Michelle Kaufmann from After Black Hammer on Vimeo.

My talented and dear friend Garret Curtis made this beautiful video of the story behind the Smart Home in Chicago. I love his eye and gift for story telling. Lord knows I am no easy subject to deal with.
More of Garret’s work is at After Black Hammer and Posterous.

Get your spacesuit on. Architecture for Humanity (along with NASA, X-Prize founder, Google and the Mars Society are working on an amazing project. Location: Mars. They will be sending architects to space to design habitation on this alluring planet. Hopefully learning from how to build in this extreme environment will help prepare us for ideas for how to design on earth for global warming.
To apply and learn more:
www.2025marsdirect.com

(happy april 1st)

photos by Scott Landry

Michelle: What are some elements of designing and managing a sustainable home that you are most excited about?

Scott: One of the most enjoyable parts of doing what we do is getting to work with people who, like us, just want to live a little smarter. That can mean many things, but to most of our clients it means making a place to live that is comfortable and beautiful, yet simple and useful, without wasting a lot of energy, materials, and money. So we really enjoy finding those solutions with our clients, and delivering a design that is simple and elegant, with natural, durable materials, useful spaces, and energy-efficient features.

Michelle: What are some of challenges of remodeling a green building?

Scott: At the back of your mind is always the question – How far do you go? There’s a balancing act when you’re trying to incorporate reduce-reuse-recycle into an existing house…how much do you replace, add, or subtract to make the home more eco-friendly, and how much can you keep as-is to avoid the waste of over-building; all while providing a beautiful and comfortable place to live? It’s a special kind of client who wants to take things as far as we did with this project.

Michelle: What would you recommend to home owners who are interested in building or remodeling a green home?

Scott: depends on their situation. If you’re looking to buy a new lot or existing house, there are a number of site-dependent factors that contribute significantly to the potential level of sustainability. These include climate, solar access, prevailing winds, site topography, site geology, site orientation, and the list goes on. There are stacks of books that talk about this stuff, so it’s worthwhile to do a little research and/or to consult with a professional before committing to a site or building.
But many clients are just wanting to improve their current situation, whether it’s remodeling, adding-on, or building a second unit. So in these cases there are many more constraints on the available options. When we approach something like this, we try think in terms of life cycle cost – what materials and spaces are worth keeping, and which ones need to be changed out (or added) to improve the ‘green’ picture? We try also to keep an eye on the point of diminishing returns, in terms of both immediate and lifetime costs. We are firm believers that improving energy efficiency and lowering maintenance costs doesn’t have to break the bank.

Michelle: What items do builders and home owners need to consider when going through
the LEED process?

Scott: Having a project team that is well-versed in the LEED process or building sustainably can make a world of difference for the project. Good collaboration between the design team, contractor and home owner throughout the design and construction process is paramount to the success of the project. While most projects in California now (thankfully) have some sort of green standards requirement associated with them and a lot of builders in our area thus have some experience in building sustainably, the LEED process can still be quite demanding. That said, most of the LEED “points” have choices associated with them, so it is important to exhaust the
possibilities while keeping in mind the various up-front and lifetime costs associated with each. An experienced project team will help to identify and prioritize the proper solutions in each category in a timely manner which will lead to the ultimate success of the project.

Gray water and rain water catchment system below the deck

Michelle: What are your favorite sustainable aspects of this project?

Scott: While we are excited about many of the project’s sustainable features (and the LEED platinum-rating goal), we are especially proud of the variety and number of systems that are being implemented to reduce and reuse water. Rainwater from the entire roof is being collected and stored. This stored water is pumped to the toilets and to the clothes washer. The greywater from the laundry is then used to irrigate a planting area nearby (so the rainwater is essentially used twice!) and the remainder of the greywater from the home’s sinks and showers will supplement the site’s other irrigation demands.
We are using bioswales, which are a sort of natural water treatment system for surface runoff. So in normal conditions, there should be no
runoff leaving this site – water will infiltrate into the ground. However, if there is runoff in more extreme conditions, it will be clean water.
Another water-related system we are using is solar thermal heat. Water is pumped through rooftop panels where it is heated by the sun, and the heat from this water is transferred to supplement both the domestic hot water and the central air heating systems. This is a closed-loop system, so little water is consumed…some electricity for the pump, but the rest of the heating from this system is passive.

Studio101designs.com

me: What are some elements of building a sustainable home that you are most excited about?

alex: Building sustainably has the incredible advantage of being interesting and good for the planet, both at the same time. There are more challenges than conventional construction in some ways, since sustainable projects usually require us to learn some new things. But learning new things is also incredibly stimulating. Also, clients and architects who are deeply interested in sustainable building tend to be forward-thinking and innovative, which makes working with them a whole lot more interesting and consequently more fun.

me: What are some of challenges of remodeling a green building?
alex: Remodeling is inherently green, because we are, in a real sense, recycling buildings. Giving new life to an older home is a great satisfaction. If we do it right, and truly take advantage of the opportunities present when we have the house torn apart for remodeling, we can create a snug and comfortable home that will serve several more generations well into the future.

