While the owners really liked the idea of shou sugi ban, they opted for a more cost-effective black stain. The random-width, reverse board-and-batten siding reflects the wabi-sabi concept. “The builder said the math for the random siding was torturous,” the wife said. “We didn’t know how hard it was to make things look simple.” DeNiord planted hay-scented fern and lowbush blueberry sod around the house. “We didn't want any side of the house to feel unconsidered,” he says. As for the local boulders he placed around the house and terrace, he says, “They give the feeling that the house grew up around the outcroppings.”
Architect Ana Smud’s residence in the Vicente López suburb of Buenos Aires is surrounded by gardens and wrapped in timber, concrete, and glass.
The architects made sure to step back the upper-level addition so as not to overwhelm the scale of the surrounding neighborhood. Plus, "If we build on top of it, and try to make it a new and larger box, it will falsify the identity,
In the living room, an Artek daybed is covered in Helios dark green fabric from Johanna Gullichsen.
The exterior bath next to the pool can only be accessed through the deck and features a natural sealed zellige tile and marble vanity.
For Gabriel Ramirez and his partner Sarah Mason Williams, following the Sea Ranch rules—local covenants guide new designs—didn’t mean slipping into Sea Ranch clichés. The architects love Cor-Ten steel, with its ruddy and almost organic surface, and they made it the main exterior material, along with board-formed concrete and ipe wood. The Cor-Ten, which quickly turned an autumnal rust in the sea air, and the concrete, with its grain and crannies, mean the house isn’t a pristine box, Ramirez says. His Neutra house “was very crisp and clean,” he says. “This house is more distressed, more wabi-sabi.”
The circles on the gallery’s wall indicate areas of repair, where small hand-cut stones were used to fill in the gaps between large stones and left exposed. An oversize pendant designed by Angela hangs from the ceiling. It’s made of fibers from the sansevieria (snake) plant that were tinted with a natural dye from a local tree.
The dining room sits at the center of the home and receives floods of light from the glass cube above.
Cutler designed the window in the couple’s bedroom to extend below floor level. “It’s almost like you can walk right into the view,” he says. The platform bed is from West Elm.
The weekend house that architect James Cutler designed for Jeff Albertson and Ben Vogt on a remote stretch of Washington State’s Pacific coast fits unobtrusively into its surroundings. The building pad was small, so Cutler stepped the structure up the slope. Rough-sawn red cedar cladding was chosen for textural contrast and its resistance to rot.
“I envision people writing their books, music, refuelling their creative flow,” says Castillero. He should know about its energizing power more than anyone, really: it brought him back to his love of architecture, after all. “It’s truly my new happy place.”
Modest fisherman's houses line the streets of Valencia's El Cabanyal neighborhood, typically with tiled or colorful facades. "Until recent years, the survival of the neighborhood's traditional houses has been at risk due to political disagreements and speculation, but in 2023 a city plan which aims to protect the essence of the neighborhood (Plan Especial del Cabanyal-Canyamelar) was finally approved resulting in new hope,
A view of the main living room, which to one side is nestled against the trees and to the other side enjoys expansive views of the vineyard.
"Each window in the house feels like a living painting because it perfectly frames a beautiful view of the forest or the rhododendrons out front that change with the seasons,
The extension wraps around the brick walls of the original home. It features large glazed doors that slide open to the verandah for seamless indoor-outdoor living when the weather allows. The dining table has been in Miriam's family for several generations, and is paired with some “very battered” midcentury Magistretti chairs.
Greg Knapp and Robyn Traynor worked with architect Peter Braithwaite to design a nature retreat for their family on a slice of Canadian wilderness. It has two shed-roofed structures joined by a boardwalk elevated above a preexisting walking path on the couple’s land.
VIewed from above, the conversation pit is inviting and soft, thanks to Eternity Modern's sofas.
For a bathroom in the new addition, the architects utilized the former addition's rocky foundation, complemented by zellige tile.
Architect Gabriel Montañés brought in marés sandstone and indigenous plants to restore a 19th-century family home that sat abandoned for decades.
HUTCH Design used organic materials and earthy tones to transform this former concrete pig shed outside of London.
On the entrance deck, a hand-crafted wooden couple welcomes visitors. The U-shaped deck surrounds the entire lower level.
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