×6 meter platform, expanding vertically through four compact levels:

Basement: Storage and technical functions seamlessly integrated into the earth.
Lounge: A glassy, open space oriented toward the horizon, creating a connection with its surroundings.
Recreation Zone: A private, cozy area designed for silence and detachment.
Attic and Observation Deck: The final level opens to the sky, offering panoramic views and contact with mountain air.

This glass configuration maximizes functionality while preserving conceptual purity — a small house with an expansive spatial experience.

Materials and Form

The monolithic white shell of the house creates a strong visual identity amid soft natural tones. Clean geometry and projecting edges create a gentle balance of mass and lightness, evoking the illusion of structure floating above the landscape.

A limited palette — white plaster finish, concrete and glass — enhances the clarity of form. The dance of light and shadow on the facade changes with time of day and fog density, transforming the house into a living artwork within the landscape.

From afar, simplicity conceals a complex dialogue between structure and perception, where form becomes both an architectural and emotional experience.

Symbology and Perception

Beyond its compact layout and minimalist footprint, the Abara Garden House explores architecture as emotion and encounter. The design seeks to narrow the gap between physical spaces and human imagination, where each observer perceives the house differently depending on light, weather, and distance.

The architects describe the project as a spatial experiment in empathy: a challenge for viewers to feel the architecture, not just see it.

This approach places the Abara Garden House in the lineage of phenomenological architecture, where the act of observation becomes an inseparable part of the architectural experience.

Prototype for Future Garden Houses

In Makou's Free Zone, where strict size limitations on private plots demand precision, the Abara Garden House serves as a prototype for future residential homes. Its compact footprint, sustainable approach, and formal restraint create a replicable model of small-scale architectural solutions that remain contextual, poetic, and effective.

Transforming legal constraints into creative opportunities, White Cube Atelier demonstrates how architecture can remain visionary even with the simplest means.

The Abara Garden House by White Cube Atelier presents a quiet manifesto of minimalism and meaning in architecture. With its ethereal white form, compact design, and reflective presence among the misty heights, it becomes both a refuge and sculpture, inviting contemplation rather than residence.

In this small but profound project, architecture becomes a moment of silence — a bridge between human imagination, landscape, and the endless horizon.