LIVING

Check-in features design-conscious updates, such as a Jerry Johnson sling rocker and chair and a wood bar sofa from Early Work.

A cramped home in Catalonia gets a dramatic makeover that highlights its best historic details. Narrow plots pose some very specific challenges for urban architects, and in old cities like Sabadell in Catalonia, Spain, it is a frequent concern. Working with architect Manu Pàges, Barcelona-based design firm The Hall Studio turn a cramped single-family home into a bright, loft-like space with plenty of multipurpose areas.

Klopf Architecture updated this Eichler with a radiant floor heating system, re-stained paneling, and a new office/guest room filled with Eichler hallmarks like dark bronze door handles.

If you’re traveling to Puglia in Italy, one of the most iconic sights are trulli (trullo is the singular), an ancient hut that's specific to the Itria Valley in the Apulia region of Southern Italy. Made with dry stone, trulli date back to medieval times.

Architect Mary Ann Schicketanz transformed the old entryway into a private courtyard, replacing the door and window with a sleek glass slider. She removed the fiberglass panels and constructed a reclaimed wood barrier to separate the sitting area from the new front door on the opposite side. A high concrete wall also encloses it. “I love that you can be right on the street without having any sense the street is there,” Schicketanz says.

Asked to find an ecologically sustainable building solution, blaanc turned to a vernacular building technique that still thrives in certain pockets of rural Portugal, rammed earth.

At an idyllic home designed for an artist, architect Michelle Linden designed a gravel path leading to the front door that passes through firewood storage and the central courtyard. The firewood is stacked high on either side, so that one can pick up the firewood on their way inside.

In addition to new appliance trends, homeowners and kitchen designers are also looking for design-savvy materials elsewhere in the kitchen. While marble remains a popular choice, concrete is being used more widely as a kitchen accent. This kitchen in El Salvador features a hefty concrete island.

A tight construction budget informed the choices Sean Guess made as he designed a house for a couple in Austin, Texas. Budget-minded materials, like the James Hardie fiber-cement siding, helped hold construction costs to $130 per square foot. Sherwin-Williams’s Cyberspace hue colors the exterior and Parakeet coats the custom kitchen cabinets by Austin Wood Works. The planter is made from Cor-Ten steel.

Set at the edge of Stoney Lake in Ontario, Canada, is a photographer's home, studio, and boat house designed by Toronto-based studio GH3. The glass box unites landscape and architecture while providing ideal spaces for photography, programmatic functions for living, and boat storage.

“Stacey hopes that we can use this as a prototype for a development of artists’ studios someday—we talked about maybe siting several of them together, like an old mobile home park.” The steel sculpture is by San Antonio artist George Shroeder.

- Denver, Colorado Dwell Magazine : September / October 2017

Tasmania, Australia Dwell Magazine : September / October 2017