Casas que me gustan

Vega Norge, Erik Kolman Janush

Fields of native grasses connect the main residence, situated at the top of the slope, to the new structures scattered below. A pergola extends from the post-and-beam structure that was maintained during the remodel of the midcentury home.

Studio Junction transformed a two-story apartment above Mjölk, Juli Daoust and John Baker’s design boutique on Toronto’s busy Dundas Street West, into a tranquil space. A courtyard joins the living room and the open kitchen and dining area.

Mark Fekete and Viviana de Loera of MARK+VIVI transformed a former tire shop in the Verdun borough of Montreal into a welcoming home-office, exposing beams on the ground floor and making liberal use of locally sourced Canadian plywood.

The budget was nearly as tight as the space in this cheerful renovation of a 516-square-foot flat in Bratislava. The centerpiece of Lukáš Kordík’s new kitchen is the cabinetry surrounding the sink, a feat he managed by altering the facing and pulls of an off-the-rack Ikea system. The laminate offers a good punch of blue, and in modernist fashion, Kordík forwent door handles in favor of cutouts. “I wanted the kitchen to be one simple block of color without any additional design,” he says.

Designed for off-grid functionality out of necessity, the self-sufficient bach that Herbst Architects designed for their friend is a stellar getaway on New Zealand’s Great Barrier Island. Clad in cedar, the modestly sized abode embraces outdoor living and views of the Pacific Ocean.

A band of precast concrete, which holds a custom bench, wraps around the downstairs living area. The striped cushion fabric was purchased in Antwerp. A wood-framed AP71 lounge chair by Hans Wegner and a seat by Wim Rietveld, the son of famed Dutch designer Gerrit Rietveld, outfit the space. Underfloor heating installed throughout the house allows for a flexible layout: “There aren’t any radiators cluttering up the rooms,” Jeffries explains.

A palette of wood, concrete, and painted brick forms a neutral backdrop for Kathryn Tyler’s vintage treasures, including a $30 dining table, $3 poster, and a set of 1950s Carl Jacobs Jason chairs she snagged on eBay for $400.

Architect Jesse Garlick’s rural Washington vacation home references its rugged surroundings. The steel cladding has developed a patina similar to the ochre-red color of bedrock found in the area.

The 925-square-foot house Maggie Treanor calls home blends into the landscape somewhat; with a galvanized steel shed roof and siding, it looks like a high-design little brother to the barns on the surrounding farms.

Setsumasa and Hideaki toss on the rain fly. The solar panel in the foreground supplies daytime electricity.

Anne Suttles waters the bamboo muhly, palo verde, strawberry tree, and magic carpet thyme thriving in their Austin yard.

A series of reclaimed-wood-clad structures make a family compound on a 24-acre island on Shoal Lake.

The great room in the 2,800-square-foot house that architect Drew Lang designed for his family in the Hudson Woods development north of New York City features generous amounts of white oak, which he says is his favorite material.

"It only cost about $48,000 to build, which was incredibly cheap," says Turner of the Stealth Barn. "We got the Timber Frame Company to supply the shell, then we clad it and fitted out the interior and windows ourselves. The idea was to take the archetypal black tar-painted agricultural building and make an almost childlike icon of that."

A picnic table in a matching hue to the Stealth Barn rests between the two structures.