Triendl und Fessler Architekten has completed an affordable home in an Austrian village, featuring a hole in its centre that provides residents with a secluded garden courtyard (+ slideshow). More about Triendl und Fessler Architekten plans low-cost family home around a secret courtyard
This timber-clad Copenhagen house was designed by local studio EFFEKT to be flexible for a growing family, but also to match the cost of the country's cheapest kit homes (+ slideshow). More about EFFEKT's Villa One is a low-cost home designed to suit a growing family
Students and faculty members at University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) have designed a tiny house to help address the city's low-cost housing shortage. More about UCLA research lab unveils micro dwelling to help combat affordable housing crisis
The four buildings that make up this affordable housing development in Santa Monica, California, all feature mint-green solar shades on their facades, and are organised around a "starfish-shaped" courtyard (+ slideshow). More about Kevin Daly Architects builds a low-cost housing community in Santa Monica
Seoul office JYA-rchitects used cheap materials including bubble wrap and corrugated steel sheets to provide an "efficient architectural solution" for a series of low-cost houses in South Korea (+ slideshow). More about JYA-rchitects develops affordable homes for low-income families in South Korea
This low-cost concrete block house outside Monterrey was designed and built by its owners, with support from a non-profit social housing project led by local architecture office S-AR (+ slideshow). More about S-AR's Casa Caja is a prototype for low-cost homes that can be built by their owners
This small black family house in Copenhagen was designed by Danish architect Sigurd Larsen to be built for a budget of just £95,000 (+ slideshow). More about Sigurd Larsen completes low-cost family house in Copenhagen
Vo Trong Nghia Architects has presented its third prototype for low-cost housing in Vietnam, which combines the lightweight structure of the first model with the durability of the second (+ slideshow). More about Vo Trong Nghia's latest low-cost house is "stable enough to withstand natural disasters"
Architects plan low-cost residences for all kinds of reasons, whether rehousing victims of natural disasters or creating affordable homes for people with low incomes. We've collected eight of the best examples, from a prefabricated home in Sweden to a bamboo dwelling in Vietnam (+ slideshow). More about Eight resourceful low-cost housing projects from around the globe
More than 900 bamboo poles were used to construct this home, designed by architect Enrique Mora Alvarado for a site in a remote Ecuadorian rainforest (+ slideshow). More about Low-cost house by Enrique Mora Alvarado built using rainforest wood and bamboo
Vo Trong Nghia Architects has revealed its second-phase prototype for an affordable and low-maintenance dwelling for Vietnam, as part of a project aimed at solving the country's housing crisis (+ slideshow). More about Vo Trong Nghia unveils second prototype for low-cost Vietnamese housing
Swedish architect Tommy Carlsson has completed an affordable prefabricated home near Stockholm that is clad in corrugated iron and resembles a cube with some of its corners cut off (+ slideshow). More about Happy Cheap house by Tommy Carlsson is a prototype for low-cost prefab homes
Hong Kong studio Affect-T has come up with a proposed solution for the city's housing crisis – a series of bamboo micro homes that could be installed inside abandoned factory buildings. More about Bamboo micro homes could be slotted inside Hong Kong's old factories
Design strategy collective Urban-Think Tank has designed and built a prototypical house as part of an initiative to improve housing conditions for slum dwellers in some of the 2700 informal settlements across South Africa (+ movie). More about Urban-Think Tank develops housing prototype for South African slums
Japanese architect Shigeru Ban developed these timber and earth houses for the rehabilitation of a Sri Lankan fishing village that was swept away during the 2004 tsunami (+ slideshow). More about Post-Tsunami Housing by Shigeru Ban
Japanese studio General Design constructed this two-storey house in Tokyo as the prototype for a series of urban housing templates that can be replicated in any Japanese city (+ slideshow). More about Prototyping UH by General Design
Vietnamese studio Vo Trong Nghia Architects plans to address the housing crisis in Vietnam by introducing modular homes that use cheap local materials and are easy to assemble. More about Low Cost House by Vo Trong Nghia Architects
Hackney studio Levitt Bernstein has won a housing design competition with a proposal to turn disused parking garages into tiny pop-up homes. More about Pop-up housing in garages by Levitt Bernstein
Architect Frank Gehry has completed his first building for Make It Right, the charity founded by Brad Pitt to rehouse families made homeless in New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina in 2005. More about Duplex by Frank Gehry for Make it Right
This prefabricated house in Portugal costs about the same price to manufacture as a family car (photographs by José Campos). More about MIMA House by MIMA Architects