Architecture

After months of waiting for approvals to build a house in Sintra, Portugal, artist Chris Saunders decided to pivot, commissioning a custom tiny home on wheels from architecture studio Madeiguincho.

The couple love the home’s privacy and the way it interacts with the environment. They describe certain rooms as feeling like being inside a treehouse with views out to the surrounding forest canopy.

After: A new porch roof, made of metal, completes the updated exterior facade. The home’s doors and the garage door are painted a punchy pink, Benjamin Moore’s Rosewood.

Floor Plan of Hills Beach by Woodhull

The use of the stone as a foundation allowed the budget to be reduced as it minimized the amount of work and materials.

The studio was initially designed to sit atop an elegant stilt system. When architect Cristian Stefanescu drove past a construction site littered with large boulders, however, he had the idea to replace the conventional foundation with a rock. “It would be much cheaper and much more interesting,” he says. “I had to spend many hours driving around Bergen with the builder to find a suitable stone that someone was willing to part with.”

The clerestory windows have been preserved, and the house now has a dark facade that recedes into the foliage.

“I’m the queen of Ikea cabinets,” laughs Jade. She commissioned custom birch-veneer plywood for the doors from L.A.’s Anderson Plywood. While she was budget-conscious in many ways, she also is willing to splurge where it counts. “Hardware is where I spend money. That’s where people touch and feel it,” she says. “It’s important to me that it feels significant.” Here, pulls and knobs come from Mockett. The countertop is a man-made resin from Arizona Tiles in La Quinta.

In the couple’s bedroom, a back corner window that had been straightened by the previous owner was restored to its original slant, and an interior clerestory was uncovered and used to brighten a bathroom on the other side of the wall. The vintage teak bed with built-in headboard and side tables is from Vintage on Point in Los Angeles. A signed Andy Warhol screen print hangs overhead.

The sod roof is angled to create a sweeping elevation on approach and is planted with grass tussocks cut from the hillside during construction. “The tussocks camouflage the house, melting it into the landscape,” explains architect Kate Brown.

The tall, lean abode stands out from its adjacent neighbors by sporting a navy blue facade.

Yellow vinyl floor tile defines the new living room and keeps the interior from veering too industrial. “You need to offset the brick with something simple,” says Tom. “Otherwise, you get too many textures.” The lights and coffee table were found at local vintage stores.

soft grays and natural materials

When architect Olivier Lekien redesigned a Paris apartment in the 11th arrondissement, he discovered a system of wood columns and beams that separated the kitchen-and-dining area from the living room.

The original wood columns and beams create a more open feel and flood the spaces with natural light. "The kitchen looks out over the courtyard, which acts as a light well and provides ventilation,

The 1969 summer house needed a gut remodel—so Carisa Salerno and Aaron Levin rebuilt it piece by piece: “In the end, we feel like we built a sculpture, not a house.”

This restored estate located in Saône-et-Loire, France, is currently listed for 2,630,000 € (approximately $2,768,627 USD) by Architecture de Collection.