ROMA's Domus Mineral Paints are made from natural materials and are free of toxic chemicals and asthmagens.

"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.

Ab Rogers dons a bold suit that suits the spirit of the accompanying decor he designed.

Domus Mineral Paints by ROMA.

The Mineral Springs house consists of a modern 1,000-square-foot addition to a farmhouse that's clad in Cor-Ten panels.

A creative couple remodeled a workman's cottage on the northern edge of Brooklyn. Margarita McGrath and Scott Oliver of Noroof Architects termed the 1,650-square-foot brick house "Pushmi-Pullyu," in reference to the interior-exterior flow.

1993, Pierluigi Cerri.

Container was commissioned by Original & Mineral to come up with a new identity and packaging. The containers recall the classic milk bottle shape with custom disc caps that top off the design.

Way to make a first impression. Container crafted the Discovery Kit for Original & Mineral, an Australian haircare company—a post-meeting treat box left by the sales team after their initial visit to a salon. Includes a brand book, informational DVD, and several minis from their line.

Portrait of a couple on their wedding day.

A photo of Verner Panton from 1993. © Panton Design, Basel

Vitra Fire Station, Weil am Rhein, Germany, 1993

Retro Bin 20-liter in Mineral Mint by Brabantia, $137 An unusual pastel shade, a matching removable liner, and a carrying handle distinguish this petite pedal bin from its competitors. johnlewis.com

Custom-perforated Swisspearl anthracite panels—made of minerals, sand, and cement—allow light to flow into the pavilion.

The Waterloo International Terminal, 1993, in London. Image courtesy Jo Reid/John Peck.

Spirit of Place/Spirit of Design, a program conceived by The Catholic University of America architecture professor Travis Price, takes students to out-of-the way settings to craft monuments that reflect local folklore.

Kellogg spent five years working on the house, and the structure was completed in 1993.

The utility sink and moveable countertop were purchased second-hand. Throughout the interiors, the framing was left exposed. Fire-resistant mineral wool insulation was applied to the exterior, then clad with Alaskan Yellow Cedar boards finished in a shou sugi ban treatment.

The outdoor environs of a temple and “spirit house” near the Marble Temple (Wat Benchamabophit).

The couple’s bathroom features a mineral composite tub from MTI.

"How would a kid draw a house?" architect Per Franson asked himself when designing the Olivero-Reinius family home. The simple prefab structure’s unusual color comes from a traditional source: falu rödfärg, the historic mineral paint that gives the region’s famous barns their red color.

The ground floor of the Front House holds an onsen-inspired bathroom with an outdoor tub/shower that faces the courtyard and “encourages relaxation and the spirit of communal bathing.”

In 2001, Price and his students built a meditation structure at the end of a cantilevered walkway that extends off the end of a cliff in Nepal.

Spirit of Place returned to Nepal a decade later to build a stone monument inspired by the rituals, culture, and burial practices of the Magar people, one of the country’s oldest ethnic groups.

One of the students, Jeff Roberson, received a blessing from a Tibetan lama during a five-hour ceremony called a puja before construction began.

The pink hue of the concrete is inspired by the minerals in the surrounding landscape. Alongside the grasses and brush, rosy rocks abound.

During construction, Mariscal’s team adjusted the design to accommodate the boughs of an old pine tree in the backyard. The unique detail imbues the home with a spirit of wabi-sabi—or beauty through imperfection.

The new kitchen borrowed space and light from the original courtyard. The spirit of the courtyard remains with the buffer between the kitchen and the exterior wall. The cabinets are from Ikea, the countertops are quartzite, and the grill top is from Bertazzoni.

Working as designer, contractor, and builder, Samantha Mink took an unremarkable structure built in the 1950s and transformed it into a home for herself and her dog, Winston. “Because of its location on the street, I kept a kind of stern exterior where you can’t really see into the house,” she says. She treated the Douglas fir with a natural mineral wash and an exterior stain to give the wood dimension.

Montalba Architects selected Eternit Floor Intense Crystal 103 mineral flooring for its lightness, longevity, resistance to fire, and recyclability.

The floating room emulates local huts with its steep thatched roof that easily sheds the region’s punishing rains.

In 1999, Price took Spirit of Place to Peru to build a houseboat for an eco-tourist retreat on the Yarapa River, a tributary of the Amazon.

Reflection of Mineral by Atelier Tekuto, 2006, Nakano-ku, Tokyo Prefecture

This Southern Californian home by architect Sebastian Mariscal has a wabi-sabi spirit, and is built with shou sugi ban timber, has a koi pond, wand a protective overhang, and a tertiary space known in in traditional Japanese homes as the

The rear facade, like the top-floor addition, is faced in rectangular panels of black rainscreen Richlite over exterior mineral wool insulation.

The bi-level car barn, a spare, timber-clad structure with an A-frame roof, nods to traditional farmhouses, but is “sleek and contemporary in spirit,” says Geremia. Inspired by an old photo of a porcelain farmhouse sink, it features polished concrete floors.