Landscape architects spend much of their time inside, thinking up innovative ways to make outdoor spaces more livable. Feed their passion with opportunities to interact with nature from behind their desk. Plus: an eco-friendly birdhouse that can be positioned outside a home-office window for easy viewing.
1. Cube Terrarium, Score + Solder
Picked by: Brooks Atwood, founder and principal of Brooks Atwood Design
Landscape architects can create their personal tabletop Eden with this cubic terrarium. “Warped landscapes—need I say more?” Atwood asks. “What else can’t you do with these? They are perfect. Landscape whatever you like. There’s no client!” $110 (small), $45 (large); scoreandsolder.com
2. Cube Birdhouse, Loll Designs
Picked by: Adam Zimmerman, AIA, Zimmerman Workshop
As an alternative to the traditional Alpine-style designs, this Modernist birdhouse is made from 24 recycled plastic milk jugs. Whether mounted to a tree, hung on a fence, or stacked into towers like a mini-Moshe Safdie’s, FAIA, modular Habitat apartments in Montreal, the Cube Birdhouse is perfect for landscape architects and their discerning feathered friends. $79; module-r.com
3. iPhone 5s with Leafsnap or Plantifer apps, Apple
Picked by: Emily Putas, AIA, Stantec
Identify plants and trees from a photograph instantly with Leafsnap (shown), an app developed by researchers from Columbia University, the University of Maryland, and the Smithsonian Institution. Meanwhile, Plantifier is an app that allows users to ask a crowdsourced community of plant enthusiasts to help identify a plant. From $199 (iPhone), Leafsnap (free on iTunes), Plantifier (free on iTunes); apple.com