We’ve written before about ideas for “bringing the outside in” — taking advantage of all nature has to offer, particularly beauty and light, while still providing protection and comfort people need from their homes. Some of our recent reading turned up more great finds along these lines.

One Project Closer has a photo story about a cabin buried in the woods with a deck that’s designed to kindly deposit the inhabitants squarely into the middle of their natural surrounding. As Fred from OPC writes, “While the deck is only about five feet off the ground, the bridge to the rock cluster really integrates the space better than steps down and up would have.”

You can get a better idea from the photo here, and OPC’s post has more photos — including one of a deer who visited during the photo shoot. How’s that for becoming one with nature?

Another one of our favorite sites, Inhabitat, sums things up nicely in a recent post, saying, “It’s always a pleasure to see a stunning home with sustainable features, but isn’t pretentious about it.” Indeed.

This post shows off a gorgeous home in California’s Bay Area that was built on the site of an older home that had be torn down due to structural problems. The new house built in its place is tightly wrapped around the lot’s small pond.

To take advantage of the scenic views of water, the home was built as four buildings, the main house, study, pool house and garage, that all come right up against the water’s edge. Large sliding glass doors from the buildings open up towards the pond, providing an immediate connection with nature as well as a good dose of natural ventilation.

The house also includes solar photovoltaic panels, a solar hot water system, and a combination of stone floors and a radiant floor heating system. You can read more and (more importantly) see a great collection of photos at Inhabitat.

Photo courtesy of One Project Closer

This beautiful project is the third in our series of winning projects from the myMarvin Architect’s Challenge.

If you’ve ever been to Europe and visited any of the grand cathedrals there, it is hard not to feel awed by the beautiful structures people built so long ago. People continue to build houses of worship nowadays, but it isn’t often you see the large old-style churches being constructed.

In LaCrosse, Wisc., however, it is estimated that, for the first time in 50 years, a major Catholic church has been built in the classical style. The Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe serves not only as a church, but as a place for a pilgrimage.

Visitors to the church may well think they are in a European cathedral, but this modern church fools the eye. Every element of the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe, from the nave to the fabulously detailed dome, was designed to look as if the church has always been there.

Marvin windows help flood the church with natural light. Light in The Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe is introduced through windows in the side aisles, clerestory windows in the nave, transepts, and sanctuary, and through the dome with its clear windows and oculus. There are twelve different custom window types at The Shrine in all shapes and sizes, each requiring their own details. Marvin’s custom capabilities helped the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe achieve the exact look desired.

The Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe’s exterior was designed by Michael W. Swinghamer of River Architects in LaCrosse and the church’s interior was designed by Duncan Stroik of Duncan G. Stroik Architect in South Bend, Ind.

Considering our role as manufacturers of premium made-to-order windows, we’re big fans of the concept of bringing the outside in. That is, taking advantage of all of the great things nature has to offer — heating and cooling, beautiful views, places to work and play — while still providing all of the necessary protection and comfort people need from their homes.

For example, we sat down with garden home designer P. Allen Smith to discuss his approach to bringing the outside in:

Inhabitat, a blog the writes about all things in the world of sustainable design, recently showcased a home in San Francisco that artfully blurs the lines between indoors and out. In addition to a great use of huge windows to bring in the sunlight and the views from outside, the home also includes an “internal four-story light shaft, which also houses the stair and provides natural ventilation via the chimney effect.”

For more on this project, and for more nice photos, check out the story at Inhabitat.

John Senhauser, FAIA of John Senhauser Architects in Cincinnati, designed a beautiful home, also in Cincinnati. The Lamson/West Residence is a modern log home, built on a beautiful wooded site. As beautiful as the site was, the trees made it a challenging project.

Senhauser ended up designing the host to respect the land it was on. One unique feature of the home is that it bridges 40 feet across a creek  to preserve the natural drainage pattern.  And there’s a very green roof–grass as a matter of fact.

Walls are from local cypress and a wall of windows lets light flood the Lamson/West Residence.

