The idea behind Endémico is "luxury camping." Set on 40 acres of gorgeous, unspoiled terrain, there are 20 bungalows and a shared pool for guests to take a dip in. The Encuentro Guadalupe winery offers guests access to local wines as well as a peek at how they are processed through winemaking courses. Encuentro's restaurant will feature dishes that incorporate local flavors as well as a cooking school where people can learn how to prepare creative meals with the guidance of talented young chefs.

Architect Gregory Phillips connected the original house to a new modern extension that doesn’t interfere with the surrounding houses. “I try to be true to the location,”he explains, “so it doesn’t seem like some spaceship has landed.”

Architecture firm NADAAA planned a striated addition to a brick neo-Georgian house in Boston with the owners’ primary goal in mind: to engage with the outdoors year-round. The walls of the rear kitchen and living space are virtually all glass, allowing sight lines to the existing gardens and new pool house through a series of framed vignettes onto the backyard landscape. The glass box is bookended by uniform “fins” that mark the edge of each picture window, as shown here. Photo by John Horner.

To most eyes, Ezequiel Farca’s 1970s-style concrete home in Mexico City looked like a teardown. Even the lot itself—shallow and crammed against a steep hillside—wasn’t particularly alluring. But Farca saw through all the restraints to create a spa-like refuge in one of the world’s most energetic cities. "It’s is such a hectic place. You’re bombarded by so much information the moment you step into the streets," says Farca, who first gained prominence as a furniture and interior designer. "So we envisioned this house as a retreat, a kind of a temple." The rooftop courtyard is lined with a verdant mix of indigenous plants, including banana trees, palm trees, lion’s claw, Mexican breadfruit, and native vines. The chaise longues were designed for Farca’s EF Collection.

The studio addition is part of a revamp that unifies buildings, canopies, and the courtyard. It was a three-year job for architect-owners Matt Wittman and Jody Estes, with many materials opportunistically salvaged.

White was used extensively throughout the addition, a choice that the architects say enhances the spacious feel of the rooms and draws attention to the views.

In the outdoor dining room, wire chairs by Harry Bertoia for Knoll surround a mango wood table made by a local carpenter, Diego Madrazo.

Known for furniture and interior design, Ezequiel Farca transformed a 1970s-style concrete home in Mexico City into a tranquil sanctuary. The temple-like retreat blends into the hilly Lomas de Chapultepec neighborhood with its pale gray-green hue and strategic plantings, which soften the boundaries between house, garden, and street. The Recinto lava stone patio accessed through the living room holds teak outdoor furniture designed by Farca himself.

"The longer I work as an architect, the more I want to deepen my skills as a gardener," says Yuri Zagorin Alazraki, founder of the Mexico City firm ZD+A. In building his own house in Mexico City’s Lomas de Chapultepec neighborhood, his commitment has produced results that appear miraculous. In fact, they grow out of a carefully choreographed series of bravura design moves.

An Almond bathtub by Porcelanosa is accented by a tub filler from Hansgrohe.

Two art studios adjoin a central volume at this work/live residence built from terracreto (sustainable concrete), glass, and painted steel just outside of San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. Residents Austin and Lida Lowrey, retired design and museum professionals, collaborated with their two daughters—Sheridan, an artist, and Elizabeth, an architect—to design the structure as a place for creative contemplation.

When the Ferguson Sauder family—parents Meg, a school counselor, and Tim, a design instructor, plus kids Cole, Olive, and Asher—wanted a multifunctional backyard addition, they decided to build it themselves. Two Liftoff chairs by Tim Miller, one of Tim’s former students, surround an oil-drum fire pit set in granite dug up on the property. On the deck, the Panamericana chair is by Industry of All Nations.

“We kept the tones very neutral because we wanted the colors of the garden to come through,” Ong says. “Light also plays an important role here, and again the neutral tones help highlight the changes in the light and sky.” Ong’s team used Melbourne's Ajar Furniture and Design store to supply the home's furnishings, and this Marcel Breuer Club Chair Model B3 sits off the dining room.

Modern bathroom vanities in white bathe the room in light, creating a relaxing atmosphere. Mirroring the kitchen of this home, the bathroom features custom wooden cabinetry and Brodware faucets.

