Birdsall and Atticus are seated on an ipe bench designed by Anna Boeschenstein; the stucco exterior cladding was matched to Cast Iron 6202 paint by Sherwin-Williams.

“The new house is not shy to look across at the old house, where you can see old rough stucco on one building, and then the same stucco on our new building,” Jones says.

The home's white stucco exterior is actually a thin layer of stucco spread over a modern EIFS (Exterior Insulation and Finishing System) from Dryvit.

While the proportions of the old brownstone’s facade remain congruous with others on its street, the stone has been replaced with stucco over foam. When knocked, it sounds entirely hollow.

Designed by Boston-based firm ZeroEnergy Design, this family home "consumes approximately 85% less energy than a comparable home built to the current energy code," says Stephanie T Horowitz AIA, Managing Director. "The energy savings are accomplished through a super-insulated building enclosure; airtight construction; efficient heating, cooling and ventilation; and a solar array on the roof." White stucco, shiplapped wood siding, and fiber cement panels adorn the exterior. The landscape architect was Soren deNiord.

“Color is difficult, and he was a true master,” says Roberto Davila, architect and Barragán tour guide with The Traveling Beetle.

“The goal I had was for a new building to be sympathetic to a quirky, soulful little cabin that was not modern in many ways,” Jones says. He mirrored the original home by incorporating the same cement stucco, painted pure white, with Douglas fir soffits. Two Douglas fir trees had to be cut down during construction, and they were repurposed throughout the home—including for this bench.

The rear facade is a surprisingly modern counterpoint to the traditional front. Here, traditional brick is traded for modern stucco.

The Bigelows’ house throws a nod to its midcentury modern neighbors with its subdivided plan and shallow-pitched roof. The three pavilion layout was also partly in response to tough city restrictions regarding the removal of the various beech and redwood trees on the property. However, the Butler Armsden design team was able to use the profusion of trees to their advantage, creating lines of sight to foliage from almost anywhere in the house. The exterior features locally reclaimed redwood siding that provides another connection with the redwoods on the site. The stucco is painted in custom color-matched Benjamin Moore paint.

To create visual depth, the entrance of the Thorax House’s gray stucco facade is marked by a black aluminum canopy. The firm created custom signage using red Caesarstone quartz, which was cut using a CNC milling machine. “It’s like a suit with a nice tie,” Aliabadi says.

The house’s street-level entrance shows an openness to its surroundings, and a glass door allows curious passersby a glimpse of the interior.

Cuadra San Cristóbal is home to seven dogs, five horses, three cats, one parrot, and one rescued donkey.

Red bricks from central Mexico are used throughout the outdoor areas as a colorful patio material.

With both an aging relative and a wheelchair user in mind, architect Neal Schwartz creates a family guesthouse designed to be accessible to all. Resident Elizabeth Twaddell enjoys the weather with her daughter Uma outside the guesthouse Schwartz designed for her mother-in-law, Surendra, who frequently visits for extended stays. A concrete driveway forks off from the main house to lead to a covered breezeway, sited between the new 775-square-foot structure and a two-car garage.

From the street, the house appears as a simple, white structure with timber elements. It’s not until you enter that the lightness and porosity of the home becomes apparent.

This massive Durand oak tree inspired the design of the house. Thanks to a wall of welded steel and tumbled limestone, the home has an abundance of privacy.

Is it or isn’t it by the modern master? We figured it out after architects Erik Amir and Dora Chi pulled off a reverent revamp.

Corporate high-flyers and admitted neat freaks Bruce Thatcher and Kirsty Leighton couldn’t handle the chaos anymore. Read more about this Victorian terrace in London here.

A previous homeowner recreated the open patio and breezeway according to Schindler's original plans. A koi pond with waterfall create an atmosphere of Zen.

A pink-painted front door and fascia enliven a 500-square-foot backyard ADU in Mountain View, California, designed by Shin Shin Architecture.

With clean white stucco cladding and unusual angles, the three-module house stands out from the surrounding neighborhood, which features mostly post-war, one-and-a-half story homes.

A raised pool in the northeast corner of the building provides relief on hot, sunny days.

Hektor is divided into four independent suits and a central communal area.

“Using white allowed me to lighten up small interior spaces and at the same time respect the original colors of the carpentry and stucco work,” Rocha says. East-facing windows also catch the warm morning sun and minimize the need for artificial lighting.

"When we started out, Casey wasn’t married and wasn’t dating anyone," says architect Arthur Furman. "So the original project brief was less about bedrooms and bathrooms, and more about the character of the home. Specifically, the shape. Casey had an image in his mind of a house he had photographed early in his career in a wooded area of Maine. The house was a basic shape—as one would draw as a child—just a box with a gabled roof." The home's simple gabled shape is emphasized by the use of burnished stucco on all sides.

Architect Minwook Choi’s 710-square-foot Seroro House rises from a tiny urban lot in Seoul that had long been neglected because of its challenging size.

Architect David Montalba renovated a 1970s bungalow for Janette Sosothikul in Oxnard, California, a beach town midway between Malibu and Santa Barbara.

Purple thistles, California poppies, clover, and dandelions have all taken root in the roughly 10-inch-deep, lightweight humus and grape-husk soil in this 580-square-foot green roof. Designer Peter Liang says that he "wanted to plant a green roof for its thermal mass, but I wanted it to be as natural as possible."

The house has a standing-seam metal roof and is finished with black-tinted stucco and a standing-seam metal roof.

Rear Facade

The gabled roof form, wrapped in metal panels and perforated metal screens, appears to hover above a simple extension of the original house.