Stunning Waterfront Structures
The best architecture takes full advantage of a setting without upstaging it. Here are seven buildings that make the most of their waterfront perch.

A bothouse in Georgian Bay, Ontario, by Weiss Architecture & Urbanism Ltd. is clad in black-stained resawn cedar.

In Newfoundland, Canada, a minimalist cube set against a picturesque background form a studio free of distraction. By Saunders Architecture from the book Rock the Shack, Copyright Gestalten 2013.

Architect Craig Steely designed this house for himself, his wife Cathy Liu, a painter, and their son, Zane, that looks out to the Pacific Ocean from a lava flow on the big island of Hawaii.

A New Zealand expat and her son use their prefabricated lakeside retreat in New Jersey as an outdoorsy counterpoint to city life.

A semitransparent addition to a 200-year-old farmhouse in upstate New York has a roofline that matches the pitch of the original structure. A porch, tucked under the side eaves, is cantilevered over a stream that runs through the property.

A couple from Ohio built this vacation home on a tiny island in Georgian Bay, Ontario, replacing an old boathouse.

On the shores of New Zealand’s Lake Wakatipu, architects Bronwen Kerr and Pete Ritchie designed a relaxed family home that reclines into its spectacular landscape.
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