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Exterior Design Photos and Ideas

Merritt Amanti Palminteri and Rogers Hawley revamped their Monterey bungalow without expanding its footprint.
Hektor is divided into four independent suits and a central communal area.
A raised pool in the northeast corner of the building provides relief on hot, sunny days.
Zach Batteer and Carlyle Scott designed Field Cabin, a 288-square foot accommodation at Serana, their communal retreat in Paige, Texas. Wrapped in Yakisugi-treated pine, the cabin took 40 days and almost $46K to build.
The couple enjoy growing veggies in an on-site greenhouse, and tending to their flock of chickens.
Pablo designed his family’s home to disrupt as little of the landscape as possible.
Pablo designed his home with simplicity in mind, opting for simple geometric forms and a minimal color and material palette.
Greenway Studio designed this home addition In Victoria, British Columbia, to blend in with an existing natural rock formation.
In this temperate, oceanside climate, the house relies on natural ventilation, with numerous operable windows.
A Nova Scotia couple learn that although triangular homes may look simple, they can be devilishly complex.
Monika and Darren Bennett worked with SM Studio on their custom home in Vancouver, B.C. The main house has 2703 square feet, plus a 514 square foot garage/studio on the rear alley, with a courtyard and pool in between the two buildings.
“There is an enormous amount of glass here,” laughs Vanbesien—so much so that the design team struggled to find enough wall space to mount the heat pump.
Copper cladding will patina over time. Horizontally articulated windows and standing seams give the facade a sleek, streamlined presence.
LA-based commerical director Jared Eberhardt purchase this desert property near Joshua Tree just before the COVID-19 pandemic hit. It contained a small, downtrodden house that needed a full renovation to become habitable. Over the course of the pandemic, Jared transformed it into a midcentury-inspired getaway that combines the original 1958 house with a fresh, new addition.
The suburban backyard garage in Hertfordshire, England, that architect Olli Andrew of Hyper converted into a work studio is wrapped in charred larch wood pieces that give the impression of scales and foster biodiversity, providing a place for insects to nestle.
SHED also installed a large dormer on this side of the building to fully accommodate the new upper level plan, and get views of the apple orchard on the other side of the building.
SHED converted the side door into the front door, adding a new entry sequence with a patio, landscaping, stairs, and a metal awning to protect the porch. Wide stairs and a patio lead down to new sliding glass door in the basement, which now has utility spaces and a media room/office. Many of the original window openings were kept on this façade and given new Andersen E-Series units. Two smaller openings were bricked in.
This thatch-roofed brick cottage in Nieby, Germany, was originally built by tenant farmers or crofters from a nearby estate in the late 1800s. It stands on a small triangular plot of land surrounded by barley fields and faces toward the Geltinger Birk nature reserve. The home’s street-facing facade was preserved and restored with only a minimal, black-steel dormer window belying the more substantial alterations which open onto the private rear yard. A subtle black-framed addition containing an oak-lined living space is tucked under the thatched roof and opens onto a sunken timber terrace while large picture windows are cut into the historic brick volume in areas which had been damaged from the previous additions.
The Alerce shingles change color when it rains, moving from red to grey. “It’s alive,” says Marambio.
The team painted the exterior brick after patching it in places, like the section left by the removal of the door. “We could find the exact texture of brick, that classic Roman running bond, but we could not find it in the right color,” says architect Kailin Gregga. Painting the entire exterior unifies the façade. Rich Brilliant Willing “Hoist” sconces in Black was also added.
The home features a combination of interior and exterior living spaces that afford privacy to the occupants. “There are social spaces for everyone to be together, but also spots outside the building where people can have a private coffee—and that’s so important,” says architect Line Solgaard.
The home is perched lightly on the site and the landscape has been integrated into the architecture through a sympathetic form and materiality, and the expansive windows. “We long for this untouched nature,” says architect Line Solgaard of the site. “It brings us calmness and maybe even helps us be more in touch with ourselves.”
The couple behind Field Theory help their brother reimagine a dreary 1890s estate as the irresistibly chic Hotel Lilien.
At night, full-height glazing makes the cabin glows from within.
The cabin's roof is made from the strongest gauge corrugated metal that Carsten could find. "Trees fall over in large windstorms,
Madison points out that the pod concept would make it easy to add an extension if necessary. “We see it as a house that can grow with us—and that we can pay for as we go along.”
Spyon Cop is located in the Cairngorms in Scotland, a large national park renowned for its natural beauty and access to outdoor activities like hillwalking, mountain biking and climbing. The house is located on a hilltop where the River Don bends, and overlooks beautiful views down two valleys. “Our clients wanted the house to feel like it belonged, so Spyon Cop is quite modest in its size and form, but also in its presence,” explains architect Kate Brown. “It sits gently on the land.”
The sod roof is angled to create a sweeping elevation on approach and is planted with grass tussocks cut from the hillside during construction. “The tussocks camouflage the house, melting it into the landscape,” explains architect Kate Brown.
The wood-wrapped tiny home features a deck pierced by a tree trunk.
The home is divided into different zones that are clearly represented in the built form. The ground floor is open, public and noisy; the first floor houses more private rooms for guests and children; and the new mansard roof extension has a
The deck was reconfigured to open on to the garden, as one enlarged and connected space.
Moss-covered boulders at the base of Colorado Camelot tree house helped to inspire the design for the compact structure.
The Colorado Camelot tree house in Manitou Springs, Colorado, is wrapped with Douglas fir and features a deck pierced by tree trunks.
The owners found this cabin, built in 1959, after looking to fix up a "weird 70s contemporary,
Composed of overlapping cubes of different sizes, the Gjøvik house by Danish firm Norm Architects gracefully embraces its hillside terrain—naturally blending in with its stunning surroundings near Mjøsa Lake an hour north of Oslo.
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