The lush backyard garden, with therapy pool in the foreground, hosts the green wall, which reduces the house’s drain on city water by 75 percent. Hidden behind the stone feature wall are three 800-gallon rainwater tanks that store whatever water falls from the skies.

Looking back on the home from the concrete patio, its verticality becomes apparent. The zinc, cedar, and glass extension erupts from the base of the old brick envelope—diminutive but disruptive.

Impromptu reading time in the open-plan kitchen is encouraged.

Great Pyramid of Khufu, Hemon vizier to Pharaoh Khufu, 2560 BCE.

Chrysler Building, William van Alen, 1930.

Chateau de Chambord, Domenico de Cortona, 1566.

Palazzo Vecchio, Arnolfo di Cambio and Michelozzo di Bartolomeo, 1540.

Burj al Arab, Tom Wills Wright, 1999.

Ananda Temple, King Kyanzittha, 1105.

Dominus Winery, Herzog And de Meuron, 1998.

Casa Barragan, Luis Barragan, 1948.

Sydney Opera House, Jorn Utzon Peter Hall Lionel Todd and David Littlemore, 1973.

A pressed-steel Parallel shelving system by Terence Woodgate holds books and mementos.

In the living area, Brothers sits on an Artek stool while perusing a selection from his library.

For the Architecture Novice: Plow through these 18 tomes for the equivalent of a semester of architectural history and a really heavy coffee table.

The kitchen, Bulthaup island, and overhanging entrance-level comprise the remainder of the extension. A five-story double-sided, weld-free aluminum bookcase begins in the kitchen and rises through the lounge. A staircase traces every inch of it so that material can be readily accessed.

This cross-section of stairwell and library structure creates a shard of light for rooms on every level. At nighttime, LED bulbs under the handrails emit a glow.

Reaching for the skylight, the five-story staircase is met at the top by the custom bookcase. The skylight opens and closes automatically in response to temperature and weather. This integrated structure is the spine of the house, off of which all other spaces are arranged.

For the Product Design Novice: These five classics will beef up your understanding of design considerably; learn the process behind global design, ordinary objects, and the work of the greats.

Fallingwater, Frank Lloyd Wright, 1939.

Palermo: Works on Paper by Christine Mehring and Christoph Schreier, $50, at davidzwirnerbooks.com This celebration of works on paper by the late German artist Blinky Palermo comes from David Zwirner Books, the publishing imprint of the blue-chip gallery. From December 8 through December 19, 2015, the gallery will host its annual pop-up bookstore, featuring a giftable selection of art-related tomes plus a signing event with artist Lisa Yuskavage.

Book storage is notorious for consuming precious space. Free up some room with Booken by Raw Edges Design Studio, which stores less frequently read novels and doubles as a shelf.

There's plenty of beach reading on hand.

Behind a traditional facade, the house was stripped to the studs and rebuilt with a timber and steel frame and a rear extension. “We were working in a conservation district,” says McLauchlan, “and there was a lot of back-and-forth with the community before the design got off the ground. We accommodated specific concerns about light pollution by adding a one-way film to the glass stair shaft.”

The Dept. of Corrections by Bob Nickas, $25, at karmakarma.org This book from art publisher/gallery Karma features writing from the critic and curator Bob Nickas tracing three decades of New York City art history.

Paul Rudolph, Eero Saarinen, Corbu, and Paul Rand account for a dose of the couple's reading material.

Aquaponics is up for funding on Kickstarter until December 15. If successfully funded, the tanks will reach consumers in February 2013. If you'd like to donate and be one of the first people to receive a tank, click here.

"We went into this with no preconceptions of shape, size, or materials," Nikhil says. "We had just fallen in love with this concept of aquaponics at the largest scale—visiting big commercial farms—and had this passion for making that amazing technology and science accessible to more people."

Designing the tank brought about a few extra challenges, Arora says. "We explored various shapes—eventually landing on a pot shape icon to represent the innovation here. The geometry is more cubic than cylindrical, the most efficient use of space." The net pods on top can handle just about any small, leafy herb or spice—even flowers. Placed near a window with direct sunlight year-round, the plants can take care of themselves without the tank becoming too hot since the pods on top shelter it.

Ease of use is a driving force behind the design: not only do you not have to clean the tank, the only needed fertilizer comes directly from the fish's waste and the only water is pumped from the tank—everything about it is self-regulated. The tank comes in at roughly 10" wide, by 11" high, by 6" deep—smaller than your average toaster oven.

Five "net pods" float above the tank in a small pool of water. Fish create waste that the tank then siphons up into the planters to provide fertilizer. A classic form of "upcycling," this means you don't have to clean the fish tank.

The final product is small enough to sit on a kitchen counter without being an obstacle. At three gallons, the tank is ideal for one three-inch-long fish or a few smaller one-inch fish. The founders recommend goldfish, betas, and other easy to care for species.