One major directive was to “honor the tree,” referring to a particular 85-year-old cottonwood on the property. Photo by: Kirk Gittings

Milestones' cement plaster covers the walls of the minimalist bathroom. The Scola sink from Duravit is accompanied by a chrome Grohe Essence faucet and Hansgrohe's Croma Green Showerpipe.

Pros: Concrete countertops are durable, resistant to heat, and can be less expensive than natural stone, especially when completed as a DIY project. Cons: Concrete must be sealed before being used; otherwise, its porous nature means that it will stain very easily.

Yumi (left) and Maya (right) cheese around on the steps leading into the front door. Inside, there is ample space for removing and leaving one's shoes, another Japanese element.

Along with its durability, concrete requires very little maintenance.

These geometric candleholders from Korridor are made with a mix of cement and concrete.

Architect Dan Brunn's #9 Dream House captures the contemporary style of the designers Dwell selected for Decorist.

Stepstone's narrow concrete pavers add a graphic touch to the garden.

Six-year-old twins Nicolas and Constanza use Pentimento as their “little battleground,” says Pasternak. “They have some options here that they will not find anywhere else.” Among those options are a climbing wall offering easy access to the roof.

A spacious deck was created as part of the addition. A cantilevered concrete bench stretches out to the rear garden and complements the adjacent concrete wall.

When Belgian fashion retailer Nathalie Vandemoortele was seeking a new nest for her brood, she stumbled upon a fortresslike house in the countryside designed in 1972 by a pair of Ghent architects, Johan Raman and Fritz Schaffrath. While the Brutalist concrete architecture and petite but lush gardens suited her tastes to a tee, the interiors needed a few updates.

The couple’s bathroom features a mineral composite tub from MTI.

"It was nothing but a muddy pit," landscape architect Terence Lee says about the 500-square-foot yard behind his Pacifica, California, house. Instead of filling the space with potted plants or paving it over for a quick fix, Lee devised a simple budget-friendly plan involving tilted lines and a few plants to fashion a functional, low-maintenance space fit his family of five's lifestyle.

Ornate concrete blocks screen a storage area in the kitchen while letting light through. The effect is “romantic—romantyczny,” says Nix.

Handcrafted green cement tile floors are used in the kitchen and in many living spaces in the home. Honed granite counters, Tzalam wood cabinets, and GE Profile appliances complete the airy space.

"I think there’s plenty of missed potential in small compact spaces like these," Lee says. I see it in my neighborhood and other places in publication. People tend to think a small space is a small space and don’t try to do very much with it.

Guess used inexpensive graded pine plywood so that he would get heavy grain patterns on the surfaces. One of the main goals in the kitchen was simplicity. To that end, he opted for a poured-in-place concrete island. "We didn’t know if we could afford to do that, but we found a great subcontractor [Nate Francis of Countertop Creations] here who had never really built anything like that," Guess says. "Because he was interested in giving it a shot and adding it to his portfolio, he didn’t charge an exorbitant amount of money because it was sort of an experiment for him as well." The kitchen features a GE Profile refrigerator and KitchenAid range, microwave, and dishwasher. The sink and faucet are from Kohler. The project's builder was Joe Doherty with Custom Homecrafters of Austin.

Lee used a bit of visual trickery in the form of forced perspective to make the yard appear larger than its 500 square feet. "You can look at the garden from essentially three directions, from the inside looking directly out, and from the two long ends of the garden," he says. "If the garden was designed with orthogonal lines, you quickly get the sense of that it’s a small narrow space. By tilting the lines of the curb walls and step, you get a much different feel."

Other than maintaing the original footprint, Johns completely transformed the residence, increasing the height of the rooms and adding a family room and 2,200 square feet of deck space. Johns aimed to use materials that would age well—the structure was built with cement stucco and poured-in-place concrete, and features double-glazed aluminum windows and doors.

Large, dramatic openings bring transparency and contrast to the 10-inch-thick concrete facade, framing perspectival views of the landscape.

In fall, the color of this backyard in Charlottesville, Virginia, changes daily with the foliage. Elizabeth Birdsall marvels how new outdoor spaces on her property, like a patio furnished with upholstered seating from Gloster, make enjoying the woods an easy experience: “It’s like comfortable camping, all the time.”

A palette of stone, concrete, and greenery greets guests at the home’s front entrance.

At a seaside New Zealand house, the simple kitchen has strandboard cabinetry and an MDF island that conceals a fireplace at one end. The bright green cabinetry of the island are a happy pop of color that references the native greenery outside.

The bathroom is entirely white cement waterproof plaster with natural concrete on the floor, and a hand-poured concrete sink.

Studio member Eri Shimatsuka (left) and studio manager Petri Juslin (right) compare a first fabric proof to the artist’s original drawing.

Builder Ross Percival helped finesse the finely tuned detailing that separates the internal slope from the rock outside (opposite). The Pedro wire stool is by Craig Bond for Candywhistle.

Sliding doors cast shadows across the concrete floor.

Homeowners Cecilia Tham and Yoel Karaso renovate their home in Barcelona, harmoniously overlapping elements of the old and the new. Photo by: Gunnar Knechtel

The redesign enlarged an existing arched opening between the dining room (with its vintage Saarinen table) and the new addition.

Hilary and her husband, Jimmy, opted for a functional, restrained material palette. In the dining room, Rejuvenation pendants hang above a table by Hedge House and chairs from Hay.

The oak island and cupboards offset the kitchen’s black IKEA cabinetry.

Based in New York City, Cocoon9 takes a unique approach to prefab homes, offering a line of tiny homes with high-quality construction and finishes, smart technology, energy efficiencies, and versatile spaces that are ready for the modern market.

“Everything needed to be approachable and simple,” says Hilary. “The house reflects who we are.”

Architect Jody Beck with her son Jonah Tisdale, 1, in front of the family beach house she designed on Anna Maria Island, Florida. The home is essentially a bunker on the beach: its structure and envelope are constructed entirely of poured-in-place concrete to resist hurricane force winds while enabling dramatic cantilevers and unobstructed views of the Gulf of Mexico. Photo courtesy of Traction Architecture.

“It’s a human-scaled house. It’s not intimidating or fussy. It feels good,” explains architect Solomon Berg.