Get the whole family involved in the kitchen, whether it be teaching young ones a tried-and-true recipe or exploring a new dish together.

Alex Gil and Claudia DeSimio created a duplex in an apartment building where they’d been renting for years in Brooklyn, New York, and set to work gutting the interior and adding a new rooftop addition clad in panels of Cor-Ten steel.

The switchback stairs create a circulation pattern that, according to Bangia, is "noticeably different than what you would find in a typical Brooklyn town house." She adds, "It lends an element of surprise when moving between floors, and a dynamic spatial sense of expansion and contraction.”

Designer in Brooklyn, New York "The pieces in the space are a combination of industrial reclaimed finds and bespoke, often both in the same item. The cabinets were a vintage medical find, powder-coated and set up on welded stilts. The mirror was commissioned from Made In Chinatown. Ceiling color and texture came through lots of trial and error in order to avoid the heavily toxic and arduous process normally involved in staining concrete. The mezzanine sign which marks the space was acquired through a long chain of inside jokes from a friend—I'm still unsure exactly of its origins, possibly the bygone New York Subway signage system."

In the sleek kitchen, the white Ikea cabinet uppers seem to disappear into the wall, while the bases get a distinctive custom walnut wrapping. Flanking the cabinets are open bookshelves, which provide secondary function as a spacial divider for the children’s play area. A Dornbracht faucet sits on a slab of Vermont Olympian White Danby marble, which is also used for the island and backsplash.

Architect Alex Gil and his wife, Claudia DeSimio, affixed a 750-square-foot addition to the roof of a 19th-century Williamsburg townhouse, transforming their cramped third-floor apartment into a modern duplex. The original fireplace remains, but has been stripped down to exposed brick, as have the surrounding walls, creating an almost wainscot-like design of exposed brick with flat white drywall above.

Sherman sits in front of his Prospect Heights home. The front door is made from etched Lexan bulletproof glass.

In the upper-level bathroom, tiles painstakingly fired by DeSimio cover the walls and ceiling.

What the original building lacked in period detailing, it made up for with massive interior spaces, natural light, and a hardy palette of wood and raw brick. Working with these loft signatures, David developed the hall’s liveable side, adding under-floor heating, and a gigantic kitchen on the upper floor running the width of the building, with a 37-foot-long solid walnut counter on top of stainless steel cabinets. This unites the dining, cooking and social spaces that run the length of the front façade on the upper floor.

The ensuite master bathroom features Ann Sacks slate floor tile, contrasted with white Carrara marble that wraps the Kohler Tea for Two tub. The shower features tile from Heath Ceramics.

An intricate coverlet over a white cotton duvet on a Design Within Reach bed adds a pop of color in this clean, simple room.

The open plan living room and kitchen areas utilize natural materials, from reclaimed oak flooring to custom-made cabinetry. The Oscar sofa by Matthew Hilton from Future Perfect marks off the living room area.

A large OSB structure with skylights, a bathroom, an enclosed baby’s room, and a master sleeping alcove dominates Ryan and Showalter’s Brooklyn loft.

The Torroja pendant light by David Weeks hangs in the dining area, standing in sharp relief to the home’s original brick, now painted white (in Benjamin Moore Paper White)along with the wooden floorboards (in Benjamin Moore Revere Pewter). Radiant heat underfoot means a toasty interior even without a surfeit of textiles. Photo by Matthew Williams.

This living/dining space is the social center of the apartment. For that reason, the architect designed the cabinet walls as a unifying visual feature that anchors the two rooms and provides practical storage space.

The architect brought the solid walls of certain rooms down to 7’ 8”, filling the remaining 4’ 2” with glass. This defining feature allows sunlight penetrate deep into the core of the space. The clients say the bright reds, oranges, and yellows of sunsets race across the ceiling and white walls.

Another view of the library and media room. Photo by Francis Dzikowski/ESTO.

Waechter Architecture reimagined a traditional gabled home in southeast Portland without significantly altering the original building. A simple coat of red paint abstracts the century-old structure, creating a residential work of art.

