Faves

Featuring floor-to-ceiling redwood paneling and arched beams, the living room offers a dramatic room in which to gather. An original interior balcony overlooks the space from the second floor.

One of the building challenges was transportation through the steep and windy roads to the isolated site, which is 0.5km away from Cornwall, one of Connecticut's smallest towns.

The west-facing outdoor patio is protected by deep roof overhangs lined with southern yellow pine.

North of San Francisco, Faulkner Architects draws on agricultural influences to create a striking homestead.

Landscape designer Kenneth Philip worked with mwworks to fill in the forested setting.

The three pavilions ascend upward from the street.

A path of restored rock ledges leads to a dry creek, amphitheater, and private gathering space.

Working with a sumptuous material palette, Ehrlich Yanai Rhee Chaney Architects designed a sprawling new residence in Palo Alto for Mark and Laura Pine. The teak wood and handmade Danish bricks that define the exterior are used inside as well; distressed stainless steel panels by Chris French Metal sheathe one side of the upper volume. Blasen Landscape Architecture chose Peruvian feather grass to flank the entrance walkway.

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.

Uruguay’s beach towns dot the Atlantic coast northeast of the capital, Montevideo, becoming less crowded and developed the farther up you go. The second floor of Sticotti’s house floats above its neighbors to take in views of the ocean a couple of blocks away. It’s capped by a roof deck that the architect says is “great for watching fireworks.”

The home’s three low-lying rooflines subtly emerge from the landscape.

On a site adjacent to a greenbelt, architects Yen Ong and Paul Merrill of 5G Studio envisioned “a solid black mass within an enclosed garden,” says Ong. A geothermal heat pump, solar panels, and rainwater harvesting helped the project achieve LEED Platinum status.

The L-shaped lot—and the decision to create a private courtyard and patio—made the kitchen and dining space the natural hub of the ground floor. Sweet installed full-length cabinetry on the western wall for storage, and included a wood niche for convenience.

The home's sloping roofline sweeps upward from an enclosed courtyard. The character of the house changes as light hits the mix of materials—from rough stone to sleek black aluminum—throughout the day, giving it a sense of constant motion.

Off-Grid Guesthouse by Anacapa Architecture