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.

“The home is quite small, but designed in such a way that you don’t feel it,” Herrin says. Lift-slide openings by Quantum Windows & Doors, which were fabricated fewer than 50 miles from the house, make the main living space seem larger.

Hale and Maisie peer out of one of the living-room windows, from where Edmonds (pictured at left with Pippa) dreams about installing a zip-line directly to their garden patch.

In the backyard, Umerani and Fashandi decided to limit the lawn to minimize water consumption.

Olson Kundig Architects created Studhorse in Washington's remote Methow Valley as four structures oriented around a central courtyard, each positioned to best enjoy the surrounding vistas in all four seasons.

One of the main goals of the construction was to do as little harm as possible to the existing environment, which includes waterways that salmon depend upon. Herrin and his team created a garden roof that covers the full extent of the home to meet this objective. “This helps control storm water runoff and also replaces lost insect habitat—insects being a critical food source for juvenile salmon,” he says.

Olson Kundig Architects' Delta Shelter, in Mazama, Washington, is a 1,000 square-foot steel box home with a 200 square-foot footprint. Photo by Olson Sundberg Kundig Allen Architects/TASCHEN.

“There had been two or three primitive cabins on the property in the past, which resulted in a clearing that we utilized for the site,” Joseph Herrin says. “This allowed us to avoid any further tree removal for construction, and provided an opportunity to begin to restore that portion of the property with native landscaping.”

“The liberal use of wood roots the structure in the landscape and provides the owners with an experience strongly connected with location,” Herrin says. The exterior’s Western red cedar shingle siding has a semi-transparent stain, half Fieldstone and half Burnt Hickory from Cabot.

Studhorse | Olson Kundig

"The cedar siding is simply stained with a black semi-transparent oil stain [from Cabot], which allows the color of the wood to still emerge through,” architect Robert Hutchison says. “We love how the black color makes the building recede into the background, and how it in turn allows the trees on the site to emerge as the highlight.”

Wood decking extends out to the yard.

Amending Meeuwissen’s early request for an open bathroom space, the architects devised a more private chamber with an overhead skylight and walls in stone tile from Intercodam Tegels.

After - living room (Rubio monocoat floors, Chantilly lace walls, used fireplace)

Rolling Huts (Winthrop, United States) A series of six modernist huts created by Tom Kundig of Olson Kundig Architects, the Rolling Huts look like rustic case study homes, a herd of designer cabins that just may exemplify the term 'glamping.' Elevated on stilts, the 200-square-foot structures offer another level of outdoor accommodation. Photos by Chad Kirkpatrick

On Vashon Island, about 20 miles southwest of Seattle, architect Seth Grizzle designed a 440-square-foot multiuse structure for his clients Bill and Ruth True.

Architect Jesse Garlick’s rural Washington vacation home references its rugged surroundings. The steel cladding has developed a patina similar to the ochre-red color of bedrock found in the area.

The view as it appears today.

A sofa from Design Within Reach opposes a Hi Turn chair by Bensen in the living room.

A narrow building next to the main structure houses storage and an outdoor kitchen.

“They wanted to keep the house to one level so that they could retire there without worrying about stairs and access,” Hutchison says. The home features two bedrooms, and the second one is available to guests and the homeowners’ college-age son.

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.

The Bristol stool on the second story landing is by Modern Home.

With a construction budget of less than $200 per square foot, architect Les Eerkes (with the mentorship of Tom Kunding) looked for ways to build the structure efficiently. He specified glulam—glued laminated timber—for the structure and spanned the skeleton with structurally insulated floor and roof panels. The structure is stationed atop a six-column foundation. "The 'six-footed' solution was balanced against a spread footing and stem wall approach," Eerkes says. "Cost analysis led us in the direction of the column footing approach because it minimized excavation and form work costs."

The Andersen Architectural Collection’s Eagle windows and doors provide the panes and passageways of the home.

Anna Hoover, founder of the non-profit First Light Alaska, sought a "thought refuge, a room with a view to sit and contemplate future projects and reflect on recent travels and interactions, plenty of ‘headspace’—tall ceilings—and the ability to host other artists for studio time," she says. A longtime resident of the Pacific Northwest, Hoover was familiar with the work of Olson Kundig and contacted the Seattle-based firm to design her abode.

Three 28.1 Single Mini pendant lights by Bocci hang above a dining table that was custom-built by the owner and her father. Bikappa dining chairs by Kristalia mirror the clean lines of the vintage chair in the living room.

A Design Within Reach bed is steps away from a Second Floor sink by Duravit that’s outfitted with an Essence Grohe faucet. Benjamin Moore’s Templeton Gray is painted on the master bathroom’s wood paneling.

The Armadillo is parked on a 1,000-square-foot lot that gives the couple ample outdoor space.

The Finnish embassy, which opened in 1994 on the site of an old mansion overlooking Rock Creek Park in Washington, was recently awarded a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, or LEED, platinum certification from the U.S. Green Building Council. The embassy was designed by Mikko Heikkinen and Markku Komonen of Heikkinen-Komonen Architects.

The floor-to-ceiling windows at either end of a Seattle boathouse allow light to stream through the entire 1,000-square-foot space.

This outdoor chair from designer Damian Velasquez is both striking and strikingly comfortable—you might not believe you're sitting on metal. The mesh design is sturdy, but has just enough give to conform to your body. The heat-dispersing, wind-resistant powder-coated stainless steel construction makes it a smart addition to your yard.

O Table by Half 13 $2,800 This curvy powder-coated stainless steel outdoor table, fabricated by Damian Velasquez in Albuquerque, New Mexico, is available in nine vibrant colors.

The building overlooks Rock Creek Park.