Cool Stuff

The Soma Water Filter is available at the Dwell Store for $49.

Upon his first visit to Tasmania, an island south of the Australian mainland, resident David Burns was immediately smitten with its varied, pristine landscape. Working with architecture firm Misho+Associates, he built a self-sustaining, 818-square-foot retreat that would allow him to completely unplug from urban life.

Architect Barbara Hill sits on a Casalino chair from Design Within Reach in the living room; on the wall is Quivers, a sculpture by her daughter, Claire Cusak. Collaborator George Sacaris made the stump table.

A supposedly impossible site was the perfect plot for Hale (pictured) and Edmonds, who were searching for some sort of break that would afford them the chance to build their own home. Stilting the house over the steep hill gives them direct access to nature while still being located just a ten-minute drive from downtown Seattle.

A technique was used for the wood front of the house called shou-sugi-ban, a traditional Japanese technique burning cypress wood to make it more sustainable. The wood is layered with bright orange planks. Solar collectors, which consist of double-glass tubes that minimize heat loss, form a cornice on the front facade of the house. A wind turbine is on the roof.

view when you walk in front door. operating principle. doctor livingston you're in the jungle in the far. through the jungle there's a fire burning and you're in this night very drawn into the space. kitchen.

The custom cedar tub, fabricated by Dovetail, elegantly fits into the master bathroom.

This dreamy, glass bedroom by the lake was created as an early prototype for the prefabricated greenhouse/she kits known as the Kekkilä Green Sheds.

Photo by Andy Liffner

Resident Nadja van Praag enjoys the view from the deck that connects the trio of structures. The idea for the deconstructed plan was inspired in part by Alvar Aalto sketches of a “peeled apart” summer cabin, says architectural designer Riley Pratt, in which interconnected volumes surround a central courtyard.

By replacing a wall with a custom wood-and-glass partition, architect Matt Krajewski transformed a previously dark one-bedroom railroad apartment in Manhattan into a light-filled home. Compact furnishings, like a Mandal bed frame from IKEA with integrated storage, maximize every inch of the 390-square-foot unit, housed in a former tenement building.

Clayden claims that Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey was the inspiration for his bathroom.

His 1,000-square-foot flat in the Marais district doubles as a personal museum of beloved possessions.

Situated between a bay and a coastal mountain range, Casa Klotz makes a powerful geometric contrast to its isolated natural surroundings.

The cabin’s concept was simple: To create a cabin that is small and sparse yet spatially rich. The 55-square-meter (592-square-foot) cabin, commissioned by a private client and completed in 2016, comprises a large living room, bedroom, ski room, and small annex with a utility room. It functions off the water and electricity grids.