7 Amazing Handmade Eco-Friendly Homes
August 24, 2009
Long before anyone thought of the term ‘green building’, there were handmade houses created with sustainability, respect for the land, and the pride of creating something by oneself as high priorities. Such handmade houses have been around since the dawn of man, but they saw a resurgence – and a new wave of creativity – starting in the 1960s.
The home shown above is one of many featured in the book ‘Handmade Houses: A Guide to Woodbutcher’s Art.’ Now out of print, this cult favorite features everything from tiny cabins to gigantic treehouses, all made by hand in Northern California in the 60s and 70s.
Dug into a hillside in Wales, this low-impact woodland home combines some of the aesthetics from those California homes with partially underground ‘Hobbit House’ feel. Mud and tree trunks from the property, as well as lots of straw bales and lime plaster, were the main materials used in addition to plastic roof sheeting, wooden pallet floors and junkyard finds like windows and wiring.
Built primarily by a man and his father, this handmade woodland home was built with just a handful of common tools like a chainsaw, hammer and chisel. All told, it cost just £3000. Plans and many more photos are available at the website.
Another low-budget but charming eco dwelling is Steve James’ Scotland home, which bore a price tag of roughly £4,000 along with a lot of hard work and ingenuity. In fact, James says he could have saved about £1,000 if he had cut the wood himself instead of going to a sawmill. It took the software engineer about 10 months to build and he now has a website, envisioneer.net, which guides others through the process.
Back in the ‘70s, a man named Michael Reynolds began building what he called ‘earthships’ in New Mexico, self-sufficient passive-solar home made out of recycled and natural materials. The central building blocks of these off-grid homes are recycled car tires filled with local soil. The tires, along with recycled glass bottles and aluminum cans, absorb heat during the day and radiate it into the homes once the temperature drops.
Eliphante is a handmade home built by Michael Kahn and Leda Livant in Cornville, Arizona beginning in 1979. Kahn and Livant created the home over 28 years using mostly found materials. As the couple stacked stone, created complex driftwood arches and glass mosaics and arranged recycled and reclaimed materials in free-flowing patterns, a shape reminiscent of an elephant emerged – hence the name.
Eliphante is a work of art in itself – a strange, meandering, dreamlike work of art peppered with the surreal and incongruous, like the astroturf that lines the yard. See more photos at Eliphante.org.
Perhaps the strangest of the many amazing handmade houses in the world is the ‘Mystery Castle’. One day in 1927, Boyce Luther Gulley got some bad news: he had tuberculosis, and if he didn’t leave Seattle, it would kill him fast. Gulley walked out of his doctor’s office and disappeared.
Then, fifteen years later, his daughter was contacted by a lawyer in Arizona: she apparently owned a home there. Gulley had spent the remainder of his life creating an 18-room mansion made of stone, adobe, car parts and other natural and recycled materials. Furthermore, when he left Seattle that day, he walked all the way to Arizona. His daughter had asked him shortly before his diagnosis if he would build her a castle, and he did.
Camouflaged Mobile Home for Nature Observation or Spying on People
August 22, 2009
Whether you’re the ultra-paranoid type that wants a camouflaged living space or are just a fan of cool green design, it’s hard not to love this bizarre mobile home. It’s a fake hedge on wheels… that just happens to have a semi-hidden room inside it.
The ‘Porta Hedge’ is covered in recycled plastic Christmas tree branches to blend in with natural greenery, and can be powered with solar panels. Inside are a couple rope swings and chalkboards (why, you ask? Well, why not?). It even plays prerecorded bird songs from its hidden exterior speakers.
The makers of Porta Hedge just returned from a summer tour of America, conducting a study on whether the combination of artificial branches and birdsong will encourage wildlife to use the Porta Hedge as a home.
And, hey, good news – it’s now commercially available! That’s right, get your very own Porta Hedge and use it to observe wildlife, spy on people, prevent complaints by neighbors about an ugly motor home sitting in your driveway, or as the perfect space to lounge around in your tin foil hat.
