A portrait spread of Glenn O'Brien, Yael Greenberg & Daniel Storto by Peter Ross.

Marco Becerril, at the left end of the table, presides over his extended family in the double-height dining area.

The cavernous living room takes advantage of its height with floor-to-ceiling bookshelves.

Line Depping, who is based in Copenhagen, Denmark, says she finds inspiration in corralling disorder. Witness her "Stilllife" installation, displayed at Galerie Maria Wettergren in 2010, which contains an array of handmade abstract wooden implements.

Depping's simple and elegant wooden Splejs chair dates form 2010.

A former closet was transformed into a double-height library, complete with a reading nook and a rolling ladder from Spiral Stairs of America. “That’s my favorite part of the house,” says Dan. “When I see Stella reaching for a book, there’s nothing better.”

The positioning of the home’s roof allowed for a double-height, north-facing wall with four matching windows and an accompanying skylight. “The house refers to rural houses: a sloping roof, completely coated by stone and with no eaves,” Vanotti says.

“All our kids moved out long ago, but now all the grandchildren stay over frequently,” Wilma said. “The open space is great for them. They can bike and run around inside and with the walls of windows, we can keep an eye on them when they’re outside.” The stairs were custom made by Level Trappen, with a steel railing resembling interlaced branches from the nearby forest.

The rise of the front lawn and the height of the trees give the house a subtle presence amid magnificent surroundings.

The double-height artist studio showcases custom pieces by Dovetail, like a metal handrail and maple work tables, as well as Eames Aluminum Group chairs. The goal for the home, says Heliotrope principal Mike Mora, was to, “Create an interior space akin to an art gallery with white wall surfaces adequate to hang art."

Kolasiński got rid of half the ceiling, letting it soar up to 23 feet. “My biggest aim was to create an open space and make the house look bigger,” he says.

The home's defining quality is its airy, double-height spaces.

The residents splurged on double-height Marvin Integrity windows.

QuickStand by Humanscale The push for a healthier, more ergonomic workday means there are more upright desks waiting to stand up and be counted than ever. Humanscale’s new mountable workstation makes it easier to ditch the chair without being saddled with the cost of new office furniture. It’s one of the more simple and straightforward ways to turn your desk into more of a true action office. Photo by Humanscale

In contrast with the house’s featureless street façade, the double-height glass wall facing due west is entirely open. With the doors slid back, there is no division between the living space and the veranda overlooking the garden, the estuary, and the harbor beyond, where the couple watch dramatic sunsets and occasionally spot dolphins.

Line Depping's Elements, a bent ash coat rack, was shown in the Danish Mindcraft exhibition curated by Nina Tolstrup in 2014. A similar product, a series of bent ash wall hooks, has been picked up by Wrong for Hay.

With glass raillings, the stairs to the second level invite glimpses through to a double-height bookshelf, filled with books and collected artifacts. Every room in the house is designed with the children in mind, and contains a dedicated space for them—for instance, the craft table under the stairs.

The spacious living room is another of the owners’ favorite spaces. “The double-height ceilings in that room create a very expansive feeling. No matter how many people are in the space, it still feels very open and airy,” says Susan. The soaring 17-foot-high concrete ceilings are original to the schoolhouse, though they were likely not exposed in the same way at that time. A Kilim rug over heated radiant floors bring visual and thermal warmth to the space. A BoConcept sofa and From the Source lounge chair define a seating area, accented by David Weeks Studio hinged wall light.

The double-height living room features an Eames Molded Plywood lounge chair and coffee table. A Neo Chaise Sectional sofa by Bensen sits near a floor covering bought at Christiane Millinger Oriental Rugs.

The concave floor of the reading room also defines the shape of the library. Shielding the reading room from the street, it also opens the library up to the full-height window that occupies its rear façade. The library’s bookshelves were all custom built to accommodate voids for the studio’s windows and mirrors.

Foz Design raised the dining table from Skram to counter height in order to make it feel more informal.

Double-height entryway into one of the eight towers.

A fiddle-leaf tree, which the homeowner has had for 25 years, fits perfectly into the double-height living room, where it enjoys plenty of sunlight. Its tip can be seen from the master bedroom’s walk-in closet.

When we talked with him, Strategy reported that “Japan’s fashion and design industry experienced a dramatic lull following 2011. People were mourning, shunning bold colors for a more subdued palette. But now the culture is warming up to a more lustrous and bright aesthetic as a way of celebrating the beauty of a lost person’s life.”

In the living room, Svenson opted for wide-plank ash floors and a fireplace from Malm. The room connects to the screened-in porch (accessed by folding doors) and has a view of the split-levels above. The jagged bridge leads to the residents' writing studios. "I wanted something that feels a little scary, that gives you energy when you walk across it," says Svenson.

Motorized skylights by Velux, 14 in all, welcome natural light into the house.

A key request from the client was ample room for books. "Brian had us promise that we would give him room to grow his collection," the firm says. The solution was a large library with walnut shelves that was custom-built by woodworker Tom Clossey.

The sunny Tool Box by Line Depping melds beauty and utility.

The owner wanted an interior scheme that felt loft-like, so Rice and his team carved out the double-height space from the second floor to create the entryway aviary. The garage door feature adds urban grit to the space. “We made it seem less like an actual garage door and more like a panel that just slides straight up,” Rice says.

Coleman End Table is an innovative table that blends a sleek black powder coated frame with a sophisticated solid black walnut tabletop. The top is supported by three geometric base supports that give the table a sculptural look and feel. The tabletop adjusts from 22 to 28 inches in height, making it a multifunctional option for a variety of interior spaces.

Crocker Museum Architect: Gwathmey Siegel Architects Location: San Francisco, California

"The couple work opposite schedules yet both live fascinating lives so they wanted a house that they could co-exist in," the firm says. "They needed a divided space that still felt open and communal when they were sharing time together." The double-height living area is dotted with custom lights by Hannah Collins and Magnus Schevene.

This double-height stairwell, just adjacent the kitchen, marks the transition from the historic building to the new renovation. A skylight pulls sunlight from above into the home office below.

"The natural wax finish oak timber floor boards," write the architects, "create a soft and inviting sense of warmth within the space."

When the Hsus found themselves expecting a third child, they engaged Lang to enclose the upper part of their double-height living room to create a fourth bedroom and playroom-study upstairs. Additionally, Lang resurfaced the fireplace wall with massive slabs of filled silver travertine marble. The slabs were so large that one of them broke an adjoining floor-to-ceiling glass pane during installation.