Some of the challenges are due to the changing structural requirements–for example, existing unreinforced concrete will usually not meet modern engineering requirements. Another set of challenges is in design–older homes typically do not have the kind of open and welcoming floor plan that modern families crave. They also were not well connected to the outdoors. Since they were designed in an era when energy was cheap, we see single-pane windows, minimal insulation, antiquated and inefficient mechanical equipment, etc. On the other hand, it does not take much to make great improvements. Just updating the toilets to modern HET units can save an enormous amount of water. Improving the insulation and weather-stripping saves energy. Adding energy efficient appliances, lighting and mechanical equipment is a no-brainer. There are many such basic improvements that reduce the environmental “footprint” of the home while also saving money and giving more comfort and better health to the occupants.

me: What would you recommend to home owners who are interested in building or remodeling a green home?
alex:
1. Start with efficiency first. Grab the low-hanging fruit of better insulation and weather-stripping, for example.

2. If you really want to do energy work correctly, have a home energy audit to identify and prioritize all the opportunities.

3. Don’t forget to include water conservation as well, for example, specifying water efficient fixtures throughout.

4. Right size the home. Only add square footage if you really need it. Make every square foot count.

5. Spend time and money on good design, which will give the most long-lasting results, and save the environment by not having to be re-done for a long time

6. Hire a qualified contractor who is experienced with green building—certified by an independent organization

7. Hang in there—remodeling can be challenging!

8. Get the help of a good team of architect and contractor to help you navigate the process.

mk: What items should builders and home owners consider when going through the LEED process?
alex:
1. Documentation is a big key—it’s not enough to do the right thing, you have to be able to prove it in writing and photographs.

2. Hire a good LEED consultant to help oversee the process to make sure you get all the points you need and want

3. Plan for extra points, so if you can’t get the all the points your expected on one item, you can still get the points somewhere else.

me: What are your favorite sustainable aspects of this project?
alex:
1. We have a great client who is truly committed to building a showcase LEED platinum project, which is a really fun challenge

2. We have a great architectural team which means we will have a beautiful and timeless home which will provide genuine satisfaction for many years to come.

3. The water conservation aspects are extensive, with graywater and rainwater systems at a high level of sophistication

4. I believe this is the first LEED platinum home remodeled in Piedmont, which we hope will inspire others to do the same.

5. It’s exciting to finally see LED lighting coming into its own.

McCutcheon Construction
Piedmont Project

votesolar.org
more info / tickets

photo by James Duncan

Each year at the TED conference in Long Beach, there is a prize given for a wish. Something that will profoundly make the world better. Back in XXX our dear friend and inspiration Cameron Sinclair won the TED prize for his wish for the Open Architecture Network. This year, the powerful TED wish asks us all to build the city that the future needs. Visit theCity2.Org to join in.

Here’s the full text of this inspiring wish:

I am the crucible of the future.

I am where humanity will either flourish or fade.

I am being built and rebuilt every day.

I am inevitable. But I am not yet determined.

I wish to be inclusive, innovative, healthy, soulful, thriving. But my potential can only be reached through you.

You can forge a new urban outlook. Begin by connecting. Imagine a platform that brings you together, locally and globally. Combine the reach of the cloud with the power of the crowd. Connect leaders, experts, companies, organizations and citizens. Share your tools, data, designs, successes, and ideas. Turn them into action.

Together you can:
Bridge the gap between poor and rich communities.
Spectacularly reduce your carbon footprint.
Make nature part of daily life.
Empower entrepreneurship.
Re-imagine education.
Nurture health.

I am the City 2.0. Dream me. Build me. Make me real.

It is so exciting to have windows and skylights installed. The construction instantly transforms into space with the natural light sculpting the surfaces. These recent construction photos of the Piedmont Residence capture that moment.

The design of the windows and skylights is critical to this remodel project. With so many large trees around the home, the existing house often felt dark and cold. By adding strategically placed glazing, the new home will have natural light in every room, washing surfaces as evenly as possible to reduce the need for turning on lights during the day, while at the same time naturally warming the home for reduced heating required. Another example of making a home more efficient also adds beauty.

Two months left for construction completion. It is certainly getting exciting.

For many of us the Sunset Western Garden Book (which has been around for 80 years) is our landscape bible. It has become the essential guide to the region’s ornamental and edible gardens. And now in its just released ninth edition, The NEW Sunset Western Garden Book has awesome new features and more than 1000 additional plants including a beautiful section on succulents and vertical gardens. There is a free mobile edition of the books Plant Finder for your smartphone so you can head out to your garden and have the information at your fingertips. With it, you can access more than 2000 plants and search by plant name, zip code, climate zone, sun and water requirements and type. You can also browse by color, height, spread and special needs. They have also added a camera icon at the bottom of the pages to point you to the corresponding videos. The information is from the west coast leading experts who emphasize not only beauty, but also water conservation, native landscaping and long-term sustainability. More fabulous than ever.

My copy arrived today, thank goodness. Just in time as it seems like spring has arrived early this year.