Explore - Countertop

Maria Cook and Lance Compa were only looking to kill a sleepy Sunday afternoon when they drove 20 minutes south of their home in Ithaca, New York, to see a house that a real estate circular had...

A few years ago, while working with the indigenous communities of remote Arnhem Land, in Australia’s Northern Territory, architect Sue Harper became passionate about prefab.

Designed by his son and daughter-in-law, and largely built by his family and a host of neighborly helpers, Bill Weber’s new home is all about strengthening the ties that bind.

Designer John Picard isn’t afraid of getting his hands dirty in the kitchen, or washing the sand off his feet in the bathroom. This ecological pioneer’s half-lot home is designed for...

When a couple in Amsterdam decided to upgrade their residence from a small houseboat to a larger one, they sought a design that would elevate the kitchen—literally. Set on the top floor and...

In August of 2004, a weekend-long party took place at a new house in the Hacienda Agua Caliente neighborhood of Tijuana, Mexico. The house was raw and unfinished, with bare concrete floors and...

Aaron Roberts and Thomas Bailey, the young architects behind room11, teamed up to design a house for Aaron's parents, fixing the structure into the topography of the site.

Los Angeles is not all mini-malls and highways. As Eric Garcetti, president of the City Council, shows, it is eminently possible to live green in the City of Angels. By putting solar power and...

Though the obstacles they faced were formidable, this couple’s perserverance brought them closer together and made their dream home a reality.

With designs from 14 countries and five decades inside, it may be an understatement to note that in this suburban home, furniture is the focus.  

Tired of waiting for innovative architecture to come to San Diego, this proactive architect added developer to his job description, and brought it there himself.

On the edge of a tiny island accessible only by boat, this buoyant summer home lives the life aquatic.

Blessed with an enviable site on the sylvan shores of the Strait of Juan de Fuca in Washington state, architect Anthony Pellecchia and his wife, graphic designer Kathy Wesselman, wanted to create a...

Boulder, Colorado, straddles a dynamic geographical border where miles of Rocky Mountains descend into flat plains that stretch all the way to the Appalachians. With four picture-perfect seasons...

This New York turned ski bum took a little piece of the city to the mountains, and never looked back.

Nestled in an apple grove in Sebastopol, California, the Orchard House is a rural idyll. And with the voracious design appetites of a family of gastronomically inclined clients, this concrete...

In January 2003, we issued a challenge to 16 architects: Design a modern prefab home for $200,000. Here’s the story of the house that resulted from that challenge—and what we learned...

When Jay Atherton and Cy Keener met in grad school at the University of California, Berkeley, they discovered in each other a rare constellation of common interests: minimalist architecture, rock...

Most homeowners would avoid living within striking distance of an avalanche, but Marcell Strolz and Uli Alber embrace Alpine extremes. They built a house that could weather even the fiercest storm....