Link [Porta Hedge] via [Dornob]
Who’s Who in Green: Michael Reynolds
August 21, 2009
Driving through New Mexico, at one point or another you’re bound to see one: those strange structures built half into the earth, with a bunch of old dirt-packed tires forming the front wall. These ‘earthships’ are incredibly efficient off-grid homes using passive solar energy, thermal mass construction and natural and recycled materials to be as environmentally friendly as possible.
Michael Reynolds founded Earthship Biotecture, a company that specializes in designing and building Earthships, in the 1970s. He wanted to create a home that was not only sustainable, but also mostly self-sufficient and within financial reach of the average person. Earthships generally cost between $50,000 to $100,000 and can be built by just about anyone, regardless of whether they have any previous experience.
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Over time, Reynolds began to incorporate technology like solar panels, wind turbines and geothermal cooling, making the homes even more efficient. And, earthships aren’t limited to tires. Reynolds also designed many similar buildings that used other recycled materials like aluminum cans and glass bottles.
Reynolds’ process of developing his earthship concept has largely been based on trial and error. After each one that he builds, he comes up with improvements that can be applied to the next one. The experimental nature of Reynolds’ homes has not exactly made for smooth sailing – he lost his credentials in the 1990s after several buyers filed lawsuits and complaints over defects like leaky roofs. However, his license has since been reinstated.
Reynolds has also applied this natural and sustainable building concept to multi-unit rentals, making them even more accessible to the public. He is also the subject of a documentary called ‘Garbage Warriors‘, which follows him for three years as he builds earthships around the world and lobbies the government for the right to build a sustainable living test site.
His earthships have inspired a whole new generation of green builders, and they remain some of the most iconic examples of green architecture in the world. Learn more about earthships at EarthshipBiotecture.com.
Michael Reynolds’ Green Score: 34,689
Photo credit: Flickr user cer!se
Eco Towns Get Green Light from British Government
July 17, 2009
The British government has granted permission for four ‘eco towns’, with six more planned by Prime Minister Gordon Brown. The government claims that it is playing a leading role in promoting carbon neutral communities, but the projects have met with criticism from people who question how sustainable they really are.
From Yahoo News:
“The revolutionary concept of eco towns is a unique opportunity for us to confront two of the most urgent priorities” facing Britain, namely providing more cheaper housing and fighting climate change.
Housing Minister John Healey added: “We are leading the way on the world stage with these developments by radically rethinking how we design, plan and build our homes.”
The towns chosen are in Whitehill-Bordon in Hampshire; Rackheath in Norfolk; Bicester in Oxfordshire, and a development near St. Austell in Cornwall.
The main opposition Conservatives, which hopes to oust Brown’s Labour government next year, have slammed the projects.
“Underneath the thick layers of greenwash, many of these schemes are unsustainable, unviable and unpopular, but Gordon Brown wants to impose them… irrespective of local opinion,” said Conservative housing spokesman Grant Shapps.
The complaints against such eco settlements usually center around the un-greenness of plopping a housing community onto green fields – a valid point, but then, the same people have no qualms with unsustainable housing like apartment complexes going up on what used to be natural spaces.
These eco communities have a far smaller carbon footprint than conventional housing – they include charging points for electric cars, solar and wind power infrastructure, smart meters to track energy use and dedicate 40% of their land to parks, playgrounds and gardens.
Sure, urban living in vertical communities is greener in most cases, but we’ve got a lot of people on this planet and they all have to live somewhere. Putting them in eco-friendly towns is certainly a better option than continuing suburban sprawl in its current form.
Link [Yahoo News]
Photo credit: bdonline
Empire State Building Gets $120M Green Makeover
July 8, 2009
The Empire State Building has lost some of its luster after 78 years, and its owners are hoping to draw in more tenants with a $120 million dollar green makeover. Energy savings is just icing on the cake. Property owners and business managers are realizing that environmental improvements don’t just make sense financially, but also improve the image of the building.
