Tech engineer and ground level Facebook employee Scott Marlette’s recent investments include this recently constructed house in Santa Monica.

The home is the work of firm Marmol Radziner, a champion of the sustainable contemporary style. The exterior is very modern-inspired, and expressed in masonry, glass, and timber. A ‘living’ roof is clearly visible. Such houses are becoming more and more fashionable among the country’s more successful citizens, and it’s a heartening trend.

The living style is luxurious but ecologically relevant. There’s the expected dose of marble in kitchens and baths, and the requisite book-matched example. What’s marvelous about this particular design is the degree to which sustainable timber is relied upon as a means of expressing the living style, and how warm and idealistic it is as a result.

The stunner is the farmhouse-inspired staircase, but the flooring, accents, built-in and floating shelving, and cabinetry collectively accumulate to a naturalistic vision that makes the flashier marble seem like a contrived embellishment present solely for the sake of less critically discriminating appeal.

The home’s eight bedrooms and 8.5 baths include a maid’s suite. The master, and all guest rooms, feature glass walls that reveal green vistas. Amenities include a towering interior/exterior fireplace, a 1,000-bottle wine cellar, home cinema, fitness studio, wet bar, and butler’s kitchen.

The lot extends to nearly an acre, with a pool, cabana with fireplace, and an outdoor kitchen and dining area partially covered by an attached pergola.