https://altbuilds.com/Small spaces. Unexpected plans. Better questions about the way we live.enhttps://altbuilds.com/articles/the-dining-room-that-disappears-after-breakfast/https://altbuilds.com/articles/the-dining-room-that-disappears-after-breakfast/The table does not fold into a wall or migrate to a spare room. In Didomestic, a 2013 attic refurbishment in Madrid by elii, the dining table and picnic benches rise into the ceiling. Wall cranks operate cables and pulleys to lower the furniture through ceiling doors. Lifted away, the set leaves the main floor open for another use, though the available sources do not give dimensions for the area cleared. [1] [2]Sun, 04 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000https://altbuilds.com/articles/borneo-12-half-plot-private-alley/https://altbuilds.com/articles/borneo-12-half-plot-private-alley/Borneo 12 deliberately builds on only half its plot to make the leftover strip do the work of a frontage. On a five-metre-wide, 16-metre-deep Amsterdam site, MVRDV placed a 2.5-metre-wide house along one side and kept the other side as a private alley. A full-height glass wall turns the narrow home toward that alley, where storage, parking and enclosed rooms also take up space. The move trades a conventional broad façade for a longer, more active edge beside the house. [1] [2]Sun, 04 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000https://altbuilds.com/articles/a-ceiling-that-stores-an-extra-room/https://altbuilds.com/articles/a-ceiling-that-stores-an-extra-room/Yes, overhead storage can become part of a compact apartment’s spatial plan when it does more than hide objects. In elii’s 57.6 m² Didomestic attic renovation in Madrid, wall handles and a cable-and-pulley system lower furniture from the ceiling, freeing the main floor when those pieces are raised. The move depends on the rest of the plan too: a mezzanine takes the sleeping area, while sliding panels and a central core that leads up to the loft organize the rooms below, flanked by a wet band and a storage band. The ceiling is useful here because it shares the work with the floor and walls. [1] [2]Sun, 04 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000https://altbuilds.com/articles/the-window-faces-sideways-not-down-the-street/https://altbuilds.com/articles/the-window-faces-sideways-not-down-the-street/At Borneo 12, the main window looks along the house rather than out from its ends. MVRDV placed a full-length glass facade on the long side of a 2.5-metre-wide home and turned it toward an alley. The front and back remain closed. The move gives the narrow house a sustained side outlook, but it also makes that outlook face a threshold whose privacy depends on how the alley is used. [1] [2]Sun, 04 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000