Plain Magazine

10 stories

Plain MagazineSoaring Windows Present Epic Views of the Water from this Cabin by the Lake in Canada With its muted finishes, generous glazing, and sun-washed timber interiors, this lakeside house with epic water views in Quebec, Canada sought inspiration from the easy, open retreats of the…

11.02

Plain MagazineThis Copenhagen WFH Ceramics Studio is the Dream Workspace Tucked beneath an apple tree in a garden in Valby, Copenhagen , this compact ceramics studio by Jesper Kusk Arkitekter sits quietly among the greenery, providing a dreamy backyard work from home…

10.30

Plain MagazineA Suspended Cabin in Costa Rica Reaches Out to an Arrayán Tree Set upon a forested slope in Dota, Costa Rica, The Arrayán Retreat by LOOM is a cabin that reaches out to the arrayán tree it’s named after via a deck raised three meters off the ground.

10.29

Plain MagazineArchitect Kristijan Markoc’s Handsome Timber Plana House is a ‘Free-to-Download’, Compact Cabin Designed to be Copied At just 42 square metres, Plana House explores how much can be achieved with a little less. Designed by architect Kristijan Markoc of Plana Architecture , the timber home is an exercise in pared-back…

10.27

Plain MagazineA Straight Sand Path Provides a Suitably Dreamy Welcome to this Beach House in Sisal, Mexico On the coast of Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula, a low-slung holiday home makes a virtue of keeping out of sight.

10.27

Plain MagazineA Central Courtyard Splits Two Gabled Volumes of a Single House on the Shores of Lake Michigan Split volumes give the Timber Lane Retreat by Wheeler Kearns Architects its distinctive character, the sprawling home appearing between trees on a bluff above Lake Michigan .

10.26

Plain MagazineAn End of the Row Townhouse in Hampstead, London makes the Most of its Compact Footprint By Stretching Upwards Finding space on the end of a terraced row, this five-storey modern home was transformed by architects Hayhurst and Co.

10.21

Plain MagazineThe Shed/House in Texas Makes the Case for the Contemporary Agricultural Style Simplicity is beauty for the Shed/House by architects Side Angle Side , whose vast scope fits the landscape well, its deceptive grandeur creating a structure that tries not to look like a house at…

10.19

Plain MagazineA Cabinet Cube Anchors This 700-Square-Foot Backyard Studio in Seattle Renovations take time, and Seattle ’s Lavanadu is proof that waiting for the right design pays off, even for a small footprint.

10.17

Plain MagazineBrazil’s Casa Votupoca is Arranged to Welcome Light and Encourage a Dialogue with the Surrounding Vegetation At just six metres wide and 30 metres deep, this urban house in Brazil makes a convincing case for thinking upwards rather than outwards.

10.16

A room is a decision about how you want to be tired at the end of the day.

I live in forty-eight square metres in Tokyo with one good chair and far too many bowls, so I have had to mean that. I trained as an architect and left to write, which my teachers took badly. Uchi (内) means inside, and it means home: the room you come back to. The palette comes after the tiredness. So does the name on the lamp.

This is where I keep what the world's rooms are doing. Around seventy sources, read in Japanese, Korean, Chinese, Vietnamese, Italian, French and English: an apartment in Seoul, a house outside Taipei, a Copenhagen showroom seen from here rather than from Denmark. East first, because east is where I am sitting.

Each story is a headline, an excerpt of a few lines, one photograph and a link to whoever did the work. We never reprint the piece, and the photograph belongs to the person who took it. When a room was written up in Korean or Italian it stays in Korean or Italian here; the link takes you to the writer's own words.

I am not trying to be complete. I am trying to notice.

— Mio Tachibana, Tokyo