Where once there was a timeworn 1950s bungalow in the Metropolitan Green Belt south of London, there now stands a dynamic house whose two volumes are joined by a glass atrium. The project was designed by Grant Freeman of OB Architecture.

Ab Rogers dons a bold suit that suits the spirit of the accompanying decor he designed.

“Shophouses brought back memories of our childhoods, of open back doors and neighbors and relatives wandering in and out of the kitchen and cooking and eating and coming and going whether you liked it or not.”—Yang Yeo

Portrait of a couple on their wedding day.

The Basecamp Hotel, South Lake Tahoe Rooms from $125 The Basecamp Hotel, located in South Lake Tahoe, brings boutique-style accommodations to the Sierras. Inside, find a rustic vibe complemented by brightly hued furniture and vintage ephemera. Amenities include a rooftop hot tub, coffee and hot chocolate bar, and places to store ski gear.

South American Beach Escape (Governador Celso Ramos, Brazil) Vacation-worthy beaches are as numerous as one-name soccer stars in Brazil, but this exceptional oceanfront rental offers something a bit different. Sure, the swaying hips of Ipanema aren’t in sight. Instead, you and up to seven other friends can enjoy one of a handful of private beaches, drink on the terrace, perhaps grill fish you caught in the property’s fishing boat or oysters you’ve lifted from neighboring rocks. After a few days stay, the house won’t be the only thing integrated with nature. p>Listing at Exceptional property private beach

Incheon Bridge, South Korea-Providing new road access to Seoul's Incheon International Airport, the bridge is both long (13 miles) and tall (756 feet). It's shown here before its October 2009 completion. Photo by: Ryan Wick

Opening in September of 2012, The South Place is the first hotel project by restaurateurs D&D London who nestled this new 80-room Design Hotel on the extremities of Shoreditch, making it a go-to for well-heeled creatives and their bespectacled cohorts. Conran and Partners peppered the bright rooms with macro houndstooth loungers, craft gin stocked minibars, and glass-sided tubs—a daring and sexy take on the ubiquitous clawfoot. Rooms from $299.

The alignment of the shipping containers creates a courtyard for outdoor seating away from the street.

North/South Bracelets by Luur Studio, $75 each Made in Indiana, Luur Studio's North/South bracelets are a fun, contemporary take on the friendship bracelet. With a range of shapes, colors, and patterns, each of the two halves are made from Corian and linked together with super-strong magnets, making for endless, eye-pleasing combinations that will tempt you and your posse to collect them all.

The building was sited near the sidewalk to create a city-like sense of scale in a suburban setting.

The interior also features simple steel detailing, including this staircase.

Reclaimed timber was used for the ceilings on the underside of the containers that form the second level.

The house is set in a privately owned nature preserve halfway between Charleston and Savannah, on an isthmus between a marsh and a pond. "It's a cool site, very exotic," says architect James Choate. "It feels like a wildlife sanctuary." The resident, a man who works in commercial real estate, wanted a big space with glass walls to "honor the views."

The simple interior finishes include reclaimed timber and concrete floors.

"We’re really focused on being 'of no time,'" he says. "We studied the idea of timelessness, looking at what designs in history have become timeless. Hospitality certainly has an age—the spaces are cool when they open and then they [feel dated]."

The architects stenciled the Foghound logo on the exterior, which is illumiated at night.

The architects retained the original blue shade of the shipping containers.

Big Man on Campus Built on Kolon Engineering and Construction's grounds, the E+ Home is the neighborhood's green building star. From this angle you can see the permeable pavers and sustainable landscaping, like water catchment pools and living walls, that make this place a paragon of green housing.

Roofreader Though they may look like architecture school run amok, the steep pitches and cants of the roof have everything to do with the home’s ecological agenda. By creating a series of green roofs, maximizing daylighting and water catchment, and optimizing the positions of light tubes and building-integrated photovoltaic panels, the roof is a canny mix of passive solar design and state-of-the-art technology.

A custom, steel-framed window and door system reinforces the horizontal lines of the existing bungalow. Just outside the kitchen, Contreras can entertain guests on the patio—warmed on chillier days by a low, rectangular fireplace.

The E+ Green Home, a concept house located an hour outside Seoul, not only points the way to a greener South Korea, it may well be the most sustainable house in the country. Read more: dwell.com/slideshows/...

New Jerusalem Orphanage (Johannesburg, South Africa) 4D and A Architects used more than two dozen containers to help give this institution a more expansive, and inexpensive, home. Beyond the incredible service this structure provides, the use of space and the varied angles of each container give it a compelling modernist look. Photo by Dennis Guichard

The hotel features views of the city's South Bund district.

“Do you really like your building?” the Brook’s director, Paul Pavon, was asked by an acquaintance, who compared the appearance of the 90,000- square-foot supportive housing development in New York’s famously blighted South Bronx to that of the Tetris video game. Indeed he does: “If you walk around this neighborhood, not too many buildings look like this. So there’s some kind of pride when the tenants come home.”

Soccer City Stadium (Johannesburg, South Africa: 2010 World Cup) The “African Pot,” site of many vuvuzelas and victories during the 2010 contest, was designed to resemble the calabash, a curved gourd that was one of the earliest cultivated plants. At night, lights highlight a ring of tan, crimson, and clay colored tiles wrapped around the exterior. Photo by shanediaz120, Creative Commons

Moses Mabhida Stadium (Durban, South Africa: 2010 World Cup) The grandiose steel arch stretching over this stadium, inspired by the “Y” in the South African flag, could also stand in as a metaphor of continuity and reuse, since this stadiums has become a Durban icon. With seating shaded to resemble water flowing into the ocean and a covering of Teflon-coated glass fiber that glows when lit against the night sky, it strikes quite a profile. Attendees can take it all in and ride a funicular to the apex of the arch. Photo by Marcus Bredt

ArchitekturWerkstatt Vallentin designed this seminar and apartment building in Goesan, South Korea, which is a finalist in the educational buildings category.

St. Catherine's Monastery in South Sinai, Egypt-The oldest continually operated library in the world, St. Catherine's Monastery has been around since it was first built by the order of Byzantine Emperor Justinian I, sometime around 564 AD. It currently holds over 3,000 religious and educational manuscripts and approximately 8,000 printed books, including first editions of Homer and Plato. Photo: BBM Explorer

The best place in the city to find knick nacks and jewelry, Greenmarket Square is also one of your best bets for picking up traditional textiles. During our recent trip we were able to find everything from children’s patterned dresses from the Congo to colorful swatches from Malawi. However, if you’re going to venture don’t go wide-eyed—this will be your best place to haggle for a good deal.

Looking south down our street in Fall.

New Abo¯d homes in South Africa.

South: Mark Word Design The garden Mark Word Design created for an Austin, Texas, home sited adjacent to a nature reserve puts water conservation first. “It’s about usage levels, but it’s also about the way we treat storm water and runoff, since it all goes back into our supply at the end of the cycle,” designer Sarah Carr says. Word and his team kept the ratio of paved to unpaved surfaces low and chose plants that help reduce erosion, require little irrigation, and allow storm water to percolate.

The grand, glass-walled great room is a loft-like space that incorporates living room and dining area. A bedroom and bathroom are located on a lofted mezzanine level, over the kitchen, pantry, and utility room.

Mill Junction Student Housing (Johannesburg, South Africa) The developers at Citiq decided to one-up anybody reclaiming and reusing building material by fashioning an 11-story dorm out of shipping containers and abandoned grain silos. This colorful space near the city’s central business district accommodates nearly 400 students in a mish-mash of metal shapes. Photo by Citiq