While spring is associated with the first gentle drops of April rain or a delicate garden full of fresh flowers, this year’s trends are leaning towards something a bit richer. Instead of the usual soft pastels, we’re seeing textiles embrace deeper, more grounding tones—bringing nature indoors in a bold new way.

Perennials is leading this rich retreat back to nature with their new Down to Earth collection, featuring six new fabrics, four new rug offerings, and nine new wallcovering designs—all of which take the warmth and tranquility of the outdoors and bring them in. They are also introducing a new signature colorway called Fearless Green, which captures the beauty and strength of nature all the way down to its name.

For over 25 years, Perennials has been a pioneer in luxurious, 100 percent solution-dyed acrylic fabrics, renowned for their timeless durability in even the harshest outdoor elements. It’s this striking balance of practicality-meets-pattern that infuses an earthy elegance into every piece they make. 

In the Down to Earth collection, it’s all about earthy tones and retro vibes, as seen in the six new fabric offerings: Shadow Stripe, a fresh take on gingham; Two Step, with a cozy brush-pill texture; Common Ground, a light waffle knit; Comfort Zone, a perfectly chunky basket weave; Fresh Air, with delicate stitching and a tonal pinstripe; and Sheer Joy, which brings a slight shimmer that flecks in the light.

The four new rugs in the collection are equally unique, all taking cues from the natural world without resorting to cookie-cutter motifs: In Bloom is a whimsical watercolor design featuring light florals (with a matching wallpaper to complete the look); Call of the Wild is a double shag rug with a little edge to it; Natural High is a plush Tibetan knot design that gives you the illusion of a grand marble floor; and Story Lines offers a heavyweight take on the classic plaid.

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: Kamakura, Japan

Architect: Yuji Okitsu / @yujiokitsu

Footprint: 721 square feet

Builder: Deguchitateguten CO.,Ltd

Landscape Design: Art Base Garden Obaen

Photographer: Satoshi Nagare

Photographer: Yuji Okitsu

From the Architect: “This project transforms a 90-year-old house on the edge of a hillside in Kamakura, Japan, into an atelier. It is a new annex to the main house where the clients spend most of their time. They wanted a space to invite artists and culinary experts and enjoy creative time together or entertain their friends.

“The building is situated on a flat site in the middle of a steep cliff, characteristic of Kamakura, with just enough space for a single house. When we were first called to the site, the floors, walls, ceilings, and equipment of the house had all been removed, leaving only its framework, with its original layout unrecognizable. The old wooden pillars interspersed with the surrounding trees, and sunlight and the rock surface peeked through the spaces between them, creating a space that coincidentally blended architecture and the environment.

“In renovating the building, we did not paint the exposed parts of the repaired and reinforced framework to match the color of the existing and new wood. Out of respect for the building, which has stood the test of time despite being left unoccupied for many years, we wanted the house to symbolize the coexistence of old and new and its permanence. We tried to preserve the materials that sustained the building and pass them on to the next generation by repairing the existing window frames, which give a sense of the building’s identity, and reusing the foundation stones, which have supported the building for many years.

“We selected materials that would age well, such as yakisugi on the exterior walls and the brass door knobs. Solid chestnut wood flooring that had been used in the client’s previous home and stored away for many years was also incorporated, as were antique window frames that they already owned.

“In the new floor plan, the first floor mainly consists of the atelier, kitchen, and dining room. The location of the stairwell and the difference in ceiling height create a space without dead ends, allowing one to circulate freely. The floor-level low windows, called muso-mado (traditional Japanese windows fitted with panels with vertical slats that can be opened and closed for ventilation), were installed in the second floor room that opened to the first floor atelier. By opening and closing the panels, the atmosphere, sounds, and warm air from the wood stove are transmitted to the upstairs, making the whole building feel like a spacious, open-plan room.

“The concrete deck in the garden was designed to form a thin layer of water when it rains. While it rains, ripples spread across the rectangular deck, and the moving patterns created by nature are reflected upon the architecture. After the rain, it becomes a transient water basin, and the trees’ reflections and natural light reveal a fusion of landscape and architecture.

“In renovating the old house, we made sure to preserve the passage of time recorded in the land and architecture and pass it on to the future. We aimed to create a building that combines a sense of balance between old and new, integration with the landscape, and an affinity with the environment.”

