Building a new home in any city can be a tough proposition – new lots sometimes cost as much as ones with finished houses already on them. And then there are questions of neighborhood and context when it comes to materials and style, not to mention the livability issues of a small and thin lot with no real opportunity for creating side windows.

This skinny-home solution by Reza Aliabadi of Atelier Rzlbd makes the most of a tiny buildable footprint both inside and out. It even manages to look strangely at home despite (or because of) the way it departs from its pitched-roof adjacencies.

The rectangular outside shell of weathered dark wood does indeed look different from what is found around it, but is deferentially tucked back further into the lot and looks almost like a three-dimensional bookmark between classically Toronto-styled townhomes.

The interior is an exercise in circulation maximization – a core staircase unfolds into a series of platform-like levels spinning out from the center, facing backward of forward depending on programmatic demands and day lighting opportunities.

A simple palette of white-painted walls and richly-variegated wood floors helps keep the spaces engaging, homey but also bright and open despite the narrow configuration of the building.

Church of the Holy Dzheykubsa Utrecht Design The former Church of St. Dzheykubsa in Utrecht (Netherlands) – municipal monument, which has a conservative facade, but it is unusual interior. Originally built in 1870, the church contains many historical treasures. The current owners have hired her architectural firm ZECC, to convert the church into the house with great attention to the light, space and functionality. The interior design was developed by Thomas Haukes. The most interesting thing that the church was sold.

Sloped sites are notoriously difficult to deal with even in urban areas accessible by heavy building equipment … tumbling off the side of a country road, this site required creative alternative construction methods at every turn.

With physical and financial constraints, Spanish architect Arturo Franco “began to think: an iron structure like those of the visionary Russian Constructivists, a work by Tony Carr, a chair by Shapiro, a piece by Max Hill; something heavy and light at the same time; gravity, an issue; the scale, an instrument to work with; a large table or a small ship.”

A simple box-like structure emerged, with foundations and columns of concrete supporting a wrapped-metal abode cantilevered (with secondary stilts) above. Still, building it was no simple matter, and required on-the-spot solutions evolved by contractors and subcontractors dealing the the steep terrain.

With Casa Paz, “in the end, we were searching for a linear house …. a straight line … with deep steps as in a garden, reuniting all functions. Below it, a small therapeutic pool, 2 meters wide by 10 meters long.” Behind the scenes, the entire volume is carefully balanced so that the last portion can just over 15 feet beyond the final supports from below.

The key is context – set against a backdrop of aged brick or bright wide and bleached wood, these incredible articulated-joint stairways make for stunning centerpieces to an historic or modern home.

Philip Watts Design does domestic interiors and installation art, too, but their sets of stairs are particularly compelling in terms of creativity and breadth of typology.

Similar methods, simply extrapolated, were employed with the above bridge as well, in this case revealing the structure both from above and below.

Aside from the more organic, free-form, spine-shaped variety, their staircase portfolio includes a range of glass, metal and wood stairs the wrap, twist and float inside all kinds of contemporary homes.