Cutting-edge on the Peninsula

They range from classic, Chicago-style modern that’s white and sleek and boxy and recently renovated, to not one but two ‘hyper-Eichlers,’ one of which is super-insulated and dressed with ‘sustainable bamboo cabinetry.’

Dwell’s ‘Silicon Valley Home Tour’ features five homes in Los Altos and Los Altos Hills on Saturday, November 3, and five in Menlo Park, Palo Alto, and Hillsborough on Sunday, November 4. Dwell promises to show “amazing houses pushing residential architecture forward.”

On Friday, November 2, participants can meet the architects at a reception. And for a contribution to Architecture for Humanity, folks can test drive a new Lincoln, visit a prototype prefab house, and tour the Neutra House in Los Altos.

One of the more striking tour homes, by Field Architecture, uses tough-looking buttress walls of poured-in-place concrete to keep the house cool when it’s hot outside, and warm when it’s cold, and features broad overhangs that allow every room in the house to open onto a protected outdoor area.

For more on the Dwell tour, click here.