Small Modern Houses

One of the main goals of the construction was to do as little harm as possible to the existing environment, which includes waterways that salmon depend upon. Herrin and his team created a garden roof that covers the full extent of the home to meet this objective. “This helps control storm water runoff and also replaces lost insect habitat—insects being a critical food source for juvenile salmon,” he says.

Wood from the property’s felled trees was incorporated into every room in the 3,000-square-foot house.

This dwelling joins a number of structures—such as a boathouse and guesthouse—owned by one family and used for vacations. They needed a new house to accommodate new generations at the reatreat.

“From the street, it appears as a rectangular building with sloping shed roofs, but this is actually an illusion,” Hutchison notes. “The floor plan is actually U-shaped, wrapping around an entry courtyard that is contained by the continuous west facade.” A standing seam metal roof by Custom Bilt Metals blends in with the cedar siding.

In the winter, instead of floating over the pond, the hut sits lightly above the snow. "It's protected and serene but alive with subtle energy," Poss says. Photo by Phillip Kalantzis-Cope. Don't miss a word of Dwell! Download our FREE app from iTunes, friend us on Facebook, or follow us on Twitter!

One of the most significant of Mies' works, the Farnsworth House in Plano, Illinois, was built between 1945 and 1951 for Dr. Edith Farnsworth as a weekend retreat. The home embraces his concept of a strong connection between structure and nature, and may be the fullest expression of his modernist ideals.

The father of architect Greg Dutton wished to build a cabin on the family farm, located within Appalachian Ohio and home to 400 heads of cattle. Dutton, of Pittsburgh and Columbus, Ohio-based Midland Architecture, presented this design as his father’s birthday present in 2012. Finished in 2014, the 900-square-foot cabin operates entirely off-the-grid.

This 1,000 square-foot weekend cabin in Mazama, Washington, is essentially a "steel box on stilts," according to the firm. The three-story structure, which includes a living room and kitchen, can be completely shuttered when the owner is away.

San Francisco firm Lundberg Design built this cabin out of reclaimed materials, including the exterior redwood, which has aged into an elegant, ashen gray. In a past life, the pool acted as a water tank for livestock.

Rough-sawn plywood and standing-seam metal siding clad the house. “In cabins, we like to use undressed materials, which lend themselves to the simplicity of the structure,” says architect Tom Lenchek.

Architect Charlie Lazor opted for a wash of black on the prefab cabin he designed on Madeline Island, Wisconsin.

Delta Shelter, a cabin getaway on the same property as the Rolling Huts. We visited the owner and his wife during one of our visits to get an in-person reference for Tanner Construction. It was wonderful to see the house in person after drooling over it in the pages of Tom Kundig: Houses. Photo by Tim Bies.

“I wanted more of a skeletal look for this house, and less of a chunky, log-cabin look,” says Panton, who added stark steel bracing across the entire length of the porch’s roof structure.

Nice modern cabin

The jagged edges of the roof are meant to resemble the surrounding peaks of the Cascades. The exterior HardiePanel vertical siding is painted “dark pewter” by Benjamin Moore.

Cabins from around the world

Architect Bill Yudchitz asked his son, Daniel, to help him create a self-sustaining multi-level family cabin in Bayfield, Wisconsin.

Designed by Jensen & Skovdin, the Juvet's first-generation cabins are built on stilts in order to impact the environment as little as possible. Despite the modernist aesthetic, the buildings were built by local craftsmen using traditional materials and techniques.

One of the most astounding views from the house extends all the way to Mt. McKinley, the highest point in North America at over 20,000 feet.