Moldova’s Hobbit Houses settles into a lakeside wake park near Pănăseşti, Moldova, where three earth-sheltered cabins read as shaped mounds in the grass. Designed by LH47 ARCH, the hotel turns unused shoreline into a quiet retreat that faces the water and hides its mass in the land. Inside, local craft and timber work carry the idea forward without fuss.

Casa N I D O sits in Mérida, Mexico, as a house shaped by climate and family rituals. Designed by Arkham Projects in 2024, the dwelling turns a quiet face to the street and opens wide to a planted courtyard and pool. Across two levels, the plan balances privacy with easy gathering, drawing steady light from the north and breeze from the east for daily comfort.

Armstrong Cottage sits in Peterborough, Canada, as a family retreat by Peter Braithwaite Studio. Two slender pavilions rise within a lakeside canopy, set lightly on the land yet engineered for a tough island site. The off-grid house ties childhood summers to a future-facing build, trading heavy foundations for bedrock-fixed steel and a kit-of-parts structure. It’s a modern escape with pragmatic grit.

Casa Oruç sits in Mineral del Monte, Mexico, where mist, pines, and a severe grade shape daily rhythms. Saavedra Arquitectos steers a house through this wooded slope with an approach that starts high and threads down to living. It’s a house, yes, but also a route through trees and rock, built for hosts who love company and quiet in equal measure.

Towhouse VI anchors a careful renovation of a 1950s house in Kortrijk, Belgium by Decancq-Vercruysse Architects. The project treats everyday rituals as design drivers, translating personal habits into warm materials, generous storage, and measured connections to a walled garden. Living areas open to light and greenery, while quieter rooms lean into darker tones and soft texture. It reads as domestic craft tuned to daily life.

Twin Pitches transforms a once tired Edwardian house in London, United Kingdom, into a bright, energy-efficient family home. Designed by Atelier Baulier, the retrofit and extension replan daily life across a four-bedroom house with purpose and warmth. This is a house project, commissioned by a family of four, that threads low-impact construction through everyday routines without losing character.

Fulnek Kindergarten sits in the northern reach of its garden site in Fulnek, Czech Republic, designed by XTOPIX architekt as a compact, low-slung school. The building orients its life to the south, where courtyards cut into the slope and open classrooms to views of the château across town. Calm materials, a legible plan, and child-scaled thresholds shape a daily rhythm of arriving, playing, and gathering.

Tetherow Overlook House sits on a bluff in Bend, OR, United States, designed by Hacker as a family house rooted in the high desert. The project organizes daily life around terraced platforms and articulated volumes, linking interiors to the surrounding pumice hills and distant horizons. Across its 2024 composition, rooms track light and wind while providing settings for art, gathering, and quiet work.