From The Huffington Post:
“In a good market, we’re going to get the best rents for the best tenants,” said Anthony E. Malkin, who leads a real estate group that owns the Empire State Building. “In a bad market like we have now, we’re going to get tenants when other buildings won’t.”
“This isn’t just a ‘We are doing the right thing’ movement,” said Marc Heisterkamp, U.S. Green Building Council’s director of commercial real estate. “In the end, the numbers pencil out.”
At the Empire State Building, Malkin proposed a top-to-bottom renovation that included a $13.2 million investment in new green technologies. The goal was to sufficiently reduce greenhouse gases without spending more than he could justify to his investors.
What the owners settled on was a series of upgrades that include retrofitting all 6,500 windows. Under every window, radiators will be padded with extra insulation. The building’s lighting, cold water and ventilation systems also will be upgraded.
The renovation should take 18 months. Afterward, the owners expect an annual energy savings of $4.4 million, enough to pay off the new technologies in about three years.
HuffPo reports that other buildings across the U.S. undergoing similar changes include the Christman Building in Lansing, Michigan and the Sears Tower in Chicago. We’d love to see this trend continue to spread across the country, regardless of whether the building owners care about the environment or just want to make more money. Green greed is a good thing!
Link [Huffington Post]
Photo credit: Flickr user paulaloe
Family Recycles Deconstructed Home for $100,000
June 10, 2009
Taking the time to carefully deconstruct a home instead of just tearing it down can pay off big. Just ask Mike and Tricia Barry, who prevented tons of waste from ending up in landfills and pocketed a cool $100,000 for their efforts.
The Barrys took the home apart piece by piece and donated the materials to non-profit organizations to be recycled into new homes.
From the Seattle Times, via Earth911:
The double-pane windows were sturdy, Barry says, as were the newer appliances and some of the wood. Surely someone would want them.
Usable wood from the house’s frame was stacked on pallets, while damaged wood was thrown into a wood chipper to be used as landscaping material or for particle board.
Heating vents and doors were recycled. The nails were taken out one by one and collected with a giant magnet.
After the house was stripped, California Deconstruction and Building Materials ReUse Network picked up the materials and brought them to Habitat for Humanity and other organizations, including Corazón, which helps build homes for people in northern Baja California, Mexico.
“I’d say 80 to 85 percent of the Barry house was reused,” says Gerald Long, of the nonprofit network. “Even the copper plumbing was recycled, the bricks were saved and all the interior fixtures were saved.”
What a responsible, admirable thing to do. Though deconstruction costs more – at $23,000 compared to $14,00 – and takes about two weeks longer than demolition, the tax write-off certainly made it worth the extra time.
And now, needy families in Mexico will have a place to live – made of recycled materials, no less! We’d love to see this trend catch on. Many cities and counties across the U.S. are starting to require recycling from people who want to tear down all or part of their homes, so it may become commonplace before we know it.
Link [Seattle Times] via [Earth911]
Green College Spotlight: Los Angeles Community College District
June 1, 2009
The Los Angeles Community College District (LACCD) has emerged as the greenest of its kind, undertaking a vast number of green projects and initiatives including a number of LEED buildings, renewable energy production and green curricula.
LACCD has a sustainability policy that aims to increase energy efficiency and decrease greenhouse gas emissions and became one of the first community college districts in the state to join the California Climate Action Registry. By signing the CCAR agreement, LACCD pledge to publicly report its CO2 emissions and work with the Registry to increase awareness of greenhouse gas emissions issues.
One of the LA Community College District’s most impressive green projects is its $1.2 million megawatt photovoltaic farm at East LA College. Made up of 5,952 panels, the rooftop solar project provides shaded parking for over 500 vehicles and occupies 3 acres. It will generate 1.9 million kilowatt hours of electricity per year, satisfying 45% of the college’s energy needs and reducing utility costs by $270,000 annually. Another photovoltaic farm has been installed at LA Mission College.
Eventually, LACCD hopes to take all nine of its campuses off the grid altogether. It is the first community college district in the nation that plans to generate all of its own electricity, which it would do via installation of additional photovoltaic farms with the goal of producing one megawatt per campus.
