Roof Garden

Stanaćev and Granados not only thought about views from the cabin, they also considered views of the cabin. With that in mind, they designed a green roof planted with creeping redflush that harmonizes with surrounding cypress forest. When the client and his wife are in the main house, a few feet behind the new structure, all they see is greenery.

Stanaćev and Granados not only thought about views from the cabin, they also considered views of the cabin. With that in mind, they designed a green roof planted with creeping redflush that harmonizes with surrounding cypress forest.

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.

The green roof over the one-story living area blends the home into the bushland.

A bridge connects the home’s two volumes, which are divided between private and public spaces. The private spaces are protected through a series of screens and shading devices, while the main public living spaces are fluidly open to the outdoors.

A two-story, timber volume holds the private areas while a one-story concrete pavilion is more social and communal. Large openings blend indoor and outdoor spaces while allowing coastal breezes to become part of the home environment.

A green roof helps the home blend into the surrounding landscape, and a long skylight illuminates the kitchen below.

“Being perched on the hilltop at Spyon Cop is like nothing else,” says client Siobhan Turner. “My favourite experience of the house is sitting in my Ercol chair or, in nice weather, out on the deck, coffee in hand, watching the sun rise over the valley.”

The sod roof is angled to create a sweeping elevation on approach and is planted with grass tussocks cut from the hillside during construction. “The tussocks camouflage the house, melting it into the landscape,” explains architect Kate Brown.

Chau created a DIY living wall using irrigation components sourced from Amazon and plants from Home Depot. The hose tucks into a compartment built into the planter wall.

Chau (left) and Desna (right) lounge on a Timothy Oulton sofa in the living room, which takes inspiration from trendy hotel lobbies that they, as frequent travelers, often encountered. Even the CB2 desk behind them recalls a registration counter—it’s also served as a DJ booth.

Aerial View

Golden hour on the serene rooftop offers some of the city's finest views out onto the harbour below and far beyond.

Scott Glass, cofounder of New York–based firm Guerin Glass Architects, designed this six-bedroom retreat in Amagansett on Long Island for himself and his wife, former MSNBC host JJ Ramberg. The Hamptons residence comprises three volumes clad in cypress, cedar, and glass.

The bedroom is elevated around five meters above the forest floor, and the space beneath has—like the green roof—been given back to the Bushveld. “Naturally, this space is shadier than the surrounding forest, so it creates a different microclimate for different species to flourish in that area,” says architect Ant Vervoort. “It’s an area that we have cultivated.”

The deck, fashioned from ipe, was built around one of the property’s many granite outcroppings. An earthen roof was planted with the same varieties of sedum that were added to the front of the cottage.