GRAPHĒ

Budget Breakdown: Their $954K Seattle Dream Home Was Nearly Three Decades in the Making

noreply@blogger.com (GRAPHĒ) — Wed, 29 Apr 2026 10:56:16 -0700

What started with a fixer-upper in 1998 has grown into a three-building compound shaped by changing codes—and long-term thinking.

In 1998, when architects Lisa Chadbourne and Daren Doss bought a modest Craftsman on a large, slightly scruffy lot in Seattle’s Central District, they were drawn less to the home itself than to the property’s potential.

"We always thought, wow, we could do something with this," Lisa recalls.

At the time, "something" meant fixing up the existing house and, eventually, carving out space to work. In 2005, after a zoning change allowed detached accessory dwelling units, the couple—who are the founders and principals of Chadbourne + Doss Architects—built a compact backyard studio. It functioned as an office, guesthouse, and creative testing ground; a flexible structure that hinted at the site’s long-term prospects.

Lisa Chadbourne and Daren Doss’s L-shaped home creates private courtyards on the 7,600-square-foot Seattle lot they’ve gradually developed over the last 27 years. The black AEP Span Nu-Wave corrugated siding requires zero maintenance, and Loewen aluminum-clad mixed-grain fir windows and doors anchor the high-performance envelope.

Photo: Rafael Soldi

The energy-efficient home has rooftop solar panels, and the walls are filled with Rockwool insulation.

Photo: Rafael Soldi

Leftover Madera oak flooring wraps the front of the kitchen island. The couple used Caesarstone quartz only at the sink locations to control costs.

Photo: Rafael Soldi

See the full story on Dwell.com: Budget Breakdown: Their $954K Seattle Dream Home Was Nearly Three Decades in the Making
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Dual Gables Expand the Footprint of This Netherlands Home in Unexpected Ways

noreply@blogger.com (GRAPHĒ) — Wed, 29 Apr 2026 10:56:14 -0700

The 1,013-square-foot residence parts from convention with a split-level plan, swooping built-ins, and soaring interiors.

Houses We Love: Every day we feature a remarkable space submitted by our community of architects, designers, builders, and homeowners. Have one to share? Post it here.

Project Details:

Location: Nigtevecht, Netherlands

Architect: Woonpioniers / @woonpioniers

Footprint: 1,013 square feet

Builder: Eltink BV

Structural Engineer: BT Adviesbureau

Energy Plan: Buro Bartosz

Photographer: Henny van Belkom

From the Architect: "In the heart of the old village center of Nigtevecht, nestled in one a characteristic street near the water, stands Lichthuis. Inspired by the challenging shape of the plot, two volumes slide together like puzzle pieces to make the most of the narrow, tapering space. From the street, it appears to be just another small house in the row, albeit a wooden one.

"But once you step across the threshold, floors appear to float as light pours in from all directions. Panoramic windows frame the greenery like a living painting. The split-level floors strengthen the connection to the outdoors, drawing the rolling landscape inside. Exactly where the two building sections meet, a diamond-shaped skylight opens up the roof to an abundance of natural daylight. The boundary between inside and outside blurs completely. Thanks to the overhead lighting, the varying levels, and the low, continuous windows, the house feels much more spacious than its square footage suggests. The exposed wooden construction does the rest.

"Throughout the day, the sunlight enters the house in ever-changing ways. This enhances the interplay of fluid spaces and intimate nooks where you can retreat for a moment. The deep window niche between the kitchen and the living room invites you to curl up and relax. The living room sits just a touch higher, creating a cozy, sheltered atmosphere without losing its connection to the rest of the house. Even the bathroom seems to float; you enter via an exciting little bridge, only to find yourself in a snug cocoon with ‘peek-holes’ looking out.

"Thanks to the vapor-permeable timber frame construction and natural wood-wool insulation, the house literally and figuratively breathes. A heat pump and underfloor heating ensure constant comfort. This is a place where you’ll want to walk barefoot, heading toward that one corner where the sun hits just right. It is a house that embraces you, with a lightness felt in every room.

"Behind all the architectural details lies plenty of practical convenience. The three children's bedrooms utilize the full height of the house, each featuring its own loft bed in the ridge, while the master bedroom enjoys the luxury of an ensuite bathroom. At the front of the house, there is a workspace/studio, accessible via both the main entrance and its own private side entrance. For daily family life, there is the ideal, ‘pleasantly messy’ utility room with its own back entrance—the perfect spot to drop your gear after sports or grab your boots when it rains. Storage is also plentiful: a large, semi-sunken shed is located beneath the living room. In short: it is a spacious home truly designed for living."

Photo by Henny van Belkom

See the full story on Dwell.com: Dual Gables Expand the Footprint of This Netherlands Home in Unexpected Ways
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For $10K a Month, You Can Rent a Midcentury Time Capsule in L.A.

noreply@blogger.com (GRAPHĒ) — Wed, 29 Apr 2026 10:56:13 -0700

Designed by A. Quincy Jones and Frederick Emmons, the Harlan Lee House has floor-to-ceiling windows, mountain views, an interior courtyard, and a lush pool area.

Location: 4965 Calvin Avenue, Tarzana, California

Price: $10,000 a month

Year Built: 1961

Architect: A. Quincy Jones & Frederick Emmons

Footprint: 2,202 square feet (4 bedrooms, 3 baths)

Lot Size: 0.36 Acres

From the Agent: "Originally commissioned for developer Harlan Lee and featured as the Good Housekeeping Model House, this residence epitomizes a ‘dream house with young ideas’ that defined the era’s innovative spirit. Classic post-and-beam construction with soaring ceilings, and floor-to-ceiling glass walls seamlessly connects the interior to the lush landscaping and swimming pool. The living room is centered around a minimalist open fireplace. With over 2,200 square feet of living space, this four-bedroom/three-bath midcentury refuge also features an additional flex space with separate entrance, ideal for a studio/home office. Situated on over a third acre in Tarzana’s Royal Homes subdivision, the home’s terraced lot offers views of the valley and mountains. Described by Good Housekeeping as ‘a house with the outdoors built in,’ this property represents a rare opportunity to live in a piece of architectural history that has been preserved as a living experience of 1960s modernism."

A teal door leads to the home’s entry courtyard.

Photo: Cameron Carothers

Famed midcentury architects A. Quincy Jones and Frederick Emmons designed the residence for the developer Harlan Lee.

Photo: Cameron Carothers

See the full story on Dwell.com: For $10K a Month, You Can Rent a Midcentury Time Capsule in L.A.
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This 5,382-Square-Foot Home in Brazil Weaves Through the Forest on a Network of Piles

noreply@blogger.com (GRAPHĒ) — Tue, 28 Apr 2026 15:56:07 -0700

It juts, twists, and turns to follow spaces between the trees, appearing to suspend living spaces in midair.

Houses We Love: Every day we feature a remarkable space submitted by our community of architects, designers, builders, and homeowners. Have one to share? Post it here.

Project Details:

Location: Nova Lima, Brazil

Architect: TETRO Arquitectura / @tetro.arquitectura

Footprint: 5,382 square feet

Builder: Engecapo

Structural Engineer: MEstturas

Photographer: Jomar Bragança / @jomarbraganca

From the Architect: "A place immersed in lush Atlantic rainforest nature. A terrain filled with large leafy trees, foliage, shrubs, birds, and wild animals. A challenging topography with a steep slope, characteristic of the Nova Lima region in Minas Gerais. This is the place where Casa Açucena is inserted.

"The project is a response to a sensitive reading of the place. In its first contact with this terrain, the need to maintain the natural characteristics is already clear. The act of looking upward, from the ground to the canopy of trees, elevated up to fifty feet above ground level, was decisive for the creation of the concept. How to build in a place with such a steep topography, while maintaining the original nature? How to give the residents the daily experience of looking up and seeing the sky through the treetops. These were the questions that guided all design decisions.

"The belief that architecture should mold to the terrain, and not the other way around, was the starting point. The house rises above the ground and the animal and plant life develops underneath. The program shapes itself by occupying the empty spaces between the trees, none of which were removed. The topography was left changed. From this point on, no choice or design decision was made by taste or will of the architect. Everything is a response and is intended to reinforce the concept.

"The house, in its white color, is a surprise to those who arrive. Its randomly placed black pillars blend in with the trunks. The house seems to float. Its fluid plan, a result of the program's occupation among the trees, and its openings and folds in the slab to reach the view of the treetops, generate the geometry. The architecture is harmoniously inserted next to the natural vegetation, while maintaining its presence."

