Smart Home exhibit mixes cool green design with easy high-tech living

Just inside the first floor of Chicago's Museum of Science and Industry's Smart Home, a 20-year-old re-covered Crate & Barrel sofa flanks a cool-to-the-touch, ethanol-burning fireplace that floats in the middle of the room. The flame can also be seen from any of the six thrift-store dining chairs revived in creamy white faux leather and tucked in around the high-sheen, rough-edged slab of a fallen Michigan ash tree given new life as a sculptural table.