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The best-known furnishings made by Sticotti’s studio are bookshelves suspended from a wooden rail. They appear in the second-floor living room.

Buenos Aires–based architect and furniture designer Alejandro Sticotti combined clean lines and a handmade aesthetic at his beach house in Uruguay. The home is made up of two stacked boxes built from steel and board-formed concrete and wrapped in glass and tropical hardwood. Surrounded by a fence in the coastal town of La Pedrera, it is a sanctuary within a sanctuary.

Floor Plan of La Colorada by PPAA

DZINE Concept did the interior design throughout. The dining room features a Liquid table by Baxter and Charme chairs from Busnelli.

Clad in wax-covered pine, this 645-square-foot dwelling in Amsterdam is striking on the outside and endlessly charming on the inside. At night, the large windows give the compact home a lantern effect.

A birch staircase features extensive storage and contrasts with the concrete floors and the reclaimed brick of the partial wall. The wire stool was designed by Cees Brakman, and the ceiling beams are made from pine.

In the dining area, a custom birch bookcase is inset into a partial wall of brick that was salvaged from the previous house that stood on the lot.

Glass walls give the feeling of being outdoors while relaxing inside the house.

The large window that punctuates the front facade "is called a flower window in the Netherlands because of its depth; the ledge is a place to put flowers," Collaris says. "In this case, it's an extra place to sit in the living room."

A clerestory harnesses natural light for the bath.

Despite its relatively small footprint, House MM in north Amsterdam boasts significant internal volume. Chris Collaris Architects transformed a once-old-and-decaying brick house by using every inch of the allocation plan to the new home’s advantage—made possible by the clever mitigation of restricted roof heights. The outcome is an increase in volume that results in a spacious interior. Finished with protective wax-coated pinewood cladding in black, the home's exterior is clean lined and makes a bold statement standing out almost brazenly among its more mellow peers. This timber cladding yields only in precise areas for large windows throughout that invite light in and present delightful views, with full-height glazing that opens onto a terrace overlooking the gardens.

“We talked a lot about the idea of being on a campsite. Everything is very functional; everything can be made into something else.”—Karen Stonely, architect

The coffee table is from Baxter & Liebchen and the custom felt rug is by Karkula; built-in daybeds by woodworker Rick Bradbury feature cushions by Chelsea Workroom upholstered in vintage Maharam fabric and leather.

From its locally quarried stone foundation to its zinc-coated copper roof, the cottage was inspired by its surroundings. “We talked a lot with our client about what the materiality would be,” says architect Karen Stonely, who, citing the organic style of Bar Harbor architect Robert Patterson, designed the structure with wood rather than drywall.

After renting in San Francisco for a decade, DIY couple Molly Fiffer and Jeff Waldman bought 10 acres in the Santa Cruz Mountains, where the pair and their friends built a cabin compound complete with sheds, tree decks, a pavilion, a wood-fired hot tub, an outhouse, and an outdoor shower. The cabin is made from locally sourced, rough-sawn redwood, which the couple stained with nontoxic Eco Wood Treatment to give the panels an aged appearance and a dark patina.