Movie: in the second interview from our exclusive series, AIA 2015 Gold Medallist architect Moshe Safdie explains how he used Lego to design the groundbreaking Habitat 67 housing development. More about Moshe Safdie used "all the Lego in Montreal" to design Habitat 67
The lower floor of this live-work building in Japan was designed by architects SNARK and OUVI as a barber shop, while the upper level contains an apartment featuring a spacious loft (+ slideshow). More about Combined home and barber shop features exposed ceiling beams
News: Zaha Hadid Architects has unveiled its first project in Brazil – an 11-storey apartment building overlooking Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro. More about Zaha Hadid's first Brazilian building designed for Copacabana Beach
Angular shapes have been sliced out of the planks of smooth maple that encase a staircase at the centre of this Montreal renovation by Naturehumaine (+ slideshow). More about Naturehumaine add maple and steel staircase to 1960s house
Architect Felipe Escudero designed and built this clover-shaped house near the Ecuadorian mountain immortalised in the Walter J Turner poem Romance (+ slideshow). More about Clover-shaped house by Felipe Escudero built near Chimborazo mountain
Swiss studio Bureau A has concealed a wooden cabin inside an artificial rock and transported it to a remote site in the Swiss Alps. More about Mountain hideaway hidden inside a concrete boulder in the Alps
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
Architecture studio Sinato raised the ceiling level inside this Japanese apartment to create a mezzanine reading room that can be glimpsed through a narrow opening (+ slideshow). More about Sinato raises an apartment ceiling to squeeze in an extra floor
The founder of London gallery and design studio 19 Greek Street has dressed a show apartment for residences created by architects Darling Associates in the city's former Saint Martins School of Art building (+ slideshow). More about 19 Greek Street fits out show apartment at Saint Martin's Lofts
London firm Stanton Williams has completed a house in leafy north London with a timber and stone exterior, green sedum roofs and an entrance that brings residents over a bridge (+ slideshow). More about Hampstead home by Stanton Williams designed to evoke "the spirit of a tree house"
This take on a traditional Slovenian cottage by Dekleva Gregorič Arhitekti features cast concrete walls inlaid with chunks of stone to create a rugged texture (+ slideshow). More about Rural Slovenian cottage by Dekleva Gregorič has walls of stone set into concrete
These tiny pebble-shaped seaside cabins by Korean studio Yoon Space Design are designed to be easily transported from beach to beach (+ slideshow). More about Mobile egg-shaped beach huts installed along a South Korean shoreline
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"
A spiral staircase rises through the trough-shaped floors of this concrete residence in Japan by local studio Takeshi Hosaka Architects (+ slideshow). More about Spiral stairs puncture hilly floors inside Takeshi Hosaka's House in Byobugaura
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
Squeezed between two existing buildings in Barcelona, this family home by Alventosa Morell Arquitectes features a steel frame, a timber facade and two street-facing balconies (+ slideshow). More about Alventosa Morell slots a four-storey house between two blocks in Barcelona
News: Ma Yansong's Beijing studio MAD has been granted permission to drastically remodel a 1970s block in Rome, to create a residential complex featuring tree-covered terraces and translucent metallic walls. More about MAD wins approval for first European project after four years of negotiations
News: IKEA's flat-pack refugee shelters, which have now been tested in Ethiopia and Iraq, have been described by design critic Alice Rawsthorn as being part of "one of the most important design developments of the past decade" (+ slideshow). More about IKEA's refugee housing is "unusually sensitive and intelligent" says Alice Rawsthorn
This apartment block in Tokyo by Hiroyuki Ito Architects features concrete walls that step back and forth, and a series of terraces screened by the facade (+ slideshow). More about Hiroyuki Ito completes Tokyo housing block with staggered concrete silhouette