Buyers should cast as wide a net as possible in terms of location and amenities.

Architect Will Winkelman and landscape architect Todd Richardson collaborated with client JT Bullitt to design a house that blends into its surroundings in Steuben, Maine. The green roof gives the impression that "the ground just jumped onto the roof," Richardson says.

One of the early challenges of building the house was defining the property lines of the lot, which had come to be known as "the floating acre" among the local fishermen.

Suzanne and Brooks Kelley at the back of their 1,100-square-foot guest cottage.

The living room is furnished with a Tolomeo Mega floor lamp by Artemide, a Milo Baughman Recliner 74, a Morsø 7648 wood stove, and a Hampton rug by Capel Rugs.

On an island 20 miles off the coast of Maine, a writer, with the help of his daughter, built not only a room, but an entire green getaway of his own.

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

A verdant tundra that the architect dubbed the “courtyard” separates Bullitt’s house from his 900-square-foot studio. The space, which is planted with Bog Myrtle, bearberry, and other native plants, “reinforces...the dominance of the landscape over the building,” the architect says. “The end result was an exceedingly naturalized setting.”

The exterior is clad in eastern hemlock. “It’s local, it’s native, and it’s actually got a good bit of resistance,” Winkelman says of the material, “and we could mill it to a unique dimension."

The deck, fashioned from ipe, was built around one of the property’s many granite outcroppings. An earthen roof was planted with the same varieties of sedum that were added to the front of the cottage. Photo by: Mark Mahaney

For her family’s house near Melbourne, Anna Horne created a series of prefab wood modules using a design from the company Prebuilt. She found the old industrial letter at a factory; it stands for Somerset, the name of the house.

The design eschews right angles on the exterior and interior, which was one of the most challenging aspects of the design for Kallesø.

"We felt it was important to create continuity with nature, rather than compete with it," Soranno stated. "The connection with nature is what makes this place special."

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.

Cambrian black granite countertops lie in contrast with white cabinetry below and open shelves above in this contemporary kitchen. "One of the favorite things I have to do in the kitchen is wash dishes, just because it’s such a delightful view out the window," says the owner.

“There is a lot of glass so you can enjoy the view and the outdoor lifestyle even inside,” Henrik explains. “You live in the middle of the weather somehow. It’s a really harsh environment, as you have these southwesterly winds blowing through the house. But it is really beautiful as well.”

At a net-zero home in San Francisco, the house's green roof is more of a brown roof: a desert-like array of native and non-native succulents that require minimal irrigation. The soil area is maintained with motorcycle tires (including one from a Harley hog), which control erosion. Composting takes place here as well.

Cohen and his wife, Sally, sit in the dining room, which along with the connected living room, is a focal point of the house, lighted in part by high, remote-controlled clerestory windows.

Angled beams are a fixture of the structure, both inside and out. The beams “are an expression of the design, so they’re reinforcing view lines,” Winkelman says, “but they’re also weaving together the different axes of the site."

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.

One of the home's bathrooms features wallpaper from Etsy retailer AwallonDesign.

“The liberal use of wood roots the structure in the landscape and provides the owners with an experience strongly connected with location,” Herrin says. The exterior’s Western red cedar shingle siding has a semi-transparent stain, half Fieldstone and half Burnt Hickory from Cabot.

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.

The modest bedroom looks towards the yard and part of the owner’s garden. The table, by Jayson Home, holds a vintage lamp and is flanked by a Spring Lounge chair by Cappellini.

Completed in 2013, the roughly 1,500-square-foot cabin provides an open living area framed by white trusses and concrete floors. The dining table was acquired by the owner from a local inn, and is surrounded by the Eames molded plastic Eiffel side chairs from Design Within Reach. The kitchen features a Grohe faucet, a wood bowl from a shop in Harbert, and an Ikea vase.

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

The two structures are connected by green space.

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

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.

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.