Kate’s father predicted they would never use the crow’s nest–like tower, which is reached by climbing a narrow staircase.

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

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

100 Contemporary Green Buildings, Volume 1 is available through Taschen

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.

“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.

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.

University of California, Merced Long Range Development Plan in Merced, California Ambitiously setting a goal for daylight access in 75 percent of the interior rooms (quite a feat for a large university building) is just the beginning for UC Merced’s long-range plan. By 2020, UC Merced plans to be the first zero-net-energy, zero-net-waste and zero-net-emissions campus in the USA. It will also help to preserve the surrounding 30,000 acres of vernal pool grasslands, the largest concentration of vernal pool grasslands in the world.

Designed by Atelier Lina Bellovicova, House LO marks the country’s first residential project to use hempcrete, a sustainable and fire-and-mold-resistant materil.

The master suite on the second level features a terrace and a lofted area.

“When I first thought of moving to Harlem, I looked at a map,” says Ryall. “The island’s about 210 blocks long, I’m near 110th Street—I thought, ‘It’s right in the center of Manhattan.’”

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 home's bathrooms features wallpaper from Etsy retailer AwallonDesign.

The minimal design of the Mandakovic House by WMR Arquitectos in Navidad, Los Arcos, Chile, allows its scenic location take center stage. Photo by Sergio Pirrone.

Architect Marco Casagrande designed the Chen House to make use of the nearby Datun River’s breeze. Raising the house on stilts reduces the building’s impact on the earth while preserving the home from flood waters that run underneath post-storm. Sanjhih, Taipei, Taiwan. Photo by Lukas Casagrande.

Geothermal-controlled ventilation and a highly insulated envelope contribute to an energy savings of nearly 30% at the Cafeteria and Day Care Center by Aldinger Architekten in the Waldorf School in Stuttgart, Germany. Photo by Roland Halbe

The two structures are connected by green space.

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

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

Chandler City Hall (Chandler, Arizona: 2010) If only government was always this responsible. Built without accruing debt, the LEED Platinum-certified Chandler City hall, designed by SmithGroup, accomplishes a myriad of goals: bringing public space to Chicago Street in the city center, providing significant energy savings, and creating a public centerpiece for Chandler. The quartzite-clad structure also has fun being responsible: water from the HVAC system cascades in a waterfall down the north side of a parking tower, and the kinetic sculpture “Turbulent Shade,” and interactive set of steel hinges and LED lights designed by artist Ned Kahn, glows at night thanks to power from the building’s solar panels. Photo by SmithGroup JJR

Junya Ishigami’s Greenhouses at the Japanese Pavilion of the 2008 Venice Architecture Biennale celebrated architecture and landscape equally. Photo by Iwan Baan

The first floor consists of two long and narrow structures that intersect in an open kitchen, providing distinct programmatic areas and settling into the tree-lined landscape, allowing yards to surround and permeate each room.

Plant Wall Design created a custom, self-sustaining vertical green wall for the show.

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

Ryan Anderson of RAD Furniture designed the stools as well as the table and benches on the pool deck.

On the outskirts of Austin, Texas, author Chris Brown and his dog Katsu head to the river; the path was once a dumping ground on top of a long-defunct underground oil pipeline. The green roof was conceptualized by John Hart Asher of the Ecosystem Design Group at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center in Austin.

The couple initially painted partition walls between the children's room and their own with black metallic paint creating both a writing surface for the children and a magnetic bulletin board for notes. However, "the black looked too oppressive," Astrakhan says. So they applied several coats of lively lime green paint to brighten up that section of 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.

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.

The sod roof is angled to create a sweeping elevation on approach and is planted with grass tussocks cut from the hillside during construction. “The tussocks camouflage the house, melting it into the landscape,” explains architect Kate Brown.

“I wanted to plant a green roof for its thermal mass, but I wanted it to be as natural as possible,” Liang says.

Nataša Stanaćev and Manu Granados of Stanaćev Granados Arquitectura designed and built this beachfront cabin in Matanzas, a rustic, windswept area of Chile, while they were living in Spain.