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Mount Veeder Cabin by Risa Boyer Architecture floor plan

In Oakland, the weather allows for indoor/outdoor living most of the year.

A slatted screen and a skylight blur the boundary between indoors and out at the home’s entryway.

In the shower, the Japanese porcelain tiles are all a slightly different finish, creating a shimmering effect. "It feels like movement," says Andrew.

The backsplash is made of large cement tiles that were sawed into smaller pieces and rearranged to give a mottled look. An appliance garage hides the "non-sexy things you want to put away," laughs Andrew—the blender, the toaster, and so on.

On the exterior, floating steel siding shields the home from the elements while allowing fresh air to flow in and out.

A diagram of DH House's prefabricated metal structure.

A see-through entry hall joins the living areas with a bedroom wing.

This kitchen features a sleek Henrybuilt kitchen system in white.

The expansive, covered patio that extends from the living space features an outdoor kitchen and adjoining pizza oven. “My favorite aspect of the project was that the clients embraced the idea that home can be more than just shelter,” says architect Cavin Costello. “It can be a place that incentivizes you to socialize, think, eat, work, create, and play differently.”

The kitchen and wet bar open out into the living area. Timber joinery adds warmth to the interior and contrasts with more industrial materials, such as the steel and concrete.

Rather than adding flooring on top of the slab, the floors throughout are exposed aggregate concrete. The thick concrete slab adds thermal mass, keeping the interior temperature more consistent.

The raked red cedar ceiling is one of the couple’s favorite aspects of the home. They are particularly enamored with “the small shadow lines we created in the junction between the raked ceiling and the plaster bulk heads…it’s such a tiny detail that tightens everything up.”