Photo: Jomar Bragança

See the full story on Dwell.com: This 5,382-Square-Foot Home in Brazil Weaves Through the Forest on a Network of Piles
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One Night in a High-Luxury, High-Adventure Ski Lodge in the French Alps

noreply@blogger.com (GRAPHĒ) — Tue, 28 Apr 2026 11:56:35 -0700

Hospitality brand Eleven’s offerings cater to a specific kind of monied traveler. Staying—and heli-skiing—at one of its Tarentaise Valley chalets after thriftier spots confirmed the magic of Europe’s alpine huts at any price point.

Welcome to One Night In, a series about staying in the most unparalleled places available to rest your head.

Ultimately, there is no way to tell people you’re going to the Alps to ski for a month without sounding obnoxious. "Skiing is actually cheaper there!" I exclaim. (True, ski passes at the largest resorts in Europe are less expensive than those at my local hill in the Hudson Valley.) "I’ll be working the whole time!" I insist. (Also true, the blessings of the time difference with the east coast means that I can ski all morning and work all afternoon, ideally with an Aperol spritz…I mean, a glass of water.) But at the end of the day, you must accept and admit that being able to do such a thing is an extraordinary privilege.

Still, on my own monthlong Alps ski trip, that privilege has limits. For the first three weeks of March, I’m staying at the cheapest Airbnbs I can find. I’m dragging my just-under-50-lbs-to-avoid-overweight-fees-baggage on trains and buses all over Switzerland and France. I’m partaking in a few nice meals but mostly buying sandwich fixings and yogurt from the grocery store. Please applaud my thrift.

Yet in the final few days, at the very end of the month, I get the opportunity to rocket myself into the upper echelons of the European Ski experience. Eleven, a hospitality company with a dozen lodges scattered worldwide, many in remote locations, has caught my eye for its stated mission: a desire to blend adrenaline-pumping activity with luxury accommodations—an all-inclusive experience that starts at several thousand dollars a night. Though you can go to one of their lodges just to unwind, Eleven courts a particular breed of high-rolling but high-energy guest. The brand name itself originates from the scene in Spinal Tap when Christopher Guest tells the camera the amps go up to 11. Each day at an Eleven lodge comes jam-packed with a tailored outdoor adventure—depending on the location and season, a blend of guided skiing, hiking, fly-fishing, mountain biking, and mountaineering.

"What we tried to create was, you have an amazing adventure and then you come back to an equally well-designed, layered space," says Blake Pike, who founded Eleven with her husband Chad and handles the brand’s design through her studio, Twelve Interiors, when I speak to her after my visit. "I wanted to feel almost like you’re coming home."

Conveniently for my purposes, Eleven has two chalets close to where I’ll already be in France during my marathon ski month. When I write to them on a wing and a prayer before the trip, suggesting I cover the chalets for Dwell’s "One Night In" series, I expect to either not hear anything. I’m thrilled when they write back to welcome me for a comped multiday stay.

Both Chalet Hibou, where I stayed, and the neighboring Chalet Pelerin (pictured at top) are located in the historic hamlet of Le Miroir in France’s Tarentaise Valley.

Courtesy Eleven

Thursday

3 p.m.: The first luxury, in four days of luxuries, is that Eleven has sent a driver to pick me up at my previous location in Meribel Motarret. We drive for an hour and a half into the scenic Tarentaise Valley before we arrive in the village of Saint Foy. Eleven owns two neighboring properties, Chalets Hibou and Pelerin, which sit near the top of a narrow and winding stone road in the small hamlet of Le Miroir.

Stepping out of the sleek black sprinter van, I immediately note that there is no flashy signage or garish parking lot, no locked gates or high fences the way you might expect from a luxury resort. Laundry hangs on a clothing line next door; a chicken roams in the neighboring yard. The chalets are at once stately and beautiful, yet unobtrusive. I notice their sturdy stone bases, their wooden upper floors and dark slate roofs. The exterior wooden stairs and balconies are being allowed to weather naturally into a dark charcoal. I initially assume the chalets were built several hundred years ago, contemporaneously with much of the surrounding architecture. I’m surprised to learn, several days into my stay, that they actually encompass work from three distinct periods, across three different centuries.

The initial construction of Hibou, the chalet I’ll be staying in, likely dates to the 1700s, and would have originally been used as an actual farmhouse, complete with wooden haylofts, a stone basement for the animals, and a living area for the families. Pelerin, on the other hand, was built in the 1950s. When Eleven bought the properties in the 2010s, they renovated and expanded both, bringing them into the modern era with geothermal heat pump technology and smart home integration, while maintaining the spirit and bones of the original designs. These choices were made in part due to the brand’s desire to honor the character of the area, though also due to local regulations: the hamlet of Le Miroir falls under the purview of the Architectes des Bâtiments de France, an authority for national heritage and preservation that has strict rules around building exteriors. John Featherman, Eleven’s managing director of assets and development, later told me in an email that following these constraints required careful work with a local architect. "It’s a negotiation, but a healthy one: the regulations protect the very sense of place that drew us here."

At the door, I’m greeted by my "Experience manager," Emeline, who will spend the next several days coordinating every detail of my stay. She’s the picture of calm, friendly competence and she gives me and my fellow guest—another solo female traveler—an initial tour of Hibou.

Walking into the chalet, I’m struck by the most wonderful smell of a flickering candle on an entryway table. While Eleven aims for each of its properties to lean into the local environment and culture in their respective designs, there are a few consistent features that unite all locations. These candles are among them. (In recent years, I’ve tried to "get into candles," thinking, perhaps, that this is what an evolved adult woman should appreciate and also that maybe lighting a scented candle in the evening would magically melt away all my anxieties. The habit has never stuck, although this scent, allegedly "Japanese Quince," may make me a convert.)

Guests at the chalets have quick access to seven nearby ski resorts (left). The living room of Chalet Hibou channels its farmhouse history and alpine lodge present (right).

Courtesy Eleven

Beyond the smell, the entire vibe of the chalet immediately puts me at ease. This is an alpine lodge at heart so there’s of course no shortage of wood—hardwood floors, ceilings, and beams, with some wood-paneled wainscoting, but it doesn’t overwhelm, balanced out by sections of exposed stone. I feel, more than anything, like I’m walking into a home. Emeline shows me to my room. Inside, there’s a vintage armoire, a padded headboard and muted gray walls, thick patterned drapes that match the bed’s bolster pillow, and a fur blanket folded on the foot of the bed. The bathroom has a vintage pull chain toilet (the bathroom fixtures, interestingly enough, are another consistent feature across all Eleven locations) and the floor is a locally sourced stone, Bleu de Savoie.

Joni Mitchell is playing throughout the house speakers, including those in my room, which you can toggle on and off independently in both the bathroom and the bedroom. Prior to my stay, Eleven sent an extensive questionnaire which had some practical questions—ski size and ability, allergies, etc.—but also went further: the lodge uses the music tastes and food preferences of its current guests to curate a chalet playlist and guide menu planning, respectively. Terrified that someone would judge my music taste, I’d left that section blank, though I was very happy to have Blue as the soundtrack to my unpacking.

5 p.m.: There are four floors at Chateau Hibou and it will take me my full four days to really spend time on each. The chalet is grand but never feels overwhelming; each level its own self-contained swaddle, and there are only seven guest rooms. With a couple hours to kill before dinner, I ascend to what will prove to be my favorite area (save for my bed and the hot tub), the high-ceilinged top floor, which houses the kitchen, dining room, and a sunken lounge. There are several seating areas, each framed around coffee tables and fireplaces. "I think it’s important to create a lot of places to sit, because people do like to move through the property," Blake tells me. "It’s not like everyone is congregating in the living room at all times. It’s nice to enjoy different parts of it during the day."

When decor items match, it’s subtle. The pieces, from the lamps to the chair to the art, are a blend of vintage and new buys and custom builds. There’s no copy paste here, and yet the design never clashes or feels kitsch. Many pieces were sourced from a (now sadly out-of-business) secondhand store in Albertville, a 30-minute drive away. "That was just a treasure trove," Blake says. "We’d drive down there and load up just van after van after van. It was as if this entire generation of people were unloading these traditional Savoyard pieces. I was so fortunate and I was able to scoop up so much locally." A good portion of the decor was also sourced from England, at a pre-Brexit time when many French antiques were still flowing into the U.K. (This includes a beautiful flame-stitched Os de Mouton sofa in the Chalet Hibou dining room.)

I settle into an armchair in the lounge, and am approached by Marjorie Dussarrat, another Eleven Experience manager who offers me a glass of champagne and a plate of boquerones. I accept. When in Le Miroir!

