itHouse, view from court to bathroom.

Architects: Kirsten Murray, Tom Kundig

The glass-enclosed master bedroom floats above the corrugated, oxidized steel exterior.

A view of the dining room from the courtyard.

A lone saguaro marks the southwest corner of Thomas and Laura Hyland’s property, which is situated adjacent to the Phoenix Mountain Preserve. The structure’s main living volume is elevated and faced in glass, overlooking a descending pathway that leads to a pool tucked into the site.

The modern addition sits on a concrete platform that extends past the house’s envelope, creating welcoming patios on each side. “From any space within the home you are no more than a few steps from one of the outdoor spaces,” Busick says. On the west-facing back porch, Green Kite Chairs by Karim Rashid and a poppy-red hammock offer ideal spots from which to take in the sunset.

For the seating area, the couple selected a Charles sofa by Antonio Citterio for B&B Italia in addition to CH07 Shell chairs by Hans Wegner, a PK61 coffee table by Poul Kjærholm, and a Nesta rug from Design Within Reach. The dining table, an original design by Burnette, is surrounded by stools that belonged to a previous owner.

The dining room and upstairs view from the courtyard.

A view from the back.

Atherton's bedroom also contains a miniature piano; outside is a red bud tree, an appealing spot for mellow contemplation.

The pool of the Phoenix house feels as laterally finite as the house feels spacious—but the view goes up forever. Photo by Dean Kaufman.

The view from inside the Floating House's boat dock.

The glassy pavilion containing kitchen, dining, and living areas is elevated three feet off the ground on posts so it appears to hover among the dunes.

A small, single-story addition to the row house adds a playroom without eating up too much outdoor space. A green roof also helps makes up for lost garden beds, while creating attractive, leafy views from the second and third floors. In summer, when the sliding doors are left wide open, indoor and outdoor spaces blend together.

The Piranesian view upwards through the central stair to the top floor skylight.

Oakland–based Building Lab effortlessly connected the patio to the living and bedroom areas just beyond the striking wall of windows.

A Simple Plan A Marmol Radziner–designed prefab house, trucked onto a remote Northern California site, takes the pain out of the construction process.

"It only cost about $48,000 to build, which was incredibly cheap," says Turner of the Stealth Barn. "We got the Timber Frame Company to supply the shell, then we clad it and fitted out the interior and windows ourselves. The idea was to take the archetypal black tar-painted agricultural building and make an almost childlike icon of that."

Webb surveys the view from the “lookout deck” off the bedroom.

The project’s unique challenges—a tight budget and steep, difficult terrain—led architecture firm _naturehumaine to a creative solution that gave the house its delightfully sculptural appearance. Making the first floor’s envelope slightly narrower than the top one’s saved money while minimizing the amount of excavation required.

The Floating Farmhouse’s semitransparent addition has a roofline that matches the pitch of the original 1820s farmhouse. A porch, tucked under the side eaves, is cantilevered over a stream that runs through the property. Ikea loungers are illuminated from the interior by commercial gymnasium lights repurposed as pendant lamps.

The house is built into the hillside but its top floor entrance is level with the street. The stone wall provides privacy while the garage and a pedestrian walkway—seen exact center, by the tree—bridge the gap.

Raising the bed above floor level, architect Kyu Sung Woo converted this tiny studio into an open and comfortable home for Wonbo Woo. Photos by: Adam Friedberg

With the house often open to the outside, dust easily drifts in. Fortunately, the concrete floor, speckled with white aggregate mix, is easy to clean.

In the shadow of Denali mountain, amid Alaska’s meadows and icy streams, a former teacher and a four-time Iditarod winner calls upon Mayer Sattler-Smith to design a modernist cabin as expansive as the Last Frontier.

Architect Lorcan O’Herlihy created a remarkable residence for himself and his wife, Cornelia, just off Pacific Avenue in Venice, California. Photos by: Misha Gravenor

Atherton made the bathtub and sinks by hand, out of marine-grade plywood held together with aluminum spline joints and dyed with Behlen Solar Lux in jet black. To make them waterproof, he coated every surface in a thick layer of West System marine epoxy, popular with builders of wooden boats. The components are inexpensive, but the process is time consuming: Each piece took five days to make.

Located on a steep site with limited suitable building ground, the firm decided to cantilever the home over the hillside, which has the effect of helping the structure blend in with the landscape.

London based photographer, Ed Reeve used dark cedar to achieve his lifelong goal: to build his own house on a perfect plot of land located in De Beauvoir Town. Photos by: Ed Reeve

Orpilla pecks, Apolo pedals.

The Gregory Residence is a masterclass example in design. Furnished by renowned New Hope woodworker George Nakashima, this private and rustic home offers ingenious versatility over its 1,644 square feet of space on a 10-acre lot.

Parson Russell terriers Pepper and Trixie get a glimpse of the large courtyard through a glassy expanse by Marvin Windows and Doors.

In the master bathroom upstairs, the Tokyo roll-top bathtub from victoriaplumb benefits from an epic view.

“[The owner] wanted a place that was a sort of retreat, a place for meditation and contemplation,” architect Tom Marble says. “He wanted views, but he also wanted a strong relationship to the outside.”

The view from the bathroom.

Lustrous textures characterize the cantilevered master bedroom. The gleaming four-square-foot white porcelain tiles are softened by crushed-shell wallpaper and a cypress ceiling.