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"Some people want a manicured garden, but I'm of a different mindset," says Patnaik. She left the grounds untamed and organic. "If we're building in the wild, I want to live in the wild."

This 2,520-square-foot home in Los Angeles is a vibrant residence for a production designer and an artist.

As Nicolás Tovo and Teresa Sarmiento of La Base embraced modular design as part of their architectural practice, they noticed that prospective clients were wary of prefabricated construction. So the duo teamed up with Place, an Argentine prefab builder, to make a proof of concept just outside the Patagonian resort town of Bariloche.

A maple tree grows through an ipe deck in this garden that Mary Barensfeld designed for a family in Berkeley, California. A reflecting pool separates it from a granite patio, which is furnished with a Petal dining table by Richard Schultz and chairs by Mario Bellini. The 1,150-square-foot garden serves as an elegant transition from the couple’s 1964 Japanese-style town house to a small, elevated terrace with views of San Francisco Bay. Filigreed Cor-Ten steel fence screens—perforated with a water-jet cutter to cast dappled shadows on a bench and the ground below—and zigzagging board-formed concrete retaining walls are examples.

The house features 360-degree views and is “truly unbelievable at night,” says Susan. “It is just a blanket of stars.”

Floor Plan of Slope Prefab by Manta North

This tiny house in Indore, India, is designed to accommodate a family of four. It occupies a minimal footprint of 210 square feet.

Architect Ana Smud’s residence in the Vicente López suburb of Buenos Aires is surrounded by gardens and wrapped in timber, concrete, and glass.

The exterior’s charcoal metal paint finish helps recede the cabin into the surroundings.

The living room extends into the great outdoors with a spruce deck.

The wood exterior blends in quietly with the surrounding timber.

After renting in San Francisco for a decade, DIY couple Molly Fiffer and Jeff Waldman bought 10 acres in the Santa Cruz Mountains, where the pair and their friends built a cabin compound complete with sheds, tree decks, a pavilion, a wood-fired hot tub, an outhouse, and an outdoor shower. The cabin is made from locally sourced, rough-sawn redwood, which the couple stained with nontoxic Eco Wood Treatment to give the panels an aged appearance and a dark patina.