Micro Studio Apt.

One of the "Boxes for Living," featuring the ladder-accessible loft that doubles as a bedroom.

An apartment's bedroom space and box. "How much do people pay to try to get distressed brick in their room nowadays?" asks Melissa. "We wanted to highlight that and not break it up."

Perched quietly on the dunes of New Zealand’s Coromandel Peninsula, Hut on Sleds serves as a small, sustainable beach retreat for a family of five.

This compact vacation home by TACO—or, Taller de Arquitectura Contextual—is immersed in southeastern Mexico’s wild landscape. The home is designed for a pair of young adults, and the firm’s objective was to achieve a reflective and contemplative place that links the occupants with the surrounding environment. The result is an intuitive, functional, and simple living experience that offers great spatial warmth.

The petite prefab cabin only took eight days to assemble once arriving to Switzerland.

A glimpse of Heva's interior and deck.

Type St. Apartment floor plan

In Texas, where everything is bigger, Ryan McLaughlin is placing his bets on something small. Specifically, a simple 160-square-foot cabin that he hopes city-dwellers will book to get away, find some focus, and reconnect with nature. The result is a laidback, pitched-roof cabin in which every inch of space is thoughtfully allotted so that guests can spend the maximum amount of time outdoors.

The unit can be configured to allow room for meal preparation around a built-in kitchen.