A maple tree grows through an ipe deck in this garden that Mary Barensfeld designed for a family in Berkeley, California. A reflecting pool separates it from a granite patio, which is furnished with a Petal dining table by Richard Schultz and chairs by Mario Bellini. The 1,150-square-foot garden serves as an elegant transition from the couple’s 1964 Japanese-style town house to a small, elevated terrace with views of San Francisco Bay. Filigreed Cor-Ten steel fence screens—perforated with a water-jet cutter to cast dappled shadows on a bench and the ground below—and zigzagging board-formed concrete retaining walls are examples.
A small terrace outfitted with an H55 easy chair by Björn Hultén offers a view of the San Francisco Bay.
With input from her clients, Barensfeld used a computer to generate the circular patterns that were carved into a pair of Cor-Ten steel screens with a water-jet cutter. The perforations allow light and the green of the surrounding Koi bamboo to filter into the space while preserving privacy.
Board-formed concrete retaining walls double as ramps from the deck to the garden’s highest point.
Andrew Simpson Architects built the floors, walls, stairs, and cabinetry out of hoop pine plywood. Plywood panels salvaged from the client’s former art installation were used to line the ceiling.
Marine plywood dominates the interior and is especially striking in the compact kitchen and its island's geometric design.
A geometric arrangement of back-lit plywood adds flair to a simple bedroom.
Two people can work back-to-back in this unique space that incorporates home office ideas for two. Two long, thin desks provide ample dual work surfaces, each with its own built-in storage shelves. The floors are Douglas Fir with OSMO finish. The angled walls and ceiling are Douglas Fir Marine Grade Plywood with a whitewash finish.
A bespoke backyard studio in London was built with prefabricated plywood panels to create a cozy and cost-effective interior.
Istanbul-based architecture firm SO? built the tiny cabin with plywood both inside and out, and also used birch plywood for some of the furnishings.
Lookofsky outfitted the bedroom with built-in pine plywood bunkbeds, walls, and a ceiling. The bathroom and a closet are also wrapped in plywood.
Located in a forested, countryside area near a lake and vegetable garden, the cabin was designed by São Paulo architect Silvia Acar as a simple space for sleeping, cooking, and reconnecting with nature.
A multifunctional plywood-and-wood veneer wall defines the living area of a simple yet elegant Hong Kong apartment.
Fir-veneer plywood wraps the entire interior of a compact guest cabin with a 12-by-15-foot footprint, smaller than a single-car garage.
Working with a demanding budget, Filipe Pina Arquitectura added a cost-effective annex with an upper level with walls lined with exposed oak plywood.
High-quality birch plywood lines the interior of this sharply angular and minimalist backyard office.
The clients love the community atmosphere of Stoke Newington and wanted to extend their existing home rather than move. The lead architect for the project, George Bradley, lives on the same housing estate and can see the property from his window.
Throughout the home, the walls and floors feature the natural grain patterns of lacquered plywood. The Stokke Tripp Trapp chair in the dining room was Lizz’s when she was growing up in the 1980s while the two Steen Ostergaard chairs were a thrift store find, and Project Room designed the table.
On the main floor of the second-story apartment, rustic oak flooring is paired with fir cladding, which unfolds into the staircase and walls of the “wood box” that contains the mezzanine level.
Defined by an abundance of warm timber accents and an overall sense of intrigue, the aptly named Pine Flat residence by architecture firm A6A resides inconspicuously on the top floor of a 19th-century building. Inside, platforms, partitions, doors, and storage stitched together by plywood installations contrast the white, loft-style ceiling. Adding to the apartment’s congenial feel are heightened windows on the west side, which bathe the space in natural light while also offering views.
An expanse of windows along the transparent, glass-filled southern facade keeps the main living area well-lit during the day; a grid of Buschfeld Shop-V 100 lights illuminates it by night.
Plywood lines the attic guestroom of Mattie Iverson’s revamped Tudor home in the Queen Anne section of Seattle. The floor lamp is by Frandsen and the duvet is from Pottery Barn. The similarly colored bed frame lends a sense of serene continuity, and appears to float in the stripped-down space.
The new house is separate from the original, but the exterior spaces flow into each other.
The lower level den received new flooring in cork to warm up the space, and nod to Mariana's Portuguese roots, where cork is a major export. New built-ins help define and ground the space, which previously felt like a transition zone.
Mariana's father Eduardo lives with the family, and was in need of his own private spaces. In Eduardo's bedroom, Koetter and Studebaker converted an oversized closet to a small study and lounge area with built-ins in Baltic Birch.
The countertop and backsplash are Mother of Pearl polish slab, and the hood is custom made out of copper.
In the kitchen, designers Alfie Koetter and Luke Studebaker worked with woodworker Aaron Hauser of Mason Haus to create custom new millwork inspired by the look and feel of the original cabinetry. Hauser sourced sequence matched natural birch that was rotary cut to create the cabinets.
The breakfast nook of Mariana van Zeller and Darren Foster's kitchen blends original details of the 1960s home with new insertions, plus keepsakes from the couple's travels around the world.
In the dining room, the original steel window mullions were painted Farrow and Ball's Radicchio red, along with the railings and stairs below. The dining table is vintage David Naylor, and the chairs are vintage Danish modern with custom upholstery in Ghanaian textiles.
98 more saves