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The Hupert-Kinmont house lies low in a century-old apple orchard, far from neighboring houses. The spaciousness of the rural surroundings is echoed inside.

The Zizmors didn't want to use curtains to screen their wide-open home from noisy neighbors. Instead, Kari Elwell Katzander of Mingo Design, an urban landscaper, created a living wall of wooden planters and English ivy that provides privacy without blocking light.

Architect Benedetta Tagliabue was intrigued by the crumbling homes in her neighborhood in Barcelona and took to sprucing up an 18th-century flat. What makes her space unique are the countless period details that were not restored, but rather left to breathe as is and continue as is in their deteriorating state, adding character to the home. However, the walls were slowly peeled away, revealing a number of significant elements like a Gothic capital with an angel, and a frieze of vivid 18th-century decorative murals—with the original sketches for them on the wall of the adjacent room. Immersed in natural light, the rooms form a circular layout around a central patio. Diagonally placed rectangular patches of tined cement tile accentuate the effect, reflecting the sun’s rays. In the pool house, a shallow lap pool and wood burning fireplace present an urban oasis under ceramic, barrel-vaulted ceilings.

Usha and Mike Kreaden had a virtually blank slate when it came to the garden outside the 1958 Joseph Eichler house that they bought in Silicon Valley two decades ago.

It’s important to confirm that there are no rotten columns, beams, or other damaged supporting elements before you buy a home.

The owners’ goal was to transform the 19th-century building into a bold single-family residence. Historical architectural details were made modern with a striking black facade, while inside, a flexible living space that opens into an exterior garden enables a simplified lifestyle.

The northern facade, which faces the water, takes in the view via double-height windows in the main living room, plus terraces punched into the second floor.

The Finnish embassy, which opened in 1994 on the site of an old mansion overlooking Rock Creek Park in Washington, was recently awarded a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, or LEED, platinum certification from the U.S. Green Building Council. The embassy was designed by Mikko Heikkinen and Markku Komonen of Heikkinen-Komonen Architects.

Mark Fekete and Viviana de Loera of MARK+VIVI transformed a former tire shop in the Verdun borough of Montreal into a welcoming home-office, exposing beams on the ground floor and making liberal use of locally sourced Canadian plywood.

Brandon and Amy set up different workstations in the living area.

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.”

To compliment the house’s timber frame and its extensive ceiling decking, the team chose to line the substantial window wall with a pine treatment that would give them the freedom to combine various size units.

The first floor houses a machine shop--where prototypes for LED lighting and folding glass facades are fabricated for Larissa's architecture office, housed on the second floor along with Jeff's industrial design studio. The third story is the couple's and their seven-year-old daughter's living space, making for an ideal commute.

Southwest: Steve Martino Phoenix-based landscape architect Steve Martino has unlocked the secret to successful gardening in dry desert environs: “The backbone of my career has been celebrating the desert rather than making apologies for it,” he says. His drought-tolerant designs relate to the southwestern climate and feature native plants—like the whale’s tongue agave, compass barrel cactus, and ocotillo in front of a Scottsdale midcentury house.

The house that Fleetwood Fernandez Architects designed for contractor Mehran Taslimi and his wife, Laila, embraces its surroundings. “They wanted doors that they could just throw open,” designer Hunter Fleetwood says of the retractable wall system from Vitrocsa.

"Food generally plays a part in the exchanges," explains Benson, "so the adjacent kitchen plays its part in lending to that [collaborative] atmosphere."

Like the other larger upstairs units, Puzio’s includes two loft spaces flanking the kitchen, whereas those below have one.