architecture

http://builtecology.blogspot.com/2010/10/functional-ambiance-designing-f...

For more than you ever wanted to know about indoor air quality (IAQ) please check out my article Functional Ambiance: Designing for Clean Air on Metropolis magazine's continuing-education site, sponsored by Humanscale.  

A few highlights...
[Download the PDF]

• The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) estimates that air in homes is often five times more polluted than outdoors, and considering that most people today spend upwards of 80 percent of their days and nights inside, the interior atmosphere is a critical design criteria for functional environments.
• The average adult breathes in around eight germs per minute, for a total of 10,000 per day.
• The American Lung Association reports that 23 million Americans have asthma. This includes seven million children.
• Indoor air quality is the human factor that gets lost in design. Since air is invisible, it’s easy not to notice. Companies are aware of employee efficiency so they invest in ergonomic furniture and lighting, but IAQ gets forgotten by clients and designers alike. This is a mistake considering the relationship between air quality and health.
• Preventing and solving air quality problems are integrated issues that should include the participation of everyone along the design, construction, and occupancy process. In the first place, architectural choices set up initial air quality conditions that all other factors tie into. These need to be coordinated with the building’s mechanical engineers. Even the order of a building’s construction process can impact air quality if there are reactions between materials at different stages. And then interior design choices constitute a whole new layer of chemical interactions, followed by all the things building occupants bring in.

This video shows a small pavilion I designed and build last year at Staten Museum for Kunst in Copenhagen. I was limited to use 1 kilometer of laths, so I decided to design the structure using a 3D modeling program, which allowed me to carefully to control the amount material. In the end all that was left was a small bag of wood, equal to less than 0,5% wast!

The Forest Stewardship Council–US (FSC-US) invites your candidate projects for the 6th Annual Design & Build with FSC Awards — recognizing excellence in the use of FSC materials in both residential and commercial/institutional design and construction. This is the only award the FSC-US gives each year. It recognizes and honors designers and builders who are committed to using FSC-certified wood and creating a marketplace that promotes environmentally appropriate, socially beneficial and economically viable forest management — the mission of FSC. Applications are due on or before Friday, September 17, 2010! Visit FSC website: http://www.fscus.org/green_building/award.php

Well, what-a-weekend in the off grid prefab house kit that was!

Friday I raced to the prefab modern house, cleaned up, and met with a reporter. Then my family and friends arrived, and honeychile, we trashed the prefab house kit. Saturday we woke up and frantically cleaned up for the Prefab Open House, which was really fun! Thank you all who drove from so far to come visit us in the off grid prefab house kit, STILL with no systems! Then the Prefab Open House was over, and we promptly trashed the house, again. THEN Sunday we woke up and frantically cleaned, again! And a photographer came out. And then we trashed the house! Then I cleaned it again! I. Am. Pooped. It. Was. FUN. : ) We are very grateful to The Ault's Family Farm who not only let us take showers, but sent us back to the prefab passive solar house kit with cartons of gorgeous pullet eggs to give our guests!!! And, why yes, we *did* eat cake! : )

Handsome Husband spoke about the off grid systems we are installing in the net zero passive solar prefab house.

Off Grid Net Zero Systems Talk Part 1 for Prefab House Kit

Off Grid Net Zero Systems Talk Part 2 for Prefab House Kit

As we mentioned, it's not just about a cool modern, energy efficient prefab house. It's about purposely spec'ing for less systems, for off grid, doing more with less. It's the fun treasure hunt to Make Somethin' Outta Nothin' - note as you look at pictures of the prefab, that almost *everything* has been recycled and reused - from the passing-down of my grandmothers bed, to the bookcase found in a thrift store used and already reused within our own family in four different ways before finding its fifth use in the prefab house. A nice woman from Maryland asked me how we got into "green living." (And she is in wildlife management! She should be giving us advice! : ) ) The simple answer is... we grew up with land, feel connected to it, see the cause and effect in how people treat it.  We grew up sailing, so understand the wind and sun and how to use it.  We camp, so appreciate bringing this all together to preserve but also shelter and sustain our family, comfortably. Plus supa coolio modern design is really fun on a shoestring. I like the hunt!

