How Architects Live
In his new book, Marc Blazer takes a look inside the personal homes of celebrated architects, many of which are available for stays through Boutique.
- Category
- Spotlight
- Written by
- Boutique
- Published
- October 13, 2026
In How Architects Live: Creative Retreats for Sanctuary and Gathering (Artisan Books, October 2026), Boutique's CEO Marc Blazer provides a look inside the personal homes of some of the world’s most accomplished architects. Many of these homes are available for short stays through Boutique. For further details on these, plus other vacation rentals by the same architects, click on the links below.
Franck Martinez
"The design for La Maison H, named for its shape, came to the architect suddenly. 'Almost like a revelation,' he remembers. 'I sketched the first plan on the back of a paper place mat in a Barcelona restaurant. That sketch remained virtually unchanged in the final design.'"
La Maison H, Labastide-Marnhac, Occitanie, France
Photo: Katie McKnoulty
Sigurd Larsen
"A typical day at Piperi House begins with coffee in bed. 'It is the nicest place in the whole world to wake up to,' he says. From the moment he opens his eyes, Larsen, who describes himself as a mediocre cook, is thinking about dinner. 'I can look out the living room window to see if the local fisherman is out on his boat, then drive down to the harbor to meet him.'"
Piperi House, Kythnos, Cyclades, Greece
Also by Sigurd Larsen: Meraki Studios, Kissos, Crete, Greece
Photo: Sigurd Larsen
Photo: Kkrom
Christian Stayner
"From the outset, Stayner envisioned Desert Wave as a space for the community to enjoy. He makes the two-hour drive from LA often and marvels at how secluded the property, once a citrus farm, feels, despite the ever-increasing density of the area. 'The quality of the solitude and the enormity of the sky and mountains remain,' he says."
The Desert Wave, Palm Desert, California, US
Robert Terradas i Via
"Terradas left no element unconsidered. Not only did he design the checkerboard of wood ceiling panels, the latticework windows, the shutters and their iron fittings, and the suspended wooden staircase, he customized the curtain rods, coat hooks, and towel racks as well."
CasaKubrick, Castellterçol, Catalonia, Spain
Jorge Gracia
"It might not be clear at first that the boulder that fills the floor-to-ceiling window in a handful of the bedrooms is the view. Gracia purposely framed up proximity to the terrain itself. 'It challenges conventional ideas of "good views" by inviting guests to find beauty in closeness, texture, and natural forms,' he says."
Casa Gracia, Valle de Guadalupe, Baja California, Mexico
Also by Jorge Gracia: Villa Gracia, Francisco Zarco, Baja California, Mexico
Josh Brevoort & Lisa Chun
"Brevoort performs the same ritual each time he arrives at the Glass Cabin: 'I walk through the woods, drop my bags in the house, and walk straight out to the overlook so that I reconnect with the forest and the water. I want to know where the tide is, what logs have washed up, what has changed.'"
La Conner Glass Cabin, La Conner, Washington, US
Martin Gruber
"Gruber drew on his love of walking in the mountains and the energy it gives when he decided that glass would be a dominant material. Blurring the line between outdoors and in allows for feeling that energy—without having to climb a hill. He also strived to create both transparency and protection that offered the chance to 'feel' a snowstorm or thunder shower without actually being in one."
Freiform, Verdings, Trentino-Alto Adige, Italy
Also by Martin Gruber: Anders Suites, Kreuztal, Trentino-Alto Adige, Italy
Anson Fogel
"Nature, Fogel insists, leads the way. In fact, he admits that he chose the remote location because of its challenges, which were humbling. 'I wanted it to feel like this house is bowing to the landscape, that it is an homage to it,' he says. 'We’re not trying to pretend that we are better than it, to overpower it.'"
The Periphery, Boulder, Utah, US
Diego Villaseñor
"Villaseñor placed windows in Casa Ayehualco according to the movement of the sun and how it reflects at various moments of the day. 'You see birds coming, the shadows moving, the clouds shifting. It is very important that you feel you are part of the ecology that surrounds you,' he says."
Casa Ayehualco, Amatlán de Quetzalcóatl, Morelos, Mexico
Also by Diego Villaseñor:
El Palmar, Playa Grande, Oaxaca, Mexico
House of the Sun, Ixtapa-Zihuatanejo, Guerrero, Mexico
Casa Torre, Careyes, Jalisco, Mexico
Dagmar Štěpánová
"When thick gray clouds drift low during Costa Rica’s rainy season, one will occasionally float right through Studio House, the dreamy aerie Dagmar Štěpánová built for herself in the lush hills overlooking Playa Hermosa (Osa) in Puntarenas Province on the Pacific Coast."
Studio House is Štěpánová's private home, but she has applied the same principles to Achioté, two frameless glass pagodas close by.
Photo: BoysPlayNice
Vânia Brito Fernandes
"There is what [Peter] Zumthor calls a 'sensuous connection to life' at Casa 1923, in the way that it both reaches into the distant past and poetically embraces the present. So much so that Brito Fernandes decided to make it a home for herself and her school-age son. 'There is a purity in the rooms here, in the way that materials and light interact that is just so soothing,' she says."
Casa 1923 is not available for stays, but you can visit Casa Modesta, in Moncarapacho, Faro, Portugal, the celebrated small hotel the architect created with her family.
Andrew Trotter
"Trotter is often credited with luring creative types to the region more than a decade ago with Masseria Moroseta, the first of more than a dozen casas and masserias (Puglian farmhouses) now in his design portfolio, each one rooted in vernacular architecture."
Trotter's home Casa Soleto is not available for stays, but we have four of his other designs in our collection.
Villa Cardo, Carovigno, Puglia, Italy
Masseria Moroseta, Ostuni, Puglia, Italy
Borgo Gallana, Oria, Puglia, Italy
Numero Venti, Florence, Tuscany, Italy
Anna Noguera
"Since 2022, when she completed Casa en el Turó del Coll, the home she designed for her family, the Barcelona-based founder of Arquitectura Anna Noguera has been living in direct contact with nature without leaving the city at all. Noguera tapped into the principles of biophilic design to take advantage of what only Mother Nature can supply: natural light, air, water, plants, animals, weather, and vistas."
Noguera's family home is not available for stays, but her Girona Townhouse is.
Photo: Alemanys 5
Maximilian Jencquel
"Jencquel has created a timeless home that feels lived-in and soulful. 'It’s not an architect's house or a designer's house. It's not trendy or overdesigned. It's a home,' he says. The designer is comfortable pointing out its flaws—the wood wasn’t dried properly, the insulation is lacking, and the windows leak. But none of that matters to him, because the house makes him feel something. 'It connects you to nature. It's like a piece of music that grabs you—warm, flawed, and alive.'"
While Jencquel's private residence, Rumah Purnama, is not available for stays, Rumah Hujan is.
How Architects Live by Marc Blazer (Artisan Books, October 2026) is available wherever you buy books.
