A glowing lantern signifies a place that’s warm and welcoming, and a construction which models itself on a lantern can convey exactly the same characteristics. The following three projects — a cottage, a barn house and a reclaimed barn — give away a powerful presence through exteriors that glow at night.

As we look at these layouts, let’s remember that the inverse is true: What glows from the inside out at night also beams from the exterior in during the day.

Taylor Smyth Architects

Taylor Smyth Architects’ Sunset Cabin overlooks Lake Simcoe in Ontario. It’s a simple one-room cottage with a semienclosed outdoor space for looking at the sunset over the lake. The enclosed space features insulated glass behind bamboo slats; the spaces between the horizontal members allow the box to glow at night.

Taylor Smyth Architects

Here we can see the cottage relates to the lake. The far side of the cottage is where the porch is situated, toward the water and the pier.

Taylor Smyth Architects

Moving closer we could see the way the slats are arranged like a “crude hut” of branches constructed in the wilderness, since the architect’s project description clarifies it. Depending on the time of day, the cottage can appear open and glistening, or closed off and opaque.

Taylor Smyth Architects

Here’s a glance in the single room in the porch. Given its size, very little light is needed to make the construction glow, and the large pane of glass beside the glass door signifies that the light pops from the porch.

Taylor Smyth Architects

As I mentioned at the beginning of the ideabook, a glowing lantern also accepts light. In cases like this the slats paint daylight kaleidoscopically on the glass, frames and other areas of the cottage. The slats also make the construction bird friendly and give the owners a good vantage point for seeing them.

Empire Construction & Development

The Blair Barn House at Blair, Wisconsin, is created by Alchemy Architects, that was inspired by traditional barns without aping their forms. The architects describe the project as “a house that takes all its clues in the 19th century, but updates them for the 21st century.” Barn siding is employed, but it is held apart to allow light in and out, very similar to the Sunset Cabin we found previously. At night the house looks more like an art object or an unfinished construction than something individuals reside in. No matter the glow is welcoming.

Empire Construction & Development

Contrast the night appearance with that during the day, once the exterior looks stronger. Huge openings cut within the spaced wood boards bring in more light and frame views of the environment.

Empire Construction & Development

One way in which the spaced wood boards works is by enclosing this porch. Filtered light comes through, as do cooling breezes. Want more view or light? Only lift open the window (middle) or slip open the door (at right). The sun hitting the timber and illuminating the space is very nice, producing the sensation of being inside a lantern.

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Studio Carver Architects, Inc..

This final example is a barn-turned-guesthouse in California made by Robert Carver. A 100-year-old, 2,000-square-foot heavy timber window has been rebuilt on a ranch in Santa Ynez, but in lieu of timber, Carver chosen for translucent panels that give the building a distinctive glow.

Studio Carver Architects, Inc..

Throughout the day the barn looks weathered; the sole detail is that the grid of Kalwall, the material used for the outside walls. Kalwall is a lightweight product made from 2 layers of plastic with insulating material in between.

Studio Carver Architects, Inc..

Considering that the material is lightweight, it could be used easily for enormous doors — like these, which open both floors of the house to the outside.

Studio Carver Architects, Inc..

Kalwall is made from translucent surfaces, so the material easily receives slopes. Here we can see the diagonal bracing “painted” on the inner surface of the wall.

Studio Carver Architects, Inc..

Moving inside through the big opening, we could see the way the translucent wall panels operate exactly the identical way through the day: Shadows in the trees have been cast on the outside, and the inside is covered with a very even light.

Studio Carver Architects, Inc..

Depending on the time of day, exposures receiving direct sunlight glow substantially. The gap between both of these vertical surfaces is very clear.

Studio Carver Architects, Inc..

The areas with less of it’s plenty of light, although the entire construction is not clad with Kalwall.

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