CHICAGO – The bathroom tiles are recycled wine bottles. The hardwood floors are sustainable bamboo. And the sprawling garden gets sprinkled with rainwater collected in 300-gallon barrels.

From its recycled plastic deck to its solar-paneled roof, everything in and about the 2,500-square-foot home on exhibit at the Museum of Science and Industry has a green story – with the goal of showing the public how easy it can be to incorporate environmental sustainability into their own abodes.

“Green should be for everyone,” said Michelle Kaufmann, the Oakland, Calif.,-based architect who designed the SmartHome. “If it’s only for a few, what’s the point?”

It appears the public is catching on.

Green building is expected to represent 6 percent of the residential construction industry in 2008, according to a survey conducted by McGraw-Hill Construction Research & Analytics for the U.S. Green Building Council. In 2005, about 2 percent of new residential construction was considered “green.”

Green housing is growing even while the overall housing market is suffering, said Nate Kredich, the council’s vice president for residential market development.

“It is happening,” Kredich said. “It’s out of museums now. But the industry needs to do a better job of getting information into people’s hands when they’re looking for it.”

The goal of the Chicago exhibit, which runs through January, is to show visitors that saving energy and conserving resources are within reach of everyone – whether it’s an entire house or a single feature, museum officials said.

The modular home, which Kaufmann said uses less than half the energy and a third of the water of traditional homes, includes a kitchen with a countertop composter and a sink made from concrete and fly ash, a byproduct of burning coal. Water from the bathroom sink is diverted to the toilet, where it is used for flushing. A bicycle in the children’s bedroom must be pedaled for 30 minutes to charge a battery to power video games.

Visitors receive a resource guide that tells about function of each feature, how they’re assembled and where they can be purchased. The bicycle system, for example, was put together from parts bought on an electronics Web site.

“It’s no longer a question if people want to go green or not. They do,” Kaufmann said. “People are wanting an alternative.”