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The Alerce shingles change color when it rains, moving from red to grey. “It’s alive,” says Marambio.

Monika and Darren Bennett worked with SM Studio on their custom home in Vancouver, B.C. The main house has 2703 square feet, plus a 514 square foot garage/studio on the rear alley, with a courtyard and pool in between the two buildings.

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.

The suburban backyard garage in Hertfordshire, England, that architect Olli Andrew of Hyper converted into a work studio is wrapped in charred larch wood pieces that give the impression of scales and foster biodiversity, providing a place for insects to nestle.

The secluded location of the house at the edge of a retired shale bank allows the luxury of an open outdoor shower. Corrugated steel siding provides a durable, zero-maintenance exterior finish and captures the changing sun and woodland shadows.

Rocks dug up during construction were saved and incorporated into the poured-concrete floors and walls. Hydronic heating coils in the floor are augmented by a wood stove during the damp winters.

The holiday home is nestled into a narrow site in Buffalo Bay, a small beachside town near Buffelsbaai, with a Milkwood forest to the rear and the ocean to the front. The two living levels sit above a large garage/storage area on the lower ground floor and open completely out to the views.

“We found Studio Weave’s work and instantly connected with their designs, feeling their playful, instinctive approach would neatly balance modern design in a natural setting,” say the clients, Tom Baker and Natalie Silk. “They worked closely with our builder, David Joyce, to bring the space to life.”

Almost every room in the extension has direct access to the outside so the relationship with the grounds is immediate. In addition, carefully considered windows frame views of the surrounding landscape—especially the large window facing the valley in the first-floor living space. “It’s incredibly joyful to see how the views, smells, and emotion of being in the extension changes throughout the different seasons,” says architect Je Ahn. “It’s very tranquil and a retreat in the true sense of the word.”

The roof profile of the addition is a direct reference to the hipped roof of the main house.

“The exterior paths and balconies were designed on-site,” Chrismar says. “We wanted a direct connection to the landscape.”

This single-family residence in Bloomfield, Michigan, known as the Treehaus, embodies the iconic style of midcentury modernism. Thanks to a thoughtful renovation, this rare dwelling has been restored to its original state of refined elegance.

"I've always loved the way buildings look when they're under construction, and the walls of the office are basically like open framing," Davis says.

Niki Bergen and two of her children run up the hill by the guesthouse she and her partner, Andrew Zuckerman, built on their upstate New York property. The structure was designed by Levenbetts, the architecture firm also responsible for the older main house nearby.