Overview: Karl and Robin Lieffering’s wooden home clings to a rock above the beach near Whangarei. In fact this home is so much a part of the landscape that the rock surface has been left exposed on the interior to make up one wall of the house. Silvio Rech and Lesley Carstens built what looks like a safari retreat in Johannesburg, inspired by traditional African design with round rooms and thatched roofs. The Martello Towers on the coast of Britain were built to repel the French Army during the Napoleonic wars, and now surveyor Guy Ruddy has transformed one into a cozy home.