Like many of Benepe's projects, planting P.S. 111's playground is more than a quality of life improvement. The grass and other flora help absorb flood water during storms, relieving pressure on the city's drainage systems.

At P.S. 111, the Trust for Public Land transformed an asphalt eyesore into a green sanctuary for New York City schoolchildren.

A classroom in PS 313.

The custom leather platform bed was designed by Shikany’s firm, PS Studios.

A student from PS 47 in the Bronx.

For PS 234 in Manhattan's Tribeca neighborhood, Macrae-Gibson designed a colorful walkway to connect the main school building to a modern addition designed by the firm in 2008. The walkway, adjacent to a play yard, protects students and teachers from the elements as they move from one area to another.

PS 313 is a school in Sunnyside, Queens for 432 kindergarteners through fifth graders that opened in the fall of 2014. Equipped with a central courtyard and rooftop play area, the brick masonry building has attained a green rating from New York City.

The red steel-framed structure is lined with perforated metal panels in a variety of colors.

If a dim breakfast nook or counter has you down, add a bit of light overhead. Ikea's PS Collection LED lamp is handsome and energy efficient. $99 from ikea.com.

Hy-Fi, The Living's installation for MoMA PS1, "temporarily diverts the natural carbon cycle to produce a building that grows out of nothing but earth and returns to nothing but earth—with almost no waste, no energy needs, and no carbon emissions," says Benjamin.

Macrae-Gibson designed a 45,000-square-foot structure to add to PS 196Q's existing 1952 building in Forest Hills, Queens. The new building houses a new cafeteria and play yard deck and space for 644 additional students.

Hackney sofa by Wrong for Hay. See it at Via Ciovassino 3a.

The naturally formed bricks that comprise the structure are made of a corn byproduct and a material from mushrooms.

The winner of the 2012 MoMA/PS1 Young Architects Program, this structure by HWKN has a titanium-nanoparticle-coated skin that absorbs carbon dioxide.

French designer Matali Crasset's wardrobe for Ikea PS 2014 ($179) is an open piece that comes with dozens of colorful tabs that can be arranged and rearranged on the metal mesh front. Crasset describes it as "free from codes—due to its camouflage it adapts to any kind of home." For more Matali Crasset, check out the farmhouse she renovated which Dwell featured in our March 2014 issue.

The top-heavy towers were meant to invert structural conventions, as well as material ones. "The structure inverts the logic of load-bearing brick construction and creates a gravity-defying effect," Benjamin says.

Ikea's PS 2014 collection includes modular wall storage in bamboo veneer framed in powder-coated steel. Also available in black and white, though earthy red sure complements the warm wood tones. $34 at Ikea

For their MOMA PS1 Young Architect's Prize-winning design, titled Afterparty, MOS designed these thatch-covered thermal chimneys. The tower-like structures draw warm air upwards, cooling the spaces below to keep visitors comfortable. To further cool the pavilion, mist was sprayed on the thatch: the water droplets would absorb the surrounding heat and evaporate, taking the heat with them.

Margrethe Odgaard says of her Ikea PS 2014 mirror, “I was inspired by traveling in Eastern Europe, where I found rural homes with walls covered with textiles, floors with painted tiles, and mirrors decorated with stained glass foil. The carefully structured decorations inspired me to make a grid, in which I could use various lines and colors to create different patterns."

The entire PS 2012 range, prototyped and photographed on the factory floor in Sweden.

An IKEA PS Vågö chair sits on a small treated-pine deck off the master bedroom.

A trio of Polish designers—Krystian Kowalski, Maja Ganszyniec, and Paweł Jasiewicz—came up with this secretary ($189), which allows for a flexible workspace within a small apartment or hallway.

PS 2014 corner cabinet by Keiji Ashizawa for Ikea. For its PS 2014 line, Ikea collaborated with international designers to create furniture targeted to renters, including this triangular cabinet built to tuck into underutilized corner spaces.

Tomás Alonso's highly adaptable wood wall system was inspired by the kamoi, a wooden rail that runs around the perimeter of the rooms in traditional Japanese houses. Wall rail ($4.99), tray ($9.99), and mirror ($12.99).

“The IKEA PS 2014 greenhouse ($29.99) was inspired by the alpine chalets of my Swiss homeland," says designer Nicolas Cortolezzis, "a symbol of simplicity and harmony with nature. It can fit on the balcony, in the kitchen or next to the window. It can stand on a table or be hung on the wall."

Henrik Preutz designed his balancing bench ($49.99) to encourage play and movement in children: "They can balance on it, jump over it, crawl under it."

Japanese designer Keiji Ashizawa says of his leaning wall shelf ($49.99), "With my furniture, you can enjoy small spaces, make good use of corners, and keep things organized at the same time.”

The small, angular guesthouse that architect Todd Saunders designed for Steinar Jørgensen is defined by a patio that appears to sit in a cutaway in the spruce-clad volume. The red PS VÅGÖ chair is from Ikea.

Ebba Strandmark's delightful corner easy chair (price TBD) will be available in August 2014. Ideal for small spaces, it "embraces you like an armchair and gives you the comfort of a sofa. Somewhere to snuggle into that uses an otherwise wasted corner.”

The structure is calibrated to create a cool micro-climate in the summer by drawing in cool air at the bottom and pushing out hot air at the top. (Perfect for the dance parties which are held throughout the summer!) Overall, the firm promises that the structure will offer "shade, color, light, views, and a future-oriented experience that is designed to be refreshing, thought-provoking, and full of wonder and optimism."

The second floor holds three bedrooms and a living area for the girls. Here, Paula, 11, and Sofia, 9, hang out near an IKEA PS 2012 sofa by Nike Karlsson. The slatted wall at left allows a view to the downstairs.

Mathias Hahn's folding table and bench ($129 and $75) are suitable for indoor and outdoor use. Hahn describes it as "visually refined and reduced to a minimum due to a smart but simple folding mechanism."

Danish textile designer Margrethe Odgaard's duvet cover set ($49.99 for three pieces) is paired with Rich Brilliant Willing's indoor/outdoor LED stool lamp ($69.99).

New York architecture firm The Living, led by David Benjamin, won this year's competitive MoMA/PS1 Young Architects Program competition. The firm will build its project Hy-Fi using biological technologies that create new building materials in a familiar shape: the brick.

A look at the IKEA PS 1999 armchair and the IKEA PS 1995 coffee table.

According to The Living and MoMA/PS1: "The organic bricks are arranged at the bottom of the structure and the reflective bricks are arranged at the top to bounce light down on the towers and the ground. The structure inverts the logic of load-bearing brick construction and creates a gravity-defying effect—instead of being thick and dense at the bottom, it is thin and porous at the bottom."