At the base of Echo Mountain in Phoenix, a geometric home by Wendell Burnette opens up to the surrounding desert landscape. Photo by Dean Kaufman.

This dreamy, glass bedroom by the lake was created as an early prototype for the prefabricated greenhouse/she kits known as the Kekkilä Green Sheds.

Helsinki architect Ville Hara and designer Linda Bergroth collaborated on a prefab shed-meets-sleeping cabin, which can be assembled with little else than a screwdriver. Bergroth, inspired by nomadic yurt dwellers, wanted an indoor/outdoor experience for her property in Finland.

The Desert House located in Desert Hot Springs is a steel structure designed with large expansive windows, and concrete flooring.

Composed of primarily steel, this prefab home has sufficient outdoor space. Photo by: Daniel Hennessy

Various groupings of succulents were planted to accent and obscure the home's relationship to its surrounding environment. Photo by: Daniel Hennessy

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

The wood shed portion artfully encapsulates all the domestic detritus that would be anathema within the all-glass sleeping portion.

The site includes a boat shed and a tractor the family uses to pull their boat to and from the ramp.

- Taos, New Mexico Dwell Magazine : July / August 2017

The courtyard-facing side of the garage provides an overhang for a multifunctional playroom or entertainment space.

The 925-square-foot house Maggie Treanor calls home blends into the landscape somewhat; with a galvanized steel shed roof and siding, it looks like a high-design little brother to the barns on the surrounding farms.

Fleetwood Windows were installed throughout the home, including as a partition between the living room and deck.

A lone saguaro marks the southwest corner of Thomas and Laura Hyland’s property, which is situated adjacent to the Phoenix Mountain Preserve. The structure’s main living volume is elevated and faced in glass, overlooking a descending pathway that leads to a pool tucked into the site.

In the master bedroom, a Droog Milk Bottle lamp hangs next to a Fluttua Bed designed by Daniele Lago. An artwork by Brooke Westlund hangs over a custom pet door for the client’s dog, Kona.

A shed provides storage for the owners’ tools as well as wood for the fireplace. It features the same aged pine finish as the main home.

Color Me Rad To give the exterior of your home a chic, contemporary veneer without splurging on expensive cladding, use a bold accent color.

In Palm Springs, Sander Architects created an energy-efficient hybrid prefab home that’s designed to stay naturally cool in the desert heat, which often climbs to triple digits in the summer.

There are generously proportioned nine-foot-high ceilings throughout the Desert House. Marmol Radziner designed and built the outdoor table and benches from reclaimed Douglas fir.

All fixtures and faucets are from CEA.

Architect Indra Janda hand-cut sheets of polycarbonate into 15¾-inch square shingles and clad the entire timber structure—a gabled roof and walls—with them.

Evenings around the firepit are particularly magical.

Just adjacent to the house is Whitlock's small shed which houses many of the tools that he used to build the home.

The Desert House is about 40 miles outside of Palm Springs, sited on a pile of boulders at the edge of Joshua Tree National Park, and it was finished in the early 2000s, long after the heyday of post-and-beam modernism. Yet there may not be another residence more attuned to the hardened landscape of the Coachella Valley than Kendrick Bangs Kellogg’s most outré experiment in organic architecture.

Mila designed the home’s concrete pool, which is finished with a custom plaster. The pool area includes sleek chairs from Cast + Crew.

Exterior

Lockyer added native desert plans to a courtyard near the garage.

Architect Hank Louis worked with Navajo tribe elders to secure a 66-year lease on a half-acre lot in the middle of Bluf, Utah, for Rosie Joe and her children.

In the kitchen, which faces west to capture views of the San Jacinto Mountains, a large red work by James Jensen punctuates one wall. The induction cooktop is from Gaggenau; the sinks were sourced from Blanco.

Hammocks

Marco V. Morelli says his Studio Shed is the perfect refuge. “It’s changed my life for the better,” he says. “I’ve gotten so much more work done, and I think my marital relations are much better because I have a place of my own.”