Bruges may be best known for its centuries-old stepped-gable structures edging cobblestoned streets and narrow canals, and for its urban squares enclosed by idiosyncratic Gothic and Flemish Renaissance buildings.

There are any number of reasons to envy Ryan Burns and his wife, Aline Nakashima.

People driving by Bill Perry's aptly named Heavy Metal House frequently stop to admire the 5,000-square-foot, one-story structure that sprawls across its 8-acre wooded site.

There's a swirl at the center of UNStudio's House Beside a Vineyard outside Stuttgart, Germany.

There's no running around naked in Sosuke Fujimoto's House NA. The 3-D matrix of tiny rooms and exterior terraces—all located on different floor levels—is encased almost entirely with see-through glass.

Step through the filigreed entry gates, and you've clearly entered another world.

'Now, the early guys got it. Schindler, Neutra, Wright,' says Barton Myers, sitting on a ledge of the terrace outside of his most recent steel and glass house in Montecito, California, completed in 2009.

Many architects claim they build with light, as if they possess an alchemical ability to make the ethereal material.