The sauna is a decidedly Scandinavian touch.

Architectural designer Sebastian Mariscal and project manager Jeff Svitak created a house in Venice, California, for Michael and Tamami Sylvester. Known as Dwell Home Venice for its role as an exemplification of modern architecture, the house is an homage to indoor-outdoor living. Photo by Coral von Zumwalt.

“The home is quite small, but designed in such a way that you don’t feel it,” Herrin says. Lift-slide openings by Quantum Windows & Doors, which were fabricated fewer than 50 miles from the house, make the main living space seem larger.

A guest bedroom, with furniture from Room & Board, overlooks the bridge above the dining courtyard. The home’s landscape architecture is by Ventura, California–based Jack Kiesel. Photo by Coral von Zumwalt.

The living and dining room look out to the central courtyard, promoting indoor/outdoor living. Here, five doors slide into a pocket in the wall to create a nearly 23-foot-wide opening on one side looking into the garden. Another set on the opposite side enhances cross ventilation.

Requirements for licensed contractors depend on the scope of work and the location of the project.

It is all very mindful. “We proceeded with a philosophy and a vision,” says Chamberlin. “All of us understood that the poetry of what you look at is very important.”

Michael and Tamami brought greenery to the master bath courtyard, which is lined with Eco Arbor Designs deck tiles, in the form of succulents in a ceramic Peanut planter by John Follis for Architectural Pottery from Vessel. Photo by Coral von Zumwalt.

The knotty cedar cladding from Crenshaw Lumber was pretreated with an ebony stain from Timber Pro UV—twice on both sides—prior to being brought to the site, where it was left for eight weeks so that it could adjust to the moist seaside air before installation. “Cedar siding swells or shrinks when it gains or loses moisture while it reaches equilibrium with the content of the surrounding air,” says Michael. Photo by Coral von Zumwalt.

Once through the street-level entrance, the property's modern garage door comes into view. Stairs lead up to the kitchen.

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

Two-inch-thick bamboo treads and a bamboo handrail on the stairs lead the way to the second floor.

Designed by Hawkins, the Perch by Canary 3 offers additional outdoor seating. The 22-foot-long triple slider facilitates indoor/outdoor access.

The house rises to nearly the height of the neighboring structure. The plantings on the bridge, which connects the guest pavilion with the master bedroom and media room pavilion, will eventually grow in to create a privacy screen. Photo by Coral von Zumwalt.

A 22-foot-long door allows easy access to the backyard. "We paired the lift and slide door with a retractable screen for insects and a retractable canopy above, to shade the deck and control heat gain into the house," Horowitz says.

On the rooftop deck is an outdoor fireplace clad in cement board panels, plus a custom wych elm table by Arnold d’Epagnier and Charles Outdoor sofas by B&B Italia.

"When I was furnishing the place, I made sure it’d also be a good place for art," Judin tells FvF. "After that, I considered my other passions: cooking, for example. My kitchen is the heart and center of the house."

The couple made the house feel even more spacious by flooding a series of levels with natural light.

The home’s living room can be kept open to the elements, or sectioned off with sliding glass walls. A natural concrete slab acts as an exterior barrier, and freijó wood and track lighting define the interior space. C10 sofa by Marcus Ferreira and vintage Poltrona Molé chair by Sergio Rodrigues provide casual seating. Across the partition wall, a Jader Almeida table anchors the dining room.

The homes were designed to maximize the indoor/outdoor experience. “On long weekends, we sit in the garden, invite friends, and make a barbecue. It’s like we’ve gone on holiday without leaving home,” says resident Luca Pagnan.

A striated concrete wall designed by Pollen Architecture & Design contrasts with the rough limestone rock of the home’s existing stair column.

Wellness area

Indoor pool with the corten ceilling

An enormous bi-fold door from Sun Paradise peels back to open the upgraded kitchen-dining area to a new raised terrace. The home's exterior is wrapped in an insulated render system.

The rear facade. A system of sliding glass windows and doors underscore the indoor/outdoor nature of the house.

“Every space of the house has a close relationship with the exterior, which creates the sensation of living outdoors with all the comfort and advantages of living indoors,” says architect Atahualpa Hernandez Salazar.

The alleyway extends into a full kitchen, where meals can be prepared right beside family gatherings. While the main frame of the home was built with the typical concrete, brick, and steel, the materials for the roof and floor tiles, as well as doors, windows, shelving and interior furnishings, were sourced primarily from demolished Saigon homes.

“By shifting the 60-degree equilateral grid of the home 18 degrees, it blurred the edges of the lot line so that the user isn’t sure where the property starts or ends,” Marble said. The hexagonal shape also makes the most of passing breezes, changing sunlight, and bird’s eye views.

The Urban Cultivator is a dishwasher-sized micro-garden that appears to be a wine rack for plants. It is poised to slide into pre-existing kitchen designs, making it an easy way to add a drawer of fresh herbs to your home.

"Under The Sea" by i.S. Design, Raleigh.

Indoor Bushwick Campsite (Brooklyn) Artists Terry Chiao and Adam Frezza found a creative solution to taking on roommates to make rent in New York; build a free-standing cabin in their factory-turned-studio loft and rent it out to visitors. The buzzed-about rental has its own Tumblr and an array of press clippings. The relaxed atmosphere and sunny, airy interior may be all the recommendations a traveler needs. Listing at A Cabin in a Loft in Brooklyn.

A multi-use Cat Play Tower by Arielle Condoret Schechter, AIA, of Chapel Hill, NC. It doubles as a bar cart.

Celebrated architect Frank Gehry designed an innovative furniture collection for Heller in 2004. The collection, which features several cubes, a bench, table, chair, and sofa, is characterized by its striking resemblance to sculpture. Although the pieces are suited for daily use, they also look quite lovely on their own—the sleek surfaces, coupled with the gentle curves and flowing lines, allow the collection to be admired for its beauty, as much as it is utilized for function. Crafted from molded polymer, the furniture is comfortable as well as versatile—it can be used indoors and out.

The living room is light and airy thanks to the glass wall and doors (formerly a solid wall) framing the parkland greenery outside.

The "lightbox," seen from below, adds illumination and quirky interest to the space.