Soon enough I’m joined by Mike Hattrup, Eleven’s director of skiing. Mike, chatty and warm, is based in the U.S. but will also be staying at the Chalet over the next few days. He notes my shoeless (but sock-covered) feet. "I wasn’t sure if that was okay!" I say. Normally, I would not walk around a hotel without shoes, particularly one this nice, but Hibou seems to encourage a casual relaxation. This is one of the things he loves about this place, Mike agrees. It’s elegant, but also feels like a place where you can put your feet up on the coffee table.

As part of the all-inclusive Eleven Experience, guests enjoy customized outdoor adventures led by professionals.

Photo by Emma Dries

See the full story on Dwell.com: One Night in a High-Luxury, High-Adventure Ski Lodge in the French Alps
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Nab This Six-Story "Tree House" in Portland for $820K

noreply@blogger.com (GRAPHĒ) — Tue, 28 Apr 2026 10:56:26 -0700

Architect James Oliver’s quirky ’70s home has spiral staircases, suspended fireplaces, a catwalk, and an office perched in the forest canopy.

Location: 6432 SW Burlingame Place, Portland, Oregon

Price: $820,000

Year Built: 1971

Architect: James Oliver

Footprint: 4,560 square feet (3 bedrooms, 5 baths)

Lot Size: 0.19 Acres

From the Agent: "Designed by Oregon architect James Oliver as his private residence, this singular home celebrates craftsmanship and connection to place. A wooden trestle bridge leads to glass doors that open to a secluded, wooded slope. Inside, loosely set stone bricks create a quiet, grounding rhythm underfoot. Spanning multiple levels linked by sculptural spiral staircases, the home reveals inventive details no longer permissible by today’s codes. A catwalk with a glass‑surround niche offers a serene perch for birdwatching. At its core, a 1970s‑era kitchen island anchors a fir breakfast bar and matching circular dining table. Above, a loft once served as Oliver’s sky‑high office, complete with a train track suspended from the ceiling that ran its full length. This lived‑in modern tree house blurs the boundary between architecture and forest."

Photo by Caleb Vandermeer Photography

The home features two fireplaces that are suspended from the ceiling.

Photo by Caleb Vandermeer Photography

See the full story on Dwell.com: Nab This Six-Story "Tree House" in Portland for $820K
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Everything We Could Possibly See in One Day of Milan Design Week

noreply@blogger.com (GRAPHĒ) — Mon, 27 Apr 2026 14:56:34 -0700

Dwell’s visual media producer hit the ground running in Milan with eleven appointments and eight hours to complete them. These were the standouts.

This story is part of Fair Take, our reporting on global design events that looks up close at the newest ideas in fixtures, furnishings, and more.

If you want to really see Milan Design Week, you need a pretty rigid schedule—something I learned last year. Every April, the streets bloom with exhibitions by brands wanting to get in on the action that the main attraction, Salone del Mobile, brings to the city. This year, I did the math and figured I could hit eleven different projects within six and a half hours, as long as I scheduled each appointment 35 minutes apart.

My math was sound. My timeline? Optimistic. But in the eight hours it actually took, we were able to cover a lot of ground. From rug designer Beni’s vivid floor coverings based on the vernacular architecture of Morocco and Italy, to the most recent projects by the descendants of Charles and Ray Eames, to Kelly Wearstler’s collaboration with fashion giant H&M, the projects around town offer a glimpse into how the larger design ecosystem is targeting nostalgia and playing to the domestic, all while pushing for broader audiences. Here’s everything photographer Olga Mai and I saw.

Sophie Lou Jacobsen

Our first stop of the day was a fifth floor apartment in the Città Studi neighborhood, where designer Sophie Lou Jacobsen displayed a collection inspired by the drama of ’70s and ’80s disco. The glassware is studded with Swarovski crystals, the placemats underneath—Jacobsen’s first foray into fabric—are made from a crispy raw silk, and enameled plates make use of copper, used in a way that reminds me of traditional kitchens. The collection could have easily leaned too far into vintage aesthetics, but didn’t, and felt quite refined.

We were lucky to catch Sophie Lou Jacobsen bright and early at the installation, where she walked us through her tableware collection.

Photo: Olga Mai

Leaning into the sheen of disco, Jacobsen developed a series of enameled copper plates with sun motifs.

Photo: Olga Mai

A cigarette box is a highlight of the collection, utilizing a contraption that functions like a straw holder at an old diner.

Photo: Olga Mai

See the full story on Dwell.com: Everything We Could Possibly See in One Day of Milan Design Week

They Wrote the Book on How to Revamp Your Rental

noreply@blogger.com (GRAPHĒ) — Mon, 27 Apr 2026 11:56:35 -0700

Forget the forever house—Earl of East founders Niko Dafkos and Paul Firmin share their tips on making a rented space feel like home.

With homeownership increasingly out of reach, renting has become a long-term reality for a many—yet the interiors world remains largely focused on those with the freedom to build new homes and undertake conventional renovations. So, where do you find inspiration if your lease won’t allow you to knock through walls or rip out a dated kitchen?

In their new book, Home for Now, Niko Dafkos and Paul Firmin, founders of the London lifestyle brand Earl of East, explore the ways renters can "live meaningfully within borrowed walls." Best known for their candles and home fragrances, the pair are experts on the everyday rituals that make a space feel like home. Drawing on this understanding, their experience as long-term renters, and the homes of creatives from East London to Brooklyn, Dafkos and Firmin make a compelling case for investing in the spaces we inhabit right now—not the ones we might own someday.

A portrait of Niko Dafkos and Paul Firmin, founders of London’s Earl of East and authors of Home for Now, with their dog, Piper.

Photo by Sarah Victoria Bates

Across 36 case studies and chapters on specific aspects of decorating rentals—including textiles, art, and lighting—the book shows how renters around the world have transformed their temporary spaces. Here, Dafkos and Firmin share their tips for creating a rental that feels like home.

A spread from Home for Now focused on the importance of small, meaningful objects in making a place feel like home. Firmin and Dafkos recommend plenty of open shelving and credenzas for the display of personal objects.

Photo by Sarah Victoria Bates, Home for Now, gestalten 2026

What made you want to write a book specifically for renters?

Paul Firmin: It felt like an obvious gap. So much of the interiors world is aimed at people who own homes and have the freedom to renovate. But that’s not the reality for most people. We kept having conversations with people who felt like they were in a holding pattern, like they couldn’t really invest in a space until they owned it. We wanted to make a book that spoke directly to them.

Emily Taylor and Drew Simel’s brownstone apartment in Brooklyn, New York, is one of Firmin and Dafkos’s favorite case studies in the book.

See the full story on Dwell.com: They Wrote the Book on How to Revamp Your Rental
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This $2.7M Los Angeles Midcentury Is a Post-and-Beam Dream

noreply@blogger.com (GRAPHĒ) — Mon, 27 Apr 2026 10:56:29 -0700

Location: 12450 Rochedale Lane, Los Angeles, California

Price: $2,700,000

Year Built: 1950

Architects: A. Quincy Jones & Whitney R. Smith

Renovation Date: 2014

Renovation Architect: Bruce Norelius

Footprint: 1,197 square feet (3 bedrooms, 2 baths)

Lot Size: 0.32 Acres

From the Agent: "Set within the utopian experiment of Crestwood Hills, the Gelb House is a rare, highly intact example of A. Quincy Jones’s Mutual Housing Association vision—where architecture was not a luxury, but a disciplined framework for living. Every decision is economical, but never compromised. A concrete block fireplace anchors the interior, while skylights along the ridge beam pull light deep into the plan. Systems have been updated and key spaces—kitchen and baths—reworked with a sympathetic material palette, while the original structure and envelope remain entirely intact. Where interventions occur, they are legible and deliberately quiet. Connected to the mature landscape and surrounded by tall trees, the flat pad offers potential for future expansion, with ample room for a swimming pool or additional living space."

The post-and-beam home’s material palette includes Douglas fir framing, concrete blocks, and redwood accents.

Photo by Tim Street-Porter

A. Quincy Jones designed the home to be part of his Mutual Housing Association, a neighborhood experiment in communal living.

Photo by Tim Street-Porter

See the full story on Dwell.com: This $2.7M Los Angeles Midcentury Is a Post-and-Beam Dream
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Budget Breakdown: One Way to Get Your Dream Home? Build It in Your Backyard Like This Maine Family

noreply@blogger.com (GRAPHĒ) — Fri, 24 Apr 2026 11:56:31 -0700

They combined $206,000 and sweat equity to create a 950-square-foot ADU behind the duplex they already owned.

