architects

The planning process is relevant when it comes to virtually any building project, but because of the many idiosyncrasies involved in sustainable building, the planning process becomes much more crucial. Previously in this series we’ve discussed the financial benefits and key elements of green building. During this installment I would to emphasize the importance behind the planning process and give you some ideas about how to approach the plan.

While it may seem elementary, there are several missteps that can occur causing your project to run off the tracks. Before you begin seeking a professional team to assist you with the build (which you most definitely will need), think about your own ideas, priorities and expectations; having a clear understanding of what you want will benefit you immensely when you begin interviewing potential builders, architects and designers. If you have the ability to draw, sketch something out. Or maybe you know of certain materials you want to utilize in your build – see if you can get a sample.

Also take into consideration the complexity of your project. Are you looking for a technologically savvy structure with the latest and greatest or are you more traditional? Browse the web for images that you like and use them when you meet with architects and designers. By doing some of your own homework, you’ll come to the table with a clear mind, great ideas and an edge when it comes to knowing price points for materials, labor, professional fees, etc.

Once you have some of your goals in place, start looking for a professional builder, architect and designer that have excellent track records for quality work that runs according to schedule. This information is basic stuff that you would want to know about anyone involved in your build; however, more in-depth questions you should pose might be:

• What kind of general knowledge do you possess regarding green building?

• What is your understanding of sustainable building and how do you implement your philosophy in your projects?

• What is your expertise with more unconventional methodology for green building, such as, water catchment basins and other sustainability techniques?

• Are you involved with other sustainable building organizations?

• Are your subcontractors knowledgeable of the principles of sustainability? • What projects are you working on currently?

• Can you furnish me with references and images of your work? Of course everyone is going to want your business, so keep your feelers out for those that are just telling you what you want to hear.

Discuss prices with the builder and make sure they give you straightforward answers – if they’ve been in the business long enough price points should be clear and concise. Ask if you can visit buildings that have been completed.

Additionally, if you are able to get information about current projects that are in the building phase drive by the location and see if it meets your standards. Remember, part of sustainable building is caring for the environment during the building process through recycling and responsible clean-up procedures.

Now, don’t go break any laws or trespass – but perform your due diligence. If anyone is wary of allowing you access to completed projects or those that are in the building process, I would steer clear of those individuals. When considering the architectural and design team for your project, look for someone that resonates with your concept and expands on your ideas with their professional opinion.

Additionally, you want someone who knows the ins and outs of LEED certification for green buildings and it would preferable if they were LEED Accredited. Some design teams can also assist you with meeting the appropriate qualifications for Federal Energy Tax Credits. The Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 offers many incentives for businesses and consumers, keep these tax credits in mind when planning your build. The Solar Investment Tax Credit, which is part of the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008, includes an 8-year extension of the solar investment tax credit in both the commercial and residential sector and completely omits the monetary cap for residential solar electric installations.

As you can see, with the multitude of tax savings involved with green building, it is well worth your time and money to hire the right professional that will assist you with your project and help you obtain the tax credits that you are eligible for. During the planning/design process it is important that strategies of each “team member” are in alignment with one another. If strategies conflict, you could have a huge mess on your hands. In an effort to sum it up, the planning process should encompass innovation, partnerships, accountability for performance and collaboration through various disciplines. In my next installment we’re going to discuss information about LEED certifications. Until next time, go green! See more at www.acreageanywhere.com

Architects and builders: C'mon: I propose we only install light colored roofs. Amazing how something *so* simple as painting buildings a light color can make such a difference… kinda one of those “doh!” moments like the second the huge but simple concept of passive solar design sinks in!

From http://www.policyinnovations.org/ideas/innovations/data/000024

Furnace Cities
Bjørn Lomborg
12/03/07

It's possible to see, right now, what global warming will eventually do to the planet. To peek into the future, all we have to do is go to Beijing, Athens, Tokyo, or, in fact, just about any city on Earth.

Most of the world's urban areas have already experienced far more dramatic temperature hikes over the past few decades than the 2.6°C increase expected from global warming over the next hundred years.

