The Most Revolutionary Green Homes. From Hut to Luxury Mansion

by Laura Mitran · May 31, 2017

The concern to find a cleaner way of life, less harmful to the environment, lead, among others, to create new home models. Beyond their green features, like using recycled material for building and low consumption and waste, reaching for self-sufficiency, these homes are the expression of a new mentality. They have this new way of seeing living on this planet in common but the most diverse shapes and sizes. Here are some of the most revolutionary green homes around the world, covering a wide array from simple to luxury living and being located in all kinds of environments, from the desert, to the rainforest.

zeroHouse

zeroHouse is a pre-fab home that’s designed to be completely self-sufficient — meaning there’s no outside utilities needed. It produces power through solar panels and stores it in batteries, collects its own water, and it even turns waste into compost. Plus, all of these functions work with automatic sensors that can be controlled through your laptop. It can be yours for $350,000.

The Most Revolutionary Green Homes. The Dome

The International Dome House Co. builds these eco-minded prefab buildings that can be used as homes, offices — anything, really, from expanded polystyrene, which is an extremely clean material that requires no deforestation or waste. The shape alone saves energy (better air circulation) and makes them structurally stable.

Orchid House

Located on a nature reserve in England, this 2400 square-ft. house is part of a green home building project called Lower Mill Estate (that specializes in building “sustainable vacation homes”). It caught some buzz as being the most expensive “green home” ever sold at $14.2 million. Its eco-features include a geothermal heating underground pump that promises to generate more energy than it consumes.

The Most Revolutionary Green Homes. Aqua Liana

Back in 2009, property tycoon Frank McKinney made history (and headlines) by building America’s first “green mansion” — a 15,000-square-foot mansion in Palm Beach, complete with floating sun terraces, a waterfall spa, and an aquarium wet bar. Although a green mansion might seem like an oxymoron, this property is in fact energy self-sufficient.

Woodland Home

The Woodland Home in Wales was built by the owner (with some help from family and friends) with natural materials like stone, mud, straw, and reclaimed wood. It uses a wood burner for heat, a natural air cooling system, solar panels for energy, a water system that comes from a nearby spring (via gravity), and a compost toilet.

The Most Revolutionary Green Homes. Desert Home

This extraordinary house in the Arizona desert uses solar collector panels as its porch awning and “micro-climate” greenery in the living space and on the roof to filter the air. Having a “living roof” also cuts energy bills by keeping the house cool in the summer and insulated in the winter. There’s also an indoor waterfall that’s used to cool the air like an air conditioner.

Rotating New Paltz Dome

This shockingly spacious dome has an even more shockingly small footprint, only using a very small portion of land. But the coolest part of the house is that it actually rotates to take advantage of the sun’s rays.

The Most Revolutionary Green Homes. Finca Bellavista

Finca Bellavista is a brand new, headline-grabbing community of tree houses at the base of a Costa Rican rainforest. Originally created to preserve the 300 acres of rainforest, this community may seem an utopia for anyone determined to live a sustainable life. It includes a hydroelectric turbine system that powers the entire community, a garden, a recycling center, Wi-Fi connection and a networks of zip lines for public transportation.