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The ESCAPE One XL tiny home is one of the larger of models in the community, and it features generous glazing.

Built on a tight budget of $120,000, a retirement home in the mountains delivers unexpected contemporary design to a rural township.

Each of MyCabin's offerings were designed to work in concert and form a complete residential set, where My Milla (25 or long) houses daily living, My Kalmus provides a dedicated work space, and My Galia adds a bit of wellful luxury.

Listed for $1.5M, the renovated L.A. residence features a graphic facade inspired by the work of Barbara Stauffacher Solomon.

The central kitchen and living/dining room sit below a massive dome skylight, which Jamie Goldsborough and her partner, John Slater, call one of their favorite parts of the house.

EcoCraft Homes is a Pittsburgh area resource-efficient Smart Home builder of super energy-efficient homes. Founded in 2012, EcoCraft Homes is a family-owned organization with a unique building philosophy in the Pittsburgh area that emphasizes energy efficient homes that can be built in as little as 90 days. Their mission is to build smarter, greener homes that are 100% Energy Star-compliant, and their manufacturing process is so advanced that our homes can be built to achieve net zero energy consumption for all of their heating, cooling and electricity needs.

The inspiration for this prefabricated, modular family home on Fishers Island, New York, were the views that Tanney and Luntz saw from a 12-foot stepladder, which was balancing on the bed of a pickup truck when they first visited the site.

Hudson Valley Cedar homes are pre-engineered structures that arrive as a kit, broken down into component parts that are efficiently delivered to the site to be assembled and then finished by a local craftsman. Hudson Valley Cedar Homes, based in Cold Spring, New York, is a licensed distributor of Lindal Cedar Homes, a company with more than 70 years of experience constructing high-quality, customizable homes made out of wood. Because of this, Hudson Valley Cedar Homes offers homes that are customizable but also attuned to local laws, site conditions, and contractors for an energy-conscious home.

"Radical sustainability

Completed in 2018 on a 2.6-acre site in the San Juan Islands, the two-bedroom modular home was installed in a day.

The bedroom wing steps out to the pool. Cor-Ten steel encases the doors and windows, and forms the custom cantilevered canopies.

All of Scott Palamar’s selections and customizations brought the total to $150,000 for the 640-square-foot home and surrounding land. “I feel like I struck on such a novel solution because I was able to afford a home tailored to my lifestyle,” he says.

In search of a Bay Area retreat, Jeff Waldman and Molly Fiffer purchased a piece of land on which to experiment and gain new skills, one task at a time.

Set on 21 acres at the top of the Snoqualmie Valley, the 3,200-square-foot Maxon House represents a major lifestyle change for the Maxons, who previously lived in a split-level in a planned subdivision. "When you’re here, you just sit and watch what’s happening outside," says Lou. "It’s like the Weather Channel. We don’t even need the TV." Kim adds, "In spring everything explodes." Cedars, hemlocks, and vine maples shoot up from the fern-covered hillside.

Wooden ceilings ground some of the home's more industrial features in its organic setting.

In the living area, Lou sits on a Room & Board sofa, while one of the family’s two Great Danes relaxes nearby; the fireplace is by Montigo.

In Kansas City, Missouri, a family sought to construct a new home using prefabricated structural insulated panels (SIPS) instead of traditional frame construction. The entire kit house is composed of 4' x 8' sections, and the shell was constructed in about a week. The project’s relatively low cost, quick build time, and highly insulated envelope were positives, but the panels also have their limitations. “Most SIP projects look pretty stupid,” Jamie says. “They haven’t been manipulated by someone who’s thinking creatively.” In this case, Jamie augmented the simple panel system with a dynamic cantilever.

In realizing their dream to build a country retreat in upstate New York, Sandy Chilewich and Joe Sultan—proprietors of the textiles firm Chilewich|Sultan—eschewed a mountainous view for an understated wooded plot. At 800 square feet, the flat-roofed home is a modest structure for the expansive 10-acre property.