The Abner Toolbox takes a necessary household accessory and makes it into a work of art. Designed by Aaron Poritz, the toolbox is crafted entirely in teak, including the comb joints that hold the box together. Although designed as a toolbox, this multi-function accessory can be used to hold paints, jewelry, and other small items needing organization.

The wooden box is as functional as it is finely crafted, with room for clothes up top. Each niche holds treasures from travels, family keepsakes, books, and more.

Tools by Jakob Jørgensen is a series of handcrafted woodworking tools intended to explore craft traditions and act as a counterpoint to machines.

Made of stainless steel and TEKA hardwood, a Curzon dining table by Modloft is surrounded by a quartet of Victoria Ghost dining chairs by Philippe Starck for Kartell. A striped Missy pendant light by Filipe Lisboa hangs overhead. Four Chill White media consoles from CB2 line the western wall.

Clothing can play a vital part in post-disaster comfort and survival. Be prepared with lightweight, versatile items that are appropriate for the highs and lows of your region—bonus points for bright colors like neon yellow or orange that might help emergency workers spot you. Make sure you have clean underwear, layers (including a light jacket), and a hat that would protect you from the sun. Extra blankets, shoes, boots, socks, and bug spray might be necessary depending on where you live.

HotBox: Michaela MacLeod and Nicholas Croft (Toronto) A mysterious monolith on the landscape, this warming hut, a cubic room wrapped in rubber and egg shell crate foam, provides a space for socialization.

When the Casali family gave Michael Krus and Prishram Jain of TACT Architecture free rein to work with unconventional materials, the architects responded by creating a geometric 4,300-square-foot smart home encased in aluminum panels by Agway Metals. The front facade features Cor-Ten steel fabricated by Praxy Cladding.

The resident, a Tokyo transplant, commissioned architect Tadashi Murai to create a fully-equipped structure that comes with its own power, heating and cooling, water, and waste-disposal systems.

In addition to the aforementioned designers, catch work from artisan textiles and apparel studio Small Trade Company; textile artist Llane Alexis; handwoven apparel and textile maker Voices of Industry; and jewelry maker Liz Oppenheim. "It's a very diverse group, which we like," Chiang says. "What unifies the participants is a deep relationship with both design and material. Great craft is not complete without design."

Tools of the trade.

Architect William Carpenter, glimpsed in his second-floor design studio, built Lightroom 2.0 to sit unobtrusively among its 1920s neighbors in Decatur.

Architect Joaquin Castillo blends inexpensive materials, the odd splurge, and a refined modernist sensibility to create an affordable weekend house for brothers Alfredo and Guillermo Oropeza. The facade is a juxtaposition of rough-hewn local stone, smooth concrete, glass, and steel—the material palette used throughout the structure.

Light Box Peter created a simple uplight at the top of the wood box by wiring together energy-efficient fluorescent fixtures typically used under cabinets and countertops. “The cheaper magnetic models hum unacceptably loudly, so make sure you get the electronic ballast types,” he warns. He then painted the cavity white to reflect light and covered them with quarter-inch-thick acrylic from TAP Plastics. homedepot.com tapplastics.com

Narigua House (El Jonuco, Mexico) Architect: David Pedroza Castañeda Category: House

Modern Sprout’s planters were designed by Nick Behr and Sarah Burrows, two Chicago apartment dwellers who wanted to grow their own garden, but didn’t have the space. Struggling to maintain plants in their apartment, they tried hydroponic planters, which yielded results, but were expensive and unappealing to look at. As a result, they designed their own planter—a hydroponic, self-watering system that hides its mechanism beneath a reclaimed wood planter box.

North Carolina firm Skram Furniture Company has created a flexible and functional line of containers that can be utilized in various spaces, from offices to kitchens.

“We edit to what’s most essential and what will highlight the product best.” —Pearl Schenkel, graphic design manager at Finell

IITTALA TOOLS SAUCEPAN $295 Developed with the insight of professional chefs and the material mastery of designer Björn Dahlström, this range of highly designed cookware was created for people with a large appetite for life. The generously sized pieces are perfect for even the most demanding occasions, adding ease and control to every aspect of cooking and serving.

Song waxes poetic about her medium. "Wood is constantly in flux, even when it has been felled," she says. "It is a breathing material. It expands and contracts, depending on its environment. I work with wood because it primordial to me. It feels like an intuitive process to study wood. I need to understand and work with it and allow it to become what it wants to be." The round cole jaw and chucks she uses on her lathe hang on a wall in her studio.

Although woodworking has been an interest for as long as Michael Rupich can remember, the first time he picked up a saw was when, at seven years old, he started building his own skateboard ramps. “Skateboarding was definitely a huge influence and motivation for me, because I needed to build ramps in order to skate them,” he says. “That continued into my early teens and gave me a great understanding of basics like making things structurally sound and the uses of tools and machinery. In my later teens, I started moving away from the carpentry aspect and began doing more refined wood working.” Photo by: Esther Nisanova.

The sunny Tool Box by Line Depping melds beauty and utility.

Dotted with colorful footholds, a climbing wall covers one side of the home, allowing roof access.

A basic box that’s as tall as it is wide (28 feet) and 16 feet long, this Portland, Oregon house consists of rooms stacked vertically: an unfinished basement on the bottom, a kitchen-living area and a bathroom in the middle, and a bedroom on top, with the stairwell hinged onto the front of the home. The only interior doors are those to the bathroom, basement, and root cellar, leaving the rest of the space open and unfettered. At just 704 square feet, Katherine Bovee and Matt Kirkpatrick's home is a great lesson in making the most out of every inch. Click here to see the interior.

The transformed facade features dark gray stained-masonry.

After an unprecedented year of earthquakes, hurricanes, and fires, a bright light has been shed on the benefits of building with concrete.

The super-geometric Tool table by LucidiPevere for Debi is formed by 3D laser cutting technology; the lightweight side table comes in two heights.

At 3.5" x 3.5" with a depth of 6", these planters are specifically designed to hold starter plants you've picked up at the nursery.

The facade of the three-bedroom house sports a series of extruded pine boxes, which create sheltered spaces that stand up to the area’s fluctuating weather. The owners, Isaac Pineus and Andrew Duncanson, spend summers here with their twin sons.

The Archimetric Notebook and Drawing Tool Set is an elegant notebook designed for architects, designers, or anyone who is interested in scaled drafting. The pages of the notebook are ruled at a scale of 1/100° and 1/50° for precision drafting, and the book also includes blank pages for notes or freehand sketches. The grey pages are lined with white, making the graphs almost appear to fade away from the pages. The result is a surface that sets drawings apart form the lines, letting them stand on their own. The Arhimetric set also includes drawing instruments, including a scale ruler, protractor and t-square, and a bookmark.

TOOL THE MATHEMATICIAN DRAFTING SET Art and science become one in this stunningly sculptural, endlessly practical piece from Tom Dixon. Informed by the unique British aesthetic, this kit of parts is comprised of sleek sheet brass cut into functional tools— a ruler, protractor, set square, and paper clips— etched with the most precise of measurements. Perfect for the mathematics aficionado or precision draughtsman, it brings beauty to any workshop or study.

Aarnio’s tools of the trade,

Tool Stand We love this galvanized Tool Stand for it's simplicity, beauty, and versatility.

Whether you think you have what it takes to be the next master chef or just enjoy whipping up simple, delicious dishes at home, you will love these durable, heatproof and handsome kitchen tools from "Good Design" Award winner FD Style. Discover your inner chef-in-the-making. - with additional writing by Victoria Nguyen