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The solution to the problem of the telephone pole was to place the entry at the side. “Putting the home entry on the side allows one to create full rooms at each end of the house without running a hallway through them,” says Wu.

A decorative cinder block wall edges the property and provides a sense of enclosure without hemming in the yard too tightly.

“We pulled apart one volume and staggered it along the buildable area of the property,” says architect Matthew Ahlberg of Portland firm Barrett Made. The home is clad in unfinished cedar, meant to weather over time.

A triangular cutaway in the barn's volume creates a transitional space between indoors and outdoors and fills the interior with natural light.

Architect Ana Smud’s residence in the Vicente López suburb of Buenos Aires is surrounded by gardens and wrapped in timber, concrete, and glass.

"I believe that if there’s a place for everything then nothing is out of place, and I’ve tried to incorporate that into a lot of the furniture design and functionality,

The TV does not dominate the living room space. Instead, it is hidden behind a red glass screen and there is also a pull-down projector screen for family movie nights.

Crisp white walls wrap the living spaces, allowing the contrasting wooden accents to pop.