Fulfilling my characters’ daily needs, chasing careers and relationships, was hardly of interest; where I truly thrived was Build Mode. What if the home is where we first rehearse the world we want, in miniature, before we dare to build it? Not because the spaces we live in simply dictate who we are, but because we shape our homes, and then, slowly, they shape us back. Given an empty lot of your own, what kind of home, and what kind of world, would you build? This article is part of designboom’s MODES OF HABITATION chapter, exploring how the spaces we inhabit can reshape the ways we live together.