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This modernist Palm Springs home was completed in just two months using a hybrid building system. The core of the dwelling features concrete walls and floors and prefabricated lightweight steel beams. The exterior walls were trucked to the site after.

In Palm Springs, Sander Architects created an energy-efficient hybrid prefab home that’s designed to stay naturally cool in the desert heat, which often climbs to triple digits in the summer.

"The owner wanted the front door to match the same yellow of Caterpillar, the heavy machinery company,

Nestron’s Cube Two X is as spacious and it is space-age.

The rear curtain wall system opens to an outdoor patio raised above the tree-covered landscape.

In Sunnyvale, California, architect Ryan Leidner cracked open a 1962 Eichler with a crisp remodel flush with foliage. He replaced the home’s vertical plywood facade with one-inch strips of American red cedar set at two depths. The rhythmic slats conceal a garage door that swings open on a hidden hinge. At the entryway, two massive panes of frosted glass shimmer with light and shadow from the atrium inside. Homeowners Isabelle Olsson and Matthaeus Krenn stand out front.

Rian and Melissa Jorgensen's 2 Bar House in Menlo Park boasts all the usual green design suspects: energy-efficient lighting, good insulation, renewable material finishes, radiant heat, and the roof is pre-wired for future PV panels. Executed by Feldman Architecture, the house requires only natural lighting during the day which keeps energy costs way down. Still, the most stunning aspect of the green design is the living roof planted with succulents, aloe, viviums, and ice plants. "I'm absolutely glad that we did it," says Melissa. "It turned out so well and I really enjoy sitting up there and taking advantage of it as much as I can. It's very peaceful." Read more about this total remodel here.

From a distance, the grass-covered roof disappears into the native landscape.

A second green roof is planted with sedum and plays host to one of the family’s favorite spots: a hammock. Bentheim suggested adding a trellis overhead to soften and balance the appearance of the facade.

Native grasses such as red fescue and California oat dot the landscape surrounding the house.

Rian and Melissa Jorgensen's 2 Bar House in Menlo Park boasts all the usual green design suspects: energy-efficient lighting, good insulation, renewable material finishes, radiant heat, and the roof is pre-wired for future PV panels. Still, one of the homeowner's favorite aspect of green design is the living roof planted with succulents, aloe, viviums, and ice plants.

The concrete, steel, and glass house is divided into two distinct public and private halves.

Emilio Fuscaldo sits in the garden outside the brick house that he designed for himself and his partner, Anna Krien, on a small subdivided lot in Coburg, a suburb north of Melbourne, Australia.

Embedded in the desert, this Marmol Radziner–designed prefab home for a Las Vegas casino executive features a James Turrell pyramidal Skyspace structure.

Simpatico Homes founder Seth Krubiner has lived in the prefab company’s nearly net-zero prototype since it was customized and lifted onsite in 2011.