Steel is just about the most recyclable building material on earth. You could be well reading this in an office building built with steel originally smelted from iron in Julius Caesars day.
So it makes good green sense to build eco prefab houses with steel…
Read the rest of this entry »
The deep Butterfly Roof
The traditional gabled roof that we are all familiar with was engineered to slough off snowfall. But in an uncertain post peak oil future of possible energy shortages and water shortages, more and more houses are showing up with roof-shapes engineered to harvest their own rainwater, and support solar power generation.
This creates a butterfly roof, the opposite of the traditional gable. The very post peak oil Kangaroo House in increasingly drought ridden Australia has the same distinctive roof shape, for the same reasons: it acts as a huge funnel for rainwater, which can then be harvested.
Read the rest of this entry »
VisionDivision has a very innovative entry in the Design for the Children competition to design a sustainable and culturally responsible pediatric clinic in the hostile environment of the desert of East Africa. Here is what inspired their design:
Says VisionDivision; “When we saw this competition, we felt urged to create a proposal:
Insufficient water is one of the most severe problems in rural Africa. For many families it is extremely time consuming to collect and can easily start conflicts between…
Read the rest of this entry »
Even in a Greencentric city like Berkeley, locals and Bay Area visitors would be Green with envy when they see the just opened David Brower Center. It feels healthy just to walk through the Green down-to-the-bones building which combines advanced technology along with simple recycled materials.
When entering for their housewarming party we had a difficult time not noticing the soaring concrete walls which made us think more dot com than gallery. The fact that in creating a building with an oh- so-feathery carbon footprint (when compared to most structures) Principal Architect, Daniel Solomon included up to 70 percent slag in those walls. Read the rest of this entry »
How would you design your ultimate green home? My green home is one that incorporates Earth, Wind, and Fire!
Think of what technology might make possible in the next few decades and how we can use it to build homes that have a positive impact on the environment.
The growing awareness of the fact that buildings are responsible for 39% of our energy consumption, helps explain why green building and energy efficiency at home is one of the most pervasive trends in the construction industry — even as the economy struggles and home-building is at its lowest level in a generation.
Lets take a journey through our imagination and envision the green homes of tomorrow.
If it works for one San Fran hotel then it must work for another. No, we’re not talking about more upscale mini bar items but Greening a hotel. In this case, the Orchard Garden Hotel’s (which garnered LEED-NC certification) sister property the Orchard Hotel just nabbed LEED-EB certification.
The Orchard represents San Francisco’s only hotel to earn this honor, the Orchard Hotel is the second hotel in California and fourth hotel in the world with this certification. The inspiration from these green hotels comes from its 85-year-old owner, Mrs. S.C. Huang, who has pushed her environmental agenda and created more environmentally safe and sustainable hotels after the untimely cancer-related deaths of three family members. Read the rest of this entry »
Saving energy at home is on every one’s minds these days. The kitchen is a major energy hog until induction cooking came along.Traditionally, when we cook, we produce heat on a stove top which then heats a pot or pan, which in turn heats (cooks) our food. So, what’s the problem? The problem is, more of heat energy is going to the cooking vessel than to the actual food itself.
Induction cooking is a method, completely different from all other cooking technologies–it does not involve generating heat which is then transferred to the cooking vessel, it makes the cooking vessel itself the original generator of the cooking heat.
There are many concerns about how we can prevent global warming. In every industry, whether it be transportation, agriculture, or the construction industry, there are questions about how to prevent global warming.
By building better designed, more energy-efficient, and natural homes, global warming will become less of a threat. One of the most basic necessities lacking in conventional homes is sufficient insulation.
Proper insulation will greatly reduce the need for constant home heating and cooling (and in turn, fossil fuels), as insulation will help maintain the temperature of a space. Straw bales stand out for their excellent insulative value, and for the fact that they are a totally natural and biodegradable material with minimal embodied energy.
Within the realm of natural building, many individuals choose straw bale house construction for these reasons.
Through natural building, there are many ways to prevent global warming. Conventional suburban houses are large, poorly designed, and inefficient, and the manufacturing and construction processes are big contributors to global warming.
Natural building is a sustainable design approach that promotes low impact homes built with natural and recycled materials. I will highlight two different techniques in natural building that promote global warming prevention through increased energy efficiency.
We are by now accustomed to measuring carbon emissions in terms of “taking X many cars off the road”.
We know cars are responsible for carbon emissions. So we are used to sneering at hoggy cars that wastefully emit so many tons of carbon per year:
(In fact, measuring carbon footprints in these terms is by now such a cliche that the measure: carsofftheroad will probably wind up as a regular metric that kids learn in school, just like feet and pounds are now: Phrases like I took 15 carsofftheroad last week installing 3 kw of new solar will be as readily understood as I lost 15 pounds last week running the marathon.)
But this week; doing a pre solar (thermal) efficiency analysis for an apartment complex - I noticed a surprisingly huge source of wasted energy that has thus far escaped notice and ridicule (well, mine, anyway) and that is: swimming pools.
Green Building Elements
At Green Building Elements, home owners and LEED accredited professional alike can learn about advances in green and renewable building materials, current projects in sustainable architecture and progressive urban planning, and local guidelines for creating green structures in different regions of the U.S.
Subscribe via email
Green Building Elements is a Green Options Media Production.
Some Rights Reserved