One of the things Chelsea Lipham cherished about her home in Portland, Maine, was how beautiful its tree-filled lot was. What she didn’t care for, however, was the cramped interior of her 100-year-old duplex. "I was feeling kind of claustrophobic," says Chelsea, who is a registered architect. She imagined an open, airy space with better views of the canopy around her—something that was more like the cabin in the woods she grew up in.

In Portland, Maine, architect Chelsea Lipham designed and built a 950-square-foot ADU where she, her husband, and five-year-old son live. By keeping the ADU’s design simple and choosing budget-friendly materials, she was able to complete the project for less than $206,000.

Photo by Ben Gancsos Studio

After the city passed regulations that made it easier to build ADUs, Chelsea jumped at the chance to create her dream space. She envisioned a place that she, her husband, and son could move into and possibly rent out in the future. Thanks to smart product and material sourcing, plus the sweat equity she and her family put into constructing the project on nights and weekends, the 950-square-foot, two-story ADU came to just under $206,000. "It was all an experiment," Chelsea says of the design.

When Chelsea started conceiving of the ADU, she focused on ways to maximize living space within the footprint she was allowed to have under Portland’s ADU rules, which led to a two-story design. She didn’t expect to build the ADU herself, but the prices contractors quoted were too high for her budget. Nearly half of it did go to experts for the foundation and sitework, plumbing, and extending the sewer and water lines to the back of the property—work Chelsea wasn’t able to do on her own. But because she had experience helping her father, who is a woodworker, build homes over summers when she was growing up, Chelsea "wasn't scared of needing to do most of the work myself," she says. In a full circle moment, she began to teach her son how to chip in. "He had his little wrench out helping us do things," she says.

The facade is composed of solid pine boards coated in pine tar, a finish commonly used on houses and boats in Scandinavia. It is durable (it’s supposed to last 100 years, Chelsea says) and protects against rot and insects. Chelsea used Earth + Flax’s Authentic Black pine tar mixed 50/50 with Viking purified raw linseed oil. The sconce is the Breshawna model from Wade Logan.

Photo by Ben Gancsos Studio

Keeping the volume, layout, and detailing straightforward helped make the house easy to build. "I was trying to simplify everything as much as possible, but still keep things interesting," she says. The ground level features a short entry hall that passes a workshop and office nook before opening to a double-height living room and adjacent kitchen and dining area.

$4,280 Permit & Impact Fees	$7,923.08 Appliances	$2,356.98 Cabinets/Counters
$12,375 Drywall	$22,079.99 Electrical/Lighting	$8,230 Sprinklers
$4,646.12 Flooring/Stairs	$37,150 Foundation/Site Work	$9,252.59 HVAC
$7,726.31 Insulation	$17,818.60 Framing	$3,643.20 Roofing
$5,368 Interior Finishes	$9,157.45 Siding	$19,408.77 Plumbing
$18,222 Windows/Doors/Hardware	$15,775 Water Line (from street)
Grand Total: $205,413.09

An office nook is located just past the entrance.

Photo by Ben Gancsos Studio

See the full story on Dwell.com: Budget Breakdown: One Way to Get Your Dream Home? Build It in Your Backyard Like This Maine Family

One of Frank Lloyd Wright’s Apprentices Designed This $380K Wisconsin Midcentury

noreply@blogger.com (GRAPHĒ) — Fri, 24 Apr 2026 09:56:44 -0700

Inspired by Usonian homes, the 1957 residence by Herbert Fritz Jr. has wooden built-ins, concrete blocks, and…purple carpet?

Location: 852 N. Cedar Street, Richland Center, Wisconsin

Price: $379,900

Year Built: 1957

Architect: Herbert Fritz Jr.

Footprint: 1,878 square feet (4 bedrooms, 3 baths)

Lot Size: 0.44 Acres

From the Agent: "852 N. Cedar Street is a 1957 commission from Herbert Fritz Jr.—son of a Taliesin survivor, heir to a tradition that believed a house should belong to its land. The vaulted ceiling opens the living room far beyond its footprint. Band windows frame a panoramic hillside view that feels, from inside, like it was always part of the plan. The cantilever pushes the bedroom wing out over the slope. Carl Meadows had an appointment at Taliesin—Frank Lloyd Wright turned him away, and Fritz Jr. took the commission instead. Offered for the first time in a generation, for the buyer who knows what Taliesin means."

Herbert Fritz Jr. was Frank Lloyd Wright’s apprentice from 1938 to 1941.

Photo by Shanna Wolf

A the interior finishes are a mixture of concrete block and wood paneling.

Photo by Shanna Wolf

Richland Center is in southern Wisconsin, about halfway between Chicago and Minneapolis.

Photo by Shanna Wolf

See the full story on Dwell.com: One of Frank Lloyd Wright’s Apprentices Designed This $380K Wisconsin Midcentury
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You’d Never Guess This Concrete ADU Is Part of a Phoenix Golf Community

noreply@blogger.com (GRAPHĒ) — Thu, 23 Apr 2026 14:56:30 -0700

Constructed with masonry units, the modernist-style addition is anything but par for the course.

Houses We Love: Every day we feature a remarkable space submitted by our community of architects, designers, builders, and homeowners. Have one to share? Post it here.

Project Details:

Location: Phoenix, Arizona

Designer: Benjamin Hall Design / @benjaminhalldesign

Footprint: 544 square feet

Builder: Venue Projects

Structural Engineer: NWM Structural Engineering

Mechanical & Pluming Engineer: Otterbein Engineering

Electrical Engineer: Don Witt Engineering Associates

Photographer: Logan Havens / @loganhavens

From the Designer: "Tucked behind a suburban home with an unusually deep lot sits a little white block apartment community. This small, four-unit community of one-bedroom micro-apartments has zero street presence, creating the feeling for tenants feeling that they’ve found a hidden gem. The isolation of the project naturally lent itself to the development of a private, tranquil experience away from the city’s hustle and bustle. To achieve this, each unit is flanked with two private outdoors spaces: a courtyard at each entry, and a generous backyard and patio. These components act as an east and west buffer, providing a quiet atmosphere with natural light that filters through native mesquite trees in each outdoor space. Natural materials carry through the interior and create a simple palette honest to its construction. The T-shaped floor plan is enhanced by natural light and provides clear organization of space and function."

Photo: Logan Havens

See the full story on Dwell.com: You’d Never Guess This Concrete ADU Is Part of a Phoenix Golf Community
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The Federal Government Is Looking for Its Joe Gebbia of Architecture

noreply@blogger.com (GRAPHĒ) — Thu, 23 Apr 2026 10:56:31 -0700

President Trump brought on the Airbnb cofounder to overhaul outdated federal websites. Now, the administration is seeking a new design hire to tackle more trivial matters of taste.

Earlier this year, U.S. Chief Design Officer (and Airbnb cofounder) Joe Gebbia spoke at a press conference alongside President Trump to announce a new federal website for discounted prescription drugs. The site itself is pretty basic: serifed gold fonts, a scroll-to-learn homepage, sparse links. It’s not a miracle by any means, most high schoolers could build it. Still, it’s exactly what Gebbia was hired to do: Overhaul U.S. government websites to make them more navigable as mandated by President Trump’s executive order, "Improving Our Nation Through Better Design." Let’s be real: This is genuinely not a bad idea, as anyone who has had to deal with social security or the IRS websites has experienced what the order calls "digital potholes." Now, it seems, the U.S. is looking for its Gebbia of architecture.

It’s nice when things get fixed, though it seems this figure would be tasked with fixing some things that may not be broken: specifically our public buildings. Much criticism (from authors and architecture institutions alike) has been lobbed at his "Make Federal Architecture Beautiful Again" executive order—requiring new and renovated federal properties be designed in the "classical" or "traditional" architectural styles of Western Europe. This month, the administration took a big step in fulfilling the architectural order’s mandates by posting a job listing for a senior architectural advisor for the General Services Administration (GSA), the entity responsible for maintaining nearly 9,000 federal properties. Think of this person as the technical and aesthetics czar, someone tasked with procurement procedures, project management, and, of course, advising on "architectural standards." But here, we’re looking not just at standards of health, safety, and welfare, as are the purview of most architects; the term "classical" appears eight times in the job listing and there are seven mentions of "traditional architecture." In the senior architectural advisor’s purview, standards are defined by a building’s style. It’s worth asking: Is "style" even a problem worth fixing?

