The Leaf House is a lightweight, mobile trailer that was carefully engineered to weigh less than 5,000 pounds. The designer, Laird Herbert, used a metal-mesh, open-joint rainscreen as the cladding on the front end, and spruce pine at the back.

"I like the more boxy, modern look," Herbert says, "and I think it fits the small space better. You have more space in a box. As soon as you put a peak on a roof, you lose a lot of that usable space."

A super-insulated envelope and a heat-recovery ventilator help keep the Leaf House comfortably warm, even in the brutally cold Canadian winters.

The structure is super-insulated, making use of quad-paned windows and vacuum-insulated panels.

Architect Christopher C. Deam, Dwell founder Lara Deam's husband, designed Airstream's newest travel trailer, the International Sterling.

Texas. The Cricket Trailer, made in Houston, can sleep up to two adults and two children. With integrated fresh water and greywater tanks along with a water heater, campers can live off-the-grid in the easily towable unit.

Night settles in around the wanderers sheltered in El Cosmico's teepees and trailers. As El Cosmico shows, understanding a small space involves understanding the infinitude of the world beyond them.

With the residents awake inside, this trailer's burnished glow reflects the sunset.

A skylight was added to bring in more light, and the existing ceilings painted Benjamin Moore ‘Black Tar’ for contrast. The island pendant is the Schoolhouse Ray 17” Pendant and the stools are the Artek Aalto High Chair K65.

A sky-blue vintage trailer blends in with the sky.

Herbert used laminate bamboo flooring inside the Leaf House. An inexpensive light fixture, which Herbert found in a thrift shop, hangs from the birch-plywood ceiling.

The shower, as seen through the main entrance. The metal-mesh open-joint rain screen is designed to rust over time.

A custom Murphy bed occupies the rear end of the trailer, next to a wall of cedar shingles. The wall at left, which Herbert painted white, is tongue-and-groove pine.

Herbert fashioned the custom kitchen countertop from a foam-core backer board, which he coated with a concrete microtopping. The wood is clear-grain cedar.

By reducing the bedroom to its essentials and filling it with windows, the El Cosmico staff has made this small space as expansive as the desert beyond.

Light and shadow play on the textured facade. Greenery frames the simple, geometric form of the house.

With its stucco facade and steel-framed, arched windows, Plaster Fun House is an architectural anomaly amidst the cottages and 1960s brick residences of Torrensville in South Australia.

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.

In accordance with the brief, the firm left the landscape largely in its natural state.

“When we first set out on this crazy adventure, we always pictured parking Woody in a place like this,” Brian says. “We honestly couldn’t have imagined it would be this spectacular.”

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.

With a built-in sofa and sleeping loft, ATLAS can accommodate three adult travelers.

Howard and Shumate in the living room, where Commune designer Steven Johanknecht introduced custom built-in daybeds with storage beneath. The carpet-fragment pillows are from Commune, as is the table, designed by Joshua Tree–based sculptor Alma Allen. The poster is by Mike Mills.

Brian and Joni Buzarde’s self-designed home sits on a customized chassis by PJ Trailers that’s just eight and a half feet wide. The 236-square-foot trailer is clad in cedar.

Masahiro and Mao Harada of Mount Fuji Architects Studio wanted to break with the traditional definition of a house when they designed this small Tokyo home. They achieved their goal by using the same material for the ceiling, the walls, and the floor, creating a space that flows beautifully. Photo by Ryota Atarashi.

Masi also turned the miniscule guest quarters into a pool house.

The fully glazed north faced overlooks a private garden to the rear. This large area of glazing allows natural light to fill the home.

To take in views of Victoria’s coastline from all directions, Austin Maynard Architects crafted a bach-inspired beach house using a circular, corridor-free design and full-height glazing. Exposed trusses and a simple material palette keep focus on the outdoors, while rooftop solar panels and a rainwater harvesting system help the dwelling reduce site impact.

The exterior is wrapped in cement fiber boards with a Cembrit patina finish. Due to a lack of onshore infrastructure, a big challenge of the project was the addition of self-contained sewage and clear water tanks.

Brett Zamore calls the house he designed for David Kaplan the Shot-Trot, now the Kit_00 homes, because it fuses two regional housing types, the shotgun and the dogtrot.

The 275-square-foot LOVT prefab is a feast of crisp millwork, with a modular daybed stacked on drawers and kitchen cabinets with cutouts for pulls.

The kitchen cabinetry echoes the new blue ceiling. The brick tile is from Heath Ceramics, as is the dinnerware. Behind the Viking stove is powder-coated corrugated metal (“Very trailer,” says the designer). The refrigerator is from Big Chill. On the table is a bowl by Victoria Morris.

Architect Jesse Garlick’s rural Washington vacation home references its rugged surroundings. The steel cladding has developed a patina similar to the ochre-red color of bedrock found in the area.