Location: L’Escala, Spain

Price: €1,200,000 (approximately $1,382,460 USD)

Year Built: 2019

Architect: Bellafilarquitectes Studio

Footprint: 1,894 square feet (3 bedrooms, 2 baths)

From the Agent: “This unique, single-story villa is located in L’Escala, Spain, steps away from the beach and the renowned Roman-Greek ruins. Nestled on a quiet street, the property offers a tranquil setting close to the sea and essential services. Designed in 2019 by Bellafilarquitectes Studio, the villa combines modern comfort with high-quality finishes, making it ideal for year-round living.

“The structure consists of textured reinforced concrete walls, nearly seven feet high, which support a roof made up of semicircular vaults that cantilever over the southern facade. The roof features green vitrified tiles manufactured in La Bisbal d’Empordà. The design is inspired by the surrounding natural beauty and the historic charm of Empúries, with an emphasis on maximizing natural light throughout the day. The house offers views of the surrounding pine forest, while also ensuring the privacy of its occupants.

“The entry leads to an inviting hall that flows into the heart of the home. The main living area is an open-plan space, combining the living and dining areas with direct access to the patios and garden. The house also features an independent kitchen. The house includes three bedrooms. The primary bedroom features an en suite bathroom and built-in wardrobes, while the other two bedrooms share a bathroom. All bedrooms open directly onto the patio and garden.”

Orlando Denardi and Arthur Machado had two requirements when they were looking for a new apartment in São Paulo: to be closer to their friends, and to find a unit with dedicated outdoor space. “That was the dream,” Orlando says.

At the time, they lived in a far-flung area, so socializing meant taking a taxi or a lot of trains—and they craved a connection to the outdoors, although they knew it was a big ask in a dense city of high-rise buildings. “We are piled up, and getting more piled up as time goes by,” says Arthur.

Fortunately, one of the couple’s hobbies is scrolling real estate listings, so only six months passed before they found a penthouse apartment in the Pinheiros neighborhood. The building—which neighbors call the Cenourão, or “big carrot”—was originally designed by architect Ary de Queiroz Barros in the early ’80s, and the couple explain that it was noteworthy for its focus on duplex apartments. 

In traditional penthouses, says Arthur, the terrace is located off the upper level and separated from the main living spaces, which are usually on the lower level. “Then you have to put in another half bath and kitchen upstairs to entertain,” says Arthur. The Cenourão penthouse plan is flipped, with the terrace off the lower-level living room. “In this case, the configuration is like a home,” adds Orlando. “The social areas are downstairs, with the outdoors.”

However, the rest of the floor plan suffered from tight, compartmentalized rooms, some with triangular corners and diagonal walls. “I took a while to see the potential, because it was very segmented,” says Arthur—but Orlando, being an architect, knew exactly how to proceed.

Before: Entry and Living Room

After: Entry and Living Room 

Location: 2006 El Moran Street, Los Angeles, California

Price: $1,450,000

Year Built: 1921

Renovation Date: 2025

Renovation Architect: Oller & Pejic Architecture

Footprint: 949 square feet (1 bedroom, 1 bath)

Lot Size: 0.14 Acres

From the Agent: “A rare and transcendent piece of L.A. history, this restored cabin—Los Angeles Historic Cultural Monument #839—was home to Paul Landacre, a celebrated modernist artist whose work was shaped by the surrounding landscape and is held in the collections of LACMA, MoMA, and the Whitney. An artful renovation by Oller & Pejic Architecture honors the home’s singular ethos, preserving single-wall construction and exposed beams while introducing masterful updates. Wood paneling and floors bring depth and warmth. Incredible light, exquisite views, and original details like petrels carved into the gables infuse the home with quiet elegance. The bedroom opens to a wraparound deck and the sunny bonus room could function as an office or second bedroom. Scenic decks and patios take in stunning vistas, and there’s a spa for winding down and a detached studio for art or work.”

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: Todos Santos, Mexico

Architect: PPAA / @perez_palacios_aa

Footprint: 3,800 square foot

Interiors: PPAA with Vipp and Julie Cloos Mølsgaard

Builder: Grupo Impulsa

Photographer: Anders Hviid / @andershviid

From the Architect: “The architecture of Todos Santos, Baja California Sur, is a captivating blend of historic charm and contemporary influences. The town, nestled between the Sierra de la Laguna mountains and the Pacific Ocean, boasts a rich cultural heritage that is reflected in its architecture. Wandering through the streets, one encounters preserved colonial buildings with vibrant facades that showcase a palette of earthy tones. Over time, Todos Santos has become a haven for artists and creatives, influencing the architectural landscape. Quaint art galleries, boutique hotels, and stylish cafes seamlessly integrate modern design elements while maintaining a respect for the town’s traditional aesthetic.

