A Movie sofa, by CB2, and a Rais wood-burning stove are in the living room.

Taking inspiration from Arlberg Valley, Austria to classic Nordic materials, the Troll Hus certainly adds a European touch to the California landscape. “The inspiring concept is that of a treehouse that, as if suspended between treetops, seamlessly and ingeniously blends with its surroundings.” Casper says.

Roberto Burneo designed this home for his eldest niece, her husband, and their three young children in a suburb outside Quito, the capital of Ecuador. The house is set on a flat expanse of land with fruit trees, and Burneo's design "guides the social areas inward in order to link them to the gardens.”

Burneo took advantage of the perpendicular orientation of the volumes to create outdoor spaces that look out to the gardens.

Sawn wood planks add texture to the interior walls.

Burneo oriented the house in a pair of perpendicular volumes. The ground floor houses the public areas, including a study, while the top volume, housing the bedrooms and a family room, is oriented north-south, allowing for warm sunlight and a visual orientation toward the gardens.

The custom kitchen counters are concrete, and the yellow dining chairs add a welcome splash of color.

Burneo added exposed brick to his palette of interior materials.

Get the whole family involved in the kitchen, whether it be teaching young ones a tried-and-true recipe or exploring a new dish together.

Darcy Miro and her son, Lucien, enjoy a moment in their new double-height living room. The Charlotte Perriand wall sconces are vintage finds.

The architect placed the windows at Sabrina’s eye level so that she’d be able to see her son, Rocco, playing in the yard outside. "You can feel the seasons changing here," says Chiavelli. "I grew up three miles from here, outside in nature. This is a house for experiencing life."

Miha hangs out with Kea, the dog, on the wooden deck that extends the living space outdoors.

The extended clan, which includes about two dozen members, collaborated with Gray Organschi Architecture to design an inclusive home for three generations.

This room can be a family room, office, or guest suite. The flooring is the same throughout: Riva Floors, Engineered Wood Select Grade, in Crystal Thunder, and the couch is from Restoration Hardware. Unseen is the foosball and ping pong tables.

The family room becomes a meeting point

Matthew Hufft designed the house that he shares with his wife, Jesse, and their three children to sit inconspicuously among its neighbors in the Roanoke Park area of Kansas City, Missouri. The backyard and porch, which is furnished with a Saarinen Round Dining Table and Emeco Navy chairs, is a popular setting for warm-weather entertaining.

Studio Bazelet began the renovation by knocking down a wall between the living room and the kitchen. By joining the spaces together, they were able to bring more light into the space.

The butterfly-roof pavilion by architects Kate Simonen, Benjamin Parco, and Phil Kaefer connects to the low-slung home Joseph Esherick designed in 1954 via two covered walkways and an open-air tearoom. All three structures sit lightly on the landscape designed by Lawrence Halprin and updated over 50 years later by Gary Roth, a former employee.

The skylights are constantly changing the home's interiors. It's "not just day/night, or dark/light," says Bernheimer, "but the quality of light...changes at any given hour, depending on where clouds are, where the sun is, whether the moon is full or not, all dependent on the time of day, time of year, and so forth."

Biophilic design prefers natural over synthetic materials, as human beings innately feel more at ease with the former. In this house in Israel, the limestone walls are recycled from dismantled houses in the region. The stone staircase is original.

BSC designed suspended powder-coated and walnut open shelves to demarcate the kitchen from the rest of the living space. The detailing on the cast-iron columns inspired the perforated pattern of the semi-transparent screens.

The Den

The family’s two cats, Baron and Jula.

The Baumann family residence in Gowanus, Brooklyn, is all geometry up front, with a rectilinear grid of steel and cypress comprising the structure’s double facade.

Parents Mitra and Sasan Nakhshab join sons Nima and Soheil (with daughter, Sofia) and Soheil’s girlfriend, Susana Mora (with son, Shayan), on the main floor.

Warm and casual furniture is favored in the courtyard. Colorful seating, wood stools, and smart built-in shelving complete the space. The expandable table by Henkin Shavit is flanked by seven hanging pendant lights, symbolizing the branches of the Menorah. To the right of the table, the original stone arch leads to the home’s wine cellar.

A spacious deck and large glass doors allow for seamless indoor/outdoor living.

Light streams from above into the living room and kithen thanks to the home's largest skylight. This skylight isn't one large window but two: one on the eastern side of the double-height volume, and one on the western. In between them are sculptural, pyramid-shaped forms that block and diffuse the sunlight throughout the day. In the words of the architects, they "add to the unexpective quality of light" in the space.

Here's what you need to know before undergoing a building project with a contractor but no architect.

Have your children help you go through their book collections and pick out what books they haven't read yet. If you are able to safely leave your home, you can coordinate curbside dropoff book exchanges with friends.

Though the fire pit was “kind of an after-thought,” says Hannah, the family uses it year-round. “In the spring and fall, it warms you up on cool nights, and in the summer, it just adds ambience.”

When not in use during winter, the tub is hidden from the home’s view. The entrance has a sheltered overhang for car parking.

The door to Eoghan Mahony’s office is set on a caster and has a hinge that runs the entire ten-foot height.

A pair of interior architects with a years-in-the-making furniture collection recast an old Belgian factory as a playful family home. Photo by Frederik Vercruysse.

The master bathroom is framed by a glass and varnished steel doorway. Minimal white tiling and concrete floors allow both the original stone walls and graphic geometric glass openings to take center stage.

A pair of interior architects with a years-in-the-making furniture collection recast an old Belgian factory—in Bellem, a 25-minute drive out of Ghent and halfway to Bruges—as a playful family home. The stars of the living room are a pair of pink Bird chairs by Harry Bertoia for Knoll, accented by a brass-and-steel coffee table designed by homeowners as well as vintage marble-topped and wood occasional tables and antique rugs are from Morocco. Photo by Frederik Vercruysse.