Modern Marvels

Twenty minutes from Marfa, a couple bring a 1914 home back to basics by peeling away faux stone, preserving marbelized tile, and building an addition that’s boxy in the best way.

Renovated in stages over the course of a decade, a home in Oakland’s Temescal neighborhood proves the power of thoughtful design using humble materials.

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Adair has long wished for Togo chairs, but as much as she loves the design, she tries not to be too precious about it. “We let the kids use them how they want, and they’re perfect fort furniture,” she says. “They’re really durable. It’s a design that makes architect parents happy.”

The "red room

Mystery novels line the shelves that conceal the hidden door, hinting that there's more than meets the eye.

The home is currently being rented out to recoup some building costs, and the owners are considering a permanent move after their daughter leaves for college.

After: The soaring new living and dining space benefits from an abundance of natural light from every side, and they spent a lot of time trying to find the best lighting for the kitchen. The final choice: long, narrow copper pendants from Denmark suspended by ultra thin wires to not disrupt the visual flow of the room.

"You can see that language is still there with the sort of two pitched roofs. There is another pitched roof behind that as well, which is the main extension at the back of the house, but you can't really see it from the street,

The primary bedroom cabin sits in a natural clearing amongst the trees, allowing for a water view and copious sunlight. The boulder-studded coast offers gently sloping paths to the ocean for a quick dip.

Efe Kababulut’s apartment in Istanbul overlooks the Bosphorus Strait through floor-to-ceiling sliders.