The Los Angeles Community College District has also developed a green curriculum to address the shortage of qualified workers to fill high-paying green collar jobs. LACCD also works to raise awareness on the benefits of sustainability among other California colleges, participating in the UC/CSU sustainability conferences and Green Build Conferences.
Not many community college districts have shown this much dedication and commitment to living and spreading the sustainable lifestyle. Other schools could learn a lot from LACCD!
Link [LACCD] + [AASHE]
Photo credit: LA Times
The World’s First Fully Solar-Powered Stadium
May 23, 2009
Solar panels are making their way onto a wide variety of buildings across the world including college residence halls, movie theaters and now, sports stadiums. Taiwan has a newly built stadium created for the 2009 World Games in July, and it’s 100% solar powered.
From Meta Efficient:
Designed by Japanese architect Toyo Ito, the stadium incorporates 8,844 solar panels on the roof. The roof will generate enough energy to power the building’s 3,300 lights and two giant television screens.
On hot days, the stadium will generate more power than it needs, so the Taiwanese government plans to sell the excess capacity. A Taiwanese official said that the panels will generate 1.14 million KWh per year, preventing 660 tons of annual carbon dioxide.
Brilliant! Why not take advantage of all that sunlight? And it’s beautifully designed, as well. The solar panels were incorporated in such a way that they blend in effortlessly with the architecture. Next up: Yankee Stadium? We can dream.
Link [Meta Efficient]
Brad Pitt Helps Missouri’s Drury University Go Green
May 20, 2009
Thanks to Brad Pitt and his brother Doug Pitt, Drury University in Springfield, Missouri will soon have a new LEED-certified building. The Pitt family donated $600,000 in honor of their father, William A. Pitt, to help pay for the O’Reilly Family Event Center’s Leadership in Environmental Energy and Design gold certification.
From the Springfield Business Journal Online:
The 65,000-square-foot center will be the first Gold LEED-certified arena in the country, according to a Drury news release. The playing surface of the 3,100-seat arena will be named the William A. Pitt Court.
The original arena design called for a minimum of Silver LEED certification. Features will include low-flow water fixtures, a dedicated recycling area and a solar-reflective roof and pavement materials, the release said.
Springfield’s O’Reilly family donated the lead gift for the project – $6 million – and the remaining cost will be covered by a $1 million matching grant from the Mabee Foundation, Drury and Drury donors, according to the release.
Brad Pitt is known for his enthusiasm for architecture, and for dedication to sustainability as well. This donation brings together two of his passions – and all in honor of his late father. How sweet. Seriously, can this guy do anything wrong?
Link [SBJ]
Photo credit: Drury Mirror
Public Schools to Get $6.4 Billion in Green Improvements
May 20, 2009
Public schools across America are in serious need of TLC. Pitifully low budgets mean some schools don’t even have clean drinking water, let alone up-to-date textbooks. But, Congress just passed a piece of legislation that might just save school districts enough money to get back on track. $6.4 billion has been earmarked for green projects in public schools, modernizing buildings so they’re more energy efficient.
From CNN, via The Good Human:
The measure passed 275-155 in a largely party-line vote, and will now move to the Senate for further review.
Among other things, the bill allocates substantial funds for improvements along the Gulf Coast, where many school districts are still struggling to repair buildings damaged by hurricanes Katrina and Rita.
The committee says the bill would require that 100 percent of the funds go toward green projects by 2015, which is the final year of funding under the bill.
“All students and teachers deserve safe and healthy learning environments, but too often, their schools are literally falling apart,” said Rep. George Miller, D-California, who is the chairman of the House Education and Labor Committee and one of the bill’s sponsors.
“This legislation is a victory for students, workers and our planet. It will help improve educational opportunities and boost student achievement, it will help transition us toward a green economy by making our classrooms more environmentally friendly,” he said.
Of course, Republicans criticized the high cost, never able to look beyond today and see what tomorrow will bring. They also have a problem with the ‘increasing role of federal government’, claiming that the power to construct and renovate schools is a ‘fundamental right’ of state government.
