Excerpted from our new book Gardenista: The Definitive Guide to Stylish Outdoor Spaces, here’s a look at one of our favorite photo shoots on Cape Cod.
The Wellfleet home of Boston-based architects Rodolfo Machado and Jorge Silvetti features a tree-covered promontory surrounded by salt grass and slow tides. The couple liked the spot so much they built a tiny house on it that does double duty as a workspace and guest lodgings. After that, all they had to do was revive the preexisting kitchen garden to create an outdoor wonderland that hews to the modest vernacular of the Cape.
N.B.: Order the Gardenista book here.
Photography by Matthew Williams.

Above: The architects call it a folly, and their garden designer, Tim Callis, calls it a former chicken coop. But there?s no debate over the success of the office studio Machado and Silvetti built in 1995 on a spit of land jutting into a tidal salt marsh, complete with an ersatz dock known as the ?runway.? Hardy cedar chairs accommodate loungers year-round.
Above: Although the studio has a tiny footprint, it packs in two built-in desks, both with water views, and a loft bed reached by ladder. The architects made deliberate references to tree houses, using stripped trunks inside and out as structural elements. An Artemide Tolomeo lamp?the workhorse favorite of architects everywhere?provides targeted light when the wraparound windows don?t quite do the trick.

Above: The house came with an aging, picket-fence-enclosed veg...