Reconstructed by Kip Mesirow, the renowned local builder behind Berkeley’s famed Chez Panisse restaurant, the 1,736-square-foot residence features handmade copper light fixtures and a natural, stained-wood palette.
Architect Line Solgaard, founder of the eponymous Oslo- and Fredrikstad-based firm, designed a getaway for her family in the place where she grew up. Untreated, exposed concrete pairs with cedar cladding; custom, oak-paneled ceilings; and a glass roof in the center of the home that opens like a sunroof for natural ventilation.
A dramatic landscape demands a dramatic building. Southwest facing deck of Starship House
Inspired by the idea of a living organism, Madeiguincho designed a 188-square-foot cabin that collects, stores, and reuses rainwater and produces food and energy.
Although the home's historic front facade needed to be preserved, the back of the residence was ripe for a remodel. The architects cladded the exterior in eastern cedar. The wood is offset with large expanses of glass, as well as yellow accents to add a playful atmosphere.
Originally built in 1925, the multi-level home is centrally located in the Ivy Hill district, offering close proximity to Lake Merritt and Downtown Oakland, as well as the Glen View, Grand Lake, and Lakeshore neighborhoods.
The founder of Polly Harbison Design transformed the 1940s home where her sister, Margot, resides with her family to include a new kitchen, a bedroom with an outdoor shower, and wide-open garden views. In the main communal areas, floor-to-ceiling glass doors and wooden screens slide open completely, allowing Margot, Ewen, and their three daughters to get fresh air.
The renovation introduced a new deck, and opened up the living and kitchen areas. “The home is ‘so Warrandyte,’” says builder Hamish White. “It has a great connection with the outdoors, views of trees from most windows, and a homely and familiar feel which makes it really comfortable to be in.”
Pink marble is unexpected, but adds the touch of warmth every kitchen needs.
In the living room, ethereal white curtains soften the severity of the concrete walls.
A geometric, peach-colored tile in the master bathroom adds a joyful jolt to the home. The walnut cabinetry is an ode to the home's mid-century roots.
Photo: Willem-Dirk du Toit
The V-shaped structure delineates the subtle junction between the living and sleeping zones. Floor-to-ceiling sliding glass doors frame vistas of lush vegetation and rugged cliffs, while opening directly to the decked patio.
The clients are a husband and wife with grown children who no longer live at home. The husband is a psychoanalyst, and the wife is a history teacher at a middle school in São Paulo. During construction of the home, very little earthwork was needed, as the residence nestles into the sloped site to preserve the flat part of the site for a garden of native trees and shrubs.
An eclectic collection of artwork, objects, and furniture adds warmth to the interior and evokes a real sense of the couple’s personalities. The layering of these objects over the industrial architecture creates a texturally rich interior that can be read as a tapestry of the couple's life together.
The circular insertions are custom operable skylights that allow for daylighting and passive cooling.
The modernist extension is a brutalism-inspired beauty, featuring a charred wood–and–glass volume split neatly into two halves. It’s two-faced architecture, if you will—but together, the two sides tell one beautiful design story.
Top 9 Dwellings of 2020: The homes nominated for this year’s Dwell Design Awards represent the best in creative, context-driven design.
Powder Bathroom
“Many of the houses in the development aren’t too different from the city or suburbs,” says Kilpatrick. “One of our goals was for this project to have a rural feel.”
The entry door opens up to direct views of the central courtyard. "This view replaces the traditional accent wall, or piece of artwork, with a glass opening framing the sky and exotic plants (with a 500-year-old ironwood tree focal point) drawing your eye through the courtyard, expanding the feeling of the space," note the architects. The black lighting fixture is from Restoration Hardware.
The O-asis house is set on an elongated 1.7-acre site on a horse property area of Phoenix, north of Piestewa Peak within the Phoenix Mountain Preserve.
Concrete pavers and massive sliding glass doors extend the sitting room at the back of the home to the rear garden.
The bathroom features a tiled floor and shower, as well as a custom-made sink and vanity.
Another view of the space reveals an original, full-height brick fireplace at one end.
The house is surrounded with rammed-earth walls, built by Austin construction services company Enabler via an ancient construction method that requires mixing, tamping, and creating a structure from the land itself.
The view from the open-plan lounge and dining zone back to the generous kitchen area. Natural light floods in through the extra-tall blue front door to the Katz home. Here one gets a sense of how effectively the dynamic floor patterning and concrete ceiling grid unite the different functional and living zones of the dwelling’s ground floor.
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