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The cabin decks all face either expansive views of the ocean or the magical forest of fir trees.

The house is hidden from the road and sits on a hilltop clearing that overlooks the rolling farmland of the Mississippi River bluffs in Western Wisconsin. From this vantage point, there is a 270-degree view, with dramatic sunsets over the distant hills.

The Majamaja Cabin by Littow Architectes was constructed on-site from prefab wood panels and without the use of heavy machinery. The self-contained unit makes for a perfect eco-retreat, especially when positioned at water’s edge in Finland.

The Monkey House is located in a secondary forest in the Brazilian Atlantic Rainforest that had been used as a banana plantation decades ago. Brajovic has turned the area, which is located on the border of Bocaina National Park, into an ecological sanctuary called Aldeia Rizoma that’s now home to several eco-friendly homes.

The cabins and sauna that architect Zane Tetere-Sulce designed for the Ziedlejas Wellness Resort are clad with Cor-Ten steel and glass.

The Monocular - Front Perspective

According to Studio Heima—the Danish-Icelandic firm behind the project—thoughts of volcanoes with ash and lava "lying like a blanket in the landscape

The rollable wood-clad walls help the retreat further blend into the surrounding nature.

Designed by Atelier Lina Bellovicova, House LO marks the country’s first residential project to use hempcrete, a sustainable and fire-and-mold-resistant materil.

To turn a home into a permanent residence for a family of four, Rama Estudio attached a prefab glass-and-steel box that extends into the surrounding wilderness.

The volumes that contain the living room and a guest bedroom were designed with roof terraces, and green roofs cover four of the other volumes.

The sloped roof of Carlton’s art studio grows a colorful mix of sedum species.

The restrained 820-square-foot interior is defined by the angular ceiling. Garlick left the prefabricated structural panels unfinished to save on material costs. A True North wood stove from Pacific Energy heats the house. Max, the family’s cat, naps on a vintage rug purchased on eBay.

A third of the house and deck cantilever out toward the stream, and the void beneath the deck provides a place for wood storage. The cabin sits just 100 feet from the water, and with the windows open you can hear the ambient rush of the stream from throughout the house.

A shark-skinning shack.

Cedar slats mark the facade of Floating House, Doug and Becca Worple's lake house in Ontario. The architects, MOS, chose materials and shapes that wouldn’t stand out. “They’re really simple, almost Platonic forms,” principal Michael Meredith says. The modest cabin has boat, a gabled roof and a cladding of untreated cedar, a material that shows up on docks and homes along Georgian Bay. “Allowing the buildings to weather seems the right thing to do,” Sample says. And it’s ready for winter: Sliding barn doors seal the place up as an impenetrable box.