Tenth Anniversary: Our Favorite Natural Homes

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Get more information about the natural home of the year choices. When you're finished, vote for your favorite!

Homes 

1. Paradise Found  

This vintage cottage, which served as Red Cross emergency housing during the Labor Day hurricane of 1935, was revamped into a two-story home. The family’s philosophy of putting minimal strain on the earth directed them to use “honest” materials. Renovated using eco-friendly techniques, the home features a solar water-heating system and roof gutters that direct rainwater into an underground cistern for irrigating trees and plants. The home also features a naturally cooling ventilation system created by strategic placement of 70 windows, 14 indoor fans, sliding doors and vents.

2. Long House on the Prairie  

Strategically designed and placed on the property, this home seamlessly blends into the surrounding grasslands. The open layout incorporates low-emissivity windows, concrete floors that hold solar heat during the day and release it at night, and a dynamic cross-ventilation system. The rectangular home is built into a hill to help insulate it from strong winds and utilizes every interior space to its maximum potential. For example, a wall of 12-foot-high windows frames the grasslands while also capturing the sun throughout the day.

3. Welcome to Casa Neverlandia  

The greenest aspect of this downtown Austin, Texas, house is not the salvaged materials or the solar panels—it’s Talbot and Kay, the avid conservationists and self-described “card-carrying hippies” who own it. The couple’s home uses only about 200 to 300 kilowatt hours of electricity a month with the assistance of their solar panels. The home includes skylights that diminish electricity demand and numerous windows and doors that invite the breeze in. The eco-friendly home has a whimsical flair both inside and out.

4. A Fabulous Green Prefabricated Home: Living in L.A.  

Low-VOC, formaldehyde-free materials, LED bulbs and solar panels are a few of the many eco-friendly aspects of this prefabricated home. LivingHomes CEO and founder Steve Glenn’s home serves as a model home for his sustainable residential prefab development company. The residence, composed of 11 modules, was the first to receive a platinum rating from the U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) for Homes program. The prefab home includes a roof garden that repurposes stormwater runoff and also insulates against summer heat. The interior includes cutting-edge Energy Star appliances and cabinetry built from reclaimed or Forest Stewardship Council–certified wood.

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