Nettleton's The Luxury of Enough

The Taunton Press has published architecture professor Sarah Nettleton's guide to efficient living (not more efficient if it doesn't need to be, not simpler if it already is: efficient and simple living, period.) The photography alone in The Simple Home could hold your interest, but the concepts themselves are equally gripping, zen as they are. And while every concept is not born from a specifically "green" mentality, Nettleton is a sustainably-minded architect and key themes from the book, like establishing a culture of minimal and letting every object and its manufacture be well-considered are as core to green living as it gets. $40, or $26.40 on Amazon.

Solar Umbrella House

As promised, the favorite residential selection from '06's AIA awards: the Solar Umbrella House. Inspired by Paul Rudolph's 2,000SF Umbrella House of 1953, the Solar Umbrella House is a) in Venice, CA, b) slightly smaller (at 1,700SF) and c) doesn't retain the 9 interior levels (9 levels!) and entirely glass-backed concept of Rudolph's work.

It is, however, clearly driven by the original overhanging roof on Rudolph's home (removed by its first owners); Pugh + Scarpa architects transformed the design element into overhanging solar shades instead, which provide 100% of the home's energy. Why did everything turn out so perfectly? Lawrence Scarpa lives here. Read more...

Photo copyright Marvin Rand

It's a Dry Heat, Though

It's only right to combat a (beautiful, still) $730/SF green product with its potentially penurious Texan sister. If you're a do-it-green-for-yourself-er, and find yourself irritable when surrounded by more than 600 humans, consider Marathon, TX (population conveniently 600).

This 2001 strawbale home with hand-formed adobe floors at #1 7th Street (is there a 2?) is marketed at $132/SF, or $197,500.

And five points for this owner's response to Community Amenities: "lack of everything."

The Greenest Little House in San Francisco

Blue Jean insulation, the City's first residential rainwater catchment system, and fly ash concrete (we love it so much) contribute to 520 Clipper's designation as the "greenest" in SF (and if not, most definitely the greenest in the ever-earnest and lovely Noe Valley where Avenue finds green to be oh-so-compatibly located).

What did Lorax Development's 4BD/4BA work list at? At $1.89M, 520 Clipper asked a competitive, if not high, $730/SF. (Construction costs were estimated at $350/SF.)