Exterior

The front and rear facades of Cabana Don Juan are made of glazed units framed in glass. The sides are made of fiber cement panels.

The house, seen from above, is meant to tread lightly on the land, acting as an immersive yet quiet reatreat.

The 1950 Eichler home in Palo Alto, California, that Ogawa Fisher Architects renovated for a family of five features a cool gray facade punctuated by a bright orange front door.

White oak slats and cork cladding give texture to the facade of a house that architect Jack Becker designed for himself and his wife, landscape architect Maddie Hoagland-Hanson, in an alley in the Capitol Hill area of Washington, D.C. High awning windows let daylight in while preserving privacy.

Built on a shale ridge with a 35-foot drop-off, Scott and Julie Pelletier’s house in Maine comprises a succession of simple gables.

Ignacio created a bridge to link the existing house with the new addition further downhill.

A rain chain comes down on the west side of the house, where the Linns use the space between the fence and the building as an entry court to greet visitors or just get some fresh air with their son.

Minimal landscaping surrounds a new pool, with privacy walls painted the same green found throughout.

Since the screened porch was an addition to the original volume, the architects had it finished in channeled concrete to mark its difference.

The architects made sure to step back the upper-level addition so as not to overwhelm the scale of the surrounding neighborhood. Plus, "If we build on top of it, and try to make it a new and larger box, it will falsify the identity,

A renovation by architect Keith Burns removed the old horizontal siding and added a new facade made of corrugated metal to help the house blend in with its utilitarian neighbors.

"We did our best to tuck the buildings into the site—the goal was to get up high on a perch. It was a matter of setting that elevation and working back down with the topography," says architectural designer Riley Pratt.

A new carport was constructed to accommodate a ramp on the interior.

Whether it’s cross-country skiing in the winter or trail running in the summer, the 330-foot home’s minimalist design encourages Catherine to be outside in the surrounding landscape throughout the year.

Junipero House is both open to the elements and protected from their unfiltered impacts. All rooms are bestowed with their own private terrace and garden views or access.