It's simple enough to understand. On a hot day in New York, locals sprawl out on the grass fields of Central Park, not on asphalt parking lots or concrete sidewalks. Bricks, concrete, and asphalt—the building blocks from which cities are made—absorb much more heat from the sun than vegetation does in the countryside.

Across an entire city, there's much more tarmac than there is grass. So the air above the city heats up. This effect, called an "urban heat island," was discovered in London in the early 1800s.

Today, the fastest-growing cities are in Asia. Beijing is roughly 10°C hotter than the nearby countryside in the daytime and 5.5°C warmer at night. There are even more dramatic increases in Tokyo. In August, temperatures there climbed 12.5°C above the surrounding countryside, reaching 40°C—a scorching heat that affected not only the downtown area, but also covered some 8,000 square kilometers.

Looking at a fast-growing city like Houston, Texas, we can see the real effect of the urban heat island. Over the last 12 years, Houston grew by 20 percent, or 300,000 inhabitants. During that time, the night time temperature increased about 0.8°C. Over a hundred-year period, that would translate to a whopping 7°C increase.

But, while celebrity activists warn about the impending doom posed by climate change, a more realistic view is offered by these cities' ability to cope. Despite dramatic increases over the past 50 or 100 years, these cities have not come tumbling down.

Even as temperatures have risen, heat-related deaths have decreased, owing to improved health care, access to medical facilities, and air-conditioning. We have far more money and much greater technological ability to adapt than our forebears ever did.

Of course, cities also will be hit by temperature increases from CO2, in addition to further warming from urban heat islands. But we have an opportunity to act. Unlike our forebears, who did very little or nothing about urban heat islands, we are in a good position to tackle many of their effects.

While celebrity activists focus entirely on cutting CO2, we could do much more—and at much lower cost—if we addressed urban heat islands. Simple solutions can make a vast difference to temperatures.

Cities are hotter than the land around them because they are drier. They lack moist green spaces and have drainage systems that efficiently remove water. In London, the air around the River Thames is cooler than it is a few blocks away in built-up areas. If we plant trees and build water features, we won't just beautify our surroundings, but we'll also cool things down—by upwards of 8°C, according to climate models.

Moreover, although it may seem almost comically straightforward, one of the best temperature-reducing approaches is very simple: paint things white. Cities have a lot of black asphalt and dark, heat-absorbing structures. By increasing reflection and shade, a great deal of heat build-up can be avoided. Paint most of a city and you could lower the temperature by 10°C.

These options are simple, obvious, and cost-effective. Consider Los Angeles. Re-roofing most of the city's five million homes in lighter colors, painting a quarter of the roads and planting 11 million trees would have a one-time cost of about $1 billion. Each year after that, this would lower air conditioning costs by about $170 million and provide $360 million in smog-reduction benefits. And it would lower Los Angeles temperatures by about 3°C—or about the temperature increase envisioned for the rest of this century.

Compare that to the $180 billion cost of implementing the Kyoto Protocol, which will have virtually no effect.

At the moment, we don't hear much about the smartest choices when it comes to addressing global warming. That needs to change. We do get to choose which future we want.

© 2007 Project Syndicate. Republished with kind permission.

I was so excited today to receive a nice e-mail from a reader of my blog, Andrew Powter, who has been kind enough to share with me images of his own house. It's being built in British Columbia, Canada, and Andrew is hoping to break ground later this month! Take a look at how cool this place is:

But the house isn't just a flashy modern pad, it's loaded with environmentally conscious design features, such as:

• Reclaimed cedar siding
• Concrete floors with hydronic radiant heat
• Recessed compact fluorescent lighting
• Ecosmart fireplace
• Double glazed windows
• Construction with insulated concrete forms
• Low-flow toilets, faucets and showers
• On-demand hot water heating
• Good passive solar heat gain

Nice, huh! This is a very inspiring home. I really like the look.  That's such a good list of green features, and all things that can be incorporated into any style home, anywhere. This home is a great model for the way we should be building all homes

Andrew is the homeowner. He's working with Mark Simone of Dynamedia. Take a look at the portfolio on their site. Some nice stuff. Some real talent there.

