architecture

When Rob and Mary Lubera started pulling threads to uncover the origins of their new home—the lone midcentury house amid rows of Tudor Revivals in suburban Detroit—not even architecture scholars could have anticipated what they would find. Theirs is the last surviving residence by Alexander Girard (1907–1993), a modernist visionary who made his name in textiles but tried his hand at virtually everything, architecture included. The shoji-like laminate screens, seen in the entryway, are characteristic of his Japanese-influenced work.

Seattle firm Wittman Estes designed this compact cabin floating above a meadow on Whidbey Island.

Twilight

The single-volume home has been designed to appear to float over the lot on its deck. Ryan upgraded the existing foundation to support its passive design. "Originally, I wanted to make the whole house powered with wood pellets," he says. "But I decided against shoveling pellets in the snow. I'll get weird in a little bit less of a cold climate."

A series of “stacked boxes” laid the foundation for this Sea Ranch–inspired home on a narrow site set on two flood zones and filled with protected redwoods.

The new home quotes the forms and materials of the neighborhood, but remixes them in a more contemporary combination.

"You can see that language is still there with the sort of two pitched roofs. There is another pitched roof behind that as well, which is the main extension at the back of the house, but you can't really see it from the street,

The wings of this cruciform residence jut out over the landscape on stilts to capture panoramic views.

"We did our best to tuck the buildings into the site—the goal was to get up high on a perch. It was a matter of setting that elevation and working back down with the topography," says architectural designer Riley Pratt.

An outdoor breezeway between the storage shed and the main house is ideal for outdoor dining.

The architects made sure to step back the upper-level addition so as not to overwhelm the scale of the surrounding neighborhood. Plus, "If we build on top of it, and try to make it a new and larger box, it will falsify the identity,

Dellekamp + Schleich built this C-shaped weekend getaway in Valle de Bravo with a central courtyard that prioritizes play.

Floor Plan of Casa C by Dellekamp Arquitectos

Floor Plan of Seward Scoop by Keep