The screen porch serves as an auxiliary dining area and extends past the house to capture views and cross breezes.

The screen porch serves as an auxiliary dining area and is furnished with a Teak outdoor table from Ikea surrounded by three chairs, including two vintage chairs and a silver 1006 Navy chair by Emeco from Design Within Reach.

The 400-square-foot porch, a central focus of the home, was wrapped in a Kawneer window framing and screen—probably the biggest material indulgence. A south-facing skylight above the porch draws in air and ventilates the entire cottage, dropping temperatures about 10 degrees. The table-and-chair set on the left is by Brown Jordan, while the coffee table and chairs are from Sojourn in Sawyer, Michigan.

For a cost-conscious 2,000-square-foot renovation located 30 minutes outside of Austin, Texas, architect Nick Deaver took a look around for inspiration. He spied galvanized metal cladding on the region’s sheds and co-opted the inexpensive, resilient material for his own design.

Behind an unassuming 19th-century facade in Singapore's Joo Chiat neighborhood, Ching Ian and Yang Yeo's renovation of a typical shophouse venerates tradition while looking squarely to the future. Photo by Richard Powers

"The most challenging part of the design was fusing the old part of the house with the new addition," says principal architect Alex Terry. The character and architectural integrity of the single-level 1950s ranch house was thoughtfully reconsidered during the addition and remodel. The home’s front porch, typical of the period, was refreshed with Ipe decking and railing.

A screened-in porch was a must-have for the residents (they love to sit outside but hate mosquitoes) and influenced the building's asymmetrical shape. "The question became how can we integrate this into the design of a modern house," says architect Staffan Svenson. "Can it be a screen porch without looking like one?" He devised a plan to hang a horizontal louver system from the structure to give the illusion that the powder-coated steel fins hover in place. He used the same material for the guard rail on the second story.

Fed up with flashy, environmentally insensitive beach homes, architect Gerald Parsonson and his wife, Kate, designed a humble hideaway nestled behind sand dunes along the New Zealand coastline. Crafted in the image of a modest Kiwi bach, their 1,670-square-foot retreat consists of a group of small buildings clad in black-stained pine weatherboards and fiber-cement sheets.

The Brick screen by Eileen Gray for Aram Designs blocks off a small office from the dining room.

Wooten asked Massie to incorporate a 1960s steel screen by Don Drumm into the house; Massie placed it on a central pivot so it acts as a gate, a privacy barrier, and an architectural gesture. “We actually changed the whole roofline of the porch to accommodate the screen being able to pivot,” says Massie. “The screen also allowed the building to have an immediate history.” dondrummstudios.com

“Segovia is a very central region, but an underdeveloped one,” de la Quadra-Salcedo says. “Traditionally devoted to agriculture and mainly livestock, it flourished in the sixteenth century but now that the older generations are disappearing, there is a problem of abandoned villages and fields.” The structure highlights the rural surroundings.

“I made a very conscious decision, when I realized that the house with nothing in it was such a fantastic work of art,” says Greg Wooten, “to go out of my way to pull back and only select pieces that complemented the architecture and would allow both the house and the furniture to breathe.” The place is furnished minimally with vintage finds he chose for the rooms over time.

The large wraparound porch links the two main houses and two guest cabins, and is the site of many impromptu shared meals.

Located in Springfield, Missouri, this modern farmhouse designed by Kansas-City based firm Hufft Projects exudes the traditional vernacular of Kansas with an updated take on the conventional form. The rolling hills and expansive land resemble the tone of quaint Marquette.

This 450-square-foot apartment includes an origami-like desktop that unfolds to reveal a perforated-steel divider that allows the passage of computer cables hidden inside the office compartment. This transformer-like cabinet helps maximize limited square footage.

Thanks to Matthew Hufft, their envelope-pushing architect and longtime friend, Hannah and Paul Catlett have a new home in southwestern Missouri that’s a fresh, unconventional take on the traditional farmhouse.

