In the dining room, a painting by Victoria Haven hangs over a maple side table that Hale designed and built while in architecture school at the University of Washington. The dining table was a banquet table that Hale repurposed, and the Mies van der Rohe chairs were vintage store finds given to Hale and Edmonds as a housewarming gift.
The defining feature of this lakeside cabin in northern Idaho is a 30-by-20-foot window wall that opens the living area to the surrounding lake and forest. Concrete blocks, steel, and plywood make up the simple palette of materials.
The kitchen is placed in connection with the living room. The cabin's bedroom and bathroom are placed behind the plastered wall on the right.
The cabin's living room area opens up to the surroundings. Walls and ceiling are clad in birch veneer while the floor is in solid birch.
The home’s east-west orientation picks up sunlight twice a day and makes the house blend seamlessly into the wooded background.
Though the retreat is clearly meant to afford the solitude writing so often requires, Kathleen reports that "it's very lively. Deer approach, birds bathe. The sun warms my desk and you can hear the rain."
Anka Lamprecht and Lukas Wezel shared their rustic domicile in a valley in Grotli, Norway. Boasting an enviable view, it’s the first cabin archived in the book’s “Backcountry” category that features homesteads in the wilderness.
A polychrome facade made of salvaged, 100-year-old barnwood gives this small, lofted cottage space its unique character. Its copper roof is also reclaimed, a lucky Craigslist find from a local remodel. Though the structure has a footprint of just 11' x 14', it provides a useful space to entertain, catch up on work, or relax.
Whether your home office consists of a designated room or a tight corner in your kitchen, there are certain key strategies for making the most of it.
Johns says his design was largely influenced by Richard Neutra’s Lovell House, built in 1929 in Los Angeles.
This airy addition on the back of a historic house in Boise is a model of sensitive renovation, seamlessly melding new and old. Photo by Lincoln Barbour.
Douglas fir-framed windows by Dynamic Architectural Windows & Doors offer layered indoor-outdoor views.
The master bedroom is shaded by exterior slats in cumaru, a sustainable tropical wood. Alazraki designed the custom bed frame.
Vipp's prefab Shelter requires a delivery time of six months and costs $585,000. Pricing includes interior fittings, all by Vipp, including bathroom vanity, lighting, leather daybed, kitchen island, dining table (pictured), bedding, storage, and even kitchen utensils.
The sofa is from Cantoni, the rug is from Restoration Hardware, and the Tolomeo floor lamp is by Michele
De Lucchi for Artemide. The large windows in the background and throughout the house are from Western Window Systems.
The LC4 lounge is by Le Corbusier, Charlotte Perriand, and Pierre Jeanneret for Cassina. Operable porthole windows on the east facade offer ventilation.
Goneau highlighted the red brick wall in the living room by leaving it bare and protecting it behind museum-quality glass. The space also features a floor-to-ceiling window that’s coated on the outside with a reflective film, letting residents keep their curtains open by day without fear of being seen from the street. The green sofa is by St-Laurent Domison and the white oak chairs are by Hans Wegner. All other furniture is custom.
Large windows with stark black trim welcome plenty of natural light into the space.
Designed by architects Rick Shean and Christopher Simmonds, a project in Quebec, Canada, was a winner of the 2014 Architects Challenge, a collection of annual submissions each year that display architectural creativity and feature Marvin Windows and Doors. On our Design for Humankind panel, Christine Marvin will represent a family business dedicated to accommodating residents of all abilities.
Despite its modest footprint, the home’s strategic design makes it feel much larger. Outdoor decks are direct extensions of the interior, creating a zero threshold. Custom windows take advantage of the floor plan’s shifting geometry, jutting out to allow for sweeping views.
Ciavarra used floor-to-ceiling glass for the master bedroom, which leads onto a deck.
To adhere to Passivhaus standards, the house has a tightly-sealed shell, a smart ventilation system, and plenty of windows to let in natural light.
Last but not least, the western-facing master bedroom captures stunning sunsets from its wall-to-wall windows.
Light is invited into the home through the 75-foot wall of windows in the main living area. Kopel’s favorite part of the home is “the changing quality of light” that “animates the living space” from day to day and season to season. Lucifer architectural lighting and Polk Audio in-wall speakers add understated function.
The living room at the front of the house benefits from the privacy afforded from the cedar screen and the light let in by a wall of windows. The wood-burning stove and collection of paintings give the modern home a bit of New England charm.
Privacy and respect for the natural environment was foremost in the new owners’ mind when conceiving the home’s redesign. The placement of the addition limits direct sightlines to neighbors and offers unbroken views of the surrounding area. The aluminum frame and glass walls create a light, airy atmosphere.
The Clark family residence in Raleigh, North Carolina, was designed around the Series 600 multi-slide window walls from Western Window Systems, a rarity in the southeast.
The abundance of windows in the design help break up the visual scheme of the rough-hewn wood façade, creating a visual line of sight through the house itself and furthering the connection to the views beyond.
A crucial aspect you’ll learn about throughout the process is the energy efficiency that will come with your new selection. The range of operating styles and material types offered by Milgard makes it possible to meet Energy Star® requirements, no matter where you’re located. If you’re determined to meet specific performance goals but not sure how to make it happen, their Energy Calculator can help you figure out what choices would be best for you.
Bayley’s ventless fireplace from Spark Modern Fires keeps the house toasty as he reads in his favorite red armchair, a vintage-store find, in his bedroom.
Modern yet craft-oriented furnishings—like Alvar Aalto’s Paimio armchair—proved appealing for midcentury homeowners in Los Angeles thanks in part to Frank Bros., the local retailer that John Entenza enlisted to help furnish his Case Study homes. Jennifer Volland, a historian at work on a book about the store, and Getty curator Christopher James Alexander join us onstage for a discussion of the Frank Bros. and the Getty's recent acquisition of their archives.
Hiroshima Armchair: Designed by Naoto Fukasawa, manufactured by Maruni
“It’s really a chair that you have to see and sit in," says co-founder Simon Alderson. "It’s beautifully detailed and destined to become a classic, since it’s rare to find craftsmanship with such quality and detailing. Maruni, a big Japanese furniture maker, has really only focused on this kind of contemporary piece over the last four or five years.”
Heron armchair (1950)
This plush chair is a more angular take on Eero Saarinen’s Womb chair.
The Eames Lounge and Ottoman is another timeless icon of mid-century design, held in the design collections of the MOMA in New York and the Art Institute of Chicago.
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