The John F. Kennedy Federal Building in Boston, Massachusetts—designed by Walter Gropius and The Architects Collaborative with Samuel Glaser—is on the long list of buildings the GSA was ordered by President Trump to sell off.

Photos by Carol M. Highsmith/Library of Congress

Throughout last year, it seemed as if the Trump administration was hellbent on solving one specific issue surrounding federal property—there was simply too much of it. Having campaigned on reducing government expenses, in his first 100 days in office the president ordered the GSA to shed 7,500 federal offices either by terminating leases or by selling off any of 500 "non-core" buildings. With that endeavor came the opportunity to consolidate a federal style. Two of the most architecturally significant properties on this culling list were designed in the modernist style: the Ludwig Mies van der Rohe–designed Kluczynski federal building in downtown Chicago and Boston’s John F. Kennedy federal buildings by Walter Gropius. Later, FBI Director Kash Patel announced that their brutalist Washington, D.C., FBI headquarters would close permanently, citing the Charles Murphy–designed building’s ongoing problem with deferred maintenance. Employees were moved to the 1998 neoclassical Reagan Building nearby, and the fate of the brutalist property is unknown. And, just this week, the GSA announced it would be selling the 1960s modernist Theodore Roosevelt Building, which has housed the Office of Personnel Management.

Unloading modernist federal buildings, however, generated new challenges: Ditching 7,500 offices while the President mandated employees to return to the office en masse doesn’t exactly support federal workers. The GSA itself is struggling to house its own; Government Workforce reported last year that the agency’s office only had workstations for 1,000 employees when 1,200 were expected to be back at a desk even after the Department of Government Efficiency blitzed through the ranks and effectively sliced off about 16 percent of the agency’s employees. At the same time, the GSA plans to quadruple its work, absorbing procurement services from other agencies. Per the job listing, the new senior architectural advisor would be responsible for projects with budgets in excess of $300 million, hinting toward the massive scale and scope of potential additional GSA work (with fewer personnel to support them).

The Chicago Federal Center designed by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe is another building that was deemed "non-core."

Photos by Carol M. Highsmith/Library of Congress

2026 is bringing more than a few contentious plans for federal properties. Trump’s handpicked board of directors voted to close the Kennedy Center for Performing Arts citing a two-year renovation to building systems and aesthetics (including, per NPR, new black-and-gold seats with marble seating armrests); he has proposed painting the granite Eisenhower Building white to create some type of visual congruence with the White House; his plan to build a towering, arguably inappropriately-sized arch across from the Lincoln Memorial was approved this week. We won’t go into the White House’s $300 million East Wing ballroom drama.

Of those, only the Eisenhower Building is overseen by the GSA, though it seems suspect that this senior architectural adviser would be working with budgets that precisely match that of the ballroom. Currently there are 35 ongoing GSA construction projects; of those, 27 are ports of entry which are exempted from the order’s neoclassical mandates. The broad parameters of this role might hint that there will be other, much grander taxpayer-funded, traditionally designed government projects on the way.

The U.S. General Services Administration Building is reportedly set to become the headquarters for the GSA and the Office of Personnel Management, allowing for the sale of the modernist Theodore Roosevelt Building from which OPM currently operates.

Photos by Carol M. Highsmith/Library of Congress

See the full story on Dwell.com: The Federal Government Is Looking for Its Joe Gebbia of Architecture
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There’s a Canyon Oasis Behind This $2.5M San Diego Home

noreply@blogger.com (GRAPHĒ) — Thu, 23 Apr 2026 10:56:30 -0700

Designed by Robert Bowlus for painter Malcolm Nichols, the post-and-beam residence comes with a third of an acre, a courtyard, and verdant vistas—all in the heart of the city.

Location: 720 W Montecito Way, San Diego, California

Price: $2,500,000

Year Built: 1979

Architect: Robert Bowlus

Footprint: 2,730 square feet (2 bedrooms, 2 baths)

Lot Size: 0.34 Acres

From the Agent: "When architect Robert Bowlus designed a home for painter Malcolm Nichols in 1979, the site they selected engaged the canyon setting just a few blocks north of the center of Mission Hills. Straddling six small urban lots, the 2,730-square-foot, two-bedroom, two-bathroom residence engages its urban setting with a private court at the entry as well as its canyon setting with walls of north-facing glass (ideal for painting year round). With significant side and rear yards shaded by a grove of trees, the property opens to the natural landscape, sun, and cool breezes that flow effortlessly throughout. The enclosed porch and painting studio offer significant square footage opportunities for the next owner. Recognized easily for its cedar shingle siding, the Nichols Residence exemplifies late-century modern architecture."

The home’s exposed post-and-beam-ceiling is dotted with skylights.

Photo by Ollie Paterson

See the full story on Dwell.com: There’s a Canyon Oasis Behind This $2.5M San Diego Home

From the Archive: For $145K, Architect William Massie Built a Curvy Concrete Home From the Ground Up

noreply@blogger.com (GRAPHĒ) — Thu, 23 Apr 2026 10:56:29 -0700

His clients figured a prefabricated log cabin was all they could afford. Massie built something with more personality for less cash.

Welcome to From the Archive, a look back at stories from Dwell’s past. This story previously appeared in the August 2002 issue.

Keith and Sylvia Owens are a suburban London couple who like to indulge in travel and architecture, albeit in a modest fashion. Seven years ago, they found their way to Montana. The clarity of the sky and horizons that stretch for miles so inspired them that when, a year later, Sylvia read an English magazine, Build-It, advertising 2o-acre plots near White Sulphur Springs, they decided to investigate. After arriving in this tiny town in 1997, they bought the smallest available parcel of Grassy Mountain Ranch. "It was the price of a new car," remembers Keith, an art teacher. They planned to erect a cheap, prefabricated log cabin, sit back, and enjoy the spectacular views. Keith would finally have the time to read more about one of his heroes, Le Corbusier.

Then they met William Massie, a 38-year-old architect who designed solely on the computer and planned to build his concept houses in cheap materials like concrete. At that point, back in 1999, he had never built a home, but he promised the Owens that his experiment would be cheaper than anything they could truck in. Even that log cabin. The cautious-inclined couple took another chance.

Two years later, their 2,000-square-foot summer home is a gleaming four-story tower with shimmering, white elliptical sides. The glass facades front and back make the interior so open to the wild Montana landscape that, according to Sylvia, "we feel like we’re living in it." For the Owens, the house fulfills a lifelong ambition to live in an architecturally daring home. What’s more, they could afford it: The price tag was just $145,000.

The house was a turning point for Massie, too. Since he left the large Manhattan firms James Stewart Polshek and Robertson and McAnulty seven years ago to go out on his own—he supported himself by teaching in the department of architecture at Montana State University in Bozeman—he’s been determined to return modernism to its low-cost heritage. In the mid-2oth century, modernist architects designed their houses to be mass-produced objects like the Model T. "Modernism," argues the architect, "has become this bourgeois condition that costs a huge amount of money, and is rarely constructed in the same materials or vocabulary or political arena as the rest of the country."

With the Owens house, and another inexpensive home for the New York photographer Vicky Sambunaris, Massie is reversing that course, revolutionizing construction technology while at the same time expanding his design horizons.

It starts on the computer. In Massie’s hands, the PC is not a toy on which to concoct something elaborate and hard to build. He has little patience for the deconstructivist antics of a Frank Gehry. "I’m interested in the computer’s ability to simplify, not complicate, the building process," he says.

Massie draws with an $800 nerve-surface modeling program called Rhinoceros. "You take control points in three-dimensional space and push and pull them so you’re sculpting the object," explains Massie. He’s so used to designing this way that he admits to "feeling things in the computer almost with my hands." Every part of the Owens’ house was realized on his Dell PC.

But unlike many other architects who design solely on the computer, Massie moves directly from these models into construction, avoiding costly working drawings that have to be explained to a contractor. He builds the houses himself, operating out of a 200-square-foot garage in a Bozeman industrial park. The office is large enough to fit a bank of computers and four architecture students as adept at programming as they are at pouring concrete.

Massie’s designs all feature low-cost materials, such as plywood and concrete, that can be bought at Home Depot. He’s especially fond of concrete because it’s highly malleable. "It allows me to experiment, and when it’s poured into a beautiful form, there’s nothing more beautiful in the world," he asserts. (He never misses the annual World of Concrete Convention in Las Vegas.)

