Fir-veneer plywood wraps the entire interior of a compact guest cabin with a 12-by-15-foot footprint, smaller than a single-car garage.

In the bathroom, the teal mosaic tile hug the curves of the walls, ceiling, and built-in shelving.

A single bowl sink is self-explanatory: it consists of a sink that is not divided up into separate areas.

With Maze and Dream, the architect had to find a balance between the practical needs of a hotel suite and awe-inspiring, spatial effects.

A sunlit, open-plan living room, dining room, and kitchen are located on the first level.

The architect's selected starkly different dark and light hues to echo their contrast of new and old.

Like many of Benepe's projects, planting P.S. 111's playground is more than a quality of life improvement. The grass and other flora help absorb flood water during storms, relieving pressure on the city's drainage systems.

At P.S. 111, the Trust for Public Land transformed an asphalt eyesore into a green sanctuary for New York City schoolchildren.

ICON developed its Vulcan I 3D printer over a period of about two years. The gantry-style printer on rails is mobile and weighs about 2,000 pounds.

The bed is flanked by two staircases, one of which is hidden behind a white curtain. Hidden storage is integrated into the stair design.

A classroom in PS 313.

A student from PS 47 in the Bronx.

For PS 234 in Manhattan's Tribeca neighborhood, Macrae-Gibson designed a colorful walkway to connect the main school building to a modern addition designed by the firm in 2008. The walkway, adjacent to a play yard, protects students and teachers from the elements as they move from one area to another.

The custom leather platform bed was designed by Shikany’s firm, PS Studios.

PS 313 is a school in Sunnyside, Queens for 432 kindergarteners through fifth graders that opened in the fall of 2014. Equipped with a central courtyard and rooftop play area, the brick masonry building has attained a green rating from New York City.

The red steel-framed structure is lined with perforated metal panels in a variety of colors.

If a dim breakfast nook or counter has you down, add a bit of light overhead. Ikea's PS Collection LED lamp is handsome and energy efficient. $99 from ikea.com.

Hy-Fi, The Living's installation for MoMA PS1, "temporarily diverts the natural carbon cycle to produce a building that grows out of nothing but earth and returns to nothing but earth—with almost no waste, no energy needs, and no carbon emissions," says Benjamin.

The lush spaces of the Garden Room interweave plants into its organic form.

Architect Javier Senosiain created this remarkable home on a hilly site near Mexico City. “The green dune wraps itself around the inside spaces almost completely, rendering it almost invisible. From the outside, all one sees are grass, bushes, trees, and flowers,” he says.

Macrae-Gibson designed a 45,000-square-foot structure to add to PS 196Q's existing 1952 building in Forest Hills, Queens. The new building houses a new cafeteria and play yard deck and space for 644 additional students.

Hackney sofa by Wrong for Hay. See it at Via Ciovassino 3a.

The naturally formed bricks that comprise the structure are made of a corn byproduct and a material from mushrooms.

The winner of the 2012 MoMA/PS1 Young Architects Program, this structure by HWKN has a titanium-nanoparticle-coated skin that absorbs carbon dioxide.

Dunbar describes the bathroom as an outside-in room because it has light, air, and sometimes, when it drizzles and the skylight left open, even rain. Designed for exactly these circumstances, a blue-glass mosaic tile floor is laid at an angle to drain with ease.

French designer Matali Crasset's wardrobe for Ikea PS 2014 ($179) is an open piece that comes with dozens of colorful tabs that can be arranged and rearranged on the metal mesh front. Crasset describes it as "free from codes—due to its camouflage it adapts to any kind of home." For more Matali Crasset, check out the farmhouse she renovated which Dwell featured in our March 2014 issue.

The top-heavy towers were meant to invert structural conventions, as well as material ones. "The structure inverts the logic of load-bearing brick construction and creates a gravity-defying effect," Benjamin says.

Ikea's PS 2014 collection includes modular wall storage in bamboo veneer framed in powder-coated steel. Also available in black and white, though earthy red sure complements the warm wood tones. $34 at Ikea

For their MOMA PS1 Young Architect's Prize-winning design, titled Afterparty, MOS designed these thatch-covered thermal chimneys. The tower-like structures draw warm air upwards, cooling the spaces below to keep visitors comfortable. To further cool the pavilion, mist was sprayed on the thatch: the water droplets would absorb the surrounding heat and evaporate, taking the heat with them.

Ingrid Blans and Tjibbe Knol relax outside their home, which is made of various recycled materials such as dismantled cable reels, old billboards, and broken umbrellas. Inside, a vintage shop display case exhibits a small fraction of the couple's collection of art and objects.

The DFAB House officially opened its doors at the end of February 2019. Construction began in 2017.

Margrethe Odgaard says of her Ikea PS 2014 mirror, “I was inspired by traveling in Eastern Europe, where I found rural homes with walls covered with textiles, floors with painted tiles, and mirrors decorated with stained glass foil. The carefully structured decorations inspired me to make a grid, in which I could use various lines and colors to create different patterns."

The entire PS 2012 range, prototyped and photographed on the factory floor in Sweden.

An IKEA PS Vågö chair sits on a small treated-pine deck off the master bedroom.

A trio of Polish designers—Krystian Kowalski, Maja Ganszyniec, and Paweł Jasiewicz—came up with this secretary ($189), which allows for a flexible workspace within a small apartment or hallway.

PS 2014 corner cabinet by Keiji Ashizawa for Ikea. For its PS 2014 line, Ikea collaborated with international designers to create furniture targeted to renters, including this triangular cabinet built to tuck into underutilized corner spaces.