Linus, Archie, and Olive relax on the home’s cedar-lined front deck that opens off the main living area.
The home is mostly clad in black trapezoidal-profile steel, with cedar boards lining what the owners call the “human spaces”—external passages between buildings. A solar hot water system perches on the roof.
Cohen and his wife, Sally, sit in the dining room, which along with the connected living room, is a focal point of the house, lighted in part by high, remote-controlled clerestory windows.
Bishop is an avid record collector—Rolling Stones albums are a sought-after favorite—and he keeps his vinyl in the shelving unit ”1.1,” a reproduction of Arbel’s first completed work. The kids can often be found playing video games at the desk in the great room.
Expansive accordion doors join together in a sharp angle when shut, but when they’re open the crook competely disappears—as does the barrier between outside and in.
An outdoor room works perfectly for family meals.
The couple, both surfers and beach lovers, wake up to stunning views of the azure-blue Southern Ocean in their otherwise monochromatic eucalyptus master bedroom. Wardle's firm designed the bed base, and the panel in the ceiling hides a television.
Wardle’s firm also designed the dining table, where up to ten guests can gaze out at the Southern Ocean. The solid-oak Hiroshima chairs are designed by Maruni.
This home in the village of Fairhaven gazes over the area’s longest beach and an open sea that stretches all the way to Antarctica.
The facade achieves a notable sense of verticality for such a stout structure, with its stained-timber cladding aimed straight up toward the sky. The heavy, horizontal brick-work of the neighboring Georgian houses seems to imply aesthetic controversy, but in fact, during its short planning review, Reeve's house received letters of support from no fewer than five neighbors. The front gate opens onto a driveway, which in turn leads to a private patio around back.
The house's stained-cedar cladding makes a stark but pleasing contrast to the natural foliage of the site.
Adjaye cut a gap straight through the roof and facade.
A garden of of small herbs and vines creates a fan of green as the plants creep up the outside walls. What at first seems to be a stark use of artificially dark wood reveals itself to be unironically natural: a soothing and woodsy backdrop for this home in the bustling city.
Sited on a long and narrow 40-acre plot, the home opens to expansive views of the river, to the north—and plenty of space for the kids to play.
The spacious detached garage stows a bevy of kayaks and inner tubes, not to mention the family car.
Timber battens were used on north-facing windows to prevent excessive heat in the summer. The exterior is clad in Scyon’s Linea weatherboard and covered in Dylux’s Western Myall paint. Beneath the upper floor, a little nook makes for the perfect covered carport and storage spot for surfboards.
“The steep site lends itself to the ‘upside down’ configuration,” Harkness explains. “It certainly wouldn’t work as well if you could only access the house via the lower level, as this is through the bedroom zone, so we included two entrances. The upper one involves walking across a little bridge.”
On the rooftop deck is an outdoor fireplace clad in cement board panels, plus a custom wych elm table by Arnold d’Epagnier and Charles Outdoor sofas by B&B Italia.
An Alcova bed from B&B Italia dominates the master bedroom. A niche behind the bed holds Berenice wall lamps by Luceplan, and the walls are painted in Cornforth White and Charleston Gray from Farrow & Ball.
“You’re surrounded by what appeals to most people on a small island, which is the sound of nature.” —Resident Mimi Parsons
Resolution: 4 Architecture designed a Fishers Island home with warm cedar siding and white windows as a nod to the regional New England vernacular.
Landscape architects Reed Hilderbrand helped fill out the completed prefab by planting sedge grass on one of the house’s two green roofs to reflect the texture of the surrounding meadow.
Crushed stone paths and native plantings, including cacti, wildflowers, and grasses, encompass the surrounding landscape. “We’re nothing but natural,” says Austin. “The cacti, to me, are like pieces of sculpture, each with their own personality. I even named some.”
Opaque, white masonry walls alternate with large glass expanses throughout to create a visual palette of shadow and light.
Brian and Joni Buzarde’s self-designed home sits on a customized chassis by PJ Trailers that’s just eight and a half feet wide. The 236-square-foot trailer is clad in cedar.
Container Store finds, like galvanized-steel shelving in the kitchen, maximize storage.
As the most common type of kitchen sink, the top-mount sink is installed by inserting the sink into a pre-cut hole in the countertop. The wide rim around the sink supports it on top of the countertop, and is then caulked in place with silicone for a water-tight fit.
The home also extends into outdoor panoramas, even—and especially—from the ground floor, where a westward-facing deck cantilevers out into the lush landscape.
Oriented to absorb the afternoon sun, floor-to-ceiling doors comprise two-thirds of the home’s west-facing walls, which open to an elevated deck overlooking Island Bay. Combined with extra-thick building insulation, this passive element provides sufficient heating for the home, even during winter months—a true feat given the region’s cold seasonal winds.
Using natural materials is one way of bringing nature indoors. Oiled white ash floors and ceilings, along with Italian poplar and Lawson cypress joinery, are found throughout architect Andrew Simpson’s 538-square-foot home outside Wellington, New Zealand.
Open enclosures and connections to adjacent living spaces keep the home inviting and airy rather than densely packed—a key feature for an owner of two dogs: Ben, a whippet, and Flynn, an Irish gypsy dog.
Inspired by the small scale of Japanese residences—in particular, Makoto Masuzawa’s 1952 Minimum House—architect Andrew Simpson designed his own economical 538-square-foot home set into a wooded site in Island Bay, a coastal suburb outside Wellington, New Zealand.
Before building on the North Island of New Zealand, two friends spent years replanting the site. The 290-square-foot structures Cheshire Architects designed for them reject the local trend of oversize beach houses—instead, they sit on the landscape like a pair of minimalist sculptures.
Just like the interior, the outdoor shower is an exercise in reduction and contrast: It’s merely a boulder placed under a showerhead on the side of the building. “If you really strain your eyes, you can see perhaps one other house,” Cheshire says of the vista.
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