Tiny Spaces

Millennium City is an experiment in sustainable living created by Japanese architect Hiroshi Iguchi. The buildings, shown in the photo above, utilize natural light by using floor-to-ceiling windows as walls. Inhabitants of the commune use the space as a way to escape from the hustle of nearby Tokyo. Photo by Alessio Guarino.

Custom-designed furniture outfits the interior of a bunker-turned-vacation retreat in the Netherlands.

When she visits the Watershed, Kathleen's writing accoutrements are limited to paper and pencil.

Erin Moore of FLOAT Architectural Research and Design, based in Tucson, Arizona, designed a 70-square-foot writer’s retreat in Wren, Oregon, for her mother, Kathleen Dean Moore, a nature writer and professor of philosophy at nearby Oregon State University. The elder Moore wanted a small studio in which to work and observe the delicate wetland ecosystem on the banks of the Marys River. Enlisting her daughter’s design expertise, her professor husband’s carpentry savoir faire, the aid of friends, and a front loader, Kathleen and her crew erected the structure in September 2007. Photo by Gary Tarleton. Totally off the grid—–Kathleen forgoes the computer and writes by hand when there—–the Watershed was designed to tread as lightly on the fragile ecosystem as the wild turkeys and Western pond turtles that live nearby. “

Jaanus Orgusaar's NOA cabin in the Virumaa region of northeast Estonia. The structure rests on three feet, so it doesn't require a foundation.

For an adaptive reuse project in Toronto, Levitt Goodman Architects used a shipping container as a visitors' center.

Maziar Behrooz designed this container studio set amid lush trees.