Conteneurs

One of the benefits of building into the hillside is that Catherine and her dog, Lydia, are able to access the home's rooftop deck.

The custom brick fireplace was designed as one piece, with no separate materials for the mantle or the foreground bench.

The new prefab unit is located just a few meters from the main home—a thatched-roof cottage that dates back to the 1950s. “The dark color of the cladding blends into the dark hedges in the garden, so the unit doesn’t attract too much attention,” says Vriesema.

When Oslo-based architect Marianne Borge was approached in 2004 by a client who wanted an actual cabin rather than a second home, she was instantly inspired by the challenge of working on a smaller scale. The home, called Woody35, has a distinct shape that makes it stand out from its surroundings despite the modest size of the building.

Minim Homes are wrapped in beautiful shiplapped cypress that will gently age to gray—and they can be outfitted with 960-watt solar systems to go entirely off grid. Production of the homes is currently on hold, but interested parties can purchase plans on Minim’s website.

At 23 years old, self-taught designer Mariah Hoffman set out to craft her own 156-square-foot sanctuary.

Australia-based firm Contained specializes in transforming cargo vessels into well-designed lodgings. Each 20-foot shipping container easily opens up, flips out, and unfolds into a luxurious hotel room.

Inspired by a picture of a lunar lander, naval architect Kurt Hughes designed and built a 250-square-foot tiny house that perches in the shrub-steppe landscape of Eastern Washington and serves as his weekend getaway on a remote plot next to the Columbia River. Constructed with plywood, foam and fiberglass (with the same strength as A36 steel), the compact dwelling is epoxy encapsulated (and therefore fire-proof). Hughes painted the exterior white to protect against UV damage. A galley kitchen, a bathroom, a breakfast nook, a lower-level bedroom (accessed via a ship ladder) and plenty of storage comprise the interior. Hughes also incorporated an outdoor deck and a clear geodesic dome that tops the structure and floods the interior with natural light.

Immerso Glamping, a 65-square-foot prefab structure designed by Italian architects Fabio Vignolo and Francesca Turnaturi, is located in the Piedmont region of Italy. With a simple palette of birch plywood and plexiglass, the cabin was inspired by the architects’ experience designing easy-to-assemble, flat-packed cabins for disaster relief. You can book it on Airbnb for around $90.

The house has two modules: a living space on the left and a utilities, laundry, and outdoor kitchen on the right.

Affordable, adorable, and in many cases, transportable, these tiny homes made a big impact on our readers this year.

The roofline of the Tind house prototype, designed by Claesson Koivisto Rune for prefab company Fiskarhedenvillan, has more conventional Swedish gables than the flat-roofed modernism of typical prefab units.

The design of the roofline matches the slope of the site.

The shipping containers are stacked five across and five high. The modular system enables the building to be dismantled and relocated at the end of Stow-Away’s lease.

Amagansett Modular House by MB Architecture

Natural green hues are incorporated throughout, including the bedding and artwork. Raca Architekci designed the custom-built headboards seen in the cabins.

Settled on a picturesque hillside in Somona, California, the Connect 5 residence features stunning floor-to-ceiling windows, which allow warm natural light to flood through the home.

This house has an exterior of black panels and clear-grain cedar tongue-and-groove siding, and a rooftop deck that lets its owners enjoy the outdoors.