Locally sourced Italian slate covers the ground floor rooms; the coat rack near the entrance is from Zanotta.

Nolan and her buisness partner, Patrick Kennedy, strove for a practical structure that reads as a vacation house. They opted for prototypical materials, like cinder blocks for a privacy screen, to hit that note. “It has an association with old beach houses and public buildings at the shore,” Nolan says. After trying different self-supporting configurations, they chose a zigzag pattern. The wall shields the courtyard from wind and doubles as a step for gutter maintenance. During parties, the family likes to place candles into the recesses. “That wall’s got a little bit of poetry, but it’s also doing a few jobs as well.

The desk can be lit in 15 different colors, plus white.

The high-front panel of the desk allows for ample organization and a large interior work space.

The Zig-Zag desk with a classic white light for brightening up dim offices.

Zig-zag Chair (1934), designed by Gerrit Thomas Rietveld. From the SFMoMA Collection; gift of Michael and Gabrielle Boyd. On display as part of the SFMoMA's 75 Years of Looking Forward: The Anniversary Show exhibit, on view through January 16, 2011.

An energy-efficient TPO membrane covers the living room’s zigzag roof.

“We sought to create a house that would not damage the environment and not be too visible,” says architect Tina Gregorič. A single zigzagging roof stretches over 5,380 square feet, doubling the area of the interior spaces and serving as an ideal spot for sunset cocktails and whale-watching.

A sloping, zig-zagged mahogany roof frames the view of Lyttelton Harbor.

LED lighting playfully highlights the zig-zag form created where the timber stairs met the wall.

The apartments face a landscaped common courtyard. The site is an irregular trapezoid, a fact the zig-zagging sidewalks reflect well.

A zigzag hedge garden is meant to “feel a bit like a garden in England,” says Gina Peterson.

The five separate courtyards are connected via a zigzag path similar to traditional Chinese gardens creating a tranquil atmosphere.

The exterior of the home is the epitome of minimalism, though adds character with different sizes geometric windows and entryways, as well as the curving zig-zag of the roof.

The bedrooms were made to be as flexible as possible, while still feeling comfortable. The throw at the end of the bed is sourced from Zigzag Zurich.

The zig-zag ceiling adds a sense of playfulness and maximizes the visual volume of the open-concept kitchen and dining area. Combined with the oversized sliding doors, the space feels incredibly open and airy.

To combat the site’s steep, uneven grade, Boeschenstein staggered a series of ipe decks around the two main volumes of the house. Atticus joins his brother, Bodhi, on the zigzag decks.

In February of 2007, two San Francisco art and travel addicts purchased a 3,200-square-foot former Chinese laundry and tooth-powder factory with column-free interiors and a zigzagging sawtooth roof in lower Pacific Heights. They customized a pair of shipping containers to accommodate their collection and reflect their passions, and hired a local company to sandblast the interior to expose the board-formed concrete walls and replace the carpeted floors with Georgia hickory pecan planks to further lengthen the loft and make it look more like a warehouse.

A maple tree grows through an ipe deck in this garden that Mary Barensfeld designed for a family in Berkeley, California. A reflecting pool separates it from a granite patio, which is furnished with a Petal dining table by Richard Schultz and chairs by Mario Bellini. The 1,150-square-foot garden serves as an elegant transition from the couple’s 1964 Japanese-style town house to a small, elevated terrace with views of San Francisco Bay. Filigreed Cor-Ten steel fence screens—perforated with a water-jet cutter to cast dappled shadows on a bench and the ground below—and zigzagging board-formed concrete retaining walls are examples.

Tools for Actions: Pink Puffs Roll Instant Playground by Berlin-based landscape architecture firm Topotek 1. Photograph by Hans Joosten.

While Serboli preserved some period elements—namely the bedroom doors and floors—the living room floors could not be fully salvaged, largely due to the removal of several partitions. As such, the new floor is a continuous slab of ivory-colored micro-cement. The cozy living room features a Mags sofa and CAN chair, both by HAY, and a ZigZag stool from Kettal.

Living room with office area and doorway to the rooftop terrace. Globe by Columbus, lamps by Artemide, chrome cube puffs by DOM and a vintage Persian rug.

Le Corbusier, along with his cousin Pierre Jeanneret, created six typologies for the residences, including the triplex “zigzag” design of the recently listed unit. Two of the zigzag structures were built—shown here in the lower-left corner of this schematic.

Zigzag wallsticker in the studio

Rooftop terrace with boxwood shrubs in off-the-shelf planters. Chrome cube puffs and white lounge chair by DOM. Grey planter (with Vitis vinifera ‘Bianca’ grape vine) by MCollections.

Zigzagging pathways take visitors down the steep slopes of Les Jardins d'Étretat.

Backyard, zig-zag of the planter wall

Round dining table with 8 zigzag chairs

Round dining table with 8 zigzag chairs

They've also applied this unique technique to lighting, which uses LEDs to safely light them up since they give off no heat. The effect is simple and beautiful, like a puff of clouds floating over your head.

Zigzag wallsticker - made from Gluetex biovate

Front and rear elevations of Zigzag Roof House by 4 S Architecture

Zigzag Green by Edward van Vliet ∙ moooi carpets