Deck

A seaside holiday retreat designed with four black wood cabins linked by pathways. Built in a quiet area among wild pine trees, this residential retreat in Comporta, Portugal, allows the clients to relax and unwind in the middle of a gorgeous coastal landscape. Lisbon-based architecture and design firm

In the beautiful countryside of Bomporto, Italy, an unfortunate event turned into a great opportunity. After an old barn was damaged by an earthquake, the owners decided to transform it into a stylish home and they hired the Archiplan Studio to handle the project. The e...

A dream getaway in Costa Rica. Built right near a beach between Playa Tamarindo and Playa Langosta in Tamarindo, Costa Rica, Villa Monoi is a beautifully designed private retreat. Perfect for a family or a group of friends, the villa features four bedrooms and sprawling lounge areas both indoors and outdoors. Architect ...

A holiday home designed in perfect harmony with a spectacular landscape in Iceland. Named Holiday Home by Thingvallavatn, this project completed by Denmark and Iceland-based architecture practice KRADS has a special relationship with the surrounding nature. The studio collaborated closely with the clients, who are performing artists, to create the distinctive design. The process of de...

Two timber cabins designed to be as sustainable and eco-friendly as possible. Located in a woodland in the Pacific Northwest, these two cabins nestle gently into the pristine landscape. Seattle-based architecture and design firm GO'C renovated and redesigned an existing cabin and also added a new, smaller volume with a similar...

A sprawling garden designed with open areas that create a winding path from a chalet to a lake. Designed by Daniel Zamarbide, founder of multidisciplinary studio Bureau, Mr. Barrett's Garden in Switzerland is a beautiful outdoor space that creates a dialogue between a new chalet and the nearby Lake Geneva. The sprawling area features lush vegetation and a

A lakefront guest house inspired by the movement of water. Built on Lake Rosseau, Ontario, the Tobin Island Boathouse stands between a forest and the serene surface of the water. The AKB Architecture firm looked to the local context for inspiration, referencing both the s...

It is always a delight to find a salient engineering solution integrated with architectural design. MHM Architects have seamlessly blended the two in the project Boat’s House at Millstätter Lake. Because of docking restrictions at the waterfront, the wooden façade of the building folds down to create an extern...

A retreat designed for a cycling enthusiast and nature lover. Seattle-based architecture firm SKB Architects completed the Sonoma Farmhaus project for a client who is a cycling enthusiast. Located in the town of Graton, California, the house takes inspiration from the traditional forms of rural buildings and

A stunning house that showcases the refinement of contemporary Japanese architecture. Built at the top of a hill in the historic city of Kamakura, Japan, T3 House overlooks a breathtaking coastal landscape and the snowy peak of Mount Fuji in the distance. The clients, a couple based in Japan, the UK, and France, hired CUBO design architect to design their ideal home: a modern dwelling...

A wood-clad home inspired by tree houses. Named Caterpillar Hill, this wood-clad house rises from the top of a steep site in a woodland on Maine’s rugged coast. Architecture firm Whitten Architects designed the forever home for a family of three. The clients have ties to the area and wanted a durable, accessible home they ...

A minimalist cabin built in a pine forest on a rural property in the south of France. [dropcap]N[/dropcap]estled in a forest in Marseille, France, Pine Nut Cabane is a minimalist cabin that takes cues from vernacular architecture. London-based architecture and desig...

A compact, off-grid cabin built in a beautiful natural site in Italy. Founded in 2013 as a carpentry workshop, Llabb transformed over the years from a custom wood furniture studio into an architecture and design firm. The Genoa-based practice applies traditional woodworking techniques in architectural projects. The Hermitage Cabin project showcases this perfectly. Set on the edge of a...

Embedded in a woodland landscape, this retreat has art gallery-like spaces that open to nature. Built on the top of a hill on Orcas Island, WA, Collector's Retreat provides gorgeous views of a forest landscape. Seattle-based Heliotrope Architects designed the dwelling for a couple who owns an art gallery in Los Ang...

