A Mother and Daughter’s Concrete Home in Mexico Takes Some Unexpected Turns

The living area has curved walls with skylights that create a surreal glow.

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: Naucalpan, Mexico

Architect: Vrtical / @vrticalmx

Footprint: 2,260 square feet

Photographer: Rafael Gamo / @rafaelgamo

Photographer: Vania Olivares / @vania__olivares

From the Architect: "In Naucalpan, this small house is reconfigured from the remains of an existing building with no heritage value, yet with a structure capable of supporting a new way of living. The project began with a clear decision: to reuse the existing foundations and walls without allowing them to dictate the language of the new intervention. Rather than an exercise in nostalgia, this strategy made it possible to concentrate resources on the elements that would truly transform the experience of inhabiting the house.

"Designed for a mother and her daughter, the house responds to the need to share a home while preserving the independence of their daily routines. From the outside, it presents itself as a hermetic volume, a deliberate response to a fragmented urban context where privacy takes precedence over outward views. In contrast, the interior unfolds through a sequence of courtyards, skylights, and elevated openings that bring in light, air, and fragments of sky. The house establishes its relationship with the outside not through the immediate landscape, but through the passage of time: light continuously transforms the atmosphere of the interiors, making the passing hours tangible.

"The additions are built in exposed concrete, establishing a deliberate dialogue with the recovered elements. The original walls are coated with a pigmented limestone plaster, while oxidized steel lintels clearly mark the junction between the existing structure and the new construction. The construction process itself is inscribed in the building: the joints between concrete pours were bush-hammered to emphasize their handcrafted quality, while the layouts of the cement-tile floors occasionally give rise to unexpected compositions that celebrate the work of the hand.

"Casa Gardenias finds its character in this constant tension between shelter and openness. It is an architecture that protects everyday life from the outside while allowing the sky, vegetation, and light to accompany the passage of time within."

Photo: Rafael Gamo

Photo: Rafael Gamo

Photo: Rafael Gamo

See the full story on Dwell.com: A Mother and Daughter’s Concrete Home in Mexico Takes Some Unexpected Turns
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The Mid-Aughts Millennial Urge to Build a Cabin in the Woods

In their new book, Molly Fiffer and Jeff Waldman recount the misadventures of turning a challenging Santa Cruz Mountains hillside into the community project of a lifetime.

Around 2014 we were desiring more. Our third-story San Francisco apartment was an increasingly poor lifestyle fit. Small projects had evolved from arts and crafts to hammering that threatened neighbor relations. We took a stab at a rooftop garden, but it lasted all of a week before our liability-minded landlord demanded it dismantled. We’d hosted some workshops and events for friends (even butchered a whole pig in the apartment) and attended others’ as well. All of this was further stoking our desires for impactful experiences. But we needed more quality time and more space.

To scratch the itch we rented cabins over long weekends. And there were the frequent camping trips, or the occasional lengthy stay at a friend’s family property. But these were piecemeal solutions...if only that Airbnbs frowned on tree house construction. What we really craved was a place we could shape—ideally in the woods. We yearned to spend days together, charting our time tinkering and playing. We wanted to bond over problem solving and projects. And Molly deeply longed to plant a fig tree.

So we thought about moving. Someplace where acreage or even an ample yard could be had. We toured some far-flung options, but ultimately circled back around to the reality that so much of our day-to-day happiness was owed to our local community. We liked San Francisco. We loved California. Moving outside Boise would provide plenty of affordable space and some notable nature, but little else. So we resolved that we weren’t leaving any time soon… but then what?

Molly Fiffer tends to a brush pile on the ten-acre parcel in the Santa Cruz Mountains she and Jeff Waldman purchased a decade ago.

Photo courtesy of Molly Fiffer and Jeff Waldman

One of the first projects on the property was a shed for storage.

Photo courtesy of Molly Fiffer and Jeff Waldman

Molly and Jeff envisioned the property as a community effort, inviting friends up to camp while working on projects.

Photo courtesy of Molly Fiffer and Jeff Waldman

See the full story on Dwell.com: The Mid-Aughts Millennial Urge to Build a Cabin in the Woods

Budget Breakdown: She Turned a Long Island Cottage Into a Creative Retreat for $418K

Writer and filmmaker Lisa Sardinas opened up the interiors, put in a Reform kitchen, and splashed out on a new pool.

