Lightroom 1.0, a photography studio, is a freestanding structure on the property. “Together, they represent an autobiography of my career,” Carpenter says.

Fashion designer Josie and her husband Ken Natori are big fans of traditional Japanese architecture, so when Brooklyn-based practice Tsao & McKown Architects designed their home in Pound Ridge, New York, they used a heavy, exposed-timber structure, and included Japanese-style gardens and landscaping.

The owners of this 2,300-square-foot converted loft in SoHo have a penchant for color and collections. To make way for these elements, BC-OA kept new materials simple and desaturated with super white walls; oil-finished, white oak flooring; and white lacquered cabinetry. In the dining area, a custom designed, built-in, tufted banquette adds soft juxtaposition against the live edge dining table. The velvet upholstery is meant to provide contrast against the exposed, white-washed original brick in both texture and era. Overhead a brass chandelier with exposed Edison bulbs references the former Swan Incandescent Electric Light Co. which occupied the loft after construction was completed in 1897.

A look at the home's front facade. In a Melbourne suburb, Splinter Society Architecture designed the versatile home for Mark and Cara Harbottle and their three young children.

Inspired by modern Japanese minimalism, Hong Kong practice JAAK demolished the walls of this two-bedroom apartment and remodelled it into a studio with an

The living area boasts nearly 10-foot-high ceilings that impart a feeling of airiness and spaciousness. Discreet, built-in storage in the floor at the top of the steps prevents clutter from accumulating.

A g

"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.

Moonshine is beautifully set in an isolated spot in the English countryside outside of Bath. The dramatic juxtaposition of a stone gamekeeper's cottage and a modern timber framed addition gives the home a quaint, pastoral feel while capitalizing on the dramatic view of St. Catherine's Valley.

Living in between the woods

Behind an unassuming 19th-century facade in Singapore's Joo Chiat neighborhood, Ching Ian and Yang Yeo's renovation of a typical shophouse venerates tradition while looking squarely to the future. Photo by Richard Powers

Inspirational spaces

Hangar Meeting Table for MG LAB – This table premiered in 2012. It was designed with a space underneath the tabletop to stow away electronic devices that need to be close at hand without contributing to tabletop clutter.

“I read a story about a student in a small one-bedroom apartment who because she could only fit her big bed and her desk in the apartment, was too ashamed to invite her friends or her parents over,” remembers Van Bo about his inspiration for this crafty ensemble of furniture. “There was nowhere to cook, nowhere to sit, not even space for standard chairs to fit. It made me think ‘Where do we find the instruction manual for how to use a small space?’ We buy a new computer or a new vacuum cleaner and we are given instructions. But nobody teaches us how to use space”. So he designed plans for a small one-bedroom apartment that included a room-dividing piece (the Siwo Couch) that functions as an all-in-one couch, pull-out king size bed and bench that seats six to nine people, a miraculously problem-solving invention, along with custom-sized smaller chairs that double as tables. “Design is a social issue,” says Van Bo, “it facilitates or negates social interaction depending on its cleverness, use and beauty. Wohnung makes socializing possible and enjoyable in a small space, on a small budget”.

Born in Rome in 1914, Lina Bo Bardi emigrated to Brazil in 1946.

Vriesendorp also crafted a series of paper hands, a reference to Bo Bardi's habit of drawing attention to important details in her notes.

In their concrete-walled courtyard, Yuka and Aaron watch as twins Emerson and Jasper, daughters Maude and Mirene, and Alfie the dog play. The house is painted in Black Bean Soup by Benjamin Moore, a color in keeping with the period of the original architecture. The garden was designed by Lauren Hall-Behrens of Lilyvilla Gardens.

Day takes a swim in a new lap pool framed by a lush Southern California garden. The lower wall next to the pool is made from stacked Pennsylvania bluestone, which was used for all exterior stone as well.

Niko Architect and landscape firm Ecopochva designed a Moscow home that doesn’t play by the rectilinear rules of conventional architecture. Vegetation blankets the home’s concrete form, and its walls sweep upward and outward to become roofs. Molded floor-to-ceiling windows curve to grant panoramic views of the backyard and swimming pool.

