Residential

The home, which is located on waterfront property, sits atop cement columns as both a safety measure and to take advantage of the ocean views.

The clients—a family of five with three children in college—wanted to create an “urban cabin” that embraces the tranquil forested site on the shores of Lake Minnetonka. The solution was to use vast expanses of glass to dissolve the boundaries between inside and out.

“Opening the house to the southwest also gave the best chance of hearing the ocean noises in the house at night,” says Sabbeth. A Malm Firedrum 3 fireplace anchors the corner, with a cream Piero Lissoni sofa, coffee table by Andrianna Shamaris and leather Cassina chairs placed before it.

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.

This thatch-roofed brick cottage in Nieby, Germany, was originally built by tenant farmers or crofters from a nearby estate in the late 1800s. It stands on a small triangular plot of land surrounded by barley fields and faces toward the Geltinger Birk nature reserve. The home’s street-facing facade was preserved and restored with only a minimal, black-steel dormer window belying the more substantial alterations which open onto the private rear yard. A subtle black-framed addition containing an oak-lined living space is tucked under the thatched roof and opens onto a sunken timber terrace while large picture windows are cut into the historic brick volume in areas which had been damaged from the previous additions.

The pantry lines the wall to the right.

Spatial variations across the main level.

The couple added a coat of black paint and cedar siding to give the home a cleaner, more modern look. "The house already had wide and low eaves, providing protection from the sun, and we added new spray-foam insulation, so the black exterior actually does not pose too much of an issue with the desert heat," she says. A new Cor-Ten steel fence blocks the view of the neighbor's roof, but doesn't interfere with the landscape.

The three pavilions ascend upward from the street.

The large pool—looking into the fitness area—is used by Misty to train her clients.

Kanuka Valley House by WireDog Architecture

Woodhouse's exterior is clad in vertical strips of Douglas fir and punctuated by full-height windows.