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The covered patio creates an indoor/outdoor flow conducive to the PNW climate. The table is surrounded by Blu-Dot chairs and the hanging light is from Urban Electric.

The Thornton House sits on a steep site in Brooklyn, Wellington, New Zealand, with a small footprint of just 50 square meters.

Most beachfront houses treat the ocean as part of the visual landscape with panoramic views and wraparound balconies. Tom Lloyd-Butler’s beach house by Ernest Born, however, is deeply interior, and far more interested in its tranquil inner courtyard than anything beyond. One transparent addition later, the avid surfer has a new outlook. Aidlin Darling took pains during construction to preserve the cypress trees that give the Great Highway House so much of its charm.

This open-ended box, lined in mirrored glass, performs like a kaleidoscope, amplifying the mature Melia tree’s presence within the dining room.

Global firm Perkins+Will built a home on a 10,764-square-foot plot in São Paulo to revolve around the gardens, which take up 50% of the site. They designed the property around a large tree with an open plan in the living, dining, and kitchen areas.

Part of an eco-friendly glamping retreat in Dorset, UK, Woodman’s Treehouse is built using local materials where possible and includes traditional wooden craftsmanship throughout the interior. The structure stands on high stilts to minimize its effect on the land, and all the existing trees are protected and maintained unharmed and untouched.

Atelier Vens Vanbelle renovated a decaying house in Ghent, gutting the multi-story building, restoring the brick façade, and replacing the roof. They also brought in a nearly 40-foot-long oak tree, craned in through the roof, building in a spiral formation around the trunk to create an open interior space without walls in the living areas. Plus, it was all done within a budget of 150,000 euros.

This modern, glass-walled, weekend lake house in Austin is built around two massive oak trees. One is growing directly out of an ipe deck and through a dedicated hole in a Western red cedar overhanging roof, which doubly allows light to flood into the home.

Located in North Fitzroy, the 2,272-square-foot Grant House is set on a long and narrow east-facing site with shared side alley access.

The architects designed an asymmetrical roof so as to avoid shading the neighbors' backyard. Note how the window awnings appear to peel up and away from the facade.

An 8-kW solar array powers the majority of the home's annual energy use, while a five-ton geothermal system provides mechanical heating and cooling. A 30,000-gallon rainwater collection system feeds the home with 200 gallons of purified water daily.

Clayworks Plaster concrete effect walls adorn the house throughout.

Tapping his experience in hotel design, Conrad underlit the deck so that it appears to float. The couple bought the planters from the House of St. Clair moving sale in Austin. The siding is painted in Sherwin-Williams' Urbane Bronze.

Hektor was designed with sustainability and water conservation in mind. “Everyone knew before we started working that our main goal was to keep all the water,” says Yves.

The floating home, originally constructed in 1968 by Forbes Kiddoo, that Marka Hansen and Joe Brubaker recreated with designer Michelle Chan and builder Steve Crutchfield of True North Construction bobs in a berth at the historical Waldo Point Harbor in Sausalito, California, just north of San Francisco and the Golden Gate Bridge.

The whole structure was digitally fabricated