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The second cottage, known as La Pera, features capacity for up to 12 people. As with El Apapacho, it prioritizes indoor-outdoor living via large, floor-to-ceiling sliding glass doors.

The ceiling, busy with light and shadow and bright wooden beams, contrasts with the simplicity below, the concrete floor and the living area's single piece of permanent furniture, the Arflex sofa.

The kitchen is composed of stainless steel, from the cabinetry fabricated by Barcelona company Timblau, to the counters and backsplash, the latter given a mirror polish for contrast to the former’s patina on the surfaces. The boxes were brought in on a crane and then the group put them together in place. “The kitchen shouldn't be a closed dirty area of the house,” says Jon. “But [rather] the heart.” Fitting, as social life in the Basque culture revolves around eating together.

Floor Plan of Butterfly House by Oliver Leech Architects

The kitchen cabinets are made from a pressed wood-fiber product. The countertop and backsplash are Caesarstone.

"The house meets all the requirements for being a Greenbuilt Home,

Terreo Studio aimed to make this seven-unit apartment complex look “unrecognizable, so it stays a mystery from the outside.” From the white stone facades, through the interior marble and complimentary soft palette of the furnishings, to the open floor plan that meanders between courtyards, the architects took cues from Grecian architecture: Natural materials are used in abundance to create a structure that embraces the environment.

This thatch-roofed brick cottage in Nieby, Germany, was originally built by tenant farmers or crofters from a nearby estate in the late 1800s. It stands on a small triangular plot of land surrounded by barley fields and faces toward the Geltinger Birk nature reserve. The home’s street-facing facade was preserved and restored with only a minimal, black-steel dormer window belying the more substantial alterations which open onto the private rear yard. A subtle black-framed addition containing an oak-lined living space is tucked under the thatched roof and opens onto a sunken timber terrace while large picture windows are cut into the historic brick volume in areas which had been damaged from the previous additions.

On the main level, Alessia relocated the kitchen into what was a large bedroom, so as to give the kitchen more functionality and connect it to the living room. The cooktops can pivot up against the backsplash to create more prep space on the counter.

The compound includes a communal farmhouse, a series of glass and concrete cabins, and a mobile whiskey bar in a refurbished Airstream.

The communal lodge features six nearly identical bedrooms alongside an interior made of exposed concrete, flooring, steel, and brass.

Large format, 12-inch white oak floors help highlight and dramatize the scale of the apartment. “At the width we selected, you see such a beautiful grain expression,” says architect Max Worrell.

Large format, 12-inch white oak floors help highlight and dramatize the scale of the apartment. “At the width we selected, you see such a beautiful grain expression,” says architect Max Worrell.

The garden-level living area of the ADU faces perpendicular to the existing house, offering a measure of privacy to the detached building.

A short, chunky staircase connects the two distinct realms of the studio.