Toby Orton

In Highland Park, Los Angeles, a family home is clad in a statement green concrete façade to tonally complement the surrounding trees and vegetation. The century-old house required updating and extending for its clients, who looked to Martin Fenlon Architecture to take on the renovation. The project incorporated the main house as well as an ADU in the rear yard. An L-shaped extension was added to the back, vastly increasing the floorplan of the home, the new volume providing a seamless connection to an outer courtyard area via sliding pocket doors.

A celebrated modernist icon, the Aluminaire House was the first pre-fab, all-aluminum home constructed in the USA, designed by Albert Frey and A.Lawrence Kocher. The prototype has since found its way to the parking lot of the Palm Springs Art Museum where it will remain on show as a permanent exhibit.

Built in the backyard of a home in Los Angeles, California, this Additional Dwelling Unit ( ADU ) by Byben Architects contributes an extra 900 square feet of living space to the property. Designed as a standalone structure where the original garage once stood, it takes on a unique form with an upper deck extending from one end and a cantilevered

Situated in Tokyo ’s upmarket Aoyama district, this home by Japanese architect Keiji Ashizawa shows a masterful balance of capturing the urban living experience alongside a required level of tranquillity briefed by the clients. Designed for a family with a child and two dogs, the four-story concrete residence draws inspiration from the traditional louvres of Kyoto townhouses, ensuring privacy from the prying eyes in its busy, built-up location – along with oodles of aesthetic appeal.

Vancouver-based Campos Studio designed this striking, sculptural home perched on the rocky coastline of Los Zacatitos in Baja California, Mexico. Blending seamlessly with its natural surroundings, the 407-square-meter house is a celebration of the sea, sky, and desert.

Located in Indian Wells in the Coachella Valley, this Mid-Century home was renovated and shaped by o2 Architecture toward the client’s version of modern living – opposed to the design ideals of the long-ago decade in which it was built. While the mid-century style remains iconic, elements of the home – and many like it which took up along the fancy fairways of country club golf courses – required a shift to match contemporary perspectives.

Set in urban Buffalo in a built-up neighborhood, this contemporary home nods to the city’s architectural heritage, taking inspiration from landmark homes by the likes of Frank Lloyd Wright and HH Harrison whose buildings sit just steps away. However, while these architectural icons guided elements of the project, architects ASAP (Adam Sokol Architecture Practice) also looked to the future to create a modern model for urban living, where light, nature, and open views of the city surroundings shape its open, soaring interior spaces.

Nestled at the foot of a hill in Mont-Tremblant’s Quartier 8, the Q8 Residence by studio MRDK is surrounded by lush dense forest with its handsome geometry and carefully selected materials complementing the natural beauty of the site’s tranquil surroundings. The home was designed to blend into the wooded landscape and on approach, presents a closed façade, with minimal openings, maximizing privacy and energy efficiency by reducing heat loss during the harsh Quebec winters. The staggered volumes that define the exterior blend a thoughtful mix of materials; white cedar shingles add a natural texture, larch wood siding introduces warmth, and the board-formed concrete that runs horizontally along the upper level offers a contemporary contrast.

On a rural plot in Holte, Denmark, Jesperesen Noedtvedt ‘s Frame House II is a 40-square-meter allotment house that draws inspiration from traditional Japanese architecture and Denmark’s allotment garden tradition. Simple in essence, the home is a single-story square structure of neat right angles but cut-outs in the floorplan add intrigue to the space. On approach, with its black-painted wooden facades and felt roofing, the house seems to float above the sloping terrain like a pavilion. Built to complement its allotment location, the design blends interior and exterior spaces, creating a seamless connection to the outdoors.

Nestled in the scenic landscape of Durango, Colorado, the Lean-Three House, designed by architects the Ranch Mine, reimagines the simplicity of the region’s historic lean-to structures. While the name of the home is a play on the ‘lean-to’ and adopts elements of its simplicity, the three distinct volumes of the structure amount to a more sophisticated alpine retreat, laid out for a mixture of function and flow. Built for avid outdoor enthusiasts, the layout of the home comprises a garage and bike workshop, a vast great room, and a bedroom suite, all interconnected by smaller volumes.