I can't wait to see how this house progresses. It looks great and Andrew has done a fantastic job including green elements in his home. 

Image credits - Andrew Powter

Everyone, everywhere, is working on prefab. New ideas are popping up like dandelions on the first pretty spring day. I was just browsing YouTube and hit on this interesting video. It's from Danish architect Soren Korsgaard. I checked his website, and the house is actually a vacation cabin. It has an interesting sliding doors strategy that allows the occupants to reconfigure the house for different views, privacy, shelter from changing winds, etc. Kinda neat.

It's been pointed out to me that this house looks just like Peter Blake's classic "Pinwheel House." It really does. I think it's great to see the best ideas of the past being revisited in today's context.

I also saw this other cool house concept on Korsgaard's site, the "Standard House." It's anything but, though it would be great if it were, and everyone really lived in something like it. Check it out:

The house is designed to be built fast, to take advantage of passive heating and cooling principles, and will incorporate "root zone water purification." It's decidedly modern, and I like the simple solar shell concept. It actually reminds me very much of a solar house some family friends lived in back in the 1980's when I was growing up. The design was very similar to this. On a cold but sunny winter day they'd have to open the windows to let out extra heat, yet in the summer all the thermal mass kept the house nice and cool.

Korsgaard's other works are interesting as well. I like this industrial-inspired multifamily concept, curiously called "commune housing" (made me think communist bloc, not communal living).

Cool stuff, I think Korsgaard is one to watch.

Image credits - Soren Korsgaard site

I found this excellent speech yesterday afternoon, it's 45 minutes but I was able to have it going in the background and take it in while working. McDonough thinks on a such a large scale, and he's a great speaker so he's fun to listen to. This interview in 2000 demonstrates that he hasn't just been thinking big, but he's also been a real leader and change agent for some time. In this speech McDonough asks some great questions and really puts things in perspective about the need to change our course.

He opens up by saying that as a designer, there are two questions he always asks: 1) How do we love all children of all species for all time? And 2) When do we all become native, truly indigenous? He contrasts our "planning" with that of the Iroquois who make decisions based on implications 17 generations out..... I'll let you listen to the rest-- it's worth it.

You've heard of slow food, and maybe slow cities. Now this great post on WorldChanging is introducing us to a great site called Slow Home. The slow home concept is introduced as a counter to mass produced housing, which it likens to unhealthy and unsatisfying fast food. It presents a lot of great ideas about what's wrong with American housing, and offers a different way.

The meat of the site is a rich folio of projects, products and people that exemplify slow home concepts. There are tons of pics of great houses. I'm like a kid in a candy store clicking through them. There's even a "Slow Home TV" section with lots of cool videos. There are interviews with architects and product designers, videos of their houses, and many episodes of the "Slow Home Reports."

The site is interesting and informative. It's an instant favorite for me. I've only been able to get through a small fraction of it - there's a lot of material - but I just couldn't wait to bring it to your attention.

The UK is one country that's really, really caught the bug when it comes to green building. The nation appears poised to take a real leadership role, and there's a lot of great stuff happening there. It tends to be a little groovier, and usually a whole lot greener, than what's coming out of the USA. Not that we don't have great stuff here - we do - but I like what I see the Brits doing.

Here's a great example of the UK's finest: ZEDfactory Ltd. ZED stands for Zero (fossil) Energy Development. The firm does everything from urban design and master planning to multi-family residences to individual homes to eco-refurb to landscaping. Everything is low energy / low impact.

In the HomeZED, timberframe construction is combined with high thermal mass and heavy insulation. Passive strategies compliment the construction methods for simple, natural heating and cooling. The home has ample daylighting, and produces more than its own energy needs via renewable energy sources and sells the excess back to the grid. Prototypes are already being built. I think a HomeZED would be well suited to our climate here in southeast Michigan , and I could definitely see myself living in one.