yard/deck

An Eames lounge chair and ottoman anchor the houses's living room, which enjoys floor-to-ceiling views looking north.

Both bedrooms, including this bunk room, feature the same sliding-glass doors as the living room and great room, allowing plenty of natural light.

The overhanging roof creates covered outdoor space connected to the home's public areas.

A see-through entry hall joins the living areas with a bedroom wing.

Architect Johan Sundberg looked to Japanese architects like Kengo Kuma for inspiration for the design of a holiday home in southern Sweden. "We call it the Katsura typology, but that's probably sacrilegious," he says. The eaves of the gently sloped hipped roof extend generously in all directions, turning the deck into a covered retreat that’s part veranda, part engawa, the Japanese version of a porch.

A maple tree grows through an ipe deck in this garden that Mary Barensfeld designed for a family in Berkeley, California. A reflecting pool separates it from a granite patio, which is furnished with a Petal dining table by Richard Schultz and chairs by Mario Bellini. The 1,150-square-foot garden serves as an elegant transition from the couple’s 1964 Japanese-style town house to a small, elevated terrace with views of San Francisco Bay. Filigreed Cor-Ten steel fence screens—perforated with a water-jet cutter to cast dappled shadows on a bench and the ground below—and zigzagging board-formed concrete retaining walls are examples.

A section of the facade—a cross between a shoji screen and a barn door—slides open. Planter boxes contain edible varieties that fuel Mary’s culinary explorations.

Glass doors slide open to create seamless transitions between the interior and exterior living areas.

Faulker Architects designed this concrete-and-steel home for a family looking to escape to their property near Lake Tahoe in the Sierra Nevada Mountains.

The view from the garden into the studio shows its relationship to the rest of the house. Wakoko continued her use of sustainably-oriented materials on the exterior, using locally-sourced, fast-growing black locust decking on the patio.

Isaac describes the building as a “semi-modular” unit: “It has a pier and beam foundation, so it can be moved, but only short distances because its 17-foot width means permits would be necessary. It was also built on site.”

Outdoor lounge chairs from Design Within Reach rest on the floating wood deck.

Designed by architect Jean-Baptiste Barache of Arba-, the 1,200-square-foot home floats above the ground, respectful of the nature surrounding it. “We tried to reduce the boundaries as much as possible,” says Barache. Sliding glass doors at the back of the house, mirroring those in the front, open to a view of the garden and the limestone quarry.

In Oakland, the weather allows for indoor/outdoor living most of the year.