House O, designed by Jun Igarashi, forgoes hallways and interior doors in favor of casually interconnected rooms.

Angela Brooks and son Calder revel in the benefits of free solar energy, cheerfully opening the living room’s big glass doors when it’s time to play.

Power Pod Convenience and functionality blend into elegant design with Coalesse’s PowerPod. Designed by Scott Wilson and MINIMAL, PowerPod delivers two functions in one. When needed, the PowerPod houses six power outlets with built-in surge-suppression. When not needed, the outlet is converted to a sleek pencil organizer and accessory tray. Energy-saving on/off switch reduces vampire power consumption.

Sleeping nooks that look like the grooves in a block of cheese.

It Will Get Loud: A Small Speaker That's Big on Sound Home audio companies are managing to make speakers smaller, more portable, and more wallet-friendly while keeping sound quality as robust as their larger (and pricier) brethren. Soundfreaq's co-founder and creative director Matthew Paprocki will demo and deconstruct the award-winning Sound Stack and demo Sound Platform 2 to let you in on the technology behind making big sound come from a tiny package. See this Saturday, June 22, at 12:30 p.m. on the Demonstration Stage.

Keep the Home Fires Burning Using wood for heat and energy keeps the Wadhams’ environmental footprint small and helps avoid the use of coal- or nuclear-powered electricity. Come winter, the couple relies on an Esse wood-burning stove for cooking, heating, and feeding a set of small radiators. In summer, they use the stove’s electric component, which is powered by solar energy.

On the hill behind the house, a wind-powered well brings water from a 150-foot-deep hole to the surface. That water then flows to the home as needed with gravity's helping hand.

A passage between the walls for hide and seek.

Power House High This structural reboot of a former power plant now has a much different purpose. Another post-industrial, LEED Platinum-certified showpiece, this century-old structure, which once housed rows of massive coal burners that provided all the power for Sears, Roebuck & Company's 55-acre corporate headquarters (as well as the air pressure for the pnuematic mail tubes), now boasts a pair of charter schools.

The bottom floor contains the kitchen and the dining area; the lounge is upstairs. The cabinets are from Ikea, as are the table and chairs, and the child’s Tripp Trapp chair is from Stokke.

The addition’s two stories of cedar-framed sliding doors and window provide generous views of the house’s prized jacaranda tree. The addition’s polished concrete floor and white cladding extend into the garden, drawing occupants to the serene rear porch. There, they can relax on stools designed by Alvar Aalto and Charles Wilson while admiring the luscious greenery.

Large sliding windows retract at the corner, opening the living area onto a lawn overlooking Long Island Sound.

Designer Sue Macintosh chose the Farrow & Ball Off-Black paint for the master bedroom.

Le Corbusier and the Power of Photography, published by Thames & Hudson.

Smart Power Strip One of the best things about home automation is that it not only makes life easier for you, but it can save you money and the environment at the same time. A smart power strip is a great way to do this, as it will detect when your appliances are doing nothing but wasting energy, and turn them off.

Juxtaposed:Power by Mike and Maakie.