Judith and Maple at work in the living space, which has a deck off the side and a view of the neighbors' house.

Suzanne and Brooks Kelley at the back of their 1,100-square-foot guest cottage.

In 1962, Skidmore, Owings & Merrill architect Arthur Witthoefft won the AIA's highest honor for a home he built in the lush woods of Westchester County. Having fended off a developer's wrecking ball, Todd Goddard and Andrew Mandolene went above and beyond to make this manse mint again.

The spaces are all under 400 square feet. "Each space has a lounge area and a work area so you can choose to chill or work," Rizzi says. "They all come fully loaded with free wifi, a selection of curated books and quarterlies, a yoga mat, and a jar of Tootsie Rolls." Above, a location in New York's Flatiron district features a sofa by A&G Merch, a lounge chair by Gus Modern, and a West Elm desk surrounded by Modernica chairs.

In the DoghousePaul and Shoko's dog, Mei, has lucked into a small prefab home of her own. Making use of a water jet cutter at his office, and using Adobe Illustrator as his design tool, Paul fashioned a series of panels that slot together without any nails or screws.

A modern riff on the classic Windsor chair, the Colt High Back by O&G Studio is made in Warren, Rhode Island. Seen here in black, it also comes in a poppy blue and yellow.

A stop into the Remodelista Market is rewarded with a chance to score one of L.A. designer Brendan Ravenhill's lighting fixtures.

In another New York City spot, the chaise lounge is Fresco, the pillows are Marimekko, the rug is from Urban Outfitters, and the coffee table is vintage. Lampe Gras lights illuminate an artwork by Sally Wanless.

Zames reconfigured the apartment to improve circulation and open some of the confined rooms. What was formerly a hallway is now integrated with the kitchen. A bank of floor-to-ceiling cabinets offers storage and an island covered in carrara marble offers space for working or dining. "We embraced dark colors in the kitchen to keep a contrast with the bright white of the surrounding living areas," Zames says of the constrasting finishes. The barstools are from CB2.

To most eyes, Ezequiel Farca’s 1970s-style concrete home in Mexico City looked like a teardown. Even the lot itself—shallow and crammed against a steep hillside—wasn’t particularly alluring. But Farca saw through all the restraints to create a spa-like refuge in one of the world’s most energetic cities. "It’s is such a hectic place. You’re bombarded by so much information the moment you step into the streets," says Farca, who first gained prominence as a furniture and interior designer. "So we envisioned this house as a retreat, a kind of a temple." The rooftop courtyard is lined with a verdant mix of indigenous plants, including banana trees, palm trees, lion’s claw, Mexican breadfruit, and native vines. The chaise longues were designed for Farca’s EF Collection.

In the outdoor dining room, wire chairs by Harry Bertoia for Knoll surround a mango wood table made by a local carpenter, Diego Madrazo.

This year, the poster will become part of the Museum of Modern Art's permanent collection.

The iconic designer updated the 1972 map with associates Yoshiki Waterhouse and Beatriz Cifuentes to improve legibility. The 2012 diagram was used for the MTA's Weekender App and website, and is now available for purchase.

Six tight crops of the map will also be for sale soon.

Known for furniture and interior design, Ezequiel Farca transformed a 1970s-style concrete home in Mexico City into a tranquil sanctuary. The temple-like retreat blends into the hilly Lomas de Chapultepec neighborhood with its pale gray-green hue and strategic plantings, which soften the boundaries between house, garden, and street. The Recinto lava stone patio accessed through the living room holds teak outdoor furniture designed by Farca himself.

The diagrams have been printed in Pantone and Hexachrome inks on acid-free archival cover-weight paper, and are available for sale at SuperWarmRed Designs.

Just because your kitchen is on the smaller side doesn’t mean you can’t make it as efficient and effective as possible.

Their creative confections may ruin our diets, but we’re happy to be their taste testers anytime.

The Kelleys furnished the cottage with help from Suzanne’s daughter Betsy Burbank of Betsy Burbank Interiors. Classic modernist icons, such as a Saarinen Womb chair for Knoll, a Herman Miller Eames lounge chair, and an Eileen Grey E1027 side table look at home alongside present-day pieces such as an Encore sofa (which handily folds down into a sleeping surface) from Room & Board and a Doka rug designed and produced by Stephanie Odegard. The Wohlert pendant lights from Louis Poulsen were designed by Vilhelm Wohlert in 1959, but grouped as such, they appear distinctly contemporary.

“The client wanted an interior space where you could read the materiality of the building elements like understanding the ingredients in a recipe,” principal architect Elizabeth Webster explains. The extension features distinctly textured materials: an exposed timber ceiling, painted brick walls, and polished concrete floors. Warm lighting by Brinklicht unifies the space.

This dreamy, glass bedroom by the lake was created as an early prototype for the prefabricated greenhouse/she kits known as the Kekkilä Green Sheds.

Helsinki architect Ville Hara and designer Linda Bergroth collaborated on a prefab shed-meets-sleeping cabin, which can be assembled with little else than a screwdriver. Bergroth, inspired by nomadic yurt dwellers, wanted an indoor/outdoor experience for her property in Finland.

A double bowl sink is also quite self-explanatory, created either out of one large sink with a divider or from two distinct bowls framed into a single sink.

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.

"The longer I work as an architect, the more I want to deepen my skills as a gardener," says Yuri Zagorin Alazraki, founder of the Mexico City firm ZD+A. In building his own house in Mexico City’s Lomas de Chapultepec neighborhood, his commitment has produced results that appear miraculous. In fact, they grow out of a carefully choreographed series of bravura design moves.

The architect placed the windows at Sabrina’s eye level so that she’d be able to see her son, Rocco, playing in the yard outside. "You can feel the seasons changing here," says Chiavelli. "I grew up three miles from here, outside in nature. This is a house for experiencing life."

If you're looking for the ultimate minimalist bed frame, a platform bed with edges that extend beyond the mattress allow it to double as a bedside table, eliminating the need for other furniture.

Like the pavilion holding the public spaces, the structure containing the bedrooms is clad in glass on the interior sides facing the courtyard, allowing a constant connection to the outside. Rodriguez (with dog Lupe) designed the steel stairs leading from the mezzanine-level home office to the master bedroom below. The stairs were fabricated by Austin-based Steel House MFG.

The clients insisted that none of the trees on the property be disturbed, so Kevin Alter and his team at Alterstudio Architecture built a deck and an overhang around two of them.

Ryan Anderson of RAD Furniture designed the stools as well as the table and benches on the pool deck.

In the bedroom, an open closet with built-in shelving leads to the master bathroom. Thinking of all the loft's components as part of a whole was critical to the renovation. "The space is clean and simple, but that is only possible because of the attention paid to eliminating visual clutter that often comes from typical detailing," Breitner says. "The HVAC, floor outlets, door detailing, wall reveal base, recessed glazing channel, and radiator covers could look like clutter. We integrated it into the architecture." Photo by Frank Oudeman.

A stalwart of Euro children's design, the Stokke Tripp Trapp looked great on the show floor, especially in this rather striking shade of gray.

Another view of the deck.