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A wooden-paneled room with built-in benches, cushions, and large windows overlooking a lake and distant mountains
Design a better world

From living roofs to rainwater harvesting: the future of sustainable homes

A new book, Homes for Our Time, by Philip Jodidio, showcases the quiet revolution in green residential architecture

Explora Jirira Lodge, designed by Max Núñez, in Bolivia’s Uyuni salt flats. Photograph: Roland Halbe/Taschen
Diana Budds
Mon 3 Aug 2026 15.00 BST
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A three-story, shaded, outdoor courtyard with wood, stone and plants.
Designers around the world are radically reimagining homes for the climate era. ‘Twenty or 30 years ago, sustainability was often treated as a specialist concern,’ said Philip Jodidio, author of Homes for Our Time: Sustainable Living, published earlier this year. ‘Today it shapes almost every discussion about housing, from materials and energy use to land consumption and resilience.’ Ken Nishiguchi’s Earth House, in Okazaki, Japan, is built from reclaimed stone from an abandoned local quarryPhotograph: ToLoLo studio/Taschen
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Homes for Our Time features 63 single-family projects from around the world. Andrés Jaque’s Rambla Climate-House, in south-eastern Spain, uses a rainwater-harvesting and gray water-recycling systemPhotograph: Jose Hevia/Taschen
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Though dense, multifamily buildings can house more people using less energy and land, single-family homes offer designers an opportunity to innovate. ‘Historically, the private house has been one of architecture’s most important laboratories of innovation,’ Jodidio said. ‘Working with individual clients often gives architects greater freedom to experiment with materials, technologies and environmental strategies than they might have on larger institutional projects.’ A house is built on stilts to limit disruption to the land beneath itPhotograph: Jose Hevia/Taschen
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Low-tech solutions and working with, rather than against, climate is another theme. On Ecuador’s Portete Island, Rama Estudio designed the Toquilla Houses for people displaced by a 2016 earthquake. Made from bamboo and straw, each 71 sq-meter structure can house eight people; its design takes advantage of passive ventilation to stay cool Photograph: Jag studio/Taschen
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Architects have been looking to regional materials to reduce carbon associated with transportation as well as to better integrate homes with their surroundings. For this house in the central Mexico state of Guanajuato, the architects at HW Studio used locally quarried materialsPhotograph: Cesar Bejar/Taschen
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A building’s thick stone walls keep the interiors cool during the day and retain heat at nightPhotograph: Cesar Bejar/Taschen
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Architects are increasingly designing for extreme temperatures. In California’s Napa valley, the firm Aidlin Darling incorporated high-performing windows, spray-foam insulation and concrete to reduce the need for heating and cooling. The gabled metal roof helps protect the home against the region’s endemic and worsening wildfiresPhotograph: Matthew Millman/Taschen
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Taking advantage of thermal mass – the natural ability of materials to resist temperature changes by absorbing, storing and releasing heat – is one way architects are passively cooling buildings. ‘Much of what we call progress in architecture comes through experimentation,’ Jodidio said. ‘Some highly sophisticated technologies may prove less effective than expected, while older ideas – orientation, shading, natural ventilation or thermal mass – continue to offer remarkably effective responses to climate and comfort.’ The Napa house’s concrete walls help with thisPhotograph: Matthew Millman /Taschen
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Increasing urban density is critical to sustainability. Poplar Grove, a house built in an alleyway in Washington DC, is an experiment in infill development, the practice of adding new buildings to vacant lots or under-developed land. Designed by BLDUS, it is composed of a modular panelized system made from engineered bamboo called BamCore, which reduces temperature transfer from outside to inside by 90%. Insulation made from sheep’s wool also helps regulate the temperaturePhotograph: Ty Cole/Taschen
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Using natural light – for example, via skylight – to illuminate interiors helps reduce energy use. Meanwhile, architectural netting throughout the house provides separation without blocking the flow of light through the roomsPhotograph: Ty Cole/Taschen
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Natural features can help houses blend into the landscape while providing insulation. Fearon Hay, a New Zealand-based architecture studio, designed a living roof for this house near Lake Wakatipu. Its soil and grasses help keep the interior cool during summer and warm in winterPhotograph: Simon Wilson/Taschen
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Locally sourced engineered timber helps to reduce the building’s carbon footprintPhotograph: Simon Wilson/Taschen
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Homes for Our Time: Sustainable Living, by Philip Jodidio, from TaschenPhotograph: Taschen
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