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Outdoor Design Photos and Ideas

“Watching the sunrise and moonrise from the living room is gobsmacking,” says James.
When Zuzana Kovar and Nicholas Skepper set to work updating an aging Queenslander cottage for a young family in Brisbane, the first challenge was the home’s orientation. “We wanted to connect the interior of the house with its garden—a vital space for the family and their children, and one that the cottage previously turned its back on,” says Kovar. Now, an updated layout sets the kitchen, dining, and living room adjacent to the verdant garden, and sight lines through the house connect the indoor and outdoor areas.
“The pool house was something I always wanted to build,” Robert says. The bar is the main attraction. And next to it, a lime tree is within reach to make fresh gin and tonics.
In the backyard, Umerani and Fashandi decided to limit the lawn to minimize water consumption.
Fabian plays with Morten in the yard, which features a spacious lawn and a greenhouse.
Garden terrace
Clayden is perfectly happy enjoying the subtropical sun on the balcony, though his much-beloved cat Ginger appears far more enthusiastic about lolling on the patio.
The exterior is constructed from cypress pine wood and lightweight polycarbonate.
The fire pit area displays a 48-inch concrete fire bowl, woven chairs, and upcycled tree stumps for kid-friendly-seating.
The multiple double-glazed apertures of the addition situates the kitchen in close connection to the backyard garden.
Furniture designer Tom Deacon teamed up with pal and architect Andrew Jones to renovate his Toronto townhouse. “Architects tend to think of the building first, the interiors second, and last, the furniture. Our approach was the opposite,” Jones says.
Weekend House, Schroeder, MN, 2009.
Guy (holding Pickles the cat) and Mark transformed the backyard, adding a pool and planting sycamore trees and native grasses. A custom dining table by Angel City Lumber is paired with vintage chairs from Amsterdam Modern.
A section of the facade—a cross between a shoji screen and a barn door—slides open. Planter boxes contain edible varieties that fuel Mary’s culinary explorations.
At the entrance, Bruce is joined by his son, Sozé, and dog, Izzy. The 1940s shingled cottage was renovated by architectural designer Randall Recinos, designer Brian Paquette, and contractor Dylan Conrad.
Their daughters, Annapurna, left, and Siddartha, play with their dog, Anouck, beneath the kangaroo paws in the entry garden courtyard.
The outdoor hearth is primed for cooking in the summer.
Oriented to absorb the afternoon sun, floor-to-ceiling doors comprise two-thirds of the home’s west-facing walls, which open to an elevated deck overlooking Island Bay. Combined with extra-thick building insulation, this passive element provides sufficient heating for the home, even during winter months—a true feat given the region’s cold seasonal winds.
Barragán designed Casa Gilardi, in Mexico City, around this single jacaranda tree.
In an industrial neighborhood in Brooklyn, a verdant green roof of native grasses, wildflowers, and fruits creates an oasis.
A second green roof is planted with sedum and plays host to one of the family’s favorite spots: a hammock. Bentheim suggested adding a trellis overhead to soften and balance the appearance of the facade.
The green roof is accessible via ladder. "This type of insertion on the plot demanded care and attention with the design of the rooftop, which is the fifth facade of the building," adds the architects.
Landscape architects Reed Hilderbrand helped fill out the completed prefab by planting sedge grass on one of the house’s two green roofs to reflect the texture of the surrounding meadow.
Green roofs are aesthetically pleasing and have multiple positive environmental benefits, even if they are small in terms of square footage. Here, a green roof blooms atop the detached garage of a home.
The backyard sports a sequence of raised flower and vegetable beds and two green roofs—one atop the workshop and other atop the back entrance.
At over 500 square feet, the house’s green roof may be its most powerful—and most expensive—environmental statement. It cost $8,000 to waterproof, and $7,000 to landscape. Water from the roof feeds the toilet and the garden’s watering system, and the garden itself insulates the house and keeps gas bills low in winter. Photo by Nic Granleese.
The deck, fashioned from ipe, was built around one of the property’s many granite outcroppings. An earthen roof was planted with the same varieties of sedum that were added to the front of the cottage.
"We didn't want to put a lot of furniture out there," says Terry of the east terrace, adding that they sometimes bring the dining table outside for meals. "You can make it work with whatever you want."
Homeowner Jay Longtin served as the general contractor and performed the majority of the remodel work, aside from the outdoor floors, concrete, and pool, which were done by Architectural Blue.
