"Make every inch in your home work harder!" and you won't have to buy a bigger one. That's both the stated and implicit premise of Convertible Houses, a book dedicated to illustrating the "principles of multipurpose living" with creative design, aggressive space planning and convertible devices. The book features 12 convertible projects in all, located in in New York, London, Paris, Tokyo, Toronto, Hong Kong, Brazil and more. The houses exemplify convertible living from foldaway kitchens to foldout offices, from swiveling walls to cantilevering lofts. Hardcover, 192 pages, well illustrated, $16.47 at Amazon.

+ Convertible Houses at Amazon