Milwaukee studio Vetter Denk Architects designed this eye-catching prefab on the banks of Moose Lake, Wisconsin, as a weekend retreat. The home was based on an idea presented by the home's owner, who was inspired by a screw-top jug of $9.99 red wine.

A corrugated metal roofing, pine walls stained a warm blonde hue, and an abundance of glass make this modern prefab feel much roomier than its 1,600-square-feet size.

Set in the lush Wisconsin forest, this neatly stacked cabin was built vertically in order to minimize the amount of grading and landscaping necessary for construction. Photo by: Narayan Mahon

From red painted cedar siding to no-fuss structural elements, Northworks’ solution reaches a happy medium between the classic barn look and a weekend retreat. “The best thing about this house,” explains one resident, “is that when it’s just the four of us, it feels cozy. But even when we’re hosting 25 people, it never feels crowded.”

The homeowners were impressed by the way Salmela conflated the indoor/outdoor continuum. “We really needed that contact with the lake and the woods even when inside,” says Golob. All outdoor seating by Kartell.

A silo ladder in the study leads to the roof deck. Both desk lamps are Tizios by Richard Sapper for Artemide; the pendant is a Zettle’z by Ingo Maurer; and the Kalos armchair and Solo desk chair are by Antonio Citterio for B&B Italia.

Their design took four months to construct. And much like their later project on the same property, the Nest, the EDGE cabin features a protective, movable screen: when not in use, these white oak panels slide inwards to sheild the cabin windows and doors.

At $167 per square foot, this high-design, low-cost barn in rural Wisconsin is an American idyll.

While there are two sleeping lofts—one above the kitchen, the other above the bathroom—the EDGE Cabin's multifunctional furniture can add a third bed.

Backless picnic-style benches stand in for chairs at the refinished Milwaukee Public Library table where the family eats their meals. The sofa and armchair are from Luminaire.

The updated kitchen boasts new cabinetry and appliances.

The house weathered a recent tornado that caused significant damage to much of the property. Ellzey sees the house as an outgrowth of Frank Lloyd Wright’s experiments with modular housing. "For me, it was in that spirit of, what can it mean for homebuilding?"

Architect Bill Yudchitz asked his son, Daniel, to help him create a self-sustaining multi-level family cabin in Bayfield, Wisconsin.

Completed in 2009, the E.D.G.E comprises two modules that contain the mechanical areas (including the kitchen and bathroom) joined together with walls of glass and white oak panels.

Nestled in a field of praire grass in the Wisconsin woods, the Weekn’der is a dynamic contrast of minimalist black and white.

A rainwater catchment system feeds a cistern and outdoor shower. The Butterfly chairs are from Hayneedle.

The Rudin House in Madison, built following Lloyd Wright's prefabricated Plan #2 for Marshall Erdman's company, is one of two homes built as a large, flat-roofed square with a double-height living room accented with a wall of windows. [Photo via Mike Condren]

Brogan’s home overlooking Lake Michigan is clad in tongue-and-groove new-growth cypress. Vertical basswood slats follow the stairs to the second floor and into the master bedroom, extending outside to serve as the railing for a small balcony.

It quickly becomes a coffee table when its legs are folded inwards and hidden underneath the tabletop.

This is accomplished using the table in the main living room. Seen here, it's arranged to act as a standard dining surface.

And of course, when specially arranged and with the help of a headboard, the table(s) become a third sleeping area. Starting in July 2013, the Yudchitzes built an even smaller—and more simply crafted—cabin just 130 feet from this project. They built the new dwelling using materials leftover from other projects, thereby reducing its cost dramatically.

The only grouping of Frank Lloyd Wright's early American System-Built Homes—built by Arthur Richards and designed with standardized components for mass appeal to moderate-income families—is situated in the Burnham Park neighborhood in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The four model 7A duplexes, one model B1 bungalow (shown here), and model C3 bungalow were added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1985.

Inspired by Swiss Pritzker Prize-winning architect Peter Zumthor, the Yudchitzes designed and crafted an exquisitely precise interior. As they report in this Dwell article, “It cost at least $100,000 to build because the materials were crafted to within .002 inches, so it’s expensive for what it is."

Julie Brogan’s three grandchildren—frequent visitors to her lakeside house in Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin—can often be found playing on the crushed slate in the courtyard or romping in a corridor that has come to be known as the “galloping hall.”

Johnsen oriented the building vertically to minimize the amount of grading and landscaping necessary for construction.

“I believe that the interior of a home is a personal choice of color and furnishings, and an expression of the people that live there,” says resident Julie Brogan.

“The hallway and courtyard are synonymous with each other visually, which has this very joyful quality about it,” says architect David Salmela.

A glass-framed corridor crosses a central courtyard to connect these spaces with the main house.

The home is clad in galvanized corrugated metal.

A standing-seam steel roofing panel clads a portion of the exterior, while the aluminum pipes also serve as the railing for the roof deck. The family cooks all their meals at the fire pit outside.

Harry Bertoia’s iconic Bertoia side chair is surrounded by custom railings. A yucca plant grows nearby, its palm-like leaves celebrating the short but intense summer months in Wisconsin.

Nestled in the cozy study, Mies van der Rohe’s Barcelona chair and Ottoman sit atop a Spinneybeck cowhide rug from Design Within Reach.

The seeds for Frank Lloyd Wright's collaboration with prefab builder Marshall Erdman were planted when Erdman hired the architect to design the First Unitarian Society meeting house in Madison, Wisconsin. [Photo credit courtesy The Kubala Washatko Architects (TKWA) via ArchDaily]

The main entryway is flanked by the dining room and a glazed vestibule, which gives way to the kitchen and living room. Sliding glass doors lead to a sizable terrace, allowing the communal area to expand into the outdoors during warmer months.

Don’t let its traditional silhouette fool you: this home features a grid-tied solar photovoltaic array just south of the property, which supplies the family’s annual average powers usage. Large steel beams and columns flank the patio, framing views of the landscape.

A compact custom desk and shelving system makes the most of the available space.