A black cabin designed to disappear into a lakeside woodland in British Columbia. Located at the highest point on a slope that overlooks a lake on in West Kootenay, British Columbia, Canada, this cabin provides access to striking views of the surrounding forest, water, and mountain peaks in the distance. Architecture and interior desig...

A special hotel designed to be a home away from home. Nestled into a bucolic landscape in northern Spain, Villa Slow welcomes its guests into a quiet, warm, and homelike space that also celebrates the beauty of nature. It’s an ideal choice for those who are exploring the region and want to find accommodation near Santander. Architect

A creatively designed family home in Porto. Designed by Porto-based studio FAHR 021.3, the Bouça Family House aims to create a dialogue between the street and passers-by on one hand and contemporary architecture on the other. Built in the center of Porto, Portugal, the house is part of a new wave of both urban consoli...

A retreat designed with a cantilevered form that extends toward water views in the Pacific Northwest. Designed by architecture studio Heliotrope, this retreat on Orcas Island, Washington, makes the most of a challenging site to optimize the dialogue betwe...

A duplex transformed into a single-family home in the heart of Montreal. Located in the popular Plateau-Mont-Royal neighborhood in Montreal, Canada, this compact duplex was transformed into a four-story, single-family home by local architecture and interior design firm

A modern take on the archetypal country house. Located near the top of a slope in Saint-Julien-le-Petit, west-central France, this black house overlooks a bucolic landscape. French architecture firm Ciguë designed the dwellin...

A tiny house built in a garden in France. Located close to the sea in Longueil, France, this tiny house makes the most of an existing lush garden. Paris-based architecture firm arba designed the small, minimalist cabin as a retreat for the clients, but the prope...

This house, located in the suburban area of North Kanto in the Saitama Prefecture in Japan, aims to reconcile the need for unique design and the convenience of prefabricated materials. Even though they are cheaper, increasingly more widespread, but also more practical and faster to build than traditional houses, prefabricated homes are still not completely embraced by the older or the younger g...

A minimalist cabin built in a pine forest on a rural property in the south of France. [dropcap]N[/dropcap]estled in a forest in Marseille, France, Pine Nut Cabane is a minimalist cabin that takes cues from vernacular architecture. London-based architecture and desig...

A concrete house that complements its minimalist design with a carbon neutral build. [dropcap]D[/dropcap]esigned by Perth-based firm Whispering Smith, the award-winning House A offers a practical and eco-friendly architecture solution for slow living fans. Open to travelers, the house is ideal for design a...

A contemporary beach house inspired by traditional coastal dwellings. Located in the village of Grand-Barachois in the Canadian province of New-Brunswick, this beach house is specially designed to withstand the harsh weather conditions of the coastal area. Québec City-based architecture firm Atelier Pierre Thibault designed Lebla...

A black beach house with two wooden volumes connected by a light-filled space. Located in a forested area in La Juanita, in the José Ignacio resort, Uruguay, this beach retreat optimizes comfort while preserving the integrity of the natural landscape. Designed in a collaboration between the Fram ...

A hotel that re-imagines vernacular tradition with a minimalist aesthetic. Millions of tourists visit the Italian Alps every year and they have plenty of hotels to choose from to make their stay comfortable. However, not every hotel can claim to have deep roots in local traditions and ancient architecture like Olmo. Nestled in the village of Ponchiera, the Province of Sondrio, Italy, ...

A quiet retreat designed to minimize its presence in a natural landscape. Built on a sloping terrain on the shores of Ranco Lake, south Chile, this lake house has a thoughtful design that preserves and celebrates the beauty of the landscape. Benjamin Litvak of blaq a...

A cozy retreat designed as a sustainable, low-cost, modular cabin. Built in a forest in Finland, close to a lake, this cabin blends into the landscape with a simple design. The idea to build the retreat came to Jonas Becker and Timm Bergmann of Berlin-based