Houses Natural/ Natural Houses

Architects have sought more and more to integrate residences into their settings minimally disturbing nature, with houses that float on the water or up in the trees. This book reveals 51 designs that bring their residences into nature, even allowing the natural setting to enter the very walls, with priority given to sustainability and carbon footprint. Each of the book s homes is carefully chosen for its stunning location, whether cocooned within the earth itself or soaring high amongst the treetops, surrounded by cooling waters, or resisting the desert heat. Considerations of energy consumption can dictate a green roof in some cases, while blending ever more fully into the environment gives the satisfaction of not existing in contradiction with the world, a kind of escape to the original garden, or more precisely, a return to fundamental, incontrovertible values. The book s collection spans the globe from a remote bay on Bruny Island (Tasmania) to an isolated beach in Nicaragua or cab