Tom Givone's current weekend abode, nicknamed the Floating Farmhouse, is—so far—his capstone project, a synthesis of personal taste, material experimentation, and historically sensitive restoration: a living laboratory for how to bring the vernacular past into the present.

A tiny outbuilding offers a cozy living space inside a simple shell.

The core in the middle of the apartment contains the staircase, two bathrooms, and a laundry area on the lower floor, and a small workspace upstairs.

Living small is par for the course in New York City, but accommodating a family of four in under 700 square feet rarely looks as effortless as in this storage-smart renovation. Scott Oliver and Margarita McGrath of noroof architects created many clever built-ins and transformable furniture in this apartment. Photo by Raimund Koch. See how the rooms transform in this extended slideshow.

As the facade of a Bates Masi-designed home in Water Mill, New York, rises from eight to 14 feet high, the mahogany planks subtly widen. “It was quite a demand to make of the contractor,” architect Paul Masi says. “But the design was so much about traveling through the site and weaving [the house] together with the deck.”

Tanya Wexler and Amy Zimmerman linger in the breezeway designed to draw eyes, and footsteps, from the driveway through the house to the gently sloping backyard and swimming pool beyond.

A 17-foot-tall freestanding play structure that designer Sharon Davis designed for her family in upstate New York can only be entered by climbing taut netting and entering through a trap door. Descending requires sliding down two structural-columns-turned-fire-poles.

In the kitchen, the cabinetry is walnut veneer with a weathered finish applied by cabinetmaker David Rogers. “The process involved sanding and rubbing in stain as well as adding a clear finish,” project architect Eero Puurunen says.

Despite the economic downturn, the city is still booming with construction—as evidenced by the fleet of cranes on the horizon.

New York City, population 20,300,000. New York City was the world's first megacity and remains America's largest.

The wood-frame residence and studio are clad in vertical cedar siding—back then, a daring competitor to clapboard—instead of concrete to save costs. The effect is equally seamless, however: “If you drive by it fast enough,” Charles Gwathmey once said, “you still might mistake it for a concrete house.” Photo by Norman McGrath.

The Hong Kong skyline, including the HSBC building designed by Foster + Partners (foreground) and the Peak Tower designed by Terry Farrell (illuminated at top). Image courtesy of the Royal Institute of British Architects.

Nicknamed the Floating Farmhouse, this 200-year-old home inspired one former copywriter to delve into architecture as a living. Inside, renovator and owner Tom Givone mixes vintage and industrial decor. Photo by Mark Mahaney.

The great room in the 2,800-square-foot house that architect Drew Lang designed for his family in the Hudson Woods development north of New York City features generous amounts of white oak, which he says is his favorite material.

The Langs use an outbuilding as a rec room of sorts. "We call that the Grace Studio," Lang says. "It's designed so a car can pull in there, but we use it as more of a rec room and work space."

Houldin, 10, curls up in the playroom nook which is directly under a side skylight that Pulltab added in order to make the interior rooms inhabitable, as per New York City building code. The custom millwork around the window seat is painted in Rainy Day by Fine Paints of Europe.

A yellow Pedestal filing cabinet by USM is tucked under a built-in desk in the guest bedroom. The leather-back chair was designed by Michael Robbins, a furniture designer based in New York's Hudson Valley.

The master bathroom features a cedar screen and quartzite tiles by Walker Zanger.

White oak makes a return appearance on the ceiling in the master bedroom.

The home is embedded in a hillside with five feet of soil above it. In addition to blending the structure into the landscape, the surrounding earth provides natural insulation.

Davis worked with contractor Ted Timmer to construct the playhouse on her family’s 30-acre property.

If sleek storage is what you're looking for, consider a long and low platform bed. At a New York apartment that's just over 500 square feet, the wood platform bed features storage panels under the mattress.

Sliding doors partition a cozy screening room, where the resident can enjoy films and television in the comfort of custom designed furniture.

Custom built-ins were essential in defining and maximizing the 520-square-foot space. Greg Dufner designed the rift-cut white oak bookcase that separates the sleeping area from the rest of the studio.

SPAN Architecture recast this two-level space in New York City—previously a photography studio—as a loft-like residence that is rich in materials. A blackened steel staircase, executed by general contractor Richard Kaleta, leads to the private quarters on the duplex's second floor. The walkway is composed of custom etched glass, stretched across an open atrium to below.

Grant Mudford, New York City.

Bowery Stadium’s current “refresh” includes a push of Nike’s Flyknit running shoe. Over the summer of 2012, the New York City site will host three community workshops with local architect and Cornell University researcher Jenny Sabin to explore the artistry of Flyknit products. By harnessing the bright, neon colors popular in today’s footwear, the space was reinvented to familiarize potential customers with the materials' performance aspects.

For a stadium space to be successful, the community must get involved. “Rather than thinking of the stadium's store zone as a retail apparel space, we looked at typologies that spoke more to socialization,” de Cardenas says. Using a material palette of pegboard, gaffers tape, and plywood made it easy to convert the space from event to event. Bowery Stadium has taken on a variety of new permutations since de Cardenas first touched it—which was exactly the intention. Fast Company covered the space when it opened in 2010. Read their story here.

Originally designed by architect Rafael de Cardenas, the Bowery Stadium location in New York City provides plenty of “DIY aesthetic,” de Cardenas tells Dwell. “We certainly looked at other stadiums, but this was thought of as a stand-alone project.” In the original design, de Cardenas says he used triangular boxes (some seen in the background) that stacked to become stadium seats, displays for shoes, or places to lounge during parties—a true example of the users making the space their own.

Juli & Kanishka Raja (New York, New York) “I think I went into this pretty cynical: there is no way all of these people are ‘real friends.’ But as I travelled, shared meals or drinks with people, learned about their lives and communities, I started to realize that there are different kinds of friendship,” says Hollander. “There are the folks we meet for beers, the ones we see art with, the ones we talk politics with, the ones we call in the middle of the night. The ones we Skype with, the ones we text, the ones we run into at the grocery store. You can have amazing conversations and learn from them all.”

An onyx "hearth" and a French limestone banquet form the perimeter of the warm living room. The carpet is from Tai Ping.

A street vendor has watches for sale.

A sidewalk view.

Sheep's Meadow. New York City

The polycarbonate interior is bounded by an exterior band of reclaimed white-cedar siding, open to the sky.

John Milich fabricated the slide in the freestanding treehouse.