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.

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

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

"Pulling the buildings apart allows what is not a big house to feel really big," says architect Jonathan Feldman of the sustainable retirement home he built for a couple in California. "Because of the ways it opens up, it feels much more expansive than it really is."

But onto the real question: The pavilion is a definite delight to the eyes, but does it make the wine more tasty? “Absolutely!” Warner and McCabe assert. “Each pavilion is elegantly unobtrusive and offers a rustic yet refined experience evocative of picnicking with a bottle of wine under an oak tree. In this way, the pavilions serve to bring the visitor a greater depth of understanding and appreciation for the place where Quintessa is made and the process that creates its uniquely sophisticated character.”

Carefully selected materials make the building appear as if it grew from the land. Environmentally sensitive finishes echo the existing winery, which the firm designed in 2002.

The bedroom pavilion is mostly hidden, thanks to a massive native California oak—part of a grove. “That’s the good thing about oaks—they keep their leaves in the winter, so you don’t have one view in the summer and another in the winter,” Suzanne says.

A simple landmark in the midst of Rice University's carefully landscaped campus (another destination Robertson recommends), the Brochstein Pavilion was designed by architect Thomas Phifer and completed in 2007.

The client's mother enjoys sitting in the concrete pavilion, where she can watch the activities of the house with a prime view.

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

"Key to the special nature of the pavilion’s purpose is that guests are immersed in the landscape and surrounded by the vines that produced the actual wine that they are tasting," Warner and McCabe say. We couldn't agree more. Head to quintessa.com to learn more about the winery and book a reservation to experience the pavilions firsthand.

Construction of the pavilion was completed in the summer of 2013. Photo courtesy of Moskow Linn Architects.

OPA wanted to free themselves from logic imposed by a grid and considered various inefficient configurations of shipping containers. They settled on a combination of options, seen in the trikselion shape here. The Presidio, San Francisco, California. Mobile exhibition pavilion for the For-Site Foundation. © Tim Griffith.

Smith Pavilion by Studio Weave The London-based architecture practice will infuse their pop-up pavilion with the history of the central London borough’s makers and builders. Constructed from fibre-cement panels, a material made by re-appropriating an old paper mill and spinning-machine, the interior will feature CNC-cut panels that will tell the story of tools and gear used by neighborhood artisans. The structure will sit across from St John’s Gate. Rendering courtesy of Studio Weave

Pham’s working cuckoo clock in action.

Modern spaces make up Bishop’s board.

Los Angeles Allied ASID designer Darra Bishop displayed clippings of her favorite pins.

Wojtowicz, based in Denver, framed a succulent to bring the board to life.

Central to the kaleidoscope is a 3-D element made of raised triangles.

For her board, Allied ASID designer Ellen Farber of Narberth, PA, created what she calls a “kaleidoscope of colors.”

A mixture of natural and man-made elements makes up Allied ASID designer Jessica Wojtowicz’s board.

Among Peterson’s inspirations was sky-high orange suede heels.

Natural pebbles join fabric on Broeder’s board.

Brooklyn-based Ji-Ming Lin, who downloaded the Pinterest app and created her board with her smart phone in one hand and her new baby in the other, repeated the images from her pinboard.

Simonton, Texas–based ASID designer Debra Sabrsula’s board.

Universal Design was a central theme to Sabrsula’s board.

From Lin’s pinboard, an image she says represents “a dream state.”

Becky Broeder, Allied ASID, out of Missoula, Montana, plays with wood, corks, and earth tones.

Kelly’s 3-D elements include a shag carpet swatch in glorious purple hues.

Kerrie Kelly, an ASID designer out of Sacramento, rocked the purple for her Pinspiration.

Amy Pham of Amy Grace Designs, Student ASID of Manhattan Beach, brought inspirations ranging from the ocean to a natural wood stump table.

Architect Jack Ryan of the firm 3six0 clad the addition to the 1920s house in western red cedar.

Allied ASID member Tory Peterson, from Corona Del Mar, CA, lined her board in rustic wood strips to help her homage to orange pop.

Overhanging rafters establish vestibules at both ends of the structure. Photo courtesy of Moskow Linn Architects.

Blaine Bronwell, an associate professor at the University of Minnesota School of Architecture and author of Material Strategies: Innovative Applications in Architecture, calls out biomimicry and biodesign. "The engineering firm Arup created a promising system for a German building expo: it has a living algae curtain wall, which harvests the building's algae as an energy source through a bioreactor," Bronwell writes.

Bettina Pavilion by Michael Maltzan Featuring the fluid white curves often associated with Michael Maltzan’s work, the Bettina Pavilion was designed to provide a striking shaded canopy in the great outdoors, whether that’s in an open field or on the beach.