Equipped with lighting, entertainment, and climate control systems manageable from anywhere in the world, these compelling homes set high—and high-tech—standards for luxurious 21st-century living.

As more people become increasingly aware of the effects of our energy consumption on climate change, homeowners are choosing to adopt more sustainable design solutions. Creating a welcoming, stylish home is now as much about putting thoughtful care into responsibly sourced furnishings as it is about picking pieces that suit you and your family’s needs. Conscientious, sustainable interior design is all about balancing these impulses—it’s about making smart choices for the environment without having to sacrifice beauty or function.

While staying at home and practicing safe social distancing are the best courses of action to combat the COVID-19 pandemic, it doesn’t mean we have to miss out on cultural landmarks around the world. Thanks to the Google Arts & Culture Project, from New York City’s Museum of Modern Art, to Rijks Museum in Amsterdam, here are 6 museums you can tour right now from home.

The Technological Advancements Making Singapore a Global Hotspot | From Marina Bay Sands to Merlion Park, Singapore’s architecture and iconography have become synonymous with life in a modern city. The city-state has emerged from its humble beginnings as a small fishing village to become a major economic player competing on the global stage—and a destination of choice for many of the world’s entrepreneurs and high-end homebuyers.

How did Singapore go from outpost to powerhouse? And how is it rising to the challenge of a modern digital age? Long before becoming the international city of the moment, Singapore laid the groundwork by investing in the technology and infrastructure now bringing its residents and visitors superlative quality of life. 

There’s more to a quality home wet bar than an extensive liquor collection. Having on hand the right sleek, smart-looking gadgets to dispense and mix your drinks, and keep them ice cold, will make entertaining guests even easier. These devices will have you and your guests drinking in high style.

Thanks to modern advancements in augmented reality and 3D printing, redesigning a space or building a new home has never been more futuristic. We are living in an era of unprecedented innovation, where homes can be assembled from scratch in just under 24 hours, and living spaces designed from a few taps on a smartphone. More than just passing trends, these technological leaps represent a disruption of the home and design industry. Here, we examine two of the most promising advancements in home construction and retail, and why they’re catching the world’s attention.

When you think of the world of condos and new-build apartments, “unique” may not be the first word that springs to mind. Condos have a reputation for being uniform, but thanks to a new crop of savvy architects and technology-embracing designers, the best modern condos on the market feel more custom than cookie-cutter. From virtual personal assistants capable of ordering in-home beauty treatments to personal chefs hirable at the tap of a button, it’s never been easier to design a lifestyle that feels entirely bespoke. These modern condos are called smart homes for a reason.

Toronto recently made waves on the web with the news that the Ontario capital had become North America's fastest-growing tech market. According to the CBRE's 2017 North American Scoring Tech Talent report, Toronto added 22,500 new technology jobs to eclipse tech hotbeds New York (5,370) and San Francisco (11,540) combined. In doing so, Toronto leaped from 12th to sixth in the overall annual ranking.

Toronto's housing market has seen a marked slowdown since a new non-resident tax successfully pushed many foreign buyers out, but a forecast from real estate agency Engel + Volkers says a new phenomenon is about to take over as the driver of Toronto's housing boom: The tech industry. The influx of tech companies into Toronto's downtown core in recent years has already had "a huge effect" on the real estate market, said Anthony Hitt, president and CEO of Engel + Volkers North America.

Fast growing e-commerce platform Shopify Inc. says it will invest as much as half-a-billion dollars into its forthcoming Toronto office, in a large downtown development where it plans to house thousands of new employees.

The Ottawa-based company’s neon-green shopping-bag beacon is expected to top the 38-storey skyscraper at the corner of Front Street West and Spadina Avenue when The Well complex, jointly owned by Allied Properties REIT and RioCan REIT, opens in 2022. Shopify’s investment and its anchor-tenant logo rights are part of a 15-year deal that Michael Scace, who brokered the transaction, said is one of the biggest-ever completed in the King West market on the edge of Toronto’s downtown core.

Amazon has made its first foray in prefab construction, investing in a company known for sustainable construction and smart home technology.

Today’s announcement of Amazon’s investment in Plant Prefab, a startup based in Rialto, California, comes on the heels of the company’s announcement of a new line of Alexa-enabled smart home devices, suggesting a potential new avenue of smart home development, experimentation, and expansion.

Toronto’s tech ecosystem is receiving endorsements from two of the world’s largest technology companies, with both Intel Corp. and Microsoft Corp. unveiling plans to expand in the city.

Chip-maker Intel is getting back into making dedicated graphics processing units (GPUs) for the first time in two decades, and on Wednesday the company will announce that the key engineering and design work for the project will happen in Toronto.

Toronto’s tech scene is so hot the city created more jobs than the San Francisco Bay area, Seattle and Washington, D.C., combined last year, while leapfrogging New York in a ranking of “talent markets.”

Toronto was the fastest-growing tech-jobs market in 2017, according to CBRE Group Inc.’s latest annual survey, released Tuesday. The city saw 28,900 tech jobs created, 14 percent more than in 2016, for a total of more than 241,000 workers, up 52 percent over the past five years, CBRE said. Downtown, tech accounted for more than a third of demand for office space.

With fresh rains heralding the arrival of spring, renewed greenery and blooming trees remind us that our planet is filled with things worth protecting. 

Eco-conscious trends in home design and construction highlight how we can tread lightly on the planet and blend in seamlessly with elegant, low impact homes. From rainwater recovery to green roofs, here are some of this spring's top eco solutions.