April 2008 counts as a transformative moment. In less than a year, oil, which had hovered around $60 per barrel in 2007, has broken the $100 ceiling and is still climbing. Global warming continues to wreak immense consequences on the planet. After more than 50 years of Record Houses, the time has come to consider how the individual house can help mitigate, if not solve, the problems it unwittingly helped to create.

Building on our determination last year to provide environmental assessments of the projects in Architectural Record, we now address Record Houses. The issue that you hold in your hand, or see on the screen, adds sustainability as a defining criterion for every Record House. However, the term sustainability shifts in meaning, depending on where you stand.