Gary's Pics

Faulker Architects designed this concrete-and-steel home for a family looking to escape to their property near Lake Tahoe in the Sierra Nevada Mountains.

Project architects Studio Marshall Blecher and Jan Henrik Jansen Arkitekter opened up the center of the house, previously comprising a maze of fourteen small rooms, creating one large and airy kitchen and dining space with a high, chapel like ceiling. A six-meter-long concrete plinth standing at the center of the room which doubles as an island bench and dining table, had to be lowered into the house by a crane while the roof was being reconstructed.

This thatch-roofed brick cottage in Nieby, Germany, was originally built by tenant farmers or crofters from a nearby estate in the late 1800s. It stands on a small triangular plot of land surrounded by barley fields and faces toward the Geltinger Birk nature reserve. The home’s street-facing facade was preserved and restored with only a minimal, black-steel dormer window belying the more substantial alterations which open onto the private rear yard. A subtle black-framed addition containing an oak-lined living space is tucked under the thatched roof and opens onto a sunken timber terrace while large picture windows are cut into the historic brick volume in areas which had been damaged from the previous additions.

Copper louvres punctuate the cantilevered corner window, helping to ventilate the home.

Volcanic cobblestones, exposed copper pipes, and a slatted timber ceiling provide a textured and moody feeling for the bathroom, where multiple windows help to give the feeling of showering outdoors.

The vintage chairs are by Hans Wegner, while the table, cabinets, and the rest of the furnishings in the home were designed and built by Doug.

As part of the renovation, the home now features a sleek black exterior, helping it blend into the surrounding natural setting.