Three designers contributing to the Muji Hut project have pitched their tent-, cottage- and cabin-inspired ideas for tiny retreats at Tokyo Design Week, each structure borrowing lessons in simplicity from Japanese housing traditions. The spaces are intentionally essential, featuring just what one needs to relax and enjoy natural surroundings and family gatherings.

The Wooden Hut by Naoto Fukasawa is both open and cozy, with floor-to-ceiling windows, a soaking tub hidden behind a wall and a wood-burning stove to warm the interior. A wood-burning stove heats the interior, which is furnished with a cot, dining table and chairs, and kitchenette.

“When I hear the word hut, I’m attracted,” says designer Naoto Fukasawa. It’s not quite a villa but not as simple as a tent. With a small hut you can burrow into the wilderness whenever you want.”

The Cork Hut by Jasper Morrison has space for cooking, eating, gathering and sleeping, featuring a trim aesthetic with simple lines brought to life by variegated cork surfaces.

“Whenever I think about going to the country for the weekend, I start imagining a small house with everything needed for a short stay,” says Jasper Morrison.

“The dream usually collapses when I think of the complexity of building a new house, but with this project I realized there was a chance to design such a house as a product rather than a one-off.”

The Aluminum Hut by Konstantin Grcic has a small footprint to avoid the need for building permits. A ladder leads occupants up to sleeping lofts while flexible aluminum awnings protect it in transit.

“The hut is just a space — it doesn’t have to be a fully functioning place for living,” says Grcic.

“There doesn’t have to be water or electricity. It is just a space for doing something.” The trio of huts will go on sale soon, starting at approximately $25,000 USD.

Serving a nomadic homeless shanty town known as Nickelsville, the Impossible City project involves a group of a teenagers who are creating not just tiny houses but also solar power stations, composting latrines and a community kitchen.

Nickelsville moves from place to place, going where land is available since its residents cannot afford to pay rents. Slowly but surely, thanks to this project, its rickety collection of tarps, tents and donated Home Depot shacks are being replaced by modest but functional shelters.

The challenge is non-trivial – the structures need to be somewhat easy to disassemble and move while also meeting city code and basic safety standards. Backing the youth builders is Sawhorse Revolution, an area non-profit that teaches kids how to use tools and build structures.

While many institutions, organizations and governments take an all-or-nothing approach, trying and generally failing to get the homeless off the streets, this project attempts to take on the actual situation on the ground, bridging the gap between sleeping on the streets and having a permanent residence.

Raising funds for an feline-focused area non-profit group, these architect-designed cat dwellings span the spectrum from adventure spaces to cozy nooks for your furry friends to explore or sleep within. If you also enjoy supporting canines, it is well worth checking out these 14 architect-designed doghouses likewise built to support a charitable purpose.

With proceeds going to FixNation, the Giving Shelter fundraiser (with photographer Grey Crawford) drew an impressive array for architects, firms and designers, including RNL, NAC, DSH, HOK, Wolcott, Lehrer, Space Int’l, Formation Association, Perkins + Wil, and Standard Architecture and Design.

With tunnels, tubes, ramps and platforms from wood, metal, fake grass and the materials used to make scratching posts, participating designers showed off the huge range of possibilities for catering to domestic cats, in some cases integrating elements of human functionality (with pieces doubling as furniture) as well.

Their robust materiality and construction is intended to make the shelters able to be placed outdoors. More photos from the live benefit can be found via Fixnation and Flickr.

Architects for Animals “Giving Shelter” is an awareness raising initiative. “The one-night event in Los Angeles benefitted FixNation, a 501c3 organization dedicated to helping community cats in need. Participating architectural design firms designed, built, and donated creative outdoor shelters.”

“These shelters were on display to the public at a one night event at the Herman Miller Showroom in Culver City. FixNation and Architects for Animals offered this unique exhibit and cocktail reception that combines the love of architecture with the love of animals. Attendees enjoyed hors d’oeuvres and wine from the open bar while viewing the original shelter designs.”

More on the non-profit benefiting from the series: “FixNation is a non-profit organization committed to cats, and to supporting Trap-Neuter-Return. We provide a free, full-time spay/neuter clinic for cats with two full-time veterinarians capable of sterilizing as many as 100 cats per day. We also provide low-cost, affordable spay/neuter services for tame pet cats. We loan out humane traps and equipment to the public free of charge, provide training on how to humanely trap feral cats and kittens, and offer guidance and information on long-term care and management for feral colonies. We are located in the heart of the San Fernando Valley and have been operational as a non-profit since 2007.”

A brilliant application of material science toward simple living, this portable self-inflating structure folds up into a manageable miniature package but expands to create a small dwelling space.

Created by Martin Azua, the Basic House is a genius “habitable volume; foldable, inflatable and reversible … made from metalized polyester” that uses body or solar heat to inflate itself. As its designer explains, “is not a product, rather a concept of extreme reduction.”

In a clever twist, this tiny portable space is made to be inverted so that it can deflect solar heat (for cold situations) in one configuration but capture it (to warm its interior) when reversed. Versatile and durable, the design could be used for everything from homeless shelters and travel tents to emergency housing and much more.

More from its maker on his motivation: “Our habitat has turned into a space of consumption in which an unlimited number of products satisfy a series of needs created by complex systems and relations that are difficult to control. Cultures that maintain a more direct interaction with their environment show us that the idea of habitat can be understood in more essential and reasonable terms.”

We see conceptual modular designs of this kind all of the time, but rarely such exquisite real-world proof of how fast construction can be in the age of prefabrication.

The recently-completed One9 building in Melbourne, Australia, using the Hickory Group’s Unitized Building system to install 34 units in less than 1 week around a prefab-paneled concrete core.

Created by architect Nonda Katsalidis, this approach allows each one-or-two-bedroom dwelling to be built almost entirely offsite then stacked like a puzzle piece onto the site, completed with decks and fenestration in place.

Utility connections are also built in, making it easy to hook up electrical and plumbing systems. In theory, the process can be used to build up to 70-story structures.

The building boasts a number of sustainable materials and strategies, making its speed of construction all the more impressive. Per JetsonGreen, “The units in the building are all fitted with double glazed windows that offer superior thermal protection and acoustic performance. The building is also equipped with a grey water recycling system. There is also a rainwater harvesting system in place.

As for green energy, “Rooftop mounted solar panels provide enough energy to heat the water used up by the residents, while the building is also equipped with a H.W.S system that provides highly efficient water circulation. Energy efficient lighting is installed throughout the building, to conserve energy expenditure. The One9 building also has a 6 Star energy rating.”