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Dwell's Favorite 1095 Exterior Design Photos And Ideas

Amid the current crisis, it’s natural to long for an escape—and the severe, otherworldly beauty of Joshua Tree in Southern California may have more of a pull than ever. Whether you’re looking to book a long-term stay or bookmarking places in anticipation of future travel, these Airbnbs offer up Southwestern vibes in a sprawling, desert landscape. Read on for our top picks—from the architectural wonder that is Acido Dorado to Instagram-famous digs and hidden gems.
Perforated anodized aluminum operable screens mitigate solar glare. The home features a mix of low-E and bushfire-rated toughened glass set within nonflammable frames.
The Buhaus includes a living/sleeping area with a kitchenette, a bathroom, and an outdoor deck. Each unit can be completed within three to four months.
Amagansett Modular House by MB Architecture
This single-family residence in Bloomfield, Michigan, known as the Treehaus, embodies the iconic style of midcentury modernism. Thanks to a thoughtful renovation, this rare dwelling has been restored to its original state of refined elegance.
In Chile's Chiloé Archipelago, architect Guillermo Acuña developed a 12-acre island for his friends and family to unwind, first with a boathouse, later with pathway-connected cabins at the water's edge. Design details include glazed walls, eco-friendly pine, and a bright red palette that calls to mind the intensely colored chilco flowers that bloom here come spring and summer.
This eye-catching villa in the Netherlands, designed by Next Architects, proves that you can go big and go home as well. While some homes feature hints of color, the Villa van Vijven structure garners well-deserved attention thanks to its warm orange facade that is meant to mimic the tiled rooftops of Holland’s country buildings. The orange of the exterior also carries over into the communal entrance beneath the building, offset by natural elements such as stones adjacent to the entryway.
In February of 2007, two San Francisco art and travel addicts purchased a 3,200-square-foot former Chinese laundry and tooth-powder factory with column-free interiors and a zigzagging sawtooth roof in lower Pacific Heights. They customized a pair of shipping containers to accommodate their collection and reflect their passions, and hired a local company to sandblast the interior to expose the board-formed concrete walls and replace the carpeted floors with Georgia hickory pecan planks to further lengthen the loft and make it look more like a warehouse.
At 74 square meters (797 square feet), this variation of the Vinkelhuset line by Danish modular cabin designer Møn Huset is L-shaped in plan and hits all the right notes, boasting clean lines, a practical gabled roof, and simple, attractive detailing on the interior.
"How would a kid draw a house?" architect Per Franson asked himself when designing the Olivero-Reinius family home. The simple prefab structure’s unusual color comes from a traditional source: falu rödfärg, the historic mineral paint that gives the region’s famous barns their red color.
If you’re traveling to Puglia in Italy, one of the most iconic sights are trulli (trullo is the singular), an ancient hut that's specific to the Itria Valley in the Apulia region of Southern Italy. Made with dry stone, trulli date back to medieval times.
"The placement of the stacked boxes and the space between them has been treated in a sculptural way—always considering the functional needs of habitability and the beauty of the house," explains Estudio Caballero Colón.
Karen and Brian’s home is a vibrant new addition to a block of midcentury bungalows in Vancouver, British Columbia. One of the volumes is clad in untreated tongue-and-groove Western red cedar. The other is covered in multicolored cedar shakes, which are skewed at an angle that aligns with the slope of the roof. Architect Clinton Cuddington of Measured Architecture worked with the owners to fine-tune the unconventional pattern and color palette. Concrete from the building that formerly occupied the site was repurposed for the stoop.
The black roof and siding is all galvanized sheet metal painted black.
Inspired by a haystack, Chalet Jelovac was designed to have a “good visual, spiritual, and physical connection” with its natural surroundings.
Vibrant red siding references the original buildings on the site.
A glassed-in walkway connects the open-plan living areas to a separate bedroom wing.
The architecture follows the natural contours of the wedge-shaped site: the building is placed on higher ground on the site’s wider east end, while exterior decking steps down to the pool to the west.
Niko Architect and landscape firm Ecopochva designed a Moscow home that doesn’t play by the rectilinear rules of conventional architecture. Vegetation blankets the home’s concrete form, and its walls sweep upward and outward to become roofs. Molded floor-to-ceiling windows curve to grant panoramic views of the backyard and swimming pool.
