Exteriors

With a clever arrangement comprising a cottage and a primary residence, local design firm ORA gives a family outdoor access at every turn.

Passive House design strategies meet zippy hues and patterns, from a blue roof to a wall-spanning pink and brown curtain.

Columbus, Indiana, resident Nick Slabaugh tasked Chicago architect Grant Gibson with creating a low-cost home on a small lot near the city’s downtown. Its design references local architectural landmarks. Gibson says the building’s “low profile with a bulging roof element” recalls Eero Saarinen’s Irwin Union Bank, while the half-buried volume “is similar to Gunnar Birkerts’s Lincoln Elementary School.”

Painted aluminum roofs mirror colors from the sky and sea, while vertical cedar slats create a subtle corduroy texture.

Each volume—a workshop, one for the primary suite, another for the living space, and a screened porch—is 12 feet wide, a limitation set by the site and by what was possible to bring over by boat.

When open, the rolling screen doors of the front facade create a generous, sheltered terrace or outdoor room that's shaded, ventilated, and protected from both sun and rain.

Rolling screen doors along the south elevation protect the cabin from storms, UV exposure, and wildlife.

Tucked behind a massive stone facade and surrounded by private gardens and five rolling acres, this island residence is designed for uninterrupted relaxation.

The cabin hovers over the site on stilts, giving it a floating effect.

Minimal hardscaping was done to keep natural ground conditions as is, and fallen trees were left to decompose. The home was built on the slope of the lot to minimize how much land was moved.

Monica and Peter sourced the cobblestones for the outdoor walkways from Europe, along with the windows and many of the interior materials and furnishings. "We imported a lot of our materials from Poland, which is where our family is from,