Exterior

While most homes have their front doors centered on a flat wall, this home in Canada by Omer Arbel is entered through two solid walnut doors at the corner of the home.

The house uses solar panels and water tanks to function off the grid. Its waste water is recycled and used for irrigation.

"We call it the design the "2 Bar House" because there's a horizontal and perpendicular bar; one of the bars really looks over the other's roof. It would be unfortunate to only look out over this shiny white roof," says Feldman. "The master suite could be this thing that was kind of unfortunate, or it could be this secret garden and so the green roof became this splurge. A green roof is never something we design when we're out of money because it costs much more than a standard roof."

On the exterior, Eva chose to cover the existing yellow brick with Prodema wood paneling installed by GFS Architectural Systems, Inc

The house’s concrete and metal are warmed by mahogany-framed windows from Duratherm.

Entry door, with visual cues of a stair and platform to welcome visitors and elevate them to the living level upon entry.

Street facade, presenting a relatively closed face, with higher transoms windows to still afford a sense of air and sky from the inside while blocking unwanted, penetrating views from the street.

Combining a prefab steel super-structure with concrete walls and insulated metal panels, Anthrazit House in Santa Barbara was designed by architects Pamela and Hector Magnus and built in collaboration with EcoSteel.

A side view of the house and of Salmela’s signature architectural feature: the “unchimney.” All windows are from Loewen.

Architect Joaquin Castillo blends inexpensive materials, the odd splurge, and a refined modernist sensibility to create an affordable weekend house for brothers Alfredo and Guillermo Oropeza. The facade is a juxtaposition of rough-hewn local stone, smooth concrete, glass, and steel—the material palette used throughout the structure.

Plants found in the surrounding landscape were used to obscure the lines between designed and natural worlds.

Ocotillo was placed in key areas as a great structural focal point.

A break in the concrete facade reveals the front entrance, which is marked by a thin steel canopy and two chimneys.

Jorge appreciates his efforts at twilight. The polycarbonate panels that partially clad the exterior of the structure provide a warm glow, adding life to Tijuana’s densely packed rolling hillsides

The home presents a narrow facade to the street.