This mobile art installation turns the most congested New York City intersections into an unlikely context for a most rural-looking little cottage, the illusion completed thanks to steam rising up from below the streets.

When artist Mark Riegelman saw an orange traffic cone acting as an inadvertent steam conduit, the idea came to him to build something large and out-of-place to grab attention in a city of spectacle. Measuring 6 by 8 by 8 feet, the tiny micro-cabin still weighs hundreds of pounds and had to keep moving – as an unsanctioned project, it needed to avoid authorities.

Inspired in part by the incense-smoking figures traditional to Germany, the Smökers installation comes alive through the appearance of dynamic vapors wafting up from the chimney. In the artist’s words: “the byproduct of the city’s essential industrial process, which provides power and heat to thousands of homes and businesses throughout the city, [are] highlighted and subverted.”

The German “Räuchermann, also commonly referred to as ‘smokers’, are simple wooden incense burners, often resembling cabins, animals, and chimney sweeps.” These are usually, however, found on shelves in homes, not in the form of giant homes on the street.

Railings, shutters, sun shades and other surfaces with separate-but-repeating elements are all potential canvasses for this unique semi-secretive approach to street art.

Zebrating is the German artist group behind these pieces, carefully calculated, printed and glued onto surfaces with a balance of color and simplicity that lets them stand out but seem also like part of their environment.

Though sometimes seen in process and stopped by the cops, this crew continues to paint their lenticular-style pictures both on public urban surfaces and in more sanctioned venues like museum galleries or approved architecture.

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Secret Graffiti Railings Reveal Art Only At The Right Angle

In the last 30 years, the size of a typical home in the United States has shot up from under 1000 square feet to nearly 2500. It begs the question: how much room to we really need in order to live?

Once a Laotian refugee and, now, a German architect, Van Bo Le-Mentzel understands firsthand what it means to be homeless, displaced but also to feel a sense of owning your own space both emotionally and financially.

Thus his contribution to the small homes movement – a do-it-yourself mini-house that tilts and folds to reveal a bed, desk and light, complete with a window as well as lockable door.

In short: it has the very basic essentials for survival, but also is necessarily a space you venture out from and use as an urban home base, not a remote hiding place.

Plans for the one-square-meter (or 1SQM) house are available for free, along with its bare-banes list of essential building components: “20 meters of wooden timbers (3.4 cm x 3.4 cm) for 250 Euro (300 Dollars), Wall Coverings (Sperrholz), 200 Screws, 4 wheels, 1 acryl-glass window, 1 door and 1 day of your lifetime to build it.”