New houses of elegance and distinction from around the world. Beyond the fundamental notion of shelter, what defines a house? The broad-ranging selection of extraordinary dwellings in the Architecture Now! Houses series shows the concept to be infinitely malleable: one house seems to hover above the ground, another is embedded in it; some have stark minimal lines, others have tropical gardens; some are palatial, others monastic - all of them displaying remarkable structural and aesthetic mastery. Here is a connoisseur's choice of the world's most remarkable new houses.