deck

The Plus House—named for the perpendicular trajectories of light and air that pass through on the top and bottom floors—is one in a series of architect-designed homes commissioned by Arkitekthus, a development company founded five years ago with a pledge to improve the quality of prefab architecture. The spruce panels that coat the second-floor exterior will fade in tandem with the zinc-coated steel that rims the glazed windows and doors. "They will go gray like we do," says architect Claesson Koivisto Rune.

The various levels of outdoor terraces create different opportunities for enjoying the lake, from socializing at the water’s edge to private contemplation closer to the house.

Though the fire pit was “kind of an after-thought,” says Hannah, the family uses it year-round. “In the spring and fall, it warms you up on cool nights, and in the summer, it just adds ambience.”

From the deck you really get a sense of the two main volumes of the house. One faces inward and the other out, a fine representation of Boone's ideas about the division between work space and living space.

Large canopies shade the retreat’s southern elevations, rendering the interior and ipe wood patio comfortable in the Texas heat.

One major directive was to “honor the tree,” referring to a particular 85-year-old cottonwood on the property. Photo by: Kirk Gittings

The engawa deck is a traditional Japanese feature. It's a place where guests are often greeted to sit with a casual cup of tea. The David and Mayuko also uses it as a viewing porch toward the back yard for when the kids play in the grass.

The Opdahl House, designed by Edward Killingsworth for Richard and Joyce Opdahl, is located on the island of Naples, in Long Beach, California, and the design responds to the constraints imposed by the compact site.Unlike the neighbors, whose homes unflinchingly abut their property lines, Killingsworth set the Opdahl House 42 feet back from the street, dedicating half of the lot to a dramatic entryway that includes a carport, garden, and reflecting pool. The effect is one of entering a private sanctuary.

A gravel path leads to a guesthouse, where Trainor supplemented an existing garden of yuccas and palm trees with succulent aeoniums and flowering euphorbias.

A look at the greenery-filled outdoor space.