A few years ago, Lisa Sardinas, a writer and filmmaker based in Brooklyn, was ready for a fresh start after a divorce. This life change led her to a small 1950s house in Bellport, a village on Long Island known as "Unhampton" for its charm and modesty compared to its flashier neighbor further east. The house was simple—a three bedroom, one-story structure with clapboards and a brick chimney—and she initially dismissed it, but an established beech tree on the property, plus its large garden, intrigued her. "I knew that with the right architects, I could turn it into something that I would love," Lisa says. She closed on the house in 2022, the very same day she received her divorce decree.

Lisa hired Clementina Ruggieri and Michele Busiri Vici, founders of the New York firm Space4Architecture, to reimagine the home as a retreat. In addition to being longtime friends, the trio share a similar modernist sensibility rooted in simple and warm materiality. They decided to keep the exterior identity of the house the same so that it matches the character of the neighborhood, but to untangle the cramped interiors and "see if we can create more airiness, more flow in the space yet keeping a bit of tradition," Ruggieri says. "We didn’t want to make it too modern."

Lisa and the architects conceived of the interior as two "wings:" a bedroom suite for Lisa and one for her son, separated by another bedroom. They also opened up the eight-foot ceilings where they could—in the living room, kitchen, and part of the primary bedroom—in order to create more verticality. They then clad everything inside above eight feet in plywood. "It reproportions the space to a human scale so that it doesn’t become too loud or too luminous," Ruggieri says. "It’s still in line with the feel that Bellport has and that it should have…It’s an honest house."

See the full story on Dwell.com: Budget Breakdown: She Turned a Long Island Cottage Into a Creative Retreat for $418K
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This Eye-Popping Madrid Apartment Overachieves on Its Only Goal

Architecture studio Bardo’s renovation surprises at every turn with cloistered, colorful spaces.

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: Madrid, Spain

Architect: Bardo / @bardo.arq

Footprint: 1,399 square feet

Builder: Nuevo Habitat S.A.

Photographer: Germán Saiz

From the Architect: "This refurbishment project in Madrid is born from a simple idea: surprise. The client had one clear desire: a fragmented floor plan, with independent spaces that would provide intimacy for the different areas of the home. From this premise and taking advantage of a private courtyard that allowed for a continuous perimeter circulation, Bardo conceived the home as a sequence of interconnected rooms, designed to generate surprise as one move through them. With surprise as the guiding thread, the project gradually took on a distinctly theatrical and eclectic character. Each element is conceived as part of a scenography, designed to transform everyday domestic experience and give each space its own identity.

"A structural column and beam, impossible to remove, are transformed by being clad in neon-colored acrylic. What was initially a technical constraint becoming a sculptural piece that articulates the space and visually separates the living area from the bedroom. The neon acrylic functions as a true architectural device: it filters light, creates reflections, builds layers of transparency and superposition, and turns the transitions between rooms into scenography moments. Rather than dividing, it connects. In the dining area, a curved wall paneled in lacquered MDF in aubergine becomes a backdrop. A bold gesture and an unexpected color that reinforce the project’s narrative and underline its theatrical character.

"The spatial sequence is reinforced through an expressive use of color and materiality, where each space constructs its own atmosphere without losing the continuity of the whole. The kitchen is conceived as a contemporary reinterpretation of the traditional domestic space. The geometric order of the white tiled surfaces contrasts with the strong chromatic presence of the deep blue cabinetry, while the stone countertop, with its undulating geometry, introduces an almost topographic reading of the work surface, transforming a functional element into an architectural gesture.

"The bathrooms are conceived as autonomous pieces within the overall narrative of the home. In one of them, curved geometry, micro-tiling, and the use of color create an almost dreamlike atmosphere, where architecture is perceived as an immersive experience. In the other, the project becomes more restrained: continuous surfaces, earthy tones, and a quieter material palette generate a space of calm and retreat. The courtyard is integrated as another room within the sequence. The architecture softens, colors become more earthy, and vegetation introduces a different sensory dimension, acting as a counterpoint to the more stenographic character of the interior. The result is a home that is not understood as a collection of rooms, but as a continuous spatial experience. A house conceived as a journey, where each space is a scene and each transition a moment. An architecture that is walked, discovered, and lived as a narrative, in which surprise is not a singular gesture, but the very essence of the project."

