For those who enjoy fixing and flipping homes, this video game could be a dream come true, virtually speaking, letting you purchase rundown shacks and turn them into market-ready models.

Players in House Flipper can buy dwellings that look ready for the scrap heap, then “hammer, drill, nail down, screw, and do what needs to be done to mount, fix or clean up stuff,” all without lifting more than a few fingers.

Those interested in working out some frustration will be happy to know that demolishing walls and fixtures is part of the gameplay, too.

It hews close to reality in that the game goal is the same as real life: profit. Instead of a final boss, there is the final sale, though that’s optional for people who want more flexibility and less economics. And, of course, the fun doesn’t stop there: flip one house and you can start on the next.

If this seems like a strange game concept, consider how popular shows like Behind the Design, Flip or Flop, First Time Flippers, Rehab Addict and the like already are — sure, some watch them for tips, but others for entertainment. And if farm simulators can be a hit, why not House Flipper?

At the same time, it’s a bit dystopian, arguably, targeting a younger generation without the same financial resources as the last one to buy (let alone sell) their own homes. For $20 on Steam, it sure is a cheaper hobby either way, and a bit less risky, too.

Combining practical water purification and the fun of watching hidden processes come to life, this gigantic structure installed at MOMA PS1 in New York City features a dazzling array of plants and pipes made to be watched and enjoyed by people.

Developed by Andrés Jaque’ and his architecture firm, winner of the 2015 Young Architects Program, this mobile filtration plant (dubbed Cosmo) takes in polluted water supplied by the city (from or) matching pollution levels of the East River and renders it clean and drinkable.

Filtering out particulates, balancing acidity levels and introducing dissolved oxygen, the array of spiralling tubes can process nearly 1,000 gallons of water a day, with all its functions on display.

Two portable four-wheeled rolling vehicles below can be pushed to wherever the party may be. The design brief called for shade, seating and water, the last of these clearly dominates this particular winner.

“This year’s proposal takes one of the Young Architects Program’s essential requirements–providing a water feature for leisure and fun–and highlights water itself as a scarce resource,” said Pedro Gadanho, Curator in MoMA’s Department of Architecture and Design. “Relying on off-the-shelf components from agro-industrial origin, an exuberant mobile architecture celebrates water-purification processes and turns their intricate visualization into an unusual backdrop for the Warm Up sessions.” (Photography by Miguel de Guzmán).

A fleet of still-functional city buses in Hawaii sits idle simply because the vehicles have too many miles for continued use in their current capacity, creating a unique opportunity to redeploy them toward helping the homeless. Thanks to a group with a vision and starting this summer, these retired transit vehicles will begin to be turned into mobile spaces and service centers for local populations in need of a place to stay and other basic necessities.

Developed by volunteer architects and Honolulu-based Group 70 International, the idea is simple: each of the dozens of buses will be converted to a single new purpose, providing bedroom spaces in some cases but also places to get cleaned up, accept and deploy donations (warm meals, fresh produce and clean clothes) and much more.

From bathrooms and showers to sleeping quarters, each conversion can be done with tools and materials from the local hardware shop and be completed with unskilled volunteer labor. These relatively low-cost retrofits are designed to be donation-driven, providing all of the amenities of traditional homeless shelters with added flexibility and portability.

The resulting fleet will be versatile, able to split up and move in sections depending on need and travel to various locations to serve target groups where they are found. Existing seating inside the buses will be stripped and removed then replaced with remodeled elements suited to each vehicle’s new use. The first two conversions are to be completed by the end of this summer, ready for test deployments.

While many individuals desire multi-functional and space-saving furniture, many cities want quite the opposite: an object that one can sit on but that foils attempts at anything from sleeping, littering and vandalism to street theft and drug-dealing.

Designed by Factory Furniture and named after the city for which it was commissioned, the Camden Bench is largely (and fascinatingly) defined in the negative, its creators boasting what it cannot do rather than what it can do, made to “resist criminal and anti-social behaviour.” It all sounds well and good in theory, but in practice: does this approach constitute  a public service or an unnecessarily prohibitive way to design urban furniture?

Made of cast concrete, the bench’s ridged top and sloped surfaces make it hard to lie down on and help keep skateboarders at bay, while its smooth finish is made to be graffiti-resistant. Its solid sides feature no slots or crevices in which dealers could hide drug stashes, while its slight recesses allow sitters to slide their bags safely behind their legs. Its smooth finish and lack of gaps also help keep it clean – dirt has nowhere to accumulate and water washes grime away.

As Frank Swain muses on Medium, “it a strange artifact, defined far more by what it is not than what it is. The Camden Bench is a concerted effort to create a non-object. [It] is strange kind of architectural null point. A piece of the city that by design will not interact with it in any way. It is a bench by the slimmest of margins – hardly comfortable, affording none of the qualities that would make it more than simply a place to sit. This is the bench’s sole concession to being part of the city, and it does it with the least conviction possible.”

Inspired by planned Super Sewer that will reduce pollution in London’s central waterway by 96%, this audacious design aims to take advantage of a future in which it is finally safe again to swim in the River Thames. Unlike a similar proposal for New York City’s Hudson River (more on that below), this bold plan proposes to use unfiltered river water to fill its swimming holes.

Studio Octopi and their partners at Civic Engineers and Jonathan Cook Landscape Architects ask doubters to imagine the experience of clean swimming right in the heart of the city, with incredible urban views framed by rich regional plant life.

One fixed-in-place pool would be replenished each time the surrounding tides rise over its high water mark (like coastal rock pools). The other would itself lift and lower, floating up and down with the river’s natural highs and lows, thus providing swimmers with a sense of the currents but within a protected space.

More on the project’s context: “In 1865, Sir Joseph Bazalgette’s London sewage system was opened. 150 years later the sewers are at the limits of their capacity. In 2012, 57 combined sewer overflows discharged 39 million tonnes of sewage into the River Thames. Thames Water is planning the Thames Tideway Tunnel, or ‘Super Sewer’, for completion in 2023.”

Meanwhile, across the pond in New York, the Plus Pool reached its crowdfunding goal some time ago but is a long way from completion. Though both propose to use water from the rivers they are set in, this one, unlike its British brethren, assumes filters will be essential.

The design is also somewhat more contemporary – the plus shape is clean, modern and separates the pool into four primary zones for different use cases.

Whether either proposal will be realized remains to be seen, but one thing they may have in common: selling the public has already proven easier than pushing their respective cities into accepting the plans and taking action on them.