Prefabricated, portable and modular, the Transportable Tourist Tower (TTT) by Portuguese architect Jose Pequeno is an adaptable housing solution that can be installed on almost any site, vertically or horizontally, as a single unit or a larger stacked structure.  Capable of being made from local, recyclable materials, this nearly self-contained unit is ideal for temporary installations and sensitive building sites.

The tower debuted at the 2010 Shanghai Expo and has since made its way around the world, installed in various locations as a tourist information center. It needs as little as 10 square meters for its installation, fitting into tight spaces. It can be transported on a truck, and lifted into place with a crane.

Vertically, the Transportable Tourist Tower can be placed alone or side-by-side. But what makes this unit even more versatile is its ability to be placed on its side. All of the components within the building are flexible and modular, making them easy to move, remove or replace as needed.

The three-story unit is packed with functionality despite its small size. It contains a living space, dining area, kitchen, bedroom, bathroom, study and rooftop deck. It’s easy to imagine this tower in use at large events such as the Olympics, where compact housing is only needed for a short period of time.

Why settle for a cramped corner of a noisy house when your home office could be a separate unit tucked into the greenery of your backyard? Detached office modules, art studios, recording studios and other work spaces help keep the line between work and home life sharply delineated, but cut your commute down to mere steps. Modern and often modular, these 14 compact office designs fit into virtually any outdoor space, and they’re so good-looking, they practically function as yard art.

WorkPod by Ecospace

(image via: ecospacestudios)

Sleek and minimalist, the WorkPod by Ecospace architecture studio is a compact detached office with optional integrated work areas and storage systems. You can even configure your own customized pod in one of five different sizes, and choose the color of the exterior.

Blob VB3 by dmvA

(image via: dmva architecten)

From the outside, it looks like a dinosaur egg: it’s simply a white blob. But open that discreet door on the side and you’ll find an ultramodern studio space with lots of built-in niches for storage. It features a skylight and a front hatch that opens to let in air and additional sunlight. The appropriately named Blob V3 functions as a mobile guest house, portable backyard office or secondary library space.

Tetra Shed by Innovation Imperative

(images via: archdaily)

Looking like an architectural interpretation of Darth Vader’s helmet, the Tetra Shed is a geometric volume with flaps that open to provide a door and windows. A single unit is large enough to function as an office or guest room, and multiple units can be connected. The Tetra Shed is made of engineered timber, matte black rubber and birch faced plywood.

Banyan Treehouse by RPA

(images via: archdaily)

This luxurious modern studio and guest house sits above a live tree trunk in Nichols Canyon, Los Angeles, and pays tribute to the treehouse aesthetic with three stylized modern pillars that evoke natural branches. Rockefeller Partners Architects designed the detached unit for the eastern-facing ridge location, topping it off with an evocative butterfly-shaped roofline.

Sett Studio

(images via: settstudio.com)

The prefabricated Sett Studio can easily be unloaded from a truck and slid right into place in your backyard. With layouts ranging between 97 to 192 square feet, the Sett Studio is perfect for a fairly small office, art studio, yoga space or guest room that won’t require a building permit in most areas. It’s made of SIP (Structural Insulated Panel) technology, which is energy-efficient and reduces manufacturing waste.

Archipod

(image via: archipod.co.uk)

The perfectly round, shingle-covered Archipod is certainly an unusual structure to see in someone’s backyard. Designed to be garden decor as much as a functioning studio or workspace, the Archipod is a 9-foot-diameter sphere that is shipped in segments so it can easily be carried, piece by piece, through a house. Inside is a semi-circular desk, a skylight and a porthole-like round glass window.

Office Pod by Manuel Villa

(images via: cubeme.com)

Architects Manuel Villa and Alberto Gonzalez designed this office pod for a backyard in Bogota, Colombia. The polyhedron-shaped structure has a pine wood interior, a black exterior with a honeycomb pattern and a large teak deck. A wall of windows and a bubble-shaped skylight bring in lots of natural light.

Sustainsia Cocoon

(images via: sustainsia.com)

Looking somewhat like the bottom end of a guitar, the Sustainsia Cocoon is a curvy detached studio space with built-in furniture that requires users to bring in nothing more than a chair and personal items. A bench can pull out into a futon bed, and overhead lift-open cabinets have doors that continue into the curving contour of the ceiling. The table pulls down like a Murphy bed, saving space when not in use.

