Modern Houses Beach Modern

Bright and spacious, the top-of-the-line chef's kitchen is full of high-end touches. The sub-zero refrigerator even includes integrated wine storage with a shelf for a cigar humidor.

The inspiration for this prefabricated, modular family home on Fishers Island, New York, were the views that Tanney and Luntz saw from a 12-foot stepladder, which was balancing on the bed of a pickup truck when they first visited the site.

Glazed garage doors by Renlita lift up to completely open the home to nature.

- Rockport, Massachusetts Dwell Magazine : November / December 2017

Traditionally home to merchants and craftspeople, a machiya is a type of Japanese wooden townhouse that originated in the Heian period and developed through the Edo and Meiji periods.

The home, clad in natural Australian timber, enjoys a sense of lightness thanks to slender columns that let it float over the dunes. The driveway and entry, at the rear of the building, have an understated design to build to the interior's magnificent ocean views. Firm director Phil Snowdon explains, “By creating an architectural form that draws your eye and leads you up the steep driveway, we could engage new visitors in a welcoming process that first reveals the object and then slowly reveals the main event, being the view."

Surrounded by wheat fields on a high-altitude plateau stands a small glass house and a solid, traditional barn. The owners, inspired by Philip Johnson’s Glass House, wanted a refuge that opens up to the prairie and mountains.

The Floating House floats above the jungle canopy of Costa Rica and was designed by architect Benjamin Garcia Saxe. It's a short walk to the beach and offers elegance that's rooted in nature and simplicity. The structure is made up of three pods that are connected by elevated, outdoor bridges and walkways. Teak flooring and furniture add natural warmth to the main living areas, which are connected to two upstairs bedrooms and an open-air spa bathroom via a 24-meter walkway. The home also features a lounge framed by Concertina floor-to-ceiling glass doors with expansive views of the ocean and jungle.

This 3,200-square-foot structure was assembled with a prefabricated foundation, concrete panel siding, and efficient built-ins, minimizing construction debris and toxins—such as concrete foundation tar—on the site.

After an unprecedented year of earthquakes, hurricanes, and fires, a bright light has been shed on the benefits of building with concrete.

Completed in just six weeks by Australian practice Archiblox, this modest prefab home is perched atop cliffs with prime views of Avalon Beach, just a short drive away from Sydney. Oriented east to west to maximize cross ventilation, the house is clad in marine-grade Colorbond Ultra steel and Queensland blue gum to protect against the elements.

Overlooking the Hudson River, Allan Shope’s nearly 3,000-square-foot sustainable home features handmade furniture and an undulating floor, all crafted from the site’s felled black walnut trees.

Tanya Wexler and Amy Zimmerman linger in the breezeway designed to draw eyes, and footsteps, from the driveway through the house to the gently sloping backyard and swimming pool beyond.