The sunshine-yellow spiral staircase stands out against the pale tone of the brick facade.
The oblique concrete roofs for each of the guest suites angle upward to allow for expansive views of the rolling hills and the valley.
The corrugated metal roofing is a subtle reference to the many sheds found on farms in the local area.
The box-shaped extension plays off the familiar farmhouse typology, creating a series of intriguing contrasts.
An exercise in simplicity, the Sonoma weeHouse consists of two steel-framed volumes with ipe interiors, oiled oak cabinetry, and massive sliding glass walls that overlook valley views.
Located in Karuizawa, a popular summer resort town in Japan’s Nagano Prefecture, Four Leaves is a weekend getaway designed to accommodate the homeowner and their guests in a lush, sylvan setting. Designed by Kentaro Ishida Architects Studio (KIAS), the highlight of the stunning, 2,400-square-foot house is its sloping, angular roof sections that are delicately assembled to resemble fallen leaves.
The home’s third floor is cantilevered to offer better views and to create an outdoor terrace for the family to enjoy in the warmer months.
Set on a southeast-facing slope, the AB Cabin is fitted with double-glazed windows that frame views of the town of Taihape and rolling hills beyond.
The pivotal screens can be adjusted to adapt to the sun’s angle. As they are made from perforated sheet metal, they do not block views from the wine tasting room.
The green roof is planted with local succulents, including cascading pigface.
A Cor-Ten steel "sleeping volume" seemingly floats atop a predominantly glass "living volume." Intersecting these two stacked volumes is a double-height, timber box which houses the multipurpose spaces.
The units were designed to accommodate green roofs, which were part of the initial design intent, but put on hold for budgetary reasons.
Architects Javier Sánchez and Carlos Mar of JSa created a bold house in Valle de Bravo that emerges from the setting in three parts like "excavated stone boxes." Valle de Bravo that emerges from the setting in three parts like "excavated stone boxes. Inspired by Donald Judd’s minimalist works, the three volumes feature board-formed concrete walls accented with charred wood. Strategically placed cutouts and windows frame views within and between the volumes and out to the surrounding terrain.
Cedar, glass, and concrete combine in this minimalist pool house that draws inspiration from Mies van der Rohe’s 1929 Barcelona Pavilion. The pool house, built into a mountainside west of Montreal and designed by Halifax–based MacKay-Lyons Sweetapple Architects, employs board-formed concrete for the home's expressive exterior.
At Under, a Snøhetta-designed restaurant balanced on the Norwegian coast, guests dine 16 feet below the ocean’s surface. The tilted concrete tube gives the impression that it’s sliding into the sea. “The idea was to make a tube that would bring people from above sea level down under the sea,” lead architect Rune Grasdal told Dezeen. “That transition is easy to understand, but it’s also the most effective way to do it. It also feels secure, but you don’t feel trapped.” The angle was also designed with the building’s aquatic neighbors in mind. Over time the structure will become part of its environment, acting as an artificial reef. Marine research tools like cameras have been installed outside the restaurant to help scientists learn about the population, behavior, and diversity of the species living in this part of the North Atlantic.
Filled with light and views of greenery, two exquisitely crafted concrete pavilions form an award-winning home that ages elegantly over time. The bold, monolithic designs of Australian architecture studio Edition Office have been brought to life in an unexpected place—Hawthorn, one of the most affluent suburbs in Melbourne that’s better known for Victorian architecture than contemporary design. The recently completed home—dubbed the Hawthorn House—was created for a couple who asked Edition Office directors Kim Bridgland and Aaron Roberts to apply the design sensibilities they would normally use for rural landscapes to a more suburban context. In contrast to the soft greenery, the home is sheathed and supported by board-formed concrete, a material suggested by the client, who drew on his background in construction during the highly collaborative design process.
Located in Austin’s historic Hyde Park in the company of 1920s-era bungalows, the Concrete Casita by Ravel Architecture is distinct with its contemporary, low-lying profile, yet feels at home with the neighborhood. Designs to become in-law’s quarters or serve as a versatile, indoor/outdoor space for an active Austin family, the 600-square-foot structure has a rugged makeup of board-formed concrete, rusted steel, and glass. Ravel Architecture partners Alex Finnell and Devin Keyes chose board-formed concrete for the exterior, scoring the vertical boards to "get a really nice texture and interesting dynamics," says Finnell.
