A fascinating panorama of "architectural biodiverity", this forward-looking volume documents the innovative creation of pioneers and master across the globe who distilled the poetics of building in harmony with the earth. The best realizations of ecological residences and other building rypes are exhibited in this broad review of projetcts in tha Americas, Europe, Asia, and Australia. Ecological architecture might be called "conscious architecture", for, above all, it is meticulous and deliberate response to place: its landscape, environmental faetures, resources, culture, and characteristic economic and socila dynamics. On the one hand, that entails reviving indigenous building traditions and utilizing materials that can also be recycled. On the one other hand, it is necessary to devise artificial materials and technology to create new architectural elements and systems for efficient climate regulation. This is a beautiful, exotic collection of "architectures greenest gems," including domiciles that have "gone native" as well as gleaming, futuristic structures of glass and steel, all with ingenius climate control systems and low energy emissions.