Top 5 Cabins of the Week That Perfectly Define “Cozy”

Perched lightly on the land, these prefab homes celebrate the beautiful landscapes of Northern California.

Originally built in the 1930’s this tiny revamped apartment in Barcelona sits on top of a building that is a stone’s throw away from the coastline. Inside the apartment, it is white, brick and wood that dominate the setting as the Mezzanine House Refurbishment by Sergi Pons architects creates more space and visual lightness with […]

You’re reading Tiny Barcelona Home Refurbishment in White, Brick and Wood with Mezzanine Level, originally posted on Decoist. If you enjoyed this post, be sure to follow Decoist on Twitter, Facebook and Pinterest.

An entrepreneur and family with a passion for healthy living requested a large home on their dramatically sloping 2-acre site. They specifically wanted an informal layout that could be woven into the topography of the property. Wanting to enjoy as much of the site as possible, the client requested the inclusion of steps and landscape pathways to allow for access to more distant parts of the steep site. Situated on a promontory jutting into the canyon below, the hillside retreat boasts multiple vistas of the surrounding canyon and the Pacific Ocean beyond. Since covenants, conditions, and restrictions associated with the property allowed for only a single story above street level, many of the home’s rooms are located on a lower level which daylights onto the downslope side of the house. This modest massing arrangement allows for neighboring properties to see over the roof of the home. In three distinct locations, landscaped topography “fingers” heighten one’s awareness of the natural hillside. Bridges span over these fingers, enhancing and extending the natural graded areas deep into the heart of the home. The design solution offers new perspectives for experiencing the owner’s prized views while providing a glimpse of the topography as it stood before the house was set upon it. Meticulous craftsmanship and authentic building materials are recurring themes best exemplified by the widespread use of board-formed concrete walls, white oak shiplap wall cladding, and painted galvanized steel doors and windows. A datum of wall elevations was carefully laid out to align the joints of the seemingly random board-formed concrete with the adjacent wood boards that come in 3″, 4″, 5″, and 6″ widths. Floors, ceilings, steps, lighting, speakers, keypad controls, and outlets were all carefully placed so that no element ever interrupts a joint in the boards.

Relaxing, fun-filled and full of sunshine that many other parts of the North American continent starve of in the long, cold winter months, the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico is a holiday that is not far away for many. And it is here that we find the incredibly resourceful, charming and relaxing Casa Picasso. Deriving its […]

You’re reading Casa Picasso: Cheerful Holiday Home in Yucatan Makes Most of Limited Space, originally posted on Decoist. If you enjoyed this post, be sure to follow Decoist on Twitter, Facebook and Pinterest.

There is a popular misconception among homeowners that green technology is all about cutting-edge gadgets, devices that feel like they are from tomorrow and costs that leave a bit of a hole in your pocket. The same goes with the idea of fabulous green homes which often tend to rely on technology that is anything […]

You’re reading Affordable Zero-Energy Passive Home in New York Relies on Green Design, originally posted on Decoist. If you enjoyed this post, be sure to follow Decoist on Twitter, Facebook and Pinterest.