The outdoor fire pit.

A palette of stone, concrete, and greenery greets guests at the home’s front entrance.

A modern stone fence made of galvanized steel mesh filled with stones surrounds the house. “We got the stones from the local stonecutter—they use the stones washed up on the beach, not the stones from the fields,” Lassen explains.

Silestone Quartzite by Cosentino Based in Spain, Cosentino produces the granitelike Ocean series of Silestone quartzite surfaces, shown here in Pacific.

Michèle Monory’s Chinon farmhouse is an idyllic getaway from her home basein Paris. After she inherited the property and centuries-old structure from her father, she hired Matali Crasset, who runs a cutting-edge architecture and design firm, to update the living spaces.

Monory’s friends, the Leclercs, join her for an alfresco meal on the patio. They’re seated at a custom-made table on Fermob’s Luxembourg chairs.

The smooth, raven-hued island in this kitchen is made of oak with a thin stone countertop. A Foscarini Gregg Pendant hangs overhead.

The stepping stone, like the skylight, was inspired by zen architecture. “In most traditional wooden houses and temples in Japan, the house is lifted above the garden, and the transition is always marked by a sculptural stepping stone,” says Bjerre-Poulsen. “We used the same principle between the old house and the addition.”

The kitchen uses laminated chipboard for the countertop and cabinets, and the same plywood used throughout the house for the table. The lamp is IKEA.

The glazed envelope and overhang of the new studio puts the material collage on full display. It is designed in the Miesian pavilion tradition, a study in planes and columns. A crushed stone perimeter fills in the carport and steps to the courtyard. Wittman explains: “We wanted to continue the blurring of Japanese landscape design with modernists like Mies van der Rohe and Frank Lloyd Wright.”

“There’s not a single place where you’re not aware of the larger landscape,” Moffitt says. “The double-height living room is such a generous space that it feels big.”

Crushed stone paths and native plantings, including cacti, wildflowers, and grasses, encompass the surrounding landscape. “We’re nothing but natural,” says Austin. “The cacti, to me, are like pieces of sculpture, each with their own personality. I even named some.”

Reinforced concrete stands behind the stone facade to provide insulation. Vanotti wanted to focus this project on the simple materials of concrete, natural larch, iron, and wood.

Inkstone bathtub, Sand Brown stone.

Stone Roses “We wanted to make the interior seamless with the outdoors, and this is the first place we blur the line,” Katie says of the “stone garden” that flows from within the entry to the deck beyond it. “My 85-year-old father picked up the rocks at the beach, a bag or two at a time, over weeks and weeks,” says Scott.

Amending Meeuwissen’s early request for an open bathroom space, the architects devised a more private chamber with an overhead skylight and walls in stone tile from Intercodam Tegels.

Steel rods surround the staircase. A MayDay lamp by Konstanting Grcic for Flos is affixed to the rope wall.

MODERN TAKE ON A TRADITIONAL FARMHOUSE IN MISSOURI Thanks to Matthew Hufft, their envelope-pushing architect and longtime friend, Hannah and Paul Catlett have a new home in southwestern Missouri that’s a fresh, unconventional take on the traditional farmhouse. The homeowners call the house Porch House after it's majestic wraparound porch. photos by: Joe Pugliese

Given the spatial constraints, the staircase leading to the upstairs loft needed to be a short and steep. Since the residents wanted a workspace in the living area, the architects turned the underside of the stairs into a handy bookshelf.

Inkstone bathtub in Sand Brown stone, Inkstone wash-basins, Black Rock stone, and Neos furniture (Neos furniture designed by Luca Martorano).

Resembling its neighbors, the pitched form of the Compact Karst House is made of a mixture of local limestone and concrete, cast on site. A small perimeter wall in reinforced concrete surrounds the structure.

Architect Alfredo Vanotti sourced the home's stone exterior from the woods behind the property. “I believe that mountain architecture is an emblematic example of sustainable architecture,” he says.

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.

Detail shot of the Inkstone wash-basin in Sand Brown stone.

Modex by Blanco, $1,750Rising only three inches above the countertop, the Red Dot Award–winning Modex features an integrated drainboard. The engineered material, which is 80 percent granite, is scratch- and stain-resistant.

The cabin’s exterior walls and roof are clad in overlapping stone plates that mimic the look of traditional wood paneling found in Western Norway. “It provides an affinity with the cabins nearby,” partner and architect Nils Ole Bae Brandtzæg explains. Solar panels cover the chimney pipe, lighting LED lamps inside.

From its locally quarried stone foundation to its zinc-coated copper roof, the cottage was inspired by its surroundings. “We talked a lot with our client about what the materiality would be,” says architect Karen Stonely, who, citing the organic style of Bar Harbor architect Robert Patterson, designed the structure with wood rather than drywall.

The kitchen, living area, and bathroom are located on the ground floor. Large windows overlook the surrounding forest, and Italy to the west.

STONE CHOPPING BOARD From the British design outfit Tom Dixon, this Stone Chopping Board adapts to your culinary needs, elegantly accompanying you as you work and serve. A slab of carved white Morwad marble provides the perfect base for chopping, cutting, and rolling, while the delicate, hand-formed brass saucer can be used to collect crumbs, hold dips, or whatever else you may need it for.

The black slate staircase draws the eye upwards to the wooden ceiling, which took six months to restore. Dodi Moss “treated it just like an intervention on a work of art, as a testimony of and investigation into the skill with which it had been created.”

A Two Spheres ceiling lamp from Atelier Areti hangs above the Hansen’s dining table, which includes an inset—one side is wood, the other stone.

The secluded location of the house at the edge of a retired shale bank allows the luxury of an open outdoor shower. Corrugated steel siding provides a durable, zero-maintenance exterior finish and captures the changing sun and woodland shadows.

The interior dry walls are made of layered spruce plywood panels, rubbed with transparent oil. The ceiling is concrete.

The exterior of the house consists of sandblasted masonry and Ferrari shade sails stretched on a steel frame.