Piperi House · Sigurd Larsen · Kythnos, Greece
Photograph: Katie McKnoulty
“When architects design for clients, they listen, translate, and negotiate. When they design for themselves, those filters fall away. What remains is a clearer expression of belief—about how space should feel, how time should be spent, and what matters enough to be built around.”
The premise
Architecture is a client-driven discipline, traditionally shaped by customers, budgets, and compromises.
“Architects, in my view, are storytellers of space and life. They hold a conviction that the spaces we inhabit can be forces for good: for individuals, for communities, and for society at large. I wanted to uncover how they live in the environments they create for themselves.”
The book
Creative Retreats for Sanctuary and Gathering
By Marc Blazer. Foreword by Dung Ngo.
The fifteen homes in How Architects Live are a stunning tutorial in how homes have the power to reflect the values of the people who created them: how they shape family life, offer sanctuary, and frame moments of joy and connection.
Inside
01 — A way of living
When architects turn their talents to retreats for themselves, the results are singular, bound up in personal history, a unique design language, and a desire for tranquility.
Jorge Gracia · Valle de Guadalupe, Mexico
The rocks, trees, and natural features were not obstacles to work around but integral elements of the plan.
“If you want a snack at midnight, you will see the stars and moon on your way to the kitchen.”
Sigurd Larsen · Kythnos, Greece
Whitewashed volumes stepping down a treeless hillside, shutters the colour of sage, the Aegean bay just below.
“I got so excited about the level of craziness it takes to build on an island far away. It’s unmatched.”
Josh Brevoort & Lisa Chun · Washington State
Glass on every side under an over-scaled roof, the woods on one hand and the water on the other.
“It’s glorified camping.”
Martin Gruber · South Tyrol, Italy
A 750-square-foot glass pavilion in the shadow of the Dolomites, close to his family home — simple and humble but strong, which can be said of the traditional houses in the Tyrol.
“The point of a second home is not to escape the weather. It’s to finally pay attention to it.”
02 — A way of living
Some architects’ homes are only whole when loved ones are within them.
Vânia Brito Fernandes · Faro, Portugal
Not a single azulejo, the painted tin-glazed ceramic tile synonymous with the area, was missing. The interior, however, was a different story. Behind the double-leaf front doors, the space was in ruins.
03 — A way of living
Architects who seek deep connection to their surroundings have a reverence for the land and desire to honor the light.
Anson Fogel · Utah Wilderness
For architect Anson Fogel and his partner, artist Alexandra Fuller, it was an opportunity to take risks. The Periphery, the unconventional home they built, weaves around trees, with walls of glass, and a corridor full of plants and books.
“Hallways are evil to architects, because they are typically circulation spaces that don’t serve any other purpose.”
To stay
Some of the homes in these pages, and hundreds more in their spirit, live on Boutique. Explore them there — and stay a while.
The author
Marc Blazer is the CEO of Boutique, which with nearly two thousand homes is the preferred vacation home brand for sophisticated world travelers.
He is also co-founder of luxury travel arranger PRIOR, and before that he was the co-owner and chairman of the world-renowned restaurant noma, in Copenhagen, Denmark. Earlier in his career, Blazer was partner and global head of investment banking at Cantor Fitzgerald.
“When we live well, in places that truly nurture us, we create not only better homes but better lives.”
Out October 13, 2026
By Marc Blazer. Foreword by Dung Ngo.
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