Ideas

The house may be large at 5,382 square feet, but its extensive glazing makes it appear weightless.

The elemental quality and gridded composition of resident Diana Wong’s art is reflected in the curtain wall of the front façade of the Wong Residence and Studio by Paul Murdoch Architects.

Located in Genesee, Colorado, this 2001 project's ample use of stone was inspired by the Native American architecture of Chaco Canyon, New Mexico. Surrounded by ponderosa pine trees, the home takes a cruciform shape to fit into the landscape: one wing runs up and down the hill and the other runs across its horizontal contours. The former is capped by a tower and features a great room at its base; the latter houses smaller private rooms.

The home's near-continuous glass walls make for a truly immersive experience.

The Conine family’s Jackson Hole hideaway is completely wired.

Teaming up with architect Craig Steely, an industrial designer and a mechanical engineer find just the right design for a striking home on a San Francisco hill. Photo by Ian Allen.

Architect Joaquin Castillo blends inexpensive materials, the odd splurge, and a refined modernist sensibility to create an affordable weekend house for brothers Alfredo and Guillermo Oropeza. The facade is a juxtaposition of rough-hewn local stone, smooth concrete, glass, and steel—the material palette used throughout the structure.

The LV Series homes by Chilean-American designer Rocio Romero are simple, modern, and environmentally conscious. These homes are meant to connect their owners to the outdoors through steel load-bearing posts that create large openings for glass windows. Specific designs can be tailored to the location and lifestyle of the customers. Although flat-packed and easily shipped, the LV series requires a contractor for construction.

In the house that Richard Williams designed for David Frum and Danielle Crittenden Frum on Lake Ontario, floor-to-ceiling windows from Oldcastle offer views through the house to the lake beyond.

Twitter House Floor Plan A Laundry Room B Kitchen C Living-Dining Room D Half Bathroom E Shower F Guest Room-Study G Master Bathroom H Master Bedroom

Landscape designer Vickie Cardaro used native grasses and plantings near the swimming pool (opposite). Cushions upholstered in Sunbrella fabric rest atop a Trex deck. The western red cedar ceiling extends through the deep eaves and covered seating area.

Andy Harman’s macramé Owl punctuates the living room with a California-craft sensibility while the midnight-blue brick imbues the space with a “German-Brutalist-1960s kind of feel,” says Adler. “It gives the room a nice architectural gravitas.”

Jonathan Adler and Simon Doonan collaborated with New Haven, Connecticut, firm Gray Organschi on their midcentury-inspired New York vacation home.

“If the house had a wood frame, we wouldn’t have been able to get such open windows.”—Michael Epstein, architect

The home’s sliding doors blur the boundaries between inside and out.

The Burton Residence is comprised of ten recycled steel frame modules ranging in size from 25 feet and 1 inch by 8 feet and 9 inches to 48 feet and 9 inches by 8 feet and 9 inches. The modules were trucked to the site with all walls, appliances, fixtures, and cabinets already installed, then craned into place to form an L arrangement; bolted together; and finally welded to steel plates on the concrete block foundation. Click here to view our extended slideshow chronicling how the residence was assembled in a single day.

In Rhode Island, a Dutch Colonial-style home received a facelift in the form of a glassed pavilion that doubles as a library and greenhouse.

This detail shot shows how Burneo anchored the laminated slats for the exterior wood screen to a concrete slab.

"Most [floating homes] are reinvented boats with an unhealthy condensation inside, translated into humidity. In my house the smell is wood and it has a healthy proportion of humidity."