“This rammed-earth project began by considering the natural topography, aligning the architecture with contours and capturing views. A key strategy involves crafting a defined exterior space that’s integrated with the surroundings, acting as an anchor and shaping the overall design. This approach fosters a relationship between the built environment and landscape. The strategic placement of volumes responds directly to the landscape and ocean views.

“Extended walls optimize natural light and frame views. This design element is meant to enhance the ambiance, reinforcing a serene connection with the landscape. The circular rooftop swimming pool is placed to maximize panoramic ocean and sky views. The defined exterior space seamlessly transforms into a covered terrace, acting as the focal point for social encounters. A central fireplace adds to the ambiance while also serving as a support column.”

Location: 38126 Bobby Rufus Road, Homer, Alaska

Price: $1,400,000

Year Built: 2013

Designer: Atz Lee Kilcher

Footprint: 2,550 square feet (4 bedrooms, 3 baths)

Lot Size: 3.87 acres

From the Agent: “This home sits on the edge of the renowned Kilcher Homestead and has been featured multiple times on Discovery Channel’s ‘The Last Frontier.’ The property features Thermador appliances, stunning views, artistic elements, and reclaimed wood throughout the residence. The home boasts a greenhouse made with recycled glass and two additional cabins.”

In 2022, Dacoury Dahi Natche finally found what he was searching for. Home-wise, that is. “We were looking for a home in this area for a while,” says the DJ and music producer, who goes by Dahi, of Los Angeles’s View Park neighborhood, just south of Culver City. “I learned about it maybe ten years ago, and I just loved the architecture and styles of homes here.”

Dahi, who has collaborated with musical artists including Kendrick Lamar, Drake, and Big Sean, was craving a place where he could find a creative flow for his production work while still being under the same roof as his wife and two small children. After looking for six months in View Park, a historically Black neighborhood, Dahi came across a listing for a 1949 ranch-style residence that was less than thrilling at first glance. “The pictures looked terrible,” he says, laughing. “But the square footage looked good, the backyard had lots of space, and it had a basement where I could work from home.”

Before: Exterior

“The house was in pretty bad shape when we started,” says Dahi’s architect, Melissa Shin of local firm Shin Shin. Because the home was a masonry structure, Shin was limited in what she could change inside, and that it’s a historic property listed with the National Register also meant that the exterior facade needed to stay the same. “What we did seems like a light touch, but it was actually a pretty significant undertaking just to clean up the home and simplify some of the spaces,” she says.

After: Exterior

Having seen multiple renovations over the years, the home had accumulated layers that Shin peeled back to the original masonry to reveal its “bones.” This included removing a suspended roof to open up a vaulted ceiling, and stripping faux stone, plaster, and a wall of mirrors that had been added in the living room. “The aesthetic had this feeling of trickery,” says Dahi of the outdated finishes. The black tiled flooring also needed to go, as it made the home feel much darker inside than it actually was.

Before: Living Room

• The Florida Senate unanimously passed a bill allowing accessory dwelling units (ADUs) to be built to boost affordable housing in the state. It also adopted amendments to streamline tenant screening and block ADUs from being used as short-term rentals. (Orlando Business Journal)

• Built as a tranquil retreat within NYC a century ago, Forest Hills Gardens is now caught in a battle over concerts at the revived Forest Hills Stadium, where noise violations, lawsuits, and dueling petitions are stirring resentment. Even as neighbors gripe, a last-minute deal with the NYPD means shows from Phish, Hozier, and more will go on—for now. (The New York Times)
• Compass and other real estate brokerages have been listing homes privately, but now Zillow is clapping back. The company says it will ban any listings that have been privately marketed before hitting Multiple Listing Services, stepping up a fight over off-market real estate and attempting to force greater transparency in how homes are sold. (Yahoo)

• Porsche heir Wolfgang Porsche plans to build a private tunnel to his $9 million Salzburg villa, and many on the political left are crying foul as the city grapples with rising living costs. The countdown is on until the town council votes next month on whether to approve the tycoon’s controversial project. (The Wall Street Journal)
• In a whirlwind eight-hour sprint through Milan Design Week, Dwell’s visual media producer, Ian Zunt, captured everything from cork-built lounges to reissued Ligne Roset classics, while Alex Casto, Dwell’s visuals editor, covered the revelatory edge of emerging designers at Alcova. Their hot takes sparked a heated debate over what truly stole the show at Salone. (Dwell)

Top image courtesy of  Smith Collection/Gado/Getty Images.

As a part of our 25th-anniversary celebration, we’re republishing formative magazine stories from before our website launched. This story previously appeared in Dwell’s January/February 2003 issue. 