It’s easy for old, rich white men whose grandchildren are more than likely enrolled in private schools to complain about such things while millions of school kids sit in public schools with sagging roofs, mold in the walls, peeling vinyl floors and other major problems. The American Society of Engineers says that one-third of America’s schools need extensive repair or replacement. This $6.4 billion is just a small fraction of the $112 billion the ASE says is needed to bring the nation’s public schools into an overall good condition.
Rachel Gutter of the U.S. Green Building Council emphasizes the benefits:
“The typical green school saves $100,000 a year on direct operating expenses. In school terms, that’s enough to hire two new teachers, purchase 200 new computers or 5,000 textbooks,” Gutter said.
“So these are major savings. And that’s just one year. The typical school lasts 40 years. And when you do the math, it starts to become some serious savings. … It pays for itself after a few years of operation.”
Link [CNN] via [The Good Human]
Photo credit: Flickr user woodleywonderworks
Vancouver’s Incredible Harvest Green Tower
May 12, 2009
Vancouver wants to become the most sustainable city in the world, and if concepts like the Harvest Green Tower come to pass, they’ll be well on their way. This incredible vertical farm was designed by Romses Architects as part of the city’s 2030 Challenge, and it would have a tower for growing fruits and vegetables, a livestock grazing plane, a dairy farm, transit lines and more.
From Inhabitat:
The tower consists of interlocking tubes that grow various fruits and vegetables, house chickens and contain an aquaponic fish farm. On top of the vertical growing tower is a rainwater cistern to collect and help water all the plants and animals. At the base of the tower is a livestock grazing plain, as well as a bird habitat and boutique sheep and goat dairy facility. Underneath that is a grocery store, farmer’s market and Harvest Tower Restaurant. Renewable energy is produced from rooftop mounted wind turbines and photovoltaic glazing on the building with the additional help of geothermal heat pumps and methane generation from composting.
Not only would the tower produce local, organic food, but it would also support people with live/work units off to the side of the tower, an educational center, and a seed lab. The base of the tower features a transit hub along with an underground parking lot and shared car co-op. The tower would play an important role in the production of locally grown foods, provide urban employment opportunities and contribute sustainable density to Vancouver.
Structures like this make so much sense. Why import food from hundreds or even thousands of miles away when you can take advantage of tall buildings and grow vertically, right there within the community? It’s exciting to know that soon, concepts like the Harvest Green Tower will be a reality and urban living will become truly sustainable in so many ways.
Link [Inhabitat]
A House Made from Sh*t… Literally
May 3, 2009
Twenty years ago, proposing to use fecal matter as building material would have gotten you laughed out of town. Nowadays, it’s just another wacky – yet brilliant – green building solution. And, once inside a building made from EcoFaeBrick, you probably wouldn’t even be able to tell that the bricks were made from cow dung instead of clay.
EcoFaeBrick is 20% lighter, 20% stronger and far more earth-friendly than clay brick, which damages the environment during the production process – yet it costs the same. It’s meant for use in developing areas of Indonesia, where traditional brick-making materials are hard to come by but cow dung is available in copious quantities.
From EcoFaeBrick, via Treehugger:
EcoFaeBrick, in conjunction with Faerumnesia, produces high quality and low price bricks by utilizing the abundant cow dung in Godean and Sayegan, Jogjakarta. The utilization of the cow dung will not only solve the hygiene problem but also reduce the exploitation of the un-renewable clay. The replacement of firewood with the cow dung methane biogas in the combustion process brings a lower production cost with a more environmental friendly process. EcoFaeBrick also empowers rural people through close partnership with local communities.
Using business model which involves the housing developers, NGOs, and local communities, EcoFaeBrick builds a sustainable market demand to ensure an interesting financial return to the investors. The EcoFaeBrick’s expansion plan focuses on areas with rapid development and high concentration of cattle farm. EcoFaeBrick offers a feasible solution for rapidly developing areas not only in Indonesia but also in other emerging countries.
