Green

The large patio leads to a newly landscaped back garden. An expansive glass wall promotes seamless indoor-outdoor living. Inexpensive brick pavers were chosen for the rear patio; they offer textural contrast with the steel of the door, brick of the rear facade, and pale gray wood of the interior floors.

Kingsnorth’s Hybreed chair collection is composed of an assortment of frames, fabrics, and colors.

The Green School in Badung, Bali, Indonesia, by Effan Adhiwira, employs micro-hydro power, solar power, bio-diesel, and natural air conditioning; it was also constructed with 99% natural materials. Photo by Iwan Baan

Rainwater is collected from the rooftop of the Permanent Camping! Mudgee abode by Casey Brown, NSW, Australia. Photo by Penny Clay

“We sought to create a house that would not damage the environment and not be too visible,” says architect Tina Gregorič. A single zigzagging roof stretches over 5,380 square feet, doubling the area of the interior spaces and serving as an ideal spot for sunset cocktails and whale-watching.

Mississippi QueenThe sustainability-minded Mississippi home of architect Brett Nave, a dwell.com exclusive, is our pick for the best home featured in August. In building his house, Nave took extra care to conserve mature trees on his lot. In addition to the shade from the nearby trees, the house stays cool with the help of Zero VOC closed cell foam in the floors, open cell foam in the roof deck and Knaupf ECO Batts in the walls. A 16 seer heat pump circulates the air when it's too humid for the open windows. Marvin Low E windows and Simpson Mastermark insulated French doors can be opened up to the screened-in porch on the backside of the house, which Nave says helps create a mood that is his favorite element of the house.

Another room is done up in shades of green.

"Turntable" slatted table.

Green roofs are aesthetically pleasing and have multiple positive environmental benefits, even if they are small in terms of square footage. Here, a green roof blooms atop the detached garage of a home.

Given Langka's directive that "the people who live around us have to see our roof and I don't want them to see anything but grass," topped the house with a green roof.

In this sustainable home in Silicon Valley, the primary suite opens to a deck and fern garden with large, sliding glass doors.

The relationship between interior and exterior becomes crucial in the articulation of the residence.

Maximizing daylight is only one of the sustainable design strategies used in the Low/Rise residence.

Large sliding glass doors suspend the living room within the landscape for family gatherings or larger events.

Photo by Ken Pagliaro Photography.

Landscape architects Reed Hilderbrand helped fill out the completed prefab by planting sedge grass on one of the house’s two green roofs to reflect the texture of the surrounding meadow.

One of the main goals of the construction was to do as little harm as possible to the existing environment, which includes waterways that salmon depend upon. Herrin and his team created a garden roof that covers the full extent of the home to meet this objective. “This helps control storm water runoff and also replaces lost insect habitat—insects being a critical food source for juvenile salmon,” he says.