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The green roof, wood cladding, and low profile help to integrate the home with its lush, natural surroundings.

A second green roof is planted with sedum and plays host to one of the family’s favorite spots: a hammock. Bentheim suggested adding a trellis overhead to soften and balance the appearance of the facade.

A guest bedroom, with furniture from Room & Board, overlooks the bridge above the dining courtyard. The home’s landscape architecture is by Ventura, California–based Jack Kiesel. Photo by Coral von Zumwalt.

The freestanding tub provides views of the forested land.

Cozy!

On the boathouse's lakeside, the family can just open a garage door and lead one of their two small boats down the rails and into the water. Beside is a small deck.

The original home was converted into a bedroom level, and given a second-story addition and roof deck. The dark exterior color, a charcoal-eggplant hue, lets the landscape colors stand out in contrast. “The existing house roof became the roof deck,” says Rogers. “And then I just shifted over the addition so that it floated over the landscape.”

Furniture designer Tom Deacon teamed up with pal and architect Andrew Jones to renovate his Toronto townhouse. “Architects tend to think of the building first, the interiors second, and last, the furniture. Our approach was the opposite,” Jones says.

A lofted drawing studio features a sawtooth roof with expansive skylights that frame the branches of a jacaranda tree overhead.

“We wanted to tackle the dream and challenge of designing our own house and create a space that would get us close to nature,” Alessandro says.

The concept of this Scandinavian getaway was simple: To create a cabin that is small and sparse yet spatially rich. The 55-quare-meter (592-square-foot) cabin, commissioned by a private client and completed in 2016, comprises a large living room, bedroom, ski room, and small annex with a utility room. It functions off the water and electricity grids.

Architect Line Solgaard, founder of the eponymous Oslo- and Fredrikstad-based firm, designed a getaway for her family in the place where she grew up. Untreated, exposed concrete pairs with cedar cladding; custom, oak-paneled ceilings; and a glass roof in the center of the home that opens like a sunroof for natural ventilation.

A floating Ipe bench now sits outside the front door, juxtaposed against siding painted Benjamin Moore “Wrought Iron.” The glass panels beside the door now have reeded glass.