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Dwell’s Favorite 1,169 Exterior Design Photos And Ideas

The cabin is clad in untreated, locally sourced pine that will develop a silvery-gray patina over time.
Multiple Hytte cabins can be clustered together to create a village layout.
The new building (at right) utilizes traditional forms and materials, but declares its modernity with asymmetrical windows an an exterior shutter with oversized graphics.
Double Roof House, a residence and small business designed by Khuon Studio, sits on a narrow lot that measures 44 by 183 feet in Ho Chi Minh City.
The off-grid MU50 is topped with solar panels and solar thermal panels. Ground-source heat pumps support underfloor heating and cooling, while a nearby well supplies water. A desalination system provides drinking water, and rainwater is collected for landscape irrigation.
Clad in natural pine, the building is designed to weather as it may. “As artists, Donna and Oliver love that idea of something living,” says Lolley. “The house is sort of like an art piece in itself. What will it look like next year? What will it look like tomorrow?”
The Lofthouse is built one of the many hills separating it from the couple’s main residence. "Excavation was a challenge, as we wanted to maintain as much of the existing landscape as possible, but needed to clear out trees for the foundation," says Tarah.
The interiors are lined with OSB Poplar wood, and insulated with 12cm of recycled cotton.
Michael Benjamin Lerner of the band Telekinesis collaborated with local prefab builder NODE to build a 392-square-foot DADU in Lerner’s Seattle backyard. The builder took care of design, permitting, site prep, and the foundation and framing. Michael tackled the finish work.
Outside, a large 15-foot awning allows the family to enjoy outdoor living.
The ADU stands ready for guests—and the owners to use as a temporary home during renovations of the main house.
The tiny houseboat, named Sneci, is crafted primarily from wood and aluminum.
"For the first three months of the pandemic, we hiked every day—rain or shine or snow,
An adjacent flat-roofed volume holds the garage, entry vestibule, laundry, and wine cellar.
A new cedar and glass dining pavilion extends through the back of a weekend retreat in rural Ontario designed by architect Brian O'Brian for Ben Sykes and Erin Connor. The 19th-century timber and stone structure, formerly a one-room schoolhouse, proved to be the perfect palimpsest for a modern intervention.
The garden was planned by Megan, who selected agaves amongst other plantings as a tribute to her California roots.
Architect Minwook Choi’s 710-square-foot Seroro House rises from a tiny urban lot in Seoul that had long been neglected because of its challenging size.
“Courtyards are a fantastic way of controlling the sun here,” says architect Cavin Costello. “We live outdoors primarily in the late fall/winter, when the sun angle is very low, and tall walls are often more effective than roofs in providing shade for the outdoor spaces.”
On Bainbridge Island, Jim and Hannah Cutler created a cabin for reading and working. Sited just steps from the main house, it’s a welcoming retreat that the father and daughter share.
From prefab pods to cozy cabins, these backyard offices make working from home a breeze.
The shape and orientation of the extension prevents snow from piling up on the south-facing outdoor terrace.
Folding doors create an indoor/outdoor experience.
Without the need for a permanent foundation, the Hüga House can be relocated at any time.
The Majamaja Cabin by Littow Architectes was constructed on-site from prefab wood panels and without the use of heavy machinery. The self-contained unit makes for a perfect eco-retreat, especially when positioned at water’s edge in Finland.
The home’s exterior is clad in panels made from expanded corkboard—a sustainable, cost-effective material that provides insulation.
Considering the abundance of biodiversity, lifting the structure off the ground was an ecological measure as much as a utilitarian one.
6 Prefab Companies Ready to Build Your New Backyard Office: These prefab ADUs are the perfect solution for those in need of a separate home office.
This compact vacation home by TACO—or, Taller de Arquitectura Contextual—is immersed in southeastern Mexico’s wild landscape. The home is designed for a pair of young adults, and the firm’s objective was to achieve a reflective and contemplative place that links the occupants with the surrounding environment. The result is an intuitive, functional, and simple living experience that offers great spatial warmth.
