Walkways and breezeways

After adding layers of exterior insulation and new windows for an energy retrofit, the team replaced the siding with open-gap cedar cladding and COR-TEN accents.

The front courtyard is flanked by Japanese maple trees—against the better judgment of Jørgensen. “They scare the hell out of me, to be honest,” he says. “They’re so flammable.” But similar ones stood next to the Bartons’ former house, he explains, and Buttons wanted to include them as a connection to the past.

In October 2017, the catastrophic Nuns fire incinerated the ’70s-era A-frame in Napa County, California, that had served as a family retreat for 20 years and that the owners, who are mostly retired, were in the process of turning into their permanent home. (When the fire hit, the couple had already brought nearly all their family keepsakes and heirlooms, making the loss especially poignant.) Working with architectural designer Brandon Jørgensen, the couple turned the loss into a chance to build what is now their permanent home with fire resistance baked into the design.

Sheathed in dark bronze corrugated steel, Buttons and Ridgie Barton’s boldly geometric home in California’s Napa Valley rises on the footprint of the retreat they lost to a wildfire in October 2017. Working with architectural designer Brandon Jørgensen, the couple turned the loss into a chance to build what is now their permanent home with fire resistance baked into the design. A narrow path (below) leads to the recessed entrance.

This backyard home office for a couple in London is constructed with all-timber structural framing and is clad in cork and topped with a vegetated roof. These eco-friendly materials make for a delightfully sensory space with lots of lighting provided by the skylight and glass and oak door.

Listed for the first time since it was built in 1979, the cliffside home of architect Barry Downs is located in a waterfront area that is at risk of redevelopment.

The rock outcropping in the backyard of this house in Victoria, British Columbia influenced the design scheme of the home's addition. To visually integrate the form, architect Bruce Greenway took shorn-off pieces of rock and constructed a curving wall that extends into the house.

A lofted drawing studio features a sawtooth roof with expansive skylights that frame the branches of a jacaranda tree overhead.

Similarly, from the grounds below, the home peeks out below in contrast with the sky.

A glimpse inside the bridge-link hall that connects the period house with the contemporary extension. To mark the threshold between the two structures, artist Nadine Keegan crafted a stained glass window (not pictured) that depicts imagery of the current city, fruit trees from the Greek and Italian immigrant families, and the Yam Daisies that had been grown in the area by the Wurundjeri people.

The "bridge-like link element" that connects the original structure to the new extension also sits between the street-facing garden and a linear pool tucked behind.

Designed by Arba, the retreat’s enclosed garden provides outdoor space out of the wind while the cuts give it a strong connection with the setting.