Exteriors

A set of gabled volumes nest one inside the other to form an X, giving the all-black residence a variety of riverside vistas.

Mélanie Labrosse and Idir Saïdani’s Plateau-Mont-Royal home opens to the neighborhood with double gate doors.

The exterior was kept mostly the same, with wood siding throughout.

The home sits perched in the heart of Echo Park and comes with a private one-car garage.

The home is accessible year-round, although snowy winters and road closures make the trip from Seattle a bit longer during the colder months.

Floor-to-ceiling glazing and a linear skylight help welcome the landscape within the cabin’s small footprint.

One of the structures has a green roof that allows it to better blend into its hillside setting.

The couple updated the exterior with Benjamin Moore's Green Black. "It's easier and more complicated to renovate a mobile home,

“We often hear that our homes don’t look like prefab,” says architect Meelena Oleksiuk Turkel. “But there’s no reason high quality, good design and prefabrication can’t work together.” Mulmur Hills Farm, for example, makes use of thermally modified ash cladding that contributes to both durability and beauty.

Neufeld chose brick for the addition so it related to the existing house, but wanted to underscore the temporal contrast between the two parts of the building. “Let new be new, and old be old,” says Neufeld. The switchback layout of the slim-lined steel staircase doesn’t encroach on the yard.

A Joshua Tree-lined driveway leads to the remote home, nestled among historic boulders.

The home was constructed by prefab company Blue Sky Building Systems, which uses metal as a primary material.