The firm also designed a slatted screen next to the staircase.

Verda Alexander and her son, Apolo, collaborate on a project in their first-floor studio.

In the bathroom, perforated-metal screens create a pointillist perspective on the landscape.

Rocks that were unearthed while digging the foundation make up the hardscape in the rear, beyond the open porch. “It’s one of my favorite parts of the house,” says resident Laura Sohn. Sanders Pace Architecture finished the exterior in western red cedar treated with Sikkens Cetol.

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."

“Consistent with the lakefront cabin charm, the owners liked the idea of accessing much of the house from outdoor porches and walkways,” says architect Ted Flato. Supplies from Dynamic Architectural Windows and Doors bring light in to the home’s covered spaces.

Covered terraces take advantage of the temperate Northern California climate and respect the local vernacular. A rear sleeping porch is the perfect place to enjoy warm summer and fall nights.

Angled beams are a fixture of the structure, both inside and out. The beams “are an expression of the design, so they’re reinforcing view lines,” Winkelman says, “but they’re also weaving together the different axes of the site."

A covered porch on the south side provides comfortably shaded outdoor space, and its roof keeps the high-angle summer sun out of the house.

A spacious three-sided screened porch, conveniently located adjacent to the living/dining/kitchen area, is nestled on the edge of a dune overlooking the refreshing waters of Cape Cod Bay.

A screened-in porch overlooks the pond and sports furniture by both Harry Bertoia and Dow himself. Photo by: Balthazar Korab

Master Bath Casale and Crofton’s bedroom is configured as a casual open suite, with a sliding aluminum screen as the only barrier separating an adjacent bathroom and walk-in closet. The screen’s dappled, lacelike pattern was designed by Fiyel Levent, a local artist and architect. Bischoff handed her design to a metalworker, who then carved it into aluminum with a digital laser cutter. It runs on a track in front of a partial wall covered in wallpaper by Neisha Crosland. The vanity, designed and built in the MADE studio, sits atop the legs from an antique refrigerator that Bischoff and his team found in a junkyard. Calacatta mosaic tile, another MADE leftover, lines the floor of the shower (not shown). The firm had a limited surplus, so the amount of tile available dictated the shower stall’s footprint. “We have a keen understanding of the challenges presented by integrating the new with the existing,” Bischoff says of his approach. “We took this blank canvas and tailored it to the needs that Dawn and Dave had for their home. The result is fresh and unique but retains the patina of the many parts from which it was made.”

Andrew Magnes’s hanging screen composed of aluminum circles and lines, cut with a CNC water jet, separates the entry from the staircase and rear kitchen area.

An Eames lounge and ottoman hold court in the master bedroom upstairs. Plenty of natural light and a muted color scheme give the space a wonderfully light feel.

In Bracebridge, Ontario, this cedar cabin with slatted wood screens treads lightly on the land. Read more about the project here.

Nix and Novak-Zemplinski designed the black-steel bookshelves and had them fabricated at a local metal shop.

Alongside the redwood shade screen, which keeps the house from overheating, Freeman and Feldmann grow vegetables in an 18-inch-wide garden but frequently bike to nearby eateries for the local Mexican cuisine.

The cedar screen that extends out from the dining and living rooms traces the line of the actual setback and reads not as a wall of the house but as a delineator of exterior space. The same material is used on the railing on the roof deck and offers a bit of privacy without, according to Braver, “looking like a stockade.”

Cubicco, a pre-engineered housing company based in Miami and the Netherlands, creates homes that are designed to meet winds of up to 180 miles per hour, per the hurricane zone code of Miami Dade County.

MODERN TAKE ON A TRADITIONAL FARMHOUSE IN MISSOURI Thanks to Matthew Hufft, their envelope-pushing architect and longtime friend, Hannah and Paul Catlett have a new home in southwestern Missouri that’s a fresh, unconventional take on the traditional farmhouse. The homeowners call the house Porch House after it's majestic wraparound porch. photos by: Joe Pugliese