Casa dos Sobreiros II sits in Póvoa de Varzim, Portugal, as a rigorously ordered house by Urbanpolis that orients daily life around light and sequence. The home uses two primary axes, a courtyard heart, and a south-facing garden edge to choreograph how family, guests, and views move through the rooms. Continuous white surfaces and precise volumes underline a calm, contemporary character rooted in clarity rather than excess.
French Creek Workshops House sits beside a wetland in Snohomish, WA, United States, where Wittman Estes shapes a low, calm house for a newly retired couple. The single-level residence folds studios, gardens, and water into a daily routine that supports aging-in-place and welcomes multigenerational visits without drama. Every room orients toward making, resting, or watching the seasons change across the layered landscape.
Wenatchee River Cabin stands lightly above the floodplain in Wenatchee, WA, United States, a compact retreat shaped by Wittman Estes for one dedicated outdoor enthusiast. Conceived as a base camp and eventually embraced as a full-time home, the elevated cabin turns a modest footprint into a layered daily routine centered on the forest and river. Simple forms, durable materials, and a clear program keep the focus on lived experience rather than show.
School Admissions Lounge introduces families to the Western Academy of Beijing through a compact, carefully tuned room in Beijing, China. Studio Vapore shapes an elementary school admissions setting where adults settle into a calm living room–like arrangement while children gravitate toward a scaled world of nooks, books, and movement. Subtle links to the wider campus help this first encounter feel both new and reassuring, giving each visit a sense of ease and quiet anticipation.
Your outdoor space holds untapped potential waiting to be discovered. Whether you have a sprawling backyard or a cozy patio, small changes can create a dramatic impact without requiring a complete overhaul or breaking the bank. The key is choosing upgrades that blend beauty with practicality, transforming your yard into a retreat you’ll actually want to use.
Portal 62 begins as a compact house in Merida, Mexico, yet unfolds into something deeper under the direction of Veinte Diezz Arquitectos. What starts as a conventional courtyard dwelling soon pivots around the discovery of a hidden cavern, turning the project into a carefully staged journey from street to subterranean. Each move through the house clarifies that this is less a showpiece than a measured sequence meant to be uncovered slowly.
Casa Nau 64 settles beside the Óbidos Lagoon in Portugal, where [i]da arquitectos aligns the house with stone pines and wind off the water. The project organizes a single-family house into measured horizontal layers that answer sun, shelter, and garden in equal measure, turning a tight coastal plot into a quiet, outward-looking retreat.
Casa More sits in Mérida, Mexico, where Workshop: Diseño y Construcción reworks a midcentury Art Decó house into a layered domestic sequence. The house retains its 1940s character at the street and unfolds toward a new terrace and pool, moving from restored interiors to tropical gardens. Each zone reads as a chapter in the same story, shaped by climate, memory, and the easy pace of Yucatán life.
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