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Designed by Arba, the retreat’s enclosed garden provides outdoor space out of the wind while the cuts give it a strong connection with the setting.

Owners and tenants of accessory dwelling units (ADUs) share key insights about how to navigate the unique living experience.

After years of hosting loved ones in their 1,450-square-foot home, a couple called on architect Warren Techentin to build a bold backyard house with vacation vibes.

"Rio Belize

The studio is wrapped in corrugated Cor-Ten steel, while the ends are composed of charred reclaimed cedar.

In the trendy neighborhood of Dublin 8, Studio And upgrades a 1920s pebble dash house for a creative couple on a tight budget.

After: The soaring new living and dining space benefits from an abundance of natural light from every side, and they spent a lot of time trying to find the best lighting for the kitchen. The final choice: long, narrow copper pendants from Denmark suspended by ultra thin wires to not disrupt the visual flow of the room.

The muted grey coloured ceramic cladding enjoys a quiet synergy with its surroundings as it mirrors the silvery bark of the bare trees in winter.

Amber kept the exposed wood ceiling and freestanding fireplace, but swapped out the floors for engineered hickory.

Before: This voluminous space had been added to the home at a later date.

In the dining room, an Andover custom table by Room and Board and Globus Chairs from Design Within Reach continue the neutral color palette. The white, monochromatic kitchen has quartz countertops by Prestige and Phoenix Ivory Counter Stools from CB2.

Floor plan of Spider Hollow by Christopher Flechtner Inc.

A wooden grid wall separates the kitchen from the couple’s work area, which features a one-armed sofa and a large paper pendant, both of their design. The family dog, Billie, often gets a smile from Junko for good behavior.

A drop ceiling was removed to expose the home’s crooked, hundred-year-old haris, or beams, like the one over the dining area. The table and chairs, the articulated linear pendant, and the trio of ink-blackened walnut pendants were all designed by the couple and, like many other furnishings in the home, built by +Veve, a local woodcraft studio. It was partly the tight cooperation with +Veve that led Chris and Junko to establish Craftsman Collective, a project that connects talented international designers with traditional craft workshops.

The couple flipped the typical townhouse layout by putting the bedrooms on the ground floor and the living areas upstairs. “The lower floors of machiyas tend to be cave-like,” says Chris, “so we decided to sleep in the cave and live upstairs in the bright open area.”

A staircase leads to the kitchen, outfitted with Ikea cabinets.