He worked around existing oak and eucalyptus trees for the new building, and retained the vernacular of an original barn, at right, where Frankel hosts concerts. Check out MVRDV's Balancing Barn.

"It only cost about $48,000 to build, which was incredibly cheap," says Turner of the Stealth Barn. "We got the Timber Frame Company to supply the shell, then we clad it and fitted out the interior and windows ourselves. The idea was to take the archetypal black tar-painted agricultural building and make an almost childlike icon of that."

The original owners of the 1969 glass house had converted an existing barn on site into an art studio. The new homeowners wanted to update it to function as a guest house and at-home work studio.

The Balancing Barn in Suffolk: On the edge of a nature reserve a few miles from the Suffolk coast, the MVRDV-designed Balancing Barn cantilevers over the surrounding meadow.

Architecture: Book Mountain, Spijkenisse, the NetherlandsFor optimum browsing, a veritable mountain of bookshelves created by MVRDV houses over a quarter mile of passages through the structure. Perched at the top is a reading room and cafe area with panoramic views through the transparent roof. Photo by Jeroen Musch.

From red painted cedar siding to no-fuss structural elements, Northworks’ solution reaches a happy medium between the classic barn look and a weekend retreat. “The best thing about this house,” explains one resident, “is that when it’s just the four of us, it feels cozy. But even when we’re hosting 25 people, it never feels crowded.”

Inspired by hilltop views and traditional New England farm and barn structures, Marvin Architect's Challenge-winner Michael Waters of LDa Architecture & Interiors set out to strike the perfect balance between time-tested tradition and sophisticated, clean lines.

A circular tower echoes the former gas storage cylinder that once occupied its place. It houses a private study.

Designed by Alex Hochstrasser, this award-winning rocking toy could be a chair, a sled, a spinning top, a cradle, or anything the developing mind can imagine.

This set of faceted balancing blocks from Fort Standard is a sculptural upgrade from stackable cubes.

Dutch architects MVRDV were assigned the beagle, a “curious and playful” breed the firm thought should have some power of its own. An optional cord attached to the portable birch plywood structure means Fido can use the entire thing as a pull toy. At rest, the pooch palace riffs on the traditional Snoopy-esque doghouse silhouette with its simple interior and gabled roof; at play, it becomes a see-saw reminiscent of MVRDV’s own Balancing Barn.

The doorway on the left accesses an entry porch, which can be closed with the sliding door. The screened porch is the stepped-down volume on the right.

The Pine Plains, New York, home of Elise and Arnold Goodman boasts 48 windows, the largest of which measures 8'6'' by 7'6''. As architect Preston Scott Cohen explains, the "free facade makes it impossible to identify how many levels there are, or even to tell the difference between a door and a window." From without, the windows reveal dramatic glimpses of the 18th-century barn farm and new steel structure that support the house. From within, says Elise, "Each season, each time of day, offers a different view of the world. It's spectacular."

The cabin’s basic structure was reclaimed from a barn built in 1840 and purchased from Heritage Barns out of Waco, Texas. The same company supplied the recycled wood that clads the walls, though the ceiling boards are new. “We stained them with a gray wash to match the tones of the post and beam, but with a more clean look,” Bronee explains. The concrete floors were polished and waxed for a sleek finish.

The barn makes extraordinarily efficient use of timber milled from on-site trees.

A look at the wood-clad side extension, built as a shed in the 1920s. An adjacent, empty stone building might be Christine’s next renovation project.

A look at the wood-clad side extension, originally built as a shed in the 1920s.

The 1,800-square-foot barn and workshop was designed by architect friend Yianni Doulis. The exterior employs untreated cedar in a reverse board-and-batten style.

In the home's private wing, patios interspersed between the bedrooms act as spatial and sound buffers.

Steep roofs and tall internal spaces provide barnlike simplicity and facilitate an efficient multilevel design.

Clerestory windows flank the kitchen and dining volume, maximizing the influx of light, even when the days are short or the weather is limiting. "The light it receives is very even and warm, and makes the interior space of the barbecue evolve along with the exterior," says Sánchez.

Muuto will display its Balance vases, a clever set that uses magnets to enable gravity-defying angles.

The Troop barn was slated for demolition in the Annapolis Valley, but it was relocated to Shobac for restoration. The post-and-beam structure boasts a 35-foot cathedral ceiling.

Tasked with expanding a 150-year old barn with a previous addition built in 1973 by architect Charles Gwathmey, Stamberg Aferiat brought a modern twist while respecting the original structure. Photo by: Paul Warchol.

A couple renovated an old farmhouse in Quebec to serve as their vacation home—and didn’t stop there. They looked to the old dilapidated barn on the property, and transformed it into a sprawling 4,500-square-foot guest house for their adult children.

A wood bridge leads to the second-floor entry of the converted barn, which now offers 4,500-square feet of clean, modern interior space. The cladding is local hemlock spruce, the same local wood that was originally used to build the barn.

The two structures are in constant dialogue. Not only are their forms in sympathy, but as they're set at right angles to one another, they are rarely out of view.

At $167 per square foot, this high-design, low-cost barn in rural Wisconsin is an American idyll.

A guest room in this repurposed barn in the English countryside lets the ceiling do the talking. Photo by Christoffer Rudquist.

Sited on a triangular plot, Barnhouse Werkhoven enjoys a small front yard with sun in the afternoon, and a rear garden looking out to the fields.

A key directive in the home’s design was that "the materials were all from the island, and all very simple," says Sánchez.

"The materiality and the look of the house had to have the identity of Chiloé," says Sánchez. Corrugated zinc panels clad the home’s exterior, zinc being the chosen material which "covers 90% of the houses in Southern Chile."