The River Bend residence is designed by Seattle based Pb Elemental Architecture. The residence sits at the base of the Cascades in a heavily forested site on the bank of the Snoqualmie River. The home balances the client’s desire for privacy, while embracing nature. Many challenges faced the design and construction of this home low budget, sustainable desires, but most of all schedule. The client, a young family of four, located the site two weeks before legislation would change setbacks and make the site unbuildable.

The challenge was to design and submit a sustainable home that would accommodate their existing family and could later be added on to as their family grew, before the change in legislation. The second challenge was accommodating the existing setbacks, protected old growth trees, septic drain fields, and the buildings proposed/future footprint. A seemingly simple bar diagram formulated the initial concept, living/entertaining on the ground floor, private bedrooms on the upper floor. In the future as the clients family grow a third bar was designed to bridge over the living room.

Conceived as three masses (private, living, utilitarian) and three materials (wood, concrete/ metal), the River Bend Residence offers a low mantainence exterior and naturally light interior. The river can be heard from the 2400 sqft of exterior decks, while viewed from the upper deck.

Jeffrey Gordon Smith is a landscape artist. He is the landscape architecture where the architectural firm of his is based in California. As clear as a crystal the name implies and specializes in landscape architecture. Jeffrey is a very creative and exceptionally skilled landscape designer. He develops a strong regional style and wanting to bond between home and landscape.

The School Residence is one of the best modern home design ideas created by Studio B Architects located in Aspen, Colorado. The steep site possessed challenges with drainage, topography, a small footprint, restrictive easements and was required to address very limiting neighborhood design review standards.

Contextually, the area was developed in the 1960’s and surrounding residents were quite resistant to the architectural direction. Although the neighborhood is one of transition, this was the greatest challenge in realizing the project.

The clients dwell between Miami and Aspen and are avid collectors of ideographic and photography. They requested a solution and an architecture that would exhibit their expanding and revolving collection. The exterior is composed of custom zinc panels, sand-blasted concrete, aluminum window/door glazing system and tempered glass railings.

This modern house design is the results of an additions and alterations project of Oliver Residence in Sea forth, New South Wales. The renovation project involved important reconfigurations to the existing dwelling, including a new formal entry lobby at the upper level with direct access to the open plan living area, the creation of a new full length deck to the upper level with integrated sun shading, new master en suite and walk in robe, new bathrooms, general facade upgrades and building remodeling.

If you are fixing up the exterior of your home, you probably have plenty of great ideas, but don’t have the money to make them fruition. With some elbow grease and some money saving ideas you can improve the exterior of your home and its curb appeal.