JohnCommoner's blog

I've admired rammed earth homes for a long time, even though they're not really appropriate for the climate I live in. It's just that rammed earth walls are mesmerizing to look at. I get lost staring at the different layers of soil, in varying subtle shades of earth tone, flowing gracefully along along a wall. To my eye, rammed earth walls epitomize the very essence of natural beauty.

I can't think of any rammed earth builder that does it better than Terra Firma Builders Ltd. They have a way of crafting the most gracefully curved walls. Their designs blend with the surrounding landscape. Inside, massive earthen walls and sturdy timbers comfortably intertwine with delicate, artistic finishing. It's a totally unique aesthetic.

Terra Firma's website is fantastic. There's a wealth of images of their work in their portfolio. There's also a great explanation of why rammed earth is an effective, sustainable building solution. Probably the most interesting thing I found on their site is that they use an unusual insulated rammed earth wall approach called SIREWALL (SIRE = Stabilized Insulated Rammed Earth). SIREWALL was developed by Meyer Krayenhoff, an environmental builder of over thirty years, who also founded Terra Firma. Here's an explanation from the SIREWALL site:

Stabilized, Insulated, Rammed Earth (SIRE) walls are made using rebar and insulation enveloped with the mass of 14 – 20 inches of rammed earth. This combination, along with SIREWALL®’s system for quality control and soil blending, builds walls that exceed current standards for energy efficiency and compressive strength. SIREWALL’s customizable forms refined over the last fifteen years by SIREWALL’s expert builders, work seamlessly with unique designs and modern finishes that have timeless appeal.

I always thought that would work. We've seen that concept applied to concrete walls, so why not rammed earth too? Actually, reading their FAQ, and noting that they're in Canada and do their building in British Columbia, I've learned that rammed earth can be a solution for climates other than hot, arid deserts, especially with the SIREWALL approach in place.

Note that Terra Firma only builds complete homes on their home turf. But they will build walls elsewhere, and let your builder finish the house. They also train and certify builders in the SIREWALL system, and offer design and consulting services. Wherever you are, whatever type of rammed earth project you might be considering, I think these would be the people to talk to.

I have new hope of living in a rammed earth house yet!

 
Image credits - Terra Firma site

The other day I was doing a post on my site about one of the Case Study Houses, the Greenbelt by Ralph Rapson (CSH#4). It's an interesting house; very simple but intriguing in the way it incorporates a green space between its public and private functional areas. It's the kind of house I go for.

I'm fascinated by an original illustration of the Greenbelt, seen here on the cover of Architecture magazine (March '05):

The image is an interesting snapshot of the naive optimism of the era. There's a commuter helicopter hovering over the house. Clearly, even as suburbia was being born, the problems of sprawl and disconnectedness were apparent. I suppose that at the time the solutions looked obvious. I also like the Jeep in the driveway, just ready and waiting for weekend fun. Even then we were fascinated with SUVs as fashion statements, expensive toys, symbolic of a new lifestyle halfway between city life and country pursuits remembered from childhood days on the farm. When you have new found wealth and freedom on Saturday you need a vehicle that can take you, say, to the nearby mountains for skiing, or on an adventurous day trip into the desert, or just up to the cabin in the woods.

But the image that gets me the most is that of the lady of the house hanging out the family's laundry to dry on a clothesline in the yard. I cannot remember the last time I saw that, but it was a long time ago. I do specifically remember from my childhood in the seventies that both my grandparents dried their clothes on a line, and so did most of their neighbors.

Those days seem to be very long gone. It's even more ironic to me to see a suburban family drying clothes on a line. I live in the burbs of Detroit, and I can say without doubt that if I did that it wouldn't be long before the neighbors started whispering and I got a call from the homeowners association. The bylaws of most subdivisions wouldn't stand for it for a minute.

Laundry is on the mind because our washer went out recently, for good this time, and we ended up buying a new washer and dryer. We bought the most efficient we could, and I've noticed a huge difference already, especially in the dryer. We're using much less water in the wash and our clothes dry much, much faster in the new dryer. But I still can't help thinking how much energy we could save by simply hanging clothes out on a breezy day.

And then just tonight I was surfing around the Web and out of the blue I stumbled on this very recent Seattle Times article: A Hip, Modern Clothesline Can Turn Your Laundry Green. According to the story a clothes dryer is responsible for up to 1,440 pounds of carbon dioxide annually, and can account for as much as ten percent of your home's energy consumption. That's a lot. If you could just dry half your clothes outside over the course of the year you'd make a meaningful difference. It's something to think about.

Of course, the Seattle Times article ends with "Before you let the family's laundry all hang out, check with your condo or homeowners association. Some associations ban hanging clothes outdoors." That's something to think about too. If we want to change our habits we need to change the rules too. That's the real challenge, and it doesn't stop with just laundry.

I'm a big fan of the modernist prefabs from hiveModular. Check out this fun post on the hiveMODULAR blog. It looks like it's about cars ... or is it? Look closely at this pic of their cabin:

Looks like a sea container project to me! I hope we get to see more of that.

Image credit - hiveMODULAR blog

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

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.

I'm one of those people who suffers bad from seasonal affective disorder. In the summertime I can go on very little sleep and always feel great. In the winter I can hardly stay awake an hour after the sun goes down, which is only about 5:00 PM here in Michigan. It's like I run on sunlight. When I don't get enough I'm a totally different person.

As a "light person" I tend to like really bright rooms. I want all the lights on all the time (which drives my wife nuts). Of course, that can be hard on the wallet and on the planet. I like houses that let the light pour in, which is probably a big part of what draws me to modern homes. But you've got to design for it. Daylighting is an all too often overlooked aspect of home design that makes a huge difference in how the house feels to live in.

The new summer 2007 issue of Innovative Home Magazine has a great article on daylighting called "Here Comes the Sun." It talks about insulated daylighting panels (IDPs) that let in soft light yet don't overheat the house, the good old Solatube, and a slick new take on skylighting, the Parans Solar Panel.