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Elsie’s grandmother crafted the wool wall art that hangs at the end of the space, where Elsie stashes her fabrics and Birdie Lou, the couple’s daughter, plays with toys.

Bauer Brothers Salvage

“The things we splurged on still look raw, which is what we wanted,” adds Nick.

Squaring the window made it possible to install a window seat for reading sessions beside a favorite Spruce tree in the front yard.

A pair of Icelandic prefab pioneers deliver an efficient family home in Culver City. Building smarter is at the heart of everything designers Tryggvi Thorsteinsson and Erla Dögg Ingjaldsdóttir do. Whether they’re testing the limits of indoor/outdoor living or developing a prefabricated wall system that they hope will make traditional wood framing a thing of the past, the founders of the Santa Monica design studio Minarc are consumed with making structures stronger, lighter, and more efficient.

Architectural designer Sebastian Mariscal and project manager Jeff Svitak created a house in Venice, California, for Michael and Tamami Sylvester. Known as Dwell Home Venice for its role as an exemplification of modern architecture, the house is an homage to indoor-outdoor living. Photo by Coral von Zumwalt.

Another former teacher’s lounge was converted into a kid's bedroom. For consistency, simple plywood, lightly coated with lacquer, was used for custom furniture and shelving.

The loft addition afforded space for a home office and music area. The family chose to forego a dedicated office upstairs, instead prioritizing private bedrooms for each of the children. Shelving and a built-in desk anchor the loft’s far wall.

The kitchen is completely open to the main living area and features a custom birch pegboard wall. Eames dining chairs accent the space.

The old classroom space is now an open-concept living and family room. With a family of five and limited interior space, creative storage solutions were essential to the functionality of the home. Simple birch plywood built-in storage under the stairs provides a place to stash kids’ toys, as well as a platform for playing and sitting. Concrete floors flow through the entire home.

Main elevation

The new two-story addition is clad in the same metal decking as the original one-story home. Principal Joe Valerio says this kind of decking is usually crafted using ribs of equal width to create a highly articulated surface. To avoid that look, he used ribs that alternate between very narrow and broad widths, to create a façade that “has a monolithic quality.”

The Boglis love the self-reliance afforded by generating thermal energy and growing a garden on their roof. Photo by John Clark.

With a sleek prototype in Emeryville, California, under its belt, Simpatico Homes sets out to redefine prefab's cost—and footprint. Photo by Jake Stangel.

“We like to live close to work because we’re constantly tinkering and adjusting, which is fine for us,” he says.

Matthew Peek and Renata Ancona built an elevated modern structure near Stinson Beach, California, with mesmerizing views of both the coast and nearby Mount Tamalpais. Photo by: Mathew Scott

Mandel mounted the fireplace in a blackened-steel frame, which echoes the window and door treatment on the house’s new facade.