Set on the edge of Puertos de Beceite national park in Aragon, Spain, and available for vacation rentals, Casa Solo Pezo is a striking concrete square structure set on top of a smaller concrete square bass. Designed by award-winning and MoMA-exhibited Chilean architects at Pezo Von Ellrichshausen, this thoroughly modern residence has proportions and an interior layout that follows those of traditional Mediterranean homes with a strong indoor/outdoor connection. Its board-formed concrete exterior gives the building a texture and pattern that lend an almost organic, natural feel despite its very rectilinear form.
Not only was extra living space necessary for the growing family of four, but the existing house also failed to take advantage of the striking views that drew the couple to the site. The homeowners tapped architect Malcolm Davis of San Francisco–based Malcolm Davis Architecture to redesign and expand the dwelling without damaging the many established oak trees.
In 2013, Jennifer Warner and Cara Frey fell in love with a modest but charming 1920s house within walking distance of their bungalow. The dwelling was dramatically sited, with great views of Portland’s southwest hills and downtown. But according to Michael Leckie, the Vancouver–based architect they eventually hired, "It was the dumpiest house on the block." Leckie replaced the house with a simple, modern design, using a basic square wood box that skews into a rhombus form, which he topped with a sloping roof. Their son, William, 6, swings in front of the cedar-clad house.
Casey Brown Architecture designed the Hart House, a modern update to the one-room Australian beach shack that overlooks Great Mackerel Beach. The contemporary home mimics the shack vernacular with its simple, boxy construction that’s wrapped in a protective shell of corrugated metal.
Saved from demolition, stripped of awkward alterations, and faithfully restored, these rehabbed homes prove how timeless midcentury design can be.
We’ve gathered 20 of our favorite homes that maintain their midcentury flavor without sacrificing 21st-century modernizations and updates.
Durable, economical, and easy to build, the simple A-frame was once the must-have midcentury vacation home. Today, the classic retreat has been propelled back to popularity, thanks largely to photo-centric platforms like Instagram and Pinterest. Read on for 20 charming A-frame homes that caught our eye.
If you’d like to make room for visiting friends and family without moving to a larger home, take notes from these accessory dwelling units (ADUs), lower-level guest spaces, and other inventive in-law units that treat Grandma right.
Building with Cor-Ten steel—weathering steel's nom de plume—is a bit like watching a painting slowly come to life over time. Exposure to the elements adds textured hues of red and orange to the material until it steps into a character completely its own. From the Dwell archive, we bring you nine Cor-Ten steel homes with facades that will continue to shift through shades of ochre, amber, rust, and sienna.
The one-story homes blend seamlessly into the background due to a palette of basalt, cement, and imported African wood.
The barn makes extraordinarily efficient use of timber milled from on-site trees.
Located on the Imingfjell mountainside in Norway, this minimalist, 785-square-foot cabin features a "hood" in response to the climate and the region’s strict building regulations.
The commission was for a robust and efficient little cabin oriented towards the lake.
Composite wood louvers shield the interior from unwanted heat gain and provide privacy from the street.
The Birch Le Collaboration House and all of the Hygge Supply homes are made from structural insulated panels (SIPs) and steel framing, both of which are designed and cut to spec and delivered to the job site ready for placement, leaving little to no waste onsite. The homes can either be built on a slab-on-grade foundation with concrete floors; pier foundations with Thermory wood floors; or a basement foundation which also includes Thermory wood floors.
Upon the launch of the Yō no Ie House in September 2019, Muji installed a show home in a forested area in Isumi, about two hours from central Tokyo.
The recessed area in the wooden deck can be used for a fire pit or a vegetable garden.
Nestled on a crescent-shaped surf beach on South Island’s Banks Peninsula sits a deceptively simple beach house. Scrubby Bay is a rustic retreat flush with modern luxuries and breathtaking scenery at every turn.
Located among lush, rolling hills in Valles Pasiegos, Spain, Villa Slow is a minimalist holiday home designed by Laura Álvarez Architecture. The property was once a stone ruin, and now it generates more energy than it uses.
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Zoom out for a look at the modern exterior. From your dream house, to cozy cabins, to loft-like apartments, to repurposed shipping containers, these stellar projects promise something for everyone. Explore a variety of building types with metal roofs, wood siding, gables, and everything in between.