When you think of backyards, the first things you probably think: Dogs woofing, July 4th grilling, swingsets. Then again, you're not a senior Apple exec by day, and an art collector on the weekends.

As Metropolis reports: "The Japanese maple in Jeff Dauber's San Francisco backyard is not at the center of a carbon-sucking vortex." His deck, built by Berkeley-based architect Thom Faulders is actually flat. Metropolis calls it a sort of homage to Francesco Borromini's Palazzo Spada in Rome, where the Renaissance architect employed a mathematician to make an eight-meter arcade look 37 meters long. Faulders used 3-D-modeling software to achieve the dipping effect. The deck looks like it's sloping away from you, Apple's Dauber says, adding, "I wanted someone to barf when they look at it."

Faulder's also designed Dauber's entire home--another experiment in complex, computer generated tiling. I'll bet no one at Microsoft has a house nearly as cool.

For more on the latest project, check out Metropolis.