beach

The compact, hardy cabins were designed to work in a variety of park settings, including the beach.

Tiny Pacific Houses is the brainchild of Hawaii-born Brandon Hardin, who saw the trend gaining popularity in the Pacific Northwest.

A translucent glass bridge connects this 1,820 square foot Corten steel and glass pavilion to a mid-century modern house designed by Bay Area architect Ernest Born. Gently placed among existing trees, the addition, though physically simple, is phenomenally complex. A private cypress grove in the rear and the Pacific Ocean in front are experientially connected through a strategic layering of space, view, reflection, acoustics, and nature.

The ground floor, which opens to the rear driveway and a pond in the private side garden, allows for easy indoor-outdoor dining and entertaining.

The kids' bedroom sports an Ikea bunk bed and trundle, which leaves plenty of space for toys. Custom cypress built-ins provide multi-functional storage and seating areas and minimize the need for furniture.

The home, clad in natural Australian timber, enjoys a sense of lightness thanks to slender columns that let it float over the dunes. The driveway and entry, at the rear of the building, have an understated design to build to the interior's magnificent ocean views. Firm director Phil Snowdon explains, “By creating an architectural form that draws your eye and leads you up the steep driveway, we could engage new visitors in a welcoming process that first reveals the object and then slowly reveals the main event, being the view."

Nestled into a steeply sloped waterfront site on Lake Michigan, the home is defined by verticality.

Dake-Wells carfully sited the house to fit on a wedge-shaped lot, preserving privacy by editing views of houses that sit close by on either side.

In Fujimori’s most recent project, Coal House, a tearoom protrudes from the second story, accessible from the exterior by a timber ladder that appears to pierce the roof and from the interior by a secret door in the master bedroom.

The house is surrounded by buildings on all sides except its south facade, which faces the street. An expansive operable window is key for effective ventilation during hot summer months. Additionally, a cantilevered balcony shelters a carport, bike storage, and even a playful swing.

A new cedar deck and facade—with its jutting pergola—face drought-tolerant plants and a gravel hardscape that surround the Craftsman bungalow in Piedmont, California.