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In Vaðlaheiði near Akureyri, the capital of north Iceland, these three strikingly modern cabins place you in the midst of nature where you can watch the Northern Lights in the winter and the midnight sun in summer.

Buckner and Roberts both expressed admiration for Jones’s thoughtful details—including the sloping glass, angled columns, and Wrightian light shelf.

The Andersen Architectural Collection’s Eagle windows and doors provide the panes and passageways of the home.

Outdoor Patio

For Gabriel Ramirez and his partner Sarah Mason Williams, following the Sea Ranch rules—local covenants guide new designs—didn’t mean slipping into Sea Ranch clichés. The architects love Cor-Ten steel, with its ruddy and almost organic surface, and they made it the main exterior material, along with board-formed concrete and ipe wood. The Cor-Ten, which quickly turned an autumnal rust in the sea air, and the concrete, with its grain and crannies, mean the house isn’t a pristine box, Ramirez says. His Neutra house “was very crisp and clean,” he says. “This house is more distressed, more wabi-sabi.”

“In a way, we’ve grounded the house, incorporating topography as a main component of the composition from a more abstract box initial concept,” Carle explains.

Open and inviting, the addition enables a fluid indoor-outdoor connection that didn’t exist before.