Got $12? Head to the canyons of Dumbo for BKLYN Designs, a three-day expo that kicks off Design Week today. You can browse end tables with spidery legs and kids' chairs with Frank Gehry contours, all from local artisans. (New York is one of the event's sponsors.) And since unregenerate consumerism is so, well, Manhattan, you can balance every splurge with an earnest discussion.

Tonight at 6 p.m., for example, faculty and students from Pratt will unveil winners in a design competition utilizing techniques and materials that will withstand climate change. Panelist Matt Berman, who teaches at Pratt, designed this eco-efficient home (above) in New Orleans, where his firm Workshop/APD hopes to begin construction by August. Such homes, experts believe, will become more vital in low-lying Brooklyn neighborhoods as climate change moves hurricanes northward. Recharge your hope for the future at the after-party (at Design Within Reach, on Montague Street) and then gawk at photos during the talk on the greening of Adrian Grenier's Clinton Hill home. —Alec Appelbaum

Related: When Is a Chair Not a Chair? [NYM]