The streamlined kitchen features Miele cooktop, Sirius hood, Siemens oven, and Fisher & Paykel refrigerator.

He worked around existing oak and eucalyptus trees for the new building, and retained the vernacular of an original barn, at right, where Frankel hosts concerts. Check out MVRDV's Balancing Barn.

The iT House offers cross-ventilation through its wide, expansive doors and windows, which naturally help cool down the home's interior temperature. Photo by: Gregg Segal

The back wall of the garden, made from stacked concrete blocks, was initially meant to be a row of vertical planting boxes.

Back Camera

The flat roof of the Nakhshabs’ energy-efficient home is topped with photo-voltaic panels. It is the first single-family LEED Gold–certified residence in San Diego.

A simple poster with bold colors adds to the industrial character of this Paris abode. Photo by Céline Clanet.

Architect Christopher Polly kept the Australian home's original facade, which dates back to 1980.

Even a small patio can have a monumental effect. A green wall in this kitchen patio also brings views to the higher parts of the slender town house, located in the West Village in New York. The counter and floor, clad in gray honed slate, and the teak-clad walls and bench complement the greenery.

This airy addition on the back of a historic house in Boise is a model of sensitive renovation, seamlessly melding new and old. Photo by Lincoln Barbour.

At night, opening the entire top floor is a breeze. Russell-Clarke and Moolsintong are even planning of rigging some kind of sail over the back patio for shade. The hot tub is by Roberts Hot Tubs.

With the help of architects from the Agencie Group, Helen Dealtry and Dan Barry created a home that is suited for a contemporary lifestyle but respects the 150-year history of the Williamsburg residence. Photo by Tara Donne.

“Through the thoughtful consideration of how spaces are used, how they obtain natural light, how they obtain natural ventilation, and how they relate to the site, less materials were used in construction, and less energy is needed to live in the house,” Hutchison says.

A view from the back.

The framed aluminum of the corner window by Natralight breaks up the roof of recycled slate tiles, which is entirely of a piece with the roofs around it. The Scottish oak cladding comes from Abbey Timber and the black aluminum cladding from MSP Scotland.

Sometimes, it's the details—like new door knobs and hinges—that matter. Small T-shaped brushed nickel pulls are a modern choice in this kitchen with light wood cabinets and invisible hinges.

The total cost of the house was about $350,000, though the owners have since added a garage, outdoor bath and shower, and a yoga platform in the woods.

The back courtyard is meant to feel like a haven from the outside world; a place where the family can easily escape the stresses of everyday life. The flickering lights from the fire pit shed a soft, relaxing glow over the area.

The back garden includes fragments of stone from the earlier building.

High above Christina Lake in British Columbia, Bohlin Cywinski Jackson designed an idyllic retreat for Lori Hudson, her husband, and their two boys.

The voluminous black plaster cube appears to float over the open first-floor at the rear elevation. On the roof, solar panels generate about 80 percent of the home’s electrical and heating needs. The landscaped backyard was designed to resemble an orchard, and includes several defined areas for socializing and entertaining.

In the outdoor dining room, wire chairs by Harry Bertoia for Knoll surround a mango wood table made by a local carpenter, Diego Madrazo.

A Bay Area landscape designer works her yard like a jigsaw puzzle, packing a bevy of distinctive destinations into a steep and diminutive plot. Photo by: Morgan Rachel Levy Read the entire article here.

Gatherings at the house tend toward the casual, with kid-friendly hangouts on the back patio.

A second green roof is planted with sedum and plays host to one of the family’s favorite spots: a hammock. Bentheim suggested adding a trellis overhead to soften and balance the appearance of the facade.

The Fung/Blatt family enjoys the backyard of their Mount Washington home. Despite its 5,000-square-foot lot, the house is just 1,640 square feet. Michael Blatt admits, “If we could add anything to this house, it would be five walk-in closets.”

The backyard sports a sequence of raised flower and vegetable beds and two green roofs—one atop the workshop and other atop the back entrance.

The front and back cover of the book.

Kingsnorth embeds various fabrics on reclaimed vintage frames creating a surprisingly comfortable cushion.

Shakers are well known for their ladder-back chairs, and this understated, seemingly ageless design is the classic Shaker piece. Its restrained simplicity embodies the discipline of the Shakers themselves—its straight back encouraging good posture, orderliness, and control. Photo courtesy of Skinner, Inc.

The remote location made construction a challenge. Horne ended up widening the road to the cabin in order to move the shipping containers up the cliff.

The dining and kitchen space opens up directly to an expanse of grass that leads to the water’s edge.

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 Phoenix home of designers and builders Sarah Swartz Wessel and Ethan Wessel sits amid desert-friendly trees and plants. The couple bought the property in 1998 and worked on the house for a decade. Juxtaposed with limestone floors, wood-beamed ceilings, and walls of hand-troweled plaster and board-formed concrete, glass is strategically placed throughout the 4,000-square-foot expanse to frame slivers of landscape and sky or open wide to reveal gardens of various sizes, which the couple also designed.