Homeowner Simon Doonan stands next to the front door. "We have flamboyance, and we’re not inhibited about anything. [Architect] Gray Organschi gave [the house] that intellectual rigor needed to make it beautiful. We were well matched."

Karen White, David MacNaughtan, and their sons, Griffin and Finlay, hang out on the front deck, which lines up next to the neighbors' porch.

British artist Hannah Sawtell and technologist Avi Flombaum created sawbaum.com, where users can create visual collages using multiple vine streams. "We wanted it to look like a visual comic book, with overlapping panels," said Flombaum. "And we wanted it to be fun!" Photo courtesy Rhizome.

Bo, the family’s Old English sheepdog, keeps Sherry company in the office.

Architect Lina Bo Bardi embraced the vernacular design traditions while pushing new forms forward. Her use of not only wood but fabrics and leathers stand out in several of her designs. Her furniture was often designed only for her buildings. This group of chairs was created between the 1950s and the 1980s.

Included here are the Bola armchair designed by Lina Bo Bardi (1951), a pine chair designed by Lina Bo Bardi, Marcelo Ferraz and Marcelo Suzuki for the SESC-Pompéia Center (1980s), and a folding chair with a jacaranda frame designed by Lina Bo Bardi for Studio de Arte Palma (circa 1950).

In 1953, the American magazine Interiors praised Bo Bardi's Bowl chair by comparing it to the work of Eero Saarinen and Irene Schawinsky.

The goal for the first floor was to embrace the shade provided by the mature trees, create a rich material moment, and incorporate all of the storage that the family would need.

Bo Bardi reclines in her world famous Bowl chair.

Anyone can make any of the affordable, classical, Bauhaus-inspired furniture designed by Van Bo Le-Mentzel by downloading the plans for free, investing in a couple of screwdrivers, a Japanese saw and a bit of lumber. There are no rules. You can add or subtract to the designs, paint and decorate however you like, to suit yourself and express yourself.

Launched at the BMW Guggenheim Lab in Berlin this July, and full of the photos and personal stories sent in by the Van Bo-following DIY furniture makers from around the world, this book celebrates the love of furniture, the social and creative benefits of building your own chairs, and further illustrates Van Bo’s social outreach. In its pages, he adds instructions on how he has built a community in seven steps, and how he envisions the capitalism of the future—which is all about Thank yous and win-wins. “There are some things that companies need, which don’t involve money,” he explains, “For example, one of the members of my Crowd is a leading figure in Deutsche Bahn, the German Rail company. She says that on hot days when the air conditioning breaks down in one of the rail cars and that car has to be removed and replaced, it causes chaos at the next station. She needs people to come to that station to re-direct traffic, explain the delay, help with the circulation and the clean-up, and give passengers a reassuring smile. If she has Karma Volunteers, they get a badge, they get to help, and they get praise and some free train tickets in return. This is more valuable to both parties than money. It brings people together in a spirit of community, and it makes that community more cohesive. This is the basic principle of Karma Economy. Everyone needs to be needed and needs to be praised. If we can do that for each other while fostering each other’s businesses, it creates a harmonious, helpful, prosperous society”.

Thanks to a robust solar panel array, the house is net-zero, with enough energy to charge the couple's electric car as well.

The materials, Japanese-style burnt wood, Canadian dark wood, and concrete, accentuate simplicity while simultaneously adding depth.

“We wanted to make each internal element of the Hytte feel considered and intentional,” explains Little. “Small spaces demand a high level of design consideration to ensure that we maximize every piece of space. We have been deliberate in designing the furniture to be crafted into the fabric of the cabin. Our bed, kitchen, storage and seating has all been imagined as an extension to the structure of the cabin.”

Set in the pine forests and beaches of Lubiatowo, these tiny cottages are an idyllic getaway.

This Southern Californian home by architect Sebastian Mariscal has a wabi-sabi spirit, and is built with shou sugi ban timber, has a koi pond, wand a protective overhang, and a tertiary space known in in traditional Japanese homes as the