Mint green-painted ironwork and tiles connect the indoors to the outside more fluidly.

The Max-A studio is also built with a pine frame, though it has pine panelling on the ceiling, while the main house ceiling is painted a warm white.

Mast and Hoff contrasted the existing features of the space with elements that spoke a more contemporary design language—horizontally stacked plywood, polycarb panels, and steel tubes—adding forward-looking decorations and structural elements. Photo by Kyle Hoff

Workspace Since opening in September 2013, the space has helped catalyze ventures such as 1417 Van Dyke, a live-work concept, and Offworld, an arcade tavern concept that held a pop-up earlier this year. Photo by Kyle Hoff

The three units in the Belfield Homesare the first certified Passive House homes in Philadelphia. Designed by Plumbob, the project is a model for low-income urban infill development, providing sustainable homes for those who can least afford to absorb rising energy costs. It is a finalist in the single-family home category.

Practice Space Exterior Mast and his friend and fellow architect Kyle Hoff seized on the concepts of renovation, revitalization, and adaptive reuse when they worked on the layout of Practice Space. Their design approach sought to preserve, highlight, and play off the character of the 3,800-square-foot former garage. Photo by Kyle Hoff

Practice Space “It provides a sense of old and new together, showcasing the opportunity in Detroit,” says Justin Mast, an architect and organizer behind Practice Space. “Development here operates in its own way. People need to figure it out and connect the dots.” Photo by Catie Newell

99 by Von Tundra and Lydia Cambron $13,000 Oregon-based Von Tundra’s unit combines three different storage options—a rack, drawers, and boxes—into a multipurpose dresser.

"Use parks to create places people want to hang out in and manage stormwater at the same time," says Inga Saffron, the Pulitzer-prize wining architecture critic for the Philadelphia Inquirer. "The city is under federal mandate to reduce its overflows into rivers when it rains heavily. Moreover, Philadelphia has a real shortage of green space. So it combined these two ideas: Instead of building twenty-five-inch pipes, they will use greenspaces to absorb rainwater. It's the most sustainable thing Philadelphia is doing."

Vacant lots and derelict houses aren’t terribly hard to find in East Kensington, a neighborhood where more developers are starting to pay attention.

The surrounding neighborhood of East Kensington is mostly brick facades.

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

Metal Curtain at Practice Space Based on the principles of origami and oriented based on the path of the sun, the curtain of triangle-cut, thin-gauge sheet metal creats a contrast of old and new. The addition stands as a visual metaphor for the way Detroit’s past informs future promise. Photo by Catie Newell

Workspace at the Practice Space Incubator Broadly speaking, the Practice Space concept rethinks what an incubator does. In contrast to the dominant trend of seeding tech-based startups to revitalize the region’s economic base, Practice Space supports brick-and-mortar concepts, such as coffee shops and grocery stores, with ideas, implementation and design. Photo by Doug Coombe

Both the sitting and standing versions of DESK 01, a collaboration between Artifox and IdeaPaint, are outfitted with dry erase surfaces for recording sudden bursts of creativity.

Style: "#1"

Walk-in rainfall showers can be found in the bathrooms.

JG Domestic (Philadelphia, Pennslyvania) Located adjacent to Philadelphia’s bustling 30th Street Train Station, JG Domestic could have easily felt like an extension of the frenetic commuter hub. Instead, the mood inside is positively bucolic. A “living wall” of vegetation, plaid, striped, and burlap seating, and shelves lined with farmhouse trinkets lend the space tranquility. The lights on top of the shelves are custom by Créme.

The living areas are equipped with 100-year old Turkmen rugs and Gubi coffee tables.

Vanna Venturi House, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (1964)Robert Venturi's home for his mother is considered by many to be the first postmodern building. With its green hue, unusually tall chimney, stairs leading to nowhere and oversize fireplace with stairs squeezed around it, the house is what the architect called his "manifesto against Modernism."

"Philadelphia Bike Terminal" by Nathaniel Ross. Photo by Blake Larson, the Bicycle Coalition of Greater Philadelphia.

Top 9 Kitchens of 2020: The nominees for this year’s Dwell Design Awards are the epitome of style and function.

Lauren and Brittan Ellingson, the owners of Notice Snowboards, a custom snowboard and wakesurf company in Whitefish, Montana, approached Workaday Design and builder Mindful Designs to concoct a new lake home for their family. The brief was, perhaps unsurprisingly, focused on getting the family outdoors as much as possible.

The Lofthouse is built one of the many hills separating it from the couple’s main residence. "Excavation was a challenge, as we wanted to maintain as much of the existing landscape as possible, but needed to clear out trees for the foundation," says Tarah.

Parota wood continues in the spacious kitchen. Marisa and Christopher found the blue tile that runs throughout the home on a trip to León, Mexico. "It called out to us," says Christopher. Festooned with small stars, its tone matches the color of the ocean perfectly.

The architects designed the home’s expansion with the knowledge that the owners plan to continue the renovation when their budget allows it. "We wanted to put everything in the right place so it doesn’t have to be undone later," says Corti.

Houston-based designer Barbara Hill is known for a stripped-down aesthetic that blends art-world cachet with Texas modernism. Vitra’s Slow chair sits in front of a powder-coated-steel bookcase made by Hill’s go-to fabricator, George Sacaris; it was originally built for the Houston house.

Emily and Will Brown (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) Along the way she found that, “People are really proud of where they live. They are excited to show me around their house, garden, favorite restaurant, museum, park,” she says. “I’ve been invited into so many homes and given tours of so many communities that it’s been a collaboration with my friends.”

The architects embraced the modernist form of the new structure instead of cladding the extension in expensive brick to match the original Victorian’s exterior.

When architect Antonio Monserrat transformed an old 800-square-foot Brooklyn loft into his new home, he imbued his love of colorful, multifunctional design into an eye-catching renovation. Once used as a bakery in the early 20th century, the postindustrial space came with great bones—original exposed timber beams, 12-foot ceilings and large windows—that Monserrat used as a backdrop for his playful color choices, small-scale studio prototypes, and contemporary furnishings. From the emerald-green entryway with a hot-pink ceiling to the sunshine-yellow Kartell storage pieces, the Spanish architect’s loft beautifully blends creative inspiration with functionality.

At Under, a Snøhetta-designed restaurant balanced on the Norwegian coast, guests dine 16 feet below the ocean’s surface. The tilted concrete tube gives the impression that it’s sliding into the sea. “The idea was to make a tube that would bring people from above sea level down under the sea,” lead architect Rune Grasdal told Dezeen. “That transition is easy to understand, but it’s also the most effective way to do it. It also feels secure, but you don’t feel trapped.” The angle was also designed with the building’s aquatic neighbors in mind. Over time the structure will become part of its environment, acting as an artificial reef. Marine research tools like cameras have been installed outside the restaurant to help scientists learn about the population, behavior, and diversity of the species living in this part of the North Atlantic.