This week's picks:

+ Skene Catling de la Peña's Dairy House at Designlines and Architectural Record. "Architect Charlotte Skene Catling, principal of the firm Skene Catling de la Peña, shrugs off any hard-and-fast characterization of the environmental principles that guided her renovation of and addition to a 1902 building in the historic, 850-acre Hadspen estate in Somerset, England."

+ Tyler Engle Architects' Madrona Live/Work Conversion at Contemporist, "A storefront from the early 1900's, which had served as a drug store, soda fountain, and most recently a developers office, has been converted into a live / work space for a couple with and extensive art collection."

+ Rintala Eggertssons' Boxhome at Below the Clouds, "Boxhome is a 19 square meter dwelling with four rooms covering the basic living functions: kitchen with dining, bathroom, living room and bedroom."

+ Buro2's Barn House at sub-studio blog studio, "transformed from an old barn into a residence. The traditional form of the original barn remains, with a wooden outer skin integrating the house into the landscape."

+ Clayton Homes' i-House at Jetson Green, "The i-House gets its name from its footprint. The core portion of the home is 992 square feet with bedroom, living room, kitchen, and bathroom. The core is then dotted by an extended flex room and bathroom quarters, which also features an exciting rooftop deck.

+ Building Arts Workshop's Orchid Street Cityhomes at Jetson Green, "a duplex, or connected rowhouses, but the party wall is the garage, so the homes maintain a level of privacy and separation that's usually missing in most attached residences... both dwellings just received LEED Platinum certification about a week before Christmas."

+ Cláudio Vilarinho's Casa 1 Penafiel at noticias arquitectura, "The idea: a white volume (28x10m) that rests on a continuous grass carpet."

+ Studio Junction's Courtyard House, one of dozen A Daily Dose of Architecture favorites from 2008. Via Dezain.

+ The Media Gallery for Ultimate House, "Building the Ultimate House looks at how modern homes are being designed and built to meet the needs of rapidly changing contemporary lifestyles". Via Dezain.

+ Back Lane Intensification at TreeHugger, "We live in an era where we should be promoting things like this, which let people comfortably work from home and still provides for parking."

+ Archiship Studio's W House at Wallpaper*, "The house's main functions are dispersed within separate models over the 330sqm site, including living, kitchen and dining area, master bedroom, Japanese style room, guestroom and children's room. The remaining in-between open spaces operate as outdoor terraces or gardens, smoothly connected with the interior spaces through a free circulation plan, which is key to Iida's clever design." Via noticias arquitectura.