Backyard

In another section of the yard, Cooper added varying-sized circular cement stepping stones, which lead toward an elevated planter filled with California-native plants.

The custom sliding window screens, which shield from solar gain, were designed by the couple and are a modernized reference to the operable shutters that Denise remembers from her childhood in Austria. They first used the idea on one of their apartment buildings.

A rear view of the home shows how the old structure is wrapped in corrugated Cor-Ten steel, marking it as an "artifact of the site," as John describes. The new residence gently slopes away from the neighboring house rather than towering over it.

In the remodel, Lotz reoriented the pool and added multiple outdoor spaces, such as a covered terrace with the braai, as well as an outdoor dining table with built-in seating.

A vast terrace overlooks a nearby park, while the ground floor patio (connected to Vanbesien’s office) opens up to a garden.

A healthy budget for landscaping allowed Leah to achieve a natural, wild look with plants. “I wanted to look out and see just lush plants growing wild,” she says. The collage of native vegetation was also used to soften the transitions between surface materials and backyard zones.

The deck off the kitchen brings the outdoors in and breaks up the home's north and west facades.

Architect Fredrik Nilsson and author Keshni Kashyap blend Scandinavian modernism with a measure of Indian style to create a thoroughly L.A. home.

The gable-roofed home features sustainable Accoya wood siding and Tecu patinated copper by KME, experimental materials that Ricks had proposed for MASS Design Group competition entries but put in use for the first time here. His colleague, Sierra Bainbridge, designed the landscape.

No one wanted to alter the stairway, and kept its original design intact. New windows and a clever and sleek wood staircase highlight the private courtyard outside.

New steps on the house's addition pair garapa wood planks atop concrete forms. "I did research and got advice to make it work without warping,

Danny envisioned the space between the ADU and the house as an informal place to gather. "It creates a sort of courtyard sensibility, which works for our intergenerational family dynamics."

What used to be the driveway is now a private side patio where the family regularly eats dinner. Ikea chairs join a table the couple made themselves.

In the primary bedroom, ten-foot-tall doors from Sierra Pacific open to a patio.

Norske Mikrohus tells us that demand is growing for their four turnkey tiny home models—but the company cautions against high international shipping costs.

The previous homeowners had cultivated a large, Asian-inspired garden. The courtyard centers around this towering, bushy tree.

Opposite the optical glass facade, the slant of the northern facade is the result of Tokyo urban planning requirements. A constant gradient diagonal line restriction dictated that the home’s mass recede diagonally away from the northern property line, to ensure adequate light and ventilation for the neighboring property—a policy not uncommon in lower-density residential areas of Tokyo.

Hiroshi Nakamura & NAP used 87 translucent bricks to reframe a family’s connection to nature and the city.

The 1936 Herbert and Katherine Jacobs House in Madison, Wisconsin, marks the first Usonian-style home designed by Frank Lloyd Wright.