Kicking off our review of 2021, we round up 10 of the most striking and interesting houses featured on Dezeen this year, including a concrete villa in Indonesia and a mid-century Californian home given a new lease of life.

Photo is by Hiroyuki Oki
Bat Trang House, Vietnam, by Vo Trong Nghia Architects
Encased in ceramic bricks, this house was designed to reflect the pottery heritage of Bat Trang village. Vo Trong Nghia Architects gave the building a perforated exterior wall to naturally cool and ventilate the interior spaces, with small, elevated gardens dotted throughout.
The home won urban house of the year 2021 at the Dezeen Awards, with judges praising its "radical look, the surprising elements and original use of material".
Find out more about Bat Trang House ?
Photo is by Kai Nakamura
House Tokyo, Japan, by Unemori Architects
House Tokyo is squeezed onto a tiny plot of just 26 square metres in a densely populated district of the Japanese capital.
Unemori Architects used a stacked box design to help it make the most of the limited space available, with large windows of different orientations meaning the inside is light-filled throughout the day and ceiling heights reaching up to five metres.
Find out more about House Tokyo ?

Photo is by Joe Fletcher
Moore House, USA, by Woods + Dangaran
Increasingly in 2021, architects have been speaking about the importance of reusing and upgrading existing buildings where possible. Moore House, on a hillside in Los Ang...