WHETHER YOUR HOUSE is large or small, there are ways to live big –  no matter the space. Inventive home-owners and architects create clever houses. Here’s a look at some property ingenuity around the world.

1. Green roofs

A green roof, also called a living roof, is covered with plant life growing over a water-proof layer. Green roofs have many advantages, including providing insulation and absorbing rainwater.

This house, built in the outskirts of Brussels in Belgium, has taken the idea to new extremes…

Image: Architizer

2. Making use of space

This house was built by a group of students at the Yestermorrow Design Build School in Vermont. The creative use of such a small space  - 220 square feet – has to be seen to be believed.

YouTube/SpacesTV

3. Knocking through

This Portuguese house is also relatively small, clocking in at 474 square feet, but the designers chose a different method of working around it: movable walls.

The house contains five spaces, two of them completely flexible by moving a cabinet or wall.

Image: ArchDaily/Amandio Neto

4. Hip to be square

The Cubic Houses in Rotterdam, Netherlands are a curious feat of design conceived by Piet Blom in the 1970s.

He had been asked by the council there to solve the problem of building houses atop a pedestrian bridge – and this was the result.

Image: All That Is Interesting

5. Around the bend

The Waldspirale (or “forest spiral” in English) is a large-scale residental complex in Darmstadt, Germany. It contains 105 apartments, a parking garage, a kiosk, cafe, bar, playground, and a small artificial lake.

The spiral curves upward with a green roof, with trees growing around the irregularly-planned windows and walls. No two windows are the same – and the building has over 1000 of them.

Image: Green Apple

6. Below deck

This New York apartment uses cubby holes and wardrobe units to reinvent a tight space. Brooklyn-based architect Tim Seggerman was responsible for the de-cluttering of this Upper West Side apartment.

Image: Tim Seggerman/Tree Hugger

They even managed to tuck away a washing machine…

Image: Tim Seggerman/Tree Hugger

Everyone deserves their dream house – be it eco-friendly, cleverly space-saving or just a cosy home. Not every dream comes true, but with a KBC mortgage, some can.

For more information, check out KBC Bank Ireland.