Arbel’s “14” sconces spot the wall to ethereal effect in the master bedroom. “I wanted this place to be habitable. One of my greatest criticisms of modern architecture is that it often forgets to make things cozy.”

The 40-foot-long containers hang 16 feet over the ground. The deep balcony, Gooden says, offers solar protection, keeping strong sunlight out but letting natural light in. The home has three bedrooms, a den, and three and half baths.

A 40 foot by 10 foot pool is designed to echo the house’s tower with an almost reflection-like alignment.

The smooth, raven-hued island in this kitchen is made of oak with a thin stone countertop. A Foscarini Gregg Pendant hangs overhead.

A simple, yet elegant vanity doubles as storage.

The distinctive facade references a traditional thatched English cottage.

In this glass-enclosed master bedroom, a LC4 armchair faces the master bed. The moveable frame adjusts along the base, allowing the sitter to switch from upright to full recline, or lounge at a number of other sitting angles.

The hexagonal backyard studio that Marlin and Ryan Hanson designed and built in British Columbia, Canada, is clad with western red cedar shakes and a metal roof.

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.

The focus of the renovation was the kitchen, where the textures of tiles and brickwork play backdrop to considered, bespoke carpentry.

Hellstern designed the mohair sofa in the home's living area. The rug is by Tufenkian.

The green roof, wood cladding, and low profile help to integrate the home with its lush, natural surroundings.

A curving skylight illuminates the minimalist kitchen of a dwelling in Bondi Beach, Australia, that was renovated by Andrew Burges Architects.

Multiple Hytte cabins can be clustered together to create a village layout.

The Lais designed their house to be theirs forever. As such, they were able to make design moves that made sense for themselves but that wouldn't have high resale value, like the Japanese-style master bathroom in the middle of the second floor instead of off of the master bedroom. The traditional setup features bath stools from Muji for washing off.

The built-in bench that borders the cantilevered bed features two storage drawers and a hatch that accesses an additional storage compartment.

The crisp white kitchen features appliances built into the cabinetry and marble countertops.

San Francisco’s modernists were faced with the issue of building within a firmly established stylistic tradition—think bay windows and gingerbread. Henry Hill’s 1947 renovation of a 1908 Victorian tucked away on an alley in historic Russian Hill provides a remarkable response to the dilemma.

The kitchen and convertible desk area of the Kugelschiff display a luminous, white-painted ceiling and walls, and white ash cabinetry and flooring.

For architect Stephen Chung, the design of his Wayland, Massachusetts, home was all about blending into the natural environment. The first floor is a serene composition of white and wood. The demand for a domestic office space inspired him to build up, adding a second floor for him to "experiment." In a departure from the Cape Cod aesthetic that rules his block, he was able to give the addition a modernist take, while also literally reflecting the existing landscape of the neighborhood. The entire 1,100-square-foot adjunct that encompasses his second story office-studio, master suite, and fort for his two young sons is swathed in mirrored siding and plate-glass windows.

The dwelling is raised on three marine-grade, aluminum-alloy flotation tubes, each with five sealed compartments for extra safety.

Mike Kurokawa and Paul Fishman set out for the beach from their house in the Puna region of Hawaii. A bridge leads from street level to the upper floor of the house, which is situated in a natural depression, or kipuka.

Homeowner Jay Longtin served as the general contractor and performed the majority of the remodel work, aside from the outdoor floors, concrete, and pool, which were done by Architectural Blue.

Bathroom

The home is made of 42 unique cross-laminated timber panels. The smallest panel is 450 millimeters x 1500 millimeters, and the largest panel is the entire southern wall—14.4 meters x 2.3 meters. The cantilevered ground floor at the rear of the home was made possible by the strength of these panels.

Marita is an avid reader, clocking about a book a day, so she built this bookcase for her family’s collection and painted it a bright plum shade.

Los Angeles–based design firm ORA built this family home in the Mar Vista suburb with two separate buildings: a long, linear home “shaped like a boomerang,” and a bright-red accessory dwelling unit. In the main house, a soothing material palette composed of concrete floors, white walls, and wood is punctuated by spots of color, such as the teal tile backsplash and salmon-toned cabinet in the kitchen, or the sunshine-yellow vanity in one of the bathrooms.

The three kids share a bathroom that's also located in the attic. The penguin basket is from Bloomingville.

Two cabins sit in the vast, empty landscape overlooking the Hekla volcano, around three hours’ drive from Reykjavík. The front part of each cabin—for sleeping—is almost entirely glass, while the rear—where the living, kitchen and bathroom spaces are located—is clad in timber for privacy.

Set in a quiet cul-de-sac in Walnut Grove—a small enclave of Eichlers in Walnut Creek, California—this Claude Oakland–designed Model 14 Eichler truly stands out. With a shingled, hipped roof and a "clipped" gable, the home is designed to reference a traditional thatched English cottage—but we think it looks much more modern than that.