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Simon Knight Architects turns a historic building into a contemporary family home by sprucing up its exterior and rejiggering the ground floor.

Homeowner Chris Archer won’t have to worry about anything caving in in his new master bath, which now has an oversize, walk-in shower.

Top 10 Mullet Homes of 2020: Traditional in the front, modern in the back, these dwellings look unassuming from the street.

The modernist extension is a brutalism-inspired beauty, featuring a charred wood–and–glass volume split neatly into two halves. It’s two-faced architecture, if you will—but together, the two sides tell one beautiful design story.

Heritage details were kept intact to reference the home's original character.

A slatted breezeway connects the old and new components of David and Hannah Hodson’s home near Brisbane, Australia. Working with design firm Wrightson Stewart, the couple updated the existing house and shifted common areas and their bedroom to the extension.

“On Saturday mornings, we open every single one of the louvers and let the house breathe,” says Hodson.

The children’s bathroom features a sink from Reece and Pittorica tiles from Classic Ceramics.

The Solo chairs in the dining area are by Studio Nitzan Cohen.

Ian Wrightson and Steven Stewart, working with architect Barbara Bailey, focused on bringing light and ventilation to both structures and made deft use of joinery to provide seating and storage.

"The wife’s vision was to create a very calming interior using a minimalist material palette," explains Mac. "The custom kitchen was designed to be elemental—we wanted [it] to feel more integrated [with the rest of the space]. The oak cabinets, concrete countertops, and appliance placements all reinforced this aesthetic."

A dusk shot

Faced with a number of challenges, including the protection of a cluster of centuries-old olive trees, 51-1 Arquitectos devised an unusual plan for a house in Lima, Peru. In a twist on Tudor Revival, one of only a few styles permitted in the neighborhood they raised the living area above a terrace. “The layout was all about how to fit the program within the very particular limitations of this site,” says architect César Becerra.

A black sink fixture accented with rose gold adds a contemporary note in the light-filled kitchen.

The selection of pale wood for the bathroom vanity helps to maintain a light and airy quality for the space.

Hoch Studio turns a dingy, cramped apartment into a sunny sanctuary with a winning personality.

At 193 square feet, this former maid’s quarters in the 18th arrondissement in Paris feels much larger than its postage-stamp size. Lots of sunlight, bold colors, and geometric shapes give it a punch of life, and light oak shelving delineates the bedroom area to create a nook-like feeling.

Sometimes all it takes is a little luck. For a young married couple, it came in the form of this rare find: a 19th-century, three-story, single-family home in the heart of Paris. The building was a charmer with good bones, but was in need of some serious care. In a vibrant retrofit by architect Pierre-Louis Gerlier that includes structural reinforcements, the reimagined design is set off with a new floor plan. The lower level now serves as a space for the couple’s children, with the public areas—including an open-plan living/dining room and kitchen—on the floor above. Upstairs, the attic has been transformed into a very large primary bedroom with a green-and-white bathroom suite. The living room (pictured) showcases the firm’s bespoke carpentry work with a beautiful, mossy-green built-in bookcase that frames a new fireplace, and a staircase surrounded by arched doorways that hold hidden storage. “We created visual breakthroughs in order to connect the different spaces,” says Gerlier. “The rounded arches are there to help magnify these moments.”