Tile by Zia Tile runs along a wall of the upstairs bathroom. The cabinets are by Cabinets quick, and the floor tile is by Concrete Collaborative.
Robertson restored the existing rooms in the front of the original house, and redesigned the back of the home to have a much more modern, indoor/outdoor living experience.
Set on a four-acre, moderately sloped, rocky site by the lake, the Kawagama Boathouse minimizes its site impact with small-diameter pier foundations and a natural material palette that blends the building into the surrounding forest.
Not only do built-in appliances keep kitchens tidy, but they also improve coherence between it and the rest of your home, creating a more fluid experience.
When they needed more room for visiting children and grandkids, Karen and Rick Hawkins paid homage to a once common Midwestern sight, the corn crib, by adding to their family farm.
From the street, the house rises two stories, dropping down on the opposite side to follow the slope. Clive envisioned the top floor as a “crow’s nest.”
“Many of Los Angeles’s iconic modern houses float above the city like tethered spaceships on stilts,” says Clive. “I had always yearned for the opportunity to design my own floating home.” Custom black zinc panels and sandblasted concrete form the exterior.
Their creative confections may ruin our diets, but we’re happy to be their taste testers anytime.
4. "Can I afford the payment if one of the buying parties can't?"
"Sometimes homes are purchased with two incomes," Hoffman adds. "But then there are instances when one person wants to stay home to take care of children. You do want to think about the future."
On a trip to Naoshima, Japan, the Houston newlyweds behind Robertson Design fell in love with Tadao Ando’s concrete-composed museums. This led the couple to create a residence of their own comprised of a low concrete wall, concrete cube, and box clad in Siberian larch. The indoors are rounded out with white oak, marble, and leather-finished granite.
Encourage your imaginative niece, nephew, neighbor, sibling, or child to grow their creativity and curiosity with these fun-filled gifts.
Austin-based architecture firm Thoughtbarn set out to renovate an H-shaped residence in a wooded, hilly neighborhood known for its midcentury, ranch-style homes, but quickly discovered that the home’s slab was structurally failing and would need to be replaced. This replacement ultimately led to the construction of a new home based on the footprint of the original—but with a small addition to the south. The exterior is clad in board-and-batten siding, while the front porch is covered with stained pine. Both materials have a vertical emphasis, which speaks to the heritage oak trees on the .75-acre property.
Two of chef André Chiang’s restaurants have appeared on the annual World’s 50 Best Restaurants list. So it makes sense that at his new home in Taiwan, which he largely designed himself, the kitchen takes center stage. To outfit it, André worked with Vipp, the maker of everything from the black steel island and stainless-steel countertops to the faucets, cabinets, shelves, pendant light fixtures—even the tea kettle and trash bin.
Typography guru Erik Spiekermann and his wife, designer Susanna Dulkinys, hate clutter. That’s why they love the super-sleek Berlin domicile they constructed to have just the right lines—and a host of energy-saving features behind the scenes. The stainless-steel Bulthaup kitchen "cost as much as a small house," said Spiekermann, though he did get a discount: Bulthaup is one of his clients.
The home is set amidst the monumentality of the Swiss Alps.
A glazed section perfectly frames country views amidst the book-lined walls of the home’s sitting room. A mobile panel allows residents to modulate light and privacy as they please.
Built on a tight budget of $120,000, a retirement home in the mountains delivers unexpected contemporary design to a rural township.
Comprising 11 modules, this green-roofed prefab was built in 90 days in a factory near São Paulo and then transported to the site in three shipments on flatbed trucks.
Nestled on a crescent-shaped surf beach on South Island’s Banks Peninsula sits a deceptively simple beach house. Scrubby Bay is a rustic retreat flush with modern luxuries and breathtaking scenery at every turn.
The Birch Le Collaboration House and all of the Hygge Supply homes are made from structural insulated panels (SIPs) and steel framing, both of which are designed and cut to spec and delivered to the job site ready for placement, leaving little to no waste onsite. The homes can either be built on a slab-on-grade foundation with concrete floors; pier foundations with Thermory wood floors; or a basement foundation which also includes Thermory wood floors.
In the kitchen, olive green cabinets pair with Calacatta marble, stylish fixtures, and a circular, wood-clad island.
When glass dominates a home, the result is a borderless residence that syncs with its environs, creating a stunning, new visual and psychological sense of space. See how these glass homes use the versatile material to create ambiance and connect with the outdoors.
Building with Cor-Ten steel—weathering steel's nom de plume—is a bit like watching a painting slowly come to life over time. Exposure to the elements adds textured hues of red and orange to the material until it steps into a character completely its own. From the Dwell archive, we bring you nine Cor-Ten steel homes with facades that will continue to shift through shades of ochre, amber, rust, and sienna.
A tiny outbuilding offers a cozy living space inside a simple shell.
To ensure continuity, the middle portion of the terrace—including integrated heaters, a ceiling fan, and a fire pit—is covered with a minimal slope roof that Wade Design Architects cleverly hid above a continuous line of structural beams.
On an undulating stretch of California coastline, a hidden guesthouse runs free of the grid. "The house is elemental," says project architect Dan Weber of Santa Barbara–based firm Anacapa, who collaborated on the project with designer Steve Willson. "We endeavored to make it out of materials that would wear and take on a patina over time, so they could feel like part of the landscape." Unfinished steel, board-formed concrete, and glass continue inside, where rich black walnut—used for ceilings, cabinetry, and furniture—provides an inviting contrast. "On a foggy day, you want that feeling of warmth around you," says Margaret. Brass fixtures complement the deep-hued wood.
Cedar, glass, and concrete combine in this minimalist pool house that draws inspiration from Mies van der Rohe’s 1929 Barcelona Pavilion. The pool house, built into a mountainside west of Montreal and designed by Halifax–based MacKay-Lyons Sweetapple Architects, employs board-formed concrete for the home's expressive exterior.
Whereas others might look at a board-formed cement wall in a basement and see, well, a concrete wall, Jess and Jonathan Taylor, the design duo behind the L.A.-based firm Taylor + Taylor, were inspired. The couple had purchased a virtually untouched 1952 house in east L.A. and that concrete wall became the backdrop for a new guest kitchen in the basement. "It was really the starting point of the whole design," says Jess Taylor. "As designers, our goal is to always try to incorporate the existing surroundings whenever possible, utilize them in practical ways, and be inspired by them."
The living area features a weathered metal fireplace, warm wood furniture, and travertine floors sourced by Destefano Marble & Granite.
A monolithic opening in the facade provides an entrance from the exterior into the courtyard. The property's extensive landscaping was completed by George Girvin, with outdoor lighting by designer Pamela Burton.
A Cor-Ten steel "sleeping volume" seemingly floats atop a predominantly glass "living volume." Intersecting these two stacked volumes is a double-height, timber box which houses the multipurpose spaces.
The upper loft has an integrated desk space.
"As one moves between levels, a variety of unexpected vantage points and views are revealed," says the firm.
The mezzanine and upper loft are clad in wood, which fosters consistency with the lower level.
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