A Japanese hinoki bowl and stool from Mjölk sit next to a custom hinoki bathtub by Bartok Design in the tub room.

A third-floor courtyard stands in for a backyard and gives Elodie, the couple’s two-year-old daughter, a place to play outdoors. A Hunting chair by Børge Mogensen shares the space with a child’s chair by Tomii Takashi and a vintage Danish coffee table.

To install Charles Willson’s prefab house, Stillwater Dwellings lifted the structure over an existing barn on the one-acre property. Willson, who is often on the road, wired the house with the latest in smart technology.

This "local prefab" home on the Isle of Skye is made mostly from materials sourced in northern Scotland. The timber-framed model, meant to evoke the simple agrarian barns of the area, can be constructed on-site in as little as a day and is designed for affordability.

The living area opens up to a patio with views of a neighboring vineyard. Paulistano armchairs from Design Within Reach and a Ligne Roset Togo sofa surround a Dunn coffee table from Room & Board. The fireplace is from Montigo.

Black and white kitchen cabinets painted with a triangular pattern add a whimsical touch to this funky kitchen.

Inside the prefab residence, molded plastic Eames chairs from Design Within Reach rest beneath a Splugen Brau pendant light from Flos.

DIY touches define this three-tiered, 182-square-foot studio, belonging to artist and engineer Steve Sauer. Tables, shelving, and benches are made of wood recycled from IKEA products. Copyright Andrew Pogue Photography.

A variety of drought-tolerant plants cascade down a 10-foot-wide vertical garden wall near the entrance to the property.

An outdoor dining area is shaded by a mesh canopy suspended by old drilling pipes.

An animation shows the structure inflating.

An antique Japanese indigo tapestry hangs by a vintage Danish piano.

Pam stools from Ligne Roset pull up to the kitchen island; the custom birch cabinetry complements a Caesarstone Raven countertop.

Many of the items in the home come from Mjölk, on the ground floor of Daoust and Baker’s building, which dates to the 1870s and has a distinctive tin facade.

The property includes a rental unit and several outdoor living areas.

When Abbie and Bill Burton hired Marmol Radziner to design their prefab weekend home, their two requests were “simple-simple, replaceable materials,” says Abbie—such as concrete floors (poured offsite in Marmol Radziner's factory) and metal panel siding—and “the ability to be indoors or outdoors with ease.” Deep overhangs provide shade and protection from rain, so the Burtons can leave their doors open year-round and hang out on their 70-foot-long deck even in inclement weather. They visit the house once a month, usually for a week at a time, with Vinnie and Stella, their rescue Bernese Mountain dogs. Their two adult children occasionally join them. The couple hopes to one day retire here.

Stillwater Dwellings, which has participated in both the 2013 and 2014 Dwell on Design exhibitions, puts a distinct emphasis on natural lighting, efficient floor plans, and high-quality craftsmanship to ensure innovative, modern designs.

Studio Junction transformed a two-story apartment above Mjölk, Juli Daoust and John Baker’s design boutique on Toronto’s busy Dundas Street West, into a tranquil space. A courtyard joins the living room and the open kitchen and dining area.

Japanese and Scandinavian design objects are for sale at the Toronto homewares shop Mjölk, and are also on display in the apartment above it. Here, the store’s owners reside in a two-story space brought to life by Studio Junction. A courtyard spills into the living room and open kitchen and dining area, and translucent shoji-style screens provide privacy. Oak shelves, soap-treated Douglas fir floors, a custom hinoki soaking tub, and a soapstone bowl in place of the kitchen sink are all thoughtful, subtle details.

These include the Cesta floor lamp by Miguel Milá and the wall cabinet by Studio Junction in the living room. The photograph hanging above the cabinet is by Joshua Jensen-Nagle. A ceramic dove—a vintage piece by the sculptor Cleo Hartwig—shares space with an antique Zulu beer pot. The painting is by Max Papart.

A cherry pot trivet by Oji Masanori hangs from a white-oak kitchen rail by Studio Junction above a custom soapstone counter-top.

Min | Day dreamed up this inflatable dwelling. A compact trailer (pictured in the back left) houses the structure when not in use. When inflated, the barriers-free interior space is meant to encourage creative interpretations and interactions.

What's next for Pendl? "I'm looking at adjusting the layout slightly to...gain a little more counter space. I’ll be starting that project in the next couple months, and it will include a small desk and a reconfiguration of the dinette to be a lounge."

Zinc corrugated roofing was used to cover the shelters, providing shade and preventing rain from collecting and causing structural deterioration.

Husband-wife-studio Rowland Ricketts weaves the Hoshi table runner ($425) using traditional Japanese methods.

The living room is anchored by a sofa and lounge chair, both by Børge Mogensen, as well as a Conoid bench by George Nakashima. An Isamu Noguchi pendant lamp casts a warm glow onto the Brasilia coffee table, designed by Claesson Koivisto Rune for Swedese.

Crestwood Hills, in the Brentwood neighborhood of Los Angeles, is an endangered enclave of midcentury post-and-beam houses designed by A. Quincy Jones and Whitney R. Smith.

The concrete wall mimics the slope of the hill outside as a reference to early Maori structures that were dug into the land. The simple kitchen has strandboard cabinetry and an MDF island that conceals a fireplace at one end. The ceramic works on the built-in seat at right are by Raewyn Atkinson and Robyn Lewis.

After living on and studying a woodsy acre of land in North Zealand, Denmark, architect Jesper Brask cleared a stand of pine trees and, from the timber, built a getaway open to its surroundings. The house, which Brask shares with his wife, Lene, and sons, Kristian, Jens, and Niels, is used mainly in summer, when the weather is optimal for throwing open the glass doors.

A copper mobile by JF Jones hangs over a Leander crib and a vintage Moroccan rag rug in the nursery. The rocking chair is by Hans Wegner for Fredericia.

A combination of sliding doors, strategically placed voids, and large indoor plantings create fluid boundaries between indoors and out. The interior courtyard garden—landscaped with tropical plants and volcanic sand—is visually accessible from nearly every room, including the dining and kitchenarea.

This midcentury gem lays in Crestwood Hills, in the Brentwood neighborhood of Los Angeles, an endangered enclave of midcentury post-and-beam houses designed by A. Quincy Jones and Whitney R. Smith.

“It’s like Lego for grown-ups,” Fissmer says of Rams’s 606 Universal Shelving System for Vitsœ, which makes another appearance in the office. “It’s a responsible way to handle storage.”

Mami and Goo the Kishu dog return from a frolic in the forest, which the couple, along with Hideaki, has thinned and trimmed back over many weekends. It’s an idyllic escape and a world away from the concrete expanse of Tokyo.

In Seattle's rapidly developing South Lake Union neighborhood, the Art Stable is a classic example of urban infill. Built on the site of a former horse stable, the seven-story mixed-use building carries its history into the future with highly adaptable live/work units.

A print of Enzo Mari’s La Mela e La Pera for Danese Milano hangs in the master bedroom. Delta lamps by Robert Abbey sit atop bedside tables from Rams’s 606 shelving system for Vitsœ.