Besides all the house’s green features, it is beautiful, well-designed, livable and one of the winners of the myMarvin Architect’s Challenge.

The Lamson/West Residence featured clad casements, awning windows, Ultimate French Doors and picture units with Simulated Divided Lites and spacer bars from Marvin Windows and Doors.

Ever heard of the Solar Decathlon? No, it’s not some sort of multi-sport athletic event! It is a competition between universities all over the world to build the most energy-efficient house possible. The competition is especially challenging because the winning house has to also be attractive and livable. Houses are judged on five subjective points (architecture, market viability, engineering, lighting design and communications) and five objective points (comfort zone, hot water, appliances, home entertainment and net metering).

Marvin is proud to provide windows for the University of Minnesota Solar Decathlon team. The windows are very large to let as much light as possible in. This is important since the house is only 800 square feet!

The team strived to get building materials from near-by manufacturers and to re-use materials as much as possible.

Since Minnesota is a cold northern state, the house has to collect as much solar heat as possible, even during harsh winters. However, the Solar Decathlon competition will be held in October in Washington, D.C., so the house also has to perform in warm, humid conditions. The team carefully designed the house with features  to work in both.

After the competition is over, the University of Minnesota team plans to sell the house. If you are interested in a truly energy-efficient house with a beautiful look, this could be the home for you!

Do you see that sort of transparent-looking, sort of reflective, sort of strange bubble coming out of the side of the house in the photo? That’s actually an addition built onto the side of the house.

Yes, really. The house is in Beijing, China, and the idea behind the bubble is that it allows for architects to add to these old homes without destroying the visual character of the area. I’ll let the Beijing-based architects at MAD explain:

The Hutongs are historic poor neighbourhoods of central Beijing. Though the Hutongs delight tourists, life for the residents is hard: they have limited private space, and no indoor shower or toilet. At the same time as these residents are being re-housed on the outskirts of the city by the government, their historic homes are being occupied by the rich, whilst property developers tear down the old buildings and recreate them in ersatz form.

This bubble, then, simply adds a staircase and a toilet to the home without stomping all over the neighborhood’s character. Or does it? Do you think this is better or worse than a more traditional addition?

Thanks to the DIY Maven at Curbly.com for sharing this story.

We’ve searched the whole country over and are pleased to announce the winners of the myMarvin Architect’s Challenge. Six beautiful structures, all using Marvin products, have been chosen as winners for their ingenuity and beauty.

Over the next six Tuesdays, we’ll cover each winning entry: five residences and one church.  You’ll be learning more about them soon, but here are the architects who won the Challenge:

• John Senhauser, FAIA of John Senhauser Architects
• Helga Lilley of Gorgeous Green Home Design
• Duncan Stroik of Duncan G. Stroik Architect, LLC
• Michael W. Swinghamer of River Architects, Inc.
• Arleta Chang of Jarvis Architects
• Jonathan Feldman of Feldman Architecture
• Andrea Swan of Swan + Simmons Architecture, Ltd.

The myMarvin Architect’s Challenge was judged by three architecture luminaries and members of the Wm. S. Marvin Hall of Fame: David Baker, FAIA, LEED AP; Carson Looney, FAIA and Stephen Muse, FAIA.

Several years ago, my wife and I were searching for a new home to raise our ever-expanding family. We were living in Chicago, near Wrigley Field, and had renovated our home top to bottom – but it was small. Our first thought was to move to a nearby suburb, where homes and lots were a little bigger and where the schools offered more, as well.

About this time, my wife’s Aunt Mary told us about a home in her northwest Chicago neighborhood that was going to go up for sale. The Edgebrook area of Chicago is a sturdy community with brick bungalows and Georgians with nice size lots, but I was not sold. I had spent most of my time building and renovating homes in the suburbs that we were considering and had a good feel for a few homes that would be great fixer-uppers. My wife said, Let’s just go and look and see what the home is like.

