Clean Sweep

At the architecture firm Marmol Radziner in Los Angeles, sustainable prefab homes are on the rise, and while the factory-produced modules are made of recycled steel frames and covered with environmentally sound paints, the custom layouts bring nature and the landscape into the home, and interiors are made of wood and stone with all of their natural blemishes. "We spend most of our days in front of a computer screen. What you do touch you want to be as authentic and least processed as possible," says design principal Ron Radziner.

Indeed, on a deeper level, the collective drive seems less toward austerity than toward a longing for authenticity. The age of YouTube, MySpace and reality TV has created a palette for things original, unexpected and ever changing as well as a climate of discovery and surprise. And if the luxury conglomerates have become too much like ocean liners to oblige, smaller shops are ready to catch the prevailing wind.

Nina Garduno has captured this mentality in her Malibu, Calif., store, FreeCitySupershop, which carries, along with the hand-designed, vintage-style graphic T shirts, an ever changing array of custom turntables, teepees and free fresh-squeezed orange juice. "People say, 'Is this a rock shop? A clothing shop? A bike store?' It's whatever you want to take from it. I'm just putting it out there," says Garduno, who, as a vice president for Ron Herman menswear and a buyer there for 20 years, has made a career out of predicting trends, including vintage denim and studded jeans.

Perhaps the wave of the future is captured most completely by Joshua Onysko, founder and CEO of the cosmetics company Pangea Organics, of Boulder, Colo., whose face creams and shampoos are made from food-grade natural products, support women's farming initiatives and are produced using 100% wind power. And every aspect of the packaging has a secondary use, from the glass bottles to the 100% postconsumer-waste boxes that are folded using origami to avoid glue: thousands of seeds are incorporated into each box so they may be planted to grow Genovese basil, amaranth flowers or a sea buckthorn tree. "It comes down to one word, respect," Onysko says. "For the earth, your employers, farmers and for yourself, not burning yourself out. If you think about things that way, it's amazing how your life starts changing."