Generation Design Studio

(image via: generation design studio)

Generation Design Studio created this ‘tiny house’ for a backyard in Portland, Oregon. Built from an old greenhouse foundation, the 198-square-foot structure is made from mostly recycled glass and lumber, and has custom-built cedar doors and windows.

OfficePOD

(images via: officepod.co.uk)

Another totally transportable, self-contained backyard working space is the OfficePod. The modular design makes it easy to move and assemble, and a rolling wooden facade enables it to be opened to the outdoors. A top-quality locking system ensures that valuables inside are protected. Built and delivered, the whole OfficePod comes out to about $24,000. Features include an integrated desk, built-in storage, LED lighting and window blinds.

Log Cabin Recording Studio by Piet Hein Eek

(image via: pietheineek.nl)

It’s anything but a traditional log cabin. In fact, when the window awnings are down, Piet Hein Eek’s recording studio looks like nothing more than a stack of logs. Cleverly camouflaged, the studio looks incredibly rustic from the outside but features a bright white interior.

Prefab Origin Design Studio

(images via: blu homes)

Prefab manufacturer Blu Homes offers a range of detached office/studios called The Origin Series, available in three sizes ranging from 24 to 48 feet long. Simple rectangular structures with lots of windows, the Origin structures come in a choice of floor plans that include mother-in-law apartments, media rooms, artist studios and even entire two-bedroom homes.

Garden Studio by in.it.studios

(images via: design milk)

The Garden Office Studio by in.it.studio is a backyard office with all of the comforts of home, including insulation, double-glazed windows and an optional bathroom. With enough room inside for two people to work, the studio boasts floor-to-ceiling glass that undoubtedly inspires a whole lot of nature gazing. It’s built from sustainably sourced timber using environmentally friendly construction methods and there’s no PVC anywhere on the structure, including in the rain gutter.

Modular Home Office by Stephen Meir

(images via: coroflot)

This modular ‘office shed’ by designer Stephen Meir takes just “one day, two people, three tools” to put together. The office arrives in what look like slices of the whole, which snap together in any configuration you like, in either a straight or curving line depending on how you align them. A rubber seal between each component creates a watertight seal.

Steel shipping containers are the temporary homes of countless consumer items being transported all around the world. Items are packed into the cargo containers in their country of origin, then shipped to wherever they’re destined to be sold. Once they’re emptied at the appropriate port, many of these cargo containers simply sit around empty or get melted down for re-use. But recently, they’ve found new lives as homes and other types of buildings. Perhaps the two most appealing aspects of building with shipping containers are the affordability and the green construction factor: shipping container homes are far less expensive than new-material traditional homes, and reusing them rather than melting them down significantly reduces the carbon footprint of the steel containers.

But how does it feel to live in a shipping container? Most people who have built this type of home say that they’re sturdy and modern, and when several containers are connected the building can be just about any size, from a single-container loft to a multi-container family home. Some residents of shipping container homes and offices choose to display the origins of their buildings by leaving the facades alone. Others disguise the shipping containers by applying exteriors that make the recycled buildings look just like any other. Whether they’re rough around the edges or covered in cutting-edge design, shipping container homes are definitely going places. Click the thumbnails below for more images of and information on these amazing designs:

When a prefab home or building solution is required it can kick a design-oriented mind into high gear – the search for a visually appealing yet functional solution can be incredibly motivating. These creative designers are no exception. Prefabrication, modularity and portability also translate well into the world of furniture design, where versatile kit-based and flat-pack products can be more easily made and sustainably shipped.

Prefab is becoming a major buzz word in the world of contemporary architectural design. Prefabricated and flat-pack homes, buildings and furniture represent the possibilities of partial mass production and extreme portability fused into aesthetically awesome finished products. The challenge is to combine the need for mobility and sustainability with a building design that appeals to clients and overcomes potentially negative stereotypes (such as shoddy workmanship or poor design) that are conventionally associated with prefab. Click the thumbnails below for more images of and information on these amazing designs: