Blending Architecture and Nature: Meet the 2024 Best of LaCantina Winners!

Architizer is thrilled to unveil the winners of one of this year’s most exciting architectural design contests!

Now in its seventh year, the Best of LaCantina design competition attracted outstanding submissions from leading architecture and design firms across the United States. This year’s winning projects showcase the extraordinary versatility of LaCantina’s door and window systems with more originality than ever, highlighting a multitude ways that their products can be harnessed to create seamless indoor-outdoor connections for clients. Located in diverse geographies across the country, these award-winning designs highlight the transformative impact that LaCantina Doors can have on spaces, whether in rural, suburban, or urban settings.

The winner of the coveted Best in Show prize is Colorado-based firm KA Designworks, which scooped the top accolade for Cortina 10, a stunning mountain residence with breathtaking views perfectly framed by LaCantina bifold doors. KA Designworks wins two tickets plus travel and accommodation to the 2025 AIA Conference in Boston, as well as a special editorial feature on Architizer, to be published in the coming weeks.

Without further ado, let’s explore the 2024 Best of LaCantina winners, each of which forms a compelling case study illustrating how — with the right windows and doors — architecture can be truly one with its environment.

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Best in Show: Cortina 10 by KA Designworks, Mountain Village, Colorado
Collaborators: Aceto Landscape Architects

Nestled in the breathtaking San Juan Mountains of Colorado, Cortina 10 is a ski-in/ski-out residence that harmonizes luxurious indoor living with the rugged beauty of its surroundings. The home’s open design invites guests to take in nearly 180-degree views of the landscape through vast glass elements that allow natural light to flood the interior. Key to this design are the folding doors by LaCantina, which open up the great room to an expansive deck equipped with seating, a fire-pit, outdoor kitchen and hot tub.

KA Designworks praised LaCantina for their ability to “open entire walls,” transforming decks into vibrant outdoor living spaces. These folding doors blur the line between indoors and outdoors, allowing residents to enjoy the beauty of the mountains without leaving the comfort of the home. “It’s not just about creating a space; it’s about crafting an experience that celebrates the interplay between architecture and nature,” the firm explained.

In addition to enhancing the home’s visual appeal, LaCantina’s folding doors excel in thermal performance, ensuring that the home remains energy efficient despite its large glass openings. “We were able to bask in those breathtaking views without compromising on energy efficiency or overall building performance,” says the firm, underscoring the perfect balance of style and function that LaCantina brings to this remarkable mountain residence.

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Most Innovative & Best Compact Project: Portage Bay Float Home by Studio DIAA, Seattle, Washington

The Portage Bay Float Home, a 650-square-foot floating residence on Seattle’s Lake Union, exemplifies how thoughtful design can expand small spaces. This high-craft home uses LaCantina doors — including dual inswing kitchen doors, multislide doors for the living room and sliding pocket doors for the bedrooms — to create a fluid connection between the interior and the surrounding deck. These carefully chosen elements allow the home to gather and reflect light, fostering a sense of spaciousness and making the outdoor deck feel like an integral part of the living area.

Studio DIAA emphasized their design philosophy, saying: “We chose LaCantina doors as a key element of our design [because they] facilitate an uninterrupted connection between the indoors and outdoors.” They explained that LaCantina doors “played a pivotal role in redefining the spatial dynamics of the home,” by “allowing us to expand the living area beyond its physical confines” and creating a harmonious flow between indoor and outdoor spaces. This intentional design approach dissolved traditional boundaries, making the deck feel like an extension of the home’s total square footage.

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Best Urban Residential Project: Modern Mediterranean by BBA Architects, Chicago, Illinois
Collaborators: Bigane Construction, Dawn Reeves Interior Design

The Modern Mediterranean home blends classic Mediterranean architecture with a modern twist, creating a bright and airy space that maximizes its double lot in the city. The design strategically places floor-to-ceiling windows and generous openings to bring in natural light while maintaining privacy. One of the key features is a custom LaCantina servery window which BBA Architects explains “functions as a pocketing window, opening completely to the covered terrace as the panels stack and tuck into the wall,” transforming the kitchen into a seamless indoor-outdoor space.

BBA Architects highlighted how the LaCantina doors seamlessly connect the interior to the exterior. This thoughtful design creates an ideal space for entertaining, with the firm noting that the bi-parting door “allows for a continuous entertaining space between the kitchen and back terrace,” blending style and function to enhance the overall experience of the home.

