Move over bricks and mortar! We've scoured the globe to bring you the very best gleaming metal homes to feast your eyes on. Designed by some of the world's most talented architects, these homes, clad in copper, aluminium and tin, are architecturally stunning and sure to inspire.

Nestled among the shops, houses and roof terraces in London's vibrant Shepherds Bush, you'll find the award-winning Tin House. Made up of six pods, built on a plot overlooked on all sides, this bright abode really is a sculptural wonder. The stand-out metal property was designed by architect Henning Stummel and is now his private home and office space. 

Surrounded by other buildings, it was important to create a home with plenty of private spaces on the plot, which was once a breaker’s yard. The result is an inward-looking courtyard design that is open to the south. The build’s six interconnected pavilions offer creative living spaces, framing a central outside area that features a tranquil pool of water. Love this? Check out these spectacular homes hidden from the world.

Inside, each room has a steeply pitched roof, featuring an angled skylight. The gorgeous bespoke kitchen is in the same orange hue as the home's tin exterior, creating continuity between inside and out. As you move through the building, cleverly positioned windows frame changing vistas of the urban landscape outside.

The linking spaces between each pod room are well utilised, accommodating bathrooms or stairwells tucked away between the walls. The interiors are innovative and multi-functioning – in the main bedroom, an orange bathtub is concealed behind the bed’s headboard.

When it came to choosing building materials, a pared-back durable finish was important to Henning. He settled on a Swedish steel, GreenCoat PLX, that ticked all the boxes. It uses rapeseed oil to coat the steel, rather than fossil oils, minimising the home's environmental footprint.

Situated on a stunning archipelago in Vestfold, Norway, this plot was originally home to a wood cabin. Over the years it had become worn out and unlivable, so a new design, clad in salt water resistant aluminium, was devised. The new striking woodland cabin was completed in 2013, consisting of three interconnected spaces, each with a canopy-covered outdoor deck.

Located between two large rocks, the building blends into the surrounding terrain. The home's reflective finish creates a camouflage effect, reflecting the sky, clouds and rugged landscape.

Designed by Arktekter Mnal, the cabin is a truly relaxing space to unwind and escape the stresses of everyday life. The exterior is sleek and cutting-edge, but the inside is minimalistic. Its decor is cool, airy and open to the elements with natural light flooding the rooms through the copious amounts of glazing.

One side of the 90-square-metre cabin accommodates bathrooms, bedrooms and a kitchen, while the other forms a large social living space. Vast swathes of glazed doors open out onto a decking area which offers breathtaking ocean views. From here, a walkway leads down to the ocean edge, perfect for a morning swim.

More than just an attractive contemporary finish, the aluminium facade is resistant to erosion from the nearby seawater, ensuring the cabin has longevity in this uniquely exposed location.

Reflecting the undulating waves of the ocean, this spectacular 530-square-metre family home located in Venice Beach, California. Created by esteemed Los Angeles architect Mario Romano, the Wave House is made from over three hundred unique pieces of white-painted aluminium, assembled together to create a rippling formation.

Visually, the home looks like one seamless facade, with the metal cladding flowing across the two storeys. The various aluminium pieces were cut and secured, leaving a slight space between each to create shadows that change depending on the light. “We’re inspired by nature,” says Mario. “That’s the way nature works; how it builds and creates, and we’re drawing on that here.”

At the back of the property, the protruding courtyard wall features a subtle design difference which stands out from the rest of the house. Here, the aluminium cladding emulates overlapping feathers, rising up from the ground level to the first floor, where five spacious bedrooms are located. Love this? Check out these homes for sale with incredible courtyards.

In order to achieve the rippled effect across the entire home, sophisticated computer software was used in the design stages. Romano and his team were able to digitally sculpt the finished home to achieve precise, undulating architecture.

On the ground floor, glazed doors slide back to open up the entire length of the kitchen to the garden. Ideal for dining alfresco, the inside-outside design makes the most of California's sunny climate. This incredible feat of design is certainly making waves in the architectural world!

Built for a Peruvian horse breeder, this incredible home sits on the highest part of a 60-acre farm just north of Piura. South American architects Cheng + Franco designed this elevated mirador-style house, opting for oxidized steel to clad the bold, protruding upper floors of the property.

Stretching three levels, the home's central living space is spread across the ground and first floors, with a lower basement level offering storage space. The first floor, where the bedrooms are located, is clad in steel and orientated for the best views of the landscape and paddocks.

Clad in perforated Corten steel, three first-floor sections cantilever over the concrete ground floor, each angled in a different direction. This pre-rusted steel, known as weathering steel, requires little maintenance. Small holes have been punched into it, casting unique patterns of light onto the property's covered terraces.

A dramatic red steel spiral staircase cuts through the centre of the house, descending down through the home's three storeys. The surrounding walls of the stairwell have been utilised as space storage – cleverly lined with box shelves to showcase the homeowner's various equestrian trophies.

Outside, there's a luxurious pool and sun terrace, along with plenty of space for the homeowner's horses to roam freely. The surrounding farmlands also include a mini zoo that houses around 50 abandoned dogs.

This distinctive home, finished in corrugated zinc, creates the illusion of a tilted structure thanks to the formation of the cladding. Extremely durable and hard-wearing, the tough facade protects the home from the elements, whilst creating a cosy, well-insulated interior space.

Perched on a hillside in Slovenia's Slovenske Konjice region, the spot's uneven terrain is reflected in the home's quirky angular structure. Designed by architects Scapelab for a local doctor, the 174-square-metre house is a multifunctional space, housing informal living zones along with calm professional workspaces where the homeowner sees patients.

