The exterior features vertical, untreated cedar panels. “We tried to use materials that are beautiful in their natural state without excessive treatment or finishing,” Pavonetti says.

Steve Conine, a software engineer, installed and programmed many of the details himself, like the Dell UltraSharp flat-screen panels inlaid into the entryway of the home.

Setsumasa and Hideaki toss on the rain fly. The solar panel in the foreground supplies daytime electricity.

A 1.4-kW solar array by Sharp and propane-powered in-floor radiant heating from Radiantec obviate any need to connect to municipal power.

Sliding aluminum panels on the facade of Green Orchard not only mirror the local flora, they also allow residents Fred and Edna Wadham to control how much sunlight enters their 2,150-square-foot home.

Most impressive of all, a solar array on the roof empowers the residents to produce more energy than they consume on-site.

You may think that a library has to be its own room, but books can be stored and read just about anywhere. Lining a hallway with books turns it into a library that you’ll walk through, and be inspired by, every day. Cabinets below provide extra storage and even a place to sit and read.

Two linked 1,000-square-foot pavilions are greater than a sum of their parts. The simply detailed, taut, flat-roofed home’s two wings form a T-shape. One wing runs north to south, parallel to a pool, and contains the open-plan living spaces. Photo by Matthew Millman.

Shadow Play 3form Varia Ecoresin Organics panels were used as sidewalls for the stairwell. The material is a translucent resin that permits light to pass, making the adjacent spaces seem bigger. Silhouetted figures going up and down the stairs animate the room. Effects can be varied and modulated with panels of different textures from different suppliers, such as 3form, Panelite, and Bendheim. Panels can also be mounted in simple aluminum U-channels to be used as partial room dividers or as entire walls.

Architect Minwook Choi’s 710-square-foot Seroro House rises from a tiny urban lot in Seoul that had long been neglected because of its challenging size.

Kasita prefabs started at $89,000, and they were marketed as tiny houses for those who wished to live simply.

Custom-perforated Swisspearl anthracite panels—made of minerals, sand, and cement—allow light to flow into the pavilion.

The interior walls, shelves and other fixtures were built using 19mm CLT and have been left with their natural spruce finish that will turn golden with exposure to the daylight.

The KODA Concrete is Kodasema's classic model, with 282 square feet of space and concrete exterior panels.

If you’re traveling to Puglia in Italy, one of the most iconic sights are trulli (trullo is the singular), an ancient hut that's specific to the Itria Valley in the Apulia region of Southern Italy. Made with dry stone, trulli date back to medieval times.

At night, the exterior screen provides privacy when the house is illuminated.

The architects inserted skylights in an artful pattern in the rooftop.

Texas. The Cricket Trailer, made in Houston, can sleep up to two adults and two children. With integrated fresh water and greywater tanks along with a water heater, campers can live off-the-grid in the easily towable unit.

Floor-to-ceiling glazing and a linear skylight help welcome the landscape within the cabin’s small footprint.

The exterior’s concrete walls pick up on the tones of the rocks that emerge from the surrounding hillside.

“There’s a soulfulness in this small house that’s impossible to replicate in something completely new. The sweetness truly lingers," says architect Michael Lee.

Operable panels of the built-in cabinetry, in chocolate and caramel colors, offer cues to the color palette of more mobile furnishings. Using the same panel material, the architect customized a West Elm couch for the living room.

With its stucco facade and steel-framed, arched windows, Plaster Fun House is an architectural anomaly amidst the cottages and 1960s brick residences of Torrensville in South Australia.

This compact vacation home by TACO—or, Taller de Arquitectura Contextual—is immersed in southeastern Mexico’s wild landscape. The home is designed for a pair of young adults, and the firm’s objective was to achieve a reflective and contemplative place that links the occupants with the surrounding environment. The result is an intuitive, functional, and simple living experience that offers great spatial warmth.

Folding doors create an indoor/outdoor experience.

In accordance with the brief, the firm left the landscape largely in its natural state.

The rollable wood-clad walls help the retreat further blend into the surrounding nature.

This 180-square-foot cabin offers 360-degree views of the Hudson Valley.

Each Getaway cabin has a hot shower with bath products, and electric toilet, mini-kitchen, hearing, and either one or two queen beds with, fresh linens, and pillows.

In the flat’s living room, midcentury modern art and furniture harmonize with the rich floor tiles, opulent molded ceilings. and original pine wood doors. Prints by Gordon Matta-Clark line the wall near a 1950s Danish dining table that’s paired with Eames chairs. A painting by Kuuti Lavonen hangs above a pink chair and ottoman by Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec.

Among the first Passive Houses in France, this bamboo-clad farmhouse by the Parisian firm Karawitz Architecture only uses a tenth of the energy a conventionally constructed home does. Photo by Nicholas Calcott.

The architects’ two young children occupy this bright bedroom, furnished with Ikea beds. Another custom lamp illuminates the space.

A panorama of sylvan hills and ocean views surrounds artist Richard Brothers’s environmentally minded Orcas Island, Washington, home.