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.

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.

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 eco-friendly phone in question is the Fairphone: produced by an Amsterdam-based organization, it's made with metals sourced from small-scale miners in the Democratic Republic of Congo. That way, the phone's production avoids exploitative mining practices. The phone itself is also designed to be long-lasting, cutting back on waste, and many of its modular parts can be easily replaced by users. For the launch of the Fairphone 2, the second iteration of their eponymous product, the Dutch organization partnered with designer Alan Nguyen and 3D Hubs for a similarly eco-friendly way to produce the smart phone's accessories.

Luke channels Jimi on the concrete floor of the open living and dining room.

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

Nguyen produced two 3D-printed designs: a Nightstand and and Amplifier, the latter of which was inspired by the "natural acoustics of conch shells." As its name suggests, its curvature amplifies the smartphone's speaker to fill a room with sound. Both designs seen here are made with woodFill 3D printing filament, a material that has the look and texture of wood thanks to its recycled wood fibers.

To get your own Nightstand or Amplifier—or a 3D printed Fairphone case—just visit 3D Hubs to browse 3D print files and connect with a local 3D printing service. Unfortunately the Fairphone is currently only available in Europe, though it may be expanding to other countries later this year.

For a wider selection of 3D printed items, and to see what 3D printers are near you, just check out 3D Hub's main website. There you can find thousands of items to print—from toys to electronics to lighting fixtures—and select from a wide range of printing materials.

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.

A closer look at "Power Up."

Flower Power by Parrott is a sensor that tells you, via a smartphone app, how much sunlight, moisture, and fertilizer your plants are getting (as well as whether they are too hot or too cold), and suggests adjustments so you can take better care of them.

A handsome duo of chairs also by Channels.

A Treeline Terrace Channelling Philip Johnson (Atlanta, Georgia) The brainchild of a local architect and designer who financed the construction themselves, the Berne Street Treehouse, located on Atlanta’s BeltLine system of parks and trails, provides a literal bird’s-eye-view of the forests surrounding downtown. The upper room (pictured), bathed in sunshine from the skylight, opens to a series out outdoor terraces. Listing at Both Floors Modern Glass Tree House

Cor-Ten steel from a ship building yard clads the new structure, which connects via a glass “bridge” to a rebuilt stone farmhouse containing the bedrooms.

McAvoy worked with builder Stephen Campbell on structural elements such as the glass floor and walls.

Architect Andrew McAvoy created an earth-sheltered house in Scotland for Gavin and Angelique Robb and children Scarlett and Gus.

The glass balustrade and floor were sourced in Germany and installed by James Aiken. Angelique, the founder of Papillon Designs and Landscaping, clustered plantings around the exterior glass addition.

Surprisingly, this cozy and partially earth-sheltered family home—which is, according to Gavin, "one step away from Passive House standards"—started life as a series of derelict and semi- derelict farmstead buildings in raw and rural Aberdeenshire, in the hinterland of Scotland’s northeast coast. For the new structure, Grace & Webb fabricated a laser-cut steel balcony.

Entirely off the grid, the house is powered by four photovoltaic panels that supply electricity to lights, small appliances, and water pumps.

The lounge, with maple flooring from an old school in nearby Aberdeen, has a Togo sofa by Michel Ducaroy for Ligne Roset.

Reclaimed oak beams dominate the upstairs lounge, which leads to the guest bedroom.

We love this lamp for its brilliant design features, including an etched lens that gently diffuses the light of its LED bulbs for comfortable task work. A single wooden dowel and metal base combine to create a clean and simple modern style statement.

Lightweight and powerful, the low-energy, high-output Channel series is the epitome of sleek modern styling. The floor lamp brings clean lines to any room and looks spectacular next to contemporary low-slung sofas and mid-century modern classics alike.

Nendo envisions that designers and manufacturers who acquire the licenses for these designs can develop multiple variations with the objects.

Niko Power Dock by Most Modest, $135 Designed by San Francisco–based start-up Most Modest, the Niko Power Dock packs a lot of organizational function into one product. Made of solid ash, it includes three grounded power outlets, a slot for keeping your mobile device, and a powder-coated steel pencil cup, and a slot for keeping your mobile device. The concealed storage pocket lid and mesh cord also come available in four different colors each.

Marcus Veerman, founder and CEO of Playgound Ideas, an organization that has given 250,000 children access to playspaces, highlights Freiburg, Germany. "Freiburg is a community in southwest Germany that is striving toward complete sustainability," he writes. "It has a whole suburb built on sustainable principles. It was created out of a movement supported by all levels of government and community." For more ideas, purchase a a copy of Designed for the Future.

Department of Water and Power Building Corner with Fountains, 1965, photographed by Julius Shulman. Photo © J. Paul Getty Trust

Henkel North American Consumer Products Headquarters (Scottsdale, Arizona: 2010) Building in the Sonoran desert doesn’t immediately bring the word “sustainable” to mind. This 348,000-square-foot Scottsdale office space for Henkel, a German consumer goods company, is a stylish rejoinder to that impression. Here, nature is put to work. The roof is covered in a 1.5-acre garden of native plants, with solar panels that power the building’s banks of washers and dryers, a substantial green gesture for a company that makes laundry detergent. And the exterior, designed by CH2M Hill and Will Bruder + Partners, features custom glass etched in a pattern that reduces the intensity of the sunlight and a breathable skylight over the central atrium. Turning down the heat only seems fitting for the makers of a successful line of deodorants. Photo by Henkel

A USM credenza holds vinyl and booze. Music flows via a Pro-Ject Debut III turntable, a pair of Elipson Planet L speakers, and a Music Hall Audio amplifier. - Brooklyn, New York Dwell Magazine : July / August 2017