Beach

Large gum trees offer a natural barrier for the house. Harkness designed the house's footprint in order to minimize the effect on tree roots. “The retained trees offer a sense of layering and age that new vegetation won’t be able to for a long time,” Harkness says.

Tasmania, Australia Dwell Magazine : September / October 2017

Completed in just six weeks by Australian practice Archiblox, this modest prefab home is perched atop cliffs with prime views of Avalon Beach, just a short drive away from Sydney. Oriented east to west to maximize cross ventilation, the house is clad in marine-grade Colorbond Ultra steel and Queensland blue gum to protect against the elements.

The Wedge is among the new cabin designs that will eventually be integrated into California State Parks.

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

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."

Rimrock | Olson Kundig

Front outdoor space

When glass dominates a home, the result is a borderless residence that syncs with its environs, creating a stunning, new visual and psychological sense of space. See how these glass homes use the versatile material to create ambiance and connect with the outdoors.

Overall exterior at dusk

The Kingston house remains unobtrusive and well camouflaged on its hillside site despite the architects’ use of modernist geometry. The outer cladding is simply plywood stained with dark Madison oil.

Case Inlet Retreat

Double terrace views

One of the main goals of the construction was to do as little harm as possible to the existing environment, which includes waterways that salmon depend upon. Herrin and his team created a garden roof that covers the full extent of the home to meet this objective. “This helps control storm water runoff and also replaces lost insect habitat—insects being a critical food source for juvenile salmon,” he says.

This home in the village of Fairhaven gazes over the area’s longest beach and an open sea that stretches all the way to Antarctica.