The larger volume of the addition, consisting of kitchen, living, and dining spaces, loops around to the smaller bedroom through a wooden passage. The same ipe, with differing finishes, is used for both the interior and exterior. Expansive sliding glass doors by Fleetwood dramatically open up the living space to the outdoors.

The roof deck is a place for entertaining, and offers scenic hillside views. During the design process, the team was challenged with preserving these views while adhering to the required 3.5-foot railing height mandated by building code, a height that would block all views while seated. As a solution, the team came up with open metal railings that would maintain safety while preserving the view.

A collection of flea-market finds and personal keepsakes sit perched upon a shelf in Austin’s studio.

Privacy and respect for the natural environment was foremost in the new owners’ mind when conceiving the home’s redesign. The placement of the addition limits direct sightlines to neighbors and offers unbroken views of the surrounding area. The aluminum frame and glass walls create a light, airy atmosphere.

“Before, the house turned its back on the landscape,” said Parish. “This renovation and addition really animates the garden.” Sliding glass doors match those of the living room beyond the deck, and both can be completely open to the yard.

In an effort to create an abundance of light and air flow throughout the space, the home follows an L-shaped floor plan that wraps around outdoor areas. “We designed several open spaces, each with a different feel: the garden and pool, the terrace, and the back patio,” says Cesarman. “The idea was to reduce the area to the most basic and essential [elements].”

The glass balustrade and floor were sourced in Germany and installed by James Aiken. Angelique, the founder of Papillon Designs and Landscaping, clustered plantings around the exterior glass addition.

“It’s never static or solid here—with thelight, there’s always some sort of movement.”—Austin Lowrey, resident

Solid European oak flooring by DuChateau runs throughout the home. The sculpture is by Jorge Yázpik.

Mexican encaustic tiles with a geometric floral pattern from Mosaicos Terra line the bathroom in Austin’s studio, where a full-height window near the wall-mounted shower provides a view to the expansive outdoor scenery. A vintage kewpie doll sculpture sits atop the custom terrazzo-and-granite counter; the steel mirror is from Artes de México.

Farca furnished the living room with a Serge Mouille three-arm floor lamp, custom sofas from EF Collection, and Surface tables by Vincent Van Duysen for B&B Italia.

Architect Joaquin Castillo blends inexpensive materials, the odd splurge, and a refined modernist sensibility to create an affordable weekend house for brothers Alfredo and Guillermo Oropeza. The facade is a juxtaposition of rough-hewn local stone, smooth concrete, glass, and steel—the material palette used throughout the structure.

A couple—he an entrepreneur working in logistics, she a stay-at-home mother—bought an 8,500-square-foot house here and approached JSa, a Mexico City-based architectural firm, with the idea of remodeling it. The house was poorly sited on its lot in a manner that drew very little natural light. The architects sized it up and quickly realized that the best solution would be to tear it down and start from scratch.

Oak veneer lines the stairwell in between the master bedroom and the children’s wing.

The master bedroom, painted in Whisper by Comex, sports a bed that Farca custom-designed as part of his EF Collection.

Crushed stone paths and native plantings, including cacti, wildflowers, and grasses, encompass the surrounding landscape. “We’re nothing but natural,” says Austin. “The cacti, to me, are like pieces of sculpture, each with their own personality. I even named some.”

In the sitting area, two leather Paulistano chairs by Paulo Mendes da Rocha top a rug by Yerra; the wall paint is Comex.

A couple enlist Butler Armsden Architects and Leverone Design to reimagine their home as a multigenerational meeting point. In 1963, landscape designer Lawrence Halprin devised a master plan for a community that would live in harmony with the natural environment. The resulting Sea Ranch, which stretches 10 miles along the Pacific coastline in Sonoma County, California, is characterized by timber-frame, wood-clad structures that are in dialogue with the local climate and terrain. Sited on a bluff within this pioneering community is the vacation home of a lawyer couple. After purchasing the residence in 2007, they lived in the home as it was for four years, even keeping the previous owners’ furniture. Envisioning a retreat that would accommodate their extended family and guests, they then recruited Butler Armsden Architects and Leverone Design to help guide the project.