Exterior

'73 BMW 2002

Luis Barragon; via Hutton

Photo by Tom Bies

This 191-square-foot cabin near Vancouver and its glass facades "forces you to engage with the bigger landscape," architect Tom Kundig says, but it seals up tight when its owner is away. The unfinished steel cladding slides over the windows, turning it into a protected bunker. Read the full story here.

In the foreground are Float beanbag chairs and poufs from Paola Lenti. Mamagreen sofas nestle near the house on the sun-dappled deck. A 9.5-foot-tall shade cloth curtain seals off the entire length of the house when the couple is away, keeping the heat out of the interior and preventing accidental bird suicides against the floor-to-ceiling glass walls.

The 925-square-foot house Maggie Treanor calls home blends into the landscape somewhat; with a galvanized steel shed roof and siding, it looks like a high-design little brother to the barns on the surrounding farms.

From the street, the home bears many of the hallmarks of an Eichler home. Its low roofline is in large part supported by glass walls. Clear cedar siding provides additional warmth. The exterior tiles used around the house are actually custom poured concrete from RJ & Associates Landscape Specialists.

The house’s slatted, anodized aluminum canopies and indoor-outdoor spaces flow into one another. The resin Opal lounge and Square Cube table, with pillows and cushions covered in Sunbrella fabrics, and the teak and powder-coated cast aluminum Silver Dining swivel rocker, are all from the Veneman Collections.

Embedded in the desert, this Marmol Radziner–designed prefab home for a Las Vegas casino executive features a James Turrell pyramidal Skyspace structure.

A Simple Plan A Marmol Radziner–designed prefab house, trucked onto a remote Northern California site, takes the pain out of the construction process.

For a cost-conscious 2,000-square-foot renovation located 30 minutes outside of Austin, Texas, architect Nick Deaver took a look around for inspiration. He spied galvanized metal cladding on the region’s sheds and co-opted the inexpensive, resilient material for his own design.

The Baumann family residence in Gowanus, Brooklyn, is all geometry up front, with a rectilinear grid of steel and cypress comprising the structure’s double facade.

Western Window Systems collaborated with the architects to push the boundaries of products like the Multi-Slide Door, seen above. Retracted, it frames domestic views of the pool and backyard and fuses indoor and outdoor space.

Clad in stainless steel and coated glass, the upstairs volume seems to hover over the thick masonry walls and change colors with the shifting sky.

Groupings of succulents accent the home’s entry path and pool area.

Leo Marmol and Alisa Becket enjoy one of their home’s many outdoor spaces.