In the eastern Netherlands, resourceful recyclers 2012Architects have built a house almost entirely out of locally sourced scrap, from old billboards to broken umbrellas.
Emily Pilloton wrote Design Revolution, a book about 100-plus objects and systems designed to make people's lives better. In 2010, her design nonprofit began an immersive residency in Bertie County, North Carolina, the poorest and most rural county in the state.