Decking

The curved battened screen provides privacy for the master suite and gives the extension sculptural appeal.

Jody’s favorite spot is outside on the deck. “I spend most of my time there. We’ve got two braais, and I braai just about every night,” he says, using the Afrikaans word for barbecue. “It’s not about the food for me,” he adds, “It’s about standing around the fire.” The platform sofas were designed by Scott, the dining table is by James Mudge Furniture Studio, and the Hee lounge and dining chairs are by Hay.

A blackened-timber pergola extends from the modern barn that architect Greg Scott designed for Jody and Deirdre Aufrichtig in the Elgin Valley, an apple- and grape-growing region near Cape Town. Made of narrow slats stabilized with randomly scattered blocks of wood, it covers roughly half of the outdoor deck.

He devised the pergola to break up the mass of the house and integrate it into the site.

In contrast to the industrial neighborhood, the views from the upper-level deck look directly into the canopies of surrounding established trees.

Chickens foraging in an enclosed garden with vertical planters.

"The simple shape was extruded lengthwise along the site and sliced down the middle with a pond to form a central axis," say the architects. "Slender, cathedral-like spaces were formed around this central thoroughfare with ponds running parallel to walkways to link the spaces."

Balconies bring the outdoors in. The architect of this apartment in the Buenos Aires neighborhood of Chacarita covered the terrace in a perforated skin for shade. During winter, it helps to trap heat and keep the interiors warm. Light streams through the balcony into the interiors of the compact, 269-square-foot home.

Muennig’s Green House utilizes the western sun of the dramatic Big Sur coastline.