Dwell's Top 10 Best Homes In America

The editors at Dwell sifted through the hundreds of homes featured over the past ten years to create their new special issue, Best Homes in America.

Examining the archives, they were impressed all over again by the ingenuity of the architects and homeowners that had filled their pages and inspired millions of readers. There's the iT House, a desert pre-fab in Pioneertown, California, that boasts a framing system of steel usually reserved for robotics. And Indiana’s famed Miller House, designed by Eero Saarinen and Alexander Girard, with fabrics and personalized hand woven rugs still adorning the walls and floors. And a New York townhouse that utilizes old truck beds for bay window. From these and others, Dwell assembled their top 10.

Dwell magazine's Best Homes in America is on newsstands now and available at Barnes & Noble, Whole Foods, Hudson News and other outlets through February. For more information, go to dwell.com

Comments

[BuyersEdge]

11:02 AM on 12/27/2011

Many of these homes are some of the best homes in America. However as an exclusive buyer’s agent, I think that some of the best homes I saw in 2011 were at the U.S. Department of Energy Solar Decathlon Solar competitio­n this past September in Washington­, DC. Since 2002, this is award-winn­ing program occurs biennially­. The purpose is to challenge collegiate teams from all over the world to design, build, and operate solar powered homes that are cost-effec­tive, energy-eff­icient and attractive­. The winner of the competitio­n is the team that best blends affordabil­ity, consumer appeal, and design excellence with optimal energy production and maximum efficiency­.

Nineteen teams won the privilege to build their innovative home designs on the National Mall’s West Potomac Park. College students came from Belgium, China, New Zealand, Canada, Virginia, Maryland, Tennessee, Florida and Vermont. Some universiti­es had highly rated architectu­ral and engineerin­g schools. Though University of Maryland won the competitio­n, my favorite home was designed by Middlebury College. Middlebury is a liberal arts college in Vermont that has a student body total of 2400 and does not have an architectu­ral or engineerin­g school.

The amazing team of young people designed an eco-friend­ly home that truly was a livable home for a family of four. I love this house! America needs to build more homes like this. Take a minute and check it out: http://www­.youtube.c­om/watch?v­=gtA04beq1­2E
Add this to the list of America’s Best Homes!
Wendy Israel buyersagen­t.com

[sgkofi]

09:37 AM on 11/28/2011

Good golly people! Buy the magazine and then make your judgment!

[mlaiuppa]

03:32 PM on 11/25/2011

All I see is style and no substance.

I don't see or read much in the way of green or sustainable.

[Gregory White 1]

11:40 AM on 11/25/2011

You don't get much privacy the first house. Everybody will know what you are doing.

[JScott]

09:19 AM on 11/27/2011

It's way out in the desert the neighbors (if you have em) are way way way far away.

[mikeyaz17]

11:27 AM on 11/25/2011

you people who are dissing the modernist aesthetic really have no clue... do you???

i realize that these spaces are about, space, warmth, light and beautiful proportion and that they don't have the usual insipid, decoration without any structural reason for being... much like the fox news morning anchor team...

but please take an architecture and art history class.. LEARN SOMETHING.. learn that there is taste beyond the housewives of new jersey

philistines...

[Dewts]

11:38 AM on 11/25/2011

did you have to take a class to know 'For Whom the Bell Tolls' is an amazing novel? or 'The Sound and the Fury'?

did you need a degree to know Charlie Parker is about as good as it gets?

you are wrong.

[David Keith]

11:19 AM on 11/25/2011

Whoa! They all look exactly the same!

Definitely not my style. I hate these buildings. They look more like public spaces than private homes.

[Ariana Avitia]

02:20 PM on 02/21/2012

They're called modern homes.

[larmarch5]

10:58 AM on 11/25/2011

A few of thse, the farmhouse for example, hardly shows the house at all. The last one, a 2000 sq ft house on/near the beach looks like a corner nook in a library; is that really part of the house -- white tile floor, flimsy table, some book shelves, one corner window?

[gbtusa]

10:09 AM on 11/25/2011

Looks like none of them have kids running around in the house. Let loose a couple of those for a few minutes and then take pictures.

[Bebe36]

09:59 AM on 11/25/2011

I am not sure how "best" was determined, but the one I live in is the best, IMHO.

Lots of comfort, lots of light, surrounded by beautiful trees and plants.

I would not trade it for any of the ones in the article.

[jojofrance]

11:10 AM on 11/25/2011

Yup, the best home is where your heart is.

[Bebe36]

11:46 AM on 11/25/2011

Yes, it is...

[modoro428]

09:50 AM on 11/25/2011

Sorry, but my home is the best home in America.

[Bluesky555]

09:49 AM on 11/25/2011

The problem I see with glass houses and huge glass walls such as the ones featured here, is that not only does one feel "exposed" to the elements and wildlife, but at the same time the elements and wildlife are exposed to the interior, artificial lights, and activity of the home.
Not exactly a non-intrusive infusion of habitats....

[Ariana Avitia]

02:22 PM on 02/21/2012

That's modern Architecture.

[mollynova]

09:15 AM on 11/25/2011

I don't get that "curl up in a little nook and read a book" feel from these home. Granted we only saw one picture per house and those shots were livingroom shots or exterior shots. Still, not a thing looks cozy to me. The thought of living in #1 with all windows and no "walls" or, at least, curtains would truly be living in a fish bowl. I'll pass.

[robbor]

10:37 AM on 11/25/2011

agree, most seem designed less with the client's comfort in mind than an exercise in design aesthetic, too intellectual without soul.

[Euglena Vorticella]

08:54 AM on 11/25/2011

I was looking for the Kauffman House, in Palm Springs, my favorite.

[JScott]

09:21 AM on 11/27/2011

or CSH 22

[Euglena Vorticella]

09:59 AM on 11/27/2011

I do not know that one.

[frank day]

08:35 AM on 11/25/2011

I like #7 and #9.

But I've seen many homes nicer than these 10.

[mcbaby2]

08:29 AM on 11/25/2011

I love these houses. No clutter! Yes, yes, yes~!