EcoFaeBrick was invented by a team of students at Prasetiya Mulya Business School in Indonesia, and won the $25,000 top prize at the University of California, Berkeley’s Global Social Venture Competition.
Well, it’s a great way to get rid of all that cow shit. You’d have to come to terms with the idea of living in a brick shithouse – er, shit brick house – but it seems like a great alternative to conventional bricks.
Link [Treehugger] + [EcoFaeBrick]
Google Co-Founder Larry Page Building Green Mansion
March 24, 2009
Yet another gaudy “green” mansion is in the works in Palo Alto, California and it belongs to none other than Google co-founder Larry Page. Page is planning a 6,000-sq-ft “eco-friendly” four-bedroom GreenPoint-rated home on the lot next door to his current $7 million home.
From Earth2Tech, via Ecorazzi:
To be sure, Page plans to use some pretty cool stuff: Recycled materials that have low levels of volatile organic compounds (or none at all), a rooftop garden, solar panels, zinc cladding and pervious pavement, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. And the planned structure will likely take advantage of smart energy tools — IT technology that can help the homeowner better manage and reduce energy consumption — in particular Google’s PowerMeter.
Of course, this begs the question, WHY? We’ve already asked whether a mansion be green at all and answered ourselves with a resounding “no”. While Page’s new digs won’t be nearly as ridiculous and anti-green as Acqua Liana, the Florida monstrosity being billed as an eco-friendly mansion, it’s still kind of silly. I mean, awesome, it’s gonna have solar panels and will be made partially from recycled materials, but how much room does one family need? Building a massive second home right next to your current home isn’t green, no matter how many eco-friendly features you pack into it.
Link [Earth2Tech] via [Ecorazzi]
Photo credit: Intel
Take Your Love of Wine to a New Level at Recycled Cask Hotel
March 22, 2009
It’s like a oenophile’s wet dream: what could be better than capping off a day of drinking wine in Europe with sleeping in a recycled wine cask? The Hotel de Vrouwe van Stavoren in the Netherlands features four rooms made from gigantic 14,500 liter repurposed wine casks that are cute, quirky and surprisingly roomy.
From Green Upgrader:
The rooms offer two single beds as well as an attached sitting room and bathroom. These rooms have been pretty popular with tourists in the sleepy village of Stavoren. If you get tired of the in-room television and radio, you can rent a bicycle and travel along one of the many popular bike paths to see the old growth forests and beach. There is even a famous statue of “Lady van Stavoren” to keep an eye on the harbour as well as an eccentric local story to go along with it.
How fun! While these rooms aren’t going to win any awards for luxuriousness any time soon, they’re a great example of how materials can be reused creatively. If you’re headed to the Netherlands sometime soon, you can snag one of these rooms for between $40 and $150 USD per night, depending on the season and how long you stay.
Link [Green Upgrader] + [Hotel de Vrouwe van Stavoren]
Can a 15,000-Square-Foot Mansion be Green?
March 8, 2009
It’s indulgent and opulent, with all of the bells and whistles multi-millionaires expect from a seaside mansion in a wealthy Florida community. Dubbed ‘Acqua Liana’, this 15,000-sq-ft megahome has 8 bedrooms, 11 bathrooms, 2 elevators, two laundry rooms, two wine cellars, a movie theater and a guest house. It’s also supposedly ‘eco-friendly’, with a state-of-the-art air purification system, reclaimed wood and CFL light fixtures. The home just recently went on the market for an astounding $29 million.
But isn’t the term ‘green mega-mansion’ an oxymoron? How can such a large home ever hope to be truly green?
Inhabitat caught up with the developer responsible for this monstrosity, Frank McKinney, and asked him some tough questions about the supposed greenness of his high-dollar creation.
The average American household consumes 10,656 kilowatt-hours of electricity per year. How much electricity is Aqua Liana expected to consume? Is there any way to quantify the energy consumption of the house?
Don’t know it in kW but I can tell you in terms of electric bill….for a 15,000-square-foot [house], $4,500 would be the average electric bill.
