For Gabriel Ramirez and his partner Sarah Mason Williams, following the Sea Ranch rules—local covenants guide new designs—didn’t mean slipping into Sea Ranch clichés. The architects love Cor-Ten steel, with its ruddy and almost organic surface, and they made it the main exterior material, along with board-formed concrete and ipe wood. The Cor-Ten, which quickly turned an autumnal rust in the sea air, and the concrete, with its grain and crannies, mean the house isn’t a pristine box, Ramirez says. His Neutra house “was very crisp and clean,” he says. “This house is more distressed, more wabi-sabi.”

The guesthouse has similar built-ins and is outfitted with a reproduction rotating sconce by Serge Mouille and rugs by Stephanie Odegard.

White plaster walls and a curved ceiling play up natural lighting, while minimalist decor and furnishings (many of which they designed themselves) make the small space feel larger.

A new addition to Sea Ranch’s enclave of utopian homes, this structure (and the separate guesthouse seen here) clad in rough concrete and Cor-ten steel seamlessly blends in with its half-a-century-old California neighbors. Designed by the dean of the Woodbury School of Architecture and the head of the University of Oregon’s architecture department, its spaces flow into one another underneath an angled plywood ceiling and illuminate built-in furniture crafted from vertical-grain Douglas fir.

Lassen says the biggest key for designing a small space is to keep things as minimalist as possible. “Don’t try to make anything bigger or build an addition. Just remove all bad architecture and create clean, simple rooms.”

The family retreat abuts a rocky cliff in Herfell, Norway. The central cabin provides communal living spaces, while the two cabins that flank it are used as private sleeping quarters.

After buying a site overlooking an inlet called Smuggler’s Cove, Gabriel Ramirez asked two architects—Norman Millar, dean of the Woodbury School of Architecture, and Judith Sheine, head of the architecture department at the University of Oregon—to design the house. Boi sconces, which David Weeks designed for Ralph Pucci, illuminate the bedroom in this Sea Ranch residence.

The living room is furnished with vintage items, including a leather-and-chrome chair by Suekichi Uchida and a stacking stool by Florence Knoll.

The house clearly displays its Sea Ranch–style touches.

The 1Light pendants above the kitchen island are from Eurofase.

Designer Kim Nadel created a new interior in a renovated and expanded ranch-style house in Cardiff by the Sea, California, that reflects the resident's love of yoga and its seaside setting.

A Mahjong sofa by Hans Hopfer for Roche Bobois is the defining feature of the living room. Its sections can be configured in any number of ways without scuffing the walnut floors.

The bathrooms also feature glass mosaic tiles from Sonoma Tilemakers.

The renovated house has three full bathroom suites, each of which is outfitted with a custom wall-mounted walnut vanity and EuroStone countertops with inlaid shells.

Nadel designed the storage unit, with minimalist shelving, that separates the living room from the diding area. She chose the wallpaper for its 1970s look, figuring that it would be the perfect backdrop for the Buddha statue and some of the Indian artifacts that the resident has collected.

Nadel designed the custom cabinets throughout the apartment, combining white paint and ribbon-patterened walnut veneer.

The floors are custom wide-planked, Forest Stewardship Council-certified walnut.

Nadel used large-format custom matte glass Chiaro tiles for the kitchen backsplash.

At Sea Ranch, a half-century-old enclave of rugged modernist houses on the Northern California coast, a new home captures the spirit of its surroundings. The client, a couple, were guided by the Sea Ranch rules—local covenants guide new designs—didn’t mean slipping into Sea Ranch clichés. Lovers of Cor-Ten steel, with its ruddy and almost organic surface, the architects made it the main exterior material, along with board-formed concrete and ipe wood. The Cor-Ten, which quickly turned an autumnal rust in the sea air, and the concrete, with its grain and crannies, mean the house isn’t a pristine box, Ramirez says. His Neutra house "was very crisp and clean," he says. "This house is more distressed, more wabi-sabi." Together, the Cor-Ten steel and board-form concrete give the exterior a weathered look.

The Sea Ranch Chapel by Hubbell and Hubbell

The undulating roof is reinforced concrete covered with hand-made and hand-installed metal tiles. The home was built when the Spanish economy was especially depressed, so in lieu of factory-made construction components, the architects used local labor for fabrication and installation whenever possible.

The porthole window in the master bedroom not only evokes the sea, it looks out onto it.

A home in Cape Town by SAOTA combines all of the indoor and outdoor living and dining areas on the ground floor, in order to create a thriving area for entertaining and relaxing by the sea.

The Merivuokko print features forms that resemble sea anemones.

Coastal Contemporary House with Majestic Sea Views: Unique architectural design and a meticulously landscaped exterior define this remarkable contemporary home. Blending modern elements with natural serenity, this property enjoys majestic views of the sea and a robust offering of amenities. Presented by Côte d'Azur Sotheby's International Realty.

The Deep Sea collection by Nendo for Glas Italia achieves its color gradient with varying glass thickness.

Norman Millar and Judith Sheine designed the built-ins in the living-dining area, which were made from vertical-grain Douglas fir. Vintage Dutch industrial chairs are arranged around a black walnut dining table that, like the madrone coffee table, is by Urban Hardwoods.

The view from Gabriel Ramirez’s property in Sea Ranch, California, where meadow grasses and cypress trees give way to craggy cliffs and the lapping Pacific Ocean. His house joins those that a cohort of forward-thinking architects built along this stretch of coast in the 1960s.

The lovely view of the sea from the cliffs of Avenida Saenz Peña.

The shore of the Salton Sea at the Salton Sea State Recreation Area was littered with the dried carcasses of fish. Loads of tilapia live in the Salton Sea, and though there was something fairly disgusting about all their corpses, they are dried out almost like jerky. A few kids nearby got a gas out of throwing the dead fish at their father, which was pretty funny from where I was sitting.

“The owner is currently adjusting and curating the furniture from their large midcentury home in Connecticut to fit with their new Pacific Northwest home,” Weber noted. Double paned, trickle-vent windows show off the views during the day, while recessed lights by Sea Gull Lighting illuminate the home at night.

Butler Armsden Architects and Leverone Design reimagined this family retreat in Sea Ranch, a 1960s planned community that stretches 10 miles along the Pacific coastline in Sonoma County, California. Clear, vertical grain fir wraps the interior, while ample windows offer stunning glimpses of the sea and surrounding meadows.

A transparent balcony allows unobstructed views of the sea and Newcastle's skyline.

A view of the sea through the wrought iron balustrade on our room’s balcony.

Again, those epic mountains. In prehistoric times the Salton Sea would have been part of the Sea of Cortez between Baja California and mainland Mexico.