The exurban house is in. Or, rather, out. Far out, at road’s end, beyond freeway and subdivision. Neither rural nor suburban, exurban houses lie deep in the countryside, yet within striking distance of chic eats and leisure-time activities. Their extra-large lots, usually far in excess of two or three acres, encourage privacy, yet include chef’s kitchens and media rooms for entertaining. Enjoying the affluence of contemporary times, exurban residents strive for a pleasurable and provocative style of landscape living. Recent house designs by Northern California architects Fernau & Hartman and Stanley Saitowitz are typical of the exurban phenomenon, where the experience of setting is taken to the outer limits.

While exurban houses aim to dance with nature, their designers must contend with one of architecture’s oldest challenges: how to adapt a building to the different rhythms of nature and society.

For thousands of years, houses resembled their landscapes, but not out of aesthetic intent. Houses sprang out of the particularities of local agricultural tasks, building tradition, terrain, and climate. Their materials—be they wood or stone—came from nearby. Each design decision, from the thickness of walls to the pitch of a roof, was all part of a struggle for survival.

During the Renaissance, rising affluence allowed architects to subvert a house’s dependence on its natural setting. Beginning with Raphael and Palladio in the 16th century, the design of houses for the elite reveled in the strictness of geometry and the freedom of art. Designed landscapes began to resemble ideas and drawings, and emanated from a house’s straight lines and right angles. Eyes replaced hands as, for the elite, landscape became a field of viewing rather than sowing something to be gazed at musingly from a veranda. By the 20th century, as championed by architects like Mies van der Rohe and Le Corbusier, industrial materials—steel, reinforced concrete, and plate glass—further struck home the aesthetic (and technological) relationship between house and landscape.

As early as the 19th century, however, this aesthetic approach to the landscape provoked negative reactions. Certain architects, most notably those involved with the British Arts and Crafts movement, began to argue for a reintegration of domestic building with landscape, for houses that snugly settled into place. But as architects dove back into the intricacies and constraints of nature, the socioeconomic conditions of a working relationship between house and landscape were vanishing. During those same years of the industrial era, for the first time in human history, wilderness became attractive. Freed from the toil of the fields and the dangers of wild animals, people began to embrace long-feared feral lands. This love had less to do with an all-out immersion in wilderness than with a casual, predominantly visual appreciation of its striking attributes.

Perhaps it’s no wonder, then, that today’s houses designed for the countryside and wilderness—or, more realistically, exurbia—approach nature boldly. Nature is no longer something that needs to be contended with, as with agrarian building, or vanquished by pure artistic forms. These days, our world’s largely domesticated nature has become a flexible element in architecture’s arsenal. 

Moore, Lyndon, Turnbull and Whittaker’s Condominium I (1965) at Sea Ranch, on the coast of Northern California, epitomizes the ways architects have embraced wild and agrarian landscapes only to squeeze out bold iterations of form and space. The unique appearance and site of the building—poised between abstract art and grainy vernacular, on a peaceful meadow above a rocky ocean cliff—struck a chord in people’s yearning for an alternative to city or suburb. Sea Ranch may very well have spawned the idea of exurban houses, spread over the landscape at low densities, like the working American farms of old, yet stamped with an aura of astonishing sensory experience.

To this day, exurban architecture flourishes, especially in California. In a series of houses completed over the past decade, Berkeley-based architects Richard Fernau and Laura Hartman have furthered domestic communion with landscape and continued traditions of San Francisco Bay Area architects from William Wurster to William Turnbull. While Fernau & Hartman’s preference for bright colors and angular projections might seem to be unrelated to site, almost all their decisions emerge from an inspection of landscape attuned to client desires. Generally, their houses are situated to maximize beautiful panoramas and minimize the visual intrusion of blight. For instance, at the von Stein residence (1992), in Sonoma County, California, the west side of the house becomes an opaque wall so as to close off the presence of neighbors and the afternoon sun. All the primary viewing corridors from rooms and terraces look out on the prized vineyards of the Valley of the Moon. 

But exploiting stunning long-range views is only part of how Fernau & Hartman encourage a closer interaction between house and landscape. Reflecting the clients’ desire for outdoor living, site plans alternate interior rooms and exterior patios. The architects take full advantage of topography, and their houses seem to hop up hillsides or skip across the creases of valleys. The von Stein house, for instance, is organized around a central spine, which links a series of alternating indoor and outdoor rooms (including a tower) that step up the hillside. While encouraging al fresco dining, socializing, and contemplation, this division into discrete zones also separates public spaces, workspaces, and sleeping quarters. Exurban dwelling comes with social interaction—but only when you want it.

