A bothouse in Georgian Bay, Ontario, by Weiss Architecture & Urbanism Ltd. is clad in black-stained resawn cedar.

A food-service area with a bar is a defining feature.

For Karina Inzunza, Graham Barker, Melana Janzen, and John McMinn (pictured left to right), a shared vacation home on Georgian Bay was the perfect opportunity to pool resources, split costs, and create an extended family unit.

Many prefab architects and suppliers specialize in either modular or panelized construction. Minneapolis architect Charlie Lazor has worked with both mediums. This lake house in rural Ontario, Canada, is an example of one of his modular projects. It was built in a Wisconsin factory about 400 miles away.

Kayaks and windsurfing equipment are stored in the main cedar-clad volume.

The Japanese-style bathroom, which is clad in teak, features a matching tub and sink by Bath in Wood.

The cabinets are from Ikea, the range is by GE, and the Jenn-Air refrigerator is tucked unobtrusively into the pantry wall. The troweled concrete floor was poured in place by the builder, Peter Knudsen.

Cedar slats mark the facade of the Worple's lakefront vacation home in Ontario.

A skylight was added to bring in more light, and the existing ceilings painted Benjamin Moore ‘Black Tar’ for contrast. The island pendant is the Schoolhouse Ray 17” Pendant and the stools are the Artek Aalto High Chair K65.

In the master bathroom, Godmorgon vanities from Ikea stand next to a dual-flush Aquia toilet from Toto. A Tolomeo Wall Spot lamp, designed by Michele De Lucchi and Giancarlo Fassina for Artemide, hangs above the mirror.

Crittenden Frum prepares food in the galley-style kitchen, which is outfitted with a Cascade Taupe Vintage countertop from Marble Trend.

Twitter House Floor Plan A Laundry Room B Kitchen C Living-Dining Room D Half Bathroom E Shower F Guest Room-Study G Master Bathroom H Master Bedroom

The living-dining area is outfitted with a Karlstad sofa from Ikea and a fireplace from European Home.

The bed was custom-made by Roen Furniture, and the Melampo Mini wall lights are by Adrien Gardere for Artemide.

The chairs on the terrace are from the Rusa collection by KAA Design, and the Diamond outdoor sofas are from Cane-line.

Here, a floor plan of the shared structure, called the CP Harbour House, which was designed by architects (and residents) Melana Janzen and John McMinn.

The Lais designed their house to be theirs forever. As such, they were able to make design moves that made sense for themselves but that wouldn't have high resale value, like the Japanese-style master bathroom in the middle of the second floor instead of off of the master bedroom. The traditional setup features bath stools from Muji for washing off.

Rendely, who is also a product designer, prides herself on the way the house sits in the landscape like an object, as The Farm was her attempt to create architecture as sculpture. The residents are happy they have their rural retreat with a barn-inspired profile. "This is much more interesting than if it were white and flat," they said when it was finished. Don't miss a word of Dwell! Download our FREE app from iTunes, friend us on Facebook, or follow us on Twitter!

Two bedrooms separated by sliding doors occupy the partial second story.

The Pine Plains, New York, home of Elise and Arnold Goodman boasts 48 windows, the largest of which measures 8'6'' by 7'6''. As architect Preston Scott Cohen explains, the "free facade makes it impossible to identify how many levels there are, or even to tell the difference between a door and a window." From without, the windows reveal dramatic glimpses of the 18th-century barn farm and new steel structure that support the house. From within, says Elise, "Each season, each time of day, offers a different view of the world. It's spectacular."

Harper sits on the porch just off the entrance. James notes that the children spend their time “swimming in the dam, feeding the chickens, and riding their ponies or bikes. It’s really just the simple stuff that we had when we grew up in the late ’70s and ’80s."

The house comprises a series of modules, with the main living areas occupying the center and the master bedroom on the right. A large deck juts off the living room.

The +HOUSE in Mulmur, Ontario maximizes views of a scenic pond with 14-foot high glazing.

“The light is always changing, minute by minute, hour by hour," says Williams.

Sited on a lake near Bracebridge, Ontario, this small-footprint family cottage was designed by Toronto firm superkül to integrate with its natural surroundings and minimize its environmental impact. The clients, a married couple, had mixed feelings about going completely modern with their cabin's aesthetic, so the architects created a sculptural wood form to bridge the gap between traditional and contemporary. Photo by Shai Gil.

Architect Charlie Lazor designed this peaceful, lakeside prefab in Ontario, Canada, with a Japanese-style bathroom clad in richly stained teak with a matching tub and sink by Bath in Wood.

Architect Jesse Garlick’s rural Washington vacation home references its rugged surroundings. The steel cladding has developed a patina similar to the ochre-red color of bedrock found in the area.

Rachel Nolan and Steven Farrell’s weekend house is located a couple of blocks from the beach on Australia’s Mornington Peninsula. Built with passive principles in mind, the low-slung structure features double-thick brick walls for thermal massing.

Perched above a lake on Australia’s verdant Mornington Peninsula, James and Imogen Tutton’s teak-clad house was designed by Karen Alcock of Melbourne-based MA Architects.

The Conine family’s Jackson Hole hideaway is completely wired.

Waechter Architecture reimagined a traditional gabled home in southeast Portland without significantly altering the original building. A simple coat of red paint abstracts the century-old structure, creating a residential work of art.

Jonathan Adler and Simon Doonan collaborated with New Haven, Connecticut, firm Gray Organschi on their midcentury-inspired New York vacation home.

The clients and design team chose to forego an open floor plan in favor of defined, separated spaces. In this scheme, the vertically oriented spaces act as a cinematic "hard-cut" to their horizontal counterparts. The custom hot rolled steel kitchen, one of these vertical transition spaces, receives light from above through a Velux skylight. A GE Profile Induction cooktop and oven and Miele refrigerator complete the space.

House O, designed by Jun Igarashi, forgoes hallways and interior doors in favor of casually interconnected rooms.

Steve Conine, a software engineer, installed and programmed many of the details himself, like the Dell UltraSharp flat-screen panels inlaid into the entryway of the home.