Architect Christi Azevedo, along with homeowners Lorena Siminovich and Esteban Kerner, transformed this 1,485-square-foot, multilevel, mid-century maze into a modern and efficient family home in just three months. “It was the craziest frickin’ thing,” laughs Azevedo. “It was like a Tetris game, putting it all together, trying to squeak out space wherever we could.” Purchased as if straight out of 1955, the home is now the ideal small space for Siminovich and Kerner to raise their young daughter, Matilda.

The vacation complex is designed to promote an easy flow between the two families' spaces, which include guest cabins and a shared porch for hanging out and eating.

Cozy two story great room with vaulted ceilings

Repainting isn't necessary to get new life out of old building materials—scraping paint off can provide an entirely new aesthetic that still speaks to an element's history and materiality.

The house maximizes vistas of the region's natural terrain.

A series of levels gives the house a sense of separation between the main rooms.

Austin architect J.C. Schmeil converted his family's 1935 bungalow into a spacious modern family home on a modest budget and with tons of ingenuity. A dormer on the south side of the house contains two bedrooms. One of the bedrooms features a reading loft carved out of the attic space above the dining room. The intersection of the gabled roof and the shed dormers allowed us to wrap large windows around each corner, taking advantage of the "borrowed landscape"—treetop views that root the house to its site.

Last, but certainly not least, Dwell's Small Spaces Pinterest board contains some of the most innovative methods in efficient living. These pins prove that you don't need thousands of square feet to enjoy your ideal home. This is a must-see board if you are sizing down completely or simply renovating a small room! See why less can definitely be more here.

Inside the luminous extension, an open L-shaped layout provides just enough separation between kitchen, dining, and living, without them becoming compartmentalized.

9Hours (Kyoto, Japan) Fumie Shibata of Design Studio S created this minimal, sci-fi crash pad in Kyoto, named after the average length of a business traveler’s stay (one hour shower, seven hours sleep, one hour rest). The subtle but memorable branding system, which carries through from toothbrush containers to wayfinding systems, is as tech-oriented and soothing as the beds themselves, outfitted with computerized lighting and high-end sheets. Photo by Underutilized (Creative Commons)

Where alarms and bulletproof glass fail, steel-reinforced doors disguised as custom woodwork use brute strength to stop even the most determined burglar. Add high-security locks and drill-resistant concrete, and you have a high bar of protection. Roofs are particularly vulnerable, as they are often the least-fortified part of a residential structure. Gaffco Ballistics will install saw- and bullet-resistant Kevlar plates to thwart potential attackers.

Called the “LDK,” for living, dining, and kitchen, the space is flexible—a blend of Western loft life and traditional Japanese homes, where rooms are multipurpose.

Williams and Tsien’s firm designed the oak furniture with student input.

With 108 beds and 15 rooms, it's one of the largest hotels in Ghent. In a nod to its past as a newspaper office, the rooms are all named after famous international newspapers: Le Monde, the New York Times, Die Zeit, El País, La Stampa, the Guardian, and more.

The terraces are located in the interior but offer the quality of outdoor rooms.

The facade is punctured by a variety of differently sized windows: Those flush to the wall indicate the house’s public rooms, while the those for the private spaces are set back.

Triangular windows beneath the roof line are a common element in all of the second-floor rooms, including the master bedroom.

Rather than concealing the barn frame in the private rooms, Cohen created an interplay between modern and historic elements in the master bathroom.

Unlike the original shotguns, which featured cramped, interconnected rooms, Zamore opened up the space as much as possible. Large barn doors slide open on either side to increase ventilation.

Dollahite kept most rooms spare, allowing each piece of furniture and art to have a presence. In the dining room, the table is its own centerpiece.

This illustration shows how the house can be altered to create additional rooms as needed.

Contemporary on the inside and modernist on the outside, this school stands as a model of successful and sensitive adaptive reuse.

To draw light into windowless interior rooms, Mooney and Sparano installed Solatube Daylighting Systems.

Only a set of sliding doors separates the kids’ room from the master bedroom in a Toronto, Ontario, home. When the time is right, there's a track inlaid in the ceiling for a four-panel bifold wall to divide the space into two private rooms for the children. Read the whole story here.

The mezzanine loft looks down to the living and dining rooms.

An energy-efficient TPO membrane covers the living room’s zigzag roof.

Light wells carry natural light to the rooms below ground.

One of the children's rooms, equal parts clean-lined and playful.

Now, built-in sofas line the perimeter of the room and utilize the room’s shape better.

Cool air from the gardens flows into the rooms through sliding doors and windows.

Some rooms have a small loft that can be used as a bedroom for children.

Here are the three towers that make up the bit of the building dedicated to meeting rooms and the debating chamber.

Coastal, on a hill, and made from inexpensive materials, the Ferguson house is a catalog of moving surfaces and open rooms.

From the living area, a winding staircase leads to the second level with an additional living space and two guest rooms.

The architects made less into more by designing rooms that multitask. When no guests are in town, the spare room easily reconfigures into a cozy home office, complete with its own powder room.