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.

Landscape architect Charles M. McCulloch designed pathways of locally sourced decomposed granite that lead to accessible, raised planting beds, a request from the Mahers, who are avid gardeners.

Taking cues from this home's Japanese-influenced slatted screen, Hufft Projects applied a ring of ipe wood around the perimeter of this outdoor fire pit.

Designed by Choeff Levy Fischman, this home in Miami Beach emphasizes transparency, views, indoor/outdoor living, and entertaining. A critical component of this is an atrium in the center of the residence, which creates an outdoor seating area while still inside the home.

A covered porch on the south side provides comfortably shaded outdoor space, and its roof keeps the high-angle summer sun out of the house.

A rendering of Kanye West's housing development is brutalist in form and muted in color.

The VDL Pavilion is open to nature, with no glass walls. Vertical fins provide shading along one wall.

The Lowreys worked with architect Luis Sánchez and a team of local craftsmen to complete the build. The custom counters in the kitchen are terrazzo and granite; the oven and cooktop are from Teka.

After years of visiting the area as vacationers, one couple builds this striking home for their retirement outside Greenwater, Washington. A fireplace can be used on the rear patio and in the living room, making it feel like one cohesive space. Ipe planks, the same wood that’s used in the front courtyard, cover the floor.

With a nod to the natural skew of the cliffs nearby, the roof creases inward on the edges, with folds called crickets. The design is twofold: The lower roof utilizes a number of super-integrated gutters and the upper roof collects rainwater.

Red- and blue-pigmented cement augments the color palette of the courtyard.

Canal House along the Arizona Canal in Phoenix, AZ

The 1908 greenhouse from the Lyndsay Mansion has been repurposed into a dining pavilion. During the restoration, it was revealed that Soriano had perfectly arranged the home to line up with the original greenhouse.

A Cuadra San Cristóbal courtyard surrounded by vibrant pink walls.

Along with its durability, concrete requires very little maintenance.

The large patio leads to a newly landscaped back garden. An expansive glass wall promotes seamless indoor-outdoor living. Inexpensive brick pavers were chosen for the rear patio; they offer textural contrast with the steel of the door, brick of the rear facade, and pale gray wood of the interior floors.

In the rear courtyard, Steve spent three days demolishing a rock grotto, which had been installed in the 1970s, with a jackhammer. Its boulders found new life as hardscaping near the pool. “I’m glad we could repurpose those boulders,” Jessy says, “I hate adding to landfill.”

For a cost-conscious 2,000-square-foot renovation located 30 minutes outside of Austin, Texas, architect Nick Deaver took a look around for inspiration. He spied galvanized metal cladding on the region’s sheds and co-opted the inexpensive, resilient material for his own design.

A modular shelf system by Alu provides a more sculptural take on the classic bathroom vanity in this Toronto home.

Behind an unassuming 19th-century facade in Singapore's Joo Chiat neighborhood, Ching Ian and Yang Yeo's renovation of a typical shophouse venerates tradition while looking squarely to the future. Photo by Richard Powers

5. "What are the top 10 most important things I must have in a home?" "If there are two people buying the home, write your answers down separately, starting with your absolute must-haves," Hoffman explains. “Putting together a list separately can give both parties and the realtor a clear picture of what the perfect home will have for both of you."

"The most challenging part of the design was fusing the old part of the house with the new addition," says principal architect Alex Terry. The character and architectural integrity of the single-level 1950s ranch house was thoughtfully reconsidered during the addition and remodel. The home’s front porch, typical of the period, was refreshed with Ipe decking and railing.

Miha hangs out with Kea, the dog, on the wooden deck that extends the living space outdoors.

In the family's porch, a natural reed canopy provides protection from the sun. The grounds are covered with gravel.

The planks inside the house blend into those on the small porch just outside. It's a nice touch that helps marry the outdoors with the home's interior.

Entry Court

Cor-ten steel gate

Inside the sleeping cabin, a fireplace built of local granite marks the midpoint between two bedrooms and a bathroom. The floors and walls are wrapped in warm-hued Douglas fir.

View from the Balcony

Yang Yeo and his girlfriend Ching Ian relax on the back stoop of their renovated and radically updated Singapore shophouse—an archetypal building type in this busy port city. “Shophouses brought back memories of our childhood,” says Yeo.

“We had these incredible live oak trees, and so we built the house around the trees and the view,” says Raike.

The backyard is a protected retreat out of the wind. The team added a balcony off the kitchen at the third floor. It has a ship’s ladder to access the roof deck, in order to service solar panels installed there. The balcony also has a grill for cooking al-fresco. “You gotta be able to go out back and barbecue – this is the beach after all,” says Levy.

Fed up with flashy, environmentally insensitive beach homes, architect Gerald Parsonson and his wife, Kate, designed a humble hideaway nestled behind sand dunes along the New Zealand coastline. Crafted in the image of a modest Kiwi bach, their 1,670-square-foot retreat consists of a group of small buildings clad in black-stained pine weatherboards and fiber-cement sheets.

Mandel designed a six-by-eight-foot extension for additional space on the ground floor.