Architecture

This stunning forest retreat in England uses prefabricated panels to minimize site impact, shorten construction time, and protect against weather.

A cramped home in Catalonia gets a dramatic makeover that highlights its best historic details. Narrow plots pose some very specific challenges for urban architects, and in old cities like Sabadell in Catalonia, Spain, it is a frequent concern. Working with architect Manu Pàges, Barcelona-based design firm The Hall Studio turn a cramped single-family home into a bright, loft-like space with plenty of multipurpose areas.

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.

- New Haven, Connecticut Dwell Magazine : September / October 2017

- Taos, New Mexico Dwell Magazine : July / August 2017

Nichinichi Townhouse in Kyoto, Japan

Street view of the double gable

After: A peek inside the beautifully restored, modernized abode.

“One of the goals of Zenkaya was to create employment in a country crippled by [an unemployment rate of over 25 percent],” explains the architect, who likes to call himself a social entrepreneur.

Lofted amid eucalyptus and oak trees, Graham Paarman’s house in South Africa is a glassed-in, steel-frame structure with a veil of vertical slats. Excluding outdoor areas, it measures about 720 square feet. Half-round bays project to form a balcony, a pergola, a dining alcove, and a bathroom.

This unique built-in dining table is recessed into the floor, giving the room and table a seamless effect.

Tribeca Manufacturing Building New York–based architect Andrew Franz undertook the renovation of a landmark circa-1884 former soap warehouse in Tribeca, originally designed by George W. DaCunha in the Romanesque Revival style. Franz reorganized and modernized the six-story building—which retains its original 16-foot beam ceilings, brick walls, timber columns, and elevator winches from the former freight shaft—by incorporating steel, glass, handmade tile, and lacquer to complement the masonry and heavy timber. An interior courtyard and rectangular mezzanine are situated below the original 16-foot gull-wing ceiling planes.