To realize his forms, Massie relies on a $60,000 computer numerically controlled (CNC) machine. Taking its orders from the PC that stores Massie’s designs, this milling device can carve out a foam or wood mold for a piece of curving roof or a shower basin. "I can machine out a kitchen sink easily," says Massie, standing by the ungainly apparatus as its arm slides back and forth, cutting lines into a four-by-eight-foot block of Styrofoam that exactly match the computer model. "It comes out in negative, like an ice cube tray." The foam mold is then taken to the site, where concrete is poured into it. Once hardened, the piece is ready to be placed in the house.

For larger elements like the 40-foot-long curving wall of the Sambunaris house or the roof of Massie’s own home, he makes the molds in sections, and then glues the resultant concrete pieces together. The curving concrete forms are strong, and can carry more stress than their flat counterparts. On his own house—which is barely a mile from the Owens’ place—he wasn’t satisfied with the engineering analysis for the curved concrete roof sections. "I had to know how strong they were, so I loaded up my pickup and drove over them," he says.

Constructing housing parts in this fashion is inexpensive. The necessary Styrofoam and concrete cost about $40 per mold. Sometimes that’s not cheap enough for Massie. The high, curving exterior walls on the Owens house, for example, are made up of 700 panels, each of which had to be cast in concrete using a standard polystyrene foam mold. The price on these store-bought molds was right—$25—but they produced a flat surface. So with his CNC machine, Massie carved out large custom plywood clamps, which, when clipped to the standard foam molds, bent them into the desired curve. Concrete was then poured in. The walls took three weeks to erect and cost $40,000. The total construction budget was $110,000.

These materials have another, less obvious advantage: flexibility. Take, for instance, the siting of the Owens house. When you drive toward it, the house appears to be standing plumb in the middle of a five-mile stretch of straight highway. Just before you reach it, the road drops away and there’s the house high on the hill above you. To accomplish this visual sleight of hand, before filling the formwork with concrete, Massie’s crew shifted the plywood-and-foam mold around the site until they got the sight lines exactly right.

For all their ingenuity, Massie’s drawing and construction technologies don’t just appeal to a client’s bank account. They also unleash new design possibilities. Massie has always been fascinated by sinuous forms, but as a dedicated modernist he could never find a reason to use them—until Montana’s rolling hills came to the rescue. "Suddenly, I needed curves if my buildings were to have a relationship with this landscape."

Even though the Owens tower is a nod to the grain elevator—it too has Galvalume siding—it is the house’s curvature that pulls it into the hillside. More significantly, it distinguishes the house from the oversized (and overpriced—one of similar size sold recently for $265,000) log cabin residences that dominate other parts of Grassy Mountain. Massie, the low-cost crusader, is thrilled. Says the architect, "If I can produce a house that is standard in terms of its expense but extraordinary in terms of its idea, I know I’m winning."

See more from the Dwell archive on US Modernist.

From the Archive: Andrea Zittel’s Tiny, Prophetic Joshua Tree Laboratory

Seven People Can Sleep in This 200-Square-Foot Tiny Home

noreply@blogger.com (GRAPHĒ) — Thu, 23 Apr 2026 08:56:45 -0700

Prefab company Gröna Huset’s adaptable cabins have three bedroom "cubbies" and a living/dining area with built-in furniture for storage and extra sleeping space.

Welcome to Tiny Home Profiles, an ongoing series of interviews with people transforming how we build houses. From prefab tiny houses and modular cabin kits to entire homes ready to ship, their projects represent some of the best ideas in the industry. Do you know a prefab brand that should be on our radar? Get in touch!

After working as a designer for 25 years, Josefin Ljungberg de Jager was spending more time exploring what it means to live well—but efficiently. "I’ve always believed it’s not about the number of square meters you have, but how you use them," she says.

As she learned more about small-space living from her home base in Amsterdam, Ljungberg de Jager launched her own prefab company called Gröna Huset using a prototype she developed for her own family. "I wanted to create compact, wooden homes that feel calm, practical, and intentional," she says. "Spaces where every detail supports daily life without getting in the way."

The prototype is about 200 square feet, yet it’s designed to sleep seven people, with one in the dining nook. "Tiny houses offer a flexible, low-impact solution that can serve many purposes, from garden studios and student housing to guesthouses or holiday cabins," Ljungberg de Jager notes. Below, she shares more about her prefab and how it can be customized to fit the similar mindsets of her clients.

Gröna Huset is about 200 square feet, and it’s designed to be flexible. Owners can use it as a cabin, an office, or a garden shed.

Photo by On a Hazy Morning

Tell us more about the prototype.

My first prototype is still the most meaningful project for me. I designed it for my family, which gave me complete freedom to shape every detail around our life. It became an exploration of balance between function and atmosphere, efficiency and comfort.

The house is placed along the coast just outside Amsterdam, and it’s where we go to step away from the pace of the city. That contrast between busy urban life and a more tranquil, nature-connected space is really at the heart of Gröna Huset.

Working with prefab materials made the process even more interesting. Because the house was built off-site in a workshop, the process wasn’t affected by weather, and I could follow each step closely and refine things along the way. The result is a compact home that feels open, calm, and deeply connected to its surroundings.

The living and dining space has a built-in seating area that can be converted into a guest bed. The coffee table can be raised into a larger dining surface, and there’s storage beneath the seating.

Photo by On a Hazy Morning

What was the cost per square foot?

The house is 19 square meters, or about 204 square feet, with a price of approximately €3,700 per square meter ($371 USD per square foot). But for me, the value is in the thoughtful design, which we can replicate for clients. I like to think of them as tiny houses for many people. They are accessible, adaptable, and designed to offer real comfort within a smaller footprint.

The built-in storage at the center of the room has a desk that folds out. The three cubbies lead to bedrooms that can sleep two adults each.

Photo by On a Hazy Morning

See the full story on Dwell.com: Seven People Can Sleep in This 200-Square-Foot Tiny Home
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Before & After: How a Couple Made Their 700-Square-Foot L.A. Cottage Feel Grand

noreply@blogger.com (GRAPHĒ) — Wed, 22 Apr 2026 11:56:45 -0700

"When I first bought the house, I was single and the amount of space didn’t bother me," says Jade. "But with two people living here and three pets, it made sense to make improvements."

Jade remembers just how fortuitous it felt to find her Los Angeles house. She had been visiting the city for some time, embarking on what she calls "the long move" from her home state of New York.

Jade works as a psychotherapist but has a background in botany and farming, so she was hoping to land in a neighborhood that had access to nature but wasn’t too far removed from excitement. She found it in Mount Washington, a historic enclave in the San Rafael Hills in northeast L.A.—a place set in the midst of sprawl yet topographically removed from it. "It’s surrounded by nature, and there’s so much wildlife, but it’s also so convenient," Jade says.

Jade, Zander, their dog, and their two cats moved back into their home last May after a complete revamp by Laun. "Doing this renovation was a fun way to figure out how we wanted to spend our time in this space," Zander says. "There were so many decisions, but they made us figure out how to work together."

Photo: Ye Rin Mok

Before: Foyer

After: Foyer

Laun moved the entrance to the south of the house to create a larger kitchen and bathroom. A T.M. Cobb front door and Zia terrazzo tile in Alexander are accented by the custom cherry millwork, which conceals storage space and a litter box.

Photo: Ye Rin Mok

See the full story on Dwell.com: Before & After: How a Couple Made Their 700-Square-Foot L.A. Cottage Feel Grand
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A Light-Filled, One-Bedroom Apartment in Prague Rises From What Was Once a Bakery

noreply@blogger.com (GRAPHĒ) — Wed, 22 Apr 2026 10:56:28 -0700

An array of glass brings sunshine into the 620-square-foot interiors without sacrificing privacy from surrounding buildings.

Houses We Love: Every day we feature a remarkable space submitted by our community of architects, designers, builders, and homeowners. Have one to share? Post it here.

Project Details:

Location: Prague, Czech Republic

Architect: BekArch / @bekarch_architects

Footprint: 620 square feet

Builder: 4interior&tiles

Cabinetry: Pavlis

Photographer: Ondřej Holub / @byondrej

From the Architect: "From an originally unused bakery workshop building in the inner courtyard, we created a fully functional apartment. The project features one bedroom, a bathroom, and a generous open-plan living area with a kitchen. In place of the former garage door, we designed a large sliding HS portal that connects the interior with the exterior and extends the living space onto a wooden terrace.

"Inside, we chose to preserve the building’s raw qualities—the exposed concrete beam ceiling with skylights brings natural light into the space and creates a distinctive atmosphere. Color accents, combined with natural wood and the kitchen’s stainless-steel surfaces, enliven the interior and give it a personal character. Most of the furniture was custom-designed and made from plywood, bringing together simplicity, functionality, and a cohesive visual identity throughout the apartment."

