Vellum

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.

Two fin-like, metal-clad walls rise from the crown of the hill to support a three-story plywood box suspended a full story above grade.

This home stands at the edge of the Tongass Narrows in Ketchikan, Alaska. Two shed roofs angle slightly away from each other, directing views to the wilderness beyond.