The encounters encouraged by Fernau & Hartman’s designs correspond with the sensory overload characteristic of contemporary life. Akin to the myriad channels offered by digital cable packages, these houses present a wide range of experiences, available at the turn of one’s eyes or a short walk down a flight of stairs. Encompassing extreme long shots as well as close-ups, panoramas of fields and ocean, brushings with stone and grass, the houses are like a cinematic lens for probing the landscape. But in this case the experience is all around, palpably local, and teeming with texture.

Although Stanley Saitowitz’s practice is based in San Francisco, his exurban houses don’t stem from the Bay Area tradition, but rather come from Southern California modernism, reaching from Richard Neutra to Craig Ellwood and the Case Study House movement. Influenced by the experiments of land artists like Michael Heizer, Saitowitz’s razor-sharp houses expand modernism into a geologic and topographic dimension, exposing the layers of landscape by building into, out of, and across them. At the Byron Meyer house (1990-2000), in Sonoma County, the design reshapes both its site and its inhabitants. A ravine separates the primary bedroom suite, atop a hill, from the main living area, on a separate promontory. The bridge that joins them, tartly expressed by red steel trusses, connects discrete realms of landscape and occupants.

Over the past couple of years, Saitowitz has embarked on an experiment that he calls the bar houses. The flat-roofed houses are built as thin glass-and-steel shafts, varying from 22 to 25 feet in thickness. This linear plan type allows Saitowitz to wrap each house into the landscape in a different way. Bars cross over each other at right angles, loop up in spirals, or crisscross to fashion internal courtyards. The twists and turns of the bar houses correspond largely to topographic conditions. And, as in most exurban houses, private and public spaces are separated from each other. In one of the bar houses, located in Marin County, the private zone sits directly atop the public zone. So far nothing new. But their separation is accentuated by the fact that windows on each floor open out in different directions. Above, the private rooms afford a medium-range view of the hillside; below, the living quarters tender long-range panoramas of the oak-studded hills. By closing off the opposing views from each zone with opaque walls, Saitowitz focuses public and private space as divergent landscape encounters.

As the bar houses snake and slither, going straight along, suddenly ramping up into a half circle, or crisply turning a 90-degree corner, they rearrange the state of affairs on the land. Describing the bar houses as ribbons or rulers, Saitowitz conceives of them as instruments for taking the measure of a landscape. In one sense, the bars continue landforms and vehicular routes, as earthen slopes become asphalt driveways, interior corridors, and eventually terraces outside bedrooms that look back at the land. But rather than imitating or continuing natural features, the bar houses often buck the current of their sites. They cut across the grain of land, much asthe San Francisco city grid reveals a precipitous topography by crashing into it. Saitowitz’s houses are sharpest when their artifice reveals the complex scope of landscape, when straight steel edges cut into the earth to uncover its ancient strata, or when rectangular pools of water float shifting pictures of structure, site, and sky. The bars might be described as stealth architecture, curiously probing at every detail of landscape, but skulking all the while. Because of the bar houses’ thinness and transparency, the landscape is often seen through them. Houses are more frames than forms.

As the different approaches of Fernau & Hartman and Stanley Saitowitz show, the exurban house gets its jolt from a confrontation with remote and amply sized landscapes. It is a restless refuge, at one moment curling residents into site and seconds later rocketing their eyes toward far horizons. Most exurban houses wear their design casually but those same houses also climb hillsides and ford uneven ridges. The experience for residents is a storm of sensations—intricate and scattered, restful and dramatic. And yet one of the casualties of the exurban house seems to be that worked zone of landscape emblematic of country houses of old: the garden. Nowadays, perimeters around exurban houses are blended in with the “wilds,” their artifice disguised to promote a pristine, almost primal engagement of occupant with landscape.

The exurban house follows a long tradition of wealthy people fleeing the ills of the city for the glories of the country. The chief difference today lies in the significantly larger number of people able to afford grandiose second or third homes. Many formerly rural regions of the country are becoming elite exurbs—like parts of California’s Marin, Napa, Sonoma, and Mendocino counties, but also Cape Cod, eastern Long Island, the Berkshires, areas around ski resorts throughout the Rocky Mountains, and long stretches of ocean and lake coastline. Hidden by the exurban house’s designed encounter with landscape is its dubious battle with the gray boundlessness of the metropolis. America’s economy of sprawl now spews forth estate escapes, vast acreages of land sequestered into private preserves, utopias of the privileged individual. Inviting the sounds and sights of nature, yet not of the public, the exurban house represents a mass movement of affluent Americans away from the mass culture they themselves produce and control.  

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