For a family of four, Ueda Design Studio restores the luminous-yet-drafty midcentury home of Alden Mason with warm materials and sensible restraint.
Deep blue-painted cement-board panels, an offset roof peak, and black window frames balance the rich brown Ipe wood of the deck and garden.
The Tini M bedroom is surrounded by windows. The initial structure includes a bed base with drawers, bedside tables, and a wood stove.
Prefabricated and stackable, Kasita's high-density units may be a solution to America’s affordable housing crisis—with tech-enabled, high-quality design to boot.
Portola Valley first floor plan
In Sunnyvale, California, architect Ryan Leidner cracked open a 1962 Eichler with a crisp remodel flush with foliage. He replaced the home’s vertical plywood facade with one-inch strips of American red cedar set at two depths. The rhythmic slats conceal a garage door that swings open on a hidden hinge. At the entryway, two massive panes of frosted glass shimmer with light and shadow from the atrium inside. Homeowners Isabelle Olsson and Matthaeus Krenn stand out front.
Floor Plan of Southfield Farm Cabin by Barlis Wedlick Architects
The 26-acre property is listed at a steep $4M—but luckily that includes 2.5 miles of hiking trails.
The home is clad in corrugated iron coated with Zincalume. “We chose the cladding so we could curve the metal sheets and create barrel vaulted roofs,” says architect William Samuels. “The finish gives a natural reflection to the surface of the house, picking up on the colors of the surrounding bush and the changing daylight.”
Inside the residential units, expansive floor-to-ceiling openings are favored in the public spaces, filling the interior with light. A-Series Gliding Patio doors from Andersen maximize the surface area of glazing, and provide direct access to a private courtyard.
Floor Plan of Beaver Creek Cabin by Outside Architecture
In Darby, Montana, just steps from the Bitterroot River, John Shoemaker and Greg Case built a home base for their fly-fishing group vacations.
The Fish Camp acts as the couple’s forest getaway, just a quarter mile from their main house.
For 2015, Vipp, the Danish industrial design company known for its iconic trash cans and all-black kitchens, introduces a 592-square-foot prefab unit called Shelter.
The principal bedroom features a woodburning fireplace and hand-hewn ceiling beams scouted from a Pennsylvania barn.
“The enormous kitchen includes 20-foot vaulted ceilings with massive hand-hewn beams, radiant polished concrete floors, and a soaring ‘curtain wall’ of glass and steel,” says the listing agent.
Reilly, pictured here, deleted the original front door in order to create an expanse of uninterrupted wall in the living room. The existing slider is now the main entry point. She clad the exterior with planks marketed as a shou sugi ban product that reads as burned, knotty cedar. A new, corrugated metal roof replaced asphalt shingles.
The design for the home was inspired by the Eames House in Los Angeles, which favored prefabricated construction over proprietary building methods, and used off-the-shelf materials instead of bespoke finishes.
Hem House by Future Firm, a Chicago studio, is a 1,300-square-foot stand-alone in the East Garfield Park neighborhood that sold in summer 2021 at its listing price of $399,000. The design for the home was inspired by the Eames House in Los Angeles, which favored prefabricated construction over proprietary building methods, and used off-the-shelf materials instead of bespoke finishes. More cost savings came by using land that the Cook County Land Bank Authority purchased in 2015.
Although synthetic slate roof tiles have been around since the 1970s, the way architect Stephen Bruns used them to completely clad Woven House is unusual. "I love this material," says Bruns. "The way light reflects off the tiles creates a specular effect, almost like a mosaic." That reflective quality is enhanced by the floor-to-ceiling windows by Loewen.
Mono in the woods of Montana
“We designed the landscape and house in tandem to ensure continuity between the exterior and interior,” diNiord says. An outdoor sling chair by Croft House sits in front of the outdoor shower under the covered patio in front of the primary bedroom.
Opposite Jim’s workstation, the modest interior accommodates a single bunk—Hannah’s preferred reading perch.
A bridge links the living area to the kitchen.
The 1,000-square-foot bungalow sits along a quiet street near downtown Tucson and the University of Arizona. "For us, home isn’t simply about the space you live in; it’s also about the sense of belonging to a particular place," says Dale.
The new kitchen is defined by a 14-foot island and bank of windows overlooking the backyard. The counters are stainless steel and maple butcher block. The ceiling sconces are Cedar & Moss.
The upper floor layout was rejiggered so that the kids' bedroom could be relocated, and now a cantilevered addition at the back of the house hosts a library space with full-height glass capturing a view to the backyard. The built-in shelving has a rich blue laminate, and the tiled wall to the left denotes the light well into the kitchen.