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Above the built-in daybed is a porthole—a recurring feature in Nelson’s work—that looks out into the surrounding forest.

Woven into a stand of redwoods on Jason Titus and Nerija Sinkevičiūtė-Titus’s property in the Santa Cruz Mountains, a tree house by San Francisco designer/artist Jay Nelson gives the couple and their three boys a new perspective on the forest.

The tiny cabin currently sits on a friend’s property, but it’s designed to be mobile, should the couple need to move it. “It can be dragged away with nothing more than a tractor,” says Nathalie.

This rugged holiday home in Outer Hebrides, designed by Izat Arundell, was created with stone sourced from its small isle.

Greg Knapp and Robyn Traynor worked with architect Peter Braithwaite to design a nature retreat for their family on a slice of Canadian wilderness. It has two shed-roofed structures joined by a boardwalk elevated above a preexisting walking path on the couple’s land.

The pavilion closest to the road is the family’s sleeping quarters. It has a full bath, sleeping loft, and space for mechanical equipment. The second volume is a living space with a kitchenette finished in white oak, a lounge space with a wood-burning stove, and a sleeping loft for guests.

Upon relocating to the Methow Valley, a family finds their compact cabin to be a little too cozy—so they roll up their sleeves and break ground.

The rooms are aligned with—and take advantage of—the course of the sun. In the morning, the east-facing kitchen fills with sunshine. Strong midday light hits the rear facade, which provides shade for the staircase at the entrance,. A small terrace to the west provides a place to sit and watch the sunset—or guests can view the spectacle through windows placed near the built-in queen-size bed. The dark-stained wood across the interior “minimizes reflections and lets the views of the surrounding nature become the main feature of each room,

Danish architect and designer Sigurd Larsen teamed up with Raus to create a 193-square-foot cabin in Berlin, Germany, that lets city dwellers escape the hustle and bustle of urban life and connect with nature.

Design in place, it was time to start the actual building—and Castillero was going to need a helping hand. "Although I like to have my hands in all aspects of things, I knew I couldn’t do it completely by myself,

Another money-saving choice was changing the driveway from a stone paver driveway to poured concrete. The roof is designed to collect rainwater, which travels through a set of pipes for storage in a 39,000-gallon cistern behind the house.

“Many people said ‘you’re crazy,’ because it’s a circular house,” says homeowner Sergio Goyri. “But in the end, we just love how easy it is to go from one place to the other and how we communicate. Every room is integrated, and that’s what we were looking for for a weekend family house."

Natural light was very important for homeowners, incorporated though plentiful clerestory glass and indoor-outdoor access.