"The renovation of this inner-block infill space presented an unusual challenge: how to transform a single, enclosed volume into a fully functional living environment without compromising light, openness, or character. The interior was reorganized into a spacious living area with a large media wall, a bedroom with a walk-in wardrobe, a bathroom featuring a walk-in shower, and a separate technical room. Despite the dense urban context, the space benefits from abundant daylight thanks to preserved large-format roof skylights, which became a defining feature of the design.

"The living area opens onto a covered terrace through a large lift-and-slide glass portal. The roofed terrace ensures privacy while simultaneously protecting the interior from views from higher surrounding floors, creating a calm retreat within the city block. The material concept builds upon the existing architectural language of the structure. Original elements such as the reinforced concrete beam ceiling and the skylights were left exposed and intentionally emphasized. These were complemented by additional industrial details, including rebar used as custom door handles and a metal mesh installation that prominently displays a bicycle as both functional and sculptural element. Climbing plants were introduced to soften the raw industrial expression and add a layer of natural texture.

"The floor is finished in Cemflow, a poured cement screed chosen for its ability to level uneven substrates while reinforcing the industrial character of the interior. Although inherently technical, the material has a refined, almost terrazzo-like appearance—an intentional reference to the traditional flooring commonly found in Prague’s historic apartment buildings. Spruce bio-board was selected for bespoke joinery elements, reinterpreting a material typically used in construction and timber structures as a visible interior finish. In the kitchen, the bio-board cabinetry is paired with a stainless-steel backsplash and countertop, a material that reappears in the bathroom on the vanity top, washbasin, and sanitary accessories, ensuring visual continuity throughout the studio."

Photo by Ondřej Holub

See the full story on Dwell.com: A Light-Filled, One-Bedroom Apartment in Prague Rises From What Was Once a Bakery

Trees Surround This Brand-New Catskills Home Seeking $2.5M

noreply@blogger.com (GRAPHĒ) — Wed, 22 Apr 2026 10:56:27 -0700

The courtyard house syncs with its two-plus-acre site with wood cladding, exposed timber rafters, and large picture windows.

Location: 760 Ohayo Mountain Road, Glenford, New York

Price: $2,499,000

Year Built: 2026

Architect: Amin Tadj Studio

Footprint: 2,462 square feet (3 bedrooms, 2.5 baths)

Lot Size: 2.22 Acres

From the Agent: "The main floor is anchored around a central outdoor court, the organizing idea of the whole house. Three distinct wings wrap this interior gathering space, connected by a living and dining area. Full-height doors open directly to the court, where a rock garden, stone stairs, and fresh plantings make the transition to the surrounding deck genuinely inviting. Nearly everything here is custom: the exposed cross-laminated timber rafters were produced in New York and engineered to match the home’s distinctive roofline, down to individually custom-fabricated joist hangers for every unique angle. Partially below grade, a media and guest room offers a genuinely flexible fourth space for overflow guests, a proper home office, or a screening room."

Photo by capture:catskills

Amin Tadj Studio incorporated passive design strategies into the home.

Photo by capture:catskills

Polished concrete floors connect the kitchen, living, and dining areas.

Photo by capture:catskills

See the full story on Dwell.com: Trees Surround This Brand-New Catskills Home Seeking $2.5M
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It Took Over a Year to Bring This SoCal Midcentury From Flea-Infested to a "Soft Industrial Dream"

noreply@blogger.com (GRAPHĒ) — Tue, 21 Apr 2026 12:56:30 -0700

Designer and artist Bethany Brill added skylights to bring sunshine into her family’s Costa Mesa home, but the stainless steel kitchen and concrete floors make it anything but beachy.

Houses We Love: Every day we feature a remarkable space submitted by our community of architects, designers, builders, and homeowners. Have one to share? Post it here.

Project Details:

Location: Costa Mesa, California

Designer: Bethany Brill / @bbrill

Footprint: 1,378 square feet

Photographer: Kylie Springer / @kyliespringer_

Photographer: Bethany Brill / @bbrill

From the Designer: "When an off-market deal for a dilapidated house, 10 minutes from the beach on a big lot in Costa Mesa, California, landed in the lap of designer Bethany Brill, her husband, Jorge, (and three children), they couldn’t resist the challenge of bringing this 1950s gem back to life.

"The original angled fireplace and high ceilings were the main draw to the home, character-wise. Bethany removed the popcorn ceiling drywall to expose the rafters and added skylights throughout the home to let in more of that California sunshine. The primary bathroom was completely reworked and expanded, borrowing space from the utility closet to allow for an open-plan bedroom/bathroom which expanded the space significantly. From the bespoke kitchen door, vanities, and furniture throughout, brightly colored plywood was another theme—adding a down-to-earth perspective always seen in the designer’s projects.

"It took about a year and a half to bring this single-story three-bedroom, two-bathroom ranch from flea- and vine-infested into the soft industrial dream it is now—perfect for a busy family with its durable features of honed concrete floors and lots of stainless-steel elements. The house now embodies the homeowner’s POV with minimal and design forward materials without feeling too fancy or perfect."

Photo by Bethany Brill

Photo by Kylie Springer

Photo by Bethany Brill

See the full story on Dwell.com: It Took Over a Year to Bring This SoCal Midcentury From Flea-Infested to a "Soft Industrial Dream"
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The ’70s Are Alive and Well in This Curvaceous SoCal Home Seeking $2.5M

noreply@blogger.com (GRAPHĒ) — Tue, 21 Apr 2026 10:56:23 -0700

Designed by James Hubbell, Robert Thiele, and Rhoda Lopez, the organic residence has adobe walls, custom woodwork, and handmade ceramic details.

Location: 16512 Wilderness Road, Poway, California

Price: $2,500,000

Year Built: 1979

Designers : Earth Form Builder (architect Robert Thiele and artists James Hubbell and Rhoda Lopez)

Footprint: 2,232 square feet (4 bedrooms, 2 baths)

Lot Size: 1 acre

From the Agent: "Nestled in a granite boulder field in Poway’s Green Valley, the organic architecture of the Stonehill Residence (1979) by Earth Form Builder is unlike any home in the surrounding area. Arriving for the first time, visitors are struck by the organic, curvilinear walls that connect the structure to its surrounding landscape. The deep, scalloped eaves extend the roofline into the private 1-acre parcel. As you enter the James Hubbell–designed door and surrounding stained glass, you are welcomed into a circular living room anchored by a towering fireplace. Within moments of your arrival, you will recognize how the Stonehill Residence rests amidst a quiet valley. This four-bedroom, two-bathroom home of 2,232 square feet is available to tour by appointment only"

The living room fireplace is set in a masonry tower that supports the roof structure.

Photo by Ollie Paterson

See the full story on Dwell.com: The ’70s Are Alive and Well in This Curvaceous SoCal Home Seeking $2.5M
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The Bricks of This Quito Home Were Handmade at the Foot of a Nearby Volcano

noreply@blogger.com (GRAPHĒ) — Mon, 20 Apr 2026 12:56:30 -0700

The hillside residence, built for a retired couple, circles a courtyard in a continuous loop.

Houses We Love: Every day we feature a remarkable space submitted by our community of architects, designers, builders, and homeowners. Have one to share? Post it here.

Project Details:

Location: Quito, Ecuador

Architect: Cordada / @cordada_arch

Footprint: 2,475 square feet

Civil Engineer: Patricio Cevallos

Carpenter: Alfredo Acosta

Photographer: JAG Studio / @jag_studio

From the Architect: "Arupo rises serenely before the Ilaló volcano, in the Cornejo neighborhood of Conocoto. It is the home of a couple who embrace retirement not as an ending but as a threshold into a different time: slower in work, yet more intense in love for their children and grandchildren. An intimate refuge, yet open—ready to welcome family, friends, and the flow of life itself. The memory of an accident gave them the certainty that living should mean freedom from barriers. The house embraces the slope with ramps linking three levels in a continuous journey, almost as if all were a single plane. Movement becomes fluid, accessible, uninterrupted.

"Its nearly square plan unfolds around an arupo tree embraced by a fountain in the central patio. Here, time becomes visible: the pink blossoms announce the seasons, drought and rain leave their traces on the walls, dawns and sunsets framed by the patio remind the inhabitants that each day is unique. This green and liquid heart brings together the social and the intimate, while gently opening to Ilaló and its gardens.

"The construction rests on three principles: comfort, proximity, and intimacy. Load-bearing walls of handmade brick, produced on the slopes of the very volcano that dominates the view, reveal in their irregularity the imprint of human labor. Above them, a wooden roof multiplies the warmth of light, creating spaces woven with shadows—refuges inhabited by time."

