A cabin with river views

The best little weekend getaway is right here in Olympic Peninsula, Washington with views of the Sol Duc River. The design of this cabin by Tom Kundig is absolutely brilliant. This 350-square-foot cabin is a small perch for its occupant. It is located in one of the few temperate rainforests in the world, and "rainforest" here means wet and rather cold, as opposed to wet and hot. Putting the cabin on stilts protects it from the clammy dampness and occasional flooding. The owner is an avid steelhead fisherman. The design allows him and his wife to arrive at this remote location, open the place up, and get to fishing as quickly as possible. The shutters are operated manually via custom steel rods. The large panels slide on hardware that was originally designed for sliding barn doors, attached to the steel roof beam structure.

A loft by Sand Studios

I still dream of lofts. And this one is HOT. It could use some personal touches and maybe some rugs and some wood in the completely stainless steel kitchen but the bones are totally rad. And it cracked me up to see hardwood stained about as orange/yellow as mine - except it's not oak here, and somehow it's cooler in this environment. By San Francisco architecture firm Sand Studios.