Future Cottage

Rolling screen doors along the south elevation protect the cabin from storms, UV exposure, and wildlife.

Lamps and vintage furniture that the homeowner and his partner collected on their travels adorn the home. Jun introduced an Enigma 425 pendant lamp from Louis Poulsen as a statement piece over the living space.

The kitchen counter’s new pink tiles bring an element of playfulness to the scheme. Square floor tiles were also used to define the kitchen from the dining-and-living area.

Josh Kjenner's design devoted a majority of the square footage to ground-floor public areas: a combined living-dining-kitchen area that's conducive to entertaining. The kitchen stools are by Bouclair.

Inside one of the Kobayashis' North Face tents.

Geoff and Joanna Mouming’s compact modern farmhouse is the first permanent structure at Yum Yum Farm in Wellman, Iowa. On the field that stretches out before it, organic vegetables will soon make attentive farmers of the Moumings. The benches on their entry porch were built by Geoff using a design plan by Aldo Leopold, the pioneering Iowa-born conservationist and writer whose spirit and thoughts seem to preside over the house.

A worm filter system treats all of the home’s black water, producing fertilizer to regenerate the soil.

Hideaki and Goo the dog scout the scene.

Setsumasa and Hideaki toss on the rain fly. The solar panel in the foreground supplies daytime electricity.

The kitchen cabinets are Birch plywood with medium-pressure laminate, and part of a cabinetry package for the house that amounted to $82,000 NZD, or $55,218 USD. The counters and backsplash are stainless-steel. The kitchen is a favorite spot for the architect. “We do a lot of cooking. We really enjoy our food. So, the practicalities of how the kitchen works is really key, with the nooks and crannies where we can put all our stuff,” says Maclean. Open cubbies keep tools and cookbooks close at hand.

A corrugated metal roof and cork-panel siding were durable, cost-effective material choices, but their textures also recall those of the area’s historic homes and agricultural buildings.

Recycled bricks form a core wall and support the central staircase. A white metal railing is another layer of texture in the scheme. "The project relied heavily on craft, detailing, and a raw material or 'wabi-sabi' spec to provide amenity and delight in the small footprint," say the architects.

Soft gray concrete, a polycarbonate screen, and metal roof bedeck the simple front facade of House A. Not immediately apparent? An underground water collection tank and solar panels. "We used a really high recycled content mix for our tilt-up concrete walls, which have 65-percent slag [a byproduct of steel production] instead of high-carbon emitting Portland cement," say the architects.

“At different moments of the day, the staircase will appear more present in the space, or less present, but it always allows the light to filter through it and move around it,” says Overby. Another bathroom has also been tucked into the core of the building, with the door to the right of the staircase.

Poured by hand on site, nearly the entire structure of the El Quinche House—including the kitchen counters and sinks—was made of concrete sourced from a local quarry.