The three buildings are strategically organized around a central courtyard, creating an outdoor room that is protected from sun, precipitation, and wind. The openings between the buildings frame the predominant views.
Interior designer Markie Miller and her father Lance Price, a woodworker, teamed up to rehab the old trailer.
Prices for standard Igluhuts begin at <span style="font-family: Theinhardt, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, &quot;Segoe UI&quot;, Roboto, Oxygen-Sans, Ubuntu, Cantarell, &quot;Helvetica Neue&quot;, sans-serif;">€19,900 (approximately $23,500), with additional costs for some custom upgrades, taxes, and transportation.</span>
To open up the backyard, the architects removed the existing timber enclosure that once covered the pool.
The Japanese "no-brand" masters of minimalism unveil the first single-story design in their line of prefab homes.
Silvano Zamò, third-generation winemaker at Le Vigne di Zamò winery, and his wife Brigitte tasked architecture firm GEZA with a holiday home on a hilltop location in the tiny northern Italian village of Camporosso, not far from the ski resort Monte Lussari.
Niki Bergen and two of her children run up the hill by the guesthouse she and her partner, Andrew Zuckerman, built on their upstate New York property. The structure was designed by Levenbetts, the architecture firm also responsible for the older main house nearby.
Architect and metalworker Christi Azevedo transformed a 93-square-foot brick boiler room—from 1916—into a loft-like guesthouse. She made the most of the vertical space to unleash the potential of the petite project.
A tiny outbuilding offers a cozy living space inside a simple shell.
Because of its irregular, otherworldly form, and how it seems to be suspended in midair, the cabin was named "Ufogel," which is a melding of the acronym UFO and "vogel," meaning bird in German.
Ryan McLaughlin watches the sunset from the deck of the 160-square-foot tiny home he built, with no prior experience, at his parents’ horse ranch in Georgetown, Texas. Soon, the trailer-mounted cabin will be moved to a vineyard, where it will operate grid-free and be available to rent for short stays.
Measuring only 180 square feet, this exquisite, off-grid tiny home features a big sense of style.
Generations of family have lived on this wooded, waterfront site, where architect Will Randolph has built a weekend getaway for less than $70,000.
The Lost Whiskey Cabin stands on a rocky bluff overlooking Virginia's countryside.
"We imagined how six people would use the space and developed the shape accordingly," says Hello Wood cofounder Dávid Ráday. "We took inspiration from the design of space capsules, and the cabin was refined step by step before reaching its final form."
This remote cabin in Sullivan County hovers above a steep slope, suspended by the trees that surround it.
Five tiny glass cabins on Sweden’s Henriksholm Island allow travelers to unplug from the noise of their technology-driven lifestyles. The “72 Hour Cabins” are Norwegian spruce structures that offer peace and quiet with minimally furnished yet cozy interiors.
With a comfy bed, a built-in kitchenette and plenty of storage, this tiny trailer will provide all the amenities needed for a quick getaway.
Den's A frame house is designed with 1,000 square feet of living space.
Koto’s charred-timber workspace is an exercise in wabi-sabi design that embraces imperfection amid the natural world. The carbon-neutral structure is built from natural materials, and it can operate both on- and off-grid.
“My brother-in-law is an avid gardener, so pairing rooms with gardens, and experiencing the house as a series of spaces with different relationships to plants and trees, evolved naturally,” explains George.
Surman Weston delivers a contemporary twist on the mock-Tudor style with minimalist interiors and intricate brickwork.
The Outdoor Room frames west-facing views of the Kaimai Range. “With timber-battened clear roofing above, it perfectly frames the forest views beyond, creating moments of uninterrupted connection and stillness with nature,” note the architects.
"The colonnade arches are turned upside down as they are better for sitting in and for playing (bombies into the pool and chasing through the garden)," say the architects.
The exterior walls were built of off-form corrugated concrete and reference the ubiquitous backyard sheds in the neighborhood.
The house is hidden from the road and sits on a hilltop clearing that overlooks the rolling farmland of the Mississippi River bluffs in Western Wisconsin. From this vantage point, there is a 270-degree view, with dramatic sunsets over the distant hills.
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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.