Favorites

Robertson restored the existing rooms in the front of the original house, and redesigned the back of the home to have a much more modern, indoor/outdoor living experience.

Set on a four-acre, moderately sloped, rocky site by the lake, the Kawagama Boathouse minimizes its site impact with small-diameter pier foundations and a natural material palette that blends the building into the surrounding forest.

Not only do built-in appliances keep kitchens tidy, but they also improve coherence between it and the rest of your home, creating a more fluid experience.

When they needed more room for visiting children and grandkids, Karen and Rick Hawkins paid homage to a once common Midwestern sight, the corn crib, by adding to their family farm.

From the street, the house rises two stories, dropping down on the opposite side to follow the slope. Clive envisioned the top floor as a “crow’s nest.”

“Many of Los Angeles’s iconic modern houses float above the city like tethered spaceships on stilts,” says Clive. “I had always yearned for the opportunity to design my own floating home.” Custom black zinc panels and sandblasted concrete form the exterior.

Their creative confections may ruin our diets, but we’re happy to be their taste testers anytime.

4. "Can I afford the payment if one of the buying parties can't?" "Sometimes homes are purchased with two incomes," Hoffman adds. "But then there are instances when one person wants to stay home to take care of children. You do want to think about the future."

On a trip to Naoshima, Japan, the Houston newlyweds behind Robertson Design fell in love with Tadao Ando’s concrete-composed museums. This led the couple to create a residence of their own comprised of a low concrete wall, concrete cube, and box clad in Siberian larch. The indoors are rounded out with white oak, marble, and leather-finished granite.

Encourage your imaginative niece, nephew, neighbor, sibling, or child to grow their creativity and curiosity with these fun-filled gifts.

Austin-based architecture firm Thoughtbarn set out to renovate an H-shaped residence in a wooded, hilly neighborhood known for its midcentury, ranch-style homes, but quickly discovered that the home’s slab was structurally failing and would need to be replaced. This replacement ultimately led to the construction of a new home based on the footprint of the original—but with a small addition to the south. The exterior is clad in board-and-batten siding, while the front porch is covered with stained pine. Both materials have a vertical emphasis, which speaks to the heritage oak trees on the .75-acre property.

Two of chef André Chiang’s restaurants have appeared on the annual World’s 50 Best Restaurants list. So it makes sense that at his new home in Taiwan, which he largely designed himself, the kitchen takes center stage. To outfit it, André worked with Vipp, the maker of everything from the black steel island and stainless-steel countertops to the faucets, cabinets, shelves, pendant light fixtures—even the tea kettle and trash bin.

Typography guru Erik Spiekermann and his wife, designer Susanna Dulkinys, hate clutter. That’s why they love the super-sleek Berlin domicile they constructed to have just the right lines—and a host of energy-saving features behind the scenes. The stainless-steel Bulthaup kitchen "cost as much as a small house," said Spiekermann, though he did get a discount: Bulthaup is one of his clients.

The home is set amidst the monumentality of the Swiss Alps.

A glazed section perfectly frames country views amidst the book-lined walls of the home’s sitting room. A mobile panel allows residents to modulate light and privacy as they please.

Built on a tight budget of $120,000, a retirement home in the mountains delivers unexpected contemporary design to a rural township.

Comprising 11 modules, this green-roofed prefab was built in 90 days in a factory near São Paulo and then transported to the site in three shipments on flatbed trucks.