house

One side of the building contains two simple bedrooms and a bathroom. The other, larger side houses the open-plan living area, kitchen, covered deck with fireplace, and additional bedroom. The deck-hallway that runs the length of the building is partially covered, but the decking boards and inset fiberglass door panels allow air and light to penetrate. The architects wanted to suggest that moving between the different living spaces involved a trip through nature, as it does in traditional camping.

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.

music studio / quarters

Grant Ellis has been the photo editor at Surfer Magazine for 13 years and lives in a quaint beach shack in Cardiff, California with his wife Julie, son Ethan, and daughter Kaia (shown here).

The Coffou Cottage sits in an L-shaped configuration at the end of a private road. This image shows how red cedar is utilized to create thin slats along the facade, as well as horizontal and vertical board-and-batten siding.

Eric and Melinda purchased a 10-acre plot in rural Yelm, Washington, with visions of a new home on the range. There would be vineyards, gardens, an orchard, bees and chickens—typical country fodder—but they would showcase their design sensibility with a not-so-typical modern abode. Enlisting Matthew Coates of Coates Design, they ended up with a modern home that, while striking, is still a natural fit in the country location. Photo by Lara Swimmer.

Via Architizer, photo by Aketuri Architektai

These initiatives on state ballots will decide questions about rent control, property tax, and urban development.

The 82-foot-long pool gets quite a lot of use by Jeff and Millie, and especially by the kids, who are both on the local swim team.

A tradition of weekend hiking trips served as the premise for Jeff and Millie Baird’s off-the-grid retreat in California’s Sonoma County. Affectionately named Camp Baird, the home is located on a 165-acre parcel near a campsite the couple and their two young daughters had visited for years. Architect Malcolm Davis worked with contractors Fairweather & Associates on the new build; landscape architect Cary Bush of Merge Studio incorporated drought-resistant nativeplantings into the property.

Designers Christopher Robertson and Vivi Nguyen-Robertson conceived their house as an unfolding sequence of simple geometric forms: a low concrete wall, a concrete cube, and a boxclad in Siberian larch.

Exterior walls are clad in an sealed, unpainted western red cedar to mirror the colors of the site’s tawny meadows. As the wood ages naturally, it appears as though it emerged organically from the earth.

Ziger/Snead Architects constructed this ode to rowing in rural Virginia for a Baltimore couple who share a love of sculling. “Everywhere in the house you can see the moment where land meets water,” says Douglas Bothner, an associate at the firm.