Our electric bill, when you combine the solar application, the inflated wall panels, the insulation in the attic, our electric bill will be hovering around 800 bucks. That’s a 70% reduction. It’s not that the folks who buy the house can’t afford it, but the footprint they’re leaving is no greater than a half a million dollar house that would be 3,000 to 35,000-square-feet. We’ve signed up for net metering, selling electricity back to the provider. January, February, and March we will have a zero electric bill. The home owner will be credited money toward their future bills. We love the evergreen solar panels. They’re great, they’re efficient, they’re cheaper. Efficiency when it comes to energy is where we’re headed and having an electric bill of zero is in the future.
Read the rest of the interview at Inhabitat and decide for yourself whether this gigantic home is really green.
As for us, we say HELL NO. It’s almost sorta got a green tinge. It’s greener than other excessive mansions typically are, that’s for sure. But a home this large can never be truly green. Sure, rich people who don’t give a shit about the environment are going to continue building ridiculously gigantic homes – and use massive amounts of energy all the while – but this is putting lipstick on a pig, if you’ll permit the tired expression.
Being truly green means using space and resources wisely. If this home were to be occupied by multiple families, putting every square foot of space to optimal use, that would be one thing. But how much do you wanna bet one spoiled couple with a couple chihuahuas ends up moving into this place, if it ever sells?
Link [Acqua Liana] + [Inhabitat]
Photo credit: Acqua Liana/Frank McKinney
Seattle’s Largest Green Roof Covers Bill Gates’ Garage
March 7, 2009
The largest green roof in Seattle covers 60,000-sq-ft or about 1.4 acres, but it’s not at a public park or a museum. It covers the roof of the parking garage adjacent to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation headquarters, which is currently under construction and seeking LEED gold certification. The garage itself is also seeking LEED gold. The vast, sloping green roof is easily visible from atop the Space Needle and from homes on Queen Anne Hill.
From DJC.com, via Groovy Green:
Shannon Nichol of GGN, said the green roof sets a precedent in Seattle because of its size and design, which was inspired by German roofs. In Germany, she said, a green roof is viewed not as a garden but as a functional roofing choice that is optimized to be as low maintenance as possible. “You could call it a minimalist green roof.”
The Gates roof has five inches of soil over a layer of synthetic drainage. Other styles of constructing green roofs include sod-based roofs and planter-based roofs. Models predict the roof will treat about 90 percent of the water that falls on it. The other 10 percent goes into the local combined sewer overflow system.
Nicol says that they hoped to give area residents a nice view, providing an example of how green roofs can beautify cities. It softens the stark concrete urban environment and is meant to reflect the natural history of the area, which used to be a meadow.
You might think that ol’ Bill is trying to make up for having America’s largest carbon footprint, but the Gates Foundation wasn’t even going for sustainability when they made it. Lisa Howe Verhovek, community relations manager, says being green it wasn’t specifically a part of their mission.
Intentional or not, it’s great to see Seattle getting in on the green roof action. Perhaps this will spark a trend that will give this rainy city some mood-brightening greenery.
Link [DJC] via [Groovy Green]
Poll: How Green Could You Be?
February 22, 2009
How many energy-saving home projects would you be willing to take on if stronger tax incentives were in place? That’s what the National Trust for Historic Preservation is asking, to get a sense of public opinion before moving a tax credit proposal through Washington. They’re asking us all to take a quick survey to indicate which green projects – from buying new appliances to repainting – we’d be willing to tackle.
The National Trust for Historic Preservation is currently working with the new administration and Congress on a legislative idea that would save you more green in going green. We have proposed that the federal Nonbusiness Energy Property Credit – which currently allows taxpayers a 10% credit capped at $500 for energy-saving products – be significantly expanded for owners of historic and older homes to 20% with an annual maximum limit of $5,000. Under our plan, all costs associated with energy upgrades would qualify (including materials and labor). Homeowners would simply have to be mindful of local preservation ordinances in planning their projects.
