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Just adjacent to the house is Whitlock's small shed which houses many of the tools that he used to build the home.

Architect Indra Janda hand-cut sheets of polycarbonate into 15¾-inch square shingles and clad the entire timber structure—a gabled roof and walls—with them.

The site includes a boat shed and a tractor the family uses to pull their boat to and from the ramp.

This 195-square-foot, shingled studio includes a library, reading nook, and workstation—and it’s totally DIY. Creative couple Michael and Christina Hara built the retreat just steps away from their back door, in order to carve out "space for creativity and respite from our chaotic, toddler-filled house," as Michael explains. The project, called the Fish Scale Studio, took eight months to complete, with Haras doing all of the design and construction themselves—for just $18,275.

The couple finished the exterior siding with shingles made of Hardie board and painted a deep purple. "We wanted an exterior cladding that was durable, low-maintenance, and relatively DIY-friendly," says Michael. "When looking at our options at the local hardware store, the fish-scale shape popped because it was unique, quirky, and not super serious—and yet could create a contemporary look through uniformly using it with woven corners and minimal detailing."

Well-placed skylights flood the built-in desk and workstation with natural light. The elegant desk lamp, which Hara calls the Sunset Lamp, has a maple base and bowl-like shade, the latter finished with gold leaf for a warm glow.

A partial wall anchors the kitchen on one side and houses closets on the other. A w151 pendant by Wastberg hangs above the central dining area.

New Affiliates inserted a window high in the bathroom wall to let that light in a bit farther.

The elongated, rectangular form has been delicately nestled into the island's steep terrain.

The original home had been built into the hillside, and the firm kept that basic exterior form. The exterior door seen here accesses the separate en-suite room that can be used as a bedroom, storage, or flex space.

The two bedrooms are located down the hallway from the common areas. Each room has its own fully equipped bathroom.

The contemporary home is a beautiful take on desert modernism.

The native plantings in the courtyard, which is enclosed by a wall for privacy in the suburban setting, visually link it to the established eucalyptus trees at the front and rear of the property. The home’s dark cladding is accented by rose gold stainless steel panels.

A new cedar and glass dining pavilion extends through the back of a weekend retreat in rural Ontario designed by architect Brian O'Brian for Ben Sykes and Erin Connor. The 19th-century timber and stone structure, formerly a one-room schoolhouse, proved to be the perfect palimpsest for a modern intervention.

The view of the home from the driveway shows their staggered positions nestled into a slight slope. The materiality of the two volumes were an important element. The “private” structure on the right hosts the bedrooms and was constructed in stones pulled from the site, “adding a beautiful layer of the red colors from the region to the project.” The “social” structure on the left houses the communal living areas.

Founded in 1958 by the Finnish Saarelainen brothers in Eastern Finland, Honka—known as Honkarakenne in Finland—was the first industrial manufacturer of log houses. Today, the pioneer brand has built almost 85,000 houses across the globe, including a quaint Scottish retreat for the Queen of England in 1969. Pictured here is an exterior view of Kide, a sauna cabin located on the west coast of Finland.