housing

I have just completed a beautiful Energy Efficient, Compresses Earth Block home in Colorado and would like to exchange ideas with any other Green Builders / Constructors. I will continue to post pics / vids and information on this type of construction, in hopes to expand public knowledge of better building concepts that are environmentally healthy inside and out, as well as affordable.

Visit us at www.SolsticeDev.com

Find more photos like this on Knol Stuff

Find more photos like this on Knol Stuff

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.

This is the second scheme for the flexible concept I published earlier. The first proposal tried to investigate environmental sustainability through modern technologies and materials (high-tech solution), while this is made from bamboo ,local and recycled materials (low-tech).

Flexible living

Throughout a lifetime the needs of people is changing continuously. Starting out as single, and then becoming a couple, having kids… Through these phases the need for space keeps increasing, but later when the kids move out the need for space changes or decreases. Modern buildings should easily be able to meet these changes or even be reconfigured into completely different purposes.

This is exactly what SuperFlex System is! It’s not only a system for living, but can also serve as pavilion, for sports, flee markets, barn for the farmer, shop for the mechanic, you name it! Or it could serve as a commune for several friends or just one person. It comes in different sizes, just buy more roof components and living units according to your needs and economical performance, or sell those you don’t need any more. This secures that the material and energy that has been put into the building is used most efficient, and make less impact on the environment.

Architecturally the project is divided into three zones. The indoor, inside the living units, quite traditional, except that the units are mobile, can be pushed around, and combined in different ways. The semi outdoor covered space between and on top of the living units, and the outdoor space. The most interesting about the SuperFlex System is the Semi outdoor space. This is the place for much different kind of activities; only the imagination sets the limit. Just move the living units to one corner or outside if you want to have a big party, or play indoor basketball with your friends.

SuperFlex System consists of few and simple components with multiple solutions. The result is advantages for both manufacture and client. The manufacture gets a efficient cheap industrial mass production, and the client gets the opportunity to custom design their own home for the locale climate, building site and individual wishes, within the limits of system, always resulting in high quality, and less errors, meaning less costs.

The Living units
Ad as many you and your family, or friends need.
In case you need less indoor space, remove and sell those you don't need any more. The small space boxes that easy can be produced for different functions and insulated for different climates. You can choose from different wall elements in plyboo, translucent polycarbonate, and transparent glass sliding doors and windows.
The units can be locked together to create a larger inner space, or stand alone.

Roof structure
The roof structures geometry is inspired by Japanese origami techniques. With its repeating pattern it can easily be build as long as needed.
Every second frame has been rotated 30 degrees to divide the surface of the structure into triangles. By doing this the triangular planes stabilize the construction.
The surface clearly shows its modularity and separates the elements that makes it, and makes it perfect for industrial production.

Three types of boards, plyboo/bamboo- and transparent or translucent polycarbonate boards, and it’s possible to leave the structure partly open as well, or maybe even panels with solar cells or solar water heating systems.
This makes it easy to adapting each project to the specific site, climate and wishes of the client.

Flooring
The floor in the semi outdoor area is made of concrete, unless locale reusable/sustainable material is available, such as recycled bricks, or stone is available.

Location adaptation examples:
Hawaii and Pacific Islands, in the tropical and subtropical climate the roof is manly covered with plyboo panels to shade, only near the ground the panels is transparent or translucent polycarbonate boards. The gables can be left open.

Canada, Alaska and Northern Europe, the roof is manly covered with transparent or translucent panels, to efficiently use the free heat from the sun.

More college kids are concerned about the environment than ever before, studies say. And so are designers of university dorms--at least in some parts of the country.

This year, some co-eds at Pitzer College, in Claremont, Calif., are nestling into new dorms that boast rooftop gardens and photovoltaic panels. According to an article in the Los Angeles Times, campus officials say that new LEED-certified housing will soon replace all of the old dorms on campus.

Emory University, too, has a new green residence hall that houses about 132 freshmen, the first of nine such dorms the university is planning. This year's five-story dorm has flooring made of recycled auto glass, water-conserving toilets, compact fluorescent lighting and thermostats that can only be set between 70 and 78 degrees, according to an article from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Officials said that the dorms should use 30 percent less water than a conventional dorm.

To be sure, green dorms have been around for years. In 2003, Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh said it had opened the nation's first green dorm, called New Hourse, a project worth about $12.5 million at the time.

CMU's 71,400-square-foot green building, which houses about 255 undergrads, features high-efficiency washing machines, motion-sensor lighting and 18-inch exterior super-insulated walls. The carpeting was even made from recycled yarn. It received the coveted U.S. Green Building Council's LEED Silver certification.

Elsewhere, Cal Poly San Luis Obispo is working on finishing a 2,670-bed apartment complex that will be LEED certified. Among other initiatives, that project is focused on recycling construction waste. If environmentalism starts at home, then some of today's college grads are getting a crash course in green living.