The stretching skyline of Estonia's capital and energy efficient city sits along the Baltic Sea, offering a mixture of contemporary art nouveau and industrial architecture. Photo by: Jens Passoth

An entrance hallway is the first space you enter in a home, but it can also serve the very important function of acting as a drop-off station or mudroom for keys, shoes, and coats.

Chandler City Hall; Chandler, Arizona SmithGroupJJR Considering the environment and Chandler citizens, the team at SmithGroupJJR focused on designing a community courtyard. The courtyard is filled with desert plants and permeable ground cover, both of which reconnect the town with its rural heritage and promote water conservation. Additionally, the west side of the building features a “Turbulent Shade:” a hinged structure with 1,800 perforated stainless steel panels to protect the building from the sun.

Chandler City Hall (Chandler, Arizona: 2010) If only government was always this responsible. Built without accruing debt, the LEED Platinum-certified Chandler City hall, designed by SmithGroup, accomplishes a myriad of goals: bringing public space to Chicago Street in the city center, providing significant energy savings, and creating a public centerpiece for Chandler. The quartzite-clad structure also has fun being responsible: water from the HVAC system cascades in a waterfall down the north side of a parking tower, and the kinetic sculpture “Turbulent Shade,” and interactive set of steel hinges and LED lights designed by artist Ned Kahn, glows at night thanks to power from the building’s solar panels. Photo by SmithGroup JJR

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.

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.

Entry Hall with Custom Cabinet by Rob Zinn for blankblank, Redecoration of Elegant East Sacramento Residence by Jill Dudensing Lifestyle + Design

Entry Hall

Hallway, Modern Law Firm by Jill Dudensing Lifestyle + Design

This "local prefab" home on the Isle of Skye is made mostly from materials sourced in northern Scotland. The timber-framed model, meant to evoke the simple agrarian barns of the area, can be constructed on-site in as little as a day and is designed for affordability.

"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.

In the hall, the designer allowed the original details to resonate. “The old building has a lot to tell us,” she says.

Anne Cormier, principal of Atelier Big City, uses bold colors in her kitchen and dining area.

Black and white kitchen cabinets painted with a triangular pattern add a whimsical touch to this funky kitchen.

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].”

View toward the entrance door and the kitchen

Rock stands in the doorway to the boys’ bathroom, which is lined with semi-gloss Modern Dimensions tiles from Daltile. “We wanted it to be playful,” Hufft says, “so we chose each color and laid out the tile distribution in Photoshop.”

Entry Hall with Custom Console & Sculpture by Camille Vandenberge, Redecoration of Elegant East Sacramento Residence by Jill Dudensing Lifestyle + Design

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

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.

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.

Judith and Maple at work in the living space, which has a deck off the side and a view of the neighbors' house.

A George Nelson pendant hangs in the reconfigured entrance hall, whose stairs echo the concrete steps off the back deck.

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

Finnlandia Hall is a centerpiece of the Finnish capital of Helsinki, boasting a towering auditorium and high roof, curving balconies, and an exterior of white marble and black granite.

Farca also designed the custom millwork throughout the house, such as the swinging door leading into the dining room. The leather Siren dining chairs are by Holly Hunt.

Front Entry Hall, Elegant East Sacramento Residence by Jill Dudensing Lifestyle + Design

Photo courtesy of JSa.

When Abbie and Bill Burton hired Marmol Radziner to design their prefab weekend home, their two requests were “simple-simple, replaceable materials,” says Abbie—such as concrete floors (poured offsite in Marmol Radziner's factory) and metal panel siding—and “the ability to be indoors or outdoors with ease.” Deep overhangs provide shade and protection from rain, so the Burtons can leave their doors open year-round and hang out on their 70-foot-long deck even in inclement weather. They visit the house once a month, usually for a week at a time, with Vinnie and Stella, their rescue Bernese Mountain dogs. Their two adult children occasionally join them. The couple hopes to one day retire here.