The April issue of Places: Design & Living, out with The Sunday Times of Malta tomorrow, travels overseas to mountain and seaside projects that have both embraced nature, rather than competed with it.

Austrian architect Peter Lorenz shares with the magazine his ideas about building an ultra-modern light and floaty longitudinal house on a hillside outside Innsbruck and how nature should never be corrected.

Meanwhile, in South Africa, two friends describe how they designed a refreshingly cliché-free beach house with a difference through a craft-inspired aesthetic and natural textures to create a home comfortable in its surroundings, with a décor scheme featuring wood, raffia and basketry.

Art always finds its way into the magazine, with the life of paintings being extended into new spaces as they move from canvas to cushions, and travel this time focuses on a offbeat food tour of Valletta.

Practical tips about durable doors and windows; natural and sustainable wood for outdoors; and the right lighting to illuminate outside spaces also feature in the bimonthly magazine, while conservation, culture and cuisine all find their rightful place.

From rooftop biblical gardens to Chinese terracotta figures, there is something for everyone in the April issue of Places: Design & Living, an Allied Newspapers Limited Publication, published by Progress Press.