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Best Suburban Residential Project: The Trailblazer by Citizen.Design, Renton, Washington

Situated on an 18-acre wooded site in Maple Valley, Washington, the Trailblazer is a contemporary home that smoothly blends with the natural landscape. The house is composed of four rotated gabled volumes, connected by light-filled breezeways that invite nature into the circulation spaces. At the heart of the design, a 20-foot-wide by 10-foot-tall LaCantina sliding door connects the main living room and the family room to an outdoor living area, offering expansive views of the nearby creek and creating a strong indoor-outdoor connection.

The architecture firm chose LaCantina for its contemporary look and praised the doors’ “thin stiles and rails and the flush stacking feature,” which were key factors in specifying the system. The doors helped overcome the challenge of creating a large opening, and the firm noted that they were able to “utilize a nearly flush sill between the interior concrete floors and the exterior concrete patio,” ensuring a subtle transition between indoor and outdoor spaces. The result is a home that flows naturally, with LaCantina doors enhancing both the aesthetics and functionality of the design.

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Best Rural Residential: Little House/Big Shed by David Van Galen Architecture, Langley, Washington
Contractor: Jade Craftsman Builders; Supplier: Island Sash and Door, Inc.

Set within a second-growth forest, Little House/Big Shed is a tranquil retreat designed to blend harmoniously with its natural surroundings. The home’s connection to the landscape is enhanced through thoughtful siting, large expanses of glass, and the use of LaCantina folding doors, which open the interior to the surrounding fir trees. These doors provide access to a spacious deck, creating a continuous relationship between internal and external living spaces.

The architects noted that the doors “played a significant role in the primary goal of the project: to insert the house as seamlessly as possible into the ecology of the site.” The expansive scale of the doors and their ease of use were key to achieving the design’s success, allowing the home to intimately connect with the forest while maintaining a sense of openness and light.

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Best Commercial Project: Ponzi Vineyards – Laurelwood Event Space by Fogelstrom Design Build Co., Sherwood, Oregon

This carefully detailed addition to the Ponzi Vineyards Tasting Room was designed to create delicately subtle transitions between the interior event space and the private outdoor terraces overlooking the vineyards. Central to this design are the LaCantina bi-parting multislide doors, which span an impressive 10-foot by 20-foot opening from floor to ceiling. These large glass doors allow visitors to experience uninterrupted views of the vineyard while enjoying the event space indoors.

The architecture firm highlighted the doors’ “perfectly clean detailing” and how they “allow the space to gracefully flow to the outside terrace and to the surrounding landscape.” They noted that, when stacked, “it’s as though there are only two doors instead of four,” creating a sleek, unobstructed connection to the outdoors.

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Best Renovation Project: Bel Air by Matic Design and Build, Santa Barbara, California

The redevelopment of this Bel Air residence nimbly merges indoor and outdoor living through the use of custom LaCantina folding doors. Spanning 14, 12, and 10 feet respectively, these floor-to-ceiling doors open up the home to expansive views of the surrounding landscape. By connecting the main living areas and bedrooms to outdoor terraces, the LaCantina doors create a natural flow between the interior and exterior spaces, offering a luxurious, open feel.

Matic Design and Build emphasized how the doors’ custom sizes and 84-inch height were crucial to achieving the desired effect, as they needed something beyond the standard 80 inches. The firm also noted how the doors integrate flawlessly into the wood interior frames, providing both aesthetic appeal and functional performance. The result is a home that feels effortlessly connected to its stunning outdoor surroundings.

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Best Unbuilt/Planned Concept: Desert Pearl Residence by Flynn Architecture & Design, Phoenix, Arizona

The Desert Pearl Residence, set against desert mountains, was designed for an artist and astronomer, with LaCantina’s thermally-controlled folding and sliding doors central to the design. The living-kitchen space features six bays of three-panel folding doors that open fully to the mountains to the south and the shaded courtyard to the north, creating a seamless connection between the interior and the surrounding landscape.

The architecture firm explained that the thermally-broken aluminum frames were “key to making the main living space of the house a success,” providing essential protection from the Arizona heat. The open doors “allow free movement between mountains, water, food, and shade,” pulling the center of the home outdoors during cooler months. Matching aluminum frames throughout ensured a cohesive, streamlined look.

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These projects demonstrate the versatility and impact of LaCantina’s products in creating beautiful, functional spaces that connect seamlessly with their surroundings. Each of the 2024 winners has used LaCantina doors and windows to redefine how their buildings engage with the outdoors, offering spaces that are not only aesthetically pleasing but also practical and inviting.

Explore more case studies and learn about the systems behind these winning designs at LaCantinaDoors.com.