The structures share a solar panel, but the families control their own home's heat level with a wood-burning stove.

After a day at the beach, an outdoor shower tucked toward the back of the house allows everyone to rinse off without tracking sand indoors.

Beacon technology like the indoors system, currently in beta, enables users to navigate San Francisco International Airport with help from their cellphones.

A steel-framed, bi-fold door system by Skyrange Engineering separates the edge of the house from the outdoor area.

The second-floor deck looks out onto the green canopy of Garcetti and Wakeland's neighborhood and indoors to a pair of Vatne Møbler rosewood lounge chairs.

In winter, guests dine indoors.

The courtyard captures nature within the embrace of the house, a "room" of green that is simultaneously indoors and outdoors.

The home's abundance of glass creates a peaceful dialogue between the indoors and outdoors.

Ample glazing blurs the distinction between indoors and out.

A terrace sits quietly against the water, not quite indoors and not quite outdoors.

Large windows punctuate the north elevation to pull views of the the water and landscape indoors.

Mint green-painted ironwork and tiles connect the indoors to the outside more fluidly.

Windows added to the side corners of the north facade bring additional daylight indoors.

Amalgam Studio spent around 18 months building this residence, which merges the indoors and outdoors.

Walls of glass blur the boundary between indoors and out in this bathroom. The floors are Jerusalem Bone limestone.

Blankespoor grows a variety of botanical remedies indoors, including aloe vera.

When the casement windows are opened, family members can bask in sunlight while reading a book indoors.

A front view of the renovated home. The wood slats screening the bedrooms on the street-facing side are repeated indoors on the interior staircase.

The brick-and-glass residence accommodates limited mobility with a lift between levels and seamless thresholds between indoors and out.

The kitchen opens directly onto the dining room; the 1954 article in Good Housekeeping noted that the dining room was separated from the walled garden by large sliding glass doors, "uniting indoors and out."

Blurring the boundaries between indoors and outdoors, this 1,300-square-foot home on the island of Honshu, Japan by architect Keisuke Maeda has multiple windows and skylights surrounding its concrete base.

Operable timber shutters and screens offer protection from extreme weather. Zoning the house into three distinct masses creates a partly sheltered courtyard to make this year-round blending of the indoors and outdoors possible.

For the bathroom design, Ann was inspired by a visit to Dunton Hot Springs in Colorado years ago, where there was a tree indoors. Here, a staghorn fern hangs over the bathtub. Talavera Tile by Reeso tile in San Antonio covers the tub front and floor, and the window covering is a Pojagi-style curtain bought off Etsy.

Brothers Nima and Soheil relax in the family room on an Eames lounge chair and a custom sofa they designed. “Mid-century architecture draws the outdoor environment indoors,” says Soheil. “There’s a lot of natural light, a lot of ventilation.”

Using natural materials is one way of bringing nature indoors. Oiled white ash floors and ceilings, along with Italian poplar and Lawson cypress joinery, are found throughout architect Andrew Simpson’s 538-square-foot home outside Wellington, New Zealand.

Gregory and Caryn Katz are dwarfed beneath the cantilevered concrete overhang, which houses the bedroom on the upper level. The stackable glass doors that run beneath allow the house to open completely to the yard and swimming pool, soften the severity of the concrete, and blur the boundary between indoors and out.

Sliding glass doors blur the lines between indoors and out.

On a trip to Naoshima, Japan, the Houston newlyweds behind Robertson Design fell in love with Tadao Ando’s concrete-composed museums. This led the couple to create a residence of their own comprised of a low concrete wall, concrete cube, and box clad in Siberian larch. The indoors are rounded out with white oak, marble, and leather-finished granite.

Double-glazed Thermotech windows bring the landscape indoors.

A small vertical green wall brings nature indoors.

The tree-shaped window frames bring an abstract forest indoors.

Large sliding glass doors provide a seamless transition from the indoors to the outdoors.

The home’s glass addition was conceived as a place to be both indoors and outdoors at the same time.

The exterior’s dark cedar siding was extended into the stairwell to connect the indoors and outdoors.

Large glazed doors slide all the way open to blur the line between indoors and out.