With a little imagination, the pallet sitting by the curb behind your local home improvement store could be your new bed platform, coffee table or accent wall.

The cigarette butts that litter outdoor surfaces are an environmental burden. But even these unappealing items can be made into something beautiful.

Futuristic or folly? Massive megastructures for healthy high-density housing that capture or desalinate water, produce renewable energy and create micro-climates!

This design for street lights in remote locations would use the power of the wind, along with the strength of bamboo, to light the way on dark beaches.

These 12 designs and inventions take inspiration from the sea and the marine life it contains, from a robot squid to an earthquake-resistant man-made island.

Flat-pack furniture is eco-friendlier than pre-assembled pieces, but one designer takes that idea even further with a single piece of transforming plywood.

The 'Collect the Rain' skyscraper has a concave roof, an exterior sheath of curving gutters and a funnel-shaped core to collect as much rainwater as possible.

Some cost millions and others are cobbled together from reclaimed buses, planes and trains, proving that living in a houseboat can be done on any budget.

The designer of this Mexican eco-building used some wonderfully inventive building techniques to preserve and amplify the natural beauty of its surroundings.

Books that are out-of-date and just plain unwanted are given value as decorative and functional objects in the home including lamps, sofas, desks and planters.

This trash sculpture was designed by a group of environmentalists to show just how out of control and downright scary our over-consumption problem is becoming.

A zero-waste pop-up restaurant, a chic and colorful guest house and a cool new concept for Boy Scout camp cabins are 3 new examples of shipping container reuse.

Rather than go step by step through the normal cookbook process, IKEA laid out the exact ingredients in an agreeable fashion and then displayed the result.

An abandoned apartment building in Taipei houses a most unusual architectural academy: a workshop that celebrates and welcomes urban decay and ruin.

Transform your empty beer, wine and liquor bottles into lamps, bird feeders, shelving units, wind chimes - even a solar water heater or a house.