A couple enlist Butler Armsden Architects and Leverone Design to reimagine their home as a multigenerational meeting point. In 1963, landscape designer Lawrence Halprin devised a master plan for a community that would live in harmony with the natural environment. The resulting Sea Ranch, which stretches 10 miles along the Pacific coastline in Sonoma County, California, is characterized by timber-frame, wood-clad structures that are in dialogue with the local climate and terrain. Sited on a bluff within this pioneering community is the vacation home of a lawyer couple. After purchasing the residence in 2007, they lived in the home as it was for four years, even keeping the previous owners’ furniture. Envisioning a retreat that would accommodate their extended family and guests, they then recruited Butler Armsden Architects and Leverone Design to help guide the project.

Sleeping nooks that look like the grooves in a block of cheese.

A passage between the walls for hide and seek.

One way to bring joy to even the most serious adult's heart? A new bicycle. Try it and see (we recommend getting in bright green to be extra festive).

A Case Study bed and Nelson ball lamp make for a cozy nook in the guest room, which has a private outdoor patio. White walls and black steel window frames serve to accentuate the home’s unique geometry.

Public Bikes' Michelangelo Two Bike Gravity Stand is perfect for when you have more than one bike and are short on space. The simple metal stand just rests against your wall—no mounts needed. There's an adjustable top and bottom rack, for you to store one or two bicycles of any shape or size, and lets you choose the heights at which your bikes rest. Photo by: Public Bikes

The facade is punctured by a variety of differently sized windows: Those flush to the wall indicate the house’s public rooms, while the those for the private spaces are set back.

Foyer

Emergency Exit: A poodle-size dog door is a must for Max, who, as his owner reports, loves the lake house. Blake has also been known to eschew the sliding glass doors in favor of the smaller exit point. andersenwindows.com

Entering the house by the front door (right), the first view one gets is of the color-shifting fiberglass light wall before turning left and entering the main living area, where the couple's dog Ruti likes to lounge. "Whenever possible, I like to open up views, not reveal everything at once, which is why I made a subtly entryway to the house," Robertson says. "It's nice to not walk right into a room but instead let things unfold as you move through the home."

In Esperance, Australia, Fiona and Matt Shillington turned an outdated holiday resort into a cozy compound with restored A-frames, log cabins, and cottages.

The clients for an existing home in Seattle approached Best Practice Architecture with a need to make space for an aging family member, but the home on-site was already filled to the brim. The firm's answer was to expand the existing detached garage into a gracious and airy living suite. The architects worked with the natural, six-foot slope of the site and built the Granny Pad into the hill to gain the needed interior height. The volume on the right is the original garage footprint, which now houses a kitchen and sitting room. The added volume on the left hosts the bedroom, as well as a bathroom beneath the loft space.

The house is a simple cement and steel box with elements that fold outwards to create privacy screens where needed. A perforated aluminum fence unravels from the building down toward the street. The material was selected to deter local graffiti artists from leaving their mark. Instead, a recycled brick wall serves as an appropriate canvas for street art.

Growler Bike Grand Rapids designer Joey Ruiter made the 29th Street Bike to withstand whatever the road can give out, with room for fat, shock-absorbent tires built into the durable, industrial frame. Then he basically rode away from the competition by adding a growler holder. Nobody can guarantee a smooth (i.e. non-foamy) ride, but at least you’ll have something refreshing for when its over. Visit Inner City Bikes to order the 29th Street “Growler” Bike Frames.

In Mazda Design: The Car as Art, the automaker explored ways to convey dynamic motion through design. The Bike by KODO Concept features a steel frame that was handmade by Mazda's craftsmen and leather seat that uses the same stitching technique as Mazda's car upholstery.

Bikes of all shapes and sizes showed up to join the ride.

This garage space uses iconic checkerboard floor tiles to contrast the rustic barn door that provides entry to the rest of The Barn.

Another view of the garage reveals its extensive space to house vehicles and protect them from the elements.

Griffin’s room, which is exactly the same size as his brother’s, gets good light from the backyard.

Due to the lot’s small size, Cloud9 placed the garage beneath the house.

The library holds a wall-size blackboard for the Bancrofts’ four children, with a colorful permanent piece by local artist Derek Phillips.

The communal entrance beneath the building is known as the “public square”; sisters Tessa and Anne Bouwmeester and a friend set off on their bikes.

The “murdered kitchen” includes a fluorescent light sculpture with dimmable ballasts designed by Bestor. The rough plywood offers a nice chromatic contrast.

Quiubox

Outside the Tretorn store, new Public Bikes got the valet treatment.

Klopf Architecture's modest 72-square-foot addition at the front of the home blends in with the original structure while giving the owners a greater sense of openness in the master and hall bathrooms. Inside, the re-imagined great room now features dining space.