This classic owned by writer Susan Orlean and her husband John Gillespie was updated by architect Jeff Fink, who specializes in restoring homes by Austrian-born architect Rudolph W. Schindler. The couple has previously owned his Los Angeles Roth house, buying it even though they lived in New York. Then, they sold it for the Kallis-Sharlin House, known for its butterfly roof—which allowed Schindler to add clerestory windows, and more light to the home. For the exterior, they ordered a custom hue from Behr, channeling the grey-green of a Martini olive.

The structure's unique H-shape layout is designed to separate living and sleeping areas, and for maximum natural light.

Designed by New York firm Desai Chia Architecture in collaboration with Michigan firm Environment Architects, Michigan Lake House was dramatizes the experience of dark and light as the sun moves through the day.

For a family of four, Ueda Design Studio restores the luminous-yet-drafty midcentury home of Alden Mason with warm materials and sensible restraint.

A one-foot-thick concrete retaining wall partially wraps the pool and garden area, which is set atop the lower level’s strong and flat roof.

Rolling Huts by Olson Kundig There are a lot reasons to follow Olson Kundig on Instagram. One of them is their seminal Rolling Huts project.

The mid-section of the siding was done in a shou-sugi ban method. Custom brass was used for the awning, alongside a standing-seam metal roof.

Cement plaster was used on the base of the exterior, with double-paned windows throughout.

In the couple’s bedroom, a back corner window that had been straightened by the previous owner was restored to its original slant, and an interior clerestory was uncovered and used to brighten a bathroom on the other side of the wall. The vintage teak bed with built-in headboard and side tables is from Vintage on Point in Los Angeles. A signed Andy Warhol screen print hangs overhead.

"Beauty," Olafur Eliasson, 1993. In this work, a spotlight shines through a layer of mist to create a rainbow that's only visible from certain angles.

Additions of color in the interior are minimal, but when they are included, they make a lasting impact, such as with this rainbow art piece by local artist Roi James. “Although we had commissioned the piece based on a recent show we went to, I don’t think either of us realized that it would work so well with our [colorful] cookbook display [in the dining area],” Flournoy admitted. The rug and brass side table are from West Elm, the couches from Scott+Cooner. The butterfly chairs were custom made by Robert Smith.

Intended for squeezing into narrower spaces, the Butterfly Recycler by Simplehuman has room for trash and recycling in one compact package.

The overall home is constructed with larch timber, a British wood, and features a central ridge beam that gives it a butterfly-shaped roof. Shou sugi ban was done on the wood to give it a charred finish.

Project Name: Martis - Dunsmuir

A 100-mile drive from the Big Apple, the 15-acre property in Orient, New York, serves as a vacation retreat and refuge for a Brooklyn couple.

The original home was converted into a bedroom level, and given a second-story addition and roof deck. The dark exterior color, a charcoal-eggplant hue, lets the landscape colors stand out in contrast. “The existing house roof became the roof deck,” says Rogers. “And then I just shifted over the addition so that it floated over the landscape.”

WDA demolished a 1950s tract home to built a brand new, two-story, 4,898-square-foot oasis with five bedrooms and four-and-a-half-baths. Topping off this Silicon Valley home is an asymmetrical, Le Corbusier-style butterfly roof that gives the home its distinctive form while creating soaring spaces on the second floor.

Project Name: Boring, OR Website: stillwaterdwellings.com

A tract house with a butterfly roof designed in 1956 for Joe Dunas.

The house is a succession of three pavilions unified by a unique roof, with two covered patios.

A view into the entry gallery from the courtyard.

A simple walkway leads to the unassuming entrance. "It's obscured, detailed like the cedar walls," Poss says. Photo by Phillip Kalantzis-Cope.

The hut, which was completed in 2010, measures in at just 97 square feet and sits along the north edge of a pond. Photo by Phillip Kalantzis-Cope.