Move over LivingHomes, the structure that might be better described as the "greenest on the planet" is Michael McDonough's e-House, that he's been working on for seven years using this philosophy: "You start with what's there and wrap the building form around it."

For e-House, McDonough looks at all the hi-tech and lo-tech building technologies available--materials, methods, techniques--and tests how they work together. He began by examining the site during a five-year "source everything and invent nothing" research period. In fact most of the "technology" he found simply required working with what was already there.

So solutions like placing windows on the side of the house that caught the most sun resulted in light entering the house at 4am on the summer solstice. Angling the walls to act as lightcatchers bounced light into darkened corners. And studying the energy consumption to see where heating systems would work best resulted in a 95% efficient woodburning fireplace--that also acts as a great pizza oven for the kids.

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