Cabins

Polyhaus is constructed of timber panels that can be erected in a matter of days.

Hello Wood offers to deliver the project practically anywhere—whether it’s a remote forest clearing or a rooftop in New York City.

The arrangement of windows in the home creates a play of light and shadow and allows the family to experience different views as they move around the space. “It’s about creating a calm, comfortable home that is still dynamic,” says architect Line Solgaard. “There are 360-degree views but you don’t see in every direction at all times—there are moments of drama throughout.”

“I’m the queen of Ikea cabinets,” laughs Jade. She commissioned custom birch-veneer plywood for the doors from L.A.’s Anderson Plywood. While she was budget-conscious in many ways, she also is willing to splurge where it counts. “Hardware is where I spend money. That’s where people touch and feel it,” she says. “It’s important to me that it feels significant.” Here, pulls and knobs come from Mockett. The countertop is a man-made resin from Arizona Tiles in La Quinta.

Thanks to Kabina’s clever system of interlocking joints, all you need is a rubber hammer to assemble it.

Floor plan of The Risom Home by Go Logic

All of the interior walls are covered in birch plywood, which keeps the focus on the natural beauty outside.

Floor Plan of Wilcox Estate by Bright Designlab

"Sleeping under the large curved skylight, with its opening that unfolds like a leaf, and watching hawks glide overhead is magical,

The large blue barn door, mimicked by the garage doors, is an hommage to the family home, which also has big sliding storm doors.

Greg Knapp and Robyn Traynor worked with architect Peter Braithwaite to design a nature retreat for their family on a slice of Canadian wilderness. It has two shed-roofed structures joined by a boardwalk elevated above a preexisting walking path on the couple’s land.

The interiors combine polished concrete floors, white walls, and exposed framing.

The group was budget-conscious when designing the kitchenette. They used Ikea cabinets with custom-built faces in a white oak, cabinet-grade veneer. Braithwaite extended the same material to the ceiling beneath the mezzanine to define the kitchen zone. As a result, “it feels like it is part of the same language,” he says. Instead of traditional plumbing, the group added a filtered water collection system to the metal roof, and opted for an incinerator toilet.

The clients are an active family and it was essential that the home facilitate this outdoors lifestyle. The entry porch offers a space where the family can take off muddy boots or wet clothes and can easily access the utility room, bathrooms, and an outdoor gear store.

"Down at the bottom of Te Waipounamu, southerlies lash the coast and the crouching mānuka trees, whipping surf into a constant roar, while calmer moments bring peace and spectacular sunsets. This is the liminal zone where architect Stacey Farrell built her getaway crib. The crib is one of around 30 dwellings in Omaui, a tiny coastal settlement set among the scrub and dunes, looking north to Oreti Beach. Having owned the section for years, Stacey and her husband Ben took time to absorb the lie of the land, camping there and climbing trees to calculate the views. Their goal was a two-bedroom home stripped back to bare essentials: low-budget, off-grid, but above all small. ‘The aim was to keep things low and work with the landscape and hunker down,’ says Stacey."

"‘With our designs we like embedding a narrative, another level of engagement,’ explains architect Ken Crosson, whose designs often evince a playful or subversive element. It was local gold-mining history that lent its narrative to Light Mine House, a beach bach at Kūaotunu, on the east coast of the Coromandel Peninsula. Nestling among the sand dunes and pīngao, a series of boxes is made unique by the addition of tapering skylights that reach for the sky."

"Curled into a natural amphitheatre, this gentle timber house turns to face the sun rather than the sea. Responding to the landform, its simple semicircle creates north-facing spaces sheltered from onshore winds. One corner braves the sea cliff, facing the salt and spray, but most of the house is surrounded by bush and orients towards a small valley—the ocean all the more present for being ignored formally."

It was essential that the home felt nestled into the landscape, rather than perched on the edge of the dramatic clifftop site. “My client had commissioned a house design that was rejected by members of his family—the formidable force that is his sisters,” says architect Belinda George. “They felt the site deserved a more considered approach. As I had worked for Tom before on more urban projects, he asked me to design a bach for him and his family. He wanted it to feel relaxed and connected to the land.”