Good use of space

Architect Ana Smud’s residence in the Vicente López suburb of Buenos Aires is surrounded by gardens and wrapped in timber, concrete, and glass.

The kitchen cabinets are made of incienso wood, and the countertops and backsplash are made of Carrara marble.

Boy Boy fabricated the framing for the flue shroud and base, which was then finished with plaster, and given a limestone benchtop. The Arto Ceramic tile extends into the kitchen, which has a preserved wood ceiling with new skylights.

"Our many ideas were floating around the mountain, and we needed someone to bring them down and turn them into reality,

HUTCH Design used organic materials and earthy tones to transform this former concrete pig shed outside of London.

After renting in San Francisco for a decade, DIY couple Molly Fiffer and Jeff Waldman bought 10 acres in the Santa Cruz Mountains, where the pair and their friends built a cabin compound complete with sheds, tree decks, a pavilion, a wood-fired hot tub, an outhouse, and an outdoor shower. The cabin is made from locally sourced, rough-sawn redwood, which the couple stained with nontoxic Eco Wood Treatment to give the panels an aged appearance and a dark patina.

Keeping ample green space on the property was a top-tier goal. One of the house's original screened-in porches remains, but, according to Emily, "we dropped the screens so when you're sitting in the dining room, you can look out and see the bamboo." The divide between the new and old sections is marked by a gap in the roof that lets the sun into a small planted area.

Michael and Teegan prepare lunch with their daughter, Perse, in the kitchen of their contemporary farmhouse in Australia’s Piccadilly Valley.

Hiroshi Nakamura & NAP used 87 translucent bricks to reframe a family’s connection to nature and the city.

“I’m the queen of Ikea cabinets,” laughs Jade. She commissioned custom birch-veneer plywood for the doors from L.A.’s Anderson Plywood. While she was budget-conscious in many ways, she also is willing to splurge where it counts. “Hardware is where I spend money. That’s where people touch and feel it,” she says. “It’s important to me that it feels significant.” Here, pulls and knobs come from Mockett. The countertop is a man-made resin from Arizona Tiles in La Quinta.

Designed by Arba, the retreat’s enclosed garden provides outdoor space out of the wind while the cuts give it a strong connection with the setting.

The overall home is constructed with larch timber, a British wood, and features a central ridge beam that gives it a butterfly-shaped roof. Shou sugi ban was done on the wood to give it a charred finish.

In 2014, Jeff and Karen Gunning began researching building another house, hoping to create a single, contained volume without compromising their retirement funds. The resulting Tree House comprises three pitched volumes with cutaways to create a porch in phase one and recessed window planter ledges in phase two. Simple wood columns provide support.

The home’s design unifies two extremes—light and dark, weightless and heavy.