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Floor plan of the Understory House by GLUCK+

Michael Cooper and Ailsa Wong spent weekends camping out on their Catskills property before calling on longtime friend Tom Gluck to design a low-impact home that floats above the forest floor.

After more than 15 years spent in construction, high school friends Simon Fyall and Richard Egli started to imagine an architecture that blended in with the landscape of British Columbia better than industry-standard buildings. Soon after, the pair founded Blend Projects to build their vision: crisp gabled homes strung together from eight-foot-long cedar-sided glulam sections.

While Kari cooks, Mark often DJ's from a station stocked with records and custom-built speakers.

A monolithic concrete wall acts as not only as a street-front enclosure, but also a threshold, and a deliberate transition from public to private life.

Wooden beams running from exterior to interior act as stylish yet functional load bearing elements that draw in daylight and warm up the room.

Designed by Artifact Collaborative, the new-build residence has an indoor garden, solar panels, and a fully glazed rear facade.

The couple ripped out the dated cabinets and replaced them with sleek Ikea ones, devoid of handles, alongside glossy white tile counters.

In the Izquierdos’ living room, the slipcovered sofas were designed by Cristián based on specifications by his wife, Maida. The rug was made by a Chilean artisan whom the couple met on a trip, and the Anna XXL armchairs by Crassevig were a wedding gift.

Cristián created slots in the rear facade so that each home’s primary bedroom could have three exposures. The voids also allowed him to install skylights that illuminate the ground floor. The detailing of the ribbed exterior was adapted from a large institutional building designed by his father—“really almost a cut and paste,” says Cristián. The overhang at the rear of the building offers partial cover for the private walled patio that each family enjoys.

Folding glass doors on the north and south elevations create cross ventilation and open the cabin, clad in Western red cedar, to its forested setting and views of the ocean.

Rolling screen doors along the south elevation protect the cabin from storms, UV exposure, and wildlife.

Elena Stein in the kitchen of the weekend cottage she shares with her husband, Roland, their three teenage children, and the family dachshund, Lucy, in the quiet hamlet of Seeland, three hours north of Berlin.