He worked around existing oak and eucalyptus trees for the new building, and retained the vernacular of an original barn, at right, where Frankel hosts concerts. Check out MVRDV's Balancing Barn.

The cedar-and-glass structure rises over an expansive rear patio. Although it is larger than some of its neighbors, the home nearly matches the height line of the surrounding houses due to its flat, modern roof.

The resident, a Tokyo transplant, commissioned architect Tadashi Murai to create a fully-equipped structure that comes with its own power, heating and cooling, water, and waste-disposal systems.

Some 35 percent of the materials from the renovation were resurrected in the yard: Redwood panels became fencing. Blocks cut from original concrete patios form the snake wall. And Purdy plans to crochet colorful cozies over various branches and stumps.

"We imagined how six people would use the space and developed the shape accordingly," says Hello Wood cofounder Dávid Ráday. "We took inspiration from the design of space capsules, and the cabin was refined step by step before reaching its final form."

If you’re traveling to Puglia in Italy, one of the most iconic sights are trulli (trullo is the singular), an ancient hut that's specific to the Itria Valley in the Apulia region of Southern Italy. Made with dry stone, trulli date back to medieval times.

At night, the exterior screen provides privacy when the house is illuminated.

The architects inserted skylights in an artful pattern in the rooftop.

A glass-fronted walkway leads from the main house to the office/play area.

Full-height sliding glass doors bring a sense of the outdoors into the home.

This 180-square-foot cabin offers 360-degree views of the Hudson Valley.

The exterior of the Mill House.

Lambert pours wine in the kitchen, which is defined by a low concrete-block wall and serves as the home’s central core. The seating-area chairs are from Herman Miller.

For architect Stephen Chung, the design of his Wayland, Massachusetts, home was all about blending into the natural environment. The first floor is a serene composition of white and wood. The demand for a domestic office space inspired him to build up, adding a second floor for him to "experiment." In a departure from the Cape Cod aesthetic that rules his block, he was able to give the addition a modernist take, while also literally reflecting the existing landscape of the neighborhood. The entire 1,100-square-foot adjunct that encompasses his second story office-studio, master suite, and fort for his two young sons is swathed in mirrored siding and plate-glass windows.

Many tiny home dwellers develop eco-friendly habits when they downsize—like adopting a capsule wardrobe, carpooling more, and harvesting rainwater.

Van Beek’s extra space is home to her office. She works on a Tense table by Piergiorgio and Michele Cazzaniga and Flow chairs by Jean Marie Massaud, both for MDF Italia.

Glass-and-steel corridors link each of Austin and Lida’s studios to the main pavilion, where they share the kitchen and a central living and dining space.

Designed by AKT II, Harvard GSD Students, and OFIS Architects in 2015, this bivouac in Slovenia's Skuta, the third-highest peak in the Kamnik Alps, was informed by traditional alpine structures and the challenge of building for extreme mountain weather conditions.

Located in Aarhus, Denmark, Villa R is a minimalist, serene structure clad in zinc panels. "The objective was to create a house that brings the forest inside through large glass panels—and create an ever-changing seasonal backdrop for the interior living spaces," stated the architecture firm, C.F. Møller, of the 3,200-square-foot abode.

Located at 9,459 feet in elevation and run by the Swiss Alpine Club, the Monte Rosa Hut has been a popular destination at the Gorner Glacier since 2009. Designed by Bearth & Deplazes Architekten and dubbed the “rock crystal” because of its striking, ultra-modern design, the innovative structure is also virtually self-sufficient.

The Parisian flat that American-born architect Michael Herrman shares with his wife, Cécile, and their 2-year-old daughter, Rose, had been nearly untouched since the 1790s, when it was built. “But I wanted to try and reveal some of its age in a fresh new context,” Herrman said.

The new, semi-custom PreMade mobile units can be used in a variety of applications.

Measuring only 180 square feet, this exquisite, off-grid tiny home features a big sense of style.

The interiors are lined with OSB Poplar wood, and insulated with 12cm of recycled cotton.

Choosing not to make a big to-do of itself, this cottage blends in with its surroundings. A wall of glass on one end allows a merger of the outdoors with the interiors, while white trim leaves the appearance of a snow-kissed façade year-round. Berlin, Germany. By Atelier st Gesellschaft von Architekten mbH from the book Rock the Shack, Copyright Gestalten 2013.

Estonian design collective Kodasema launched this 269-square-foot micro-home, which can be built in less than a day.

According to Remijnse, since the only direction they could build on the small site was up, they decided to add height with a gabled roof.

Although the initial cost of concrete is typically higher than wood, the life cycle costs are lower.

They restored small alcoves to rooms including the office (shown here) and living room and worked carefully with the existing windows. They also hunted down a craftsman, Marc Ablasou, to install oak floors in a herringbone pattern—a touch that subtly complicates Safdie’s aesthetic. In the office, the mirrored console is vintage and the Grand Prix chair is by Arne Jacobsen for Fritz Hansen.

The red- and orange-painted cabinets are meant to reflect sunlight and represent the heart of the home. The glass-fronted cabinets in the kitchen are by Henrybuilt, and the clear containers with dry goods are from the Container Store.

The second-floor office is housed inside a rounded rectangle of concrete that the architect inserted on top of the old farmhouse.

The new volume houses the dining area, which includes stairs to the bedrooms. The table is from Blake Avenue and the walnut chairs are from Room & Board. “You don’t want bright colors to take away from that relationship between the interior and the exterior,” Walker says.

Italian prefab company LEAPfactory built this alpine shelter off-site and had it flown in via helicopter. Cantilevered off the edge of a mountain, the structure features a living room, a dine-in kitchen, bunk beds, storage closets, and an integrated computer to keep mountaineers and climbers up-to-date on the weather conditions.

The subway tile-lined bathroom was kept as simple as possible, with Hansgrohe fixtures and cabinets made of vertical-grain Douglas fir above a top-mounted Duravit sink. Since installing a window was unfeasible given the bathroom's proximity to other properties, Storey added a skylight over the shower.