Achieving such efficiency and maintaining the integrity of the wetlands and woodlands on the property meant more research for both the designers and the resident—just getting approval for the siting of the buildings and the driveway took eight months—but Hague is hardly one to do things half way. “A lot of times couples engage in house-building, like birds. I'm doing this solo, more like a monk,” he says of the deeply personal undertaking.

Talo Mini chrome sconces from Artemide installed atop the mirror in the master bathroom effectively disappear, becoming what Maca calls “subtle 3-D sculptures.” The Neo Blanco vanity, from Porcelanosa, is clad in the same Douglas fir as the ceiling. The IQ faucets are from Jado.

The house features Bayerwald sliding windows and highly insulated fixed glass; low-VOC paint from Benjamin Moore; and big overhangs to the south to shield summer sun and allow winter light. It was important to the family to integrate sustainable materials and strategies.

The Balancing Barn in Suffolk: On the edge of a nature reserve a few miles from the Suffolk coast, the MVRDV-designed Balancing Barn cantilevers over the surrounding meadow.

Using technology to design a home as energy-efficient as possible was a priority for Hague, both from a financial and philosophical standpoint. Along with Passive House certification for the main house, a solar array on the roof of the barn keeps energy use near zero. In fact, the entire property was Net Zero before the addition of the pool, and it may soon generate an energy surplus with the addition of a second solar array at the main house.

New interior finishes, furniture, and a guesthouse were part of the restoration/renovation of John Lautner's Chemosphere, a 1960s house that makes frequent cameos in film and television.

The room also features built-in bookcases fabricated by Earthbound Industries and a vintage Sesann sofa by Gianfranco Frattini for Cassina.

Smith designed the custom cabinets, which were fashioned from medium-density fiberboard with a white lacquer finish. There are three drawer heights. "The faces are consistent but some, when you open them up, are triple-height," Smith says. "So that helps with things that are really large, like sleeping bags or camping stuff or whatever. They're three feet deep, so it goes into the knee wall, which is really handy. So you get lots and lots of storage."

Choosing not to make a big to-do of itself, this cottage blends in with its surroundings. A wall of glass on one end allows a merger of the outdoors with the interiors, while white trim leaves the appearance of a snow-kissed façade year-round. Berlin, Germany. By Atelier st Gesellschaft von Architekten mbH from the book Rock the Shack, Copyright Gestalten 2013.

Transformer or beach hut? Positioned in a coastal erosion zone, this holiday retreat for a family of five is completely capable of being relocated. An oversized shutter allows for protection from the elements when not in use and opens to allow sun in during the winter or provide shade on hot summer days. Waikato, New Zealand. By Crosson Clarke Carnachan Architects, from the book Rock the Shack, Copyright Gestalten 2013.

The ever-changing, lush wooded surroundings of Minnesota, such as those experienced at this 8,000-square-foot Type Variant House outside of Minneapolis designed by Coen and Partners, are right near the small town of New Richland.

The children’s bedroom features NET bunk beds and storage baskets from Mono, the design shop of Sticotti’s wife, Mercedes Hernáez.

The girls’ room features wood furniture designed by Bornstein.

The bedding is intentionally simple, without layers of unnecessary pillows, and the “non-headboard headboard,” as Santos describes it, is a loose macramé wall hanging by Sally England. The built-in storage wall that defines the space is painted Kendall Charcoal by Benjamin Moore in a matte finish—a shade used on millwork throughout the house. The Isaac brass sconces are from Schoolhouse Electric, and the floor lamp is from Crate & Barrel. The rocker was custom made by Onefortythree in Las Vegas.

A Chilean home’s dramatic stained-pine exterior references local vernacular architecture.

The main living area is flanked by green spaces, with custom sliding doors made from materials sourced from a metal warehouse. The ceiling is corrugated sheet metal, a “common and cheap but noble” construction material, Teresa says.

The Museum for Architectural Drawing in Berlin, designed by Russian firm SPEECH Tchoban & Kuznetsov, has a wooden door that mimics the structure's textured concrete exterior.

The 1,292-square-foot split-level apartment occupies the top two floors of a building in central Athens that was completed in 1995. The apartment’s configuration allows for four balconies and panoramic views of the city and its tallest natural feature, Mount Lycabettus.

"Vertical Emptiness" by Yasuaki Onishi. An installation made using tree branches and hot glue.

Ole Jensen-designed kitchenware for Room Copenhagen.

An architectural sculpture of the Guggenheim by the UK's Chisel & Mouse.

In undertaking a gut renovation of a town house in Brooklyn’s Park Slope neighborhood, husband and wife Jesper Meyer and Rimjhim Dey drew upon design elements from their respective roots in Denmark and India to create a home that’s wholly serene and accented with subtle pops of bright color. American white-oak planks, finished with lye and pigmented with whitening oil from Danish company Junckers, line the staircase and floors throughout; the dining area is furnished with Ant chairs by Arne Jacobsen and a PH50 pendant by Poul Henningsen for Louis Poulsen.

In the kitchen, interior designer Emily Knudsen Leland replaced purple laminate cabinets with flat-sawn eastern walnut, and added PentalQuartz countertops in polished Super White for contrast. The cooktop and oven are from Miele.

Shulman's shot of Pierre Koenig’s Case Study House No. 22 in 1960 became one of the most iconic photographs of modern U.S. architecture and many felt like it encapsulated Los Angeles during at that time. Shulman ultimately photographed 18 of the 26 Case Study Houses commissioned by Arts & Architecture magazine. © J. Paul Getty Trust. Used with permission. Julius Shulman Photography Archive, Research Library at the Getty Research Institute

Women in Architecture Survey: According to the results of the Architect’s Journal Women in Architecture survey, the pay in the architecture field is still unequal and discrimination is common.

The rear of the Villa Bio features an almost 50-foot-wide expanse of glass. The pool (now just a large gravel pit) echoes the panoramic window’s exact shape. The custom kitchen features a Silestone counter.

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

Connected to the main house by a narrow bridge, a three-story cedar tower with a sauna at its base recalls a tree house. The screened-in second level includes a table and chairs for enjoying an outdoor meal, while a swing on the tower’s top level provides a perch to take in the surrounding birch trees.

Architectural ispiration and exhibition posters fill the walls of Juhl's home office. Two chairs of Juhl's design are placed on the side of his desk, designed in 1945.

Milman Road Renovation The Syte Architecture team referenced the past while assembling the two-story addition, cladding the exterior in zinc and reused brick from the original wall so it blended with the express chimneys and surrounding structures. Photos by Syte Achitecture

The U.S. State Department has just announced the representatives for the American pavilion at the 2014 Venice Architecture Biennale: New York's Storefront for Art and Architecture, helmed by the inimitable Eva Franch i Gilabert, will be programming the U.S. pavilion alongside Ashley Schafer of PRAXIS Journal and Ana Miljački, from MIT's architecture program. The trio—with input from Natasha Jen of Pentagram, Architizer, CLOG, and Leong Leong, who will design the pavilion's physcial space—will stage an "active, experimental architectural office that researches, studies, and remakes 1,000 projects designed by American architecture firms and exported abroad." To learn more about the players involved, take a trip with us through the Dwell archives.

Many elements of the home can be controlled remotely from the residents’ smart phones, including internal temperatures. The GPS on their phones will activate heating systems 20 minutes in advance of their arrival to optimize energy consumption. A similar system is employed for the showers; a water recirculation pump fills the pipes with hot water five minutes before a scheduled shower time.