We drove up to the home, which was still owned by the original owner, a widow who had built the home with her husband in 1941. Walking up to the yellow brick home, I could tell that is was very well maintained. We knocked on the door and Mrs. Lang, the owner, welcomed us in. As I entered, I closed the 2 1/4-inch-thick door behind me, and it closed with a solid “thunk.”

I bent over immediately and whispered in my wife’s ear, “This is the house.” She quickly turned and said, “We haven’t even seen it yet.” But I knew.

As we toured the house I could see the great pride that Mrs. Lang had for her home. As we went about it, I looked at all the finishes. From the impressive front door to the interior trim, this home was built well with thick, tasteful finishes. The combination of the materials and design not only made the home look good but felt good as well.

Years ago I was given the advice that when you buy a home, look for one with charm. As a builder it is something I tried to bring into every project. Whether you are building a new home or adding on, spend some time to consider some of the things you will touch on a daily basis in that home. The front door is the first point of contact for you and your guests. Spend a little more on the thickness, the design, the hardware that goes into that feature.

The same is true for interior doors, door hardware, and the quality of the trim around it. And if there is a banister, make sure it is the right size, feels smooth to the touch, and feels sturdy as you either ascend or descend the stairs.

To me the feel of a home is just as important as the look.

Vacations should be full of relaxation, a chance to get away from the demands of everyday life and let the weight of the world fall from your shoulders. Ideally, a vacation residence should facilitate that sort of mood – as this Swedish house, featured on Home Design Find, does.

It’s not large, and it’s not fancy, but it is well-designed and achieves its purpose: to blend in with its surroundings and offer a calming, water-centered retreat.  The “Swedish Mill House,” designed by Wingardhs, combines the warmth of Scandinavian design with the cool aesthetic of Japanese Zen.

The main feature is an outdoor pool that looks like a pond, with rocks and greenery surrounding it.  It is right off the deck of the house, so it’s easy to jump in after a sauna.  The pool and sauna are the focal point of the Swedish Mill House.  Of course, you can’t spend all your time sweating and swimming, so this vacation home also has facilities for cooking and sleeping.  But in keeping with the philosophy behind the design, the space devoted to these functions is minimal.

Blonde wood, stone and a wall made of glass emphasize the site’s natural beauty and look modern, yet warm.  Cool water surrounding the house relaxes the senses and lets life’s worries slip away.

Photos are courtesy of James Silverman.

People depicted as living in towers usually aren’t there for very happy reasons. From Rapunzel, imprisoned in her tower by a witch, to Anne Boleyn, imprisoned in the Tower of London by Henry VIII, towers are often seen as places of incarceration and gloom.

Not so, however, with the renovation of the Christ Church Tower in London by Boyarsky Murphy Architects. The beautiful tower, designed by Christopher Wren after London’s Great Fire in 1666, was in bad condition when a financier decided to buy it. Boyarsky Murphy took on the challenging project and designed a beautiful, unusual and livable residence.

There were some limitations, however. Architectural Record featured the Christ Church Tower in their April 2007 issue and noted that Boyarsky Murphy was not allowed to remove a spiral staircase original to the home, nor were they allowed to add new windows. Thus, careful planning and innovative strategies were the name of the game.

Every level (and there are quite a few!) includes one roughly living space. There is a small elevator to move people around quickly. From bottom to top, Boyarsky Murphy designed rooms to accommodate every need: foyer/dining, kitchen, living room, laundry room, bedroom, study, master bath, master bath, library, mezzanine and at the top, a viewing terrace that looks over the City of London.

The interior of the tower is clean and modern—an interesting juxtaposition with the tower’s historical exterior. White walls, metal railings, blonde wood and a curvy glass staircase help the tower feel light and airy. There’s also some urban grit in the form of some graffiti from previous reconstructions.

Boyarsky Murphy’s creative work and elegant solutions transformed a forlorn tower into a historical modern home. Far from being confining, the Christ Church Tower is lovely, light-filled and livable.

Photos courtesy of Boyarsky Murphy Architects. More photos here.