All you have to do is check off the projects you’d be most likely to complete from among 11 choices – it’ll take you less than a minute.
Green building isn’t just about creating all-new structures. Historic preservation is an important element of sustainable development, and retrofitting existing buildings to be more energy-efficient is a big step toward fighting global warming.
Link [National Trust for Historic Preservation]
The 10 Dumbest Green Buildings on Earth
February 18, 2009
While it’s great that green building practices are gaining popularity, sometimes, LEED certification doesn’t exactly mesh with the building’s intended purpose. Case in point: eco-friendly gas stations, parking garages and – amazingly – bottled water plants. Greener Building Elements has come up with a great list of 10 ridonkulous LEED-certified buildings that’ll have you scratching your head and calling greenwash.
From Greener Building Elements, via Treehugger:
1. BP’s Helios House Gas Station – Los Angeles, Cal.
Yes, there is an LEED-certified gas station. It’s actually a nice building, complete with rainwater collection, solar panels, recycled building materials, and LED lighting. However, don’t think you’ll be able to refuel with biodiesel or charge up your electric car—they’re only in the petroleum-dealing business. How green of them, right?
2. Justin Timberlake’s Golf Course/Lodge – Woodstock, Tenn.
So Justin Timberlake decided that he wants to buy a golf course and fix it up with an LEED-certified lodge. While it’s an improvement compared to most other golf courses, the fact remains that maintaining a golf course takes chemicals and lots of water. In the United States alone, golf courses total more than 1.7 million acres and consume around 4 billion gallons of water every day. How does a green lodge counteract the water used to maintain the course? Justin, if you really want to be green, you should have turned it into a wildlife sanctuary instead.
3. Nestle Pure Life Water Bottling Plant – Boiling Springs, Tenn.
While this isn’t the only LEED-certified water bottling plant, it’s listed for having the most greenwashed name. Ozarka, Arrowhead, Ice Mountain, and Deer Park water bottling plants also have LEED certifications of some sort, but they couldn’t compete with Pure Life in the name department. If anyone needs a reminder of why bottling water is a bad idea, here are five reasons to ditch the bottle. Oh, and Nestle as a whole won’t be getting an award for their treatment of the planet and its people any time soon.
Get the rest over at Greener Building Elements. Treehugger has also added a few of their own hilarious (yet sad) examples to the list.
Link [Greener Building Elements] + [Treehugger]
Sustainable Urban Mushroom Skyscrapers Mimic Tropical Rainforests
February 10, 2009
Imagine living in a city filled with gigantic, mushroom-shaped skyscrapers modeled after the ecology of equatorial rainforests. Architect Sarah Mohd. Salleh has envisioned a way for humanity to survive in a future of overpopulation and land scarcity. Designed specifically for Sentul, Kuala Lumpur, the “Tropicool @KL” project aims to “retain the meaning of existing urban green lung and integrate it within a conducive tropical living environment.”
From EcoFriend:
Taking inspiration from the equatorial rainforests, a hostile place where life still thrives, the architect has envisioned similar structures for the urban world as well. Dubbed as The Symbiotic Tropical Mushrooms, the architecture is an artificial rainforest where trees are replaced with self-sufficient Mushroom towers. Just like in a tree, the canopy of the mushroom is integrated with transparent solar cells and the branches provide sustainable housing. The trunk is an energy passage from where supplies to the branches are made.
Apart from solar electricity, the buildings will also generate bio-mass energy, which would be channeled to each colony on the mushroom. Rainwater would be harvested and used for both potable and non-potable uses. Transportation will be minimized by keeping 90% of the area only for pedestrians. Each colony would be producing food and energy for itself by vertical gardens and living roofs.
You can’t say the world of futuristic eco-architecture is boring. This particular example shows just how creative architects can get with sustainability, and taking cues from nature is a great way to move forward as we all adjust to the realities of changing climate. As Inhabitat notes, it’s probably too complex to be built any time soon, but it’s an intriguing concept.
Link [Eco Friend] via [Inhabitat]
