Architecture

The Enertia building system is billed as "performance-based natural architecture" that draws from the science of biomimicry.

Enertia® is a new technology for building houses so that they heat and cool themselves. This is achieved from the design, the orientation, and the materials of the home, rather than a furnace, heat pump, or air-conditioner. Three basic, millions-of-year-old principles of nature, combined with state-of-the-art windows, radiant coatings, and prefab manufacture, make it possible, and practical. The principles are inertia, thermal currents, and the energy capacity of wood.

The goal is a comfortable living space - in an often hostile environment. Remarkably, our planet Earth achieves this, in the absolute-zero temperature of space, by weather patterns and thermal inertia. This "ecological balance" is possible because Earth has an atmosphere that traps and distributes the sun's energy by thermal currents. Enertia® Building Systems has applied this concept to Architecture.

 The cool factor here is substantial: this project won the History Channel's Modern Marvels Invent Now Challenge. Last year top honors went to Strawjet, a system for making load-bearing building components out of, you guessed it, straw from the Ashland School of Environmental Technology in Oregon.

Just because you can't afford solar panels just yet, doesn't mean you can't harness the sun's energy for your gain.

Welcome to the world of passive solar design: Believe it or not, your home's windows, walls, and floors can be designed and used to heat your home in the winter and cool it in the summer. Because passive solar design doesn't involve the use of mechanical or electrical devices to move the solar heat through the house, it uses far less energy than a traditionally or even actively solar designed home.

Window placement, insulation, roof overhangs and many other elements all play critical roles in passive solar design. Still curious? This is how a passive solar home design works.

Want to know more? Check out the U.S. Department of Energy's Consumer's Guide to Passive Solar Home Design.

Image www.sxc.hu, mike wade

Green building, aside from making the world a healthier, more sustainable place, also makes beautiful use of some pretty interesting materials: manure, dirt and straw to name a few. It should come as no surprise then that one of the most interesting and modernist trends in the green building movement depends on what is probably the ugliest material—old shipping containers. Yes, the same shipping containers that travel here from Asia, then across the country on the backs of trains. They're big, they're kind of dingy, beaten-up, graffiti-ed even, and they make for a very green building alternative.

Similar to prefab housing, even considered a type of prefab in and of itself, building with shipping containers is attractive because of the ease of assembly as well as the fact that the containers are essentially a waste material. As this article at SFGate.com points out, "Many more full containers arrive on our shores than depart, so ports either ship them back empty—to the tune of about $900 per—or sell them."

Used containers are often insulated and are strong enough to be stacked extremely high (up to 12 containers). And, of course, despite their original state, can end up creating modern, beautiful homes. Take, for instance, Adam Kalkin's 12 Container House (pictured above).

The one thing to be sure of, when picking the containers you want to build with, is that the floors have not been treated with any unhealthy chemicals.

Image www.architectureandhygiene.com, Peter Aaron

Over the years, prefabricated, or prefab, housing has been generally dismissed as a cheap, low-quality way to put a relatively unattractive roof over people's heads. And, for the most part, that's been a fair assessment. However, modernist prefab, promises to bring both style and a sustainable approach to prefab design.

So what could possibly make a prefab home green? Well, a few things. Prefab building is quick, inexpensive, takes minimal energy, and because the homes are pre-designed (many come in kits) often there is very little waste of building materials.

But, don't be fooled: Not all prefab housing is green.

However, a number of prefab companies, like EcoContempo and livinghomes, have begun offering a variety of green amenities, including solar power,wind power, rainwater harvesting and building materials that won't off-gas.

And, strangely enough, many of these new prefab houses are stunning. Don't believe us, take a look at Inhabitat's Prefab Friday Series.

Oh, and while we're on the subject, these prefab public restrooms are pretty cool too.

Image Eco Contempo