Every year, the city of Cologne invites designers to build their house of the future. This year’s winner was Italian designer Luca Nichetto, who used elements of Californian and Japanese architecture to create this house.

Determined to eliminate the border between outside and indoors, Nichetto designed a house with plants everywhere: on shelves, in the bathroom, on the walls, and there is even a small indoor kitchen-garden. Thyme and rosemary grow in the kitchen, and the living room is a “green lung”, with tall trees creating natural divisions between the various parts of the house.

When visiting his girlfriend in Canada, an aspiring son-in-law from New Zealand built an igloo using milk and juice packs filled with coloured water. Once the water had frozen, the packaging was removed and the result was coloured translucent bricks, which he used to make this highly original igloo.

There is no need to cut down pine trees for a Christmas tree. Anything from glass bottles and bicycle wheels to old CDs and cassettes, supermarket trolleys and lobster pots can be used to add a little colour to Christmas!

A report by the University of Delaware shows it is possible to power an electrical system almost exclusively via renewable energies, at the same cost as current energy. Exploding the myth that renewable energy is expensive and unrealistic, researchers have demonstrated that low-cost energy is possible.

Swedish students who want to live alone now have an alternative. This small 12 m² house is the perfect solution for anyone who wants to live alone at an affordable price. The mini-house was designed by A F Bostader, and although small, it seems comfortable enough to cope with the long, cold Swedish winter.

When it rains during the monsoon in Bangladesh, hundreds of schools are closed. The Shidhulai Swanirvar Sangstha not-for-profit association has created floating schools equipped with solar panels, a library and a computer with internet connection, meaning that children can still be taught during the rains.