Jaypiddy's Fave's

Australian practice MUSK Architecture Studio maximized the units of Coppin Street Apartment with flexible floor plans and large sliding doors that expose of reveal some of the bedrooms.

Norman Millar and Judith Sheine designed the built-ins in the living-dining area, which were made from vertical-grain Douglas fir. Vintage Dutch industrial chairs are arranged around a black walnut dining table that, like the madrone coffee table, is by Urban Hardwoods.

For Gabriel Ramirez and his partner Sarah Mason Williams, following the Sea Ranch rules—local covenants guide new designs—didn’t mean slipping into Sea Ranch clichés. The architects love Cor-Ten steel, with its ruddy and almost organic surface, and they made it the main exterior material, along with board-formed concrete and ipe wood. The Cor-Ten, which quickly turned an autumnal rust in the sea air, and the concrete, with its grain and crannies, mean the house isn’t a pristine box, Ramirez says. His Neutra house “was very crisp and clean,” he says. “This house is more distressed, more wabi-sabi.”

Photo by Patrick Barta

Architect Oliver Lang and his partner, Cindy Wilson, created Monad, a multiunit prefab prototype in Vancouver.