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The house on the corner in the tiny town of Castellet in Catalonia, that Kirsten Dirksen and Nicolás Boullosa bought in 2018.

In leafy northwest Washington, D.C., a two-story addition expands a 1936 home without overwhelming it.

Ali Fraenkel and Mentor Dida prepare for one of the many gatherings they host in their penthouse in Prishtina, Kosovo. Self-described “changemakers,” they regularly open their home to 20 or more people for get-togethers with live music from local artists or guest speakers like Uta Ibrahimi, the first Albanian woman to climb Mount Everest. The couple worked with designers Fitore Syla and Njomza Havolli of local firm Muza to create a balance of open and intimate spaces. “Gathering people is our shared calling,” says Ali.

One of the first Dwell Houses, built by Abodu, was installed at Leslie Scharf’s vineyard home in Healdsburg, California. Norm Architects led the design of the 540-square-foot prefab, which is wrapped in Real Cedar siding.

The team used their office kitchen reno to explore bringing mixed materials together in a cohesive fashion.

The bunk room features four extra-long bunk beds, allowing the home to sleep 10.

The all-over green tiles of this bathroom feel the most like camp.

A terracotta vanity expands across the full length of the bathroom.

An outdoor shower set in the timber-clad walkway offers another way for the homeowners and their guests to connect with nature, and an easy way to rinse off after swimming.

The focus of the renovation was the kitchen, where the textures of tiles and brickwork play backdrop to considered, bespoke carpentry.

Kenter Powder Room

Living in between the woods

The entrance to House of the Big Arch is a nine-meter-tall passage, which creates a high-pressure system that pulls cool air into the kitchen.

A long, timber deck extends through the tree canopy at House of the Big Arch. As House of the Tall Chimneys has only a bedroom/living space and a bathroom, all other activities, such as cooking and dining, takes place at House of the Big Arch.

House of the Tall Chimneys is the guesthouse of House of the Big Arch, also by Frankie Pappas. The two buildings share the same material palette, and are linked by a long path through the forest.

Roof plan of House of the Tall Chimneys by Frankie Pappas.

Upper-level floor plan of House of the Tall Chimneys by Frankie Pappas.

The bathroom has views to the bushland on the cliff. The space is entirely open, with privacy afforded by the remote location and dense vegetation.

The team lidar scanned around 40,000 square meters of the forested site to create a 3D model—including trees, branches, and roots—that would allow them to accurately determine how to position and design the building to have minimal impact on the surrounding trees. “We then designed a seriously thin building that could slot between the trees,” says architect Ant Vervoort.