Sited on a remote, forested plot two hours from San José, Costa Rica, this home was designed with spiritual transcendence in mind—along with off-grid sustainability. When architect María de la Paz Alice of <span style="font-family: Theinhardt, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, &quot;Segoe UI&quot;, Roboto, Oxygen-Sans, Ubuntu, Cantarell, &quot;Helvetica Neue&quot;, sans-serif;">Mazpazz Arquitectur</span><span style="font-family: Theinhardt, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, &quot;Segoe UI&quot;, Roboto, Oxygen-Sans, Ubuntu, Cantarell, &quot;Helvetica Neue&quot;, sans-serif;">a first saw the plot in the mountains of Palmichal de Acosta, she was skeptical due to its inaccessibility. Luckily for the client—a film producer and ocean conservationist who dreamed of a place where she could disconnect—the architect was game to take on the project. Casa Salvaje, or Wild House, is an entirely autonomous stone-and-concrete home that uses geometric openings to frame its tranquil surroundings. Teaming up with interior designer Ileana Guerrero—who worked with local artisans to craft custom furnishings for the living spaces—and landscape designer Jorge Salgado, the project is a breathtaking example of architecture that connects to the earth. The home’s entrance, which the architect refers to as “the vortex,” takes the form of a concrete cube with two prominent circular openings. Crystals encrusted in the floor capture and reflect the light that passes through the overhead oculus from the sun and moon. “As you walk in, the circular window framing the mountain view is the focal point, and the sky window above immediately connects you to your surroundings,” says the architect. “I strive to create spaces that will benefit and expand people emotionally and spiritually, just as much as they do aesthetically.”</span>
The homes were designed to maximize the indoor/outdoor experience. “On long weekends, we sit in the garden, invite friends, and make a barbecue. It’s like we’ve gone on holiday without leaving home,” says resident Luca Pagnan.
These projects cleverly address issues ranging from affordable housing to building sustainably in the face of climate change.
In Bangkok, this family residence by Looklen Architects features four different courtyards with trees that stretch beyond its double-height interiors.
Turning a shipping container into a home is rarely as simple as it sounds, but design studio LOT-EK set out to prove that these vessels could become the raw material for an efficient prefab construction process with a house in upstate New York. Victoria Masters, Dave Sutton, and their daughter, Bowie, live in the six merged containers.
In Sydney’s Russell Lea suburb, local firm CplusC Architectural Workshop renovated a four-bedroom family residence to celebrate togetherness and a connection with the natural world. Throughout the dwelling, a circular motif facilitates a strong visual connection between the different spaces, both indoors and out. A large, round window nook that overlooks the backyard draws on the traditional Japanese concept of <i>shakkei</i>, in which a background landscape—or “borrowed scenery”—is incorporated into the composition of a garden.
Wood Marsh Architecture brings a sculptural aesthetic to a holiday escape in Melbourne, Australia. It opens up with an internal courtyard and orients to the rear, where an outdoor pool area overlooks the broader landscape. A sweeping deck follows the site’s natural slope to a pool area screened by a curved low masonry wall that nods to the building’s prevailing form.
Taking inspiration from the popular Japanese film <i>My Neighbor Totoro</i>, Sydney firm CplusC Architectural Workshop renovated a four-bedroom family residence to celebrate the importance of human relationships and a connection with the natural world. A rear extension with a spacious, open-plan living area connects to an outdoor deck and landscaped backyard.
Melbourne firm Splinter Society’s main goal for the Bungalow 8 renovation and expansion was to create "a more modern, free-flowing series of connected living spaces,
Primary outdoor porch.
The tree from the entrance can be seen through a large window.
Planters full of green lead the way to a small patio.
Avid gardener Graham and his partner, Steve, approached Amos Goldreich Architecture to expand their Victorian mid-terrace house in the Stroud Green Conservation Area of Haringey, North London. “The design revolves around the garden Graham has lovingly labored over for decades,” says the founder of the eponymous firm. The rear extension includes a bright and spacious kitchen with a terrazzo island and beams clad in oak. Glazed sliding doors and a bay window connect the interior to the yard.
Lofted amid eucalyptus and oak trees, Graham Paarman’s house is a glassed-in, steel-frame structure with a veil of vertical slats. Excluding outdoor areas, it measures about 720 square feet.
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