Cracked open like a coat (or pair of pants), the walls of this structure in England, have been opened up to expose its abandoned interior ahead of its scheduled demolition.

“Open to the Public” is an art installation by Alex Chinneck located in Kent that deconstructs a mid-century tannery to create a mind-bending, giant-sized illusion of flexibility alongside solid surfaces.

Wood columns, glass windows and plaster walls all seem to bend and morph in uncanny ways. Along one face, the building is zipped down the center — along another, a zipper seems to slide sideways just below the roof.

The artist describes the work as “theatrical and surreal,” and notes that the zipper approach is a nod to the clothing that was fabricated inside the architectural shell.

“When introducing a narrative, we take complex paths to get to simple moments, which are quite accessible and conceptually light – we kept it playful with the zipping element.” This is also not his first deconstruction project.

The complete opposite of a minimalist Modernist glass-clad house, this rustic and homey backyard cabin exhibits hand-crafted details, rich dark wood and best of all: a gorgeous array of custom stained glass panels.

Built behind her home in Mohawk, New Jersey, this wonderful work of micro-architecture was constructed by glass artist and jewelry maker Neile Cooper as a private personal retreat.

Her Glass cabin is constructed from reused window frames and spare lumber, evidenced by all of the different shapes and sizes that add character and complexity to the structure. The gaps are filled in not with walls but rather with works of her own art, bringing the entire place to live with flowers, birds, stones, minerals and other natural subject materials.

While she is not in the business of building and selling small homes (alas), her jewelry work features similar themes as do many of her other stained glass creations.

Some of her unique wearable pieces use “real butterfly wings. The butterflies I use are farmed all over the world, and collected when naturally expired. They live out their short winged stage in a protected enclosure. Butterfly farming protects the natural habitat of the butterflies through conservation of the natural vegetation and leaves the wild butterfly population intact. I turn these fragile beauties into heirloom pieces, by pressing them in hand-cut glass and encasing them with a silver alloy. “

Taking arbosculpture to the next level, German designer Ferdinand Ludwig is working to build not just sculptures but bridges and buildings from living trees. Many of his designs will take years or even decades to fully unfold.

His largest project yet in Nagold, Germany, was a multistory structure made up over over 100 trees slowly combined into a single organism, coaxed into place with a steel framework that will eventually be redundant. The lattice of interconnected tree trunks and branches ends up forming its own self-supporting truss system.

The support beams are labeled with the years in which they can be removed, allowing the structure to stand on its own by 2028. Like a conventional curtain wall on an ordinary architectural facade, this system could be used to wrap other buildings as well.

Even now, though, the slow-growing ‘building’ makes for a shady and cool space in the summer. Through each season, of course, it changes with the natural cycles of spring, summer, fall and winter.

A pioneer of what he calls ‘Baubotanik’ (think: Bauhaus using botanical techniques), Ludwig’s living plant constructions were inspired in part by native tribes that grow living bridges out of trees over time.

Donald Trump has promised that if he becomes President of the United States, he’ll build a “beautiful and impenetrable” wall and force Mexico to pay for it – so a group of Mexican architects have taken on the task of designing it for him, too. The firm Estudio 3.14 has envisioned the “gorgeous perversity” of the proposal in a vibrant shade of neon pink, a solid architectural ribbon running from the Pacific Ocean to the Gulf of Mexico and packed full of prisons.

“I will build a great wall – and nobody builds walls better than me, believe me – and I’ll build them very inexpensively,” Trump said during his candidacy announcement speech in June 2015. “I will build a great, great wall on our southern border, and I will make Mexico pay for that wall. Mark my words.”

Estudio 3.14 presents a series of renderings of the structure in the various types of border landscapes one finds along that 1,954-mile stretch. The wall is painted pink in honor of Pritzker Prize-winning Mexican architect Luis Barragán. To understand exactly what the architects are getting at with this project, it’s best to hear it described in their own words.

“Based on Trump’s statements, the economic, ecological and financial aspects have been called into question. However, he continues with his verbal plan. As architects and designers, we have the capacity to imagine and interpret what Trump is saying, and we are convinced that if we can make people see it, they can assess his words and the perversity in his proposal.”

“Because the wall has to be beautiful, it has been inspired in by Luis Barragán’s pink walls that are emblematic of Mexico. It also takes advantage of the tradition in architecture of megalomaniac wall building. Moreover, the wall is not only a wall – as you can see in the hill landscape cross-section it is a prison where 11 million undocumented people will be processed, classified, indoctrinated, and/or deported.”

“The relation between the discipline of architecture and political perversity and/or megalomania has already been seen through previous characters such as Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini, who relied on the imaginative architects of their words and the creators, who materialized their macabre ideas. The proposal is made from the disciplinary field that has worked, since the existence of humanity, for the status quo and benefits from this tradition.”

Above and beyond your typical five-star hotel, this open-air room sits at nearly 6,500 feet in the mountains of Switzerland with panoramic views of the Alps.

A bed, side tables and lamps are not quite all visitors need to enjoy their stay at Null Stern (translated: Zero Star), but bathrooms are just a few minutes down the slope and meals are delivered by a butler. The name is a little misleading, since in most hotels one would have greatly reduced access to the infinite stars in the night sky.

At around $250 per night, the space and its amenities are a steal and reservations are refunded in case of inclement weather. The wall-and-ceiling-free room is available in spring and fall but closed during the winter.

The Null Stern is part art experiment and part boutique hotel, using the sky as a ceiling and mountains as walls.

“Even though this version is radically different from the first one in the nuclear bunker,” a previous project by the same creators, “the essence and the spirit of the concept remains the same,” said one of the artists behind Null Stern “To put the guest at the centre of the experience and to focus on the intangible by reducing everything else to the minimum.”