Modern Homes with Cedar Facades

The bach, which is rented as a vacation home when not being used by its owners, gives a range of spaces to escape to within its walls. The end of the house farthest from the road contains the secluded master bedroom with en suite, which has its own entrance and is separated by the covered deck. Each bedroom has a sheltered outdoor space with a translucent screen that acts as a kind of lightwell, offering total privacy while allowing light to permeate the interior. The height of the screens was lowered slightly to give a clear view of the silhouette of the nearby mountain. “You don’t want to be opening and closing curtains all the time,” says Lance Herbst. “We wanted it to be the kind of house you can walk around in after your swim and have a high level of privacy.”

The metal cladding, inspired by a nearby zinc mine, continues seamlessly onto the house’s roof for a minimalist shed effect. “The drip edge turns to make the wall,” explains architect Brandon Pace, “but changes above the window to accommodate a downspout. Any place where the metal contacts glass, or where you walk underneath, we have an internal gutter.”

While the house overlooks an estuary on its north side, little about the interior is revealed from the street-facing façade.

The house, which is located near Oxford, is clad in cedar. Composite timber and aluminum windows maintain the house’s connection with the countryside, as does the generous patio that wraps around two of its sides.

New Yorkers Catherine Greenman and Richard D’Albert spend weekends with their four children at the house, which is clad in Atlantic white cedar boards.

Bernstein reconfigured the entryway to the street level; guests ascend to the main living space. Ironspot clay tile and FSC-certified cedar clads the facade.

Inspired by the Sydney Opera House, architects Andrew Maynard and Mark Austin paid careful attention to the extension’s “fifth elevation"—the way it’s seen from the sky. Its tiny houses, clustered at the southern end of the property, are clad in white steel panels and western red cedar shingles, contrasting materials that emphasize their geometric forms.

The two separate structures were given a visual unity by cladding them with a specially fire-treated cedar siding on the exterior. The white picket fence is another visual tie between the properties.

Cooke clad the building in a black-stained, sustainably-grown Canadian cedar, a durable choice that ages well and requires little maintenance. The dark glazing was chosen so windows appear seamless, accentuating the form of the building.

At night, subtle light fixtures provide soft ambient light. The lights “as discrete as possible, and aimed at the surfaces of the house, defining space and creating the kind of three dimensional modeling that is easy for the eye to interpret,” Snyder says. “It is relaxing, calming, provides plenty of light to live, and as much as possible eliminates visible bright hot spots or illuminated fixtures that call attention to themselves.”

The front entrance is located next to the garage.

A simple black box in many ways, the Ankersvingen Annex succeeds with its simplicity; it adds space without subtracting from the surroundings. “It was a really neat connection between the house and garden, which was totally lacking with the existing architecture,” says architect Thor Olav Solbjør of SAAHA. “We took the stunning views of the fjord as the starting point.”

"The typical Cape Cod house built by early settlers had very few windows, as they were built to survive a harsh winter," Hammer explains. The architect emulated their recognizable form with a 9/12 pitched gable roof but added plenty of contemporary glazing for natural light and ventilation.

The site needed a path that would let residents easily ascend from the bank to the house. The architects created one by simply replicating the way they had naturally walked up the site the first time they visited. The result is a meandering trail that directs visitors to the landscape’s different features — whether a majestic Arbutus tree, a private stone beach, or a wildflower clearing.