Outdoor steps

The building is set back from the boundary to create a generous forecourt, where the staircase’s many uses can be enjoyed.

Sleeping Cabin at sunset.

The firm preserved that asymmetry by extending the roofline on one side and tucking the new kitchen and dining room underneath it.

The interior glows like a lantern at night, as does the new backyard pool.

WDA demolished a 1950s tract home to built a brand new, two-story, 4,898-square-foot oasis with five bedrooms and four-and-a-half-baths. Topping off this Silicon Valley home is an asymmetrical, Le Corbusier-style butterfly roof that gives the home its distinctive form while creating soaring spaces on the second floor.

Inspired by historic American farmhouses, this modern dwelling is sited at the base of the Rocky Mountain Foothills in West Boulder, Colorado. Designed by Surround Architecture, the 6,800-square-foot property features a unique layout that makes the best use of its one-acre site, while also responding to its long driveway access.

The home “is really about place, how it sits on the site, how it responds to the sun,” reflects McKeel.

A look at the contemporary facade post renovation. The new standing steel roof and siding of one of the wings references the cathedral spire in the village below.

House Ocho

The lake-facing side of the house is fitted with floor-to-ceiling glass windows.

A tight pattern of slate cladding complements a wild carpet of native grasses outside an East Hampton residence by Paul Masi of Bates Masi + Architects. The home, sited to capture the breeze, was constructed for a family of wind-sports enthusiasts.

A stepped concrete garden planted with herbs and flowers marks the descent to the house. The courtyard is the focal point of the U-shaped structure; there is clear visibility between the kitchen on one side and the children's bedrooms on the other.

The backyard’s emphasis on nature is mirrored in the front of the home, which also underwent extensive landscaping by Considered Design. The owners and Parish wanted to “tone everything down” and turn the home into a backdrop for a natural setting.

Located on a steep site with limited suitable building ground, the firm decided to cantilever the home over the hillside, which has the effect of helping the structure blend in with the landscape.

The original Colonial-style exterior included a few small dormers that weren’t large enough to maximize views or welcome natural light into the home. To fix this, Michael installed a series of new ones. Made of standing seam aluminum, they're designed to evoke the feel of local barn windows with a slightly modern twist.

Architect Line Solgaard, founder of the eponymous Oslo- and Fredrikstad-based firm, designed a getaway for her family in the place where she grew up. Untreated, exposed concrete pairs with cedar cladding; custom, oak-paneled ceilings; and a glass roof in the center of the home that opens like a sunroof for natural ventilation.

The original home was converted into a bedroom level, and given a second-story addition and roof deck. The dark exterior color, a charcoal-eggplant hue, lets the landscape colors stand out in contrast. “The existing house roof became the roof deck,” says Rogers. “And then I just shifted over the addition so that it floated over the landscape.”

A Japanese-style Bamboo water fountain sits in the driveway.