Decks and patios

This backyard home office for a couple in London is constructed with all-timber structural framing and is clad in cork and topped with a vegetated roof. These eco-friendly materials make for a delightfully sensory space with lots of lighting provided by the skylight and glass and oak door.

Outdoor lounge chairs from Design Within Reach rest on the floating wood deck.

The multi-purpose room opens to the courtyard and looks over a small reflecting pool to the Puget Sound beyond.

Seattle firm Wittman Estes designed this compact cabin floating above a meadow on Whidbey Island.

For more than 70 years, claims have persisted, without much evidence, that a home in Portland, Oregon, is a lost work by Frank Lloyd Wright. Regardless of authorship, the structure—a flat-roofed, cedar and glass ranch—endures as a sterling example of postwar American architecture. Its recessed entryway features panes of translucent glass.

After: The soaring new living and dining space benefits from an abundance of natural light from every side, and they spent a lot of time trying to find the best lighting for the kitchen. The final choice: long, narrow copper pendants from Denmark suspended by ultra thin wires to not disrupt the visual flow of the room.

Listed for the first time since it was built in 1979, the cliffside home of architect Barry Downs is located in a waterfront area that is at risk of redevelopment.

The rebuilt “Idea House,” designed by Holly Freres and David Horning of JHL design. The driveway is permeable to encourage good drainage: crushed granite gravel is installed over a stabilization mat. James Hardie exterior siding is painted in Benjamin Moore ‘White Dove,’ with reclaimed wood used for the entry and garage.

The prefab's footprint was kept small to better highlight its surroundings. The covered balcony was envisioned as a transitional space between the cabin's interior and the nature it wants you to explore.

The house was designed to minimally interfere with the hilltop vegetation, which is what attracted the family to the site.

García's 19th-century home in Mexico is a joyful space that embraces the patina and heritage of the building and is

Designed by Arba, the retreat’s enclosed garden provides outdoor space out of the wind while the cuts give it a strong connection with the setting.