The simple and linear form of this remote vacation home juts out from a cliff over a sea-lion reserve in Chile; crafted to look aged and monolithic, it appears almost like a modern ruin in the natural landscape.

Designed by architects Mauricio Pezo and Sofia von Ellrichshausen, based in nearby Concepción, the Loba House juts out off the Coliumo Peninsula. For the clients, it is a dream getaway, but it takes a particular personality to enjoy the rugged forms and structural simplicity of this quiet place.

The heavy concrete structure is predominantly made of concrete, its roof forming a terrace overlooking the ocean below (with a stepped chimney sticking up from it).

“In its under-dimensioned thickness, in its narrow and tall proportion, the building could be read as an inhabited wall that runs perpendicular to the natural topography.”

The interior is intentionally sparse and rough, seeming almost like something constructed out of mud brick by hand, or an ancient retreat for some monastic order. The floors step up the hill, following the topography.

The place is just 750 square feet. Kitchen and bathroom fixtures as well as the hearth are built into the concrete columns, as is storage space below various platform levels. Below are common spaces — above: sleeping quarters.

Skylights illuminate various rooms and the board-formed walls, while limited windows keep down costs while framing specific views of the surroundings. Simplicity and geometry dominate the design inside and out, which are also common themes in the architects’ other projects (their own home is a simple concrete tower).

No smoke-and-mirrors or post-production here, just fleeting vignettes swiftly staged on steamed windows and set against natural outdoor backgrounds.

Jim Osborne is a self-taught landscape artist who typically works in watercolor, acrylic and oils. He describes himself as being inspired by his surroundings, light and the weather. Recently, however, he has begun working in a new direction with water condensation on glass window surfaces.

His Steamy Windows Collection represents a bit of a departure for him in terms of tools and approach – the work is necessarily fast, drawing on organic backdrops, lighting conditions and perceptual cues. Each piece is shot quickly as well, and prints can be found for sale on his website.

With the need for speed, every little gesture counts – the results are simultaneously planned but ultimately uncontrolled, a mixture of simple figures and hasty grounds that somehow manages to look like more than the sum of its parts. The approach seems like a a great way to train oneself to think in an agile fashion and be nimble in execution.

Full of small surprises, this minimalist modern urban retreat blends elements of a free-for-all hostel of bunk beds for college backpackers and high-end hotels catering to business executives.

At The POD in Singapore, designed by Formwerkz, guests stay in variously-sized capsules reminiscent of radical pod hotels in places like Tokyo or Hong Kong, but with warm materials (primarily wood and stone), soft lighting and tactile finishes one might expect from a traditional suite in Kyoto or Beijing.

The bedrooms are semi-private affairs – slots in the walls you can slip into with a curtain you can pull down for privacy, but no actual door or solid space divider. A private desk folds down from the wall and private reading light lets you set your own hours for sleeping at night.

For security, separate cubby lockers below beds and shoe lockers in the main space let you keep valuables out of reach. Common areas provide both lounge and meeting spaces as well as private office pods for getting work or calls down out of sight.

The washrooms with basin sinks and broad mirrors are open and shared, but the bathroom stalls inside of them (including a smaller sink, shower, toilet and mirror) are closed and private, resulting in a blend of semi-public yet also personal restrooms .

You could make a strong case for this vehicle being barely recognizable as such. The dimensions, fenestration and over spatial configuration give good clues that this space may have once been a school bus, but the finishes, furnishings and built-ins go above and beyond bare-bones adaptive reuse.

Architecture student Hank Butitta was sick of drafting imaginary buildings in studio courses destined never to be built, and sought (with help from his younger brother Vince) to steer his education in a more hands-on direction.

For his final thesis project at the University of Minnesota, Hank bought a bus for $3,000, added $6,000 to improve it, and spent fifteen weeks creating this amazing multifunctional mobile home.

We should start with the evolution of the programmatic diagram, described and illustrated in simple terms: “The even spacing of the window bays allow for the volume to be broken down into modular units of 28 inches square, leaving an aisle that is also 28 inches wide. The modular units are then grouped to create four primary zones: Bathroom, Kitchen, Seating, and Sleeping.”

From there, a series of rules and strategies evolved, like: keep the space as open as possible, so the 225 square feet available area does not get broken down into cramped compartments.  The result is a limitation of objects built above the bottom edge of each window and an open-feeling floor plan. Hank also “developed a thin wall system integrating structure, insulation, electrical, lighting, and facing, leaving the interior open for occupation. The ceiling is covered in plywood flexed by compression, and the floor is reclaimed gym flooring, complete with 3-point line.”

Throughout the project, there are clever and deceptively simple ways to redeploy structure to address different needs on demand, like a bed system that allows for different sleeping configurations, and seats that with secret flip-up and slide-out panels to allow for further lounging or additional overnight guests. Storage is tucked and hidden throughout, integrated into other built-ins wherever spare space was available. The detailing throughout is minimal and consistent, but don’t let that fool you: a great deal of thought and work went into that apparent simplicity.