D*Namic, by D*Haus Company – has been designed for an intensely cold climate and is inspired by origami. The house is made up of four rooms that can fold into eight arrangements: the house is also on rails and can rotate to follow the sun.

This spectacular home in Nova Lima, Brazil is set on the edge of a very steep hillside. The architects – Anastasia Architects – designed the house so that it burrows into the hill, with a dramatic cantilever out over the slope. The main floor is seven metres below the street, which anchors the house and minimises its effect on the site – with the added bonus that the house is completely private.

Tehran winters are bitterly cold and its summers are brutally hot: in response, the Sharifi-ha house has rooms that swivel out over the street at a touch of a button. Designed by local architects Next Office, the system uses motorised German turntables. In summer, the house can open up to light and air and in winter, it can close down to provide shelter from the cold.

As yet unbuilt, though no less spectacular: Australian architecture firm Modscape was asked to provide plans for a house on a cliff in Victoria. Instead of building on top of the cliff, they strung the house’s five levels down the cliff using a system that is based on ship’s barnacles. The views are amazing from every room.

Sometimes, a glass house is too hot and sometimes it is too cold: enter the Sliding House house, designed by Britain’s DRMM, where the barn-like wooden exterior can extend and retract on rails, allowing its residents control over light and heat.

Okay, so it hasn’t been built – and part of us understands why – but this place is an interesting exploration of what a glass house could look like. In this case, architect and designer Carlo Carlo Santambrogi has envisaged what he calls a “snow house”. The grid structure is modular and can be rearranged into almost any configuration. Stones optional.

Blink and you miss it: Greek architects Deca designed a structure to sit between two hillsides – from certain angles, it disappears completely. The house is visible only in the centre: the rest of it is buried, moderating temperatures in the very hot climate, and cooled by cross breezes rather than air conditioning.

Blink and you miss it: Greek architects Deca designed a structure to sit between two hillsides – from certain angles, it disappears completely. The house is visible only in the centre: the rest of it is buried, moderating temperatures in the very hot climate, and cooled by cross breezes rather than air conditioning.

Similarly, Colorado’s Edgeland House by Bercy Chen Studio is a modern interpretation of Native American pithouses, which were partly buried to moderate temperature and protect from strong wind. (Though we don’t think Native Americans had swimming pools, traditionally.)

Similarly, Colorado’s Edgeland House by Bercy Chen Studio is a modern interpretation of Native American pithouses, which were partly buried to moderate temperature and protect from strong wind. (Though we don’t think Native Americans had swimming pools, traditionally.)

In Warsaw, Poland, architect Jakub Szczesny has built a house in a former alley. The Keret House is just five feet wide and uses the buildings either side to support itself. The house was designed for a rotating roster of artists, who presumably don’t mind the restrictions such a narrow building entails.