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.

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.

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.

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.

Built with timeless materials - stone, plaster and a range of woods - this house reflects regional Pacific Northwest design. Sited along Lake Oswego, this home’s views, boathouse and terraces all gracefully connect to the water’s edge.

“The house’s narrow footprint works for us in terms of maximum exposure to the lake,” says Gibbs (shown here with son Blake and dog Max on the shore of Lake Iosco). Glass walls and doors by Andersen also mean that Gibbs can keep a close eye on Blake when he’s playing in the yard. A plinth of reused bedrock found on the property has become an unintended place for active play.

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

Architect Jim Garrison of Brooklyn-based Garrison Architects was asked to design a lakeside retreat for visiting families at a boarding school for troubled teens, Star Commonwealth, in Albion, Michigan. To drastically reduce academic interruption and cut site noise, Garrison decided early on to create an 1,100-square-foot modular building dubbed Koby, with two bedrooms on opposite sides of the structure and a common dining area in the middle “as a therapeutic space for families to gather and eat together.”

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

Don't neglect the faucet. It’s important to remember that faucets aren’t always included in a new vanity, which may require a bit of research and coordination.

With a large glass door from Capral that opens completely to the elements, the master bedroom becomes part of the landscape. Imogen sits with Millie, one of the family’s two greyhounds. The art is by Noel McKenna (top) and Ray Crooke; the butterfly chair cover was custom-made by a saddler. The carpet is from Supertuft.

Top 5 Houses on Dwell This Week As the weekend slowly draws to a near, we've gathered up five of our most clicked on homes on Dwell this week for your perusal.

To bring sunlight into the lakeside home, Max-A set a giant skylight in one of its roof facets.

Underneath the house, this haven is perfect for a bit of lakeside solitude.

Living with Legends: The History Behind an Incredible Find The Ion chairs by Gideon Kramer were introduced in the Space Needle’s Eye of the Needle restaurant at the 1962 World’s Fair in Seattle. They were designed for the Ion Furniture Company in chromed steel and fiberglass. “I became aware of the requirements as well as deficiencies of seating and decided to see if I could do better,” Kramer said of the design. “The chair took its form from the process which it was intended to support.” Initial prototypes, he said, “were fabricated out of Vulcanized Fiber, with the simplest of tooling. Soaked in our bathtub, formed on a wood fixture, baked over the living room stove, hung on a wash line to be sprayed with a resin finish. [It was] a low tech family enterprise.”

This lakeside home in Quebec boasts a white kitchen with an elegant, white marble backsplash that adds just a touch of pizzazz to an otherwise simple and minimalist open kitchen.

Neighbors surely can't miss the red-and-gray Vermont cladding from Everite’s Nutec line that makes this vacation home in South Africa an instant landmark (and a good deal warmer come winter) in a region full of rustic steel barns. “The color scheme pushes the envelope,” the owner says. “This town could do with some color.”

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.

The couple worked on the interiors with project architect Maria Danos. In the living room, an Arco lamp by Flos arches over a Jean-Marie Massaud for Poltrona Frau sofa, which joins an Antonio Citterio for B&B Italia coffee table, a Patricia Urquiola rug, and three-legged stools by Chris Connell.

Tom Dixon pendant lamps hang above a steel-and-marble dining table by Chris Connell topped by Kate Hume vases and surrounded by painted Thonet chairs. The wood-veneer cabinetry in the adjacent kitchen complements the rich Grigio Carnico marble on the island and backsplash. “The kitchen has a deliberately dark palette,” James says.

View from lakeside dock

Fifteen years ago, the “rickety” cabins that the family had built over the years on their lakeside property were reassessed as lakeshore homes, and the family’s taxes soared. They decided to subdivide the lots—they sold two, and three of her brothers took lakeside lots, while Diane and another brother took back lots. The old boxcar has been preserved and encased in one of her brother’s lake homes. “I didn’t want to build a lake house,” she says. “I wanted to give my grandchildren the old boxcar experience of freedom and simplicity. I wanted them to be able to hear the wind, feel the rain, and be one step from nature.”

The 16-acre property includes room for the family’s horses and a portable chicken coop.

LeFrak Center at Lakeside Prospect Park by Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects

Lakeside Splinter Creek Home

A Lakeside Prefab in New Jersey A New Zealand expat and her son use their prefabricated lakeside New Jersey retreat as an outdoorsy counterpoint to city life. Photo by: Mark Mahaney Curious on what was popular last week? Click here!

A simple white palette captures the lakeside vibe.

A lakeside vacation home near the village of Agger in Denmark.

Lake-side facade looking East at dusk

The Lost Cottage vacation rental is nestled in the remote lakeside town of Treangarriv in County Kerry, Ireland. The principal bedroom features a massive picture window that looks out over Caragh Lake and the surrounding farmland. A glass roof was also installed above the sunken tub in the bathroom so that guests can gaze up at the stars in the International Dark Sky Reserve.

The property in Gooderham is set at the end of the original lake access road, and enjoys 1,300 feet of uninterrupted lakeside shoreline.

This cute cottage near the remote County Kerry lakeside town of Treangarriv has a modern poured concrete extension that mimics the original adjoining cottage. The color of the wood grain oxidized concrete matched the mountains in the background and helps the extension blend seamlessly into the landscape. The bathroom has a glass roof so guests can gaze up at the stars from a sunken bathtub.

A prefabricated lakeside New Jersey retreat is one woman's outdoorsy counterpoint to city life.