Modern

Living spaces face the sunny northern garden while storage and service spaces are located to the south of the plan.

SemiSemi as it fits into its Toronto neighborhood.

The "transparent veranda" allows natural light to penetrate the building’s interior and connects the living areas to the exterior courtyards.

The Stahl House has been featured in numerous movies and photoshoots and was immortalized by photographer Julius Shulman.

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.

One of the Alterstudio's latest projects relies heavily on strong geometric elements. The entire structure reads as a single box stretched apart in the middle like two sides of an accordion. Vertical slats span between the two sections and enclose a carport underneath a cantilevering upper level.

Ten minutes from British Columbia’s prized Whistler and Blackcomb ski areas, this house is located on a small lot atop a hill. Embracing a vertical layout, the upper level is where the open living area, complete with sectional, wood-burning stove, marble island, and spacious dining table, is found. Through the floor-to-ceiling windows, the forest views are especially heady.

A supposedly impossible site was the perfect plot for Hale (pictured) and Edmonds, who were searching for some sort of break that would afford them the chance to build their own home. Stilting the house over the steep hill gives them direct access to nature while still being located just a ten-minute drive from downtown Seattle.

The home has a strong connection with the outdoors. The pool is aligned with the office space on the upper floor, and the doors open to provide access. The master bedroom hovers over the edge of the concrete podium.

Huge header beams and thickened walls allow for a generous opening between the living room and deck, with doors that recess into the wall cavity and a seamless meeting between the indoor floor and the exterior decking.

The upper floor terrace is the same width as the living room and kitchen. Large glass doors offer the opportunity to open the living room completely to the terrace.

Preda elegantly reallocated the space to contain a side-by-side living room and dining room area, with the latter defined by a custom Cor-Ten steel and zebrawood bookcase designed by the firm. The dining table is by Alepreda for miduny, the firm’s sister furniture company. The fireplace is an ethanol model, since incorporating a chimney wasn’t possible in the building.

The exterior features thermally broken windows, a pivot white oak front door and Walden 12-inch LED wall lights in Textured Black Finish from Kichler Lighting.

The pool is lifted up from the forest floor to the level of the home on a single concrete fin.

Access to the four-story home is via a gently meandering path or an elevator from the lower level to the main entrance. "One of the main challenges was the slope of the plot," says the firm. "The complexity of the geometry forced a very detailed topographic [survey]."

A distinctive faceted green roof melds the building with the surrounding landscape, spiraling around the wings of the house and encircling a central open courtyard, while a rough drystone wall built from locally sourced Clip­sham limestone acts as a thermal buffer for the main living area.