While building a house for the U.S. Department of Energy Solar Decathlon , which starts this week, the team from the University at Buffalo had a thought: Why not also design multifunctional furniture made specifically for an energy-efficient home? The heat-trapping planter is a six-foot-long rolling table planting seedlings. Since you’re usually hunched over while gardening, the design should be easier on your back, says Nicholas Rajkovich, an assistant professor of architecture in UB’s School of Architecture and Planning. The planters absorb heat during the day, and then they can be rolled outside at night to cool the home. The team has already been asked to share the design.

The canning table includes storage for a pressure canner and four wood shelves designed to hold mason jars. There’s also a stainless-steel lid, fabricated by Rigidized Metals Corporation, that can double as a work space. “Since the house is all about growing and consuming food, we were looking for a way to support canning,” Rajkovich says. “It sits next to the stove for an easy transition from cooking to canning, and the stainless-steel surface can handle high heat.”

The house the UB team built is about 1,100 square feet, so these nesting boxes, which include wire baskets donated by Three M Tool, needed to serve many purposes. “We wanted something that would allow you to have end tables but that you could also use as extra seating or a coffee table with people over, or for extra storage,” Rajkovich says.

One of the Solar Decathlon’s challenges is to wash and dry six towels using as little energy as possible, so this six-foot-long bench doubles as a solar dryer when it’s turned upright. The dryer pulls in cool air through a grate at the bottom and releases hot air through a grate at the top. “You can also slide in trays and dehydrate fruits and vegetables,” Rajkovich says.

The tables are each six feet long and on casters, with two surfaces: stainless steel and finished wood. The stainless-steel sides can be used as countertops, and then flipped over and combined to create a larger dining surface.

The eight-foot-tall room-dividing storage unit has a built-in turntable that allows you to flip the TV between the bedroom and the dining area.