Narrowed Woods Lane

The enormous picture window in the living room frames spectacular views over the water, allowing the family to feel immersed in nature even in the wildest of weather.

The walls behind the fireplace are 400-millimeter-thick rammed earth, and they were formed on site by a specialist contractor. The material not only provides thermal mass to protect the interior from the heavy heat load experienced in summer, but also heats up when the fireplace is in use in winter months to provide gentle heat release to the main living area.

Owen and Clara reside in an apartment at the back of a83. The bedroom lofts over a kitchen and living area.

A highlight of the overhaul is the floor-to-ceiling glass on the north side, which includes a five-panel bifold door. The door opens to the couple’s favorite area of the house, the backyard. The deck is shaded by the cantilevered roof, and Ren planted drought-resistant brush amid the existing oak trees.

Over time, the salt air will soften the appearance of the exterior’s Galvalume cladding.

Backdrop’s After Hours, a soft charcoal hue, gives Carlos Naude and Whitney Brown’s home in Woodland Hills, California, sleek curb appeal. Lund Sconces by Kuzco Lighting punctuate the exterior, and the streamlined garage doors are by Amarr.

"Set in splendid isolation in a small, surf-battered bay on the north coast of Horomaka Banks Peninsula, this rustic style dwelling is luxury accommodation at Annandale, a 4000-hectare beef and sheep farm. The bay is nature in the raw. Seals and penguins frequent the dense kelp beds offshore, whales and dolphins travel the coastline, and piled on the beach are tangles of bleaching driftwood. Faced with such an uncompromising location, architect Andrew Patterson eschewed a modern or abstracted path—which, he reasons, 'would have fought the timeless nature of the bay’—in favour of a rural vernacular form, albeit on a monumental scale.

Inside, House Zero looks and feels like a traditional home, but with undulating 3D-printed exterior walls that offer an element of texture and movement to interior spaces.

Chris made a point of avoiding plasterboard, instead using structurally insulated panels for the walls to create an airtight seal, and for the flooring, a hydronic concrete slab from Hydrotherm that can warm or cool the interiors.

Floor Plan of Spyon Cop by Brown & Brown

The forest feeling continues in the evergreens surrounding the house. Adding to the outdoor area are Artemide Dioscuri sconces and Loll Designs outdoor dining furniture from Design Within Reach.

The couple wanted to keep the colour palette minimal and bring colour into the home through their collection of artwork. There is, however, a lot of texture. “Neither of us like plasterboard and we wanted to play with handworked finishes and recycled materials,” explains architect-owner Chris Stanley.

The back of the property has a relatively private feel for a downtown location. The living room opens out to the garden through two glazed walls, while the trellis cladding of the mudroom echoes the screens at the front of the home.

The client specifically requested that the architects not use drywall anywhere—thus whitewashed pine serves as the project’s primary material.

Large openings frame views of the tree line and the lake beyond. The heart of the living room is a stone tile fireplace, which references an element found in traditional cottages.