The couple’s white Bulthaup kitchen is set within a double-height volume hung with Tom Dixon Beat lights, arranged in a custom configuration by interior designer Maria Rosa Di Ioia. Overhead, Cubit shelving artfully displays books and objects, accessible by a glass-walled footbridge added during the renovation.

Though most of the home's interior comes without a splashy designer's name attached, the bathroom is kitted out with a toilet, sink, and bath/shower from Jasper Morrison's line for Ideal Standard. The cabinets are from an Ikea kitchen system.

A 606 Universal Shelving System by Dieter Rams for Vitsoe hangs tough on the only opaque wall of the living room. Russell-Clarke and Moolsintong designed the coffee table, and Marcel Wanders gets credit for the Bottoni sofa for Moooi.

Rocks that were unearthed while digging the foundation make up the hardscape in the rear, beyond the open porch. “It’s one of my favorite parts of the house,” says resident Laura Sohn. Sanders Pace Architecture finished the exterior in western red cedar treated with Sikkens Cetol.

Just adjacent to the house is Whitlock's small shed which houses many of the tools that he used to build the home.

Light floods the living and dining rooms, meaning Schneider rarely needs to turn on a lamp during the day.

A Bright Idea After build-out, the family realized they needed a light for their dining room. Tanya and Jackson took to their storage container, where they found fake flower branches they had bought at Ace Hardware, and paired them with a crumpled string of old Christmas lights. “We plugged it in and that was that,” says Tanya.

Despite a tight site, light floods into every room, including the restroom in the guesthouse.

The three-bedroom home wraps around the atrium between the garage and main building. Since the garage faces the alley, this orientation opens up the front yard and garden. The big sliding doors off the atrium help the home connect with the community, supporting sidewalk interactions. "The idea was to draw the space back out to the neighborhood," he says, "and create different levels of security and privacy."

Natural bamboo flooring was used throughout the home, as well as dimmable LED lighting. The house incorporates a hybrid heat pump water heater, which draws in ambient heat from the surrounding air, moves it across condenser coils, then transfers it into the tank to heat the water. This device creates the same amount of hot water as a traditional electric water heater, but reduces water-heating expenses up to 62%.

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Construction took place from 1964 to 1967. The original project was adapted from Safdie’s graduate thesis at Montreal’s McGill University.

The tables come in two heights, one standard and one bistro style, but Brenner is planning to release a larger, coffee table sized version this year.

The glass top is 3/8th of an inch thick and can hold approximately 180 pounds per square foot, so dancing on your new plant table is not prohibited, but also not recommended.

PARASOL Lamp for Habitat This angular lamp shade in painted metal comes with a base offered in different finishes. Available in March 2013 for purchase at Habitat stores.

Depending on the size, the tables cost between $1,250 and $1,400 with plants.

“The challenge was designing a piece that was not just a planter with glass on top, but a clean, functional, contemporary table that did not compromise any of the plant's necessities. The final concept came to fruition after years of prototyping and plant trials” — David Brenner

The hallway terminates in the bathroom, flooded in natural light.

Architect Michael Cobb used Douglas fir harvested from the site throughout the house, such as on a sliding door outfitted with Swiss Rod SS hardware from the Real Carriage Door Company.

Large Natural Wreath If you really prefer the tradition and smell of an evergreen wreath you can still modernize with scale and styling. via Habitually Chic. Photo by Virginia MacDonald.

Because the residents wanted lighting “to fade away,” the home makes the most of natural light and minimizes fixtures. Each room has two sources of daylight, usually in the form of floor-to-ceiling windows and skylights. Fluorescent lights integrate into the surface of the skylights so they don’t protrude into the space.

Still, it’s possible to remove or relocate non-structural walls in a home with good bones.

The triple-glazed windows provide plenty of natural light.

Architect Edward Paul Haladay, a volunteer for Habitat for Humanity of the Chesapeake, aimed to use prefab architecture in order to create an affordable housing solution for the large amount of population living below poverty in Baltimore, Maryland.

Plants found in the surrounding landscape were used to obscure the lines between designed and natural worlds.

Lenny Portable Speaker Make beautiful music with this Bluetooth-enabled collaboration between the British home goods retailer and the French hi-fi manufacturer.

The first of three was built for noted choreographer, and Thibault’s close friend, Jean-Pierre Perreault, and was based on a set design Thibault made for one of Perreault’s dance performances.

Though the daughter didn’t want all-glass walls, natural light and airflow were key. Levy and Connect:Homes fellow cofounder Gordon Stott used an LED system to offset light from windows and doors. Says Stott, “It’s about 150 watts to light the whole house.”

Black and blond are a natural match in Bornstein's largely wooden kitchen.

Large and small Natural Pod made from black ash and cassein paint. From $6,000

For the walls surrounding the living room fireplace, Cobb specified high-volume fly ash concrete made with a by-product of burning coal in power plants that usually ends up in landfills.

“Things that have the virtue of being simple have become some of the most complicated forms of construction,” Cobb says.

In the kitchen, Santa Rosa–based Reliance Fine Finishing applied a conversion varnish tinted with a green hue.

Wood is a favorite material of owners Daoust and Baker, who select pieces that show off the natural grains of each cut.