Waechter Architecture reimagined a traditional gabled home in southeast Portland without significantly altering the original building. A simple coat of red paint abstracts the century-old structure, creating a residential work of art.

A Smeg refrigerator is one of a series of red accents that punctuate the black-and-white space.

Moskow Linn Architects of Boston tackled this ground-up renovation in Cambridge, Massachusetts, for a client who wanted to maximize efficiency. Photo by Eric Roth.

The Red House, 2002.

Unlike its next-door neighbor, R-House, TED wasn’t originally planned to meet the exacting Passive House standard. The building’s green bona fides came largely from four roof-mounted thermal solar panels and a 120-gallon water storage tank that architect Tim McDonald attests would have met nearly all of the home’s heat and hot-water needs. After submitting the proposal, though, he completed a course in the Passive House standard. Inspired, McDonald modified the original approach, ditching the tank and thermal panels in favor of a highly insulated, airtight envelope—the equivalent, he says, of shielding the house from the harsh Syracuse winter with a fur coat instead of a windbreaker.

With its dramatic facade, the Cornwall House, located in Cornwall, Vermont, is adjacent to the town of Middlebury, Vermont, home to Middlebury College, where John McLeod is a visiting professor of architecture.

Aaron and Yuka Ruell transformed a 1950s Portland ranch house into a retro-inspired family home with plenty of spaces for their four children to roam. In the kitchen, interior designer Emily Knudsen Leland replaced purple laminate cabinets with flat-sawn eastern walnut, and added PentalQuartz countertops in polished Super White for contrast. The kitchen island is clad with original red tiles, and hanging cabinets above it were removed to maximize light and family-room views.

Since surrounding neighbors can overlook the one-story property, Thomson created a roof detail that is environmentally friendly and attractive: “the bio-diverse [green] roof is planted with indigenous species of flowers and grasses,” he says.

The second bedroom, shared by two young children, offers a private space away from the rest of the home. The owners and architect alike made sure to maintain the apartment’s original features, including the ceiling moldings.

Inside, neutral tones and clean, modern lines prevail. Waechter designed each floor around a primary room, like the open-plan kitchen, with supporting spaces spread out around it.

The steel canopy protects the residents from Seattle’s notoriously rainy weather as they walk from the entry gate to the front door.

By inserting a tunnel made from 36 reclaimed commercial doors and tearing down a handful of walls, LOT-EK and contractor Andreas Scholtz brought light into the formerly unused dark hallway in Maurice Russell (right) and Jorge Fontanez’s apartment. The glossy Safety Red paint by Benjamin Moore catches the light by day but “becomes a richer, darker, very relaxing red at night,” Fontanez says.

The bathroom features Chromtech tile, a Toto toilet, Kohler vanity, and powder-coated steel countertop.

The red acrylic hallway.

The grid pattern ebbs and flows in popularity in art and fashion as well as in design. Artist Jean-Pierre Raynaud is famous for his home in Paris, La Maison in La Celle-Saint-Cloud, which sported an interior composed almost entirely of 15-centimeter-square white tiles, evenly spaced out with black grout.

A wall of built-in shelving runs the length of the space, providing ample room for the residents' book collection.

A "bridge" houses the bedrooms and spans the main living area and the garage. Photo by Eric Roth.

Two-foot-deep windowsills were carved out of the facade to augment the home's sculptural profile.

Photo by Eric Roth.

In addition to shelving for books, the architects dedicated plenty of space to storing groceries, kitchenware, and practical items.

In the living area of Daniel Rozensztroch’s Paris apartment, an Eames La Chaise and a butterfly chair complement a Moroccan Berber rug.

Photo by Eric Roth.

Honest materials, like wood flooring and furnishings, reflect the studio's program to honor and reinvigorate the home's rustic heritage.

In the living room, floor-to-ceiling windows and sliding-glass doors provide a connection to the outdoors. Photo by Eric Roth.

The house as seen from the back. Photo by Eric Roth.

Photo by Eric Roth.

An outdoor deck gives the family a place to congregate when the weather cooperates. Photo by Eric Roth.

Floor to ceiling storage lines the lower hallway leading from the kitchen past two guest bedrooms to a large slate bathroom at the end.

Two hours north of New York City, an unusual barn emerges from a hill just off a country road. Its black siding and bright-red window frames hint at the imaginative playground inside. This space, with its rope-railed catwalk and indoor tent, is just one element of the multifaceted getaway architecture and design firm BarlisWedlick Architects designed for fund manager Ian Hague.

"Like the old farmhouses and barns of the Champlain Valley, the Foote Farm House has a clearly ordered wood frame on a sturdy foundation, an exterior skin made of local materials, an economy of form with tried-and-true proportions, a central fire place, and a common-sense relationship to the sun and the weather." - Architect John McLeod

"Architecture exists through states of contrast; the building as a bridge between a wooded forest and a field, a strong roof line against a backdrop of trees or mountains. In these states of contrast we truly start to see where we live." -Architect Steve Kredell

The clients and design team chose to forego an open floor plan in favor of defined, separated spaces. In this scheme, the vertically oriented spaces act as a cinematic "hard-cut" to their horizontal counterparts. The custom hot rolled steel kitchen, one of these vertical transition spaces, receives light from above through a Velux skylight. A GE Profile Induction cooktop and oven and Miele refrigerator complete the space.

House O, designed by Jun Igarashi, forgoes hallways and interior doors in favor of casually interconnected rooms.

Marcus Lee and Rachel Hart’s wonderful wooden home sits at the end of a quiet London lane and politely turns its back on the workshops next door.

Corporate high-flyers and admitted neat freaks Bruce Thatcher and Kirsty Leighton couldn’t handle the chaos anymore. Read more about this Victorian terrace in London here.

“In this house, the roof is the only facade—the rest is dissolved beneath it.” —Architect Aljoša Dekleva