Put off by the damp, cold houses they could afford, New Plymouth duo Natalie Kennaugh and Zara Losch decided to put their money into a very small, very special new-build.

Here, Zara relaxes with her guitar in their cosy bedroom.

Their property features two separate buildings, each 18 square metres, with a similar footprint to a shipping container but with higher ceilings. One is their home, the other (eight metres away) is their guest room, which doubles as an extra living space.

The shelving height in the kitchen was determined by the food items, products and kitchenware it needed to house. The sink is covered when not in use, allowing for more bench space.

When Jeremy Williams asked his friend, Christchurch architectural designer Tobin Smith, to design him a bachelor pad, they knew it had to be small: the site was just 10 metres wide and 46 metres long, and Smith laughed at Williams’ desire to build two townhouses there.

Williams took the smallest of the townhouses, an 82-square-metre (the floor area includes a single garage), two-bedroom “black box” in stained cedar with a gently pitched roof.

The spare bedroom opens to form part of the living area. The home’s single garage is adjacent to the living area and opens onto the courtyard.

Andrew Simpson of Wiredog Architecture used a unique design system to create a home on a steep site with a tight budget. Looking up to the sleeping area on the home’s mezzanine floor (right), where a built-in wardrobe opens on casters.

Simpson and his father built all the home’s internal cabinetry themselves. A small window looks out onto trunks of pohutukawa trees (left). Simpson’s partner Krysty Peebles in the home’s kitchen (right).

Architect Davor Popadich and his wife Abbe proved they could afford a home wit a small, simple design. Davor designed two adjacent, double-height, gable-roof forms, one thrust a metre forward of the other. A steel frame supports the junction of the two forms; otherwise, the frame is all timber, clad in ColorCote steel. Designing their home, Abbe says, “forced us to think about how we wanted to live.” Siding shutters allow views across the living space.

Tall windows in the living area allow in northerly sun (the home faces east), while a wood burner easily heats the entire space in winter.

This stylish, sleek, 120-square-metre marvel near Queenstown by Anna-Marie Chin.

The home’s kitchen features a sleeping space above the dining nook.

The dining nook is inspired by compact dining spaces on yachts, and has views towards Lake Wakatipu.

Architect Michael O’Sullivan’s house in Auckland’s Mangere Bridge, which he shares with his partner, Melissa Schollum, and their three children, demonstrates the benefits of compact living. When O’Sullivan first designed and built the house it had two-bedrooms and measured 112 square metres. He has since added on an additional bedroom for the children, but even with the extra space it is still a small home for a growing family.

Small houses need good outdoor areas to expand onto. The O’Sullivan house has two outdoor courtyards that double as additional living spaces.

These twin cabins on an inlet of the Kaipara Harbour won Home Magazine’s Home of the Year 2014 award. About three years ago, two friends pooled their resources to buy land beside an inlet on the Kaipara Harbour just over an hour’s drive north of Auckland. They decided to ask Nat Cheshire of Cheshire Architects to design a little cabin for each of them. The cabins each have a footprint of just 28 square metres. Each of them is entirely off the grid, with a little bathroom (although both cabins’ showers are outdoors), a kitchen (with a small fridge, gas hob and DishDrawer), a sparsely furnished sitting area and a sleeping loft. Each has two large windows, one functioning as an entrance, the other framing inlet views, while wooden hatches allow ventilation of the bathroom and sleeping areas.  Inside the black cabin, the daybed is by Donald Judd and the twig mobile by Eleanor Cooper. The sleeping loft is on the mezzanine floor above this space.

The stairs to the sleeping area are tucked behind the kitchen in each cabin.

A reworked Victorian semi-detached home in the Auckland suburb of Arch Hill. A view from the kitchen area through the dining space towards the home’s front door.

The concrete table (left) was designed by the couple and built in situ by Ally Metcalf. The simple galley kitchen includes a stainless-steel bench that reflects the sunlight into the adjoining spaces.

With a quarter-acre site, Joe and Vanessa Stradwick and their two children had plenty of land in Auckland. But they decided to use the original garage’s 80-square-metre footprint as the basis for their new two -storey home. Simple kitchen cabinetry lines the back wall while, above it, there’s a view through the study and out a rear window.

Tall cupboards not only allow a pared-back appearance but enhance the sense of space within the kitchen and living area.

Ben Daly worked as an architect until deciding to go it alone and take on the design and build of the 66-square metre Wellington apartment interior that he shares with his wife Dulia.

A desk in the spare bedroom, with a chair designed by Ben.