Photo by Germán Saiz

Photo by Germán Saiz

Photo by Germán Saiz

See the full story on Dwell.com: This Eye-Popping Madrid Apartment Overachieves on Its Only Goal
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One of Frank Gehry’s Early L.A. Homes Just Hit the Market for $1.7M

The famed architect experimented with raw materials as he constructed the landmark Benson House in the Calabasas Highlands.

Location: 23685 Clover Trail, Calabasas, California

Price: $1,745,000

Architect: Frank Gehry

Year: 1981

Footprint: 1,719 square feet (2 bed, 3 bath) 

From the Agent: "Before Bilbao, the Disney Concert Hall, and the other iconic global works that would define his career, Frank Gehry quietly rewrote the rules of domestic architecture on a hillside in the Calabasas Highlands. Completed in 1981, The Benson House belongs to Gehry’s pivotal early Los Angeles period, when residential work carried the same experimental force his museums would later claim. Created for law professor Robert ‘Bob’ Benson, who told Gehry, ‘Whatever you want to do, we will go for,’ the home became one of Gehry’s favorite projects and most personal residential works. Set into a slope, the architecture separates from the hillside to create a moat-like negative space, allowing two distinct vertical volumes to emerge. A vertebrae-like wooden walkway connects the bedroom wing with the living and gathering spaces, creating a daily experience of movement, sequence, and spatial discovery. Clad in humble asphalt shingles and grounded by concrete floors, exposed rafters, and raw material contrasts, the home reflects Gehry’s early language of recontextualized vernacular, California modernism, and architecture as sculpture. The Benson House is Calabasas Historical Landmark No. 2 and an important early Gehry residence archived at the Getty Research Institute. Early Gehry homes rarely come to market, making this a singular opportunity to own a formative work by one of the most influential architects of our time."

Frank Gehry’s Benson House is composed of two structures connected by a wooden walkway. "It is like a Japanese sculpture, when you have two stones almost touching," the architect noted.

Photo by Michael McNamara

Photo by Michael McNamara

Gehry would later describe The Benson House as "one of my all-time favorite projects because the budget was so tight and so impossible."

Photo by Michael McNamara

See the full story on Dwell.com: One of Frank Gehry’s Early L.A. Homes Just Hit the Market for $1.7M
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Ask a Realtor: I’m a First-Time Homebuyer. Should I Even Bother?

Real estate agent Nicole Reber unpacks what questions to ask if you’re considering purchasing—including whether it might be better to just keep renting in the current market.

Welcome to Ask a Realtor, an advice column about the ins and outs of home finding, renting, buying, and selling from expert Douglas Elliman real estate agent Nicole Reber. Have a question? Submit it here.

Q: First-time homebuyer here. I haven’t bought yet, but I’m not sure if I can even afford anything these days. What advice would you give me (40 years old, partnered, no kids, no pets) if I want to buy in a large or medium-size city (L.A., NYC, and surrounding areas) or places like Tucson—i.e., smaller cities closer to bigger cities? What questions do I need to be asking? Are there special loans for first-time homebuyers? Anything else that can help first-timers in this political climate (poor stock market, etc.)? What do interest rates mean for home-buying? Is now a bad time to buy? Should I just rent the rest of my life?

A: Hi reader, first off, you’re definitely not alone in these feelings. I’ve found that with clients who have many of these same questions, breaking things down one by one and getting really concrete with the numbers can help make these big decisions feel easier to make. I’ve always found that numerical clarity can help center the conversation and make it clear whether the highest-driving factor for your decision-making is emotion or logic—and then, of course, where to go from there.

As a first-time homebuyer, what questions do I need to be asking?

