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The stone slab forms a display niche in the cabinetry, and syncs up with the materials used elsewhere in the house. The step up, and the flooring material change, designates the boundary between foyer and the rest of the home.

“Sometimes you go with emotions rather than logic,” says Woodhull founder Caleb Johnson. “I just wanted to renovate the little Pizza Hut look-alike my son told me looked like a blowfish.”

Cornuelle, who’s from Hawaii, chose both older and contemporary Hawaiian art for the walls.

Base models of Dvele homes start at $250 per square foot, and range in size — the company wants its sustainable structures to be flexible to either small or large footprints.

Eva designed new, curved stairs with a smooth plaster surface that contrasts with the roughness of some of the exposed stones. A few of her ceramics fill the niche under them, and skylights bring in sunshine from above. The table, bought locally for about 20 euros at a garage sale, is made of olive wood.

In the sculpture studio on the top floor, Eva turned an existing opening into a decorative nook. The fabrics on the bench are antique nets used for olive picking. “They have all these olive stains that are gorgeous—they are like pieces of art,” she says.

An opening in Eva’s closet looks into her bedroom. The photograph she is adjusting was taken by her friend and fellow artist Julian Lennon. “He is the only person I take design advice from,” she says, adding that the circular opening was his idea. On her bed are Rose and Lili, the mother-and-daughter pair who have traveled the world with Eva.

Brian and Melissa's two young children spend hours playing in the yard. With Melissa's mother in a house on the same property, the kids have easy access to Grandma whenever she's in town. "It's such a unique experience having multiple generations together," Brian says. "If the kids get up early, they can just run over to Melissa's mom's and spend time with her."

Natalie and Lauren wanted to replicate the feel of a Zen garden with their home’s central courtyard. The garden features a Japanese maple that pops against the charred timber cladding, while structurally, the U-shape design ushers light right through to the back of the house.

Floor plan of Two Square ADU by Shin Shin

Having bought and restored several quirky properties in Washington over the years, including a five-story tree house and a 100-year-old barracks, architect Jason F. McLennan and his wife, artist Tracy McLennan, bought the camp-like retreat in 2020—even though it had no power or running water at the time and is on a secluded island with no ferry service.

The getaway protrudes like a sculpture from the hillside.

With a home for his family along the Mississippi River waterfront, architect Barry Yoakum aimed to achieve the highest standards of energy performance and carbon mitigation without compromising on design. A modern anomaly among its historically styled neighbors, “the house is a fresh, authentic approach to climate change but also a piece of architecture,” he says. Its Pac-Clad aluminum panels with Bone White Energy Star coating reflect light differently from minute to minute while reducing solar heat gain. “The house will age well over time,” says Barry, who expects the cladding to have a long life span.

The couple took advantage of numerous municipal programs when landscaping the backyard. Mandy recently completed a free course through LADWP, who also promotes resources for the SoCal Turf Replacement Program, to become a certified California Native Plant Landscape: “There is an amazing amount of knowledge and resources for transitioning yards with more native/drought-tolerant plants through LADWP and the Theodore Payne Foundation,” says Mandy.

Mary and Kundan Bhullar built a shipshape country escape that sits lightly on the land in the Aravalli hills near Gurgaon, India.

The sauna is framed by a large floor-to-ceiling window, so guests can enjoy views of the great outdoors.