The idea develops further...

Some initial sketches, to develop the idea.

“Creating efficient space is valuable, but for us, rooms that offer visual and spatial continuity with nature are also important,” architect Julie Dowling explains. “When the sliding doors are open, the living room and kitchen double in size.”

“We wanted something cozy with nooks, where you can be aware of what’s going on elsewhere,” says Isabel of the floor-to-ceiling shelving units. “They separate the environment, and cut the light a bit, but you can still see what’s happening in other spaces,” adds Matías.

Spado Architects completed the home in 2012.

This "See America" poster, commissioned by Print Collection, is modeled after the posters made by the Works Progress Administration in the 30s to encourage Americans to engage in domestic tourism by visiting National Parks. Buy it here.

Some of the sustainist symbols the authors developed for the book.

Swede Motion With no Ikea in Hawaii, the Gambys took advantage of a trip to Los Angeles during construction to pick up their kitchen cabinets—simple models made of glass, plywood, and particleboard. They shipped the cabinets to the island and, à la all things Ikea, put them together onsite, situating them high above the counter. ikea.com

Cavern is a bicoastal design firm specializing in wallpaper. They are environmentally friendly and silk-screen their unique designs by hand. One of the new designs, I see you, features a google eye pattern on which people can draw their own creations. $155 per roll.

For the Dwell Fan: Learn what reading essentials editor-in-chief Amanda Dameron put in the fifty boxes of books she took with her when she moved to New York last year.

After: The living room overlooks the great room below. Now when you walk in the house, you can see clear out to the trees in the back—an idea sparked by an interior designer friend who commented that the most important aspect of a design is what you see when you walk in the front door.

From Adrienne Adams’ What Makes A Shadow, 1960.

Here's what you see from the road: a long white wall that pretty much blocks the house off from the streetscape.

One of Pentagram's illustrated "See Opposites" antigrams.

A unit facing Natoma Street looks on to what was once housing for the area's factory workers.

Here's what the kitchen looked like before.

University Avenue is one of San Diego’s main thoroughfares and one that Anderson would like to see developed like Abbot Kinney Boulevard in Venice.

Get up close and you can see what's inside quite clearly. There was no door I could see on the structure, though, which made me wonder if the watering system wasn't automated.

A pair of large outdoor rooms projects off the glassed-in living room at the front of the house (here) and the kitchen in the back. By better connecting the home to the outdoors, SsD further increased its livable area. “For the part of the year that they’re usable,” Braver says, “they’re wonderful spaces in which to read and to enjoy.”

Inside the collage studio, light floods in from outside. “He didn’t want to be able to necessarily see the outside but he wanted it to be very bright,” Semaan says. “From the inside, you can’t make out exactly what’s out there but you can see some of the colors of the exterior through the polycarbonate.”

Pepa gets a better view of what Gorman is explaining in the girls’ bathroom from her stump stool.

Walking in the front door it's hard to miss the square chunk of compressed-straw paneling—a building material-cum-sculpture that allows visitors to see what the house is made from. Kahn's paintings hang throughout the house, and several of the rugs are her original designs.

See-through dividers in the form of open bookshelves define the interior public spaces; the fiberboard planks are by Hokushin.

Little confusion over what this flipper is meant for.

Here's what the living room looked like before.

The kitchen was completely remade with custom cabinetry and counters. "We weren't really sure what we wanted in the kitchen, so my dad had an idea to build us a kitchen out of cardboard with an island and everything. Aaron and I are visual people so we needed to see it at scale to decide,

In the entryway, what at first appears to be a rug is actually cut blue glass terazzo designed by Marwan Al-Sayed.

The neighbors get a glimpse of what goes on in the Blauvelt-Winters courtyard.

Here, the sign as the descriptor—though the diner has developed its own building typology.

I couldn't tell you what this machine was for--we weren't let in to see it but from a distance--but like much of the factory it was quite impressive.

The header imagery gives a glimpse of what's to come at Hyperbole and a Half.

Here's what the glass bottle looks like sans covering.

What would you call this teardrop shaped wall hook?