The area includes a Wally planter from Woolly Pocket near the custom steel-and-glass doors.

B&B Italia Outdoor’s Canasta sofa, by Patricia Urquiola, shares a shady patch in the ground-floor Carnegie Hill garden with three ginkgo biloba trees, an existing fountain with an Italian marble spout designed by Thomas Woltz, and bluestone pavers. The terrace is filled with woodland greenery: Leucothoe, ostrich ferns, and lady ferns.

The perennial plants on the green wall were plotted out as a piece of verdant abstract art. Edibles, like strawberry, thyme, and rosemary, are planted within children’s reach.

A sofa from Sutherland’s Poolside collection is covered in fabric from Perennials; the illuminated side tables are by Porcuatro for Tango Lighting. The screens are constructed from FSC-certified teak.

@urbansoule: The living wall is growing!

The seventh-floor terrace, or “sky meadow,” is at the very top of the town house.

A variety of drought-tolerant plants cascade down a 10-foot-wide vertical garden wall near the entrance to the property.

Woltz describes the garden as a vertical progression up the six-story home: “You’re threading in and out of the building, so it’s a delightfully blurred experience, from garden to architecture and back.”

In the coastal town of Byron Bay in New South Wales, Australia, local practice Harley Graham Architects elevates the Australian "garden studio" with this 646-square-foot granny flat. Named Marvel Street Studio, the guesthouse is an addition to a home designed by Paul Uhlmann.

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

"Designing for density and nature," says Mun Summ Wong of WOHA, "we really felt strongly that New York and The Skyscraper Museum would be the perfect place to launch this exhibition. Our hope is that people gather a sense of our philosophy and approach, as well as the inherent beauty of structures and spaces that are integrated with nature." Seen here are the vertical gardens of the SkyVille @ Dawson, a 960 unit public housing complex in Singapore. The building is divided into 12 "Sky Villages" which each have their own naturally-ventilated communal green space. SkyVille is filled with shared amenities such as a 1,300 foot running track on the roof.

The balance of mint green-painted ironwork, plants, pool, and blue sky capture the warmth of the Mérida indoor-outdoor living environment.

The architects designed the large dining table, which is framed by the open kitchen, the wood-burning stove, and the garden beyond.

Their daughters, Annapurna, left, and Siddartha, play with their dog, Anouck, beneath the kangaroo paws in the entry garden courtyard.

Russell-Clarke tends a small garden.

Studioverket (Stockholm, Sweden) This former strip club got a hip renovation by designers Per & Toki, featuring air bubble-patterned concrete walls and hanging gardens. The dark and shady entrance now leads to a light-infused workspace and music studio.

A courtyard creates visual separation between the main house and the addition.

New addition and patio from outdoor garden: the concrete terrace extends into the garden, and receives daylight over the house from the southern sun.

In one area, he built a vertical wall of succulents.

Tall Stacks In reworking the landscape, Neely added 1950s ceramic sculptures by Malcolm Leland, who calls them “modern totem poles.”

Stepstone's narrow concrete pavers add a graphic touch to the garden.

Purple thistles, California poppies, clover, and dandelions have all taken root in the roughly 10-inch-deep, lightweight humus and grape-husk soil in this 580-square-foot green roof. Designer Peter Liang says that he "wanted to plant a green roof for its thermal mass, but I wanted it to be as natural as possible."

A custom bar sits underneath a retractable skylight. The material palette of the interior is simple, with white walls and concrete flooring.

"In this project, we got so much benefit out of this 'secret garden' for the master suite along with all of these environmental benefits that the residents were excited to embrace. It's one of the pieces we are happiest about," says architect Jonathan Feldman.

A vintage stool, a design that once was a staple of Greek classrooms, is tucked under the office desk on a landing leading to a balcony. The visual theme of the vertical wooden slats repeats itself here, including on a closet door. “They have no handles,” Ritenour says of the closet doors. “The lines are the door handles; you have to know to grab them.”

Burnette sought to maintain the property’s natural vegetation and rocky ground surface.

Just up a ladder is the green roof, which is planted with maintenance-free sedums and tall grasses near the patio that Monkman tends carefully.

An outdoor barbecue and sink near the garden makes for easy entertaining.

The hardscaping helps keep water use to a minimum. The Lais used gravel—accented by drought-tolerant bamboo—to create their side yard.

The home is designed around a central courtyard. During the demolition of a rear addition from the 1930s, the profile of the original rear of the 1885 house was discovered. "We articulated this in the facade as a black silhouette referencing the house’s original form," says architect Joe Agius. "In a sense, it's a public art historic interpretation piece, and is viewable from the courtyard and the side street."

"Having committed to the courtyard idea, we had to then refine it and study the many plan configurations possible around it," says Joe. "We looked to the traditional riad courtyard houses of Morocco—houses with lush, shady courtyards which have a strong sense of interiority, coupled with severe exteriors to street. We then layered other ideas such the notion of an ‘adaptable house’ and the somewhat contradictory idea of being able to open the entire living area direct to the sidewalk."

From the street view, an angular slatted facade conceals a home from the outside world while also carefully hinting at what's inside. Behind those entry screens in Brisbane, Queensland, the three-level Australian home created by Bureau Proberts is finely attuned to its sloping site. A generous skylight over the front door opens the entryway to the sky, while substantial glazing in the master bedroom conveys the feeling of being perched high in the treetops.

In its previous life, the courtyard was "an afterthought," sparsely outfitted with plastic furniture. "For us, it was an opportunity to do something special," says Rami Zeidan, CEO and founder of Life House.