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The two-bedroom ADU features built-ins in every room

Throughout the pandemic, Annie, a hairstylist, used the Perch as a salon, but it doubles as a two-bedroom apartment.

Sub-Zero and Wolf appliances are featured in the kitchen, alongside custom-milled, seamless cabinets and drawers.

Stop Making Sense ADU by Bunch Design floor plan

Floor Plan of the Perch by Nicole Blair

Cover's building system works like life-size LEGO blocks, creating unique floor plans for each use case out of the same prefab panels.

Floor plan of Haseman House by Willa Work

Technically, this small building is not a tree house, since it’s braced at the ground by supports, but Grey didn’t want to compromise the tree, which “doesn’t have a very long lifespan,” the designer says. “So, I didn’t want to jeopardize however long that tree had with any excess baggage.”

The two new buildings create a courtyard-like feel in the small urban backyard.

West Adams House floor plan

Five House by M Gooden Design floor plan

Floor Plan of Mouse House by Shin Shin Architects

Floor Plan of St. Andrews ADU by Assembledge+

In the newly constructed volume, the living room of the ADU would double as an art gallery, connected to—or closed off from—the rest of the residential wing via a pocket door. Separate entrances to the gallery and living/sleeping zones would allow private access for a future renter or caregiver, or the couple’s adult children when they visited.

T+E+A+M completed Northwood ADU in Ann Arbor, Michigan, in late summer 2021.

Located on New Zealand’s North Island along the Coromandel Peninsula, this timber-clad shipping container house by Crosson Clarke Carnachan Architects captures the simplicity of living with nature. An open-plan layout extends the interior toward the surrounding landscape and ocean, while a built-in mechanism reveals a drop-down deck on one side of the unique holiday home.