The home’s kitchen features dual Miele ovens, Thermador refrigerator and freezer, and Thermador induction cooktop. A feature wall clad in natural Carrara marble sits behind sliding cabinet uppers. Paola Lenti Heron counter stools in ‘verde scuro,’ coordinate with custom cabinet fronts, accented with Spinneybeck leather pulls.

The budget was nearly as tight as the space in this cheerful renovation of a 516-square-foot flat in Bratislava. The centerpiece of Lukáš Kordík’s new kitchen is the cabinetry surrounding the sink, a feat he managed by altering the facing and pulls of an off-the-rack Ikea system. The laminate offers a good punch of blue, and in modernist fashion, Kordík forwent door handles in favor of cutouts. “I wanted the kitchen to be one simple block of color without any additional design,” he says.

Sliding walls of glass by Arcadia are situated throughout.

When creative director Martin Ringqvist and his wife, My, a teacher, moved back to Sweden after a year in Los Angeles, they wanted an authentic, warm space to live in with their two children. The kitchen’s matte-black Vipp system is paired with an antique white ceramic tile stove that was typical in the late 19th century. Although it’s not operable, the stove is used by the couple as a staging ground for illuminated candles and a storage space for an iPad that controls the home’s sound system.

In Washington’s Methow Valley, a modern cabin with an outdoor living room allows views of the surrounding woodland and meadow to perforate its volume. By day, the Chechaquo Lot 6 cabin gives the impression of floating in a forest clearing; by night, its windows glow against the wooded darkness. From all vantage points, the landscape permeates this 1,000-square-foot cabin, designed for two outdoor enthusiasts and tucked at the toe of a dramatic slope in Winthrop, Washington.

Buenos Aires-based Estudio Ramos designs a concrete, wood, and iron stable that houses 44 prized horses and melds with the surrounding plains. In central Argentina, the province of La Pampa is dominated by vast, grassy plains whose fertile soil supports myriad farms and ranches. Stretching out in all directions, the flatlands resemble an ocean in its sheer horizontality. When professional polo player Nacho Figueras—a champion of the sport and a longtime Ralph Lauren model—enlisted architect Juan Ignacio Ramos of Estudio Ramos to build a stable for 44 polo horses, the architect was sure to incorporate the region’s meditative flatness into the design.

The new great room opens up completely to the patio with multi-panel pocket sliding glass doors that measure seven feet tall and 22 feet long.

On a sloped plot in the Echo Park neighborhood of Los Angeles, an almost 100-year-old anonymous bungalow was rendered in pink, referencing the sun-kissed stucco that's so common in the region. Mexico City-based architecture firm PRODUCTORA completely remodeled and renovated the home of graphic designer Jessica Fleischmann, daughter of Ernst Fleischmann, who led the Los Angeles Philharmonic and commissioned Frank Gehry to build the Walt Disney Concert Hall. Over the 15 years she lived in the home, she developed a strong connection to the neighborhood and the house itself, which inspired her to renovate it. With her strong affinity for design, she was thoroughly involved in the creative process, including selecting the particular colors that are interspersed throughout the renovation and extension of the house.

In an attempt to beat the winter blues and improve his work/life balance, Australian architect Andrew Maynard combines his home with his office in a sun-drenched Victorian terrace with bright bursts of yellow. In 2016, architect Andrew Maynard of Austin Maynard Architects (AMA) decided to transform the way he and his team live and work. At the end of winter, Maynard visited a doctor about his increasing levels of stress and anxiety. The doctor’s suggestion was that he get more vitamin D to improve his mental health. Maynard decided to radically renovate his dark, Victorian-style terrace house in Melbourne, and flood it with therapeutic sunshine.

In a former foundry that was most recently home to Vice Media, a new members-only co-working space opens up for business, featuring stunning interiors designed by The New Design Project. Located in Williamsburg, at the epicenter of Brooklyn’s creative hub, The New Work Project is a design-led, private workspace for individuals and businesses in the creative industries—supporting freelancers,

On the northwestern tip of Scotland’s Isle of Skye is a vacation rental that's inspired by the region’s traditional “crofter style” cottages, but covered with a skin of tin. Designed and built by Gill Smith and Alan Dickson of Scottish practice Rural Design Architects, this house sits along the rugged Isle of Skye coast and has a rudimentary form that recalls children’s drawings of pitched-roof homes. Smith and Dickson constructed the house using corrugated metal sheeting, which is commonly used for agricultural sheds or

“A building can have far greater impact than the space it stands in.”—William Carpenter, architect and resident

The Jorgensen's Menlo Park home is a model of green design with features that are smart for everyone to consider. "Every project is different, but there are some universal things that will apply from project to project," says Feldman about designing a green home. "The first—and most obvious thing—is to always try to build less, to have a smaller house and be smart about how the rooms are designed and oriented so that you can get by with less space. Smart design will lead to a smaller building, but it won't feel smaller."

