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A new cantilevered stair behind a batten screen was key to a more open, light-filled interior—and it offered a consistent design element that cut through the section of the home. “The wood elements really envelope you and define the space,” says architect Ian Starling.

Brutalist materials like concrete and steel are balanced by the gentleness of the wooden carpentry. Ash wood is used for the cabinetry throughout, from kitchen cabinets to storage units.

Taliesyn composed the Cabin House as a unified cuboid volume containing a hybrid living area.

Pam and Frank recently tasked Light and Air Architecture with remodeling this loft in New York City to get better natural light. “That’s exactly what we were looking for, is light and air,” says Frank.

Beneath the postcard-like backdrop of La Concha mountain, a previously abandoned Spanish villa received a modernist revamp for a couple and their young child. Natural, earthy interiors connect the living spaces to the lush surroundings, with the light-filled kitchen opening directly onto an outdoor pergola and pool.

A curving skylight illuminates the minimalist kitchen of a dwelling in Bondi Beach, Australia, that was renovated by Andrew Burges Architects.

Casa Dosmurs is decorated sparsely with furniture by friends and local designers. The couple also collect prints from Benjamín’s brother, who works as a photographer.

Project architects Studio Marshall Blecher and Jan Henrik Jansen Arkitekter opened up the center of the house, previously comprising a maze of fourteen small rooms, creating one large and airy kitchen and dining space with a high, chapel like ceiling. A six-meter-long concrete plinth standing at the center of the room which doubles as an island bench and dining table, had to be lowered into the house by a crane while the roof was being reconstructed.

This thatch-roofed brick cottage in Nieby, Germany, was originally built by tenant farmers or crofters from a nearby estate in the late 1800s. It stands on a small triangular plot of land surrounded by barley fields and faces toward the Geltinger Birk nature reserve. The home’s street-facing facade was preserved and restored with only a minimal, black-steel dormer window belying the more substantial alterations which open onto the private rear yard. A subtle black-framed addition containing an oak-lined living space is tucked under the thatched roof and opens onto a sunken timber terrace while large picture windows are cut into the historic brick volume in areas which had been damaged from the previous additions.

In the kitchen, an “Alpine Mist’ Caesarstone slab tops Alder cabinets. A mint green custom steel hood conceals a Vent-a-Hood insert, and Ann Sacks ‘Context’ tile in Frost covers the backsplash.

Both bedrooms now glory in the inlet views.

The team created an open floor plan for the interior, where the kitchen opens to the dining and the living areas. Concrete flooring lends a soothing quality to the rooms, where there's a built-in concrete bench that also acts as a plinth for the fireplace.