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Garden and greenhouse

A strolling garden and a pond with a waterfall have already been brought back

A courtyard creates visual separation between the main house and the addition.

Carlos Somoza “really brought the project home,” says Brillhart. “With our hope of the architecture being connected to landscape, you need a great landscape architect on-board, and we had that in Carlos.”

The ground floor, with its walls of windows, embraces the outdoors. “Most of the year we keep all the windows open,” says Teresa, “and then the real limit of the house is the property walls.”

Inside, a floating staircase of steel and lapacho wood helps maintain the home’s openness. The benches, bookshelves, and A-frame coatrack are by Teresa and Nico’s design firm, La Base Studio.

Dark finishes and industrial touches, such as the exposed steel structure on the second floor, are tempered by plentiful connections to out-door spaces, like the backyard, where Cony practices yoga.

The rest of the building wraps around the central open space, framing it in dark concrete.

The floors provide a comfortable place for the family dog, Messi, to sit.

The pair replaced the cluttered firewood storage with a floating hearth that can double as a seat and display for art.

Floor-to-ceiling shelves and storage bookend a cabinet that conceals the television.

A koi moat surround this thatched-roof home—a collaboration between AmDesign Studio and Creative Architects—near Ho Chi Minh City.

Slatted wood folding doors divide the public and private areas to create visual separation without compromising the home’s inherent openness.