Recently retired and ready to downsize, Paul and Melonie Brophy found a lot in Palo Alto that gave them the chance to start fresh. Their glass, concrete, and wood house, designed by Feldman Architecture, seems to float above a landscape by Bernard Trainor. Of the board-formed concrete wall, architect Taisuke Ikegami says, "It connects the building to the ground plane while allowing the house to be a landscape element."
Walnut and Formica cabinetry, Neolith basalt counters, and concrete floors make up the kitchen’s minimal palette; a large clerestory ushers in natural light.
A 100-year-old oak shades the front of the house, which is clad in weathering yellow cedar.
Steps lead from the master bedroom balcony to a spacious deck. Situating the deck away from the house gives it the feel of a getaway, says Trainor, who worked on the project with colleague David LeRoy. “We liked the idea of going further into the garden amid plantings for privacy,” adds Trainor. Granite boulders and persimmon, Japanese maple, and oak trees lend what he calls “a California-Japanese feel.”
“From anywhere in the house, you have a sense of the outdoors,” says Melonie, “and yet it’s very private.” Ikegami agrees. “The building was really about the landscape—it can dissolve into the background,” he says. In the master bedroom, Japanese Tansu chests from the couple’s previous home flank a Duxiana bed. The full-height windows and swing door are from Western Window Systems.
Derek Gray of Bay West Builders made the entry bench from wood earmarked for an unbuilt breakfast bar. Radiant-heated concrete floors offer a polished counterpoint to the board-formed walls outside.
The home's overhangs provide shade. “We wanted to make sure the house was comfortable,” says Ikegami. “You have cross-ventilation, and the interior is filled with light from the clerestory.”
The Sanctuary floor plan
Located in La Unión, a city and commune in Chile’s Los Ríos region, Refugio 3x3 is set in a forest on the side of a new lot of residential houses that were built in response to the recent expansion of city limits.
After passing through Tartago's ancient village, visitors approach The Hermitage by walking down slope. Access to the front door is via a hovering footbridge.
A massive block fireplace dominates the interior of this secluded retreat, which pairs industrial finishes with woodsy charm.
"It's simple, yet it's expressive,” Scardulla says. “We don't like excesses. We don't like when you enter a space, and everything is immediately declared, everything is clear. We like discovery and complexity. That's why we love that you get there and you get to the door, and you have one perception, then you enter and get another, step down, and have a new perception, and so on. You take the bed down and get a new perception again."
Michael and Teegan prepare lunch with their daughter, Perse, in the kitchen of their contemporary farmhouse in Australia’s Piccadilly Valley.
These multifunctional marvels are a step above your average pull-out couch.
Although The Goat Heads are mostly clad in metal, it’s the plastic panel walls at the entries that really shine. “In the evening they act like lanterns and animate the courtyards,” says Rogers. Their glow is tempered by the concrete breeze-block walls. “It was important that the units weren’t too bright—part of the beauty out here is the sky at night.”
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.
The home includes a traditional Finnish sauna clad in birch.
Firewood abounds at this historic homestead that was converted from a neglected farm in rural Germany into a sustainable and modern vacation village by an artist couple from Amsterdam. The sauna is powered by the stacked firewood outside, which keeps it at 70 degrees -- a warm, enveloping temperature that is gentler on the circulatory system.
Queenstown gets cold in winter, hence the installation of a sauna. Outside, the landscaping was kept deliberately casual, with rock walls and gravel paths.
Firewood can be stored beneath the slatted benches, which can comfortably accommodate group sweats thanks to a second tier at the back. A large sauna stove was craftetd by Sam Shaw.
The woodburning sauna stove is made by a Finnish company, IKI.
The exterior is constructed from cypress pine wood and lightweight polycarbonate.
The sauna structure includes a small deck.
The serene wood-clad sauna.
Designed to be scalable, Haar envisions Löyly being used for pop-up events, festivals, and urban planning projects.
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