Even the smallest, ugliest and most awkward space can become a comfortable apartment when creative custom built-ins are integrated into a brilliant renovation by a truly talented architect. Undeniably the most effective way to save space and reorganize interiors without cutting them off from each other, bespoke built-in elements like storage staircases, bookcases full of beds, transforming self-contained volumes, panel systems and custom cabinetry transform spaces like dingy garages, formerly abandoned slurry pits, historic flats and average urban lofts into highly livable homes.

A Floating Mezzanine & Storage Staircase in London

At Syte Architects’ Studio on Greville Road, a historic building occupied by the same artist for twenty years gets dramatically brighter, lighter and more organized with the addition of double-height glass doors facing the garden, a bespoke wooden staircase packed full of storage customized to the artist’s needs, and a floating mezzanine. The storage, including vertical cubbies that can accommodate oversized paintings, slots right beneath the staircase leading to the second floor, which stops short of the perimeter walls and inserts weight-supporting glass instead. This feature combined with new skylights ensures that plenty of all-important daylight floods into every corner of the space.

‘Sleeping Bookcase’ for a Paris Pied-a-Terre by

French architect Pierre-Louis Gerlier completely reorganized the interior of a Paris pied-a-terre to create a much larger living room and a bedroom with private cubbies for multiple children. This require a whole lot of custom built-ins, which maximize storage for each room and create fun features like window seats. But by far the coolest element of this renovation is that wall of bed cubbies interspersed with storage.

Aluminum Island in an Industrial Loft

What was formerly a 1920s industrial building in Paris’ 11th arrondissement has become a striking apartment in the hands of SABO Project, with a renovation that emphasizes the native character of the space. The concrete walls are aged and highly textural, contrasting with melamine cabinetry and an unusual aluminum island containing the bedroom and bathroom. Cut-outs allow daylight to filter into these more private spaces by day, and diffuse artificial light into the living room at night. There’s a guest loft hidden on top of the island, too.

A Modern Trocadero Apartment in Paris by François Champsaur

Myriad custom surfaces completely transform this Paris apartment in a high-end renovation by François Champsaur, giving it a modern edge with lots of curves. He removed false ceilings installed in 1970 and replaced the parquet floors with extra-long pine boards. The dining room is lined with marble, and the bathroom adds slatted wood to soften it. Custom panels are used extensively to disguise potentially busy-looking elements like televisions and kitchenware.

Renovated Family Duplex in Denmark by Spacon & X

It’s plain to see how custom built-ins can make a tiny space far more usable and enjoyable in this apartment renovation in Denmark by Spacon & X. Created for a family of four, the new living space integrates a staircase full of storage into the kitchen that doubles as a room divider for the living room, a guest bed that folds up into the wall beneath elevated textile storage, a window seat, a fold-down office stations and a super cute kid room full of slide-out closets, desks and play areas.

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Built In Bonanza 13 Mega Apartment Makeovers Packed With Custom Features

Apartment buildings are typically so hideous, it’s kind of exhausting. A structure with some measure of character gets knocked down in a prominent spot and before locals dare to dream that something cool might go up in its place, there’s another boring old block of apartments (or worse yet, condos) adding to the dull architectural noise of the city. Of course, it’s all subjective. You could argue, fairly enough, that pretty much all new apartment buildings are ugly, and that trying to make them ‘cool’ results in an even more irritating visual offense. What do you think – are these 13 designs switching up the same-old same-old in a positive way?

Lots of Light: 9 Units at the Apartment in Kamitakada

Developers looking to squeeze big bucks out of a project by creating high-end luxury housing are a lot more motivated to build structures that are more interesting than usual, but every now and then, there’s the rare project that gives some aesthetic consideration to a building that’s actually affordable to the average city resident. Takeshi Yamagata Architects designed this 9-unit building in Tokyo as a cluster of four buildings connected by open-air pathways, integrating gardens, curving walls and lots of windows for the feel of an urban refuge minus the multi-million-dollar price tag.

325 Kent by SHoP Architects

Currently under construction on the site of an old Domino sugar factory in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, the 325 Kent project by SHoP Architects is part of a redevelopment masterplan transforming the refinery into a 380,000-square-foot complex with a waterfront park and four residential buildings containing 2,800 rental units. SHoP’s building will house 522 of those apartments in a 16-story structure, arranged around a dramatic elevated courtyard. The units at the top will be stepped to create a series of spacious outdoor terraces. Nope – this one isn’t going to be cheap.

Pixelated Concrete: 222 Jackson by ODA

Over in Queens, the 11-story 2222 Jackson building by ODA features a pixelated concrete facade creating voids and projections for shade, privacy and outdoor spaces. Located just steps away from MoMA PS1, the building is conceived as a modular grid, giving it about 30% more outdoor space than the same-sized building with the same number of units arranged in a more typical shape.

