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A tradition of weekend hiking trips served as the premise for Jeff and Millie Baird’s off-the-grid retreat in California’s Sonoma County. Affectionately named Camp Baird, the home is located on a 165-acre parcel near a campsite the couple and their two young daughters had visited for years. Architect Malcolm Davis worked with contractors Fairweather & Associates on the new build; landscape architect Cary Bush of Merge Studio incorporated drought-resistant nativeplantings into the property.

Australian practice MUSK Architecture Studio maximized the units of Coppin Street Apartment with flexible floor plans and large sliding doors that expose of reveal some of the bedrooms.

A pair of Icelandic prefab pioneers deliver an efficient family home in Culver City. Building smarter is at the heart of everything designers Tryggvi Thorsteinsson and Erla Dögg Ingjaldsdóttir do. Whether they’re testing the limits of indoor/outdoor living or developing a prefabricated wall system that they hope will make traditional wood framing a thing of the past, the founders of the Santa Monica design studio Minarc are consumed with making structures stronger, lighter, and more efficient.

A maple tree grows through an ipe deck in this garden that Mary Barensfeld designed for a family in Berkeley, California. A reflecting pool separates it from a granite patio, which is furnished with a Petal dining table by Richard Schultz and chairs by Mario Bellini. The 1,150-square-foot garden serves as an elegant transition from the couple’s 1964 Japanese-style town house to a small, elevated terrace with views of San Francisco Bay. Filigreed Cor-Ten steel fence screens—perforated with a water-jet cutter to cast dappled shadows on a bench and the ground below—and zigzagging board-formed concrete retaining walls are examples.

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

Inside the unit, Robb (Robb Studio) and Bishop (Studio Gild) inherited several attractive features: 14-foot ceilings, exposed concrete, and a fireplace set within the original chimney stack of the building. The primary goals included making the kitchen more prominent within the home— it was moved forward to engage more acutely with the dining and living room spaces—and to properly showcase the client’s art collection (much of which, including an eight-panel painting by Matt Mullican that stretches across nearly an entire wall).Add a caption

When renting an apartment in Frank Gehry's Spiller House, Kristin Grant Fowler and William Fowler chose simple furnishing that relate back to the architect’s humble material palette. The tabletop is set on Burro Brand saw horses—the same ones Gehry uses in his office. The sofa was designed by Kristin's grandfather, Park Avenue interior designer Hector Grant; the mirror was also a gift from him. The cushions are by Josef Frank.

When not in use as the headboard, the large redwood slab folds down to become a desk.

Mike McConkey, a superintendent for a general contractor, tasked Chris Bittner of OBR Architecture with designing an environmentally sensitive home for he and his wife in San Diego County. Utilizing three shipping containers and a bevy of cost-effective appliances, they managed to limit the budget to $160,000.

Aaron and Yuka Ruell transformed a 1950s Portland ranch house into a retro-inspired family home with plenty of spaces for their four children to roam. In the kitchen, interior designer Emily Knudsen Leland replaced purple laminate cabinets with flat-sawn eastern walnut, and added PentalQuartz countertops in polished Super White for contrast. The kitchen island is clad with original red tiles, and hanging cabinets above it were removed to maximize light and family-room views.