SubscribeSign In
All Photos/exterior/building type : house/building type : tiny home/roofline : flat

Exterior House Tiny Home Flat Roofline Design Photos and Ideas

Wild bush, sand dunes, and scrub surround the circular home on Victoria’s Mornington Peninsula. The Austin Maynard Architects team was careful to minimize the building’s impact on the fragile landscape.
With its stucco facade and steel-framed, arched windows, Plaster Fun House is an architectural anomaly amidst the cottages and 1960s brick residences of Torrensville in South Australia.
Garcia clad the ADU’s exterior with a local Texas limestone, similar in color and texture to the main house, “just to tie the two together visually,” says the architect.
The strip between the glass panels is Ipe, same as the deck, it’s just retained its original hue beneath the four-foot-deep overhangs. The deck is wrapped in a steel channel, in a nod to the steel used inside.
Architect Matt Garcia designed a 540-square-foot ADU for a musician’s 1960s ranch style home in Ashland. The large lot size, about an acre, meant that Garcia could have doubled the size of the new build, but he preferred the challenge of keeping it smaller.
Winkelman Architecture delivers grown-up summer-camp vibes with this unassuming retreat on the coast of Maine.
The Bracy Cottage — Front Facade
The Bracy Cottage — Front Facade
This compact vacation home by TACO—or, Taller de Arquitectura Contextual—is immersed in southeastern Mexico’s wild landscape. The home is designed for a pair of young adults, and the firm’s objective was to achieve a reflective and contemplative place that links the occupants with the surrounding environment. The result is an intuitive, functional, and simple living experience that offers great spatial warmth.
The firm wanted the materiality of the cabin to be "in harmony with the site," says Shaw. "So, that over time, the building could weather gracefully and the site around it would change, and they would do so in tandem."
The materials were kept simple: a foundation of board-formed concrete that reveals the wood grain of the boards used to make it, Cor-Ten steel siding that will develop a characterful patina, and rafters made of hemlock, a local species. "In terms of materials, we wanted the full exterior of the building to be something that would weather gracefully, that required very little maintenance, and that had a long life cycle," says Shaw.
Sited on a rock ledge, the Far Cabin’s screened porch cantilevers over the forest floor for a tree house effect.
The Far Cabin by Winkelman Architecture is set on the forested coast of Maine.
All lightHouses come with custom OxBox (oxidized steel) and Barn (wood) siding, as well as a collection of unique exterior steel features.
The first Plant Prefab–built modular lightHouse ADU was completed earlier this spring in Sebastopol, California. This 423-square-foot lightHouse was completed for around $285,000. That figure breaks down to approximate costs of $210,000 for design, engineering and production; $60,000 for infrastructure and site work; and $15,000 for shipping and installation.
Pictured is a rendering of a 570-square-foot 2X lightHouse with a one-bedroom unit stacked atop a two-car garage.
Campo Loft is a blend of industrial architecture and the natural materials found in the surrounding valleys. It is a contemporary residence where contrast plays a large role—old and new, sleek and rustic, light and dark, rough and soft.
Perched quietly on the dunes of New Zealand’s Coromandel Peninsula, Hut on Sleds serves as a small, sustainable beach retreat for a family of five.
Marilyn Monroe is said to have stayed in the charming guesthouse.
Tiny homes have officially become a thing—and these woodsy getaways will make you want to downsize ASAP.
The exterior is wrapped in cement fiber boards with a Cembrit patina finish. Due to a lack of onshore infrastructure, a big challenge of the project was the addition of self-contained sewage and clear water tanks.
Along the opposite side, sheets of self-rusting Corten steel run along the home, hiding stairs to the upper deck behind them. The striking facade contrasts with the otherwise muted exterior.
For maximum privacy, the bridge leads directly to the home's entrance, bypassing a walk-around deck that is typically found on houseboat or floating home designs. Along the front half of the roof, permanent vegetation adds greenery in the summer months.
The architects inserted skylights in an artful pattern in the rooftop.
At night, the exterior screen provides privacy when the house is illuminated.
Per the Kebony website, their wood products are composed of sustainable softwoods that have been modified with a bio-based liquid to give them the characteristics of hardwoods, making the end result hardy and durable.
An open living space greets you at the door. The exterior wood will gain a natural silver patina over time, melding with the concrete of the interior.
The 753-square-foot retreat has two bedrooms and a bath, and takes advantage of its rocky site.
Guarding against coastal erosion, the 430-square-foot retreat rests on two thick wooden sleds which allow the structure to be readily relocated when needed.
In accordance with the brief, the firm left the landscape largely in its natural state.
The geometric wall on one side acts as a screen to protect the structure from winds and noise. It also provides privacy for the living areas oriented towards the back of the house.
The Monte House spans just two floors and 452 square feet. The firm employed folding doors with operable louvers of regional cedar wood (seen here in the upper window) to allow the occupants to control their level of contact between the interior and the exterior.
To take in views of Victoria’s coastline from all directions, Austin Maynard Architects crafted a bach-inspired beach house using a circular, corridor-free design and full-height glazing. Exposed trusses and a simple material palette keep focus on the outdoors, while rooftop solar panels and a rainwater harvesting system help the dwelling reduce site impact.
The walls and parts of the roof are original to the structure. The steel-framed windows and openings are new.
Campo Loft is surrounded by lush vegetation atop a mountainous hillside.
The silvertop ash shiplap boards that clad the home will develop a patina over time.
A view of the exterior from their walk path.
ICON's 3D-printed home is both a proof of concept, as well as an expression of 3D printing's capabilities to execute curved, unique designs.
With its many windows bringing in lots of natural light, the interiors of The Salish by West Coast Homes has a kitchen with a rolling island that also functions as a dining table, allowing it to be tucked away when not in use.
Massive wooden fence, which is a stripe, is on the background of a brick house, which is a square.
exterior view of the house
A basic box that’s as tall as it is wide (28 feet) and 16 feet long, this Portland, Oregon house consists of rooms stacked vertically: an unfinished basement on the bottom, a kitchen-living area and a bathroom in the middle, and a bedroom on top, with the stairwell hinged onto the front of the home. The only interior doors are those to the bathroom, basement, and root cellar, leaving the rest of the space open and unfettered. At just 704 square feet, Katherine Bovee and Matt Kirkpatrick's home is a great lesson in making the most out of every inch. Click here to see the interior.