A covered walkway provides a sheltered passage between the main house and studio. The fire pit is used during social gatherings.

The Canasta, created in 2008 for Nouvel Studio.

The second Jean Nouvel-inspired staircase lives outside, clinging to the side of the house and leading up to the roof deck, where there's a hot tub shaded by sun sails.

Architect Alex Gil and his wife, Claudia DeSimio, affixed a 750-square-foot addition to the roof of a 19th-century Williamsburg townhouse, transforming their cramped third-floor apartment into a modern duplex. The original fireplace remains, but has been stripped down to exposed brick, as have the surrounding walls, creating an almost wainscot-like design of exposed brick with flat white drywall above.

The building was built in 1910. "It’s a pretty raw space with rough exposed brick, barrel vaulted ceilings, original hardwoods, and exposed ducting," Greenawalt says. "We tried to use industrial materials—stainless steel, perforated steel, brick—in a more refined way for the kitchen."

Beneath a recycled-wood ceiling and centered by a Bokhara rug, the living area contains furniture of their own design.

2010: Jean Nouvel The French’s architect’s non-so-subtle contribution to Serpentine featuring striking, cantilevered walls of red steel, and one of the more colorful table tennis tables we’ve seen in awhile. He told The Guardian it was inspired by the moment “when the summer sun catches you full in the eyes and, as you blink, the world dissolves into red."

Technically, this small building is not a tree house, since it’s braced at the ground by supports, but Grey didn’t want to compromise the tree, which “doesn’t have a very long lifespan,” the designer says. “So, I didn’t want to jeopardize however long that tree had with any excess baggage.”

The sinuous interior is lined with CNC-cut wooden panels that define stepped sauna seating and porthole windows.

The sauna structure includes a small deck.

A 25-foot custom bifold door made of corrugated plastic and twin-wall polycarbonate encloses an artist’s studio designed by Marc Frohn of FAR frohn&rojas.

The ribbon-like design affords the building three different gable profiles—one is symmetrical, while the other two lean in opposite directions.

Rose’s pottery studio opens right up to the back lawn to let the sunlight (or curious pups) inside.

A wood-burning stove from Harvia, of Finland, heats the sauna. The pavilion’s rough-cut pine walls are treated with tar, a preservative that yields a time-worn aesthetic.

Phillips designed Judith a stark white, glass-fronted art studio.

We tried to be very resourceful. You shouldn’t see any tile on the deck that had to be cut; it’s almost like a perfect puzzle,” comments the designer, Marc Frohn.

The sauna is named after Huginn and Muninn, two ravens from Norse mythology.

The structure is made entirely from treated pine, while its corrugated polycarbonate roof protects it from the elements.

The Exbury Egg asks us to reexamine the way we live while carefully considering sustainability and the use of natural resources.

These tiny egg-shaped cabins are mounted onto small podiums to keep them stable.

The sauna door handle is a simple piece of driftwood. “One principle rule I followed,” says Kiehl, “was: Don’t build on outdoor space if it can work as outdoor living space. Norwegian summers are short. We want to be outdoors as much as possible.”

Architect Christian Tonko played with a double metaphor when designing the Camera Lucida studio. The name of the cantileverd hillside space, Latin for "bright chamber," references the open window facing the valley below, as well as the skylight that bathes the workspace in natural light.

The roofline of the Tind house prototype, designed by Claesson Koivisto Rune for prefab company Fiskarhedenvillan, has more conventional Swedish gables than the flat-roofed modernism of typical prefab units.

Fir plywood from Freres Lumber joins IKEA cabinets. The figure painting is by Dylan Dean.

The living room is five steps down from the kitchen and office space and features textured black slate tile from Olympia Tile, Voyage Immobile sofas with Farniente collection upholstery (a wedding present from Flanders’s mother) by Roche Bobois, and a rug from Turkmenistan the couple picked up in Jerusalem. The sliding glass doors are by Loewen and the glazing above is by Inline Fiberglass. Sawatzky relied on Wayne Arsenault for the custom millwork and carpentry.

This room can be a family room, office, or guest suite. The flooring is the same throughout: Riva Floors, Engineered Wood Select Grade, in Crystal Thunder, and the couch is from Restoration Hardware. Unseen is the foosball and ping pong tables.

Brandon and Amy set up different workstations in the living area.

This 19th-century New York factory houses the apartment of Brandon and Amy Phillips as well as the workshop for their company, Miles & May Furniture Works.

In the guest bedroom, a painting by Monique Crine hangs on the original brick wall above a Miles & May bed and side table. The rug is from ABC Carpet & Home.

The studio addition is part of a revamp that unifies buildings, canopies, and the courtyard. It was a three-year job for architect-owners Matt Wittman and Jody Estes, with many materials opportunistically salvaged.

While making its own unique mark, the studio is also deeply respectful towards its historic surroundings. The structure sits directly on top of a Victorian "midden wall," an enclosure traditionally used by the adjacent stables as a depository for horse manure. The studio's twin gables mimic its direct neighbors, and the zinc molding on the gutter also echoes its Victorian predecessors.

Occupying a footprint of just 110 square feet, the studio finds smart ways to maximize space. Central to this undertaking is the studio’s cantilever, which appears to float over the stream. The cantilever affords the studio more internal volume, while occupying no greater footprint below.

In his studio, Priatman blew up an aerial photograph of Surabaya, where he is based, to map his current architectural projects.