No whiteware here. In this moody apartment in Berlin, multi-toned charcoal gray subway tiles make up the backsplash, which contrasts with the pop of rosy color on the kitchen cabinets.
The broad archways infuse a captivating splash of drama to the chic, minimalist interiors.
Steve and Margaret Cegelski, a retired couple who invented a popular tire sealant, welcome guests to their Santa Barbara County home nearly every weekend for hiking, surfing, and horseback riding. Overnight visitors stay in the new guesthouse designed by Dan Weber of Anacapa Architecture and Steve Willson of Willson Design; the builder was Curtis Homes, and the structural engineer was Ashley & Vance Engineering. A green roof helps the structure disappear into the site high above the Pacific. “We wanted to capture the quality of the setting, but with minimal impact on the land,” says Weber.
Set on 21 acres at the top of the Snoqualmie Valley, the 3,200-square-foot Maxon House represents a major lifestyle change for the Maxons, who previously lived in a split-level in a planned subdivision. "When you’re here, you just sit and watch what’s happening outside," says Lou. "It’s like the Weather Channel. We don’t even need the TV." Kim adds, "In spring everything explodes." Cedars, hemlocks, and vine maples shoot up from the fern-covered hillside.
A couple transform their backyard into a botanical children’s playland and an ideal entertaining spot.
Top 9 Gardens of 2020: The verdant spaces nominated for the Dwell Design Awards help enliven their biophilic homes.
"The home’s hovering roof planes reinforce the natural horizon, shoreline, waterway, and distant woods and sky," the architect explains.
American architect Allison Ewing utilized cantilevered rooflines and terraces to emphasize the beauty of this family residence’s site in Virginia Beach, Virginia. "The building forms, detailing, and material selections all draw on the concept of shakkei," Ewing says.
In Suzhou, China, the UNESCO-listed Master of the Nets garden is home to the Moon Gate, which also exhibits a circular motif. "The symbolic borrowing of the moon as a tool for shakkei can be found in both China and Japan," says Walker. "At this 12th-century garden, the Moon Gate offers a view of some carefully clipped bonsai trees, which reference the wild landscape of China."
The Adachi Museum Garden in Yasugi, Japan, has been ranked as the country’s most beautiful garden for 18 consecutive years by the Journal of Japanese Gardening. The garden, which was designed according to shakkei principles, features rugged stones that evoke the craggy mountains in the distance.
The Tairyu-Sanso garden in Kyoto, Japan, was designed in by pioneering Japanese garden architect Ogawa Jihei VII, who also laid out the idyllic Heian-jingū and Murin-an gardens. "Here, Ogawa incorporates the distant view of Mount Higashiyama," says garden designer Sophie Walker, author of The Japanese Garden (Phaidon, 2017). "With the carefully composed natural scenes framed by windows and sloping roofs, you would never know that this private property is surrounded by the modern city of Kyoto."
The recently completed home—dubbed the Hawthorn House—was created for a couple who asked Edition Office directors Kim Bridgland and Aaron Roberts to apply rural design sensibilities to a more suburban context.
Pale hardwood floors complement pared-back wall tones in mushroom and off-white.
A wide-angle view of the main living space on the ground floor reveals the ingenious use of subtle room dividers, positioned to create separate spatial situations while retaining overall harmony and flow.
Tom Conrad and Kate Imbach’s first bedroom redo creates as many problems as it alleviated, blocking their view of Noe Valley behind a wall, for instance. Their second attempt, shown here, opened up the balcony, which has a Frame lounge by Francesco Rota for Paola Lenti. A Grand Repos chair by Antonio Citterio for Vitra faces the bed.
Inside the home, each volume tonally matches its exterior. The stucco-clad upper floor, which contains mostly private quarters, prominently features white oak casework.
Glass Farmhouse | Olson Kundig
Concrete walls, a plywood ceiling, and built-in wood furnishings create sleek, minimal sleeping quarters. A plywood headboard is adorned with modern black sconces.
Giovanna de Uzin Fontecha relaxes in the master bedroom on a Leaf chaise by Claesson-Koivisto-Rune for Living Divani.
The bedroom contains an ingenious closet system similar to library stacks. These large sliding cabinets open up to make way for Zulaikha and Laurence as they hang their clothes or access anything else kept in storage.
Built as a live/work space for a sculptor, Indigo by Dutch practice Woonpioniers is an eco-friendly, prefabricated cabin with bent wooden walls. The low-slung bed in the loft accentuates the height of the pitched roof and mimics the experience of camping in the woods.
Watch the Northern Lights from the comfort of your warm bed at Panorama Glass Lodge Iceland. Designed by the Estonian company ÖÖD Homes, the two 200-square-foot prefab cabins are thoughtfully made for small-space living. Each has a bedroom, living room, bathroom, and kitchen.
It took six weeks to build the formwork for the poured-concrete walls that make up the first floor. Inthe
kitchen the floors are raw European white oak, the countertops are Capolavoro granite with a leather finish by Antolini, and the natural oak cabinets are by Varenna.
The kitchen door opens wide to improve connectivity to the backyard.
The kitchen is the heart of the home and features a nearly 20-foot-long Tasmanian Oak workbench.
A custom kitchen with a cantilevered countertop mimics the way the house is perched on a hillside, seeming to defy gravity.
The smoothly sculpted interior flows organically from room to room.
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