houses

Stucco was used on the east- and west-facing walls to shield the home from the penetrating sun.

The heavy stucco walls provide shade, and they also help separate the more private areas of the home from the public ones.

At the rear of the house, sculptural terraces are softened by plantings designed by Delphine Huetz. The sliding glass doors are by Fleetwood and the Carbon counter stools on the roof deck are by Bertjan Pot for Moooi.

“When the house was almost done, we sat with a pizza until ten at night, just watching the color change, and we ended up loving how dynamic it is,” says Doug.

Stainless steel—such as this mesh ceiling—gives residential interiors a utilitarian edge, says Michael Fohring of Odami, and it's a material choice he hopes to use in one of the studio's own projects soon.

The relatively discreet exterior, clad in cedar slats, belies the risks taken within. “We wanted to do a facade that didn’t give too much away,” says Ogrydziak. The street-facing windows are by Blomberg.

"Wendy and Lukas were looking for a natural, sporty lifestyle and a sustainably designed home," says Daffonchio. "It is always rewarding to see the owners living the lifestyle they had dreamed, and seeing their joy in living the home and its incredible surroundings."

The artwork on the outdoor deck is by Cape Town sculptor and blacksmith Conrad Hicks. The artist also made the front entrance gates.

Off-shutter concrete is created by removing the shuttering—normally wooden planks used as a temporary structure to contain setting concrete. "Casting the perfect texture of old wooden planks on the concrete, while getting all the services placed correctly inside the shuttering, was an Herculean task," says Daffonchio.

The material palette is almost exclusively "off-shutter" concrete, both inside and outside. The main metal elements are crafted from raw steel.

In Palm Springs, Sander Architects created an energy-efficient hybrid prefab home that’s designed to stay naturally cool in the desert heat, which often climbs to triple digits in the summer.

A sitting area in the front yard encourages neighbors to stop by for a chat.

Landscape designer Kenneth Philip worked with mwworks to fill in the forested setting.

The calm dining room features custom dining table, Davide Groppi MISS LED metal pendant lamps by Omar Carraglia, and the owner’s own dining chairs.

A look inside the Cor-Ten–clad Sonoma weeHouse and its open-plan living space and ipe interiors.

Using a natural material palette helps Ridge Mountain Residence by Ehrlich Yanai Rhee Chaney Architects blend in with its surroundings: the concrete complements the light browns and tans of the surrounding mountains, while Cor-ten steel cladding provides a naturally weathering material.

Working with a sumptuous material palette, Ehrlich Yanai Rhee Chaney Architects designed a sprawling new residence in Palo Alto for Mark and Laura Pine. The teak wood and handmade Danish bricks that define the exterior are used inside as well; distressed stainless steel panels by Chris French Metal sheathe one side of the upper volume. Blasen Landscape Architecture chose Peruvian feather grass to flank the entrance walkway.

Bracketed on one end by glass, the living room captures a view through the guesthouse breezeway to the cypress trees beyond. The sculpture “Big Red Poppies” by Donald Sultan provides a pop of color on the lawn.