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Carolina Saavedra, is the garden’s steward.

Territorial Empathy installed new raised beds, a solar-powered toilet, and a greenhouse. As the garden matures, it will grow vegetables, medicinal herbs, and flowers.

American architect Allison Ewing utilized cantilevered rooflines and terraces to emphasize the beauty of this family residence’s site in Virginia Beach, Virginia. "The building forms, detailing, and material selections all draw on the concept of shakkei," Ewing says.

The Tairyu-Sanso garden in Kyoto, Japan, was designed in by pioneering Japanese garden architect Ogawa Jihei VII, who also laid out the idyllic Heian-jingū and Murin-an gardens. "Here, Ogawa incorporates the distant view of Mount Higashiyama," says garden designer Sophie Walker, author of The Japanese Garden (Phaidon, 2017). "With the carefully composed natural scenes framed by windows and sloping roofs, you would never know that this private property is surrounded by the modern city of Kyoto."

This 195-square-foot, shingled studio includes a library, reading nook, and workstation—and it’s totally DIY. Creative couple Michael and Christina Hara built the retreat just steps away from their back door, in order to carve out "space for creativity and respite from our chaotic, toddler-filled house," as Michael explains. The project, called the Fish Scale Studio, took eight months to complete, with Haras doing all of the design and construction themselves—for just $18,275.