This timber-clad beach house in Long Island was designed by New York studio Bates Masi with an angular form that funnels outwards to maximise living space on a restricted site (+ slideshow). More about Bates Masi completes timber-clad Hamptons retreat beside the beach
San Francisco studio Azevedo Design has squeezed a small guesthouse featuring a glass mezzanine floor into the old red-brick boiler house of a converted laundry. More about Red-brick boiler room converted into tiny guesthouse by Azevedo Design
This house in rural New York state by Anmahian Winton Architects is made up of timber-clad volumes that project from a hillside towards views of the surrounding forest (+ slideshow). More about Red Rock House by Anmahian Winton Architects sits on a forested New York hillside
Shed Architecture and Design has contrasted industrial and natural materials on the exterior of this Seattle home, using corrugated metal cladding alongside Douglas fir window frames and doors (+ slideshow). More about Main Street House contrasts corrugated metal surfaces with Douglas fir details
Translucent polycarbonate panels reveal the frame of this renovated house in Cambridge, Massachusetts, by Italian architects Alessandro Armando and Manfredo di Robilant, which also features giant shutters on wheels (+ slideshow). More about Polycarbonate House in Massachusetts features translucent plastic walls and wheeled shutters
Rammed earth walls built using soil from the desert site are wrapped in a protective weathered steel shell at this courtyard house near Phoenix by local firm Wendell Burnette Architects (+ slideshow). More about Desert Courtyard House by Wendell Burnette features rammed earth walls
Rusty corrugated steel and wood salvaged from an old barn clad the exterior of this L-shaped house designed by American architect Gary Gladwish on Orcas Island, Washington (+ slideshow). More about Eagle Ridge Residence by Gary Gladwish frames a rockery and pond
San Francisco office Fougeron Architecture has designed a house in California that steps down the side of a cliff and projects over the edge. More about Fall House by Fougeron Architecture steps down a cliff side
This weekend cabin in a Washington national park, by Seattle architect Tom Kundig, features a protective steel exterior that slides across its windows and a floor raised up on stilts to prevent flooding. More about Tom Kundig creates "virtually indestructible" steel cabin on stilts
Cedar shingles typical to New England houses have gradually faded from warm beige to a soft greyish brown on the walls of this residence in Maine by Los Angeles office Bruce Norelius Studio (+ slideshow). More about Maine residence by Bruce Norelius Studio reveals its age with a fading cedar facade
A sequence of vaulted ceilings and arched openings sets up layered vistas through the interior of this beach house in Southern California by Los Angeles firm Johnston Marklee (+ slideshow). More about Johnston Marklee's Vault House frames beach views through multiple arches
The three-fingered plan of this rural Californian retreat by Mork-Ulnes Architects is oriented to frame views of a mountain ridge, vineyards and a local landmark named Eagle Rock (+ slideshow). More about Moose Road house by Mork-Ulnes Architects frames the Californian landscape
A metal-clad roof designed to reference local barns follows the stepped profile of this house in the American state of Arkansas by deMx architecture (+ slideshow). More about Angular metal roof wraps around hilltop house by deMx architecture
This all-black house in the Yucca Valley desert was designed by Los Angeles office Oller & Pejic to look "like a shadow" (+ slideshow). More about Oller & Pejic's Desert House designed to look "like a shadow"
Seattle firm Olson Kundig Architects used dynamite, chippers and saws to bore through the huge boulders of a rocky outcrop on a North American island to make room for this raw concrete house (+ slideshow). More about Concrete house by Olson Kundig Architects cuts into a rocky outcrop
Oregon architects Works Partnership Architecture converted a warehouse in Portland into a home and studio by punching skylights through the preserved bowstring truss roof and inserting living quarters within timber-clad boxes (+ slideshow). More about Bowstring Truss House turns a warehouse with a spectacular roof into a home
News: a house designed by Frank Lloyd Wright in 1939 but never built has been realised 74 years later at the campus of Florida Southern College. More about Unbuilt Frank Lloyd Wright house realised 74 years after it was designed
News: Arizona architect Nick Tsontakis has unveiled plans for a house that will straddle a mountain and be shaped like a manta ray (+ slideshow). More about Manta ray-shaped house set to straddle an Arizona mountain
This house in Pittsburgh by American architect Eric Fisher cantilevers by 16 metres to hover over the roof of a glass factory (+ slideshow). More about Emerald Art Glass House by Fisher Architecture
This guest house by American firm Bohlin Cywinski Jackson nestles against a rugged stone wall within a coastal mountain range in California (+ slideshow). More about Halls Ridge Knoll Guest House by Bohlin Cywinski Jackson