This hillside residence, built for a retired couple, circles a courtyard in a continuous loop.

Photo by JAG Studio

See the full story on Dwell.com: The Bricks of This Quito Home Were Handmade at the Foot of a Nearby Volcano
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Between Power Lines and a Protected Pecan Tree, This Texas Home Found a Way to Fit In

noreply@blogger.com (GRAPHĒ) — Mon, 20 Apr 2026 10:56:21 -0700

Architects José Minguell and Laura McQuary rose to the occasion when neighbors asked them to design a home like their own, on one of East Austin’s trickiest lots.

In 2021, Matt and Leah Ray—a pair of outdoorsy college sweethearts from Texas—had just moved into a shabby mobile home in East Austin when they were driving through the neighborhood, seeking inspiration for their dream home.

Around the block, they locked eyes on one residence in particular with a geometric form that Leah says "was unlike anything else I had really seen."

Leah left a note for the homeowners, who happened to be longtime Austin-based architectural duo José Minguell and Laura McQuary of the design-build firm Minguell-McQuary. Her message got right to the point: Can you make us a place like yours?

Matt (a solutions engineer) and Leah (a medical writer) Ray met at the University of Texas Austin—which is coincidentally the same school where architects José Minguell and Laura McQuary met years earlier.

Photo: Casey Dunn

"It’s kind of nice when a client comes to you because they saw your work," Minguell says. And when Leah and Matt shared that they recently moved to the neighborhood, McQuary remembers thinking, "Of course we’re gonna do your house."

But what began as a serendipitous pairing turned complicated when it came to the couple’s property.

"They probably found the smallest lot in the neighborhood," McQuary says, estimating that it’s about a third the size of an average residential parcel in East Austin. To make matters trickier, the property is sandwiched between immovable power lines and a grand pecan tree, the latter of which is protected as a "heritage tree" by the city.

Nevertheless, the lot’s ideal two-block proximity to a trail along the Colorado River meant that Matt and Leah were motivated to make it work.

To get the home to fit, Minguell and McQuary had to think diagonally.

First, they situated the ground floor on the north side of the lot to avoid the pecan tree’s roots. Then, they designed the second-floor bedroom, office, and terrace (along with the third-floor primary bedroom) to jut southward, in order to create distance from the power lines.

"It’s basically a series of masses that are offset from each other," McQuary says about the design.

Photo: Casey Dunn

Viewed from the street, the home’s gray brickwork base gives way to corrugated steel that’s colored, according to Leah and Matt, in a "very Austin" green to blend with the trees behind. The front door is accessible through an inviting steel arch that leads into the property’s inner courtyard.

Beyond the number of rooms, the only specific design request that Matt and Leah had was for the home to emphasize indoor/outdoor living.

"Ninety percent of the year, it’s blazing-lava hot," Leah says about the south-Texas climate. Having a shady retreat would help them make the most of Austin’s temperate spring and autumn months.

A sprawling second-floor terrace accordingly became the centerpiece of a design that blurs the line between inside and out. Made from waterproofed bamboo, the terrace was a splurge that effectively gave Matt and Leah a second living room outdoors.

The second-level terrace takes advantage of Austin’s prevailing winds, which blow from the southeast to the northeast.

Photo: Casey Dunn

See the full story on Dwell.com: Between Power Lines and a Protected Pecan Tree, This Texas Home Found a Way to Fit In
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This $7.3M Whistler Ski Retreat Is All Angles

noreply@blogger.com (GRAPHĒ) — Mon, 20 Apr 2026 10:56:20 -0700

Location: 3801 Sunridge Place, Whistler, British Columbia, Canada

Price: $9,950,000 CAD (approximately $7,274,395 USD)

Year Built: 2013

Architect: Patkau Architects

Footprint: 4,497 square feet (3 bedrooms, 4.5 baths)

Lot Size: 0.26 Acres

From the Agent: "A statement in modern alpine design, this award-winning residence in the exclusive Sunridge neighborhood captures panoramic views across Whistler Valley through soaring ceilings, dramatic geometric lines, and expansive walls of glass. Designed by Patkau Architects, the home is a masterful expression of light, form, and its seamless relationship with the surrounding alpine landscape. Privately positioned within this sought-after ski-access enclave, the property offers rare quiet and discretion while remaining moments from the mountain and just minutes to Whistler Village. As much a work of art as it is a welcoming home, this residence presents a rare opportunity to own a property of architectural pedigree in one of Whistler’s most prestigious neighborhoods—where privacy, design excellence, and mountain lifestyle converge."

Photo courtesy of John Ryan and Patkau Architects

The home received a Canadian Architect Award of Excellence in 2008.

Photo courtesy of John Ryan and Patkau Architects

See the full story on Dwell.com: This $7.3M Whistler Ski Retreat Is All Angles
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Windows Boated Over for This Hawaiian Cabin Were Brought to Shore on—What Else—Surfboards

noreply@blogger.com (GRAPHĒ) — Mon, 20 Apr 2026 10:56:19 -0700

The out-of-time Molokai home by designer and builder Jay Nelson was an exercise in characteristic improvisation.

Jay Nelson is a dreamer who creates kid forts for grownups (and some for actual kids). I have been a fan of his aesthetic for decades now, but I was first exposed to his tree house installations and mobile experiments through Mollusk Surf Shop in San Francisco. Seeing that shop was like a dream come true for me—everything I loved about surfing and its connection to the arts encapsulated in a rootsy reinterpretation of a traditional surf shop. Jay’s architectural imprint helped define the shop’s now-iconic style.

Mollusk opened their second location in Venice Beach, just down the street from where I bought my first home, a dilapidated foreclosure. When I renovated, I took direct inspiration from Jay’s imaginative body of work and focus on reclaimed wood. A few years later, as I began documenting creative surfers’ homes for my Surf Shacks book series, Jay’s projects became the inspirational North Star—it became like a scavenger hunt to find his projects and feature them. I showed his own home, in San Francisco’s Outer Sunset neighborhood, in Vol.2, and the house he designed and built for Jess Bianchi and Malia Grace Mau on Kauai, featured in Vol.1, is still one of my favorites that I’ve covered over the years.

Now 1o years later, that same project inspired this house on Molokai, designed and built for Hawaii local, waterman, and rancher Galen McCleary. It’s important to note that Jay doesn’t just design these homes. He builds them with his own hand-picked team of friends and curates all the materials, with every detail considered. Each of his case studies is special in that way—they feel like livable works of art. A lot of love goes into them, and it shows.

Photo: Mariko Reed

These interviews have been excerpted from Surf Shacks Vol. 3: Exploring the Spirit of Coastal Living by Matt Titone, published by Gestalten.

Matt Titone: How did this particular project come about for you?

Jay Nelson: My client, Galen and I first crossed paths at a restaurant by my house. He had seen the house I made in Kauai and asked if I would be interested in doing something similar for him, also in Hawaii. I was feeling a little unsure about taking on a big project far from home and family. But Galen invited me out, and when I saw the site and experienced the place, I felt like it was something I had to do. I knew it had the potential to be one of the great projects of my lifetime. In the end, it worked out pretty good because when the plans were approved, my kids were out of school during Covid, so we all went out there and built the majority of the house during that time.

Describe your design process for the home. Where did you draw inspiration from?

Well, I thought a lot about the place. I made a few trips before I started drawing. Where the house sits is a very special site. There are no other homes in the sight line, so I wanted to make something that blended as much as possible. It’s a big responsibility placing a home in a landscape but the location felt even heavier than normal, so I needed to get it right. The Big Sur architecture of the midcentury is a big inspiration, Northern California in general actually. I buy tons of books even if I’m just remotely interested in the subject. I pull a lot of inspiration from my books.

Were you staying on-site the whole time? What were some of the challenges during the build process?

It was a very challenging place to build. For the whole project, we were off-grid, and the closest hardware store is an hour away. The cement truck couldn’t cross the bridge, so the foundation had to be hand mixed, one shovel at a time. There were five primary builders on the project. Jerry Stauber was on-site almost every day and lives on the island full-time. Max Shultz and Sam Buchanan, who worked for me in California, they also had to make the commute back and forth. And then Galen, who ended up helping a lot. Plus lots of other friends who came for short stints. We were constantly traveling back and forth.

Photo: Mariko Reed

See the full story on Dwell.com: Windows Boated Over for This Hawaiian Cabin Were Brought to Shore on—What Else—Surfboards
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