Collection by Amanda Grimes
Smaller houses
While the owners really liked the idea of shou sugi ban, they opted for a more cost-effective black stain. The random-width, reverse board-and-batten siding reflects the wabi-sabi concept. “The builder said the math for the random siding was torturous,” the wife said. “We didn’t know how hard it was to make things look simple.” DeNiord planted hay-scented fern and lowbush blueberry sod around the house. “We didn't want any side of the house to feel unconsidered,” he says. As for the local boulders he placed around the house and terrace, he says, “They give the feeling that the house grew up around the outcroppings.”
The Modus team vaulted the ceilings and added skylights, as well as glass doors across the back wall. Custom white oak paneling covers the wall up to the ceiling, as well as the island. “It’s one of the first things that you see when you walk into the house,” says Grace of the island. “It brings the right amount of drama.”
Inside Moshe Safdie & Uribe Schwarzkopf’s Qorner building, near Quito’s La Carolina Park, Juan Alberto Andrade and Maria Jose Vascones outfitted a 300 square-foot studio with in-built modules that transform the space into a kitchen, bedroom or workspace on a whim. “The project is born from the need to solve, through architectural strategies, the spatial and formal limitations of this new way of living, that relates directly to urban and social mobility,” explain the architects.