New zoning allowed for a zero-lot-line structure, but required a public storefront, which Carpenter uses as an art gallery.

The luxe prefabricated hotel offers an almost off-grid experience and is fitted with a curated collection of Vipp products.

Inspirational spaces

Dwell Magazine : September / October 2017

Rian and Melissa Jorgensen's 2 Bar House in Menlo Park boasts all the usual green design suspects: energy-efficient lighting, good insulation, renewable material finishes, radiant heat, and the roof is pre-wired for future PV panels. Executed by Feldman Architecture, the house requires only natural lighting during the day which keeps energy costs way down. Still, the most stunning aspect of the green design is the living roof planted with succulents, aloe, viviums, and ice plants. "I'm absolutely glad that we did it," says Melissa. "It turned out so well and I really enjoy sitting up there and taking advantage of it as much as I can. It's very peaceful." Read more about this total remodel here.

In the Norwegian town of Larvik in Vestfold County, Oslo-based practice Lund Hagem Architects renovated a summer cabin on a rocky terrain with generous outdoor patios that take advantage of dramatic coastal views.

Designed by José Guedes Cruz, César Marques, and Marco Marinho of the Portugal-based firm Guedes Cruz Architects, The Wall House is laid out in an open-box plan, and is fitted with plenty of glass windows to enhance the synergy between its interior and exterior spaces.

This remote cabin in Sullivan County hovers above a steep slope, suspended by the trees that surround it.

The countertops in the kitchen are a mix of quartz surfaces and custom and salvaged stainless steel. "We use the kitchen all of the time, it turned out really nice," says Melissa. "It's very open, certainly one of the central focuses of the house, and is fun for entertaining."

The living room, dining room and kitchen are in one open space. The flooring is bamboo. The cabinetry is a mix of bamboo, walnut, and maple, and was fabricated by City Cabinetmakers out of San Francisco.

Designed to follow universal design principles, this Santa Monica prefab home by Connect Homes delivers modern and environmentally friendly design on a budget.

Architect Grant explains that the recessed orange wall with built-in storage shelving is a counterpoint to the view of Boston in the opposite direction.

Constructed predominantly with locally quarried stone, steel, poured concrete floors and a turf roof, the horizontal outline of the property harmonizes beautifully with its rugged natural surroundings. The house also has an outdoor terrace with a pool and fireplace, where you can enjoy a cup of tea and take in plenty of fresh air.sd

This unique built-in dining table is recessed into the floor, giving the room and table a seamless effect.

Preservation Props Since the house is in a historic district, Beebe and Skidmore’s interventions were constrained by local guidelines, including a stipulation that the walls of the addition couldn’t line up with the walls of the existing house. They bumped the walls in by five feet on either side and painted the addition, clad in siding from Capital Lumber, a color complementary to the original building’s deep, bright blue. “A guy from Boise’s preservation office came by and said, ‘This is a perfect example of how we’d like people to build additions,’” says Dana. “We were pretty proud of that.” beebeskidmore.com capital-lumber.com

Shelter No. 2, Broisson Architects, 2008 This prefab made mostly of recycled materials is modest, but not too modest for a spiral staircase. Three levels culminate in a large skylight, which filters natural light all the way down to the ground floor's hydroponic garden.

It Will Get Loud: A Small Speaker That's Big on Sound Home audio companies are managing to make speakers smaller, more portable, and more wallet-friendly while keeping sound quality as robust as their larger (and pricier) brethren. Soundfreaq's co-founder and creative director Matthew Paprocki will demo and deconstruct the award-winning Sound Stack and demo Sound Platform 2 to let you in on the technology behind making big sound come from a tiny package. See this Saturday, June 22, at 12:30 p.m. on the Demonstration Stage.

The couple asked Bryan Richards of Real Natives Landscape Design to incorporate drought-tolerant plants into the landscaping. Surrounding a table from CB2 are chairs from Design Within Reach.

The interior is furnished with Lubi Daybeds from CB2, which Howell and Porter designed to include hidden cubbies behind and beneath the cushions.