Dwell Design Awards View the Winners
Dwell Design Awards View the Winners
All Photos/exterior

9,149 Exterior Design Photos And Ideas

In this house in downtown Miami, lightweight, shuttered Western red cedar doors wrap the front porch to provide privacy and protection from the weather but support natural ventilation, which is important in biophilic design. The unstained wood will age naturally.
Organic lines mimicking those in nature can be soothing. Architect Tono Mirai, known for his "earth architecture," was inspired by the lush context for the design of this holiday home in Nagano, Japan.
Winkelman Architecture delivers grown-up summer-camp vibes with this unassuming retreat on the coast of Maine.
Helen & Hard built a pair of pine cone–shaped cabins that wrap around tree trunks in the forests of Odda, Norway.
Handcrafted according to centuries-old technique, the shingled huts by Estonian company Iglucraft have a spellbinding, storybook appeal.
Rather than demolishing the neighboring remains of a 17th-century factory, Will Gamble Architects incorporated the ruins into a Northamptonshire, England, home that blends old and new.
Inspired by ancient ruins, Frankie Pappas crafts a green-roofed, brick guesthouse that connects deeply with nature in the South African Bushveld.
Hiroshi Nakamura & NAP created a sunken retreat in Karuizawa, Japan. Its glass lookout allows the residents to study wildflowers blanketing the forest floor.
On a rustic strip of coastline near Puerto Escondido, Mexico, S-AR designed a beach getaway with an open concrete grid that frames its natural surroundings.
"By replacing the low-value, original garage and workshop, space was created within the original building envelope to create a three-bed, one-bath guest wing above," says DFJ Architects. This new wing is on the same level as the main residence and "is keyed into the existing roof pitch," so it fits seamlessly into the neighborhood.
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.
Michael and Christina Hara sided the exterior of the backyard studio with shingles made of Hardie board that they painted a deep purple. “We wanted an exterior cladding that was durable, low-maintenance, and relatively DIY-friendly,” says Michael. “The fish-scale shape popped because it was unique, quirky, and not super serious.”
Located in the historic Polish city of Toruń, the simple, angular Origami House complements the design of the main house.
The Light Shed is wrapped in corrugated bituminous fiberglass backed by a UV open cladding membrane.
The backyard studio that architect Gerald Parsonson designed to expand a young family’s living space features a polycarbonate pergola and a wraparound deck that connects the hideaway to the garden.
The hexagonal backyard studio that Marlin and Ryan Hanson, of Hanson Land & Sea, designed and built in British Columbia, Canada, is clad with western red cedar shakes and a metal roof.
Virginia-based screenwriter Matthew Michael Carnahan’s 400-square foot work studio features NanaWall doors that fold open to connect the interior to the surrounding forest.
This shipping container office cantilevers over its concrete foundation by seven feet and draws utilities from the property’s 1930s residence.
From prefab pods to cozy cabins, these backyard offices make working from home a breeze.
Architect Johan Sundberg looked to Japanese architects like Kengo Kuma for inspiration for the design of a holiday home in southern Sweden. "We call it the Katsura typology, but that's probably sacrilegious," he says. The eaves of the gently sloped hipped roof extend generously in all directions, turning the deck into a covered retreat that’s part veranda, part engawa, the Japanese version of a porch.
A hefty portion of the budget addressed the exterior, including new siding ($30,000), exterior paint ($4500), and windows ($14,000), or less flashy, but important, interventions, like new interior drywall ($8300) and updated electrical work ($14,450).
The architect removed the decorative embellishments, redid the railings, and gave the facade a new coat of gray stucco to simplify and refresh the exterior.
The V-shaped structure delineates the subtle junction between the living and sleeping zones. Floor-to-ceiling sliding glass doors frame vistas of lush vegetation and rugged cliffs, while opening directly to the decked patio.
The blue-hued volume stands in glassy contrast against the nocturnal blackness of the mountainside.
At night, it is easy to see how the volume at the north end of the site is stacked with the library and a private deck above, and the en suite guest bedroom below. This is separated from the rest of the living space by the open garage, offering increased privacy.
The modularity of the home’s construction is referenced in the grid-like windows. These large areas of glazing allow the home to be filled with natural light.
A concrete block tower in the garden beside the home contains a water tank and solar heating boiler with a shower below.