It’s hard to predict the future, but the length of time that you stay in your home can have a direct effect on the equity you may gain while living in your property. Being as realistic as possible about how long you’d plan to live in the house you purchase will help with making the numbers make sense when investing in property. In the U.S., the average homeowner now stays in their home for around 12 years, though that varies dramatically depending on the market. Los Angeles, for example, has one of the longest homeowner tenures in the country at roughly 20 years, which helps explain why inventory can feel especially tight there. Manhattan homeowners, by comparison, average closer to 10.5 years before selling. In places like Tucson, where housing inventory has become somewhat more balanced and prices remain significantly lower than larger U.S. cities, you may find a different mix of affordability, competition, and flexibility to choose between available properties in a price range based on each neighborhood in the city.

I find that it’s helpful to think about your movement patterns thus far in your life to see how long you would be comfortable committing to owning the house to ensure (to the best of your ability) it’d be a positive investment. While many conventional mortgages are structured as 15- or 30-year repayment plans, most people don’t actually stay in the same home long enough to fully pay off the loan before selling, refinancing, or moving. The longer you stay, the more opportunity you may have to build equity and offset the upfront costs of buying and selling. Knowing this can also give context to how often homes may come on the market in the cities you’re considering. Are you the type of person that has stayed in your apartment or city for long stretches of time? That can make deciding whether to commit to a purchase easier.

When it comes to the larger U.S. cities, the entry and carrying costs—like the cost of the down payment for your mortgage, taxes, insurance, and upkeep—can often be the biggest hurdles, and with those higher average price points, it just becomes more expensive to live. However, some of those larger cities can often have a faster value appreciation because of the tight supply of available homes for purchase driving up the price. You may be more focused on appreciation potential or more interested in finding a place you can comfortably settle into for a longer period of time. Understanding which priority matters more to you can help narrow down the markets that make the most sense to explore.

Still, I always think it’s a good idea to reach out to a real estate agent to have them do an analysis of the places you’re considering to get a sense of how the prices of the properties have increased in the past few years (while acknowledging that the pandemic saw one of the fastest periods of appreciation ever recorded). Appreciation is often neighborhood-specific as well, so be sure to ask them where they’ve seen the biggest changes and see if that aligns with where you might want to live in that city. For the smaller cities near the larger hubs, you may have lower purchase prices and more space. By speaking to real estate agents local to the market you’re looking to buy in, you can potentially uncover a place that can be a great fit for your desired lifestyle and work with your budget that could also be on a popularity precipice.

Are there special loans these days for first-time homebuyers?

Most incentives are localized to a state and local city when it comes to first-time homebuyers. The Federal Housing Administration (FHA), U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), and Federal National Mortgage Association (aka Fannie Mae) may also have loan programs that can help reduce the amount of the down payment costs you have to come to the table with. In my experience, your best bet is opening up a dialogue with a few different lenders to get a sense of the possibility of what programs you have available to see if something can align for your budget.

What do interest rates mean for home-buying? Anything else that can help first-timers?

Interest rates determine the cost of borrowing money. When the rates are higher, your monthly payment goes up. However, when rates are at historic lows like they were in 2020 and 2021, you can also have more competition with multiple buyers bidding on the same properties. When the rates go up, that can sometimes cool competition as affordability can become harder for people. It’s always important to know that you do have the option to refinance the interest rate on your mortgage when the interest rates improve, so the monthly payments you initially sign up for can potentially be reduced down the line. That’s not often a scenario you’re going to find with a rental agreement.

Another thing to consider is the age of the properties that may be available in your price range. Renting may preserve flexibility and lower monthly pressure when you’re looking at purchasing properties that are older and may require larger cash reserves for any unexpected fixes that may come up.

If pricing and updates are your biggest concern and you’re willing to make compromises on those amenities to get into ownership, I’ve typically seen more ability to negotiate in November and December, as some people put their house searches on pause with the holidays. This is a great window to have more leverage despite whatever is happening economically during the rest of the year. Weather can also be a factor, depending on the seasonality of the city you’re considering purchasing in. Here in Los Angeles, I’ve seen a slowdown at the top of the summer season—late June through August—as people travel and are distracted with enjoying themselves. National holiday weekends are also micro windows that can sometimes work in your favor. In the past few years, there’s been a heavy pickup in showings and offers even in the first and second weeks of January, so making that move before the holidays can often leave you with less competition which can help with the pricing conversation.

Is now a bad time to buy? Should I just rent the rest of my life?