The clients and design team chose to forego an open floor plan in favor of defined, separated spaces. In this scheme, the vertically oriented spaces act as a cinematic "hard-cut" to their horizontal counterparts. The custom hot rolled steel kitchen, one of these vertical transition spaces, receives light from above through a Velux skylight. A GE Profile Induction cooktop and oven and Miele refrigerator complete the space.

Self Growing Lab: Diaz Paunetto Arquitectos (San Juan) The other first-place prize went to an amorphous concept by Puerto Rican firm Diaz Paunetto Arquitectos. Built of a genetically manipulated bacteria laid on a structural frame, the concept could theoretically be manipulated and even expand on its own to meet the facility's shifting needs over time.

According to the firm, the lab structure is conditioned to adapt to its environment, so it can be installed outdoors as well.

House O, designed by Jun Igarashi, forgoes hallways and interior doors in favor of casually interconnected rooms.

Marcus Lee and Rachel Hart’s wonderful wooden home sits at the end of a quiet London lane and politely turns its back on the workshops next door.

Corporate high-flyers and admitted neat freaks Bruce Thatcher and Kirsty Leighton couldn’t handle the chaos anymore. Read more about this Victorian terrace in London here.

“In this house, the roof is the only facade—the rest is dissolved beneath it.” —Architect Aljoša Dekleva

At the entry looking upward towards a Velux skylight, a vertical "sleeve" is made of stacked end grain plywood. The theme of vertical and horizontal architectural elements providing different environmental perspectives carries through to the rest of the home. Horizontal forms look out to the lake, while the vertical columns look up the sky.

Seen in the architectural context of its London neighborhood, the house is all the more extraordinary: compact, materially innovative, and easy on the eyes.

Captain Smith hand-printed wallpaper in Promenade by Grow House Grow ($5 for one sample) text “GHGcaptain” to 767825 (portal) "Based in Brooklyn, Katie Deedy of Grow House Grow creates narrative inspired hand-printed wallpapers that are uber paste-worthy. Sold both by the roll and by the sheet, they look great framed, papered on an accent wall or hung across an entire room. Each pattern has a story, which makes these wallpapers a unique conversation piece. Thinking of updating your decor? Order a sample of Captain Smith (created for the first and last captain of the RMS Titanic) in our favorite colorway, “Promenade”." photo by Jacob Krupnick

A 3,120-square-foot 19th-century brownstone building in Park Slope, Brooklyn—the first certified Passive House in New York City—was one of three finalists in the retrofits category. Fabrica718, an environmentally focused Brooklyn design practice, renovated the house starting in 2009.

When the owners found the house, it was severely neglected, structurally unsound, and thoughtlessly stripped of architectural detail. At the exterior, imitation stone-asphalt shingles blanketed the facade in a confused mosaic pattern. Through the exterior overhaul, the team intentionally “avoided using ornate moldings or superficial references to traditional forms,” explains Bangia. Integrated with the classic molded bricks, oversized windows, flanked by honed bluestone sills and lintels, offer subtle hints to the modern interior to be unveiled inside.

First things first: What's a Passive House? They're well insulated, virtually airtight buildings who must meet strict energy efficiency requirements. The benefit is that building passive can decrease home heating consumption by an astounding 90% and decrease overall energy consumption up to 75%. Here, a mixed-use building in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, with a single-family home atop a retail space, all designed by Loadingdock5. Photo by: Raimund Koch.

A couple takes a minimalist approach to their Brooklyn apartment, focusing on supple materials, subtle gradations of color, and custom finishes by local craftsmen. The Mandayam–Vohra family gathers under one of Workstead’s signature three-arm chandeliers, shown here in its horizontal configuration. Bartenschlager designed the white cabinets and is responsible for the walnut counters both on the kitchen island and near the stove.

The bathroom, located just adjacent to the kitchen, features a pattern of gray and turquoise tiles that climbs from the floors up the walls. They serve as a burst of color among the predominately white walls elsewhere, transforming the bathroom into one of the apartment’s most striking spaces.

This Murphy bunk bed, the Lollipop IN model from Resource Furniture, stows away flush to the wall when not in use.

The careful coordination of color continues in the kitchen, where the gray and white marble backsplash, lit with faint orange lights, mediates between the ashen column and ochre cabinets.

These no-fuss landscaping ideas yield gardens that practically take care of themselves.