Seriously, it just makes sense. Living carefully, purposely, frugally just. makes. sense. And is tons of fun.

We will begin to have guest bloggers (weren't you tired of listening to me anyhow?), people who know a heck of a lot more than I on the next steps of the prefab SIPs house kit as it goes from a modern house kit shell to a sustainable modern homestead in the years to come.

Please welcome Heather Barber, founder of Topos, LLC, a landscape design studio dedicated to purposeful design through creating unique natural environments in Richmond, Virginia.

The sustainable landscape plan by Topos was earlier mentioned here; today, she talks about visiting the off grid prefab modern house for the first time, and how sustainability is connected in the kitchen.

The rest of the post is her own.

Sustainability and landscape go hand in hand, but to really understand sustainability from a livable principal you must put form in the background and set the focus on function. The two do not have to live entirely separately, but the thing that has driven landscape design for centuries must become secondary to to the primary purpose of function. A sustainable landscape does not have to leave beauty out of the picture, but it is there for many more reasons than just aesthetics.

Let’s take green modern kits casa ti as a prototype for understanding the adaptation of the built object to the site rather than the normal process of site adaptation to accommodate the built object. casa ti is a melding of modern living principles with a centuries old notion of living with the land, off the land, and of the land. casa ti is sited in the middle of rural farmland in Virginia.

At first sight, it seems as though there is a modern box sitting in the middle of this soft, rolling earth...still viable earth that is now a repository for a very static looking building. Understanding modern sustainability will turn this perception on it’s ear. casa ti, a prefabricated green modern kit home is actually a very dynamic part of the earth and a living, breathing entity that sustains the land it inhabits. The landscape that surrounds casa ti becomes a fulcrum that allows the exchange between the site, the building and the family that lives on the land.

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The past two weeks have been overwhelming, hence the silence, and aside from meetings, we haven't anything new to show regarding our own SIPs prefab house kit. [Now, about the *other* prefab house kits being built... (claps hands over mouth) Ahem, more on these later! : ) ]

Instead, we have spent time over the past weekends exploring Richmond's James River, which we never had access to until we bought a vintage Boston Whaler. It's amazing what a little river access can do for a family! We can now hook up the boat and in 15 minutes be at the river, watching bald eagles, blue heron, turtles and fish with our children.

Any-hoo, today, the prefab architect of the net zero house kit casa ti, David Day, came to visit!

Our original plan was to visit an artist's studio he built with structural insulated panels (SIP) but we digressed and instead sat outside watching the children play.... enjoyed the day and company of each other while discussing Woodstock documentaries, green living, and off grid net zero systems.

Well to make a long question "short". I have been working on getting financing for my Eco Friendly cafe for the past 2 years. Every bank I approach has denied my loan request because I am a start up business. I have proven through my exhaustive research, in my business plan that just such a business would thrive in Bloomington Indiana. I have a proposed location that is being built and the developer is going for LEED certification (the location of the building is in the downtown Bloomington area next to Indiana University).

What I need to find out is if there are any places out there that I can acquire a business loan based on the "green" aspect of my cafe. Any and all help would be greatly appreciated in this. The location that I am interested in will be finished by summer of 2010. So I have a little time, but I really want to get this going ASAP!!

Sincerely,

Chip Hartleroad

Celtic Quest Cafe

www.myspace.com/celticquestcafe

stcafe

I have recently designed a small pavilion for Copenhagen International Wood Festival, near Statens Museum for Kunst, its a laboratory for wooden creations in public space. It's the first of its kind in Denmark, and takes place from August 10th to 22th. The festival is arranged by WoodWorks.

 more on: http://www.sorenkorsgaard.com/woodworks.htm