Ultimately, these decisions are often about timing and what makes you comfortable, but I think assuming that you can’t find a good deal solely based on reports of the broader real estate market landscape can lead to stagnation and regret. Be honest about what you’re willing to take on but don’t miss out on an opportunity that might be there after lingering on the market due to bad photos, longer days on market, or cosmetic things that you can easily fix. (Like not buying because you prefer hardwood floors over carpet—this happens too often!) Asking questions to licensed and trusted financial advisors can really help, especially around what monthly payment feels sustainable for your income, how much house you can realistically afford without becoming financially stretched, how long you’d likely need to stay in the home for buying to make sense, and whether buying would limit other financial goals like saving, investing, or maintaining an emergency fund. You don’t want to resent where you live just to potentially gain appreciation and equity, but knowing that you have that forced savings through equity once you do own a house is a great hedge against other inflationary costs. If circumstances change, you can potentially keep your home still and rent it out to someone, if you’re comfortable with that and focused on growing your equity.

Buying a home can still be a powerful financial tool, but it only works when the timing and numbers make sense for you personally. I think people sometimes put enormous pressure on themselves to make the "perfect" real estate decision, but life rarely works that way. Some people buy and stay for 20 years (hello, L.A.); some people rent happily and use the money they would have spent as homeowners on maintenance to be invested in other ways. The goal is finding a living situation that supports the life you actually want to live. Knowledge is power, so ask questions of professionals, analyze your past patterns and personal bandwidth, and allow yourself the space to make the decisions right for you. 

Top illustration by Ana Galvañ

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Have a burning real estate question or want a realtor’s advice about the ins and outs of home finding, renting, buying, or selling? Ask our expert columnist!

Questions will be anonymized and may be edited for publication. Content shown in this column includes fact-specific advice, limited by the context given. We recommend consulting a licensed professional for your individual needs.

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More Ask a Realtor stories:

What’s the Most Important Thing to Do to Prep My House for the Market?

I’m Selling a Niche Property. How Do I Find the Right Buyer?

At-Home Wellness Is Going High Design

From mirrored outdoor saunas to smart steam showers, sculptural and tech-forward fixtures are redefining how we treat ourselves at home—and how home feels.

A proper steam or sauna has long meant leaving the house to find one at a spa, gym, or hotel with a day rate. That’s quickly changing, and at-home wellness is more than a trend—the global sauna market is expected to grow from $950 million in 2025 to more than $1.5 billion by 2033, with private homes making up the biggest share of this growth. 

For many design-conscious homeowners, steam showers and backyard saunas are now just as desirable as chef’s kitchens, pools, and outdoor entertaining spaces. And, when it comes to at-home wellness, few companies have been shaping the category for as long as Thermasol.  

The company introduced the first residential electric steam shower in 1958, and has spent the 68 years since proving that wellness belongs at home. Now owned by Finnish sauna pioneer Harvia, which acquired it in 2024, Thermasol is continuing to elevate and revolutionize the way we experience wellness at home.

The Thermasol Vue sauna is an elegant glass form that reflects its surroundings, making it a visually unobtrusive way to introduce a sauna to the home. 

Photo courtesy Thermasol

"We’ve officially outgrown the era where a home wellness space meant cramming a stationary bike into a spare bedroom and calling it a day," says Nathan Hagemeier, president of Harvia. "Today’s homeowners are demanding intentional, architecturally stunning sanctuaries built directly into the floor plan. We are no longer designing houses just to shelter people; we are designing them to actively restore them, turning ancient thermal rituals into the ultimate modern domestic luxury."

The Thermasol Vue allows the sauna to become an integral and playful part of the architectural vision.

Photo courtesy Thermasol

The Thermasol Vue sauna epitomizes this approach. Unrecognizable from the typical cedar box in the corner of the garden, Vue—which has been awarded a Luxe RED Award for its design—features panoramic glass walls framed in black enamel and thermally treated wood. The glass reflects its surroundings, allowing it to dissolve into the landscape while offering privacy to those inside.

Thermasol Fortis is an elegant outdoor sauna with timber cladding and a glass front that creates a contemporary take on the classic sauna typology.

Photo courtesy Thermasol

See the full story on Dwell.com: At-Home Wellness Is Going High Design
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