The metal roof and external walls are constructed from double-layered metallic roofing tiles, which were chosen for their durability against the elements.
The home requires very little maintenance and features a lightweight construction. The modularity of the design also helped to avoid excessive material waste during construction.
The site is a generous lot at an estate in Cotia, on the outskirts of São Paulo—an area that has plenty of greenery. Part of the concept for the home was to replace some of the existing exotic trees with native plants.
The clients are a husband and wife with grown children who no longer live at home. The husband is a psychoanalyst, and the wife is a history teacher at a middle school in São Paulo. During construction of the home, very little earthwork was needed, as the residence nestles into the sloped site to preserve the flat part of the site for a garden of native trees and shrubs.
The narrow home slots easily into its urban context, while making a striking design statement.
Visitors ascend a concrete staircase and pass through a metal gate to enter the home. The materiality lends the home cool texture and a sleek aesthetic.
The exterior of the tall and narrow home is sided with black-painted stucco.
Architect TaeByoung Yim designed a compact residence in Seoul, Korea, with designated space for studying and entertaining.
The site in Darling Point is on a winding street leading up a hill, and the new architecture is designed to express the pitched-roof language of the original terrace house. “It’s incredibly steep at the back, which means the house looks rather modest from the street front—just a pitched-roof garage and a gate,” says architect Bronwyn Litera. “At the rear facing Rushcutters Bay, however, it drops away over a height of five stories. The house is also in a heritage conservation zone, which meant that the existing roof line and chimneys needed to be retained. We worked closely with TC Build to form a ‘plan of attack,’ which involved propping the two long walls and the roof, and completely gutting the interiors.”
The exterior of the home features warm blackbutt timber cladding and crisp black metalwork. Each level of the home opens out to a deck or balcony, and the curved white balustrade outside the main bedroom is a contemporary take on the original architecture.
Project designer Wayne Chevalier kept automobile elegance in mind as he remodeled the Malibu Crest residence. Here, he exits a Genesis GV80 parked in front of the garage. Preproduction model with optional features shown.
The bouquet canyon stone pays tribute to the midcentury-modern era when the home was built.
In winter, snow can pile up to five feet.
“The big glass panes make the extension very light and spacious, contrasting with the old cottage,” say the architects.
The doorframes are painted with the color palette used by the Norwegian Trekking Association for marking trekking routes.
The cabin is “an inhabitable beacon, a man-made peak in the rolling fells of Hardangervidda, worn down by glaciers during the ice age,” say the architects.
Thirty steps connect the ground with the top of the roof, which provides panoramic views of the lake and the plains of Hardangervidda.
The shape and orientation of the extension prevents snow from piling up on the south-facing outdoor terrace.
The new extension is connected to the original log cabin with a glass hallway that contains a wardrobe and utility sink. “The connection to the existing cabin was a bit tricky, as the height under the old roof eaves is very low,” explain the architects. “Because of this, the roof construction in the part connecting the old and the new part had to be very thin, and we decided to go for an all-glass roof. This gives the connection very special qualities with lots of daylight.”
Located about 3,280 feet above sea level, Thunder Top rises like a hill in a moorland of weather-beaten dwarf birches and heathers. Wild reindeer herds and grazing sheep can often be seen dotting the landscape.
“The luscious double curves of Deco House, a gesture that navigates thorny planning guidelines, connects the project to the era of its namesake and introduces some Hollywood razzle dazzle to leafy Kew,” say the architects.
The living areas in the rear extension connect to the garden, which features a terrace sheltered by cross-laminated timber pergola clad in translucent fiberglass.
The perforated white metal screens help offset the heaviness of the brickwork while filtering sunlight during the day and giving the home a lantern-like glow at night.
“As an interesting note, if we had squared off the building form, we wouldn’t have been able to comply with the setbacks,” note the architects. “So the curved roofs were both contextual and tactical!”
The new and old parts of Deco House meet at the hidden side entry—now the main entrance—on the shared driveway. It opens to the home’s sole double-height space with the living areas in the new extension to the left and the main bedroom in the original 1930s cottage on the right.
12345...153

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.