Green Home & Building

If an Ewok and a Hobbit collaborated on a house together, this passive-house design by Robert Oshatz for a Portland residence may be what they come up with.

Two residential towers in Milan are nearing completion that will be covered in CO2-eating, oxygen-producing trees that may help clear the smoggy city’s air and reduce energy costs..

This Bridge House uses the traditional Dutch “terp” method of embedding a building in a low mound to harness the geothermal properties of the soil and live off the grid.

Here are some back-to-basics designs that provide inexpensive shelter to impoverished communities while also including sustainable technologies to help raise living standards.

Ocean House, on coastal Rhode Island, gives a modern twist to the classic 19th century boat shed, creating a windbreak and protecting inhabitants from solar gain.

Richard Meier’s self-cleaning Italcementi.Lab is one of the first projects in Italy to earn a LEED Platinum rating, incorporating materials and systems to reduce energy use.

A year after completion, the prefabricated, super-insulated Rainbow House in Whistler, B.C., became the first Canadian residence to be officially registered by the Passive House Institute.

Boxman, a North Carolina firm that specializes in modifying shipping containers for the events industry, has launched a division focusing on the adaptive reuse of containers in permanent structures.

The new 60-story Zhengzhou Greenland Plaza skyscraper uses a heliostat and a network of sun-catching exterior panels to draw in daylight and reduce energy costs.

A recycling-themed pavilion installation at New York’s PS1 gallery will use scrap wood from a skateboard manufacturer to provide shade for outdoor musical performances.

A new college science building in the Netherlands employs sustainable techniques, such as a green roof, natural daylight and thermal massing, to help foster a sense of community.

Japan’s Taisei Corp. has come up with a “green demolition” method that essentially demolishes structures from the inside out, slowly chewing the building down to the ground, floor by floor.

Powered by solar energy and reclaimed biodiesel fuel, Hong Kong’s Zero Carbon Building claims to be the first in the teeming city to produce more energy than it consumes.

Taking ironic inspiration from the ocean, a Korean firm uses a sushi-like design to wrap a home environment in a passive, protective shroud to shield against the desert sun.