Michael and Tamami brought greenery to the master bath courtyard, which is lined with Eco Arbor Designs deck tiles, in the form of succulents in a ceramic Peanut planter by John Follis for Architectural Pottery from Vessel. Photo by Coral von Zumwalt.

The knotty cedar cladding from Crenshaw Lumber was pretreated with an ebony stain from Timber Pro UV—twice on both sides—prior to being brought to the site, where it was left for eight weeks so that it could adjust to the moist seaside air before installation. “Cedar siding swells or shrinks when it gains or loses moisture while it reaches equilibrium with the content of the surrounding air,” says Michael. Photo by Coral von Zumwalt.

Once through the street-level entrance, the property's modern garage door comes into view. Stairs lead up to the kitchen.

The sauna is a decidedly Scandinavian touch.

The house rises to nearly the height of the neighboring structure. The plantings on the bridge, which connects the guest pavilion with the master bedroom and media room pavilion, will eventually grow in to create a privacy screen. Photo by Coral von Zumwalt.

The courtyard is just one of many open spaces that will be highly utilized—in the non-winter months anyway. Concrete worked well with developing the language of FlatPak. The second level is a wood panel that can be clad in corrugated metal or cedar—different layers that can be plugged in like covers on your cellphone.

Stop by the @dwell_store pop-up and check out the Microgreens Garden Kit from @InFarm. Grow your own greens in a week! #DODLA

Architectural designer Sebastian Mariscal and project manager Jeff Svitak created a house in Venice, California, for Michael and Tamami Sylvester. Known as Dwell Home Venice for its role as an exemplification of modern architecture, the house is an homage to indoor-outdoor living. Photo by Coral von Zumwalt.

“The home is quite small, but designed in such a way that you don’t feel it,” Herrin says. Lift-slide openings by Quantum Windows & Doors, which were fabricated fewer than 50 miles from the house, make the main living space seem larger.

The Urban Cultivator is a dishwasher-sized micro-garden that appears to be a wine rack for plants. It is poised to slide into pre-existing kitchen designs, making it an easy way to add a drawer of fresh herbs to your home.

A guest bedroom, with furniture from Room & Board, overlooks the bridge above the dining courtyard. The home’s landscape architecture is by Ventura, California–based Jack Kiesel. Photo by Coral von Zumwalt.

The architects designed the large dining table, which is framed by the open kitchen, the wood-burning stove, and the garden beyond.

Their daughters, Annapurna, left, and Siddartha, play with their dog, Anouck, beneath the kangaroo paws in the entry garden courtyard.

Russell-Clarke tends a small garden.

The living and dining room look out to the central courtyard, promoting indoor/outdoor living. Here, five doors slide into a pocket in the wall to create a nearly 23-foot-wide opening on one side looking into the garden. Another set on the opposite side enhances cross ventilation.

Requirements for licensed contractors depend on the scope of work and the location of the project.

Stepstone's narrow concrete pavers add a graphic touch to the garden.

Purple thistles, California poppies, clover, and dandelions have all taken root in the roughly 10-inch-deep, lightweight humus and grape-husk soil in this 580-square-foot green roof. Designer Peter Liang says that he "wanted to plant a green roof for its thermal mass, but I wanted it to be as natural as possible."

kitHAUS prides itself on its stylish, modern prefabs that are built on-site by a team of company employees. Their patented aluminum system takes only a few days to construct, and the homes boast superior energy efficiency, owing to insulated floors, walls, and ceilings as well as glazed doors and windows.

"In this project, we got so much benefit out of this 'secret garden' for the master suite along with all of these environmental benefits that the residents were excited to embrace. It's one of the pieces we are happiest about," says architect Jonathan Feldman.

Burnette sought to maintain the property’s natural vegetation and rocky ground surface.

It is all very mindful. “We proceeded with a philosophy and a vision,” says Chamberlin. “All of us understood that the poetry of what you look at is very important.”

Just up a ladder is the green roof, which is planted with maintenance-free sedums and tall grasses near the patio that Monkman tends carefully.

The hardscaping helps keep water use to a minimum. The Lais used gravel—accented by drought-tolerant bamboo—to create their side yard.

The couple asked for a “no maintenance, not low maintenance” backyard. However, Shino tends to “Carlsbad's largest public bathroom for cats” (otherwise known as their Japanese-style rock garden) about once a month. Don't miss a word of Dwell! Download our FREE app from iTunes, friend us on Facebook, or follow us on Twitter!

Bell Labs (Holmdel, New Jersey: 1957) History: As Silicon Valley titans like Apple seek to create their own corporate superstructures, it’s instructive to look back at Bell Labs, not merely a birthplace of American ingenuity but also a masterclass in corporate construction by Eero Saarinen. The man behind “the Versailles of Industry,” (the GM Tech Center), Saarinen built this ahead-if-its-time tech incubator with interconnected skyways and a mirrored ball exterior, a 472-acre campus where an impressive number of scientific discoveries took place. Status: Shuttered in 2007, the campus is owned by Somerset Development, which is trying to figure out ways to redevelop the site. Plans that have been floated over the past few years include scenarios that replace this iconic office complex with upscale homes. What You Can Do: Late last fall, Somerset committed to a $100 restoration plan, promising to develop the largest vacant office building in the country with a preservationist mindset, conserving features like the architect’s conversation pits while turning it into a more elaborate live-work space with medial offices, a library, restaurants, offices, and cafes. Looks like now may be the time to invest in your own Saarinen-designed office space. Image Credit: Lee Beaumont, Creative Commons

A Model 78 side chair by Niels Otto Møller tucks into a custom desk in the master bedroom, a home base from which Friedlander works remotely. The brass pendant light is by Allied Maker.

“It’s never static or solid here—with thelight, there’s always some sort of movement.”—Austin Lowrey, resident

Repurposed shipping containers serve as the primary materials for the houses and working spaces designed by ShelterKraft. The company's designs focus primarily on disaster relief projects, drawing from existing steel frames and skins in order to reduce the use of new materials. Their buildings range from small cargo cottages of 160-square-feet to 700-square-foot warehouses for industrial facilities. Athough they come with electric power, heat and plumbing, they generally require a pre-existing concrete foundation and a local contractor to ensure a smooth, safe installation.

Two-inch-thick bamboo treads and a bamboo handrail on the stairs lead the way to the second floor.

Designed by Hawkins, the Perch by Canary 3 offers additional outdoor seating. The 22-foot-long triple slider facilitates indoor/outdoor access.

“I believe that whenever you’re hiring an artist, and Funn is an artist, he’s going to do his best work if he’s trusted,” says Kartheiser.

Villa Bio is situated a little over an hour outside of Barcelona in Llers, a green, hilly, sun-bathed sprawl near Figueres (hometown of everyone’s favorite mustachioed surrealist, Salvador Dali). The hydroponic rooftop garden grows out of volcanic stones. The home is conceived as a giant C-shaped spiral.

According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, food scraps and yard waste make up 20 percent of what we throw away. Composting organic materials keeps them out of the landfill, which cuts down on greenhouse gases, and enriches the soil. To compost at home, make a pile in your backyard, or introduce an indoor bin for throwaways like apple peels and eggshells.

A common space features Hee Welling’s About a Chair 12 for Hay and a Stick round table by Valsecchi 1918.