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A Japanese soaking tub is positioned beneath a window to appreciate the site.

The primary bedroom windows frame up-close views of the boulders on the site.

Walkways bridge over the site to disturb it as little as possible.

The addition was shifted into the trees so that it doesn’t overwhelm the site. That also gives the main living spaces a treehouse-like feel when gazing out from inside.

The original home was converted into a bedroom level, and given a second-story addition and roof deck. The dark exterior color, a charcoal-eggplant hue, lets the landscape colors stand out in contrast. “The existing house roof became the roof deck,” says Rogers. “And then I just shifted over the addition so that it floated over the landscape.”

Architect Line Solgaard, founder of the eponymous Oslo- and Fredrikstad-based firm, designed a getaway for her family in the place where she grew up. Untreated, exposed concrete pairs with cedar cladding; custom, oak-paneled ceilings; and a glass roof in the center of the home that opens like a sunroof for natural ventilation.

Sheathed in dark bronze corrugated steel, Buttons and Ridgie Barton’s boldly geometric home in California’s Napa Valley rises on the footprint of the retreat they lost to a wildfire in October 2017. Working with architectural designer Brandon Jørgensen, the couple turned the loss into a chance to build what is now their permanent home with fire resistance baked into the design. A narrow path (below) leads to the recessed entrance.

The living room opens to a terrace made of four slabs of black concrete separated by rows of woolly thyme. A fire pit designed by Jørgensen’s firm and Adirondack chairs from Erin Martin Design provide an ideal setting for taking in the scenery, especially at night. “Strangely, the view here really didn’t change a lot,” says Buttons. “The fire came up behind us, jumped around, and spared a lot of the surroundings. I can’t imagine finding another place like it.”

The original structure was built by relatives in 1979.

The home's overhangs provide shade. “We wanted to make sure the house was comfortable,” says Ikegami. “You have cross-ventilation, and the interior is filled with light from the clerestory.”

Steps lead from the master bedroom balcony to a spacious deck. Situating the deck away from the house gives it the feel of a getaway, says Trainor, who worked on the project with colleague David LeRoy. “We liked the idea of going further into the garden amid plantings for privacy,” adds Trainor. Granite boulders and persimmon, Japanese maple, and oak trees lend what he calls “a California-Japanese feel.”

Nearly every room has a Nest Mini, and the house also has a Nest Wi-Fi router, a Google Home Max sound system, and a Nest Thermostat.

“The atrium is the first place you enter,” says Leidner. “Traditionally, it’s a hardscaped area with some potted plants, but we wanted it to be more like a full garden, right in the middle of the house.”

Eli swings above the sloping property. Lizz and Isaac are in the process of adding an ADU to the lot, where Louis and Caren can stay when they’re in town.

The deck is framed as an open-air room where the ceiling and walls have been peeled away. The grill is a vintage Weber Genesis 1000. LG solar panels from Pick My Solar contribute to the home’s net-zero energy profile, as does a moisture barrier in the walls that allows heat to escape.

A deck at Lizz Wasserman and Isaac Resnikoff’s home, in the Highland Park section of Los Angeles, features a table and planters by Isaac’s design studio, Project Room. The chairs are by Mexa Design for CB2.

Lizz’s parents—Louis, an architect, and Caren, a landscape architect—designed the house, which sits on a steep site.