Architects Joan Soranno and John Cook of HGA developed five site-specific cabins that tread lightly on the land at Marlboro College in rural Vermont. These deceptively simple structures update the regional vernacular. Every year, Marlboro College hosts the Marlboro Music Festival in which classical musicians join together to hone their craft. These cabins help support the musicians that live, work, and rehearse together.

Seoul architect Byoung-soo Cho designed the sofas in his urban dream house to resemble building blocks.

A 24-by24-foot Cor-ten-clad pavilion tops the three-story addition.

The glassy pavilion containing kitchen, dining, and living areas is elevated three feet off the ground on posts so it appears to hover among the dunes.

Along with its durability, concrete requires very little maintenance.

The space is also adorned with timber cladding, as seen on the entry door.

The natural spring.

Quintessa Winery has a commitment to creating modern architecture that complements rather than competes with the landscape.

For a cost-conscious 2,000-square-foot renovation located 30 minutes outside of Austin, Texas, architect Nick Deaver took a look around for inspiration. He spied galvanized metal cladding on the region’s sheds and co-opted the inexpensive, resilient material for his own design.

The trip from garage to first floor is through a wood-clad spiral staircase that resembles a giant slatted barrel.

Seoul, population 26,100,000. The densely populated South Korean capital is the world's most high-tech megacity, with wireless access available nearly everywhere in the city limits for a small fee.

The home’s metal cladding is Pac-Clad, a material typically used for roofs.

In the bathroom beneath the stairs, copper fixtures and subway tile feel at once sensitive to the home's roots and very of the moment. It is this attention to cohesiveness that the Don't Move Improve! award seeks to recognize.

The geometry of the spherical intersections becomes apparent at the entry porch, where an orb of wood welcomes visitors.

The architect covered the exterior in Pac-Clad, a metal roofing material, because it's "cost-effective, durable, maintenance-free, and comes in various colors," says Church.

A tiny outbuilding offers a cozy living space inside a simple shell.

Our expert spent an arvo lounging on chaise longues to decide which would make the short list.

A modular shelf system by Alu provides a more sculptural take on the classic bathroom vanity in this Toronto home.

Alex enjoys a sun-filled breakfast at the built-in dining table and bench, one of many space-saving designs.

Among the first Passive Houses in France, this bamboo-clad farmhouse by the Parisian firm Karawitz Architecture only uses a tenth of the energy a conventionally constructed home does. Photo by Nicholas Calcott.

The Birch Pavilion sits atop a 14-by-26-foot platform composed of hemlock and pressure-treated timbers. Photo courtesy of Moskow Linn Architects.

The exterior is clad in louro gamela,a tropical hardwood.

For the spatially challenged, think vertically: lofted beds make every inch count.

Landscape architect Tait Moring installed pavers around the structure’s perimeter and kept the tree cover intact. Photo by: Kimberly Davis

This home's open kitchen, living, and dining area includes a small pantry and an office, but the cedar cladding is the showstopper.

The metal cladding, inspired by a nearby zinc mine, continues seamlessly onto the house’s roof for a minimalist shed effect. “The drip edge turns to make the wall,” explains architect Brandon Pace, “but changes above the window to accommodate a downspout. Any place where the metal contacts glass, or where you walk underneath, we have an internal gutter.”

“The house turns its back to the street while opening up to the views to the northeast through a large glazed corner window system,” Hutchison says. One-by-four and one-by-six inch cedar siding, which were pre-stained in Cabot Semi-Transparent Black, were placed vertically and horizontally on the exterior as a subtle detail.

Churtichaga and de la Quadra-Salcedo purchased a parcel of former farmland to build their vacation home twelve years ago but only recently completed the house—a timber-clad minimalist structure expertly designed to disappear into the scenic landscape.

Architect Andrew Simpson and the owners wanted to keep the design simple and grounded with “a sense of modest honesty.” In terms of the exterior, “as much of the existing cedar cladding as possible was retained and reused.”

Incheon International, Seoul

Clad in copper panels that Holl had fabricated by the Kansas City, Missouri, company Zahner, the house is daylit by a host of rectangular skylights (inspired by the musical staff) punched through the roofs and the pool’s floor.

In the master bathroom, Chris clad the tub and walls in Carrara marble. An AJ Wall sconce by Arne Jacobsen for Louis Poulsen sheds some light on bathtub reading.

When the Casali family gave Michael Krus and Prishram Jain of TACT Architecture free rein to work with unconventional materials, the architects responded by creating a geometric 4,300-square-foot smart home encased in aluminum panels by Agway Metals. The front facade features Cor-Ten steel fabricated by Praxy Cladding.

The home, clad in natural Australian timber, enjoys a sense of lightness thanks to slender columns that let it float over the dunes. The driveway and entry, at the rear of the building, have an understated design to build to the interior's magnificent ocean views. Firm director Phil Snowdon explains, “By creating an architectural form that draws your eye and leads you up the steep driveway, we could engage new visitors in a welcoming process that first reveals the object and then slowly reveals the main event, being the view."

The entire family makes good use of the music room, where they hold public and private Sunday concerts with local and international musicians.

European baroque architecture, especially the Gesù Nuovo in Naples, is closely referenced in the diamond cladding pattern of the zinc. This connection plays into Blake’s interest in “how buildings become vessels for cultural meaning.” Although the theme of continental influence on Scottish architecture punctuates the design, Blake emphasizes the pure and joyous nature of the structure. “In some ways it’s a serious building about architecture, but it is also just meant to look pretty, glisten in the sunlight, talk to the water, and just feel right.”