If 2017 ground your gears down, here’s the remedy…

We’ve picked out some of our favourite holiday homes completed in the last 12 months that are now available to rent. Whether you’re looking for a place for quiet contemplation or want to recharge your creative batteries in an urban retreat, you’ll find the right tonic below.

Villa Slow, Cantabria, Spain

2-3 bedrooms; from €225 per night via Villa Slow
Built using the stones of a crumbling farm shed, this Spanish holiday home is a minimal countryside retreat. Its enormous windows – described as ‘living paintings’ by architect Laura Alvarez – frame views of the nearby valleys and trees, and can be completely opened onto the grassy surrounds.

Loft House, Orbaden, Sweden

1 bedroom; from 1,875 SEK via Holiday Architecture
Scandi design meets Japanese minimalism in this treetop retreat, designed by architect Hanna Michelson. The Loft House is the first of four planned ‘hotel rooms’ for the Landscape Hotel, with more to follow in the new year. The treehouse comprises two stacked volumes, which perch on stilts on a former ski slope in Sweden’s Orbaden. Inside, less is more: walls, floors and ceilings are light birch plywood, and furniture is kept to the bare minimum.

Pink House, the Azores, Portugal

2 bedrooms; from €200 per night via Boutique Homes
This rose-tinted home was built from the bones of an old barn and sits surrounded by gardens and orchards in a secluded area of Sao Miguel island. Completed earlier this year by Italian studio Mezzo Atelier, the Portuguese holiday home retains many rustic details, and offers spacious rooms set across two levels. The beach is 10 minutes walk away, and the house is seven minutes drive from the nearby historic centre.

Solo office II, Matarraña, Spain

2 bedrooms; from €6,000 per week via Holiday Architecture
Solo Office II was completed earlier this year by Belgian architects Kersten Geers and David Van Severen. It is part of a 100-acre site in the Matarraña region, dubbed ‘Spanish Tuscany’, that is currently being developed by Christian Bourdais as an experimental ‘architecture park’. The building is shaped like a halo, with a glass exterior walls that offers panoramic views of the landscape, and a sliding metal mesh façade can be moved to create dappled shade inside the villa.

Tulum Tree House, Mexico

5 bedrooms; from, $1,450 per night via Tulum Tree House
This minimalist five-bedroom holiday retreat is a collaboration between local practice Co-Lab Design Office and Berlin-based designer Annabell Kutucu. Pared-back interiors across the three-level house feature polished white cement and raw wooden beams. Its shaded rooftop area offers panoramic views of the surrounding mangroves, which sit at the edge of the the Sian Ka’an Biosphere Reserve.

Curly’s Cove, California, USA

2 bedrooms; from $650 per night via Boutique Homes
This converted fisherman’s cabin, designed by American architect Olle Lundberg, perches on the edge of the water in California’s Bodega Bay. Inside it’s filled with custom-designed furniture, while outside a wraparound deck comes with a heated concrete bench, for cold nights. Bodega Bay is an hour and a half’s drive away from San Francisco.

Casa Communal, Isla Colon, Panama

5 bedrooms; from $600 via Boutique Homes
Designed as a communal surf retreat, this beachfront Panama holiday home sits on the shore of Isla Colon. Casa Communal was designed by surfing enthusiast Jordan Christopher using glass, steel and concrete, and comprises two breezy double-height apartments that are connected by an atrium, dubbed Casa Norte and Casa Sur. Each has its own eat-in kitchen, living room and bathrooms, and three and two bedrooms respectively.

Chez George, Rio de Janiero, Brazil

7 bedrooms; from $€5,723 per night via Design Hotels
Music and design sync inside this Brutalist Rio de Janeiro holiday home. Chez Georges was originally built in 1974 by architect Wladimir Alves de Souza, and the seven-bedroom Brazilian villa has undergone a top-to-toe renovation masterminded by new owners Pierre Bident Moldeva and Olivier Verwilghen.

They enlisted interior designer Yorick Piette to craft its midcentury interiors but the real pièce de résistance? Its studio is is hooked up to a music production room which is secreted below the villa’s private 15-meter-long pool, transforming the building into a huge recording space.

Villa Verde, Tulum, Mexico

3 bedrooms; from £628 per night via Airbnb
Villa Verde in Mexico’s Tulum is every bit as green as its name suggests. The 550 sq m bedroom eco-villa was designed by Co-Lab Design Office. It harvests its own rainwater and is powered by solar energy, while vast retractable screens open the entire ground floor up to the outside deck and garden, keeping the property naturally ventilated. There’s also 15-metre swimming pool in the garden if you get too hot…

Villa Islander, Grace Bay Beach, Turks and Caicos

4 bedrooms; from $ 2,200 per night, directly
Concrete and glass combine at this tropical Brutalist bolthole in the Turks and Caicos Islands. Villa Islander is mere steps from Grace Bay Beach, and is the handiwork of architect-owner Alessandro Landi. The four-bedroom villa is set over 6,000 sq ft, and features 12-ft-high ceilings and sliding glass doors that open onto the property’s swimming pool and terrace.

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