A door frame was preserved as "a sculptural memory piece," Sara Imhoff says, after a wall separating the old kitchen from a small dining room was demolished. The countertops and backsplash are by Caesarstone.

A Simple Plan A Marmol Radziner–designed prefab house, trucked onto a remote Northern California site, takes the pain out of the construction process.

Orpilla pecks, Apolo pedals.

The cedar-clad front facade features one of the home’s defining design elements: a cantilevered gable that appears to float over the garage. The project is composed of two unique forms, divergent in convention but complementary in execution. A traditional gable, simplified and modernized, sits next to a striking modernist cube. A custom entry gate fabricated by Dovetail’s metal shop and a steel privacy fence add color to the front elevation.

The top floor holds two offices—one for the husband, the other for the wife. Hers opens out onto a small private deck furnished with wire Eames chairs.

“The house turns its back to the street while opening up to the views to the northeast through a large glazed corner window system,” Hutchison says. One-by-four and one-by-six inch cedar siding, which were pre-stained in Cabot Semi-Transparent Black, were placed vertically and horizontally on the exterior as a subtle detail.

Harper sits on the porch just off the entrance. James notes that the children spend their time “swimming in the dam, feeding the chickens, and riding their ponies or bikes. It’s really just the simple stuff that we had when we grew up in the late ’70s and ’80s."

A covered walkway provides a sheltered passage between the main house and studio. The fire pit is used during social gatherings.

The house comprises a series of modules, with the main living areas occupying the center and the master bedroom on the right. A large deck juts off the living room.

“[The owner] wanted a place that was a sort of retreat, a place for meditation and contemplation,” architect Tom Marble says. “He wanted views, but he also wanted a strong relationship to the outside.”

A Movie sofa, by CB2, and a Rais wood-burning stove are in the living room.

Taking inspiration from Arlberg Valley, Austria to classic Nordic materials, the Troll Hus certainly adds a European touch to the California landscape. “The inspiring concept is that of a treehouse that, as if suspended between treetops, seamlessly and ingeniously blends with its surroundings.” Casper says.

Roberto Burneo designed this home for his eldest niece, her husband, and their three young children in a suburb outside Quito, the capital of Ecuador. The house is set on a flat expanse of land with fruit trees, and Burneo's design "guides the social areas inward in order to link them to the gardens.”

Burneo took advantage of the perpendicular orientation of the volumes to create outdoor spaces that look out to the gardens.

Sawn wood planks add texture to the interior walls.

Burneo oriented the house in a pair of perpendicular volumes. The ground floor houses the public areas, including a study, while the top volume, housing the bedrooms and a family room, is oriented north-south, allowing for warm sunlight and a visual orientation toward the gardens.

The custom kitchen counters are concrete, and the yellow dining chairs add a welcome splash of color.

Burneo added exposed brick to his palette of interior materials.

Perched above a lake on Australia’s verdant Mornington Peninsula, James and Imogen Tutton’s teak-clad house was designed by Karen Alcock of Melbourne-based MA Architects.

The custom cedar tub, fabricated by Dovetail, elegantly fits into the master bathroom.

“There’s a presence to that place—it’s vast, and constantly shifting,” Moffitt says. “It was clear that this house should be an observation shed for the changing landscape beyond.”

Views of the Orobie Alps can be seen from the home’s windows, which also feature larch frames. A lampadina light by Flos sits on the nightstand.

Get the whole family involved in the kitchen, whether it be teaching young ones a tried-and-true recipe or exploring a new dish together.

The architects divided the home into separate floors for sleeping, living, and working. Since the house is situated on a hill that slopes 20 feet from top to bottom, there are plenty of stairs. Those pictured above were crafted using wood salvaged from a 100-year-old bungalow that previously stood on the site.

Many prefab architects and suppliers specialize in either modular or panelized construction. Minneapolis architect Charlie Lazor has worked with both mediums. This lake house in rural Ontario, Canada, is an example of one of his modular projects. It was built in a Wisconsin factory about 400 miles away.

The house has a small environmental footprint. SHED built it using advanced framing, a technique that cuts down on the use of lumber by 30 percent. Another benefit of the method is that it prevents heat from escaping the home, making it more energy-efficient. Additionally, the architects installed a high-efficiency boiler that preheats water with rooftop solar panels; a heat recovery ventilation system that efficiently controls the climate; and a rainwater retention tank that conserves water.

Darcy Miro and her son, Lucien, enjoy a moment in their new double-height living room. The Charlotte Perriand wall sconces are vintage finds.

The two volumes converge at an exterior courtyard. On the gabled side, skylights bring light into the artist studio; on the cube side, a garden occupies the flat roof. The team used eco-friendly Wet-flash on the roof to draw away moisture from the outside, while allowing a permeable escape for water vapor from the inside. During the estimation and design phases, Dovetail worked closely with Heliotrope to cost engineer and rework elements in order to stay within the client’s budget. The metal roof of the original design was discarded in favor of a simpler and more economical black composite roof.

“The house’s narrow footprint works for us in terms of maximum exposure to the lake,” says Gibbs (shown here with son Blake and dog Max on the shore of Lake Iosco). Glass walls and doors by Andersen also mean that Gibbs can keep a close eye on Blake when he’s playing in the yard. A plinth of reused bedrock found on the property has become an unintended place for active play.

Architects Sara and Jeremy Imhoff and their son Jonah use the renovated kitchen in their 1918 bungalow in Seattle's Fremont neighborhood.

There was no room in the 2,000-square-foot house for a staircase to a new upstairs office, so the Imhoffs installed a small, wooden alternating-tred lapeyre stair.

The Imhoffs preserved the breakfast nook, their favorite feature in the house, when they bought it in 2005.

The third-floor master bedroom boasts sweeping views of Seattle.

Yellow vinyl floor tile defines the new living room and keeps the interior from veering too industrial. “You need to offset the brick with something simple,” says Tom. “Otherwise, you get too many textures.” The lights and coffee table were found at local vintage stores.

The materials for the prefab were chosen to help the lodge blend into the wood. According to the architects, “the lodge features an intentionally limited palette of natural materials, including the same species of timber, western red cedar, on the external cladding and internal lining. Left unfinished, the exterior will weather naturally to a silver-gray color that is reminiscent of the local landscape, which will contrast the cozy, warmer tones of the interior."