Two art studios adjoin a central volume at this work/live residence built from terracreto (sustainable concrete), glass, and painted steel just outside of San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. Residents Austin and Lida Lowrey, retired design and museum professionals, collaborated with their two daughters—Sheridan, an artist, and Elizabeth, an architect—to design the structure as a place for creative contemplation.

The backyard sports a sequence of raised flower and vegetable beds and two green roofs—one atop the workshop and other atop the back entrance.

GrafoMap allows you to search around the world and apply a filter to the desired map. The result is a graphic poster ready to be hung up in your home.

A covered walkway provides a sheltered passage between the main house and studio. The fire pit is used during social gatherings.

To the south, a small soaking pool sits outside Austin’s studio, where he’ll often lie and meditate: “I’m a great floater, and can look at the clouds for an hour everyday,” he says. The adjacent wall was coated with smooth sand plaster finish to accommodate video and film projections by night.

The main living area is connected to the back unit by a modern bridge. Polished concrete is used for both floors and ceilings, and a Mies van der Rohe Barcelona Stool accents the space.

Custom-designed furniture outfits the interior of a bunker-turned-vacation retreat in the Netherlands.

Deeds hung a single Louis Poulsen PH5 lamp from the ceiling; its blue and red interior paint “is very friendly to human skin tones,” she says. Photo by Lenny Gonzalez

Davor (with his wife, Abbe, and son, August) designed the main living and dining pavilion as a double-height space to increase its perceived volume, and added high cubbies for extra storage.

The finished bracelet!

A workspace, bedroom, and bath comprise each of the two studios; an early riser, Lida spends most of the day painting in her space.

The master bedroom interior is finished with cherry wood.

A side view of the house and of Salmela’s signature architectural feature: the “unchimney.” All windows are from Loewen.

Technically, this small building is not a tree house, since it’s braced at the ground by supports, but Grey didn’t want to compromise the tree, which “doesn’t have a very long lifespan,” the designer says. “So, I didn’t want to jeopardize however long that tree had with any excess baggage.”

The sinuous interior is lined with CNC-cut wooden panels that define stepped sauna seating and porthole windows.

The sauna structure includes a small deck.

A 25-foot custom bifold door made of corrugated plastic and twin-wall polycarbonate encloses an artist’s studio designed by Marc Frohn of FAR frohn&rojas.

The ribbon-like design affords the building three different gable profiles—one is symmetrical, while the other two lean in opposite directions.

Rose’s pottery studio opens right up to the back lawn to let the sunlight (or curious pups) inside.

A wood-burning stove from Harvia, of Finland, heats the sauna. The pavilion’s rough-cut pine walls are treated with tar, a preservative that yields a time-worn aesthetic.

Phillips designed Judith a stark white, glass-fronted art studio.

We tried to be very resourceful. You shouldn’t see any tile on the deck that had to be cut; it’s almost like a perfect puzzle,” comments the designer, Marc Frohn.

The sauna is named after Huginn and Muninn, two ravens from Norse mythology.

The structure is made entirely from treated pine, while its corrugated polycarbonate roof protects it from the elements.

The Exbury Egg asks us to reexamine the way we live while carefully considering sustainability and the use of natural resources.

Almo Troup repurposed nearly all of the materials from a tumbledown shack to create a dreamy, minimalist workspace in his backyard.

Of the seven steps in Michael Pozner’s not-quite-500-square-foot aerie in Greenwich Village, five contain drawers. His small set of table and chairs is from CB2.

These tiny egg-shaped cabins are mounted onto small podiums to keep them stable.

The sauna door handle is a simple piece of driftwood. “One principle rule I followed,” says Kiehl, “was: Don’t build on outdoor space if it can work as outdoor living space. Norwegian summers are short. We want to be outdoors as much as possible.”

The LED lighting is encased in translucent poly-carbonate panels on top and bottom. Daylight streams through from the roof when the lights aren't on.

“I wanted to bring in a little bit of apricot to nod to the name of the studio,” says Troup of the $25 USD orange velvet curtain he hung as a space divider.

If sleek storage is what you're looking for, consider a long and low platform bed. At a New York apartment that's just over 500 square feet, the wood platform bed features storage panels under the mattress.

Custom built-ins were essential in defining and maximizing the 520-square-foot space. Greg Dufner designed the rift-cut white oak bookcase that separates the sleeping area from the rest of the studio.