The architecture of the dwelling is designed to accommodate the changing seasons. Carefully designed overhangs around the windows and doorways work as shading elements, blocking the high summer sun from overheating the interior, whilst still allowing the low sun to warm the property in the winter months.

Inside, the decor is minimal but luxurious. A bright and spacious open-plan living and dining zone is located on the ground floor, along with a kitchen and the doctor’s home office. On the first floor, there's a restful master bedroom, along with children’s rooms and ensuites.

Despite its contemporary appearance, the home's wooden accents, from wall cladding to decking and benches, pay homage to the surrounding rural landscape with its traditional wood homes.

Set in an ancient city with a wealth of medieval architecture, this striking black copper home was designed to bridge past and present with its innovative structure. The result, devised by architects Radu Teacă, is a gothic-inspired property with a minimalist feel. Love this? These heavenly homes were once churches.

Stretching across four storeys, the internal layout is divided by a large central multi-storey atrium. Swathes of glazing mimic the reflective quality of the external copper cladding, whilst drawing the home's historic surroundings inside.

The ground-floor entrance leads through to a grand dining hall and kitchen, while the living room, with a sweeping glass facade and striking artwork, is found on the first floor. Bedrooms, including the master suite, are located on the second floor, overlooking the garden. Meanwhile, nestled below ground level in the basement is a luxurious home cinema.

In contrast to the dark copper facade, the interior features a calm neutral scheme with bright white walls. Across some of the levels, the flooring features rich wood which brings a touch of warmth to the living space.

The home's architecture is mindful of its location. As the copper cladding ages and weathers, the 375-square-metre property will soften and settle into the surroundings. Meanwhile, at the peak of the building, vertical corner windows continue the contours of the roof, offering vistas of the sky and beyond.

Built on the outskirts of Santiago, Chile, this remarkable home was created from twelve metal shipping containers. Their dark oxidized exteriors blend in beautifully with the surrounding Andean Mountains, while the unique broken structure of the dwelling allows cool air from the mountains to circulate through the interior.

Conceived by award-winning architect Sebastian Irarrazaval, the design positions angled steel containers as though they're resting on the sloping edge of the hillside. The finished home has been dubbed the Caterpillar House because of the way the four modules appear to lie on the ground. 

The containers were put into position in their raw state and then cut and welded together, with the entire structure clad in copper-finished steel plates. To support the upper level, a massive steel beam with posts was put in place to anchor the containers securely into position. Outside, a large 40-foot open-top container has been sunk into place to form a swimming pool, alongside a private jacuzzi.

The entrance to the property is on the slope of the hill, with a long staircase snaking down into the main body of the home, past the bedrooms and bathrooms on the first floor, and flowing into the kitchen, dining and living spaces below. The scheme throughout is unsurprisingly industrial, featuring exposed sections of the containers and a wealth of metalwork, raw materials and glass.

The steel facade was primarily chosen for its affordability, but the material is also an extremely low maintenance choice. Left to shine in the sun, the containers will slowly rust and fade in the dry climate, blending further into their brown, mountainous surroundings. Love this? Check out these stunning homes made from shipping containers.

This unique, cliffside home is like nothing we've seen before. Set into a 42-degree incline, the property in Granada was built for a young couple with ambitious ideas and a tight budget. Thanks to GilBartolome Architects, the result is an architectural wonder with breathtaking views of the Mediterranean Sea.

The house is clad in hand-made silver zinc tiles that were individually placed to create a beautifully natural wave effect. Built during Spain’s financial crisis, costs were kept low and machine-building was avoided, resulting in a dwelling made onsite by hand, using the age-old method of measuring from plans, rather than digital processes.

The house itself is buried into the ground and situated across two floors – a large terraced living area following the slope of the mountain, which is connected to a cantilevered terrace and swimming pool, and a second floor that offers bedrooms with private balconies and spectacular vistas of the sea below.

Incredibly, the entire house was inserted into the hillside as a series of shells, with no internal walls, columns or supports. The primary living zone measures 14.5 metres wide and is completely open inside, with a fluid multi-level layout that reflects the gradient of the cliff.

When seen from below, the zinc house looks almost dragon-like, with scaled reflective skin, yet when seen from above it resembles the waves of the sea below. The roof is a double-curved concrete shell, packed with insulation, so amazingly, the house does not require any heating or cooling systems. Love this? Check out these mountain home with majestic views.

Set in six acres of gardens in the heart of Suffolk’s countryside, the spectacular Balancing Barn was commissioned by Living Architecture as part of a series of holiday homes designed by world-class architects. The barn is a striking 30-metre long cantilevered house with a glass floor, large picture windows and skylights. Love this? Check out these breathtaking barn conversions.

This innovative venture was a collaboration between British practice Mole Architects and Dutch firm, MVRDV. “The house wants to be modest initially, it wants to respect the landscape,” says its architect Winy Maas of MVRDV. “When you put a barn on a hill, it’s just a barn on a hill. But the moment you begin to push the barn to the edge of a hill it gets an emotional feeling. It starts to not be completely comfortable. There’s a stable part, and a less stable part. It is not boring.”

Outside, the barn is covered in reflective stainless steel cladding, mirroring the site's natural surroundings. In contrast, the interior is awash with natural textures and light wood. Contemporary fixtures and furnishings create a cool multifunctional living space, incorporating a kitchen and dining zone.

Accessed via a playful hidden staircase in the centre of the property, the living room is located in the lower cantilevered section of the barn. Quirky features include a glass floor that offers a glimpse of the ground below – plus a reminder of the home's remarkable feat of suspension.

At the property’s mid-point, the barn starts to cantilever over the descending slope below, meaning that exactly half of the barn is floating. There's even a swing underneath – the only one known to be suspended from the underside of a house!

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