Parasitic Growth: Plug-In City 75 by Stephane Malka

Commissioned to update and expand a 1970s-era building in Paris, architect Stéphane Malka proposes a system of parasitic wooden cubes that would attach to the facade, extending the living space and reducing the structure’s energy consumption by 75 percent. The unusual design would help mitigate problems with poor insulation and permeable windows while adhering to the city’s restrictive building laws, which don’t allow architects to build vertically.

Contemporary and Complimentary: p17 Housing in Milan

How do you sensitively design a new apartment complex that will blend in with a historic neighborhood while reflecting the era in which it’s being built? For P17, a residential housing complex in Milan, Italian architectural firm Modourbano harmonizes with surrounding buildings while retaining a contemporary feel, thanks to the beautiful natural hues in its sandstone facade.

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No More Ugly Apartment Buildings 13 Designs Refreshing The Paradigm

Sometimes it’s hard to see the potential hidden behind a mess of drop ceilings, darkening partition walls and hideously dated kitchens, but the bones of a residential space can be more beautiful than you would have imagined. These 15 bright, spacious, modern apartment renovations open up cramped interiors, make use of vertical space and reveal long-forgotten historic features that add lots of character.

Amazing Transformation in Istanbul

Looking at the dim, depressing, highly ordinary ‘before’ photos of this apartment in Istanbul, would you ever have guessed at the potential it contained behind all of that plaster? SEA Architects saw the beautiful historical bones in brick and timber, tearing out most of the walls and ceilings to reveal what has been hidden for decades. The results are fresh, creative and highly unexpected.

Formerly Frightening Basement in Barcelona

Dark and dirty with stained walls and floors, this basement in Barcelona was legitimately scary before RAS architecture got their hands on it. ‘Apartment Tibbaut’ has a single entrance from above, one of three sources of natural light to the space, but octagonal stone pillars and a domed ceiling made it seem promising. These original elements were restored while new partition walls of laminated pine help define the new private areas.

Maximizing a Tiny Parisian Apartment

How can you live in an ‘apartment’ that’s the size of a closet? Make the best possible use of every inch of space, like Kitoko Studio has done here with a maid room in Paris. A built-in inspired by swiss army knives takes up an entire wall, with the various components pulling out or folding down to reveal a bed, storage, a table, a wardrobe, a staircase, a kitchenette and more.

Multifunctional Addition to Fashion Designer’s Apartment

A young fashion designer gets a bold and fun new apartment in a historic space within Paris’ Montmartre district courtesy of SABO project. A white built-in storage partition with alternating tread stairs leads to a sleeping loft and separates the living room and kitchen. The latter features a small green wall and vibrant flooring comprised of 25 natural rubber strips in 14 colors.

Two-Level Play Frame in a Moscow Apartment

The formerly uninhabitable attic of a Moscow apartment has become a fun two-story play space for the client’s children. Ruetemple added the timber structure with a nook for the kids, connecting the lower level to a playroom.

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Amazing Apartment Makeovers 15 Brilliant Beautiful Remodels

Transforming from a flat window into a balcony at the push of a button, the Bloomframe design is not only available for purchase after years of design refinements, it’s also set to be the defining feature of an entire apartment building. Amsterdam-based architecture firm Hofman Dujardin won the Red Dot Design Award back in 2008 for the concept, which manages to be both innovative and attractive, eliminating some of the bulk seen in similar designs.

Think of it as the balcony version of a Murphy bed: you press a button and something useful pops out of the wall to offer you more space and functionality. Operated by remote control, the balcony looks like an ordinary window, except with an opaque metal panel where the lower pane of glass would normally be. Activate it, and an electric motor drive will extend out the top frame, pushing the lower one down into the balcony’s floor.

The whole process takes about fifteen seconds to complete, and the result is a real balcony with enough space for two people to sit down at a table and enjoy a meal. It was conceived specifically for spaces where traditional balconies aren’t logistically possible, like apartment renovations or warehouse conversions.

When a dozens of them are installed in a single apartment building, like Hofman Dujardin’s proposed housing block, the result is a dynamic, constantly changing facade pattern. “In the winter the facade is closed, during spring the facades open like a flourishing flower,” say the designers.

Few city dwellers are lucky enough to have an outdoor space to call their own, but this pop-out window design offers a view of the sky, even if your window looks directly onto another building. Argentinian architect and Pratt Institute student Aldana Ferrer Garcia debuted her thesis project ‘More Sky’ at the inaugural Dubai Design Week, rethinking the limits of standard urban housing.

Designed to fit within Brooklyn’s building rules and regulations, ‘More Sky’ is a replacement window system that can extend into the outdoors with an accordion-like action. The window comes in three styles: casement niche, awning niche and hopper niche, providing various opening angles and degrees of expansion.

The ‘casement niche’ is a pivoting window seat that lets you safely hang out the window, providing panoramic views. Bring a blanket and a small pillow, and you’ve got the perfect cozy nook for reading or enjoying a cup of coffee.

The ‘hopper niche’ angles straight out, and is strong enough to support a person lounging inside. This angle gives you views of the sky, ideal for apartments that overlook narrow alleyways. The third design, ‘awning niche,’ is an ideal spot for indoor plants that require a lot of sunlight, like herbs.